Rise Of Labor Unions In The Early 20th Century

• Rise of Unions o In response to powerful monopolies and muckrakers stirring up dissent, there was a rise of labor unions in the early 20th century. With immigrants and poor Americans flocking to the cities (see: Second Industrial Revolution), factories had their choice of workers. They could employ women and children, who were cheaper to pay than men were. These poorly-paid workers were forced to labor in terrible conditions in textile factories and mines. Social critics referred to them as "wage slaves." o Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842): The Supreme Court holds that workers have a right to unionize. o Powerful unions included the National Labor Union, Knights of Labor, and the American Federation of Labor. o These unions, who comprised of
It was composed of various self-run national labor unions, who organized themselves under the AFL. The AFL used two major strategies: walkouts and strikes. By 1900, Gompers had himself 500,000 members.
• Gompers, in regards to other union leaders, was semi-conservative. He believed in a multi-class system in which the workers and the employees were at odds.
• However, Gompers only wished for labor to win its fair share of rights. He fought for "bread and butter" issues.
• Bread and Butter Unionism
• Fought for better pay, hours, and working conditions
• Made unionism less of a radical idea --> people were fighting for reasonable things, not utopian absurdities o Company Towns
• Company towns were towns that were built around big factories/business facilities. They offered goods for extremely high prices, thereby keeping the poor factory workers poor. Slavery based upon economic status, rather than race, became the norm.
• Pullman, IL
• When George Pullman created a town surrounding his factory in 1880, he was hailed a leader in improving workers' lives. However, it quickly became clear that he and his company town controlled every fiber of the workers' lives. It was criticized greatly for the system of "feudalism" it imitated. In 1894, workers struck and left the company
It fed and housed the poor, taught immigrants English, and offered classes to help people get jobs. Hull House would become a model for other settlement houses throughout the United States, as it truly helped immigrants acclimate to the American climate. o Social Darwinism
• Social Darwinism takes its name and roots from Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" theory. Capitalists used this theory when promoting their free-market beliefs, as they believed that in a free-market, only the best would succeed.
• Herbert Spencer brought Social Darwinism to the United States, where he taught Americans about sociology and human competition.
• William Graham Sumner would call "millionaires a product of natural selection" in his book, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other.
• In other words, Social Darwinism preached against helping poor immigrants and for white American