Labor in the
Progressive Era
after Haymarket
Prepared by Tom Conry,
Madison High School
Portland, OR
Labor – three possibilities
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Moderate – the American Federation of
Labor, headed by Samuel Gompers, craft
union
Socialists – Socialist Party headed by
Eugene Debs, works through elections
Radicals – International Workers of the
World, headed by “Big Bill” Haywood,
wants direct action
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Samuel Gompers
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Craft union
Mostly white men
More conservative
Wanted shorter hours, higher
wages, better working
conditions
What does labor want? "More“
Change will come through
collective bargaining
American Socialist Party
Eugene Debs
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Learned from failure of
1894 Pullman Strike
Formed political party,
worked through elections
Diverse membership,
many women
Wanted government
ownership of big industry,
vote for women, no child
labor, right to strike
Change will come
through elections
Industrial Workers of the World
Big Bill Haywood et al.
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"The Wobblies"
Industrial union, came out
of Western mining strikes
Especially big in Oregon
and Washington
Used strikes, boycotts,
songs, and education
Rejected political parties
and elections
Change will come through
a general strike and the
workers will take over
Joe Hill of the IWW (Wobblies)
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Swedish immigrant (born
Hillstrom)
IWW songwriter
Framed for murder and
executed
"Don't mourn – organize!"
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of the IWW
the original Wobbly "Rebel Girl"
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Joined the Wobblies at age 16
Great public speaker
Helped to organize the 1912
Lawrence, Mass. "Bread and
Roses" strike
A founder of the American Civil
Liberties Union
What the Wobblies wanted
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Against capitalism
Revolutionary union
“One big union”
Workers should
own industries
Distrust of electoral
politics
Work toward a
national general
strike
Why was labor angry?
sweatshop working conditions
child labor
Supreme Court decisions against labor
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Based on “liberty of contract” doctrine (14th
and 5th Amendments)
Lochner v. New York (1905) states were
not allowed to restrict work hours
Danbury Hatters case (1908) unions were
not allowed to boycott
Before the Clayton Antitrust Act, striking
was against the law
Three events revitalize labor
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1902 Anthracite strike (TR supports miners
against capital)
1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire (sweatshop
working conditions exposed)
1912 Bread and Roses textile strike,
Lawrence, Massachusetts (high point of the
IWW)
The Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
King Coal
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Used in furnaces for heating
Used in stoves for cooking
Powered the railroads
Powered factories
Used in power-generating stations
Anthracite operators led by
George “Divine Right” Baer
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Installed by J.P. Morgan as
head of the Philadelphia and
Reading Railroad
Social Darwinist
Told TR there was "nothing to
negotiate"
How "Divine Right" Baer got his nickname
“The rights and interests of the
laboring man will be protected
and cared for, not by the labor
agitators, but by the Christian
men to whom God in His infinite
wisdom has given control of the
property interests of the country”
[open letter to the press during
the 1902 strike]
Workers’ demands
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Eight-hour day
10% raise
Owners must recognize and bargain with
the union
What happened?
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United Mine Workers president John Mitchell
calls for arbitration (a presidential commission to
settle the strike)
George “Divine Right” Baer refuses (and insults
TR)
TR leans on J.P. Morgan to make Baer accept
the commission
At the commission, Baer is disastrous
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Insults TR
Gets bad press for the
owners by declaring:
“They don’t suffer;
they can’t even speak
English.” (Baer on the
miners’ situation)
Public sentiment favors the miners
The result: miners win!
The commission accepts most of the
union demands (but not union recognition)
 TR becomes famous for the “square deal”
 Establishes the principle of presidential
intervention in important strikes and labor
struggles
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Why the Anthracite Strike of 1902 matters:
previous presidents had sided with capital
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Andrew Jackson in 1834 sent troops to break
strike on the construction of the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal
War Department employees took over the
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad during the
Civil War
Rutherford B. Hayes sent troops to break the
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Grover Cleveland used troops to break the
Pullman Strike of 1894
Now TR was offering a “Square Deal”
to both management and labor
The "Square Deal" – Reforms increase Federal Power, ended
Laissez Faire
"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar
watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and
commonsense."... "We must treat each man on his worth and
merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square
deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no
less.""The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally
upon the welfare of all of us."
--New York State Fair, Syracuse September 7, 1903
1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Reaction
The Disaster that Ended Tammany Hall
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146 dead, mostly
young women
Most are Jewish or
Italian Catholics
Doors were locked
People saw that
machine politics were
inadequate
1912 Lawrence, MA
"Bread and Roses" textile strike
Lawrence 1912 – what happened?
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American Woolen
Company speeded up
production and
reduced wages
Mostly women
workers
Diverse immigrant
workforce
IWW asked to
organize strike
How the IWW organized
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Set up democratic
committee of 50 workers,
all nationalities
Union supplied food and
fuel for 50,000 workers
Governor declared martial
law
IWW says: "Bayonets
cannot weave cloth"
The Children's Exodus
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Company tries
to starve
workers
IWW & Socialist
Party sends
children out of
town to other
workers
New law: no
children can
leave
How the strikers won
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Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
takes children out (against
the law)
Police beat women and
children in front of
cameras
Police riot enrages public
American Woolen
Company forced to raise
wages
Bread and Roses (1912) strike song
Lyrics
James Oppenheim,
1912
As we go marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun
discloses,
For the people hear us singing:
"Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!"
As we go marching, marching we battle too for men,
For they are women's children and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes.
Hearts starve as well as bodies;
give us bread but give us roses.
As we go marching, marching we battle too for men,
For they are women's children and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes.
Hearts starve as well as bodies;
give us bread but give us roses.
As we go marching, marching unnumbered woman dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too!
As we go marching, marching we bring the greater
days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race,
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one
reposes
But a sharing of life's glories:
Bread and roses! Bread and roses!