Knights Of Labor During World War One Essay

During World War One, Labor Unions formed concessions for the war effort and wanted demands met after the war. Come the late 1880’s specifically 1869, the Knights of Labor were born. The Knights of Labor was the first major effort to create a Labor Organization in America. By 1890, the membership of the Knights shrunk from over 700,000 to about 100,000. Only a couple years later, the organization vanished all together after several damaging strikes and the organizations failure to restore their reputation. (Brinkley 482) In 1881, representatives from existing craft unions came together to form the American Federation of Labor. This then became the most important and enduring labor group in the country. Led by Samuel Gompers, their first objective

The army at the time only consisted of about 120,000 soldiers, and 80,000 in the National Guard. Neither groups had any actual combat experience, only a handful of men that served in the Spanish-American War. As a result, President Theodore Roosevelt passed the Selective Service Act, which drafted men into the armed services, creating the American Expeditionary Force. (Brinkley

Shortly after the men started leaving to go into war women began to break away from their traditional house roles. Due to the men leaving for the war, the work force started to decrease. Women began to fill mens shoes in jobs such as bank clerks, ticket sellers, chauffeurs, elevator operators, etc. as a result. Labor Unions were adamant that women not work in the factories. Women were paid about half of what the men made, and worked in dangerous and unhealthy circumstances. In often cases, women were not seen in many unions as men were, this is due to the fact that unions were hostile to female workers. As a result to this situation, the National Women's Trade Union League was assembled with 150,000 women leading it. However, the war did not improve the women’s wages. (First World