Economy and
Labor (1865-1898)
AP U.S. HISTORY 6.1 (II)
Laissez-faire Policies and Competition
 Laissez-faire
 No
government intervention in the economy
 No
regulations (Hands off)
The
market will govern itself
Extreme
Capitalism
 Many
felt this policy promoted long term
economic development
Even
in times of recession government should
be hands off
Expansion of the Labor Force

Domestic Migration
 Rural

to urban
International Immigration

25 Million between 1865 & 1915

Eastern Industrial Cities

1870s & 1880s


England, Ireland, and Northern
Europe
By the end of the 1800s (New Immigration

Southern and Eastern Europe


Italy, Greece, Poland
The West

Dominated by Mexican and Asian
(Chinese) immigration
What Was Driving International Immigration

Push Factors


Pull Factors


Escaping poverty and oppression
Economic opportunities
Recruitment of international
laborers

Employers would actively
encourage migration to industrial
cities and western lands

Newspaper advertisements

Ex. Railroad recruitment of
“settlers”
Increasing Ethnic Tensions
 Immigrants
Europe
from Southern and Eastern
 Displaced
the old immigrants (English and Irish)
from industrial jobs
 Displaced
mines
 Willing
Northern European workers in eastern
to accept lower wages
 Immigrants
from Mexico and China
competed for jobs in the west
Child Labor On the Rise

By 1900
 1.7
million children under the age of 16 were employed
in factories and fields

Why?
 Families
A

needed the additional income
way to keep mothers/wives at home
Reformers take notice
 Public
outraged leads to the passage of child labor laws
 Limited
 Laws
impact
were ignored and did not impact child labor in agriculture
Labor vs. Management
 Transition
 Battled
 Most
 Low
from artisan to industrial production
over wages and conditions
wages did not provide a level of comfort
job security
 Boom/bust
cycles of the economy
 Technology
 Seasonality
 Poverty
was always just a step away
Labor vs. Management

Working conditions
 10-12
hours a day 6 days a week
 Unsafe
and unhealthy factories
 Accidents


were frequent and severe
Losing limbs, death
Loss of control of labor
 Modern
labor
corporation = labors lost control of their own
 Subjected
 Factory
to total control of managers
efficiency > condition of laborers
Labor vs. Management
 Growth
of Labor Unions
 Labor
unions existed before the Civil War, but
were small craft unions
 The
National Labor Union (1866)
 William
 First
attempt at uniting separate unions into one
 640,000
 Molly
H. Sylvis
members (no women or children)
Maguires
 Militant
labor group
Labor Strikes & Unions


The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

10% cut in wages

Disrupted trans. from St. Louis to
Baltimore

100+ die in the weeks following
The Knights of Labor (1869)

First national labor organization
 Loosely
organized

One union for all

Welcomed women

Wage system vs. cooperative system
Labor Strikes & Unions

The American Federation of Labor

Association of various smaller craft
unions

Better wages & conditions

Embraced the ideas of Capitalism



Desired a bigger slice of the pie for
workers
Generally hostile to women joining

Women only drove down pay b/c they
are weak

Supported higher pay for women
8 Hour work day
Labor Strikes

May 1, 1886
 AFL

calls for a general strike
May 4, 1886
 Haymarket
 Strike
Square
at McCormick Harvester Company in Chicago

Middle-class America shocked

Anarchy becomes synonymous with labor unions

Weakens the labor movement
Labor Strikes

The Homestead Strike

Steel strike at one of Carnegie’s mills in Pittsburgh



Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
Labor union weakened
The Pullman Strikes