16. 2 (end and 3)
OBJS
1. Discuss the impact of the Great upheaval on union
membership
2. Discuss the problems that American farmers faced in the
late 1800s.
Bellringer
 What methods are used by workers to try and institute
change in their workplace?
4. The Great Upheaval
a. violent labor confrontations
b. Haymarket Riot (1884)
1.) Chicago –Harvester Plant
2.) anarchists
3.) injuries/deaths
a.) blacklists
b.) yellow dog contracts = signed
to promise not to join a union
c.) strikebreakers - scabs
c. American Federation of Labor
(1886)
1.) Samuel Gompers
2.) craft union – only skilled
workers – reason why it was
more successful
5. Homestead Strike
a. PA
b. Carnegie Steel Plant – cause = reduction in wages
c. state militia used to help plant managers
6. Pullman Strike
a. Chicago – sleeping car factory strike
b. Eugene V. Debs (American Railway Union) joins cause
c. Fed. Gov. stopped strike due to railway cars used to transport
US mail – Debs ignored
d. Fed. Troops used – once again the gov. supports the
management!
Farmers, Populism and Depression
1. The farmers’ plight
a.
b.
c.
d.
overproduction--- caused decrease in prices
farmers responded by producing more
borrowed $ for equipment, land, etc.
RR prices high
2. The Grange Movement
a. National Grange
1.) social org. that became pol. and eco
2.) cooperatives
Granger Laws Con’t
b.) declared ok in Munn v. IL
c.) declared unconstitutional in Wabash v. IL
1.)) only fed. Gov. can regulate interstate trade
2.)) led to passage of the Interstate Commerce Act
(1887) – little power – courts did not work with it
3. The Alliance Movement
a. Farmers’ Alliance –TX
b. Cooperatives – buy and sell in bulk
c. Lobbied for the gov. regulation of RRs and
graduated income tax
4. The Money Question
a. farmers wanted
greenbacks to increase
the money supply
1.) cause inflation
2.) could charge more
for products
3.) more
money=easier to
repay loans
 Eastern bankers responded with the GOLD
STANDARD

(Government sided with the banks)
 farmers then demanded SILVER
 Bland Allison Act (1878)
 Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
 *gov. bought silver to mint into coins –little effect
– too little purchased