
Immigrants, women, and children significantly
expanded the labor force

Machines increasingly replaced skilled artisans

Large bureaucratic corporations dominated
the American economy

Corporations developed national and even
international markets for their goods

For workers, industrialism was a double-edged
sword
› Standard of living was up but at the expense of
deteriorating conditions in the workplace

U.S. population triples in the
late 19th c.
› 1850  23.2 million
› 1900  76.2 million
› Growth fueled by immigration

Push Factors: poverty,
overcrowding, joblessness,
religious persecution

Pull Factors: economic opportunity, reputation for
political & religious freedom, cheap transportation
› Labor Contract Law  allowed businesses to pay in
advance for the passage of workers
› Willing to work for low wages
› Tension between foreign workers and American labor grew
Old Immigrants





New Immigrants








Came before the Civil War (pre-1860)
From Northern & Western Europe (Britain,
Ireland, Germany)
Protestant
English-speaking
High level of literacy & occupational skill
Perceived to have blended more easily
Came after the Civil War (post-1865)
From Southern & Eastern Europe (Italy, Russia,
Poland)
Not Protestant  Jewish, Catholic, etc.
Poor and illiterate
Unaccustomed to Democratic traditions
Settled in poor ethnic neighborhoods in
Northern cities
25% = birds of passage
Work was routine &
impersonal
 10-hour days, 6 days a
week
 Increasing use of women
& children

› Scientific management
lowered need for skills;
also transferred control
form workers to managers
› Textile industry = largest
employer of women

Many families could not survive
without additional income from
women & children

These groups considered vulnerable
to exploitation and injury

Their labor was increasingly viewed
as a social problem

38 states passed childlabor laws but most
were ineffective and/or
poorly enforced
The workers response to
these problems mirrored their
employers’ tactics – they
attempted to form
combinations in a search for
control.
“Tools” of
Management
“Tools” of
Labor
 “scabs”
 boycotts
 P. R. campaign
 sympathy
demonstrations
 Pinkertons
 lockouts
 blacklisting
 yellow-dog contracts
 informational
picketing
 closed shops
 court injunctions
 organized
strikes
 open shop
 “wildcat” strikes






Strong-arm tactics used by
management
Public view of unions as unAmerican and in league with
anarchists
Government support of
business
Only represented small % of
national labor force
Divisions among labor itself
on goals and tactics
Ethnic tension& mobility of
the workforce made
unionization difficult
A striker confronts as scab

First attempt at a national labor union
› Tried to organize ALL workers in ALL states
› Skilled, unskilled, agricultural, industrial
› 1868  640,000 members]

Fought for better wages & an 8-hour workday
› Won 8-hr day for government employees

Had a broad social program
› Equal rights for women & blacks
› Monetary reform
› Worker cooperatives

Lost support after the Panic of 1873 &
unsuccessful strikes in 1877
James McParland
Pinkerton agent who
infiltrated the Molly
Maguires

Radical and violent
group

Their terror tactics turned
public opinion against
the union

Blamed for murder,
brutal assaults, arson,
and sabotage in the
coal mines of
Pennsylvania

RRs companies announced a 10% wage cut
› Strikers stopped rail service, destroyed equipment, and rioted
in several cities

President Hayes used federal troops to restore order
Began
as a
secret
society
Terence V. Powderly

Moderate union
› Under Powderly’s leadership, membership peaked at
730,000 in 1886

Grew rapidly because of their openmembership policy, continuing industrialization,
and growth of urban population
› Welcomed ALL workers; women immigrants, and
African Americans

Broad social program
› Believed they could eliminate conflict between labor
and management.
› Wanted to create a cooperative society in which
laborers, not capitalists owned the industries in which
they worked

Eight-hour workday.

Workers’ cooperatives.

Worker-owned factories.

Abolition of child and prison labor.

Increased circulation of greenbacks.

Equal pay for men and women.

Safety codes in the workplace.

Prohibition of contract foreign labor.

Abolition of the National Bank.

80,000 Knights show up for May
Day Labor Movement in
Chicago
› Also wanted to lend support to
strikers at the McCormick
Harverter Company

Bomb thrown at policemen
killing 7

Police open fire on the crowd
killing 4 more

Middle-class America horrified

8 anarchists convicted of
murder on the basis that their
statements incited the bomb
thrower

Anarchism became the new threat to social
order and private property
› Was linked to the labor movement in America’s mind

Spelled the demise for the Knights of Labor
unions 
strikes
violence
socialists 
anarchists =
immigrants !!

Alliance of skilled
workers in craft unions

Concentrated on
bread-and-butter issues
› Higher wages
› Shorter hours
› Better working conditions

Samuel Gompers,
Founder
By 1901, largest union in
the U.S.

Nicknames Wobblies

Strove to unite ALL workers

Embraced the rhetoric of
class warfare and endorsed
violent tactics
› “An injury to one is an injury to
all”

Never had more than 150,000
members
› Collapsed during WWI
Henry Clay Frick

Union at Andrew Carnegie’s steel
plant went on strike after wages
were cut

Plant manager & Carnegie saw this
as a chance to break the union

Frick locked out the workers and
hired Pinkertons to protect the
strikebreakers



After battling workers, Pinkertons surrendered
and ejected from the town
Company asked the National Guard to step in
and protect its property & strikebreakers
Union was successfully broken

Panic of 1893, led
Pullman Company to
cut wages while
maintaining rents and
prices in the company
town at the same level
› 12,000 workers lived in
this town

Workers went on strike

Eugene V. Debs, leader of the American
Railway Union, has his union join the strike

Substantial portion of American RR commerce
shut down

Court issues injunction against
prevented transportation of
mail
› Debs & other union leaders
arrested

Cleveland orders federal
troops in
› “If it takes the entire army
and navy to deliver a postal
card in Chicago, that card
will be delivered!”

Strike crushed
“Solidarity Forever!”
by Ralph Chapin (1915)
When the union's inspiration
through the workers‘ blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker
than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong!
CHORUS:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union
makes us strong!
Come On and
Sing Along!!
“Solidarity Forever!”
Is there aught we hold in common
with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom
and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us
but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong!
CHORUS:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union
makes us strong!
“Solidarity Forever!”
* * * *
Through our sisters and our brothers
we can make our union strong,
For respect and equal value,
we have done without too long.
We no longer have to tolerate
injustices and wrongs,
Yes, the union makes us strong!
CHORUS:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union
makes us strong!