AP U.S. History Working People and the Labor Movement in the Gilded Age

Welcome back to www.educator.com.0000

This lesson is on working people and the labor movement in the Gilded Age.0002

In this lesson, we are going to focus on the world of work during the process of industrialization, urbanization,0008

how the working class, the middle class and the upper class are going to fit into this new industrialized society.0017

And also, talk about the effects of corporations upon people's daily lives and on their work life.0026

We will also talk about worker discontentment, as well as some of the positive aspects of having income,0034

and that will also lead to consumer culture.0043

But we are going to focus more in this lesson on the labor movement, special focus on the Knights of Labor,0047

the American Federation of labor, the IWW known as the Wobblies.0053

We will talk about the various tactics that Unions will use through the later 19th century.0059

We will see some of these will also carry into the 20th century, strikes, collective bargaining, as well as closed shops.0066

And then, we will talk about some of the major incidents where violence broke out.0074

We will also see a backlash against Union activity as a result.0079

Some of the more famous incidents, the Haymarket incident, as well as the Homestead strike, the American Railway strike,0084

will cause government to crackdown on Unions and take a very anti-union stance.0092

We are going to see that is going to have a long-term impact in U.S. history.0103

We will still see people will rise up and try to question the unfair capitalist system,0109

as well as the unfair relationship between laborer and their employers.0115

We will talk about the influence of socialism, and Deb’s who is probably one of the most famous socialist activist in this age.0124

First, let us talk about the world of work and the different jobs that people had in industrial Gilded Age.0137

We will see that industrialization will set people into motion, from all classes of society.0147

This is going to affect demographics in a major way.0154

As farm folk will migrate to cities and artisans will enter into factories.0158

The type of work that people are going to engage in is going to change,0165

as people who used to have skills are increasingly going to be deskilled and do the same specialized task in a factory system.0169

Real Americans were hired for white collar jobs.0183

Just so you know what we are talking about there, we will see that companies needed managers, they needed salespeople,0187

other types of white collar jobs that typically tended to be more of a middle class level job.0194

This is going to lead to urbanization more and more, and then suburbanization.0203

Where suburbs will, again, we see the early version of sprawl, urban sprawl, suburban sprawl.0209

There are certainly many benefits of urban life that we are going to highlight in this lesson as well.0218

Culturally, we are going to see a lot of public galleries are going to open up.0224

There will be opportunities for entertainment and so forth.0231

This is going to allow people access to theaters, sporting events, clubs, coffee houses, shopping, dance halls.0236

People also want to hear music outside.0245

And even middle class people could hear Sousa bands for instance.0249

This became very popular.0256

There are negative aspects of urban life.0260

It could be very expensive, it was overcrowded, crime, and of course the infrastructure in the early cities0263

were not as advanced as we have today, there certainly were challenges regarding garbage collection,0274

they really did not have an organized system in place yet.0282

That is going also lead to lack of services.0286

And therefore, the political machine is going to become increasingly important to address those issues.0289

There is no organized fire department, for instance.0297

All the things that we take for granted today, that we expect as the norm, were not there and were not available in the early cities.0301

Except in the south, we will see that the United States relied on outside labor for industries.0313

We will see immigrants coming into the United States, and especially the poor immigrants0319

who were willing to work for lower wages, are willing to put up with poor conditions and low wages,0324

which will also infuriate, in many ways, the unionists.0332

That is going to cause some problems.0338

In the south, wages were lower and a family system started to develop,0341

where entire families would actually be hired to work in primarily mills, like a textile mill, for instance.0346

As we are going to see the new south being developed in the post Reconstruction era.0353

There is a huge effort to industrialize the south and diversify the economy, which we will be getting into a little bit later as well.0361

We know that we still see the legacy of racism and the effects of Jim Crow laws.0372

We will see that the opportunities for blacks and whites in the south, and even in the north but more or so in the south,0381

there were huge discrepancies and certainly a lot of segregation discrimination that was in place.0390

Blacks work sometimes as day laborers, as janitors, but seldom got jobs as operatives in cotton mills.0396

We will see that race mattered a lot in the world of work during this time, as well as gender, they are going to be major factors.0404

The types of jobs that we could see throughout the later 19th century and into the early 20th century,0415

you could see there is a major shift here.0422

Agriculture, in particular, declines over time.0424

Even if you were to pull up, look on a Google map for instance, you could actually see that our agricultural sector is very small.0429

We have improved to a certain extent, that is debatable depending on your perspective.0439

We become more efficient, one could say, regarding our agricultural practices.0448

There is a downside to that as well, of course, and many people are kind of going back to traditional methods of farming0453

and looking to grow their own food, and so forth.0461

But that is a very rich topic that we could spend a lot of time on.0464

But again, we will see this trend continuing throughout U.S. history, the agricultural sector declining.0469

We do see an increase primarily in manufacturing.0477

You can also see trade is increasing and other jobs as well.0481

Going back to working trends, gender and race definitely are at play,0492

as we will see these are limiting factors in the working world in the United States during the Gilded Age.0498

U.S. women were increasingly working more for wages.0505

We do see that there is a slight improvement but there are still huge limits.0508

Still under 5% by 1960, although 30% of African-American women work for wages.0513

Here you can see race and being a woman is going to, this a double whammy for African-American women working much more,0521

which shows that it was necessary for both men and women to work in many poor African-American families,0533

because the wages were so low.0541

This is where I was getting at, race, ethnicity, and gender became defining features of the U.S. working class.0545

The term minority group, for instance, that is perhaps dying out this day and age.0554

Many minority groups, the ones who are part of the working class, and oftentimes being exploited and working for the lowest wages,0559

and having to deal with the most difficult working conditions.0570

We do see as industrial capitalism continues to expand, that productivity does increase but workers become less skilled.0578

Jobs become more mechanized due to the increase in mechanization, there is more specialization.0588

This is important.0597

The labor movement will also grow tremendously during this period, but the emphasis will be on collective bargaining, instead of socialism.0600

We will see a socialist movement also having its place in this part of history, but it is not the norm or it was not as popular, I would say.0611

As the general idea that people accept a capitalist system,0623

yet they want to use this tactic of collective bargaining, of negotiating between employers and employees,0630

to try to improve wages conditions, hours, etc.0640

Working within the system, instead of eradicating the system and overthrowing the system.0647

Something to keep in mind.0654

Some maps here, comparative map here focusing on immigrant groups.0657

We will see huge migration from the old world that started in the 1840’s.0664

The Irish came to the United States in huge numbers, after the terrible potato blight that led to a famine.0669

Germans and Swedes, and then later Austrians, Hungarians, and other Slavic peoples in the 1890’s and into the 20th century.0680

Two huge waves that came into the United States.0689

Just to point out that by the late, we will see 1871 to 1880, we can see the major hubs where immigrants came from.0694

We still see some of the same groups coming over to the United States in the early 1900’s,0706

but increasingly more eastern Europeans and from southeastern Europe as well.0712

In Italy, you can see there is a huge increase as well.0719

Eastern European, Jewish peoples, and Slavic peoples came with that new immigrant group.0723

The labor movement is going to start to takeoff.0736

The first major labor movement that I would like to talk, or the union I like to focus on, called the Knights of Labor.0742

It was founded in 1869 by Uriah Stevens, who is a Philadelphia tailor.0751

It started as a secret society of garment workers in Philadelphia.0756

By 1878, it had emerged as a national movement.0760

Their goals, to have an 8 hour workday, equal pay for equal work.0767

By the way, we are still fighting for this today, child labor laws, safety and sanitary codes, and a Federal income tax,0777

as well as government ownership of railroad and telegraph lines.0788

You can certainly argue that this is a bit of a socialist style of approach0793

to nationalizing the communications and transportation system here.0801

But otherwise, these are clear goals that they had set.0806

They set up a cooperative commonwealth of factories that were owned and run by the employees.0810

They also emphasized industrial rather than trade unionism, that is an important point.0816

They did grow tremendously, the peak membership was about 700,000 people in 1885.0825

On top of these major goals, they saw other reforms such as better wages and partial ownership by workers,0833

and the eliminating child laborers.0840

Unions address everyday needs and engaged in collective bargaining.0847

This is negotiating with the employers for better conditions, to reach some of those goals that I talked about.0851

Under the leadership of Terrence Powderly, they focused on education.0857

He is another key leader in the Knights.0862

Here you could see a typical poster that is trying to advocate for the pro unionist policies,0867

discriminate against inferior unclean sweat shop clothing, and seize upon this label.0878

It says, United Garment Workers of America.0886

You can see here, endorsed by all trade, trade unions, and leading reform societies.0890

Just to give you an example of how they were able to get the word out and advertise,0896

tried to influence people to look for a particular label that show the company is employee friendly, is worker friendly.0902

Closed shops are going to be very important.0915

These were reserved for union members.0918

This is a type of business that only hires union members.0920

This kept out lower wage and incompetent workers.0924

This raised the standard for workers.0928

This is going to be a challenge, as more and more, especially poor immigrants coming in to the United States are looking for jobs0933

and they are willing to work for lower wages.0940

That is going to be a challenge to the union movement.0944

But membership to the Knights was open to all who toiled, all workers, and most business and professional people.0948

They also included women, very inclusive.0954

There was also a women's bureau of the Knights that had listed about 50,000 women members, and also black and white.0960

That was also another inclusive, you could say very progressive policy specially during this time period,0968

in comparison to other groups that we will talk about.0976

The Knights boycotted and organized against Jay Gould.0982

You may remember him as one of the major robber barons, the railroad tycoons.0987

They effectively use boycotts against unfair employers, like Jay Gould.0995

They began to win strikes against him in the Southwestern Railway System in 1885.1001

A year later, a strike against the Texas and Pacific railway was crushed.1010

This is going to be an ongoing battle between unionists and we will see the government that will step in,1015

and say that the unionists are restraining trade, so they will crackdown.1023

This is the government, will side on behalf of the employers, time and time again, for many years.1031

Some problems that the Knights did encounter.1041

They were disorganized and the violence that sometimes erupted smeared their reputation,1044

and sometimes caused them to have huge problems, and eventually lead to their decline.1052

As people became more and more disillusioned with the whole movement.1059

There is another incident, the Haymarket Square incident, on May 4, 1886 in Chicago,1065

there was one of the most famous demonstrations.1072

The Knights were very successful overall with grassroots spontaneous strikes, but the 1886 protest,1081

the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago eventually led to violence.1089

This is going to be a huge problem, as anarchists are going to get involved.1095

The idea here again, with anarchist who are looking to eradicate the government and they are viewed as very radical and dangerous,1101

their revolutionary advocacy of having a stateless society, ends up getting tied into this movement, and causing huge problems for the strikers.1113

These ends up becoming a mess.1130

The anarchists were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.1132

Anti-union hysteria broke out, and set off, as a result, this whole frenzy that led to blacklists,1137

where unionist were put on these blacklists and this was shared with other businesses,1149

that work together and would keep these troublemakers out.1156

They would not hire them.1162

It was very risky to get involved in these strikes in union activities.1165

Yellow-Dog contracts were also established, that renounced union membership.1172

This is the huge backlash against unions that we are seeing.1177

In addition, propaganda has claimed that unions were subversive forces, that they are dangerous,1181

that they are an enemy, and they are looking to make things unstable,1188

and wreak havoc upon the whole capitalist system in the economy and civil society.1196

This is going to be an ongoing battle for the unionist movement.1205

These two incidents, the Haymarket Square incident, as well as what happened with Jay Gould,1212

are going to tarnish the Knights of Labor, who will never recover after Haymarket.1221

This is going to lead us to a new union emerging eventually called the AFL, which stands for the American Federation of Labor.1230

It was created in 1886, and their underlying principle was that workers had to accept the working world as it was.1239

This may sound a bit vague.1248

What we are going to start to see is that to a certain extent, they are going to perhaps tone down some of their goals.1250

What Gompers will actually say, focus on bread and butter issues, will try to simplify what they are looking for,1264

and try to build bridges, I would say, with their employers.1272

Their underlying principle that they have to accept the working world as it is.1280

As the Knights grew, before they declined, national trade unions felt threatened and different labor philosophies emerged.1284

That is going to lead to their decline.1292

The AFL that was formed is a confederation of different trade unions, focused on specific workers bread and butter issues,1294

wages hours, and working conditions, three simple things.1303

They were not as inclusive as the Knights.1308

You can say quite discriminatory, they excluded immigrants, they excluded blacks, and they excluded women.1312

You might say these are the people who are willing to work for lower wages,1319

but obviously you could see a discriminatory aspect to this as well.1322

They believed that they needed to be more powerful.1326

They had to take all these different factors into consideration.1330

Samuel Gompers was the major leader of the AFL and he helped organize skilled workers.1336

This is another key factor to point out, they excluded unskilled workers.1342

And again, he advocates for pure and simple unionism, and focusing on bread and butter issues,1347

and that the unions be organized by craft and occupation.1355

That is also a different approach than the Knights of Labor.1361

Membership will grow to more than two million by 1904.1368

Here we see a picture of Samuel Gompers.1374

Gompers, I have a picture here of union made cigars because he actually was a Dutch Jewish cigar maker.1383

He will lead the AFL until 1924 and he will be very influential in helping workers to demand for a greater share of corporate profit.1392

But I would say he, to a certain extent, moved some of the goals from like the Knights to a much more centrist,1404

I do not want to overstate it, but really trying to simplify the goals in order to be successful.1415

I also included a modern, more contemporary version of, this is the UFCW, just to show you that there are still unionists,1422

there are still people who used to strike in recent times.1432

This happened a few years ago here in Los Angeles, when there was a huge widespread strike1437

against the corporations that own the major grocery stores.1445

This was something that affected people's everyday lives, just to point that out that unions are still around today and important.1453

Another strike that had huge influence was the Homestead strike.1464

This involved steelworkers who were feeling that they were being exploited and being taken advantage of.1471

Andrew Carnegie's business partner Henry Frick.1478

Basically, Carnegie made Frick do his dirty work, in order to save money for the company.1483

Frick cut wages by nearly 20% and that is a huge percentage, specially, when people get used to a certain lifestyle and wage.1491

He used a lockout so they were outraged by this.1501

They used a lockout, private guards, and strikebreakers to defeat the steelworker’s walkout.1505

Because they walked out, like they are not going to put out with this, to put pressure on the employers to reverse this policy,1511

but he fought back and he was ruthless about it.1521

This is going to lead to huge strike but it ends up getting crushed by the National Guard.1526

We are seeing that the government is intervening.1532

We are seeing that there is a tendency to support employers and not workers and strikers.1538

This is going to be very significant, will end up being crushed and this will put an end to trade unions in the steel industry,1546

until the New Deal in the 1930’s, when we are going to see a much different approach to unions, overall,1554

and especially the relationship between government and workers.1562

That will change in the future.1568

But for now, we are seeing generally a very anti-union approach by the government.1569

Another strike, the Pullman strike.1577

The Pullman company, or I should say that was part of the American Railway Union.1579

There were two companies, just so I’m clear do about this, I just have to read through this.1587

The Pullman strike broke out in 1894 and involved railroads, and there are two companies involved,1593

the Pullman company and the American Railway Union or American Railway, I should say.1600

Pullman cut wages but not housing rent, and he fired the leaders of the workers delegation that came to bargain with him.1606

The railroads appealed to President Cleveland to protect U.S. Mail.1618

Mail is one of the services that the United States government is in charge of.1622

This was the excuse to get him to use his authority to call in the troops.1631

Debs who is the head of the American Railway Union, he helped to lead a secondary labor boycott.1638

Force, in this type of boycott, was applied on the second party, the railroads to bring pressure on the primary target who was Pullman.1647

There are the railroad companies, the railroad who are charging these crazy rates, as well as Pullman,1657

who built these cars, these Pullman cars.1664

What ends up happening is that the union boycotts and they tied up rail transportation across the country.1669

Basically, these came to a halt, a stop.1675

The Federal troops were called in but they failed to get the railroads moving.1679

Debs, we will see, and his associates, will continue to stand up to the government, as well as to these companies.1684

A Federal Court issued an injunction forbidding interference with the operation of the mail.1695

Something that is mandated by the Federal government.1701

They ordered railroad workers to abandon the boycott and the strike.1706

Again, cracking down on union activity.1712

Debs was eventually jailed for his organizing efforts.1714

The justification they used was that he was in contempt of court.1719

This is also going to leave a huge stain, I would say, on the union movement.1724

The court case that involved Debs, we will see that the Supreme Court approved the use of injunctions against strikes,1732

which gave employers a very powerful tool to break unions.1741

And an injunction is a judicial order, and again, we are seeing the courts that are against unions, to break up these unions.1745

As a result, Debs concluded that more radical solutions were needed to cure laborers problems.1757

In another words, we cannot use our striking ability, we cannot boycott.1765

That the whole system is corrupt because government is working hand in hand with corporations,1771

with big business, that this is very corrupt and unfair and unjust.1778

This is going to motivate him to join and found the American Socialist Party, which will eventually be established by 1900.1785

This court case is pretty significant, in re Debs, 1895.1797

Because we are seeing not only the President getting involved, but the courts cracking down on labor unions.1802

Speaking of kind of radical approaches, the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World also known as the Wobblies.1812

They fervently supported a Marxist class struggle at the workplace but not in politics.1819

They used the general strike as their means to an end.1828

They advocated for a new society based on syndicalism which was a revolutionary movement that like socialism,1834

believe in Marx's principles of class struggle and advocated for the organization of society1842

on the basis of industrial unionism in society, run directly by the workers.1847

Their goal was to be very empowering and that they would achieve their goals in this way.1855

We will see that they will not have a very long lasting effect.1863

But part of the story of one of many unions that will put pressure on big business to change their unfair policies.1867

Here we have Debs and Ben Hanford, many viewed, like a lot of the socialist, progressive minded people, I would say,1880

viewed Social Darwinist as cutthroat and unfair and undemocratic.1894

Remember, Social Darwinism, this idea that survival of the fittest that worked very well with the capitalist system,1898

was a natural, normal and part of evolution.1907

A lot of people said no, this is garbage, and that we need to have a fair system that everyone can benefit,1911

everyone can live a decent life.1919

He is going to advocate for socialist ideas.1923

And eventually runs for President on the Socialist Party five times.1927

Now of course, he does not end up getting a huge following, and was never elected into office.1933

But he is putting the message out there and continues to speak on behalf of workers,1939

demanding for government ownership of railroads, and encouraging laborers to organize.1945

You can say, in the long term, his ideas will eventually be heard,1950

and perhaps we will not see complete nationalization of these businesses but we will eventually see,1955

once we get to the progressive period.1965

We will see a few laws being put into place, that I will talk about soon, in the next few lessons.1967

We will see regulations and laws being put into place that will oversee a lot of these businesses.1974

Something to keep in mind.1982

We are at the point in the lesson where we can do some practice questions.1984

This first one is from Samuel Gompers.1989

You evidently had observed the growth of corporate wealth and influence.1993

You recognized that wealth, in order to become more highly productive is concentrated into fewer hands2001

and controlled by representatives and directors.2008

And yet, you sing the old siren song that the working man should depend entirely upon his own individual effort.2011

The school of laissez-faire of which you seemed to be a preannounced advocate,2019

has produced great men in advocating the theory of each for himself and his satanic majesty taking the hindermost.2024

But the most pronounced advocates of your school of thought in economics have,2033

when practically put the test then compelled to admit that the combination organizations of the toiling masses2037

are essential both to prevent the deterioration and to secure an improvement in the conditions of the wage earners.2044

Gompers, a letter to Judge Peter Grosscup who was a laborer, this was from Labor and Industrial Society, 1894.2055

Let us see the questions.2066

This excerpt was written to most directly support which of the following?2068

The formation of trust, collective bargaining, the antitrust movement, or employee ownership of business.2073

The answer is collective bargaining.2085

According to the author, what has most contributed to the need for wage earners to organize?2089

A school of laissez-faire, The rise of the captains of industry, The concentration of corporate wealth and power,2095

The belief in individualism and self reliance.2101

The answer is C.2107

Moving on, which of the following was most closely allied to the sentiments in this excerpt?2113

The economic theory of wages by David Ricardo, The practice of horizontal integration,2119

Pullman's company town for workers, American Federation of Labor.2125

The answer is the AFL, which makes sense because that was his union.2132

Short answer, briefly explain the impact of industrialization and the growth of corporations in three of the following,2142

Middle class, Working class, Working women, and Consumers.2149

I'm going to use the first three.2157

Here it goes, the middle class increased as industries and companies needed managers, salespeople, and other white collar type of jobs.2161

The middle class also who participated as secretaries and teachers, and in other sales position, I guess you could say.2172

Let us move on to the working class.2185

Industrialization relied on the labor of many working class factory workers, who performed manual labor for low wages.2187

Many of the working class workers were immigrants who are desperate for jobs,2196

so they were willing to work for low wages and put up with poor working conditions.2200

This one is going to bring me in the new working women, next one.2208

Because the wages were so low and oftentimes not enough to survive off of,2211

women and children also participated in the workforce such as in textile mills.2215

Middle class women also became secretaries in many companies.2221

The world of work.2228

Last one, on unions, briefly explain the goals and methods of three of these labor movements listed below.2231

National Labor Union, Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor, the American Railway Union.2240

These are the three that we focused on, so that is what I'm going to do.2248

The Knights of Labor attempted to include all workers regardless of race,2257

and they advocated for the abolition of child labor and the end of monopolies and trust.2261

The AFL focused on bread and butter issues and used collective bargaining to negotiate contracts for skilled workers.2272

The American Railway Union used the secondary boycott to put pressure on the Pullman company, and as a result,2291

they tied up rail transportation across the country so that that would change the behavior of the Pullman company.2301

There we go, three examples of short answers in this last example.2311

With that, thank you for watching www.educator.com.2319