Chapter 18Unionism, Political Reforms, and

Populism

The Changing American

Labor Force

The Changing American

Labor Force

WHY DID UNIONS BEGIN?

• Unfair wages• Long hours• Dangerous working conditions• Discrimination

– Women– Children– Immigrants– African Americans

Labor Unions

• Organized because of long hours and dangerous working conditions.

• Over 12 hour days, 6 days a week.

• Women and child labor were common

• Women & kids were cheap labor.

• Skilled workers formed unions.

• Wanted 8 hour work days and fair wages.

“Idleness Theory”

Children must work because otherwise they will get into trouble.

Many Americans Agreed with this.

The Workday: • Most sates required a maximum 10 hour workday, but this was not enforced (most worked 12 hours per day, 6 days per week)• Some had a system of “piecework” in which those who worked the fastest and produced the most, made more money• This work was done in “sweatshops” (long hours, low pay)

Pullman Company

Rail Road Company Town- they pay for you to come live there and have a job.

You are paid only in their money

and you can only shop in the Company Shop.

NO WAY OUT!

LABOR UNIONS EMERGE

• As conditions for laborers worsened, workers realized they needed to organize

• The first large-scale national organization of workers was the National Labor Union in 1866

The Great Strike of 1877

• B & O R.R. workers protested wage cuts.

• Stopped over 50,000 miles of traveling in one week.

• President Rutherford B. Hayes sent federal troops to break up the strike.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

EMPLOYERS FIGHT UNIONS• The more powerful the unions

became, the more employers came to fear them

• Employers often forbade union meetings and refused to recognize unions

• Employers forced new workers to sign “Yellow Dog Contracts,” swearing that they would never join a union (illegal today)

• Despite those efforts, the AFL had over 2 million members by 1914

A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

The Corporate “Bully-Boys”:

PinkertonAgents

The Corporate “Bully-Boys”:

PinkertonAgents

Knights of LaborKnights of Labor

Knights of Labor trade cardKnights of Labor trade card

Organized in 1869

by Uriah Stephens

Originally a “Secret Society”

Organization of INDIVIDUALS rather than Unions

Membership open to ALL

Goals of the Knights of Labor

Goals of the Knights of Labor

-Eight-hour workday.-Eight-hour workday.

-Worker-owned factories.-Worker-owned factories.

-Opposed child and prison labor.-Opposed child and prison labor.

-Safety codes in the workplace.-Safety codes in the workplace.

-Equal pay for equal work-Equal pay for equal work -men and women. -men and women.

-Did not favor strikes but favored -Did not favor strikes but favored ARBITRATION= ARBITRATION= settlement by a 3settlement by a 3rdrd party party

Knights of LaborKnights of Labor

Terence V. PowderlyTerence V. Powderly

An injury to one is the concern of An injury to one is the concern of all!all!

Powderly was an ENERGETIC organizer and Orator

He dropped the veil of Secrecy and made them Public

Successful due to a series of strikes against Jay Gould’s railroads

Mid 1890’s they became extinct due to: a. HAYMARKET AFFAIR

b. Rise of the AFL

Haymarket Riot (1886)

Haymarket Riot (1886)

McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.

The Haymarket Affair• May 4, 1886- Haymarket square in Chicago

• 1,200 people gathered to hear 3 RADICAL union speakers who were protesting police brutality on May 3, 1886

• Crowd member tossed a bomb at the cops.• Police shot into the crowd, over 10 people, including 7

cops died.

• 8 men were convicted, 4 were hanged and there was NO PROOF that 5 of the 8 were actually at the square.

• Public opinion swings sharply against Knights of Labor because they were the leading union involved in the strike.

Haymarket MartyrsHaymarket Martyrs

The American Federation

of Labor: 1886

The American Federation

of Labor: 1886

Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers

American Federation of Labor• AFL- Union for trade and craft workers-

Skilled/Specialized workers

• Won higher wages and shorter hours.

• Samuel Gompers created it 1886-1924

• Women and blacks excluded

• Believed in Collective Bargaining-negotiations

• Used strikes as main tactic to battle bosses.

• Lost significance due to industrial unionism by Eugene V. Debs

ù Pushed forPushed for

closed shopsclosed shops..

American Railway Union

• Eugene V. Debs created the ARU.

• Knights of Labor accepted all races, genders and skills and used strikes as a last resort.

Industrial Workers of the World IWW (“Wobblies”)

Industrial Workers of the World IWW (“Wobblies”)

PROMOTIONAL POSTER FOR THE IWW

“Big Bill” Haywood of the

IWW

“Big Bill” Haywood of the

IWW

Violence was justified to Violence was justified to overthrow capitalism.overthrow capitalism.

• Most organizing took place out west

• Most members were Miners, Lumbermen and Cannery & Dock Workers

• Included both women and blacks

• Proved that unskilled workers could be organized!

The Hand That Will Rule the World One

Big Union

The Hand That Will Rule the World One

Big Union

SOCIALISM AND THE IWW

• Some unionists (including Debs) turned to

SOCIALISM – an economic and political system based on government control of business and property and an equal distribution of wealth among all citizens

Big Corporate Profits!Big Corporate Profits!

Labor Union MembershipLabor Union Membership

Child LaborChild Labor

Child LaborChild Labor

WOMEN ORGANIZE• Nicknamed Mother Jones

• Mary Harris Jones organized the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and crusaded for child labor laws.

• Her walk to NY drew attention to the children a& a yr. later a law was passed prohibiting children under the age of 14 from working!

Pauline Newman

• organized the International Ladies Garment Workers Union at the age of 16

• Raised money to strike against a 59 hour workweek!

• Successful and now had a 52 hour workweek

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

• NYC----March 25,1911.• Fire went through the machines and clothing

fast. 146 women died due to no sprinkler system and locked doors!

• 2 owners tried for manslaughter but were acquitted! (found not guilty)

• The jurors regarded it as an act of god• The public disagreed• eventually fires safety codes would be enacted

Government Supports Management

Despite all the victories of unions, many found it hard to make much progress

The government would send in troops if business owners could prove interference with the public good

INJUNCTION: court order prohibiting all strike activity against rail roads

Management vs. Labor

Management vs. Labor

““Tools” of Tools” of ManagementManagement

““Tools” of Tools” of LaborLabor

““scabs”scabs”

P. R. campaignP. R. campaign

PinkertonsPinkertons

lockoutlockout

blacklistingblacklisting

yellow-dog yellow-dog contractscontracts

court injunctionscourt injunctions

open shopopen shop

boycottsboycotts

sympathy sympathy demonstrationsdemonstrations

informational informational picketingpicketing

closed shopsclosed shops

organized organized strikesstrikes

““wildcat” strikeswildcat” strikes

Section 2: Demands for Political Reforms Grow

“Gilded Age” 1870-1896

outwardly showy but inwardly corrupt culture of the era of industrialization

Mark Twain named period “Gilded Age”

Mark Twain

• SPOILS SYSTEM: The giving of government jobs to people who had helped a candidate get elected. === PATRONAGE

• Reformers wanted civil service:

• MERIT SYSTEM: Government jobs should go to the most qualified people. “Today”

CIVIL SERVICE REPLACES PATRONAGE

President Hayes & Garfield promote the Merit System

• James A. Garfield: Ohio congressman who ran for President and won. “assassinated”--shot two times and killed by An insane man he turned down for a job.

• (spoils system worker)

V.P. Chester ArthurSucceeds to the Presidency and turns into

a Merit System supporter

Passes the PENDLETON ACT 1883Provides open competitive exams= Merit

System

The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 authorized a bipartisan commission to make appointments for federal jobs based on performance

End of the “SPOILS SYSTEM

B. Patronage vs. C. Civil Service

Results of Pendleton Act and Civil Service Reforms

**85% of all federal jobs today are based on the Merit System

Politicians lose patronage but have to find other ways to pay for campaigns-- found in wealthy business owners during the Gilded Age and through the 1920’s.

The Alliance between the Federal Government and BIG BUSINESS is STRONGER THAN EVER!!!

TARIFFS

- Taxes on Foreign Goods- During the Civil War,

tariffs are high

• Grover Cleveland: Tried to lower tariff rates, but Congress would not let him.

• Laissez Faire- limited government interference in business • President Grover Cleveland:

New Business CultureNew Business CultureLaissez Faire the ideology of the

Industrial Age.Laissez Faire the ideology of the

Industrial Age.

Individual as a moral and economic ideal.

Individuals should compete freely in the marketplace.

The market was not man-made or invented.

No room for government in the market!

Individual as a moral and economic ideal.

Individuals should compete freely in the marketplace.

The market was not man-made or invented.

No room for government in the market!

Presidents and Taxes• In the election of 1888,

Cleveland ran against Benjamin Harrison.

• Cleveland won the popular vote not the Electoral College vote

• Harrison: Raised tariffs/taxes again

• McKinley Tariff- 1890 raised tariffs on foreign manufactured goods- raised cost of U.S. goods

• Cleveland: Only President to serve

2 terms not consecutively.

Fails again at reducing tariffs

Woman’s Suffrage= VOTING• Women object and fight to get right

to vote they are delayed due to the 15th amendment

• 15th gave all MEN the right to vote

Susan B. Anthony (1872) registers to vote. She votes- arrested and fined $100 for voting illegally

Woman’s Suffrage= VOTING

• The only states that allowed women to vote were:

• WY, UT, CO and ID

• 1878 Anthony Amendment went to the Senate committee, committee did not recommend passage.

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton

spoke here

19th Amendment (1920) Women right to vote

Click picture for video

Section 3: Farmers Begin the Populist Movement

Populism- movement started by farmers in the 1890’s who wanted a number of economic and political reforms

Farmers and Money

• Deflation- prices for goods and services go down

• Good for consumer (can buy more)

• Bad for farmers (had to repay loans with money that is worth more, and they are not getting top dollar for their crops

• Inflation- when the price of goods goes up, value of money goes down

GOALS of the POPULISTS

• 1) print more money• 2) unlimited coinage of silver• 3) graduated income tax-

eventually 16th Amendment• 4) postal savings bank• 5) Federal Loan Program• 6) Direct Election of Senators---

eventually becomes 17th amendment

• 7) Secret Ballot Voting• 8) Initiative– citizens gather signatures to put

an issue on the ballotReferendum– citizens Voting on an initiativeRecall- gathering enough signatures to

force a re-election of a representative in Congress

• 9) 8 hour workday• 10) Restrictions on Immigration• 11) Subsidies• 12) Government Regulation and ownership of railroads

Important Terms

• Graduated Federal Income Tax- system in which people who have a higher income are taxed heavier

• Do you agree or disagree?

• Subsidies- government grant to private enterprises considered of benefit to the public (populists opposed- corrupt)

Important Termscontinued

• Bimetallism- use of gold and silver, as the monetary standard, with fixed values in relation to one another

• Example- Penny, Nickel, Dime, Quarter

• Gold Standard- money standard in which the basic currency unit is made equal to and redeemable by a specified quantity of gold (backing paper money)