1. Haymarket Riot<br />An explosion in Chicago in 1886 helped to shift the labor movement toward quot;
bread-and-butterquot;
unionism.<br />On May 1, 1886, thousands of people in Chicago began demonstrations in behalf of an eight-hour workday. The marchers' slogan was, quot;
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.quot;
<br />On May 4, 1886, a deadly confrontation between police and protesters erupted at Chicago's Haymarket Square. A labor strike was in progress at the McCormick farm equipment works, and police and Pinkerton security guards had shot several workers.<br />A public demonstration had been called to protest police violence. Eyewitnesses later described a quot;
peaceful gathering of upwards of 1,000 people listening to speeches and singing songs when authorities began to move in and disperse the crowd.quot;
Suddenly a bomb exploded, followed by pandemonium and an exchange of gunfire. Eleven people were killed including seven police officers. More than a hundred were injured.<br />The Chicago Tribune railed against quot;
the McCormick insurrectionists.quot;
Authorities hurriedly rounded up 31 suspects. Eventually, eight men, quot;
all with foreign sounding namesquot;
as one newspaper put it, were indicted on charges of conspiracy and murder.<br />No evidence tied the accused to the explosion of the bomb. Several of the suspects had not even attended the rally. But all were convicted and sentenced to death. Four were quickly hanged and a fifth committed suicide in his cell. Then, the Illinois Governor, Richard Ogelsby, who had privately expressed doubts quot;
that any of the men were guilty of the crime,quot;
commuted the remaining men's death sentences to life in prison.<br />Illinois's new governor, John Peter Altgeld, pardoned the three surviving men. A German born immigrant who had enlisted in the Union army at the age of 15, Altgeld declared, quot;
The deed to sentencing the Haymarket men was wrong, a miscarriage of justice. And the truth is that the great multitudes annually arrested are poor, the unfortunate, the young and the neglected. In short, our penal machinery seems to recruit its victims from among those who are fighting an unequal fight in the struggle for existence.quot;
<br />After granting the pardon, he said to the famous attorney Clarence Darrow: quot;
Let me tell you that from this day, I am a dead man, politically.quot;
There was an immediate outcry. The Washington Post asked rhetorically: quot;
What would one expect from a man like Altgeld, who is, of course, an alien himself?quot;
The Chicago Tribune stated that the governor quot;
does not reason like an American, does not feel like one, and consequently does not behave like one.quot;
<br />In 1889, the American Federation of Labor delegate to the International Labor Congress in Paris proposed May 1 as international Labor Day. Workers were to march for an eight-hour day, democracy, the right of workers to organize, and to memorialize the eight quot;
Martyrs of Chicago.quot;
<br />The Haymarket Riot had a lasting effect on the HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/326930/labour-movementquot;
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labour movementquot;
labour movement in the United States. The HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/320386/Knights-of-Laborquot;
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Knights of Laborquot;
Knights of Labor (KOL), at the time the largest and most successful union organization in America, was blamed for the riot. While the KOL also had sought an eight-hour day and had called several strikes to achieve the goal, its involvement in the riot could not be proved. Public distrust, however, caused many KOL locals to join the newly formed and less-radical American Federation of Labor.<br />Information Sheets: Workers and Strikes<br />Pullman StrikeThe most famous and farreaching labor conflict in a period of severe economic depression and social unrest, the Pullman Strike began May 11, 1894, with a walkout byPullman Palace Car Company factory workers after negotiations over declining wages failed. These workers appealed for support to the American Railway Union (ARU), which argued unsuccessfully for arbitration. On June 20, the ARU gave notice that beginning June 26 its membership would no longer work trains that included Pullman cars.U. S. TROOPS ON LAKEFRONT, 1894The boycott, although centered in Chicago, crippled railroad traffic nationwide, until the federal government intervened in early July, first with a comprehensive injunction essentially forbidding all boycott activity and then by dispatching regular soldiers to Chicago and elsewhere. The soldiers joined with local authorities in getting the trains running again, though not without considerable vandalism and violence. ARU president Eugene Victor Debs was arrested and subsequently imprisoned for disregarding the injunction. The boycott and the union were broken by mid-July, partly because of the ARU's inability to secure broader support from labor leaders.While the use of an injunction for such purposes, upheld by the Supreme Court in 1895, was a setback for unionism, and while most public sentiment was against the boycott, George Pullman attracted broad criticism and his workers wide sympathy. A federal panel appointed to investigate the strike sharply criticized the company's paternalistic policies and refusal to arbitrate, advancing the idea of the need for unions and for increased government regulation in an age of large-scale industrialization.<br />The Homestead Strike of 1892<br />The main playersAndrew Carnegie, one of the wealthiest capitalists in American history, was born in Scotland and immigrated to the United States in 1848. Carnegie grew up in a poor family who believed that the British working class should vote and run for Parliament to improve workplace conditions. This belief made an impression on Carnegie early in life and later Carnegie claimed to support the working class and unions. However, he was also a businessman and knew that successful business practices did not always favor employees or union activities. Therefore, he did not always conform to the union’s demands and even cut his workers' wages.<br />Henry Clay Frick was born in Pennsylvania to a poor family. However, he became very wealthy by manufacturing Coke (not the beverage) and by using harsh strike-breaking strategies. In 1881 he decided to undergo a merger with Carnegie. Frick soon lost control of his company’s stock to Carnegie. Friction continued to develop as Carnegie tried to express his pro-labor sentiment in opposition to Frick’s strike-suppressing beliefs.<br /> <br />The settingThe 1800’s were a time of many labor conflicts and an uncertain economy. Many labor conflicts ended in violence as employees tried to make their voices heard by both their employers and the general public. The city of Homestead, on the Monongahela River just east of Pittsburg, wanted to remain unionized with favorable working terms and conditions. Even though Homestead depended on the steel industry for its livelihood, the employees were willing to fight to the death for their union. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers had about 750 members out of the 3,800 steel mill workers, but when Frick insisted that he negotiate independent contracts with the employees, about 3,000 of the steel members voted to strike. This vast number of employees prevented strikebreakers from guarding the steel mill.<br />What happened?The steel workers’ contract, tied to a sliding scale wage based on the price of 4 x 4 standard Bessemer steel billets, expired in 1892. At the same time, Andrew Carnegie was on vacation in Loch Rannoch, Scotland, where he communicated only with Henry Clay Frick. Frick first offered the employees a pay cut and later said that he would not negotiate with the union. Instead he would negotiate with individual employees. The employees refused to negotiate without the union and Frick responded by surrounding the steel mill property with a solid board fence with rifle ports and topped with barbwire. The steel mill compound soon became known as quot;
Fort Frickquot;
. Frick began to shutdown operations on June 28, 1892. Although deputy sheriffs were sworn in to guard the property, they were ordered out of town by the workers. Because the employees felt that they had a right to work, they began guarding the steel mill.<br />Frick then called the Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency of New York and requested 300 strikebreakers to protect the company property and equipment3. However, the workers were alerted by employees stationed at the river and quickly rushed to prevent the Pinkertons from coming ashore. The workers exchanged gunfire with the Pinkertons, rolled freight train cars on fire at the barges of Pinkertons, tossed dynamite, and pumped oil onto the Monongahela River. For about 14 hours, the workers tried to set fire to the river 4. The death toll rose as the fight wore on, and the Pinkertons eventually gave up. The Pinkertons were forced to run through a gauntlet formed by the workers and their families. Three Pinkertons and seven employees were killed during the fight. Six days later 8,500 members of the Pennsylvania National Guard were ordered into Homestead under the orders of Governor Robert E. Patterson. A very small percentage of employees returned to work after the union called off the strike, but by this time most employees and all of the strike leaders had been black-listed.<br />Why did it end in violence?During the 1800’s workers had limited mobility and limited employment opportunities. Because employees could not migrate to jobs with better terms of employment, they were forced to make the most of the jobs that they had -- even if this meant fighting to the death over the terms and conditions of employment. In addition, the industrialization of the workplace had lead to the alienation of the crafts. The employees took pride in their work and even though they did not own the company, they felt that they had a right to work there. When Frick refused to negotiate with the union and closed down the mill the employees were willing to fight to the death for this right.<br />What were the outcomes?After the Homestead strike, Andrew Carnegie was viewed as being responsible and he was never able to recover from the public scrutiny. Carnegie, who publicly expressed his pro-labor sentiment, was well aware of Frick’s anti-union sentiment. However, Carnegie left Frick in charge of the contract negotiations and remained inaccessible to the employees and media during negotiations. Carnegie’s support of Frick began in the spring of 1892 when Carnegie ordered maximum production of armor plate before the union’s contract expiration date in June. Carnegie further told Frick to close the steel mill until the employees gave in to management’s demands during contract negotiations. While in England, Carnegie instructed Frick to do anything necessary to break the strike. In a letter Carnegie also wrote that this was Frick’s chance to change things for management’s benefit because too many workers were required under the union’s rules.<br />Because the violence of the Homestead Strike was viewed as management's fault, the view of unions in the United States improved. The public thought the employees had reasonable requests (the employees were willing to give into all of Frick’s demands, except for eliminating the union) and the employees were peacefully demonstrating until strikebreakers entered the picture.<br />The Great Railroad Strike of 1877<br />In 1877 many of the tensions underlying American economic and political development in the Gilded Age came to a head. Where individual proprietors had once retained labor, increasingly large corporations now hired workers for wages. These businesses faced straitened circumstances during the depression of the 1870s. Many had overextended themselves during the railroad building boom that followed the Civil War. Now their boards and managers laid off employees or cut wages, and many workers had nowhere else to go.<br />While prevailing community values, namely an antebellum belief in individual conscience and humanitarianism, had once prevented employers from extracting the lowest possible wages from their employees, workers now faced a marketplace that treated labor as a simple commodity. Organized workers had responded to the rise of national business concerns like railroads by replacing their locally oriented groups with new national craft unions. But in the early 1870s these groups still represented fewer than five percent of all non-farm workers in America. The accelerating pace of mechanization also undermined the positions of many workers by allowing unskilled labor to produce the same products that once required the command of special techniques.<br />The depression undermined the position of many workers and trades unions. With so many unemployed workers available, stronger employers no longer feared strikes. If a worker disliked or feared his working conditions, another hungry man would surely step forward to take his place. By 1877, craft unions represented fewer than one percent of all non-farm workers.<br />Workers in this period faced a bevy of challenges and potential threats. Many employers pressed their advantage by requiring their employees to receive pay in company scrip rather than United States currency or bank notes. This scrip could only be redeemed at company stores, which often charged considerably more than shops on the open market. Others required workers to live in company housing. Many workers labored ten or more hours per day, six days per week. Unsafe machines presented a threat to workers' health and safety, but courts consistently ruled that a worker accepted the risks of any job he accepted.<br />In this period many Americans, and particularly industrialists and the emerging middle class who managed their corporations and bought their bonds, came to embrace the doctrine of laissez faire, or the untrammeled free market. The poor were so because they lacked ability and determination. The rich were comfortable because of their superior talents and thrift, argued the exponents of a new ideology that turned Charles Darwin's theory of evolution into a grim new vision of society's quot;
survival of the fittest.quot;
1<br />Among American businesses, the depression especially undermined the positions of railroads. Slow economic times, combined with a huge surplus in railroad capacity, brought the major carriers to a remorseless struggle for survival. Each in turn slashed its rates in order to attract passengers and freight traffic. Passenger rates fell by one-half, and freight rates by two-thirds along some competitive routes.<br />In March of 1877 the Supreme Court upheld the Granger Laws in the case of Munn v. Illinois. In response to the Grange's persistent lobbying on behalf of farmers and other rural interests, the state of Illinois had begun to regulate rates charged by railroads and grain elevators. The laws prevented the carriers from extracting high profits on those routes where they faced little competition from water transportation or other railroads. Many railroads believed that they depended upon these profitable routes for their survival. The laws also precluded the operators of grain elevators from taking advantage of their monopoly positions and virtually dictating crop prices to farmers.2<br />Outraged, a partner in a Chicago grain warehouse had sued to overturn the legislation, and the case had wound its way through the federal courts. The railroads quickly came to see the fate of the case as a key to their future profitability. But in Munn v. Illinois, the High Court established the constitutional principle of public regulation of private businesses involved in serving the public interest.<br />Facing declining revenues, the railroads cut their remaining workers' wages. In the summer of 1877 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad precipitated what became the nation's largest and most violent industrial strike to date with a ten percent wage reduction. Several months earlier, the gigantic Pennsylvania Railroad had announced a similar wage cut. Now the B & O, another of the nation's four largest roads, had made its move.<br />Workers suspected that the railroads were coordinating their actions, blunting the effectiveness of a potential strike against one road by agreeing to take up its lost traffic until the strike ended. If a struck road did not face the prospect of lost customers, organized workers could not influence it. If the railroads agreed to help each other in order to defeat their workers, then simple strikes were futile.<br />When workers walked out on the B & O, their patience was short. Strikes began in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, and spread to St. Louis and Chicago. The railroad called in the usual strikebreakers, further enraging workers. But strikers not only refused to work, they took to preventing strikebreakers from operating trains as well. Strikers and their sympathizers clashed with militias and regular army troops in violent confrontations in Baltimore, Pittsburgh and other B & O cities.<br />The strike continued to spread and brought railroad traffic to a near standstill across the North. On July 21 workers blocked freight traffic in East St. Louis. Three days later, mobs effectively closed the Baltimore and Ohio and Illinois Central railroad yards in Chicago, while strikers halted railroad traffic at Bloomington, Aurora, Peoria, Decatur, Carbondale, and other railroad junctions throughout the state. 3<br />Coal miners also began strikes at mines near Braidwood, LaSalle, Springfield, and Carbondale. Like railroads, mining companies sought to cut their expenses in hard times and repeatedly cut miners' pay. Miners labored twelve to fourteen hours a day, six hours a week, in hazardous conditions. Most were paid in company scrip. In winter miners did not see daylight from one Sunday to the next. Those who protested were fired and blacklisted.<br />At Braidwood, coal operators brought in 400 African-American strikebreakers to replace striking miners. When strikers forced their replacements to leave town, the National Guard reinstated them, and eventually broke the strike. In the summer of 1877 the National Guard put down other disturbances in Peoria, Galesburg, Decatur, East St. Louis, and LaSalle. 4<br />The mayor of Chicago summoned 5000 vigilantes to help restore order there, and received the assistance of National Guard and regular Army units as well. The Chicago Times reported that quot;
TERRORS REIGN, THE STREETS OF CHICAGO GIVEN OVER TO HOWLING MOBS OF THIEVES AND CUTTHROATS.quot;
Police clashed with crowds on July 24, but events reached their culmination the next day. Bloody encounters between police and enraged mobs occurred on Halted Street at 12th and 16th streets, on the Halted Street viaduct, and on Canal Street. Colonel Sheridan's cavalry, newly recalled from the South, restored order after killing 30 Chicagoans and wounding many more. 5<br />The Great Strike of 1877 exerted a profound effect upon American business, as well as political and intellectual life. Many employers' organizations concluded that wage cuts had reached their rock bottom. The men would stand for no more. The strikes also jolted an increasingly complacent middle class, many of whom had no knowledge of the conditions that laborers faced every day. In the summer of 1877, these conditions came to light.<br />The shibboleths of Social Darwinism now appeared in a new light as well, and intellectuals began a struggle to resolve a dilemma alternately known as quot;
the labor question,quot;
and quot;
the social question.quot;
In a society increasingly populated by workers dependent upon large corporations for wages, cut and dried individualism could not provide a reliable guide to future growth. Instead, many Americans came to believe that they would have to fashion a new order that mitigated the effects of a market economy and allowed workers to live meaningful, healthy lives. The Granger laws upheld in the case of Munn v. Illinois pointed to the potential growth of government policies able to protect citizens through regulation in the public interest. But many Illinoisians, as well as other Americans, turned to the promise of voluntary private action as well.<br />
