Political Bosses Vs Factory Bosses Essay
Chapter 19 The City and Its Workers Factory bosses and political bosses seemed be made of very different types of fabric. Factory bosses give the impression of being harsh, uncaring to the working people. “I said to the boss once it as my turn to go in, and now you have taken that man; what am I to do…He said he could do nothing for me.” Factory bosses give the impression that they care very little for their fellow man and that their main concern is the bottom line. They hire men with young boy as they do not have to a pay the boys as much to work certain machines. “They are forcing these young boys into the mill that should not be in mills at all.” The impression the reading gives to political bosses is radically different than that
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of factory bosses. Political bosses seem to be the “go to guys”, they are “Mr. Fix It”, and they are constantly trying to help others no matter what the situation. “The politician looks after his own interests, the organization’s interests, and the city’s interests all at the same time.” They are giving the best they can in every circumstance that comes up. The main political boss the reading explores is George Washington Plunkitt located in New York City. The reading described a day in the life of this boss, his day started at 2am when he is woken to go to the police station to bail out someone the day officially starts at 6am when fire engines pass his house waking the neighbors where he goes out to see how he can help. That’s how his day goes people come to him with problems and he fixes them, from being unemployed to paying bail for a group of drunks. He goes to weddings, funerals, and church and synagogue services, gives gifts, and pays fines all in the name of getting votes. Working people come to the political bosses for help no matter the problem and they seem factory bosses as a problem. Economic justice is not something the people in these documents know. They are constantly bombarded with inequality. Many times for men to work in the factory they would need a young boy. “The way they do there is this: There is about twelve or thirteen men that go into a mill every morning, and they have to stand their chance, looking for work. The man who has a boy with him, he stands the best chance, and the, if it is my turn or a neighbor’s turn who has no boy, if another man comes in who has a boy he is taken right in and we are left out.” Often unless you have a boy working with you keeping or finding a job is difficult. “If a man had not got a boy to act as ‘back-boy’ it is very hard for him to get along. In many cases they discharge men in that work and put in men who have boys.” During this time of economic disadvantage gave rise to a large movement of socialism and anarchy.
“I soon learned that Socialists and Anarchists are not interchangeable terms, to be used with light indifference in describing the general advocate of revolution against established order.” Regularly you couldn’t have a socialist without an anarchist present as both were calling for change but the theory of how to go about his was very different and caused a great deal of strife. Socialists “repudiated the bare suggestion of violence and being wholly inadequate and absurd.” And believed that the way to change things was the “natural process of evolution” which in humblest terms meant that schooling, equal opportunity, land for all and with administration control would be enough. Even anarchists were not believers that violence against social order was the way to achieve their goals. Anarchists views boiled down to the simplest terms are “the cure for evils of freedom is more freedom”. Anarchists think that “the removal of all artificial restraint in the form of man-made laws would result eventually, to their thinking, in a society as natural and as wholesome as is all physical order which is the exact resultant of the free play of natural
law.”
The most definitive view of class division stems from the rise of domestics in the middle and higher class homes. Many women especially in these readings saw being a domestic harder than working in a factory. These girls saw being a domestic as taking away the freedom they had come to this country for. “It’s freedom that we want when the days’ work is done… You’re never sure that your soul’s your own except when you are out of the house, and I couldn’t stand that one day. Women care just as much for freedom as men do.” Being a domestic was hard work and demeaning for many women, “I hate the very words ‘service’ and ‘servant’. We came to this country to better ourselves, and it’s not bettering to have anybody ordering you around.” The difference in class was growing more and more obvious between even the working class and the middle class, for domestics they heard it from both sides of the track, they heard that they were lesser from the household they worked for “if you take a servants place, you can’t expect to be one to the family” and from other domestics that tell them they will be treated as less “Whatever you do don’t go in to service You’ll always be prisoners and always looked down on.” Most working class seemed to felt that the middle class was disappearing “the speaker had emphasized unnecessarily the existence of the bourgeoisie; for economically considered, there is no longer a middle class… There remain simply the capitalists and the proletarians.” Where many think religion brings a people together this was not the case for many of the working class who turned to socialism, “With the fervor of his hate, this speaker cried out against the minister of Christ, who preached to the wronged and downtrodden poor the duty of patience with ‘divinely appointed lot’ and who try and soothe them to blind submission with promises of an endless future of ecstatic blessedness, when the rich of this world shall burn in the unquenchable fires of hell”. Religion tore the classes even farther apart than they were before.
Work Cited 1. Johnson, Micheal P. Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents. Fifth ed. Vol. 2 Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012 Print.
of factory bosses. Political bosses seem to be the “go to guys”, they are “Mr. Fix It”, and they are constantly trying to help others no matter what the situation. “The politician looks after his own interests, the organization’s interests, and the city’s interests all at the same time.” They are giving the best they can in every circumstance that comes up. The main political boss the reading explores is George Washington Plunkitt located in New York City. The reading described a day in the life of this boss, his day started at 2am when he is woken to go to the police station to bail out someone the day officially starts at 6am when fire engines pass his house waking the neighbors where he goes out to see how he can help. That’s how his day goes people come to him with problems and he fixes them, from being unemployed to paying bail for a group of drunks. He goes to weddings, funerals, and church and synagogue services, gives gifts, and pays fines all in the name of getting votes. Working people come to the political bosses for help no matter the problem and they seem factory bosses as a problem. Economic justice is not something the people in these documents know. They are constantly bombarded with inequality. Many times for men to work in the factory they would need a young boy. “The way they do there is this: There is about twelve or thirteen men that go into a mill every morning, and they have to stand their chance, looking for work. The man who has a boy with him, he stands the best chance, and the, if it is my turn or a neighbor’s turn who has no boy, if another man comes in who has a boy he is taken right in and we are left out.” Often unless you have a boy working with you keeping or finding a job is difficult. “If a man had not got a boy to act as ‘back-boy’ it is very hard for him to get along. In many cases they discharge men in that work and put in men who have boys.” During this time of economic disadvantage gave rise to a large movement of socialism and anarchy.
“I soon learned that Socialists and Anarchists are not interchangeable terms, to be used with light indifference in describing the general advocate of revolution against established order.” Regularly you couldn’t have a socialist without an anarchist present as both were calling for change but the theory of how to go about his was very different and caused a great deal of strife. Socialists “repudiated the bare suggestion of violence and being wholly inadequate and absurd.” And believed that the way to change things was the “natural process of evolution” which in humblest terms meant that schooling, equal opportunity, land for all and with administration control would be enough. Even anarchists were not believers that violence against social order was the way to achieve their goals. Anarchists views boiled down to the simplest terms are “the cure for evils of freedom is more freedom”. Anarchists think that “the removal of all artificial restraint in the form of man-made laws would result eventually, to their thinking, in a society as natural and as wholesome as is all physical order which is the exact resultant of the free play of natural
law.”
The most definitive view of class division stems from the rise of domestics in the middle and higher class homes. Many women especially in these readings saw being a domestic harder than working in a factory. These girls saw being a domestic as taking away the freedom they had come to this country for. “It’s freedom that we want when the days’ work is done… You’re never sure that your soul’s your own except when you are out of the house, and I couldn’t stand that one day. Women care just as much for freedom as men do.” Being a domestic was hard work and demeaning for many women, “I hate the very words ‘service’ and ‘servant’. We came to this country to better ourselves, and it’s not bettering to have anybody ordering you around.” The difference in class was growing more and more obvious between even the working class and the middle class, for domestics they heard it from both sides of the track, they heard that they were lesser from the household they worked for “if you take a servants place, you can’t expect to be one to the family” and from other domestics that tell them they will be treated as less “Whatever you do don’t go in to service You’ll always be prisoners and always looked down on.” Most working class seemed to felt that the middle class was disappearing “the speaker had emphasized unnecessarily the existence of the bourgeoisie; for economically considered, there is no longer a middle class… There remain simply the capitalists and the proletarians.” Where many think religion brings a people together this was not the case for many of the working class who turned to socialism, “With the fervor of his hate, this speaker cried out against the minister of Christ, who preached to the wronged and downtrodden poor the duty of patience with ‘divinely appointed lot’ and who try and soothe them to blind submission with promises of an endless future of ecstatic blessedness, when the rich of this world shall burn in the unquenchable fires of hell”. Religion tore the classes even farther apart than they were before.
Work Cited 1. Johnson, Micheal P. Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents. Fifth ed. Vol. 2 Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012 Print.