Formation of Unions & the
Development of “Modern” America
Why did workers during this era need to form unions?
What is the difference between trade and industrial
unions?
What techniques were used by company managers and
owners to destroy unions?
Need for Unions:
- Responding to deflation
- Better pay and
working conditions
Trade and Industrial unions:
- Or craft workers; these were skilled workers
- Industrial – every other worker in a factory
Efforts to destroy unions:
- “Blacklisting” – list of people not to be hired
- Lockouts – locking workers out of factory and refusal to pay
- “Pinkerton’s” – a security agency, often hired to stop unions
What is the basis of Marxism?
What is the four-step process
Marx believed would eventually
occur in capitalist societies?
What were the four things the
Knights of Labor argued for?
Marxism?
- “Class struggle” is the basic force
shaping society
How society progresses, according
to Marxism:
1 – Workers revolt
2 – Seize control of factories
3 – Overthrow the government
4 – After “the revolution,” government would seize all private
property and create a socialist society
Knights of Labor:
- Welcomed African-Americans &
women
- Argued for the following:
1 – Eight-hour work day
2 – Equal pay for women
3 – Abolition of child labor
4 – Creation of worker-owned factories
Great Railroad Strike (1877)
Haymarket Riot (1886)
What were the “bread and
butter” union issues?
What percentage of the
workforce were women, what jobs
did women do, why were women
paid less than men, and how did
unions feel about women?
Homestead Strike (1892)
Pullman Strike (1893)
- Pullman Company – made
sleeping cars
- George Pullman, created a
“company town”
American Federation of
Labor (AFL)
- Promoted interest of craft labor
- Advocated “bread and butter”
issues
- (1) wages, (2) working hours,
and (3) working conditions
Women in the workforce:
- 18% of the total labor force
- What women did in workforce:
- 1/3 as domestic servants
- 1/3 as teachers, nurses, and
sales clerks
- Many were garment workers
and food-processing plants
- It was assumed women had a
man supporting them at home.
** Most unions excluded women.
Urban Planning
A
- s cities grew, development of
new career = the urban planner /
civil engineer
- Creating “havens” in the middle
of busy cities
Frederick Law Olmsted
created New York’s
Central Park
Daniel Burnham
created Chicago’s
Navy Pier
Expanding Public Education
W
illiam Torrey Harris, an
educational reformer, believed
public schools were a …
“great instrument to lift
all classes of people into
… civilized life.”
-
Schools are …
- training ground for employment & citizenship
- key to economic security
- best opportunity to assimilate new immigrants
Expanding Public Education (continued)
-
Making school mandatory …
B
- etween 1865 and 1895,
states passed laws requiring 12
to 16 weeks of school attendance
between the ages of 8 and 12.
K
- indergartens increase in number from 200 in 1880 to 3,000 in
1900.
Expanding Public Education (continued)
-
Growth of high schools …
L
- oyal to the capitalist
system &
P
- repared for work in the
industrial era, with the
following practices:
- (1) Regimentation …
- (2) Carnegie units …
Expanding Public Education (continued)
C
- urriculum changes to
include …
A
- nd vocational subjects …
different ones for women
and men
A
- “ mericanization” of
immigrants…
Revolution in Printing
R
- evolution in printing led to an increase in
literacy to 90%
-
Various advances in printing …
- Linotype
- Paper from pulp
- Printing on both sides of paper
I
Linotype
Machine
- ncreased proliferation of various print media …
-
Mass circulation of newspapers … Pulitzer vs. Randolph Hearst
More Leisure and Snacks
- Susan B. Anthony once said, …
“I think bicycling has done more to
emancipate the woman than anything
else in the world … it gives women a
feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”
Bicycle becomes safer …
- Tennis arrives to America in 1874 …
- Hershey’s Chocolate Bar …
- Coca-Cola …
-
Swift Safety Bicycle
Rural Free Delivery and The Catalog
-
Montgomery Ward Catalog
-
Sears-Roebuck Catalog
-
Rural Free Delivery
A New “Mass” or “Popular”
American Culture
** Why A Popular, Mass Culture? **
Why A Popular, Mass Culture?
G
- (1) reater Urban culture
- Greater concentration of people
L
- (2) ess work-time
- (3)
- The average work week declines:
Mandatory Public Education
- 69.7 hours per week in 1860 (includes farming)
- 61.7 hours in 1890
- 54.9 hours in 1910
Rise of Marketing
- (5) More Discretionary Income
- (6)
Greater Publishing
- (4)
* GNP per capita
- 1870 - $531
- 1890 - $836
- 1910 - $1,299
* Percentage of Income on Food
- 1870 - 32%
- 1890 - 29%
- 1910 - 25%