Pullman Strike Ended
by Federal Injunction
By: Gray Spinks
“We are born in a Pullman house. We
are fed from a Pullman shop, taught in a
Pullman school, catechized in the
Pullman church and when we die we
shall be buried in a Pullman cemetery
and go to a Pullman hell.” is what one
Pullman employee had to say on the
Pullman Palace Car Company owned by
George Pullman. A strike began on May
11th, 1894 when workers in Chicago
walked out and refused to work. By June
20th, the American Railroad Union
(ARU), the first industrial union in
history, became involved and the strike
spread over several states, however it
was centered in Chicago.
The strike caused devastation to the
Pullman Company and to railroads
nationwide. A federal injunction was
issued in early July that required the
strikers to work on the basis that they
refused to transport US mail on a
Pullman Car. Regular troops soon
followed as Pullman used the federal
government as protection for his
company. Strikebreakers took some jobs
while some workers when back to
working, albeit with some fighting and
vandalism that left 13 workers dead and
many more injured. ARU founder and
president Eugene Debs was arrested and
imprisoned for refusal to follow said
injunction. Debs was mildly irritated,
especially after his more successful
strike against the American Railway
Union in 1893. After his release in 1895,
Debs became a socialist leader and this
year was nominated for president by the
Social Democratic Party.
The strike against declining wages was
unsuccessful,
but
the
federal
investigation following the injunction
has produced sharp criticism of the
Pullman Palace Car Company by the
government. New laws regulating the
railroad companies are sure to follow.
The Great Railroad
Strike of 1877
By: Sarah Risley
In July of 1877, the workers of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
in Martinsburg, West Virginia had seen
enough. Two pay cuts in one year led to
workers refusing to run the trains until
the most recent decrease had been
reimbursed to them.
The West Virginia Governor called in
the state militia for support; however,
the militia mainly sympathized with the
strikers and refused or did little to
intervene. This led the governor to call
in federal aid.
Meanwhile, the striking fever was
contagious. The railroad strike spread as
far as Illinois, Maryland, and Missouri.
Violence even broke out in Baltimore,
Maryland. In these four states over
twenty thousand people rallied in
support of the railroad workers.
The strike ended in August of 1877
because of fed government intervention
and the B&O’s employment of
“strikebreakers” commonly known as
“scabs” or workers who were otherwise
not employed by the company prior to
the strike. The hiring of these workers
allows the company to continue to run
business.
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Knights of Labor vs.
American Federation
of Labor: A
Comparison in
Retrospect
By: Sarah Risley
The Knights of Labor:
After the collapse of the National Labor
Union in 1873, the Knights of Labor
flourished.
Although
today,
the
organization is virtually non-functional
after dwindling down to less than
100,000 members in the late 1800’s.
Some the most progressive achievements
of the K.O.L. came in its “later years.”
After 1878, the K.O.L. began accepting
women and blacks. Although these two
groups were accepted into the
organization as a whole, leaders
generally began turning a blind eye to
segregation and unfair treatment of the
aforementioned members in the south.
Although the group was progressive in
some areas, the K.O.L. outwardly
supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882 and branches in Washington
worked towards the expulsion of the
Chinese. The K.O.L. also supported the
Contract Labor Law of 1885 which
would prohibit immigration under
contract to perform labor.
Towards the 1880’s, the K.O.L. became
more of a functioning labor union and
less of a fraternity. Local branches began
to initiate strikes, as the organization
was so large that it provided a certain
amount of autonomy for the branches.
The most successful of the strikes is the
Union Pacific Railroad Strike in 1884. In
1890 the K.O.L. began to receive a good
amount of support form the People’s
Party, who most often associated
themselves with the free silver
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The Seal of the Knights of Labor
movement. This association did not gain
the Knights of Labor much support.
The American Federation of
Labor:
The American Federation of Labor,
founded in 1886 is a conservative labor
union mainly focused on working
conditions and pay. The A.F.L. is mainly
a craft union and supports the capitalist
ideas on the basis that capitalism will
advance labor issues. The A.F.L.
believes that unions only strengthen by
modeling themselves after corporations.
Like the Knights of Labor, the A.F.L.
uses local strikes and boycotts to win
higher wages, better working conditions,
and recognition of labor unions. Unlike
the K.O.L. the American Federation of
Labor is focused mainly on political
protection for the unionization of
workers rather than social change via the
government.
The American Dream
By: Gray Spinks
Andrew Carnegie, a true rags-to-riches
story, from a 13-year-old immigrant
bobbin boy to one of the richest men in
the world with an annual income of $40
million.
If you would have told the father of this
13-year-old working boy that he would
one day make millions, he would have
laughed in your face. The family had
recently moved from Scotland to find
work. Young Andrew was making $1.20
per week as a bobbin boy. However, a
year later, Carnegie got a job working as
a telegraph messenger for the Ohio
Telegraph Company. There he educated
himself when Colonel James Anderson
opened his personal library to working
boys. Carnegie showed his capacity for
work and his intelligence by memorizing
faces of regular customers and simply
finding them on the street instead of
leaving it at their home or on their desks.
He was soon to be recognized by
Thomas Scott, superintendent for the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
In 1853, Carnegie became Scott’s
personal secretary/telegraph messenger.
He quickly advanced through the
company with his knowledge of business
to superintendent of the Pittsburg
division. Here Scott aided him in making
his first investments in iron and the
railroads.
During the Civil War, he was appointed
Superintendent of the Military Railways
and the Union’s Government’s telegraph
lines in the East. During the war, he
developed his first steel rolling mill, a
precursor to his later success.
Postwar, Carnegie left the railroad to
focus on iron and founded several
companies including the Keystone
Bridge Works and the Union Ironworks.
But, steel is the business he is known for
today.
Carnegie opened his first steel plant,
Edgar Thomson Works, in 1875. Just
last year, Carnegie announced the
merger of several steel companies into
today’s Carnegie Steel.
With his investments in the Woodruff
Sleeping Car Company, coke, iron, his
steel companies and others, he receives
an annual income of $40 million.
However, Carnegie stated that “I
propose to take an income no greater
than $50,000 per annum! Beyond this I
need ever earn, make no effort to
increase my fortune, but spend the
surplus each year for benevolent
purposes.”
True to his word, Carnegie donated his
surplus every year to libraries, schools,
and colleges, in America and his home
country of Scotland.
But Andrew Carnegie is not just a
business man, he published an essay in
Forum magazine (1886) defending the
worker’s right to create a union. While
this caused much friction with his
business partner Henry Clay Frick who,
when asked by Carnegie to settle the
Homestead Strike, sent in private
soldiers to restore order.
In politics, Carnegie believes democracy
to be superior to monarchy, as stated in
his book “Triumphant Democracy”
published in 1886.
On the wealthy, Carnegie believes they
have a duty to work for society, as
written in his 1889 “The Gospel of
Wealth” and shown in his own life
through his donations.
Andrew Carnegie is not the higher order
businessman many believe him to be; he
is a man of high intelligence, a generous
hand, and a belief in the rights of
workers and in the duty of himself, a
true example of the American Dream.
Aging Rockefeller vs.
Young JB Duke
By Gray Spinks
John Davison Rockefeller retired three
years ago at age 63. James Buchanan
“Buck” Duke is a 44 year old bachelor
who shows signs of increasing his
fortune.
Rockefeller, who made his fortune in the
oil industry, namely Standard Oil which
he founded in 1870, is America’s first
man worth over a billion dollars. He is
the richest man in American history up
to this date and possibly for years to
come.
However, Duke is a rising businessman.
At around the same age of Rockefeller,
he founded (only 3 years difference) the
American Tobacco Company which still
holds a monopoly on pre-rolled tobacco.
Duke shows great promise in his deal
with his British competitors. This gives
him all business in America while they
Pendleton Act- Is It
Giving Too Much
Power to Businesses?
By Gray Spinks
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act
passed in January 1883. It ended the
spoils system and placed government
employees on the merit system. The Act
required that some government positions
be filled on competitive exams instead of
the President’s decision.
Most of the results are positive, such as
there is obviously more experience and
less politics
going
into many
government jobs that before were filled
by whoever aided in the president’s
campaign.
However, now candidates had to find an
alternative source for the funding they
get all business in Britain and they split
the profits from the British-American
Tobacco Company that sells to the rest
of the world.
Can JB Duke be the next John
Rockefeller? Only time will tell that
story.
www.americantobaccohistoricdistrict.com
JB Duke
required for a successful campaign. They
looked to the businesses.
Many candidates started to take in large
campaign donations from businesses in
return for a respect for the interests of
the business if that candidate is voted
into office. The use of business
campaign funding has allowed for more
monopolies and trusts to spring up, even
after the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in
1890.
If the major businesses control the
President of the United States, then there
is no constraint to their power. It would
take a President that is willing to break
those ties and lose a chance at reelection
to bring the big businesses back down to
a reasonable size. What is Capitalism if
there is a lack of competition? Only a
hollow shell of what it once was.
Horizontal and
Vertical Integration,
Business Dealings of
the Late 19th Century
By Gray Spinks
Horizontal Integration is a business
technique that involves the accumulation
of business at one level of the value
chain. In simpler terms, it is the process
of one business merging or taking over a
rival business that sells the same
product. This creates a monopoly of the
product and a lack of competition to
drive down prices, thereby giving the
owner overwhelming profits that
otherwise would have been completely
unattainable.
The easiest example of horizontal
integration is the Standard Oil Company
owned by John Rockefeller. He has
acquired more than 40 oil refineries and
added them to the Standard Oil
Company. Although with today’s antitrust laws, horizontal integration is much
more difficult.
Vertical Integration, however involves
the accumulation of the entire value
chain. In other words, the finished
integration should deal with the product
that is being sold from start to finish.
This allows for the cutting out of any
middle men. If a company doesn’t have
to pay more each time the product
travels to the next level, the overall
company earns more money and can
lower prices. The ideal next step would
be horizontal integration in which the
low prices of the original company
drives it competitors out of business and
then buys them at a low price and gains
a complete monopoly on a product for a
single company.
The best example of vertical integration
is Carnegie Steel owned by Andrew
Carnegie. Carnegie Steel owns not only
the steel mills, but the mines where the
iron ore comes from, the coke ovens in
which they are baked, the railroads and
ships with which the iron is transported,
etc.
Even with the new laws regulating
business, vertical integration is still
completely legal since it does not create
a monopoly without the use of horizontal
integration as well.
It would appear that vertical integration
would be the superior technique,
especially with the Sherman Anti-Trust
Act. Even without horizontal integration
to finish it out, a vertical monopoly can
provide an easy way to make profits
since the finished product is much
cheaper than any other company would
dare match.
Homestead Strike…
Not Very Homely
By: Sarah Risley
The Amalgamated Association of Iron
and Steel Workers’ (A.A.) contract with
the Carnegie steel company was due to
expire June 30th, 1892. On June 28,
Henry Clay Frick, whom Andrew
Carnegie had placed in charge of the
company in 1871, locked workers out of
the Homestead, Pennsylvania plant.
Mr. Carnegie was openly in support of
Labor Unions while Mr. Frick felt their
company was “held back” by the AA’s
restrictions. At the first sign of trouble,
Carnegie ordered the plant to work
overtime and produce a surplus to
withstand a strike.
When negotiations between the A.A. and
Carnegie steel company first went
underway, the steel industry was on the
rise and the A.A. representatives felt a
raise was in order for their workers.
Frick counter-offered with a twenty-two
percent pay decrease. The Carnegie
Steel company told the labor union if
they did not comply with the negotiation
then company recognition of the labor
union would cease.
After June 28th, strikers set up
militaristic twenty-four hour shifts for
picket lines and river patrols. There were
also men assigned to interrogate
strangers in town to assure there was no
replacement hiring. The A.A. Strikers
also set up telegraph lines with other
branches of Carnegie Steel to determine
whether the company was hiring
replacements or not.
In retaliation, the company hired the
Pinkerton National Detective Agency for
security patrol of the plant. The
Pinkertons gathered near Pittsburgh,
were given rifles, and sent by river to the
Homestead plant. The strikers were
libcom.org
aware of this tactical move by Carnegie
Steel and gathered for a fight. When the
Pinkertons landed around 4 a.m. on July
6, the strikers were ready. Battle ensued
until Homestead Sheriff William
McCleary agreed to call in state
reinforcements, the militia was called
upon by Pennsylvania Governor Robert
Pattison but were never given orders to
help. At 4 p.m. somewhere around five
thousand men from nearby Duquense,
Braddock, and South Side plants arrived
to help the Homestead Strikers. Around
5 p.m. the Pinkertons threw in the towel,
two agents requested to speak with the
Strikers. At half past noon on July 7th, a
train arrived to escort the Pinkertons to
Pittsburgh.
The strike committee met with Governor
Pattison to assure him the town of
Homestead had safely returned to order.
Pattison placed the town under martial
law and sent the state militia to control
the strikers. 9 a.m. July 12th,
four
thousand troops surrounded picketers in
Homestead. By 10 a.m. company leaders
were reinstated. Under the watchful eye
of the militia, Carnegie steel quickly
hired new workers and resumed
production.
The A.A. reached out to Republican
Vice Presidential candidate Whitelaw
Reid, in an attempt to reopen
negotiations with the Carnegie Steel
Company and continue the strike.
Whitelaw asked Henry Frick to reopen
the negotiations on the grounds that the
A.A. would not make demands. Frick
refused.
Since 1892, Carnegie Steel Company
has remained a nonunion company.