Revolt of Workers and
Farmers
The Search for Alliances
• The 1890s saw a continuation in the
disparity of wealth that was growing in
America.
• A few Americans were enjoying
astonishing wealth and lavish homes.
• Most, however, toiled long hours under
dangerous conditions for low pay.
• Categories of race and class pitted
Americans against each other.
Unifying Forces
• Even in the midst of all these tensions,
middle class Americans hoped that the
nation could be unified by certain forces:
– Public schools
– Cultural institutions (i.e. museums & libraries)
– “American values”
Class Conflict
• Pension Act of 1890 for disabled Union
veterans funded by McKinley Tariff
– Northeastern manufacturing states supported
a high tariff.
– Western states supported tariff in exchange
for Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
– However, tariff hurt consumers whose wages
didn’t keep pace. Led to revolts.
• i.e. Homestead Strike of 1892
Barriers to Labor Organization
• Protestants v. Roman
Catholics
• Irishmen v.
Englishmen
• Whites v.
Mexicans/Chinese/Bl
acks
Depression of 1873
• 8000 businesses failed resulting in the
loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
• 20 percent of all workers lost their jobs
• Many became tramps and hoboes to find
jobs; others simply begged for handouts.
• Jacob S. Coxey’s “army”
– 5000 men petitioned Congress for relief
– Summarily arrested for trampling on grass in
from of the Capitol.
Eugene V. Debs
• Head of American
Railway Union
• Led protest of its 150k
members against
conditions at Pullman Car
Company (lowered
wages; not rents)
• Strike crippled RRs
• Prez Cleveland sent
troops to crush strike &
issued fed injunction to
force strikers back 2 work
Significance of Pullman Strike
• The Pullman strike
signaled big trouble for
the poor and
unemployed.
• Marked the first time the
courts had ordered
strikers to return to work.
• Highlighted the
dangerous alliance
between government and
big business.
Judicial Confirmation of
Government-Business Relations
• In 1895 the Supreme Court rendered two
opinions that favored big business &
wealthy Americans:
– United States v. E.C. Knight
• Rule: Sherman Act only applies to Interstate
Commerce, not to manufacturers.
– Pollack v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company
• Courts struck down an extremely modest federal
income tax (2% on $4000+/yr.)
1896 Presidential Election
• Republicans nominated Congressman William
McKinley of Ohio
• Democrats rejected Grover Cleveland who was
regarded as a pariah after supporting big
business and strike busters.
• Democrats and Populist both nominated William
Jennings Bryan, a 36-year-old Populist from
Nebraska.
• Marcus Hanna (wealthy iron magnate)
• Raised $16 million for McKinley & smeared Bryan
• McKinley won & the Populist Party disintegrated
Legacy of the Populist
• Yielded some remarkable interracial coalitions.
• Coalition between black Republicans and poor
white Democrats resulted in victories in state
legislatures and several governorships.
• However, were unable to sustain a region-wide
coalition in the South
– White southern democrats campaigned to
disenfranchise black men
• Blacks & poor whites would find no common
political ground again until the 1930s*
Barriers to U.S. Workers Political
Movement
• Although socialism took hold in many parts of
Europe during the 1890s, it never did so in
America for a number of reasons:
– Farmers and industrial workers found difficult in
allying with each other.
– Large influx of immigrants created competition
amongst the poor.
– Employers manipulated racial, ethnic, and religious
prejudices between workers (i.e. using blacks as
scabs).
– Unions themselves remained segregated.
– Employers sold pipe dreams to many of the poor who
therefore would not join unions etc.
Challenges to Traditional Gender
Roles
• In the 1890s women’s suffrage, club,
missionary, and social settlement
movements emerged as significant
political forces.
• Unfortunately, white women in these
movements refused to include their nonwhite counterparts.
Suffrage
• In 1890 the two largest suffrage associations
merged to form the National American Woman
Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton served as its president
for the first two years.
• Unfortunately, the organization had contradictory
impulses:
• Brought supporters together from around the country
• But did not allow poor, immigrant, or black women to join
Women’s Clubs
• Some women entered the political realm
through women’s clubs during the 1880s
• These clubs focused on self-improvement
initially, but by the 1890s had embraced
political activism
• Improvements in education, social welfare,
hospitals, & playgrounds
• The General Federation of Women’s
Clubs (1892) united many local clubs.
National Association of Colored
Women
• Because the GFWC excluded blacks,
women formed their own federation in
1896 – the NACW.
– Mary Church Terrell was their 1st president
– They spoke out against lynch mobs and
segregation while working to improve local
communities
Settlement Clubs
• Founded and staffed by well-educated women
who had attended elite colleges.
• Hoped to instill in poor women the values of
domesticity and pride in American citizenship.
• Jane Addams’ Hull House the most well-known.
• Most settlement houses did not reach out to
blacks however; therefore blacks founded their
own settlement houses (i.e. the Phyllis Wheatley
Settlement, MN & the Neighborhood Union, Atl)