Plummeting transportation and communication costs opened new national media, which advertising agencies used to nationalize various products.īy the turn of the century, corporate leaders and wealthy industrialists embraced the new principles of scientific management, or Taylorism, after its noted proponent, Frederick Taylor. National credit agencies eased the uncertainties surrounding rapid movement of capital among investors, manufacturers, and retailers. New administrative frameworks sustained the weight of vast firms. Technological innovations and national investments slashed the costs of production and distribution. The post–Civil War era saw revolutions in American industry. Long hours, dangerous working conditions, and the difficulty of supporting a family on meager and unpredictable wages compelled armies of labor to organize and battle against the power of capital. Skills mattered less and less in an industrialized, mass-producing economy, and their strength as individuals seemed ever smaller and more insignificant when companies grew in size and power and managers grew flush with wealth and influence. Many workers perceived their new powerlessness in the coming industrial order. The greatest strikes first hit the railroads only because no other industry had so effectively marshaled together capital, government support, and bureaucratic management. Growing labor unrest accompanied industrialization. John Pierpont Morgan with two friends, ca.1907. It convinced laborers of the need for institutionalized unions, persuaded businesses of the need for even greater political influence and government aid, and foretold a half century of labor conflict in the United States. Nearly 100 Americans died in “The Great Upheaval.” Workers destroyed nearly $40 million worth of property. Six weeks after it had begun, the strike had been crushed. ![]() Soldiers moved from town to town, suppressing protests and reopening rail lines. ![]() On the orders of the president, American soldiers were deployed all across northern rail lines. When militia in West Virginia refused to break the strike, federal troops broke it instead. When Pennsylvania militiamen were unable to contain the strikes, federal troops stepped in. ![]() Rail lines were shut down all across neighboring Illinois, where coal miners struck in sympathy, tens of thousands gathered to protest under the aegis of the Workingmen’s Party, and twenty protesters were killed in Chicago by special police and militiamen.Ĭourts, police, and state militias suppressed the strikes, but it was federal troops that finally defeated them. Federal troops and vigilantes fought their way into the depot, killing eighteen and breaking the strike. Louis, and strikers seized rail depots and declared for the eight-hour day and the abolition of child labor. The militia fired into the crowd, killing ten. In Reading, strikers destroyed rail property and an angry crowd bombarded militiamen with rocks and bottles. Strikers set fire to the city, destroying dozens of buildings, over a hundred engines, and over a thousand cars. The head of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Thomas Andrew Scott, suggested that if workers were unhappy with their wages, they should be given “a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread.” 1 Law enforcement in Pittsburgh refused to put down the protests, so the governor called out the state militia, who killed twenty strikers with bayonets and rifle fire. Strikes convulsed towns and cities across Pennsylvania. In Baltimore, the militia fired into a crowd of striking workers, killing eleven and wounding many more. The governor of Maryland deployed the state’s militia. Many strikers destroyed rail property rather than allow militias to reopen the rails. When local police forces would not or could not suppress the strikes, governors called out state militias to break them and restore rail service. Panicked business leaders and friendly political officials reacted quickly. ![]() Louis, shutting down railroad traffic-the nation’s economic lifeblood-across the country. That year, mired in the stagnant economy that followed the bursting of the railroads’ financial bubble in 1873, rail lines slashed workers’ wages (even, workers complained, as they reaped enormous government subsidies and paid shareholders lucrative stock dividends). The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 heralded a new era of labor conflict in the United States. William Jennings Bryan and the Politics of Gold
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |