Chapter 18
Unionism, Political Reforms, and
Populism
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
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!
The Corporate
“Bully-Boys”: Pinkerton
Agents
Knights of Labor
Organized in 1869
by Uriah Stephens
Originally a “Secret Society”
Organization of
INDIVIDUALS rather than
Unions
Membership open to ALL
Knights of Labor trade card
Goals of the Knights of Labor
-Eight-hour workday.
-Worker-owned factories.
-Opposed child and prison labor.
-Safety codes in the workplace.
-Equal pay for equal work -men and women.
-Did not favor strikes but favored
ARBITRATION= settlement by a 3rd party
Knights of Labor
Terence V. Powderly
An injury to one is the concern of 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)
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 Martyrs
The American Federation
of Labor: 1886
Samuel Gompers
American Federation of Labor
•
AFL- Union for trade and craft workersSkilled/Specialized workers
•
Won higher wages and shorter hours.
•
Samuel Gompers created it 1886-1924
•
Women and blacks excluded
•
Believed in Collective Bargainingnegotiations
ù
•
Used strikes as main tactic to battle bosses.
•
Lost significance due to industrial unionism
by Eugene V. Debs
Pushed for
closed 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”)
“Big Bill” Haywood of the
IWW
• 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!
 Violence was justified to
overthrow capitalism.
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!
Labor Union Membership
Child Labor
Child 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
“Tools” of
Management
“Tools” of
Labor
 “scabs”
 boycotts
 P. R. campaign
 sympathy
demonstrations
 Pinkertons
 lockout
 informational
picketing
 blacklisting
 closed shops
 yellow-dog contracts
 court injunctions
 organized
strikes
 open shop
 “wildcat” 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
CIVIL SERVICE REPLACES PATRONAGE
• 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”
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 Arthur
Succeeds to the Presidency and turns into
a Merit System supporter
Passes the
PENDLETON ACT 1883
Provides 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 Culture
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!
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 taxeventually 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 ballot
Referendum– citizens Voting on an initiative
Recall- 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 Terms
continued
• 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)