1. Unit 2B: Gilded Age
Rise of Labor

2. So what effect did these new BIG BUSINESSES and their wealthy owners have on American society?

3. The distribution of wealth in America became very uneven: 1/8 of the population owned 7/8 of the wealth.

4. What does that look like?

5. Lets divide $100 between 8 people

6. Carnegie gets $87.50
The common people get $1.79 each

7. How did the wealthy business owners justify this unequal distribution of wealth?

8. Laissez-Faire French term – “leave alone”
Major element of a capitalistic economy – the separation of the government and the economy in a nation
So government should not attempt to regulate business practices.
The “free marketplace” will naturally regulate economic successes and failures.

9. What was it like to be a factory worker?

10. Harsh Working Conditions
Workers fined or fired for being late or talking
Deafening noise
Poor lighting and ventilation
Unsafe
Frequent fires and accidents

11. Harsh Working Conditions
500,000 workers were completely disabled each year
35,000 killed each year
No corporate accountability for worker safety. No workers’ compensation laws or insurance.
You get hurt, you get fired.

12. Sweatshops A shop usually in upper floors of a building
Crowded and hot
Often sewing garments
Workers paid by number of items produced (piece-work)
No breaks or toilet facilities

13. Child Labor No child labor laws existed.
Children as young as 6 could work in a factory.
Most children permanently left school at age 12 to work.
Factory owners wanted children because they could pay them less.
Families needed the money children earned.
Many were maimed or killed.

14. Child Labor

15. Child Labor

16. Child Labor

17. How did society respond to these problems?

18. Labor Unions
Groups of workers with similar jobs that join together to fight for:
safer working conditions
8 hour work day
higher pay

19. Two Methods Labor Unions Used
Collective Bargaining:
One or two union members are chosen as spokesmen for the workers.
Union reps negotiate with owners and managers on behalf of the workers.
Strike:
A union tactic in which workers refuse to work until their demands are met by management

20. Strikers on a Picket Line

21. Why would strikes be an effective tactic to use against factory owners and managers?

22. What can factory owners and managers do if they don’t want to give into the workers’ demands?

23. Scabs
Management can hire non-union workers to take the place of striking workers

24. 2 Major Labor Unions Form

25. Knights of Labor Formed in 1869 by Terrence Powderly
Joined all workers together (men, women, all races, and all trades)
Wanted regulation of working hours and 8-hour workday
Used education and peaceful political action to achieve their goals

26. American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Formed in 1886 by Samuel Gompers
Only skilled workers included (NO women or blacks)
Wanted higher wages, shorter working hours, and better working conditions
Used strikes and boycotts to achieve their goals

27. So . . . How did factory owners and managers respond when labor unions formed in their factories?

28. How Management Responded
Forbade union meetings
Fired union organizers
Forced employees to sign a contract pledging not to join a union
Refused to recognize unions and collectively bargain

29. So . . . How did labor (the workers) respond?

30. VIOLENCE

31. 4 GREAT STRIKES

32. Great Railroad Strike of 1877
CAUSE:
Baltimore and Ohio RR announced a 10% wage cut.
Train lengths were doubled, increasing the chance of accidents.

33. Railroad Strike of 1877 BACKGROUND: RR workers struck.
The strike turned into a violent riot.

34. Railroad Strike of 1877 OUTCOME:
President Hayes sent in federal troops
Rioters burned RR property.

35. Railroad Strike of 1877

36. Haymarket Riot (1886) CAUSE:
Chicago workers struck for an 8-hour workday.

37. 7 officers killed in Haymarket Riot
BACKGROUND:
At a rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago anarchists joined the strikers.
Someone threw a bomb which killed 7 armed policemen.
Dozens were killed in the gunfight that followed.

38. People Involved in the Haymarket Riot (1886)

39. Four Haymarket anarchists hung – Nov 11, 1887
OUTCOME:
Four anarchists were found guilty and hanged.
There was never any proof of their involvement.

40. Homestead Strike (1892) CAUSE:
Wages were cut at Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Works in PA.

41. Pinkertons A police force for hire (#15) Founded by Samuel Pinkerton
The first secret service agency that protected Lincoln when he traveled
Known for their ruthlessness in breaking up strikes

42. Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Works
Background:
Union workers struck.
Pinkertons were brought in to protect the plant
and they opened fire on the strikers.
Workers attacked Pinkertons.

43. Federal Troops Called In
Outcome:
Soldiers were called in.
Several workers were killed.
All union workers were fired and never employed by Carnegie again.

44. Pullman Strike (1894)
George Pullman built the luxury “sleeper” rail cars for the wealthy.
His Chicago workers lived in the “company town” used “company script” as money at the “company store”
CAUSE:
During an economic depression, Pullman cut wages and laid-off workers but did not cut rent.
When workers protested, he fired them.
Workers struck.

45. Pullman Strike (1894) BACKGROUND
Other RR unions in 23 states joined in
More than a 1000 rail cars destroyed
13 workers killed
RR service to the West is disrupted, including mail service.

46. Pullman Strike (1894) OUTCOME:
Owners banded together and sought court orders ended any union activity.
Leader Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned

47. Pullman Strike (1894)

48. Pullman Strike (1894)

49. Congress finally takes action to limit
“Big Business”

50. Interstate Commerce Act
1887
Federal law to regulate trade between the states.
Stopped railroads from charging unfair rates to farmers and making secret deals with some large clients (like oil companies).

51. Sherman Anti-Trust Act
1890
“Every combination in restraint of trade is declared to be illegal.”
Was intended to stop monopolies and to promote fair competition in the business market.
But later the courts used the law to prohibit labor union strikes (because strikes were “restraining free trade.”

52. A 3rd labor union forms
but . . .
this one is different

53. The Wobblies Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Founded in 1905 by Eugene V. Debs who became a socialist while in prison
A radical union that used violence during strikes
Goal was the world-wide destruction of capitalism by labor forces

54. The Wobblies (IWW)

55. Socialism An political philosophy which proposes: 32
Wealth should be equally distributed to everyone;
Production of goods based on cooperation, not competition
Society as a whole, not just a few private individuals should have control of a nation’s wealth