You touched on a critical point in your forum, as of why workers went on strike. While poverty played a significant role, in 1877, railroad employees experienced a significant pay cut, which sparked the Great Railway Strike, triggering violence and a shutdown of the railways lasting nearly six weeks. Next, the Pullman strike began with railroad owners becoming increasingly wealthier, while none of the profits trickled down to the employees. The labor walk-outs encompassed the substantial divide between social classes. Hence, rich businessmen were increasing their profits, while poor workers often remained stagnate with low wages and company issued paycuts.
Higher class people were considered the best and at the top, so if the higher class people were in the strike, it would make it seem like the strike was important. That is another reason why the fire was a disaster of epic
They were open to varied groups accepting workers of all skill levels and agricultural employees,both, women and men. But they didn’t accepted immigrant and black workers. They were known for generating many strikes which for the same reason, made them eventually fail by their numbers declined substantially.
The government is willing to maintain the system and suppress socialism by arming businesses against strikes. This forces unions and workers to comply with business and therefore destroy socialist threats from unions. The government made hundred of arrests “The strike had been peaceful. But when it was over, there were raids and arrests: on the Socialist party headquarters, on a printing plant. Thirty-nine members of the IWW were jailed as “ 'ring- leaders of anarchy '”.(Zinn
Between 1750 and 1914, Western Europe was industrializing. Russian Empire, after their failures in the Crimean War, decided that it was time for reform. As a result, Russia dramatically changed its labor system, such as emancipation of the serfs and industrialization. However, while there were these changes, Russian serfs still saw little change in their quality of life. Serfs were essentially tied to the land and worked without pay.
Once anti-communist fears began running rampant in the city, the Communist Party and the CIO were no longer able to work together in an attempt to influence the greater good of the people. Honey states, “Union opponents everywhere condemned strikes in armaments-related industries as the work of ‘fifth columnists,’ equating fascism with communism and communism with labor and civil rights activism” (145-146). Soon prominent union activists were being placed on the “red list” for allegedly possessing Communist tendencies (146). Though Communist workers were more than willing to stand and fight with the unions, union leaders made the decision to no longer ally with
Reconstruction- created race conflict in all aspects of American society Both in the North and South The Gilded Age- separation of the classes began to emerge wealthy elite rose above the working class and artificially suppressing worker wages Social Darwinism and Herbert Spencer- the application of Darwin’s theory of evolution to socioeconomics by Spencer created a sense that lower classes were “unfit” Survival of the fittest World War I- following the disillusionment of WWI, a fear of outsiders rose Harding: “Return to Normalcy”
As America entered the Gilded Age, its urban population grew, nativists resisted minorities, government corruption was rampant, and immigrant populations increased substantially (Shi and Tindall 626-644). Government corruption was exemplified by the patronage system, under which loyal supporters of politicians were given government jobs (Shi and Tindall 641). Most of the immigrants from this period were from southern and eastern European countries, such as Russia, Poland, Greece, and Italy, and were judged as inferior by many Americans because of their cultural differences (Shi and Tindall 630). Immigrants also caused tension during WWI because of their lingering loyalties to nations on either side of the conflict (Chapter 21 Overview).
The Civil War and Reconstruction period, Gilded Age, Imperialism, and World War I all brought challenges, expansion, and transformation to this nation and it’s people. These periods would change the nation, “In the years following the Civil War, formed and their white allies, North and South, would seek to redefine the meaning and boundaries of American freedom” (Give Me Liberty 555). The Civil War split apart the nation due to slavery differences between the North and South. The historical narrative from 1865 through World War I involves the challenges faced with inequality and violence resulting in the transformation of geographical space, cultural landscape, and political institutions. The Civil War exacerbated existing racial discrimination
From 1865 to 1900, the rise of Industrial America occurred. In this time period, the railroad system was developed, new job opportunities sprung up left and right, and the American dream changed. Although the American society’s economy and standard of living seemed to prosper, it also allowed laborers’ lives to crumble,strikes occurred, children were left uneducated and forced to work in order to help support their families, and forced those families to get accustomed to squalid living conditions and hazardous working environments. The social classes developed.
Roger Daniel’s points out that there is masses of evidence pre dating the 1920s which can argue that hostility toward immigrants was certainly not a new development in America. This is an equally important factor as it shows there was always a flaw with the ‘melting pot’ theory and hostility was always a major part of America’s history. In the 1860s large numbers of Chinese immigrants flocked to America as cheap labour for projects such as the Union Pacific Railroad and by the 1870s there was over 1000,000 Chinese immigrants in the United States. They were often threatened with racial violence and driven out by WASPs who were threatened by the cheap labour they were willing to offer.
Also at the time children were still being used in factories as laborers they did not have to pay. As David A. Wells said, “[T]he modern manufacturing system has been brought into a condition comparable to that of a military organization, in which the individual no longer works as independently as formerly, but as a private in the ranks, obeying orders, keeping step, as it were, to the tap of the drum..”. Many were just like simple robots being used as cheap labor, no one took pride in their work anymore and once workers and citizens began to realize that they held many strikes to try and change what the government had set for them. Some strikes include The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Haymarket Bombing 1886, Homestead Strike 1892, and the Pullman Strike 1894. These strikes were held by many different labor unions that had formed at the time, to the public many saw the movements of the unions as radical and aggressive.
Therefore, they excluded or segregated people of different cultures to make their race seem more superior. Both of these articles concentrated on the significance of using racism as a unifying force to prevent divisions in the majority white culture and as a way to make the majority seem superior to others. The Jim Crow laws aided the nation in becoming a unified force before World War 1, but further damaged our country for decades to come. During the 1880 to 1920 period, the United States should have been more accepting of different types of culture to help build the country since it was so
The war fever made the political parties even more divided. People did not trust immigrants. Federalists thought the immigrants would back the Republicans. Congress passed the alien act that raised the time to live in the U.S. to be nationalized from 5 to 14 years (9 years longer) and gave the president the power to deport or imprison any alien he considered dangerous. People thought this was unfair, so Congress passed the sedition act (sedition is activity designed to overthrow government) that harshly limited free speech by making it illegal to write and say anything insulting, false, or with “bad intent” about the government.
Between 1870 and 1900, an estimated 25 million immigrants had made their way to the United States. This era, titled the Gilded Age, played an extremely important role in the shaping of American society. The United States saw great economic growth and social changes; however, as the name suggested, the Gilded Ages hid a profound number of problems. During this period of urbanization, the publicizing of wealth and prosperity hid the high rates of poverty, crime, and corruption. European immigrants who had come to the United States in search of jobs and new opportunities had fallen into poverty as well as poor working and living conditions.
