Organized Labor Dbq Essay

After the Civil War the nation was led into a Second Industrial Revolution. The nation took in a new generation of immigrants. These new ones coming from Southern and Eastern Europe were all willing to take low paying jobs offered by the factories. These new immigrants were accustomed to radical ideas from their home lands and tied them into their newly found American organized labor. To a certain minor extent, organized labor was successful for being so persistent, although several obstructions hindered the use of labor union strikes.
The public’s opinion was a major contributing factor in overruling labor. According to The New York Times, the public was sympathetic towards the strikers of Baltimore and Ohio Road. (Document B) However,
For example, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, the Knights of Labor were protesting against police brutality and an anarchist supposedly set off a bomb. This event led to the end of the Knights of Labor. The government even decided to pardon the accused, nevertheless, it was still a major setback for organized labor. On the other hand, the government at another time decided to be hostile to the workers. During the Homestead strike, where they tried to kill the steel plant’s leader, government “Pinkerton” detectives were sent to clear things up and restore peace. However, many had to die before that could happen as you can see in Coroner’s list in Document G. All were fired and wages cut. Most of the deceased were strikers and it shows that organized labor was ineffective and was not worth the lives of several workers. Additionally, another incident was the Pullman Strike of 1894. It was led by socialist Debs, during a depression and after two wage cuts. An “injuction” was issued on them with the authority of the court and President Cleveland. Document H explains that the Supreme Court had the authority to regulate interstate commerce. The court upheld an injunction in this case, but it was a new way to dismember the labor unions. A prime example is the Sherman Antitrust Act, used to supposedly regulate business in order to gain labor trust, as they were oblivious to its