ACAPS

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The American Yawp Reader

16. Capital and Labor

Friedrich Graetz, “The Tournament of Today – A Set-To Between Labor and Monopoly.” August 1, 1883. Library of Congress (LC-DIG-ppmsca-28412).

Introduction

Documents

Media

Introduction

Industrialization remade the United States. At the turn of the twentieth century, powerful capital-

ists, middle class managers, and industrial and agricultural labors confronted a new world of work

and labor in the United States. While many bene�ted from the material gains of technological

progress, others found themselves trapped in cycles of poverty and hopelessness and strikes, protests,

and political warfare rocked American life as workers adjusted themselves to a new industrial order.

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The following sources explore the mindsets of American suddenly confronted with a new world of

concentrated capital and industrial labor. 

Documents

1. William Graham Sumner on Social Darwinism (ca.1880s)

William Graham Sumner, a sociologist at Yale University, penned several pieces associated with

the philosophy of Social Darwinism. In the following, Sumner explains his vision of nature and

liberty in a just society.

2. Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Selections (1879)

In 1879, the economist Henry George penned a massive bestseller exploring the contradictory

rise of both rapid economic growth and crippling poverty.

3. Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth (1889)

Andrew Carnegie, the American steel titan, explains his vision for the proper role of wealth in

American society.

4. Grover Cleveland’s Veto of the Texas Seed Bill (1887)

Amid a crushing drought that devastated many Texas farmers, Grover Cleveland vetoed a bill

designed to help farmers recover by supplying them with seed. In his veto message, Cleveland

explained his vision of proper government.

5. The “Omaha Platform” of the People’s Party (1892)

In 1892, the People’s, or Populist, Party crafted a platform that indicted the corruptions of the

Gilded Age and promised government policies to aid “the people.”

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6. Dispatch from a Mississippi Colored Farmers’ Alliance (1889)

The Colored Farmers’ Alliance, an African American alternative to the whites-only Southern

Farmers’ Alliance, organized as many as a million Black southerners against the injustices of the

predominately cotton-based, southern agricultural economy. Black Populists, however, were al-

ways more vulnerable to the violence of white southern conservatives than their white counter-

parts. Here, the publication The Forum publishes an account of violence against Black Populists

in Mississippi.

7. Lucy Parsons on Women and Revolutionary Socialism (1905)

Lucy Parsons was born into slavery in Texas, married a white radical, Albert Parsons, and moved

to Chicago where they both worked on behalf of radical causes. After Albert Parsons was exe-

cuted for conspiracy in the aftermath of the Haymarket bombing, Lucy Parsons emerged as a

major American radical and vocal advocate of anarchism. In 1905, she spoke before the found-

ing convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Media

“The Tournament of Today” (1883)

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Friedrich Graetz, “The Tournament of Today – A Set-To Between Labor and Monopoly.” August 1, 1883.  Via Library of Congress (LC-DIG-ppmsca-28412).

“Print shows a jousting tournament between an oversized knight riding horse-shaped armor labeled

“Monopoly” over a locomotive, with a long plume labeled “Arrogance”, and carrying a shield labeled

“Corruption of the Legislature” and a lance labeled “Subsidized Press”, and a barefoot man labeled

“Labor” riding an emaciated horse labeled “Poverty”, and carrying a sledgehammer labeled “Strike”.

On the left is seating “Reserved for Capitalists” where Cyrus W. Field, William H. Vanderbilt, John

Roach, Jay Gould, and Russell Sage are sitting. On the right, behind the labor section, are telegraph

lines �ying monopoly banners that are labeled “Wall St., W.U.T. Co., [and] N.Y.C. RR”.”

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← Frederick Douglass on Remembering the Civil War, 1877 William Graham Sumner on Social Darwinism (ca.1880s) →

Lawrence Textile Strike (1912)

Lawrence Textile Strike, 1912. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-23725.

In 1912, The International Workers of the World (the IWW, or the “Wobblies”) organized textile

workers in Lawrence and Lowell, Massachusetts. This photo shows strikers, carrying American �ags,

confronting strikebreakers and militia bayonets.