Organized Labor, 1865-1900

U.S. History II

Socialism’s Failure in the U.S. 2 Socialist parties in the U.S.

Daniel DeLeon’s Socialist Labor Party Eugene V. Debs’ Social Democratic Party

Labor organizations relentlessly suppressed Management used divide & conquer strategy,

playing ethnic groups off each other Pinkerton detectives & Nat’l Guard used to break up

strikes Workers more concerned about individual,

bread-and-butter issues Unwilling to sacrifice individual present for collective

future Most strikes about wages, hours, & abusive

foremen

Boom & Bust Cycles

Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire

The Growth of Manufacturing

The National Labor Union

National Labor Union short-lived; founded 1866

640,000 members in 1868 Called for 8-hour day,

greenbacks, co-ops, & equal rights for women & blacks

Got Congress to repeal Contract Labor law & pass 8-Hour Day law

The Knights of Labor Knights of Labor founded in 1860 by

Philadelphia tailors; opened to all workers in 1870s

Grand Master Terence V. Powderly (1879-1893) increased membership from under 10,000 in 1879 to 730,000 in 1886

Sought cooperative society - alliances between employer & employee, producer & consumer - as well as gov’t ownership of utilities, trust reform, & ban on child labor

Got Congress to create U.S. Bureau of Labor

Declined after 1886: lost strike vs. Jay Gould & discredited by ties to Haymarket Bombing

Terence Powderly

American Federation of Labor A.F.L. founded in 1886 Led by Dutch Jewish cigar maker from

Britain, Samuel Gompers (1886-1924) Over 1 million members by 1901; 2.5 million

by 1917 Federation of 111 unions, representing

27,000 locals Organized by crafts, with each union independent no unskilled workers, women, or blacks

Officially nonpartisan, but published legislative platforms

Industrial Workers of the World

“Wobblies” founded in 1905; led by Big Bill Heywood & Mother Jones

Mostly un- or semi-skilled workers

Used radical, revolutionary rhetoric

Strikes were spectacular affairs, but only real success was Lowell, Mass in 1912

Big Bill Heywood

The Great Railroad Strike (1877) Rate wars in 1876 ended

with truce which involved a 10% wage cut

Strike began in Baltimore & Pittsburgh, spreading quickly across Midwest & West

July 21-22, Philadelphia: militia killed 30 strikers; strikers burned 39 buildings, 104 engines, & 1,245 cars

Ended by Pres. Hayes calling out troops

Strike damage, Pennsylvania

The Haymarket Bombing (1886)Anarchists had called public meeting to

protest bloodshed at McCormick plant7 Germans, 1 American (Albert Parsons,

a former carpetbagger who married a black woman and was a Knight of Labor)

Not sure who threw bomb - meeting was dispersing as police came

Farcical trial, presided over by Judge Gary, led to four executions & one suicide

The Homestead Strike (1892)

Pullman Strike (1894) Pullman was

company town, where employees gouged for everything

American Railway Union led by Debs -became Socialist in jail afterwards

Eugene V. Debs