Labor in the Progressive Era

1
Labor in the Progressive Era

• after Haymarket

Prepared by Tom Conry, Madison High
School Portland, OR
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Labor three possibilities

• Moderate the American Federation of Labor,
  headed by Samuel Gompers, craft union
• Socialists Socialist Party headed by Eugene
  Debs, works through elections
• Radicals International Workers of the World,
  headed by Big Bill Haywood, wants direct action

3
American Federation of Labor (AFL)Samuel Gompers

• Craft union
• Mostly white men
• More conservative
• Wanted shorter hours, higher wages, better
  working conditions
• What does labor want? "More
• Change will come through collective bargaining

4
American Socialist PartyEugene Debs

• Learned from failure of 1894 Pullman Strike
• Formed political party, worked through elections
• Diverse membership, many women
• Wanted government ownership of big industry, vote
  for women, no child labor, right to strike
• Change will come through elections

5
Industrial Workers of the WorldBig Bill Haywood
et al.

• "The Wobblies"
• Industrial union, came out of Western mining
  strikes
• Especially big in Oregon and Washington
• Used strikes, boycotts, songs, and education
• Rejected political parties and elections
• Change will come through a general strike and the
  workers will take over

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Joe Hill of the IWW (Wobblies)

• Swedish immigrant (born Hillstrom)
• IWW songwriter
• Framed for murder and executed
• "Don't mourn organize!"

7
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of the IWWthe original
Wobbly "Rebel Girl"

• Joined the Wobblies at age 16
• Great public speaker
• Helped to organize the 1912 Lawrence, Mass.
  "Bread and Roses" strike
• A founder of the American Civil Liberties Union

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What the Wobblies wanted

• Against capitalism
• Revolutionary union
• One big union
• Workers should own industries
• Distrust of electoral politics
• Work toward a national general strike

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What will kill capitalism?
Why is the caption in Italian?
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Why was labor angry?
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sweatshop working conditions
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child labor
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Supreme Court decisions against labor

• Based on liberty of contract doctrine (14th and
  5th Amendments)
• Lochner v. New York (1905) states were not
  allowed to restrict work hours
• Danbury Hatters case (1908) unions were not
  allowed to boycott
• Before the Clayton Antitrust Act, striking was
  against the law

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Three events revitalize labor

• 1902 Anthracite strike (TR supports miners
  against capital)
• 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire (sweatshop working
  conditions exposed)
• 1912 Bread and Roses textile strike, Lawrence,
  Massachusetts (high point of the IWW)

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The Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
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King Coal

• Used in furnaces for heating
• Used in stoves for cooking
• Powered the railroads
• Powered factories
• Used in power-generating stations

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Anthracite operators led by George Divine
Right Baer

• Installed by J.P. Morgan as head of the
  Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
• Social Darwinist
• Told TR there was "nothing to negotiate"

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How "Divine Right" Baer got his nickname
The rights and interests of the laboring man
will be protected and cared for, not by the labor
agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God
in His infinite wisdom has given control of the
property interests of the country open letter
to the press during the 1902 strike
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Workers demands

• Eight-hour day
• 10 raise
• Owners must recognize and bargain with the union

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What happened?

• United Mine Workers president John Mitchell calls
  for arbitration (a presidential commission to
  settle the strike)
• George Divine Right Baer refuses (and insults
  TR)
• TR leans on J.P. Morgan to make Baer accept the
  commission

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At the commission, Baer is disastrous

• Insults TR
• Gets bad press for the owners by declaring
  They dont suffer they cant even speak
  English. (Baer on the miners situation)

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Public sentiment favors the miners
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The result miners win!

• The commission accepts most of the union demands
  (but not union recognition)
• TR becomes famous for the square deal
• Establishes the principle of presidential
  intervention in important strikes and labor
  struggles

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Why the Anthracite Strike of 1902
mattersprevious presidents had sided with
capital

• Andrew Jackson in 1834 sent troops to break
  strike on the construction of the Chesapeake and
  Ohio Canal
• War Department employees took over the
  Philadelphia and Reading Railroad during the
  Civil War
• Rutherford B. Hayes sent troops to break the
  Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• Grover Cleveland used troops to break the Pullman
  Strike of 1894

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Now TR was offering a Square Deal to both
management and labor

• The "Square Deal" Reforms increase Federal
  Power, ended Laissez Faire
• "Let the watchwords of all our people be the old
  familiar watchwords of honesty, decency,
  fair-dealing, and commonsense."... "We must treat
  each man on his worth and merits as a man. We
  must see that each is given a square deal,
  because he is entitled to no more and should
  receive no less.""The welfare of each of us is
  dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all
  of us."
• --New York State Fair, Syracuse September 7, 1903

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1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
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Reaction
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The Disaster that Ended Tammany Hall

• 146 dead, mostly young women
• Most are Jewish or Italian Catholics
• Doors were locked
• People saw that machine politics were inadequate

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1912 Lawrence, MA"Bread and Roses" textile strike
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Lawrence 1912 what happened?

• American Woolen Company speeded up production and
  reduced wages
• Mostly women workers
• Diverse immigrant workforce
• IWW asked to organize strike

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How the IWW organized

• Set up democratic committee of 50 workers, all
  nationalities
• Union supplied food and fuel for 50,000 workers
• Governor declared martial law
• IWW says "Bayonets cannot weave cloth"

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The Children's Exodus

• Company tries to starve workers
• IWW Socialist Party sends children out of town
  to other workers
• New law no children can leave

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How the strikers won

• Elizabeth Gurley Flynn takes children out
  (against the law)
• Police beat women and children in front of
  cameras
• Police riot enrages public
• American Woolen Company forced to raise wages

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Bread and Roses (1912) strike song

• Lyrics
• James Oppenheim, 1912

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As we go marching, marching in the beauty of the
day,A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill
lofts grayAre touched with all the radiance that
a sudden sun discloses, For the people hear us
singing"Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!"
As we go marching, marching we battle too for
men,For they are women's children and we mother
them again.Our lives shall not be sweated from
birth until life closes.Hearts starve as well as
bodiesgive us bread but give us roses.
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As we go marching, marching we battle too for
men,For they are women's children and we mother
them again.Our lives shall not be sweated from
birth until life closes.Hearts starve as well as
bodiesgive us bread but give us roses.
As we go marching, marching unnumbered woman
deadGo crying through our singing their ancient
call for bread.Small art and love and beauty
their drudging spirits knew.Yes, it is bread we
fight for, but we fight for roses too!
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As we go marching, marching we bring the greater
days.The rising of the women means the rising of
the race,No more the drudge and idler, ten that
toil where one reposesBut a sharing of life's
gloriesBread and roses! Bread and roses!