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Labor Movements During The Gilded Age

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One of the greatest eras of the American history that brought remarkable advances in labor rights is the era of the Great Depression that saw an increase in the number of labor movements and mass radicalization of workers. Unknown among many people is that the growth and success of the American labor movements during the years of the Great Depression encompassed an intersection of political, social, and economic concerns. It should remain remembered that the immediate occurrence of Great Depression happened a few years after the end of the First World War that many countries were unprepared to meet its aftermath. According to great American historians, there were significant differences between the achievement of the labor movements during the era of Great Depression and those of the Gilded Age or the 1920s. This essay broadly discusses the reasons why worker achieved greater advances in higher wages, better hours, and other gains during the Great …show more content…

During the intense labor battles and organized industrial strikes, there was a sudden uproar of the issues surrounding civil rights that most of the Americans were currently fighting to achieve. It should remain known that the conscription of the youths into the military under a short training period, the sudden losses of soldiers in the First World War, and the brutal military engagement of the protesting workers were unlawful and against the human rights. After the government and its military troops were forcefully evacuating the Bonus Contesters along the Washington streets, some veterans were already constructing a great temporary encampment in a remote neighborhood known as Anacostia. The war on Civil Rights ignited in this temporary settlement with workers urging the government to resolve the Bonus scandal

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“The Great Depression upset the survival strategies workers had developed during the 1920s and forced new solutions.” (364) Many workers dependent on churches to help them survive the depression could no longer depend on them because the churches and ethnic groups could not support the sheer number of people in need. The elimination of the many Welfare capitalisms programs put in place by companies during the 1920s made laborers looking other to other places to get help. Before many people were ashamed of excepting handouts and charity because they felt embarrassed by it, but soon workers were no longer ashamed of accepting government aid, which leads to a new behavior that helped give rise to the Congress of Industrial Workers and national unionization. “Workers in Chicago and elsewhere in the nation were looking to the federal government as they had never done before.”

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In 1883, a machinist testified before the Senate Committee on Labor and Capital (Document D), and stated that a “great deal of difference” had taken place due to the instatement of Organized Labor forces. When asked to state the differences he had seen take place, he admitted that skilled jobs had been broken down, and because of technology and machinery, there was a lower demand for workers in general, skilled or unskilled. He also stated that “100 men are able to do now what it took 300 or 400 men to do fifteen years ago”. This shows the lack of success that organized labor had in helping American workers gain and maintain

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The author Gregory Mantsios is the director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies at Queens College of the City University of New York, and the editor of A New Labor Movement for the New Century (1998). No contact information is given and due to the fact that Mantsios is so well educated on the topic, there could be a slight bias towards the well educated.

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Throughout the early 19th century, changing politics and an evolving society in America impacted all classes of people, specifically the white working class. Jacksonian Democratic ideals was influenced by the working class, and the white working class benefited from President Jackson’s decisions. During the year of Jackson’s presidential election, the Workies, which consisted of working men, wanted to protect individuals who earned money from arduous labor, but failed to make payments punctually. Jacksonian Democrats realized the Workies language was valuable in the fact that beliefs of the Workies group echoed through Jackson’s party.

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During the Gilded Age many inventions were created. Trains were a booming industry that provided transportation and ways to get goods to other people. Factories were a huge part of the industrialization period because while yes they took away a lot of the labor jobs they also opened opportunities for women to work in the factories, one of the negative impacts that factories had on the U.S. was the child labor problems. Children would work in factories because they had small fingers that could get into the machines to repair them. One wrong move and the children could lose a hand.

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Industrialization skyrocketed during The Gilded Age. People became millionaires, monopolies arose, and many jobs were created as a result. However, because there were no regulations, workers were exploited by monopolists. Political Machines took advantage of immigrants by bribing their votes in exchange for helping them assimilate into American culture, Americanizing them. Americanization is the process to assimilate immigrants into American culture.

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Industrialist had a huge impact on the gilded age. The gilded age was a rapid expansion of industrialism and a massive jump in the population of immigrants in america. The industrialist during the gilded age such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt had a big impact because of their businesses. Vanderbilt was the first of the three to be a leader of industry. Vanderbilt made millions using the railroad system and built an empire with them.

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The Gilded Age's political, social, and economic types resulted in a rise in populist changes in the United States in the late nineteenth century. The uneven distribution of wealth and the exploitation of labor were two major factors in populist reform throughout this period. By pushing economic and political changes that would improve the working class and shift income from the wealthy elite to the general community, the populist movement wanted to address these problems.   The United States had a period of fast economic growth during the Gilded Age, which extended from the 1870s through the 1890s. But because of the uneven distribution of this increase, the great majority of people did not greatly profit from it.

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It is a difficult task to challenge the social and economic policies of a country, especially one as patriotic as the United States during the post wartime Red scare era of the 1920 's. labor unions could account for this as they saw their membership fall from a high of 5 million in the 1920s to a mere 3.6 million by 1923(Rosenzweig 353). A combination of Supreme court decisions, Employer pressures and in many cases a lack of a strong leadership seen in previous individuals like Samuel Gompers contributed to this. Yet this trend surprisingly didn’t remain consistent as the great depression emerged around the 1930s. In fact they tripled there membership during the 1930s(Rosenzweig 429).They opened up, recruiting millions of women in their causes

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The AF of L wanted “unionism” and opposed socialism. TheKnights of Labor, another labor union, was created in 1869 and enlisted in their ranks not only alllaborers but also everyone who could be truly classified as a producer. Labor unions, the two major depressions and the three “robber barons” were three of theforemost reasons the Gilded Age got its name. The “robber barons” invested in things that wouldultimately lead to a “Golden Industrial Age” but they didn’t achieve it totally legitimately, and thecreation of the labor unions sided with the workers, but at times, grew violent in their methods.

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Farmers and Industrial Workers in the Gilded Age In a time when industrialization was booming, immigrants were racing towards the “American Dream”, and cities were growing towards the sky, the United States was thriving. As a country, the United States went from rural, to mostly urban, which made America “the world’s largest industrial power” as stated by John Green. Since the U.S. had become mostly urban, this left the very few rural workers (farmers), and even some of the industrial workers unhappy. This period of industrialization is called the Gilded Age than spans from 1865 to 1900.The farmers and industrial workers responded to the Gilded Age in significantly negative ways including unions against their authority, strikes and political

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During the Progressive Era, most employers were not concerned with workers rights and focused more on profit than human rights or safety. The poor working class, as well as immigrants who had worked in the United States for a while, became infuriated over the unfair treatment and working conditions of which they suffered. Hugh Rockoff explains, “…industrialization had alienated the workingman…” (Rockoff 747).

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The Guilded age was a period of wealth and improvement which was used to cover up poverty and corruption inside the united states. Eventhough there were lots of improvements, not only in technology but also in society, there were lots of problems. Problems such as corruption and poverty. As time went on people started to realise this problems and some got improved, but others didn’t. 　　This gilded age was a problem.

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In the beginning there wasn’t much to America. President Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory in 1803. He sent the Corps of Discovery, led by Lewis and Clark, to explore the territory in 1804, now we have western America. In 1829, Andrew Jackson became president, he didn’t like the Native Americans. He had them leave their land and go elsewhere; Famously known as the Trail of Tears, they walked from their homes to a camp in Oklahoma.

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What was the Gilded Age and why did Mark Twain refer to it as such? To help understand this question, one must know the meaning of the word gild. Per Merriam Webster, the term gild means to “to give an attractive but often deceptive appearance to” (Gild, n.d.). After the Civil War the American people had become tired of all the corruption and simply wanted to see an end to it and to have a stable economy. The Gilded Age was fashioned to be prosperous times for all Americans, promising wealth, and an end to past political corruption.

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