ap/ib american history mr. blackmon the gilded age: labor...

AP/IB American History Mr. Blackmon

The Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration, Urbanization

I. Problems of the American WorkerA. Number of industrial workers increased dramaticallyB. Living standards

1. Increase output improved the standard of living2. Unskilled workers however still cannot support a family on a single income.

It was imperative for wives and children to work in order to support thefamily.

3. Industrial workers did not share equally in growth.C. Problems

1. Mechanization undercuts pride of artisans and skilled workers and diminishthe dignity of labor

2. Mechanization decreased the bargaining power of a workers with hisemployer.

3. Mechanization made jobs more monotonous and repetitious, with the speedat which men must work now becoming the speed of machines.

4. Relations between employer and employee became impersonal and thereforemore ruthless.

5. Work places were often unhealthy and unsafe. The US led the world inindustrial accidents.

6. Workers were very susceptible to the boom-and-bust cycle. During thedepressions, men would be laid off (in an era before unemployment insuranceor welfare) or wages cut sharply. At the same time, management saw noproblem with continuing to pay the same large dividends. Such practicescaused intense bitterness.

D. Women and Children1. A significant proportion of the work force were women and children.

a. Women were working outside the homeb. An overwhelming majority of salespersons, cashiers, and office

workers were women (which hasn't changed)c. 20% of American women worked in industryd. By 1900, 1,700,000 children were working in industry.

2. Wages and Hoursa. For us, living in an era of the legally mandated 40 hour week and the

8 hour day, the hours and wages are almost beyond comprehension.b. In 1860, an 11 hour industrial workday was standard.c. In 1880, this had declined to a mere 10 hour day, 6 days / week.d. Some examples from the lives of professional baseball players:

(1) Al Bridwell was 13 when he worked 10 hours / day for 6 days/ week for $1.25 / week. By the time he was 18 and signed apro contract, he was making all of $3.00 / week, or an annualsalary of $300.00.

AP/IB American History Mr. BlackmonGilded Age: Labor, Immigration

(2) Stanley Coveleski, a Hall of Fame spitballer, went to work inthe coal mines of Pennsylvania at 12. He worked from 7:00am to 7:00 pm, 6 days a week, 72 hours / week, for $3.75 perweek.

3. Causes of Discontent as if one has to think about it much)a. Povertyb. Rising aspirationsc. Increasing gap between the rich and the poord. Separation of people into classes in a society that had never been

particularly class conscious in comparison with Europe.4. Mobility

a. Transiency of the American way of life.b. Urban mobility retarded growth of community spirit and a sense of

belonging.c. Rags-to-riches stories, as expressed in the Horatio Alger stories, were

statistically quite rare. Carnegie is atypical.d. Most industrial workers subscribed to middle-class values: hard work

and thrift.II. The New Immigration

A. Industrial expansion demanded labor to work the factories. US economic expansioncould not have occurred without the huge influx of foreign workers.1. The collapse of peasant economies in Central Europe hastened this process.

That collapse is partly due to the enormous efficiency of the Americanfarmer, whose wheat could undersell local peasants.

2. European peasants did not come to the United States exclusively. Theymigrated to other European cities: London, Vienna, Naples, Warsaw, Berlin;and other nations: Argentina and Brazil. (Dinnerstein and Reimers 43)

3. Europeans had a vision of America as a land of opportunity and freedom, andthat drew them like a magnet.

B. Sources and Statistics

Region of Origin 1871-1890 1891-1910 Total From Region

Scandinavia 900,000 877,000 1,700,000

North West Europe 2,778,000 1,830,000 4,608,000

Eastern Europe 261,000 2,291,000 2,552,000

Central Europe 2,663,000 3,681,000 6,344,000

Southeastern Europe 408,000 3,015,000 3,423,000

Totals 7,010,000 11,694,000 18,704,000


Source, Blum 478

C. The table above demonstrates that the source of the New Immigration shifted fromearlier immigration. These immigrants were mostly peasants: poor, uneducated,clannish, and non-Protestant (Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish)1. They included Italians (SE Europe) Greeks (SE Europe) Russians (esp.

Russian Jews) (Eastern Europe), Serbs, Poles, Hungarians (Central Europe)2. The table above understates the magnitude of the migration since it ends at

1910. The migration continued until the 1920s, although curtailed afterWorld War I broke out. Nevertheless, 5,000,000 Italians traveled to the USfrom 1876-1930.(Dinnerstein and Reimers 44) Between 1880 and 1920, onethird of the Jews of Eastern Europe came to the US. (Sowell 69)

3. 80% of the New Immigrants settled in the Northeastern United States,between Washington DC, St. Louis, the Mississippi, the Canadian border,and the Atlantic Ocean. This population was overwhelmingly urban.(Dinnerstein and Reimers 47)

D. Opposition to the New Immigration (this merely hints at the problem; I will developthe problem of Nativism and xenophobia through the next several units)1. Fear that they would not be good citizens, that they did not share traditional

US values, especially for democracy and capitalisma. In particular, conservatives blame immigrants for "un-American"

ideas such as socialism, anarchism, or communism. In this manner,they sought to invalidate these ideas by associating them withforeigners.

b. A cultural clash compounded the problems of explosive urban growth2. Worry over the social problems which such heavy numbers might cause

a. povertyb. crimec. over-crowdingd. job competitione. (gee, does this sound familiar to those of us living in Miami? Every

wave of immigration has evoked the same set of fears as we haveseen in Miami. The ethnicity of the group which evokes the fears,seen from this historical perspective, is an accident. What matters isthat they are "different" and in large numbers.)

3. This influx causes a racial reaction. This time period saw the formulation ofwhat George Mosse defines as modern European racialism. The UnitedStates, as an essentially European culture, shared the growth of this brand ofracism. The form developed here was Anglo-Saxon racialism. I will discussthis at greater length in my Progressivism handout, and in the context ofImperialism (unless I change my mind and insert it here). The subject popsup repeatedly, particularly in the 1890s and 1920s in the United States, and


the 1880s to 1940s in Europe.a. To be brief, Anglo-Saxon racialism can be seen at least as early as

Manifest Destiny, where much of the justification lay with the ideathat the Anglo-Saxons were superior to Mexicans or Indians.Historically, Anglo-Saxan racialism had always been directed againstIndians and Africans. Now, with the New Immigration, it is directedagainst other, nevertheless inferior, Europeans. Modern Europeanracialism is not really the same thing as color prejudice. Anglo-Saxon (or Teutonic) racialists could see Slavic or Mediterraneanpeoples as belonging to a different "race" (as opposed to nationalityor ethnicity)(I can cite Jefferson in a letter talking of the French as adifferent race from the British), both of whom are "white." And ofcourse, these racialists could certainly think of Jews as a distinct race.. . . This type of thinking places one firmly on the path that ledultimately to the gas chambers and ovens of Auschwitz and theobscenity of the Holocaust.

4. The racialists wished to keep out inferior races. They extend their racism toinclude other groups besides Indians and African-Americans.

5. Organized Labor was often hostile to the New Immigrants for very practicalreasons: the immigrants competed for jobs, drove wages down, and suppliedstrike breakers.

6. Employers professed alarm at the radicalization of the workers (ie. influenceof European ideas such as anarchism and socialism)

7. There is a distinct strain of nativism and xenophobia among the Populists(who were overwhelmingly old-stock Protestant as well as rural, whereas theNew Immigrants are urban as well as Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish). Thereis more than a trace of hysteria in their anti-Semitism for instance. HenryFord continues that streak.

8. There is a resurgence of Nativism and Xenophobiaa. The American Protective Association, a fiercely anti-Catholic (a

traditional American prejudice) was formed in 1887.b. Josiah Strong, who I discuss in terms of Imperialism, ties his

nativism in with anti-Catholicism. His Our Country: Its PossibleFuture and Its Present Crisis (1885) is an important spokesman.

c. Prejudice toward New Immigrants functioned socially rather thanlegally (as in the case of African-Americans)(1) Please correlate the time period during which the South in

particular (but not exclusively) imposes Jim Crow laws uponAfrican Americans with the New Immigration. They match.The racist arguments of the white Southerners found a morereceptive ear among white Northerners fearful of what theyregarded as other inferior races. Racism is not a Southernproblem, it is an American problem.


d. A literacy test law was in 1896 passed as a requirement forimmigrants to enter the country. President Grover Cleveland vetoedit. The bill was passed again in 1913, when William Howard Taftvetoed it. World War I brought irresistible pressure to bear: the billwas passed over President Woodrow Wilson second veto in 1917.(Dinnerstein and Reimers 67-73)

E. The Italians1. With sincere apologies to everyone else, I am singling out the two largest

single groups for particular attention. They are the likeliest to be singled outon an essay.

2. Economic conditions in Italy were terrible. In Sicily, an agricultural laborercould expect to earn 8-32¢ a day, but not to work all year. Between 1871 and1905, the Italian population increased by 25% but the economy, especially therural economy weakened.

3. 78% of the Italians were males.4. The Italians were despised by old stock Americans, and inflicted with

derogatory slang terms such as "wop," "dago" or "guinea" (terms which willnot be used in my class except in an academic context).

5. Italians and crime were often equated.6. They entered a wide range of economic activities: construction, wine-

making, fishing, stockyards, textiles, mining, and other forms of manuallabor.(Dinnerstein and Reimers 50)

7. There was, however, a distinct tendency to open their own businesses, evenif only a pushcart, as soon as possible. They dominated the New York Cityfruit business, and entered many types of small-businesses, such asrestaurants, bakeries, barbershops, grocery stores, etc.

8. In common with Greek immigrants, Italian padrones or labor agent, exercisedconsiderable and tyrannical control over new immigrants. Their chief leverwas securing jobs. Abuses could be and often were awful; they also helpedthe immigrant adjust to a new environment. (Dinnerstein and Reimers 52)

9. As a group, the Italians placed little weight on individual success, but greatweight on family success. History had taught them that only family membersor close blood relatives could be trusted; no one else. Family honor waseverything; laws passed by society (which, in Italy, was an instrument ofoppression) were unimportant. (Think of The Godfather.

10. In Italy, education had been a monopoly of the aristocracy and the clergy, andused to oppress the peasant. The Italian immigrant often pulled children outof school as early as the law permitted and set them to work. Materialprogress, not intellectual, counted, and the family, not the individual.(Dinnerstein and Reimers 55-6) This is a peasant attitude rather than anItalian one, and was shared by Polish and other East European Slavs (but notby the Greeks, who resemble the Jews in this respect) (Dinnerstein andReimers 59-62)


11. Their Catholicism differed in important respects from that of the Irish, andthey resented the domination of the American Catholic Church by the Irishclergy.

F. The Russian Jews1. In the Middle Ages, the Jews were "not simply religious dissenters . . . they

were also an alien people in country after country, bearing an alien culture,speaking a different language, wearing different clothes, and generally livingin separate communities or sections of towns." (Sowell 71) They wereexcluded from landownership, which forced them into an urban existence,and also forced them into certain types of economic activities, such as smalltradesmen and money-lenders (the origin of the Shylock stereotype). Wheresuch middlemen are a distinct ethnic group, they are usually hated by themasses who have to deal with them. Peasants blamed the Jews foroppressions caused by the aristocracy or monarchy (who often, in EasternEurope, used the Jews as agents for activities such as tax and rent collecting).

2. In Eastern Europe, Jews usually lived in ghettoes, separate walledcommunities that were self-governing.

3. When Russia absorbed much of Poland in 1791, it found itself for the firsttime with a substantial Jewish population. Catherine the Great confined themto the Pale of Settlement.

4. The early to mid 19th century saw brutal attempts to russify the Jews.5. The assassination of Alexander II in 1881 ushered a period of official and

semi-official anti-Semitism of great brutality that lasted as long as the Tsar.a. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the worst anti-Semitic text ever

written, was the concoction of the Tsar's secret police.b. Jews were often among liberal, socialist reformers within the Russian

Empire, and the secret police wished to discredit all Jews.c. Since the average peasant hated the Jews, pogroms--orchestrated riots

and massacres-- were useful in diverting the attention of the peasantsfrom their real oppressors to imagined ones.

d. This atmosphere of vicious repression spurred the migration of2,000,000 Jews from Eastern Europe. 75% of all Russians coming tothe United States were Jews, and 75% of all Jews arriving in theUnited States were from Russia (please bear in mind that Poland nolonger exists at this time) (Sowell 78-9)

6. This migration caused strains with their fellow co-religionists in the US,mostly German Jews who had achieved a high degree of assimilation. Thenewcomers were much poorer, more orthodox, less educated (but much bettereducated that others of the New Immigrants), adopting styles of dress--earlocks, skull caps, beards, Russian style clothing--and language (Yiddish)different from the German Jews. The German Jews feared (quite rightly, asit turned out) an outburst of anti-Semitism in the US that would erase theirgains. The tensions between the two groups are real (shockingly, the


derogatory term "kike" was coined by German Jews to apply to RussianJews.) (Sowell 80-1)a. Weighing against this was the powerful Jewish tradition of

philanthropy. Strenuous efforts were made to help the newcomersadjust. "The pogroms in Russia from 1903 to 1906 provided a focusfor organized Jewish efforts to help their brethren in distress, and outof this came the American Jewish Committee. . . [which] pledgeditself to protect the civil right of all Jews throughout the world. In1913 Jews organized another defense organization, B'nai B'rith'sAnti-Defamation League. . . . . The Jewish faith . . . embodies ethicalprescriptions that make charity a social obligation, and no matter howloose the formal religious bonds, most Jews still regard philanthropicactivities as an absolute necessity." (Dinnerstein and Reimers 57)

b. Russian Jews organized their own philanthropic organizations as soonas they were able.

7. 67% of all Jewish male immigrants were skilled workers, as opposed to 20%for the other groups (Dinnerstein and Reimers 51)

8. An astonishingly high percentage poured into New York City and stayedthere, especially the lower east side of Manhattan, which had a populationdensity at about the turn of the century of 700 per acre, more than the worstslums of Bombay (Sowell 83)

9. The Russian Jews were not as mobile as other groups. Their religious beliefsprecluded them from most industrial jobs, which required work on Saturday.They also required kosher food and synagogues.

10. Jews had dominated most aspects of garment production in Europe, and theyreplicate that in New York. Half of New York's Jewish workers were in thegarment industry, and 70% of all Jewish workers in New York on the eve ofWorld War I were in the garment industry. (Dinnerstein and Reimers 51)

11. The Jews arrived just as the garment industry was beginning to adopt themass production of ready made clothes.a. The invention and promotion of the sewing machine by Isaac Singer

may be regarded as crucial.b. In 1885, there were 241 garment factories in New York City, 234 of

which were owned by Jews. (Sowell 84)c. Sweatshops permitted women and children to contribute to the family

income, and permitted Jewish women to work without leavingchildren unattended or leaving the neighborhood. (Sowell 84)

d. Contemporary accounts record that, for all the terrible conditions,sweatshop workers could save a substantial portion of their earningsand thus provide for the future of their children.

12. There seems considerable agreement that the most striking quality among theJewish New Immigrants is their desire for education. Their culture reveredthe learned man. The poorest families sent their children to school, and


provided strong encouragement to do well. Public facilities such as librarieswere heavily utilized by adults and children. (Sowell 86-7, Dinnerstein andReimers 58) This is one key to the relatively rapid economic rise of the EastEuropean Jews.

G. The Chinese and Japanese1. Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese properly belong in the New

Immigration. I am including them here for several reasons:a. I have neglected them entirely, which doesn't seem right.b. They faced quite serious prejudice, which becomes very relevant to

the history of xenophobia and Nativism.c. They are often coupled in immigration essays along with Scots-Irish

(colonial era), Germans and Irish (Age of Jackson) and the NewImmigration in immigration essays.

2. The Chinesea. The time period discussed runs from the mid-19th century to no later

than 1920. Chinese immigration after World War II is very different.b. The immigration of Chinese to the US is just a small part of a much

larger immigration of about 8 million Chinese from their homelandprior to 1930.

c. The 19th century is a period of turmoil and suffering for China. Thefailing Manchu dynasty could not protect the nation from internalchaos and external exploitation. The 1840s saw the Opium Wars, the1860s the Taiping Rebellion (which may have been the bloodiest warin human history prior to World War I). The suffering of the Chinesepeople was intense.

d. Most of the Chinese who came to the US at this time came from theToishan district of Kwantung province. This gave them an unusualdegree of homogeneity given the tremendous regional differenceswithin China (Chinese share a common written language, but not acommon spoken one).

e. The Chinese shared two qualities with the Sicilians, and for similarreasons:(1) The overwhelming importance of family as the only sure

refuge in a hostile and oppressive world (hence all those kungfu revenge flicks; one would almost think based on them thatChinese did nothing all day but walk around the countrysidefighting. This is as truthful as describing US Special Forcesby Rambo)

(2) Secret criminal societies, the tongs, originally instruments ofpopular resistance to oppression.

f. The Chinese give great respect to learning, and utilized theiropportunities for education in the US to the fullest when thoseopportunities finally came.


g. Toishan is not as overwhelmingly agricultural as much of the rest ofChina. Its population are often tradesmen.

h. The numbers of Chinese are not really large compared to the NewImmigration(1) 25,000 in 1851(2) 63,000 in 1870(3) 6,000 entered the country in 1880(4) 12,000 in 1882(5) 40,000 in 1882 (Sowell 136)(6) Almost all settled on the West Coast

i. The Chinese faced intense and racist hostility from whiteCalifornians.(1) Only the worst and poorest paid jobs were open to Chinese,

who worked for miserable wages.(2) Labor unions were leaders in the effort to exclude the

Chinese, as they feared that competition from the Chinesewould drive down the wages of white workers.

(3) The Central Pacific Railroad was built largely by 10,000Chinese.

j. Discrimination was both social (beating, robbing, threats,intimidation etc) and legal:(1) California had a law from 1854 to 1874 preventing Chinese

from testifying against a white man, very similar to the slavecodes and Black codes forbidding a n African American fromtestifying against a white man.

k. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 virtually ended new immigrationinto the US. This was devastating to the immigrants already here,who were overwhelmingly male

l. State laws followed which prevented them from becomingnaturalized citizens and then requiring citizenship to enter manyoccupations or to own land. The net effect is similar to restrictionsplaced on East European Jews, with some results that are also similar.(1) The loophole is that children born on US soil of alien parents

are US citizens, and cannot be excluded from occupations orland ownership. This crucial fact of US law is still operativetoday, and will still be crucial to those who wish to restrict therights and privileges of illegal aliens. And, by the way,California is still in the forefront of the struggle. Big heartedstate. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,yearning to be free!" Perhaps we should add, "as long as theyare white!" Or we could just return the Statue of Liberty.

m. The great tragedy for most of the Chinese already here is that theywere denied all hope of a family life--to men whose culture


emphasized the family above all else. Most were unable to return toChina, and so were stuck here.(1) A trickle of women entered, many as prostitutes, but not

enough to change the demographics but enough to givereformers ammunition to attack all Chinese immigration.

(2) The development of normal population distributions and thebeginning of assimilation into US culture is thereforesubstantially delayed.

n. The Chinese were tolerated economically only in jobs whites neededbut did not want to do: domestics, agricultural laborers, railroadworkers, cooks, launderers. Even in 1920, half of all employedChinese worked in laundries or restaurants. (Sowell 139)

o. The Chinese withdrew into self-contained enclaves, the Chinatowns,(similar to the Jewish ghettoes). They were mostly self-governing,receiving little assistance from outside, and asking for little. TheChinese attempted to be as inconspicuous as possible, causes as littlefriction as possible, avoid politics or controversy. Like the EuropeanJews, resistence was futile and would lead only to destruction. Theyhad to rely upon camouflage and wit to survive. (Sowell 139)

p. Socially, the disparity of men to women was the critical problem. In1890, the ratio was 27:1; in 1930, it was still 4:1. (Sowell 140)

q. Life within Chinatown was controlled by clans, the Six Companies(short for Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association) and thetongs.

r. Chinatowns at the turn of the century were centers of vice(prostitution, gambling, and opium) both for lonely Chinese men andfor whites.

s. Despite these hardships, Chinese in the US sent remittances back tofamilies in China that were significant. Since most came fromToishan, this area visibly showed the effect of money sent fromAmerica.

t. As the new century began, the intensity of American racism fadedsome, which improved conditions. Slowly, more children were bornand a more normal population distribution begins to appear.Economic progress was made via the Chinese institution of rotatingcredit associations (normal banking facilities were denied them).Chinese values made these work as defaults would have ruined them;but a default shamed the entire family, and were exceedingly rare.(1) Those children born in the US were citizens and therefore not

restricted by California or US law.u. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, and marks a new

era in the life of Chinese Americans; but that is for another handout.3. The Japanese


a. The Japanese faced many similar problems to the Chinese,particularly in the brand of racism leveled at them. In the earlyperiod, the one under study in this handout, they fared better forreasons relative to Japan's relative strength. In the next period, whichcovers World War II, they fared much worse, and for the same reason.The shameful internment of the Nisei in World War II will not becovered here.

b. The United States brought Japan out of its feudal slumber in 1854.In 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown and the MeijiRestoration (1868-1912) begun. This is the period of rapidmodernization and partial Westernization in Japan. Japaneseimmigrants to the US came during this period.

c. The Meiji Era witnessed dramatic changes in Japanese socialstructure and economic activity. It also witnessed a sharp increase inpopulation while traditional economic activities declined. It wasinevitable that some Japanese would migrate.

d. Such migration was not viewed as permanent, but as a temporarysojourn. (Sowell 158-9)

e. Unlike China, Japan possessed sufficient power and prestige tocontrol the outflow of immigrants and to take an active interest inthem once they had departed. This will affect US foreign policy andwill certainly benefit the Japanese who came here.

f. The scale of migration in the late 19th and early 20th century was notlarge:(1) 2,000 in the 1880s(2) 6,000 in the 1890s(3) 100,000 in the 1900s(4) Immigration restriction in the 1920s virtually stopped all

immigration.g. Immigrants were overwhelmingly male: 7:1 in the 1890s and 24:1 in

the 1900s. (Sowell 160)h. The Japanese government more or less hand picked the migrants for

health, character, and work habits.i. These people sent back substantial amounts of money, averaging 2

years' wages in Japan. The economic impact of these remittancesgave Japan a legitimate concern for its immigrants abroad.

j. Like the Chinese, the Japanese found themselves in strenuous manuallabor: working in meatpacking plants, fieldwork, canneries, lumbermills and mines. They accepted low pay, long hours, and hard workwithout demur. If paid on a piece-work basis (and many were), theyoften earned twice as much as other laborers. They were at firstwelcomed by employers as model employees.

k. Their very virtues became a source of attack. Labor unions hated


them. As they prospered, and moved up, farmers found themselvesnow competing with these very efficient farmers. The result waspersecution.(1) Racialists began to talk (or shout) darkly of a "Yellow Peril"

threatening California, the same kind of racialist slop that wasbruited about by Kaiser Wilhelm when he sent troops to helpcrush the Boxers in China and threatened to intervene in theRusso-Japanese War on behalf of his cousin Nicky.

l. The California Alien Land Law of 1913 forbade the owning of landby aliens ineligible for citizenship ie Asians.

m. The segregation of the San Francisco school district in 1906 (therewere 93 Japanese pupils out of 25,000 (Dinnerstein and Reimers 66)--quite a terrifying "Yellow Peril"--caused an international incident.The Japanese, who had just won a victory over Russia--the firstvictory by a non-white race over a European power in modern times--protested.(1) President Theodore Roosevelt seems to have been in a

difficult spot. He could not dictate the laws of California, butthe Japanese were understandably angry. He negotiated theGentlemen's Agreement in 1907, which restricted visas to theUS. One benefit of the restriction to those Japanese alreadyin the US was that wives were allowed to join husbands.Many wives were married in Japan by proxy, and traveled tothe US sight unseen by their husbands. Such a practice wasnot unusual for Japan, where parents often arrangedmarriages, but shocked American sensibilities.

n. The creation of family units of American soil (as the sex ratiodropped to 7:1 in 1910 and 2:1 in 1920 (Sowell 163) meant that thesepeople were now here to stay: Japanese Americans, not sojourners.

o. This first generation Japanese-Americans, or Issei, were highlyliterate, and extremely hard working. They were highly prized asagricultural workers, and forced their own wages up as employers bidfor their services. As they were able to acquire land for themselves(before 1913), they paid above average wages to other Japanese, thuskeeping their wage scales up.

p. As tenant farmers, they paid higher rents, but were so productive thatlandlords found themselves with an economic incentive to defendtheir interests in the legislature. From tenant farming, many avoidedthe Alien Land Law by leasing their farms. Others moved intogardening with great success.

q. The second generation, the Nisei, were native Americans, and thusfree from the restrictions of American law.

r. Like the Chinese, the Japanese valued education greatly, and did well


with their opportunities.s. The next stage pertains to the Nisei, but relates more to World War

II, and so will be saved for a later lesson.III. Urbanization

A. There is explosive growth of US cities, especially in the Northeast US, where mostimmigrants settled. This growth would have caused serious problems under anycircumstances. As it was, traditional governmental forms collapsed, old-stockAmericans moved to the suburbs, and left the inner cities to the big-city boss, whocatered to the immigrant.

B. Ethnic neighborhoods1. Most large cities developed distinct Italian, Jewish, Polish etc.

neighborhoods, as immigrants clustered together for cultural and socialsupport.

2. Different groups then established their own churches, newspapers, schools,and social organizations.

3. Such enclave drew criticism from old-stock Americans for "resistingAmerican values" and opposing cultural assimilation (does this soundfamiliar?)

C. Urban problems are chiefly caused by the speed and scope of growth:1. Sewer and water facilities were inadequate2. fire protection and garbage collection fail; streets crumble3. Lack of zoning laws led to indescribable crowding, which aggravated all

other problems.D. Early reform efforts included:

1. New York City tenement laws and a tenement design contesta. Architect James E. Ware developed a dumb-bell design to maximize

use of space while providing important amenities, like fresh air, andtoilets.

2. Jacob Riis, himself an immigrant, published the powerful photographicstudy, How the Other Half Lives, in 1890.

E. City Government1. Wealthy, old-stock Americans fled the center of the city for the suburbs.2. The Big City Boss and his political machine fills the power vacuum thus left.3. These men mobilized the immigrant voter by providing a sort of ramshackle

welfare state (for a price) for the immigrant.a. Power rested on the ward boss, who controlled and knew a given

neighborhood.(1) The ward boss found jobs (often public service jobs

controlled by the city boss)(2) they distributed food(3) They "fixed" minor offenses with the police(4) They provided disaster relief(5) They helped immigrants adjust to American life


(6) In return, they asked for, and received, unquestioning loyaltyat the polls. As they say in New York, vote early, and voteoften.

b. Their principle tool to make money was the "kickback."(1) William Marcy "Boss" Tweed of New York stole about

$200,000,000 from 1869-1871.(2) Another New York example was Richard Choker, who

controlled Tammany Hall from the 1880s to 1900.(3) Perhaps the last of the great big city bosses was Mayor

Richard Day of Chicago.(4) The bosses were essentially thieves working where middle-

class and upper class Americans were indifferent.(5) However, since they did try to provide services for

immigrants where no one else wished to, they were not simplya destructive force in US life. It seems significant that theirpower waned when government began providing many ofthese services.

F. Urban Improvement1. Recognition of the role which microorganisms play in the propagation of

disease led to an effort to clean urban water supplies.2. Businessmen wanted honest government primarily as a means of reducing the

tax bill: graft was expensive.3. City lighting projects were started.

a. The idea was that city lighting would reduce crime and stimulate anight life (let's remember, even in cities, life was dictated largely bythe rhythm of the sun.

b. Of course, installing gas lines was a rich source of graft andkickbacks, as bosses sold the contracts.

4. Elevated trains, electric trolleys, and underground railroads applied electricalenergy to the problems of urban transportation, which allowed much greaterurban sprawl. a. The "walking city" now extended from 2.5 to 6 miles or moreb. Suburbs grow rapidly as the middle-class abandons the inner city.c. Economic segregation in turn helps foster the growth of urban slums.

5. Steel-cable suspension bridges help span major rivers to encourage traffic.a. The great example was the Brooklyn Bridge, built by John A.

Roebling in 1883.6. Architecture

a. The use of steel-skeleton buildings (in turn made possible by cheap,high quality steel from the Bessemer process) allowed the building ofthe first genuine skyscrapers.(1) Electrical power applied vertically to elevators made such

buildings practical.


b. Louis H. Sullivan designed the Wainwright Building and thePrudential Building. He stressed functional designs.

c. Frederick Law Olmsted designed Central Park in New York.G. Religion and Urbanization

1. The American religious tradition, based on an agricultural society,emphasized that one is responsible for one's own behavior, hence for one'sown salvation.

2. Traditional Protestantism failed to adjust to new conditions.a. Many congregations fled to the suburbs.b. Pastors became extremely conservative, preaching to comfortable

congregations in comfortable churches.(1) Henry Ward Beecher becomes the nation's best known

clergyman, preaching that poverty was sin and labor unions aform of despotism and tyranny (in between seducing membersof his congregation)

3. Roman Catholicisma. The Catholic Church has always been more involved in alms giving

and orphanages, etc.b. Its leaders were committed to the concept that vice was personal but

poverty was an act of God.c. Its leadership tended to be neutral toward organized labor.d. Pope Leo XIII attacked the excesses of capitalism in Rerum

Novarum in 1891, and defended the right to form unions and the dutyof government to care for the poor.

4. Evangelisma. Urbanization also sparked a new wave of evangelism.b. The leading figure was Dwight L. Moody.c. Mission schools in the slums provided not only spiritual but

recreational activities.d. The YMCA, founded in 1851, addressed an urban flock.e. The Salvation Army, formed in the 1880s, also responded to the city.f. The weakness of all of these is that they did not focus on the causes

of urban ills. Their approach is still personal rather than systemic.(1) In my opinion, this remains an enduring point of disagreement

between persons of good will but differing theologicalorientation. The Progressive Era and the New Deal usheredin a period where attempts were made to root out vice andcrime through government action aimed at the source.Conservative opponents often argue that government action,by failing to change individual lives, will always fail. As Iwrite this (1995) current debate on issues such as welfarereform and drug programs are beginning to recognize thatthose drug treatment programs that are most successful are


precisely those with a spiritual dimension to them--to changethe outlook and lifestyle of the individual. This is much thesame way that Alcoholics Anonymous, etc. works; althoughnot denominational or even strictly Christian, the influence ofChristian theology is unmistakable. This year, a formerstudent (who had been a heavy drug user in high school andbeyond) told me that she was now drug free for one yearthrough a program similar to AA. She spoke about how shewas now reading the Bible I had given her years before andwhich she had kept through various peregrinations. Whethershe is theologically a "Christian" in the sense used byevangelical Christianity, I've no idea--probably not--but theanecdote clearly points to her need for a valid spiritual life.

5. The Social Gospel was a response by Protestants to specifically urbanproblems. Its leaders were disgusted by the philistinism of Henry WardBeecher, and more determined to engage the Church in systemic reforms thanthe evangelists.a. They focused on improving living conditions.b. They therefore advocated a political agenda:

(1) civil service reform(2) child labor laws(3) regulation of monopolies(4) income taxes(5) inheritance taxes

c. Washington Gladden is one leader, with Applied Christianity in1886. He did not challenge the basic values of capitalism

d. Charles M. Sheldon wrote a successful novel about a reforming innercity minister with In His Steps. (1896)

6. The Settlement Housesa. These commonly formed centers for education and recreation in poor

districts.b. Examples were:

(1) London's Toynbee Hall(2) South End House, run by Robert A. Woods in Boston (1892)(3) Henry Street Settlement, run by Lilian Wald, founded in

1893 in NYC(4) The most famous, Hull House, founded by Jane Addams in

1889 in Chicago.c. Workers

(1) A very large percentage were middle-class women just out ofcollege. They are the first great wage of college educatedwomen, the fruits of the beginnings of feminism in the Age ofJackson. They have few professional opportunities, are


idealistic, and talented.(2) they agitated for tenement house laws, regulation of the labor

r women and children, and for better schools.d. They set up playgrounds, libraries, classes, and day nurseries.e. It was clear from the settlement houses that private efforts to cope

with the problems of urbanization were not in and of themselvesadequate. Government action would be needed. This would requirea very sharp break with the American tradition of self help andminimum government involvement.

IV. Labor Unions and StrikesA. Unions are the workers' response to business consolidation. An increase in the size

of the corporation led to an increase in the size of workers' organizations.B. The National Labor Union (1866)

1. The first national labor union, led by William H. Sylvis.2. He was utopian and visionary, with strong influence from Jacksonian utopian

movements.a. They opposed the wage systemb. Advocated the admission of both women and African Americans to

membership, which put them far ahead of the rest of the nation.c. He dreamed of forming workers' cooperatives.

3. The union attracted little political support.4. Its peak membership was 600,000. (Bruner 119)5. Sylvis died in 1869; the National Labor Union had died out by 1872.

C. The Molly Maguires1. The Molly Maguires have their origin before the Civil War in the anthracite

coal fields of Pennsylvania. They have been interpreted as a desperate labororganization and also as a criminal ring. I am inclined to the latter view,although I remain open to persuasion.

2. There is a strong element of ethnic conflict with the Mollies: mine ownerswere usually English or Welsh; the Mollies were Irish. Conditions werecertainly very harsh indeed, and one should not be surprised that desperatemen might take desperate measures to better their lot. That does notnecessarily mean that they were Robin Hood reincarnated.

3. By the Panic of 1873, the Mollies had become a force to be reckoned within the coal fields, dealing in extortion, sabotage, and murder. They did not,however, organize any strikes or unions. They are essentially a secretcriminal organization.

4. A Pinkerton agent, James McParlen, successfully infiltrated the gang and wasable to provide the evidence to hang 10 leaders in 1876.a. A. Conan Doyle based one of his 4 Sherlock Holmes novels on this

incident in The Valley of Fear. If you like good mystery stories, thisis for you.

D. The Great Strikes in 1877 are the bloodiest and costliest strike in US labor history.


They were a series of spontaneous and violent outbursts against chiefly the railroads.1. It began with sharp pay cuts at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (firemen,

who could barely feed their families were reduced from $1.75 to $1.58 perday) (Smith 168)

2. Management refused even to talk to delegations of workers.3. Wildcat strikes begin, which began paralyzing freight traffic. By July 17, the

yards at Baltimore were in the possession of the strikers.4. Other centers included Martinsburg, WVA, and Pittsburgh.5. The president of the B&O at no time agreed even to speak with the strikers

or discuss their grievances. Instead he demanded that President RutherfordB. Hayes call out troops to protect B&O property--ie, act as a managementagent to break the strike. A far cry from government by the people, for thepeople, of the people.

6. The pattern for the strike was similar in many places. The strikers were atfirst peaceful. Militia called in locally sometimes refused to act; militiabrought in from afar (the Philadelphia militia, made up of middle-class men)proved willing to shoot the strikers. In general, the shooting started with themilitia. Usually, the militia found itself in serious trouble with armed andangry strikers. Observers noted how frequently women were among thestrikers, inciting the men to determination and courage.

7. In Pittsburgh, the enraged strikers began systematically to destroy railroadproperty: 125 locomotives, 3,500 cars, tons of coal and coke, depots, a grainelevator, etc.

8. On July 24, President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered the use of federal troopsto put down an insurrection. The strikes flicker out.

9. Close examination shows the strikes to have been remarkable for thediscipline of the strikers. 100 to 200 persons (mostly strikers) were killed;given the intensity of the strikes, that is quite low. They policed their ownranks. Property damage was systematic, and ran into hundreds of millions ofdollars.

10. Marxist organizations like the Workingmen's Party in Chicago failed utterlyto take advantage of the strikes, since they did not fit into their ideologicalstraitjacket. They were spontaneous, premature, and not ideologically driven.

11. Their spontaneity pointed toward widespread unhappiness and misery. Aspark set them off. (in fact, many revolutions occur just that way).

12. Middle-class America recoiled in fear at the revelation that a revolutionmight be lurking just beneath the surface of their comfortable lives. Classdivisions in America had never seemed so deep. Middle-class America,represented by Henry Ward Beecher, is determined to crush anything that,they feared, threatened traditional institutions. (Smith 168-88)

E. The Knights of Labor (1869)1. The Knights, founded by Uriah S. Stephens, a reformer with wide interests,

proved to be larger and of greater importance.


a. Initially it was organized as a secret organization along masonic lines.2. Terence V. Powderly succeeded Stephens as Grand Master Workman or

president in 1879.3. Like the Jacksonians, they supported political objectives that had no direct

connection with working conditions.a. The Knights have a strong utopian element as well. They frowned on

strikes as a weapon in a labor dispute, yet their growth was due inlarge measure to some successful railroad strikes. The answer to thiscontradiction is that the Knights were not tightly organized with strictorganizational discipline.

b. They defined "toilers" very broadly to include almost anyone excepta business owner.(1) They are inclusive, the very opposite of craft union

organization.(2) Like the National Labor Union, they welcomed women,

African Americans, and immigrants. Although this iscompatible with today's attitudes, this was a source ofweakness in the mid and late 1800s. Women, AfricanAmericans, and immigrants all provided cheap labor--cheaperthan workers already in place. Their competition drove wagesdown and provided strike-breakers. The hostility oforganized labor to women, African Americans, andimmigrants must be understood in these terms--a directpocket book issue.

4. Their growth clearly delineates their fortunes:a. 1882 42,000 membersb. 1885 110,000 membersc. 1886 700,000 membersd. 1890 100,000 members

5. The strike against Jay Gould's Missouri Pacific Railroad brought recruits atfirst, but ultimately failed. Powderly had not sanctioned the strike.

6. Haymarket Square Riot 1886a. The death blow for the Knights, and a very significant stage in the

labor-management struggle.b. The trouble began at the McCormick Harverster Factory in Chicago.

1,000 union men were locked out and replaced by scabs. Pinkertonagents were brought in to "protect" the plant.

c. A strike quickly followedd. On May 3, a large rally of workers was being addressed by August

Spies, an anarchist, when they were attacked by scabs, andPinkertons. As a melee ensued, the Chicago police intervened. Theyopened fire, killing 6 and wounding 20, all union men.

e. On May 4, a rally to protest the killings was held at Haymarket


Square. As the last speaker was concluding his speech, he wasordered by police to "disperse peacefully or take the consequences!"The meeting, mind you, was peaceful. The speaker was in theprocess of replying when a bomb was thrown. Police opened fire,workers returned fire, and when the smoke cleared, 7 police and 4demonstrators were dead, and over 200 were wounded. No one everdetermined who threw the bomb, but personally, I believe it was aprovocateur.

f. The newspapers screamed for blood (remember that Gould controlledthe wire services). Management successfully convinced the bulk ofmiddle-class America that the bloodshed was the result of foreignanarchists, socialists, etc.

g. 8 union men were indicted and tried on charges of conspiracy tocommit murder. The trial was presided over by Judge Joseph E.Gary, who was flagrantly biased in his rulings. 7 were convicted andsentenced to death in proceedings that simply cannot stand the lightof examination.(1) Two men were given clemency (life), one committed suicide,

4 were hanged. (Bruner 122-7)(2) Later, Gov. John Peter Altgeld, who was sympathetic to the

workers, pardoned the two still alive.7. Haymarket was a public relations disaster for the Knights of Labor. There

was a strong backlash against labor in the country. The Knights, although notinvolved in the affair, paid the price.

F. The American Federation of Labor (AFL), under the leadership of SamuelGompers was founded in 1886, and proved to be more successful and lasting.1. The AFL was a craft union, that is it organized all workers according to

skills2. Craft unions are oriented toward skilled workers (who can be said to have

mastered a craft) and thus appeal to a much smaller segment of the industrialworkers. Eventfully, this will lead to the schism of the AFL and theformation of the industrial union, the Congress of Industrial Workers (CIO).

3. The AFL was hostile to African Americans, women, and immigrants.African Americans were excluded from membership.

4. Gompers ignored larger political reforms, and took a very pragmatic andmore productive approach. He concentrated on "bread and butter issues":higher pay and shorter hours.

5. He does not challenge the structure of capitalism; he is in no way a Socialist.Degler quotes a revealing exchange between Gompers and a SocialistCongressman. Socialists by definition have in mind a utopia where nofurther gains would be necessary. Gompers had no fixed ultimate goal. Hebelieved most workers would always be workers. He simply wants a biggerpiece of the total pie for the workers. (Degler 288-9)


6. Gompers was fully prepared to strike. A craft union was in a strongerposition to strike than the Knights, since skilled workers could not be soeasily replaced by scabs.

7. Politically, Gompers would support any candidate favorable to workers,regardless of their party, or any other consideration.a. The AFL was associated with a legislative agenda, including mine

safety, an 8 hour day, and employers' liability for industrial accidents.8. Membership in 1892 was 300,000. (Bruner 129)9. The Homestead Strike of 1892 proved nearly as disastrous for the AFL as

Haymarket did for the Knights.a. Economic depression in 1892 gave Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie's

lieutenant in charge of the Homestead plant, the opportunity to breakthe union. Carnegie prided himself on his good treatment of hisworkers, but Carnegie was in Scotland, and supported Frickthroughout the crisis.

b. Frick was a hard-nosed, cold blooded man who hated unions onprinciple and who was determined to squeeze the last ounce of profitout of the plant.

c. Frick started the crisis slashing wages.d. Although the AFL excluded unskilled workers, the entire plant work

force joined when the AFL went out on strike. Frick locked thefactory and called in 300 Pinkerton thugs.

e. The Pinkertons tried to take possession of the plant, but were resisted.A gun battle erupted, and the Pinkertons were trapped by the workersand forced to surrender.

f. The governor of Pennsylvania called out the militia and, behind theirbayonets, Frick reopened the plant with non-union workers.

g. On July 23, a final disaster hit the strikers. A Russian born anarchist,Alexander Berkman, who had to connection to the strikers, traveledto Homestead to assassinate Frick. Berkman botched it in every way:emptying his pistol and stabbing Frick, but without injuring himsufficiently to even make him leave his desk for a doctor. The pressmade Frick into an all-American, native born hero facing down thehordes of foreign anarchists out to subvert the country.

h. The strike collapsed, leaving the steel industry without effectiveunions for 40 years.(1) Frick cut wages for skilled workers 40%, unskilled workers

averaged 16½¢ an hour(2) Frick put in two 12 hour shifts and ran the plant day and

night. His profits rose from $27,000,000 in the previous 17years to $106,000,000 in the next 9. (Bruner 130-4)

G. The Pullman Strike (1894) and American Socialism.1. The backdrop of the Pullman Strike is the Panic of 1893, a serious


depression amid rising tensions within the nation and real fears on the part ofmiddle-class America of social revolution. Please do not forget that theFarmer's Revolt is in full-swing at the time.

2. George Pullman had always taken a paternalistic attitude toward his workers.He built, for instance, a town for his workers (cleverly called Pullman).

3. Of course, the workers paid rents to Pullman for their housing, had to buyfrom Pullman-owned stores, paid for their water and gas from Pullman.

4. Pullman's rents were 25% higher than surrounding communities, and hiswater and gas charges well above the cost to him of buying it from the utilitycompanies. The industrialist and political guru, Mark Hanna, (no friend tolabor!) regarded as another way to make a profit.

5. When the Panic hit, Pullman laid off 3,000 of 5,800 workers, and cut wages25% to 40% without reducing rents or utility bills. Pullman also continuedpaying the same hefty 8% dividends to stock-holders ie: he was maintainingdividends in the face of depression by taking it from his workers' meagerwages.

6. Pullman refused requests from workers for a comparable reduction in rents.Pullman fired three of the committee members who approached him.

7. The Pullman workers went out on strike. They also asked their union tostrike in support.

8. The leader of the American Railway Workers' Union was Eugene V. Debs,who was reluctant. However, when Pullman told him, "The workers havenoting to do with the amount of wages they shall receive; that is solely thebusiness of the company." (Bruner 138), he agreed to a strike.

9. The Chicago yards were paralyzed. This is quite serious since Chicago is therail hub of the United States. a. At first, workers cut out Pullman cars from trains. When they were

fired, everyone walked off.b. Management then began attaching mail cars only to freight trains.

The strikers were perfectly willing to move mail cars but not freight.Management however needed an excuse for federal intervention.

c. Management by-passed the governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld,assuming that he would be sympathetic to the strikers (which wastrue; he was the man who pardoned the Haymarket rioters).

d. Management went to Attorney General Richard Olney, a man whohad become rich as a railroad lawyer, and demanded federalintervention on the grounds that the strike was interfering with themail service.

e. Olney sent in 3,400 special deputies to run the trains. Violenceensued. Olney edited and distorted the extent and nature of theviolence. Altgeld wrote President Grover Cleveland to correct theimpression, but Cleveland would not listen to him.

f. Cleveland sent in federal troops to break the strike.


g. Judge Peter Grosscup in Chicago then issued an injunction against thestrike. When Debs refused to comply, Grosscup found him incontempt and jailed him.

h. The strike was broken and the American Railway Union wasdestroyed. (Bruner 134-43)

10. Debs came out of jail a convinced Socialist. he was convinced that theworkers could never receive justice at the hands of the government.a. He helped found the Socialist Democratic Party in 1897. He ran for

president 5 times. In 1917, he was jailed again under the Sedition Actfor opposing US entry into World War I. He received 901,062 votesin 1920 while in prison. He was pardoned by Warren G. Harding anddied in 1926.

11. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) were formed in1905. Led by "Big Bill" Haywood, they openly advocated violence andsabotage. As such, they were a godsend to conservatives, who couldexaggerate their importance to their heart's content. At its peak, the Wobbliesprobably only had 60,000 members. The Sedition Act in World War I wasused heavily against them. By the 1920s, they were defunct.

V. Social Legislation and the Conservative Courts.A. As the turn of the century approached, the Supreme Court grew increasingly

conservative in its judgements. Fear of social upheaval led them to issue ruling afterruling that protected the interests of a very narrow segment of the nation--corporations and financiers--at the expense of everyone else. The Court accepted theConservative ideology and enforced it in rulings with the force of law.

B. The Fourteenth Amendment was reinterpreted so as to pervert its intent andmeaning. 1. Corporations are legal individuals; the Court applied XIV Amendment

protection very broadly to corporations in a way that it chose not to do forAfrican Americans.a. The judges saw all attempts to regulate business, such as through

tenement laws or minimum hour laws or laws restricting child orwomen's labor, as dangerous extensions of the government's policepower.

b. Lochner v. New York (1905)represents the Court's thinking: itvoided a 10 hour day for bakers.(1) Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. pointed the way to the future with

his dissent: "A constitution is not intended to embody aparticular economic theory, whether of paternalism or oflaissez faire."

c. The use of injunctions to break a strike, such as was used against theAmerican Railway Union and Eugene V. Debs, is another example.

2. Other cases from the time period in a similar vein include:a. The Slaughter House cases (1873): These cases involved "a


Louisiana statute creating a monopoly of the business of slaughteringlivestock in New Orleans, thereby driving other butchers out ofbusiness. Some of the latter challenged the statute on the ground thatit deprived them of their privileges and immunities as citizens of theUnited States" [under the XIV Amendment] The Court "virtuallydevitalized the privileges and immunities clause by distinguishingbetween the privileges which inhered in state citizenship and thoseinhering in national citizenship alone, and holding that the clauseprotected only the latter." (Swisher 85-6)

b. The Civil Rights cases (1883) defined the application of the sectionof the XIV Amendment that "Congress shall have power to enforce,by appropriate legislation, the projections of this article," which wasclearly intended to provide the authority to ensure the civil rights ofthe freedmen from infringement, as sharply as possible. "The CivilRights Act of 1875 gave equal rights to use of inn, theaters, publicconveyances and other facilities. . . . The Supreme Court held that theFourteenth Amendment had not given Congress substantive power toprotect civil rights but only power to correct abuses by the states. Bythis decision Congress was relieved of its basic obligation for theprotection of the civil rights of" of African Americans. (Swisher 91-2)Such a ruling can only be viewed as a perversion of the intent andlanguage of the Amendment.

c. Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust (1895) Under pressure fromreformers and Populists, "Congress in 1894 enacted a federal incometax law with exemption of lower incomes so that well-to-do peoplewere called on to pay an increased proportion of the cost of thefederal government. Wealthy and conservative people, frightenedalready by the Populist Movement, regarded the new tax as the firststep in a dangerous drift toward socialism." (Swisher 95) The Courtheld the income tax to be unconstitutional, although an income taxhad been passed and enforced during the Civil War. It required theSixteenth Amendment to reverse this decision.

d. US v. E.C. Knight (1895) The American Sugar Refining Companywas ruled not to be in restraint of trade although it controlled 98% ofall sugar refining in the U.S. because it did not engage in "trade" iedid not load its refined sugar onto freight cars and transport it acrossa state line. It only sold to wholesalers. The ruling emasculated theSherman Anti-Trust Act.

e. Plessy v. Ferguson ruled virtually unanimously that segregation waslegal so long as separate but equal facilities were provided. Themajority opinion haled that the legislature of Louisiana was at libertyto act "with reference to the established usages, customs, andtraditions of the people . . . . We consider the underlying fallacy of the


plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforcedseparation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge ofinferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in theact, but solely because the colored raced chooses to put thatconstruction upon it. . . . The argument also assumed that socialprejudices may be overcome by legislation and that equal rightscannot be secured to the negro except by an enforced commingling ofthe two races. We cannot accept this proposition. . . . Legislation ispowerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions basedupon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result inaccentuating the difficulties of the present situation. If the civil andpolitical rights of both races be equal one cannot be inferior to theother civilly or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially,the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the sameplane." (Swisher 101)The lone dissent was written by John MarshallHarlan, the only Southerner on the Court, a Kentuckian who, as ayoung man, had been a slaveholder, and a bitter opponent ofemancipation. He had changed his views, and now believed that onlyfederal protection would prevent the oppression of AfricanAmericans. He wrote his dissent in the Civil Rights cases using thesame inkwell Roger B. Taney had used to write Dred Scott (a highlyself-conscious decision) (Westin 21-5) and continued in the samevein here: "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nortolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizensare equal before the law. . . . . In my opinion, the judgement this dayrendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decisionmade by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case." (Swisher 101)


Works Cited

Blum, John M., Morgan, Edmund S., Rose, Willie Lee, Schlesinger,Jr., Arthur M., Stampp, Kenneth M., and Woodward, C. Vann.The National Experience: A History of the United States. 5thed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981.

Bruner, James E. Jr. Industrialism: The American Experience. New York: Benziger, Inc. 1972.

Degler, Carl. Out of Our Past: The Forces That Shaped ModernAmerica. 3rd ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1984.

Dinnerstein, Leonard and Reimers, David M. Ethnic Americans: A H i s t o r y o fImmigration. ThirdEdition. New York:Harper & Row, 1988.

Smith, Page. The Rise of Industrial America. A People's Historyof the Post-Reconstruction Era. New York: Penguin, 1984.

Sowell, Thomas. Ethnic America: A History. New York: Harper Collins, 1981.

Swisher, Carl Brent. Historic Decisions of the Supreme Court. Princeton, New Jersey: VanNostrand, 1958.

Westin, Alan F. "Ride In: A Century of Protest Begins." . H i s t o r i c a l V i e w p o i n t s .Garraty, John, Ed 3rd Ed. 2Vols. New York: Harper &Row. 1979, 12-25.


Works Consulted

Bailey, Thomas A., Kennedy, David M. The American Pageant. 7thEd. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath, 1983.

Boyer, Paul S.; Clark, Clifford Jr.; Kett, Joseph F.; Purvis,Thomas; Sitkoff, Harvard; Woloch, Nancy. The Enduring Vision:A History of the American People. New York: D.C. Heath.1990. [Referred to as Boyer]

Current, Richard N., Williams, T. Harry, Freidel Frank, Brinkley,Alan. American History: A Survey. 6th Ed. New York:Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.

Garraty, John. The American Nation. 5th Ed. New York: Harper &Row, 1983.

Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David E. America: A NarrativeHistory. 3rd Ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992.

ap/ib american history mr. blackmon the gilded age: labor...

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