Module one - Gilded Age

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Lecture 1 The Gilded Age,

1870-1900

Core Objectives

Explain the primary factors that led to unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth in the late nineteenth century.

0101 Describe the entrepreneurs who pioneered the growth of big business, the goals they aimed to achieve, and the strategies they used to dominate their industries.

0202 Evaluate the role of the federal government in the nation’s economic development during this period.

0303

Core Objectives

Understand the effects of urban growth during the Gilded Age, including the problems it created.

1 Describe the “new immigrants” of the late nineteenth century and how they were viewed by American Society.

2 Explain how urban growth and the increasingly important role of science influenced leisure activities, cultural life and social policy in the Gilded Age.

3 Assess how the nature of politics during the Gilded Age contributed to political corruption and stalemate.

4 Evaluate the effectiveness of politicians in developing responses to the major economic and social problems of the Gilded Age.

5 Analyze why the money supply became a major political issue during the Gilded Age and describe its impact on American politics.

Growth of Big Business

• After the Civil War, expansion of America’s capacity for production grew rapidly. • America’s abundance of natural resources, particularly in wood, oil, coal, iron, and water,

provided the necessary fuel for industrialization. • When combined with a rapidly growing population (because of immigration and a high birth

rate), the supplies and labor available made it possible for America to become an industrial power – which it did.

Causes of Industrial Growth

• Second Industrial Revolution

• Corporate Farming

• Technological Advances

• The growth of industry in the United States can be traced to three basic causes. • The first was the Second Industrial Revolution.

• The Second Industrial Revolution is the term that we give to the period of the late 19th century. • Thanks to the creation of transportation and communication, the advent of electric power, and

the application of scientific research, industry grew and changed like never before. • The second was the advent of corporate farming.

• The agricultural sector began to shift away from small farmers and toward large-scale bonanza farms.

• Bonanza farms were run by corporations and focused on growing wheat and corn. • Managers utilized migrant labor as well as machinery for harvest and planting. • Commercial cattle enterprises and industrial meat packing also contributed to the

creation of corporate farming. • The third cause was technological advancements.

• This was a time of great innovation and experimentation for businesses. Various technologies altered both the work space and the home.

• Application of electricity to homes and factories by the 1880s meant additional hours of light without the smoke and fire hazard of lamps or candles.

• It also meant that factories could be located anywhere. They did not have to be located by coal deposits or water sources.

• The invention of the telephone made communication almost instantaneous.

Early Business Changes

• Railroads and Telegraphs • First large-scale industries • Standardization

• Building the Transcontinentals • Pacific Railway Act of 1862

Industrialization played a large part in the growth and development of the United States through the Civil War and Reconstruction. However, after 1870 with the advent of electricity, chemical processes, the expansion of transportation, and the expansion of communication, the U.S. moved towards a mature industrial society for the first time. We were able to produce more goods, sell more goods, and transport more goods than every before.

Railroads and telegraphs were the first large scale industries. • Railroads allowed for reliable and relatively quick transportation. The first great wave of railroads were built in the

1850s, but railroads were not standardized until after the Civil War. • It took approximately 20 years to standardize track size, rates, and time-keeping methods. • One of the most interesting results of this standardization was the introduction of standard time zones.

• Telegraphs allowed for quick communication over long distances using electrical impulses to send messages over a wire.

• Both of these industries used new organizational techniques like scheduling, accounting, and personnel management. • They established new administrative hierarchies, using supervisors, executives, and experts to oversee

company operations. • One central administration was established, with supervisors for each geographic region, executives to

oversee supervisors, and experts who supervised all corporate functions. • These industries also had significant problems, including poor quality rails, dangerous working conditions,

questionable financing, and some criminal activity. • The building of the Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most significant achievements of the period. Connecting

rail lines from the east coast to the west coast, this achievement bound the nation together geographically, but also made expansion and settlement possible in the center of the nation.

• The process of building began with the passage of the Pacific Railway Act in 1862. • This law authorized the construction of a rail line to be built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company from

Omaha to the west and the Central Pacific Railroad Company from Sacramento to the east. • Work began during the Civil War, but most work was completed after the war was over.

• The Union Pacific crews typically comprised former soldiers from the Union and the Confederacy, ex-slaves, and European immigrants.

• The Central Pacific crews were typically composed of white Americans and some European immigrants, but also many Chinese workers

• It is important to note that Chinese railroad workers were paid less and chosen for some of the most dangerous jobs.

• Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific bet that Chinese workers would be more efficient than Irish, and they proved extremely valuable.

• Railroads were extremely expensive to build. Companies had to provide housing and food for their workers. They had to move materials from factories to the edge of the line, build bridges, carve out tunnels, and protect their investment.

The race to completion ended on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah where the two railroads met. • The Union Pacific completed 1,068 miles of track across the plains, wide rivers, and through the Rocky

Mountains; the Central Pacific completed 689 miles through multiple mountain ranges. • The completion of the transcontinental railroad connected the country from ocean to ocean, and made it possible to

create national markets for goods instead of regional ones.

• Distribution of Goods • Marshall Fields, Macy’s, Montgomery

Wards, Sears and Roebuck • Department stores and mail-order

• Manufacturing and Scientific Management

• Growth of Corporations

Early Business Changes

Distributors (those businesses that disbursed goods to buyers) were the next to utilize these organizational structures. • They utilized the reliable and quick transportation and communication to coordinate the delivery of goods

from stores to stores and/or customers. • Marshall Fields & Macy’s created “department stores” which offered a variety of goods for

customers. They sold products at lower prices, accepting lower profits per sale, but selling more of each item which resulted in greater overall profit.

• Montgomery Ward and Sears-Roebuck developed mail-order businesses where customers could order from catalogs. Each item was packed and shipped direct, making the same goods available in New York City and Oglalla, NE. This practice created a nationwide market for their products.

• Manufacturing was really the last area to take advantage of these new developments. • Early forms of mass production came with continuous-process machines or factories which

included all stages of production within one building. • In the 1870s, with depression, most factories focused on scientific management rather than new

technology. • Scientific management was developed by Frederick Taylor who believed that science

could be used to increase productivity. They studied the work patterns of the most efficient employees, then taught those habits and practices to other workers in the form of training.

• As businesses grew larger and larger, the advent of corporations began to take over American businesses. • A Corporation is a business with legal separation between ownership and management. The

corporation sells stock in the company to investors in order to raise capital; investors share in the profits and losses.

Barons of Business

John D. Rockefeller • Standard Oil Company • The trust and monopoly • Holding company

Andrew Carnegie • Investment and growth • Carnegie Steel Company

John Pierpont Morgan • Financial Investments

• Some of the most famous industrialists of the time became the nation’s wealthiest men. • John D. Rockefeller established Standard Oil Company in 1870 with his brother and friend.

• He worked to eliminate his competitors in order to control the oil market and therefore oil prices in the nation.

• He then used his control of the market to benefit his business, forcing railroads, for example, to issue rebates to his company for use.

• Rockefeller also created the TRUST in 1882 in an effort to continue this process. • A trust allows a person or corporation to manage another company. • Official ownership remains, but all management goes through a group of

professional businessmen who provide trust certificates. • Owners still get dividends and payouts.

• When trusts were challenged by local laws and national laws, Rockefeller created the HOLDING COMPANY to subvert the law.

• A holding company is a corporation that controls other companies by holding the majority of their stock.

• Rockefeller believed that monopolies were the natural result of capitalism at work. • Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant who started his career in the telegraph business, but

moved into the steel industry in the 1870s, establishing Carnegie Steel Company. • Steel was stronger and more flexible than iron, making it possible to build even greater

buildings, stronger bridges, and railroad ties. • Carnegie utilized the best machinery, processes, and internal competition between his

employees to promote the best production possible, but also flipped the script. Instead of investing in improvements during times of prosperity, Carnegie waited to invest until economic declines, allowing him to pay less for major improvements and to

buy out his competitors when they were in dire financial straits. • His company employed 20,000 people, working two 12-hour shifts per day.

• Unlike Carnegie, J.P. Morgan was born wealthy, but took it to a whole new level. • He established one of the first investment firms in the nation, and took over poorly run

companies. He replaced their managers and consolidated competitors into trusts that he owned and ran.

• Most notably, Morgan purchased and consolidated railroads in financial distress.

• In 1901, Morgan bought out Carnegie and added additional companies to form U.S. Steel – the first billion dollar corporation.

Horizontal and Vertical Integration

Most large businesses became large by utilizing one or two methods called horizontal integration and vertical integration. • Vertical integration is when a company purchases all parts of specific process.

• Consider the graphic on this slide. If a company is involved in the meat industry, they must own all the parts of production, from the cows themselves to the process of delivery.

• A vertically integrated meat company owns: • the cattle themselves • the slaughterhouse for slaughter and processing • the refrigerated railroad cars for transportation from the slaughterhouse to markets • the cooled warehouses for storage • the meat packing plants where meat is packaged for delivery, and • delivery wagons for disbursement.

• Armour was an example of a vertically integrated meat company. Other examples included Pillsbury (flour and baking products), Campbell’s (soup), and Heinz (ketchup and other products).

• Horizontal Integration is when a company focuses on control of a whole market by eliminating their competition.

• Consider the graphic on this slide. Imagine that there are four independent oil refineries in a region. One refinery wants a larger share of the market, and so they decide to drop the price of their oil, undercutting their competitors. Consumers usually prefer to pay a lower price, and thus will shift their purchases to the business with a cheaper product. As more and more customers shift their business, one of the independent refineries loses business and ends up in financial distress. When that financial distress is bad enough, they will either go bankrupt or agree to sell to another refinery.

• Now one of the original four refineries controls two parts of the market instead of just one. The

process of undercutting the competition begins again, focusing on another sector of the market. With a greater share of the market, the independent refinery can vastly undercut the remaining two, thus allowing them to pulling even more business away. Even though they charge less for their product, they continue to make a profit because of the increased sales.

• Eventually, the one independent refinery succeeds in undercutting the other businesses to the point that either they close or sell out. This creates a monopoly.

• Standard Oil was a good example of horizontal integration, controlling 90% of all oil refining in the nation by 1890. Carnegie Steel and J.P. Morgan’s railroad companies were also good examples.

Government intervention

• Laissez-faire Theory

• U.S. government assistance to developing industry

• Tariffs and subsidies • Patents • Legal system: Tort Law

and Caveat Emptor

• 1890: Sherman Antitrust Act

• All of these economic developments were made possible because of the prevailing economic theory of the time - capitalism.

• Capitalism is an economic theory which argues for the absence of government involvement in the economy, allowing the market system to function without interference. This meant no regulation of prices, products, or working conditions. Without interference, the market would self regulate through times of prosperity and times of hardship.

• One of the basic tenets of capitalism is competition. • According to the theory, competition between businesses creates better products and lower

prices when it functions in perfect harmony. • Capitalism also argues that the only way for this happen is without any government interference.

• Adam Smith, the English economist who is credited with creating the theory, argued that governments should have limited controls in place for businesses.

• Tariffs, for example, were a necessity to protect domestic businesses and industries. • Regulations, however, only served to limit businesses.

• This is known as LAISSEZ-FAIRE theory, a hands-off policy for government in business. • No regulations for safety, product quality, or anything else.

• The Gilded Age was the closest that the United States has ever come to true capitalism, but even that period was not true capitalism. As big business grew, the U.S. government provided assistance to the burgeoning industries.

• Tariffs, taxes placed on foreign goods, were raised regularly in order protect American businesses. Support varied by party and region, but the tariff remained a controversial political issue throughout the period.

• Government subsidies in the form of land were provided railroad companies to help build the transcontinentals. More than 155 million acres of land were granted to railroad companies by the federal government, with additional acres granted by state governments.

• Patents – registration for ideas or inventions which helped protect ownership • Tort Law was also developed during this time. This was a group of laws designed to deal with negligence

and provide compensation to people injured by businesses. These laws were supposed to help protect

workers and consumers, but were often used to protect businesses instead. • At the time, most capitalists and industrialists adhered to the ideal of caveat emptor, a Latin phrase

meaning “Buyer beware.” • Customers who brought products were assumed to be accepting any risk associated with

the product when they purchased it. • Canned fruit was a new development in the latter part of the 19th century.

Without oversight and regulation, however, sometimes canned peaches, for example, were not heated to the correct temperature to kill off all of the microbes. As a result, contaminated cans of peaches were sold, giving some people botulism – an illness marked by weakness of the muscles and the inability to breathe. If the customer contracted botulism, they had no legal recourse because it was believed that they assumed the risk when they purchased the product.

• Another good example was the patent medicine business. Traveling salesmen would often sell patent medicines, or cure-alls, door to door, on street corners, and in other locations. These “medicines” claimed to cure every ailment – from arthritis to cancer. Like all other food products, no labeling was required. The two main ingredients in these patent medicines were alcohol and laudanum. Today, we call laudanum heroin. The combination of these two ingredients was highly addictive – but also unknown to the customer. Again, no legal recourse was possible because of caveat emptor.

• Employees who took jobs were assumed to accept the risks associated with a job when they took it.

• If a person took a job in a coal mine and a collapse happened in the tunnel, a business was not responsible to pay for sustained injuries, funeral expenses for death, or any type of family assistance. No legal recourse was available because the worker accepted the risk of the job with employment.

• During this time, the advent of corporations began the process of destroying competition by forcing smaller entities out of business and worked to eliminate competition to their benefit. As businesses grew, however, and competition waned, many Americans began to argue that these new practices were anti-American. Some in government agreed. In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

• Based on Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce as granted by the Constitution, this act made “every contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce” illegal.

• Although the intent was to protect competition and prevent monopolies, the law was very vague and difficult to enforce. Likewise, the Attorney General for the nation basically refused to aggressively pursue businesses. He did, however, decide to use the law against labor unions, arguing that their organization of workers violated the law and restrained trade. This act was not used to prosecute businesses until 11 years later. For the last decade of the nineteenth century, business continued as usual.

Organizing the Workers

• The growth of big business and the lack of government involvement in many ways contributed to the development of labor unions in the 19th century.

• The average employment experience for workers, outside of agriculture, in America included 10-12 hour days, working 6 days a week. Workers typically made $0.75 - $3 per day based on skill, but most jobs were unskilled jobs. Workers worked full time, but only for part of the year. The rest of the time, workers suffered as a result of reduced wages and cut hours. Businesses also tended to hire women and children when possible over men because of they could pay them lower wages.

• Safety standards did not exist. There was no expectation for companies to protect their workers from injury or to care for them or their families if they were injured or killed. Again, caveat emptor applied here as well. When you accepted the job, the expectation was that you personally accepted the responsibility.

• From 1880 – 1900, more than 35,000 Americans were killed on the job every year. That is an AVERAGE of 96 people per day.

• Between 1870 – 1910, there were more than 10,000 boiler explosions in the US, approximately 1 per day.

• Working on the railroad, 1 in 26 workers was injured every year. • Respiratory illnesses were common.

• If you worked in a coal mine, you might develop black lung from inhaling coal dust. • If you worked in an industrial bakery, you might develop white lung from inhaling flour. • If you worked in a textile factory, you might develop brown lunch from inhaling cotton

fibers and dirt. • It was not uncommon for industrial workers to be missing digits (fingers) and limbs or to suffer

incapacitating injuries. Abuse of workers was common. There was little sense of social responsibility among capitalists.

• Minority workers, particularly the Chinese in the West, were treated even worse. They were perceived as stealing jobs from American workers by undercutting wages, but also stood out because of their desire to maintain their culture.

• Because of their experiences, workers in all industries attempted to push for better conditions and better pay through strikes and organizations (labor unions).

Early Strikes and Protests • Great Railroad Strike (1877) • The Sandlot Incident

Knights of Labor • Terrence Powderly

Organizing the workers

• One of the earliest forms of trying to improve working conditions came in the form of strikes and protests. • A strike occurs when a group of workers organizes themselves and refuses to work in an effort to

force a business to pay higher wages or grant other concessions to the workers. • In 1877, the first nationwide strike took place. It was known as the Great Railroad Strike.

• This strike was a response to reduced hours and wages. Workers were told to accept a 10% wage cut because of economic troubles in the nation and reduced profit margins of the railroad owners.

• The strike began in West Virginia, but spread across the country. Pittsburgh got the worst of it, being forced to call in the National Guard and federal troops to stop looting and property destruction.

• When the strike spread to California, it had a particularly nasty impact and led to the Sandlot Incident.

• Railroad workers in San Francisco were frustrated by wages and held a protest meeting, but instead of turning on management, they turned on Chinese workers, claiming that they stole American jobs.

• Riots spread throughout San Francisco. Chinese laundries and businesses were attacked, looted, and destroyed. More than $100,000 in 1877 dollars of damage resulted. (That’s 2.1 million in 2016 dollars.)

• These riots led to the first calls for an end to Chinese immigration. Those sentiments grew over the next few years, ultimately coming to fruition with the Chinese Exclusion Act’s passage in 1882.

• In an effort to organize the workers and to utilize their collective power, the first establishment of unions also took place during this period. The first of these organizations was the Knights of Labor.

• Founded during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, this institution believed that labor was valuable and that workers deserved fair pay. Lead by Terence Powderly, this union was open to all wage earners, regardless of race or gender.

• The Knights of Labor advocated changes in order to benefit workers. Some of the changes they supported included:

• Collective bargaining – the negotiation of wages and benefits by an organized body of workers

• Equal pay for women • End to child and convict labor

• The argument here was that child and convict labor took jobs away from able- bodied men and women, paying a much lower rate.

• Public ownership of railroads • Government regulation of health and safety conditions in factories • Graduated income tax – a progressive tax where people are taxes by percentages based

on their income, with higher pay requiring higher taxes. • Interestingly, however, Terence Powderly did not advocate strikes. He believed them to be

unproductive in the end for both workers and businesses.

Radical Groups and Protest

• Radicals: • Anarchists • Socialists • Communists

• The Wobblies

• Haymarket Riot (1886) • Chicago • Decline of the Knights of

Labor

• Unions and the growing labor movement were not particularly popular with the middle class or the wealthy. They were not particularly interested in improving the lot of the common people, but they also had issue with the political side of it. Union supporters were usually considered radical.

• Some union supporters were also Anarchists. This meant that they believed that government was oppressive – was the real problem - and needed to be eliminated.

• Most Anarchists were also anti-violence, but some were not. • Other union supporters were Socialists. Socialists wanted to see government ownership of

industry and utilities that informed the public good. • Essentially, they were supportive of an expansion of government and direct

involvement in the economy – something that ran counter to the laissez-faire mentality of the age.

• Still others were Communists, followers and advocates of Karl Marx’s idea of a proletariat (working class) revolution which would seize control of the government and society, creating an egalitarian society with no private ownership and all resources shared among all members of society equally.

• Communists organized themselves into their own labor union – the International Workers of the World, more commonly known as the Wobblies.

• The Wobblies were headed by Big Bill Heywood, but never had a large following because of their radical views.

• These radical groups did nothing to endear themselves to the general public, but they grew increasingly popular as conditions deteriorated. Their visibility continued to grow as well, and was highlighted in 1886 with the Haymarket Riot.

• On May 1, 1886, thousands of workers across the country in Detroit, New York City, Milwaukee, and

Chicago launched a strike in support of an eight-hour workday. In Chicago, an estimated 40,000 people officially went on strike, with perhaps twice that number protesting in the streets. One of the local union leaders, Albert Parsons, led a march of protesters and strikers down Michigan Avenue. The strike day ended peacefully, but set the stage for further protest.

• Two days later, on May 3rd, strikers met by the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. Workers had been locked out of the factory for almost three months, and were demanding an 8 hour work day.

• The McCormick ownership decided to utilize scabs, or strikebreakers, in order to undercut the strikes and allow production to continue. Clashes between the strikers and the scabs broke out were, and the police arrived. They fired into the crowd, and, 2 strikers were killed.

• Angered by this incident, local labor and anarchist leaders, including August Spies and Albert Parsons, printed and distributed fliers which called working men to push for justice for those who had been killed. It also called for a rally – a peaceful protest - at the Haymarket Square the following day, May 4th. The rally, however, turned into more than a peaceful protest.

• On May 4, 1886, at 7:30pm, the rally began in Haymarket Square. August Spies and Albert Parsons arrived at 8:15pm and 8:30pm respectively. Parsons spoke to the gathered crown about 9pm, while Samuel Fielden spoke about 10pm. At 10:20pm, the Chicago police demanded an end to the rally as Fielden left the stage, but as it was already over. As he stepped down, a homemade pipe bomb was thrown into the ranks of police in the Square, fatally injuring several police officers. Police responded by opening fire into the crowd, killing several police and protesters. Parsons fled the square and boarded a train for Illinois and then Wisconsin. He later returned to Chicago in an effort to clear his name.

• The following day (May 5), 10 individuals associated with the labor movement were arrested, including August Spies and Lucy Parsons (Albert Parsons’ wife). None of those who were arrested were actually in attendance at the rally. They were all immigrants who called for more rights. The mayor of Chicago made all public gatherings illegal as well.

• Over the next two weeks, the city of Chicago attempted to deal with the crisis, suspending gatherings of more than three people, publishing stories which painted immigrants, laborers, and political radicals as subhuman and animalistic. A Grand Jury was also called to consider indictments against those arrested.

• June 5, 1886 saw the return of the Grand Jury with indictments against eight men and the conclusion that the pipebomb incident was the results of a widespread and subversive conspiracy to undermine the United States, capitalism, and democracy by anarchists.

• The trial began little more than a month later in July 1886. Arguments were heard and evidence presented for a little over a month, but no direct evidence linking the men to the crime was presented. All evidence presented was circumstantial at best, peppered by hearsay. It was clear that the men had nothing to do with the bombing, but were instead “undesirable” immigrants. On August 20, 1886, the jury returned a verdict of guilty for all 8 men. 7 were sentenced to death, and 1 was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. In spite of court appeals to the state and federal supreme courts as well as petitions for clemency and new trials, the first four convicts were executed by the state of Illinois. Another of the convicts was killed by a bomb in his cell, but the remaining were later pardoned by the governor of Illinois, citing issues in the trial and evidence presented.

• The Haymarket Riot and its results led to the decline of the Knights of Labor. Though they were not directly involved in the incident, they were the organizing union for the McCormick plant – where everything started. As a result the Knights of Labor declined quickly, all but dead by 1893.

Expanding unionization

• The American Federation of Labor • Samuel Gompers

• Homestead Steel Strike (1892)

• Pullman Strike (1894)

• As the Knights of Labor declined, it was replaced by another union – the American Federation of Labor, or A.F. of L.

• The A.F. of L., however was very different. They represented only skilled workers. They did not allow women, African-Americans, or new immigrants into their ranks.

• The group was led by Samuel Gompers, president for nearly 40 years. • The focus of the organization was originally higher wages and a shorter work day, but

they avoided political affiliation because of its divisiveness and recognizing the impact it had on the Knights of Labor. Gompers also supported the idea of collective bargaining, using the power of numbers to encourage changes within business. Safety of workers and their working conditions were also key concerns, but the A.F. of L. focused on addressing them on a need by need basis rather than on wholescale change.

• By 1900, the A.F. of L. had more than 1.5 million members and was the most powerful labor union in the nation.

• In the 19th century, strikes were the most common form of worker protest and efforts to improve working conditions. Though there were many, two strikes captured the attention of the nation in the 1890s – the Homestead Strike and the Pullman Strike.

• In 1892, the Homestead Strike began in Homestead, Pennsylvania when Carnegie Steel refused to negotiate with union workers over wage cuts and collective bargaining failed to establish an agreement.

• Andrew Carnegie, publicly supportive of unions, left his business partner, Henry Clay Frick, in charge of dealing with the strike while he traveled to Europe.

• Frick chose to end all negotiations, built a fence around the factory, and hired

Pinkertons (private security firm) to protect the factory. He also hired scabs to help break the strike.

• After a week of confrontation, the strike broke out in violence. Only July 6, a 14 hour battle between the union strikers and Pinkertons occurred. 7 strikers and 3 Pinkertons were killed, but the Pinkertons surrendered to the strikers.

• Unwilling to allow this and because of concern from local law enforcement, the governor of Pennsylvania sent in the state militia to restore order. 4,000 soldiers surrounded the factory and displaced all of the strikers. The factory resumed production under the protection of these soldiers. The strike collapsed when the national A.F. of L. refused to support the strike, and there were no changes for workers.

• In 1894, the Pullman Strike began. • The Pullman Company made rail cars – most specifically sleeping cars for long journeys.

They also, however, had a long list of requirements for their employees. • Employees were required to lived in Pullman Town, just south of Chicago.

Pullman Town was a company-owned town that was well constructed. It had running water and electricity, but it was also entirely owned by the company.

• The company owned the houses, the store, the library, and everything else as well which meant that residents had no options for what to buy or where to buy it, and their wages were simply going back into the pockets of the company.

• Workers hated being controlled by the company, but things came to a boiling point starting in 1893.

• In 1893, a widespread depression hit the United States. The Pullman Company responded to the depression, as did many companies, by laying off workers and cutting wages. However, they did not cut prices in the town at the same time.

• The local union, the American Railway Union, was led by a socialist named Eugene Debs. • He urged members of the union to avoid violence, and to use negotiation in

order to have their grievances addressed. • His calls went unheeded.

• In May 1894, a strike of Pullman workers began. It shut down railroads in 27 states for more than two months. The problem with this, however, was that the Pullman Company had a federal contract for the delivery of mail. When the railroads stopped, so did mail service.

• President Cleveland sent federal troops in to break the strike. As the leader, Eugene Debs was arrested, tried, and convicted of interfering with the mail – a federal crime.

• The strike folded shortly after, again with little change for the workers.

• In spite of these ultimate failures, workers and unions continued to work for protections, improvements in safety and working conditions, and fair pay. It was not until the 20th century that they were successful, but these groups and their efforts set the stage for change.

Results?

• Broadening involvement • Politics was a way to make change

• Some successes • Expanded worker rights • 8 hour day • Expression of worker’s will and frustration

So did all of this work? It depends on who you ask. Some laborers saw potential not just in more strikes and boycotts, but in politics. During the Gilded Age over 189 cities held elections in which those of the working class ran for office. For labor leaders, it did increase some workers rights. Over time the 8 hour day became more common. Standard practices of a five day work week also increased over time. On the other hand, employers hated the increased activism. They felt that the workers were ungrateful for their employment. They also felt that the workers needed them. While this was true, it also reveals the distrust between both sides of the labor discussion. Indirectly, it may have been the most influential action that workers could have taken – not just for themselves, but for future labor leaders.