Working knconditions. Welcome back, everybody. As you know, weve been in the guilded age for some time now. And weve already scene the Technological Innovations that made some of this economic expansion possible. We saw both the economic transformations and the effects of those changes in the economy as far as lifestyles, both of the very rich, these opulent robert barren lifestyles on the one hand on on the other hand, of the very poor. Whether it was the People Living in the shacks of the new england mill towns or whether it was when we explored the guild l age city, the increasing problems of housing and of sanitation that came with the cities going along with immigration. And then last time we saw in particular, there was some frustration with this guilded age regime as we talked about the farmers in this period. That really could have been called discontent in the guilded age part one, but today, we turn our attention mostly back toward industry and in some way, back toward the cities as well. I want to look at frustrations with this new order of america. We started with the song, eight hours, which was a popular labor anthem in the 1880s. You heard the chorus. Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what we will. And in some ways, that song speak to what were going to be talking about today. On the one hand, eight hours for work, eight hours for rest. Were talking about labor relations. More broadly speaking, political economy. About the possibly for state regulation. At least arguments over that. Thats somewhat straightforward. What about eight hours for what we will . We want to feel the sunshine. Were not machines. Were human beings. We want to have a life. A life outside of work. Even those on the top of this new age gilded order, as well see toward the end, growing anxious over this new world that seems to be coming about, but first, we look at economics and as with so much else this semester, a lot of our story starts with the railroads. Weve seen how the Trans Continental Railroad changed the west, the economy. Weve told you that didnt stop in 1869 when they drove the golden spike. Instead, we continue to build by the end of the century, there were four, and there were all sorts of tributary lines to connect different parts of the west to those main corridors. It seemed like a really good investment. Indeed, the lions share of the stocks were not industrial. They were railroad stocks. And a lot of people scrambled to get in on the ground floor and one of those projects was the Northern Pacific railroad and the fellow who won the right to be the chief fundraiser for that project was jay cook. A very well respected financer. He had been a major financer of the union effort during the civil war. The problem was this. Investors were starting to realize in the 1870s, that perhaps in our zeal for railroad build, we had gone too far. Maybe the Railroad Bubble was about to burst and all of a sudden, jay cook has trouble raising money. We had trouble get ago loan. People found out he was overextended. And on september 18th, 1873, jay cook and company declared bankruptcy. When cook went under a drag down other businesses and railroads and businesses ands with him, a panic hit wall street as you see here. Beginning september 20th, which was heavily populated by railroad stocks, closed for ten days and over the next two months, 55 railroads went bruft. And it didnt stop there. By 1874, 25 of the nations Railroad Bonds were in default and it wasnt just railroads that were affected. Over the following two years, there were over 18,000 business failures. Many people, including this cartoonist, clung to the traditional view that ultimately, that was a necessary evil. Right . Failure is part of the system and so we should see the panic as the cartoonist does. As a sanitation officer cleaning all of the trash out of wall street. In the meantime, a lot of people had to suffer. In the meantime, Railroad Construction ground to a halt. Unemployment skyrocketed in many sectors and in some cities, unemployment was as high as 20 and joblessness remained ripe for the next five years. Now, a at this same moment, people were starting to ask questioning about whether or not the railroad should have so much power within this new national economy. You see vanderbilt pictured as the modern colossus of railroads along with his colleague, cyrus field and the notorious jay gould. As we saw last time, farmers considered their rates and their control over the economy to be extorti extortion. And indeed, other groups were starting to feel this way as well. Frustrated farmers and some allied industrialists led to some attempts as intervention. In the early 1870s, some states passed what we call the granger laws. They did things like set maximum freight and Grain Elevator rates. Forbid rate discrimination against short hauls. Many urban consumers felt the railroads were overcharging them. Not just farmers were frustrated. They created state railroad commissions to supervise and enforce this new Regulatory Regime. This happened in minnesota, iowa, wisconsin and illinois. Illinois is particularly important for us because it was there that the law was challenged by the firm of monun and scott, who was accused of having overcharged their customers at their Grain Elevator in chicago. They challenged their 100 fine and it went to the support and in 1877, by 572 majority, the court under chief justice wade declared that when private property is devoted to a public use, it is subject to public regulation. And incidentally, the federal governments not acting, so theres a door open for the states to step in. But dont consider this a longterm win for state level regulation because in 1886, a 63 majority of the Supreme Court declared in another case, this time, the Wabash Railroad against illinois, that under the Commerce Clause of the constitution, states were forbidden from imposing direct burdens on interstate commerce. And illinoiss Regulatory Regime was considered a direct burden on a railroad, considered interstate commerce, therefore, state regulation was severely hampered moving forward. This along with a couple of other cases in the late 1880s, which extended 14th amendment protecti protections to corporations acted to undermine the state level regulations. That doesnt mean the public stopped being frustrated with the abuses of the railroads. In fact, public outrage over the wabash decision led to passage of the interstate congress act of congress in 1887. It create d the interstate commerce commission. It made it forbidden to have rebates from powerful shippers. There would be public inspection of rates and if you abused these regulatio regulations, you could face up to a 5,0 5,000 fine. So take that, vanderbilt. More over, they werent through. Growing frustrations over the trusts, led congress to pass the sherman antitrust act, which is named for senator john sherman of ohio. The brother of William Tecumseh sherman. By 1827, the states had passed antitrust laws and now the congress was joining the parade. The sherman halaw, and the language is important for us. The sherman law outlawed every contract, combination r or conspiracy and restraint of trade. Again, imposing a 5,000 fine and potentially also a year in prin, but i dont want you to be misled. This hardly represents the foundation of a robust Regulatory Regime. For one thing, the president s of the guilded age were generally uncomfortable with this sort of state intervention. They held to a more traditional la say fair view and so Benjamin Harrison was president and signed this law but he didnt do too much to enforce it. When the government tried to enforce it, they were smacked down by the courts. In the case of u. S. Ec knight, the court declared 81 that the act did not apply to manufacturing monopolies. The u. S. Sugar fining Company Controlled more than 90 of the sector. Certainly, this is consolidation, right . But they say production is not interstate commerce. Something different. Theyve narrowly define d it wasnt be until the 20th century until the sherman act was used successfully against monopolies. Something well talk about in a later lecture. Also for workers growing frustrate frustrated labor would be frustrated in its protest. 1870s meant a lot of things for workers. One thing it meant that hard times begat poor wages, less availability of work. Less security, less staebility, and at time, harsh measures by management to try to keep their companies afloat. Railroads in particular had tried to respond to the crisis of the 70s by cutting their own rates to try and get their business and outdo their competitors. And how do they make up for the losses of cutting these rates . They cut their workers wages. That led to a decade of mounting frustrations by the workers. There were a series of localized strikes in 1887 and in early 1877 and then resenting the wage cuts. And resent iing the public progm that was often heaped on the workers if they stood up for themselves because it was believed by many, especially in the press and in the government, that railroads are a public good and so if you strike against a railro railroad, youre doing something especially evil. So the workers began to resernt all of this and it exploded in the summer of 1877. The new group called the trainmans union struck against the baltimore, ohio railroad. Baltimore police broke up the first round of pickets, but the next day, workers took control of a key Railroad Junction in martinsburg, west virginia. A battle between police and surly mob required state militia intervention and eventually, federal troops to restore order. Within days, these sorts of scenes were e erupting all around the country. In baltimore, the mob tried to trap the militia in an arm ri. The soldiers fired and killed ten people. In pittsburgh, rioters burned a rail yard and destroyed cars while exchanging fire with troops. Strikers in indianapolis halted all cars and trains except for trains carrying mail for reasons well see in a moment. By july 25th, in fact, all lines outside of new england and the south were being affected in one way or another. So you could feel the tension on streets around the country. In chicago, businessmen controlled the streets with guns fearing a potential revolution. In buffalo, the revolution was underway and crowds swarmed the yards of the new york central and claimed control of the depots of the Lake Shore Railroad around erie railroad. Ultimately, this Great Railroad strike collapsed. First of all, the depression was still going. Unemployment was still high, so it was easy to find desperate people to work as strike breakers, but employment was still around 8 nationally. These are estimates. Some companies were fearful of continued strikes and chaos and were willing to negotiate. But ultimately, we cant call this a win for labor. If anything, the press became indignant over o this outburst of street action and they called on the states to beef up their militias. With an eye to the future, state levels were enhanced and armo armories were constructed to prepare for the next events. Meanwhile, con full graciouses like those in the late 1870s, caused many workers to ask a fundamental question. Wouldnt this be more accomplished if we had a better organization. They turned to the knights of labor. The knights of labor started as sort of secret society founded by urijah stevens, a garment worker in philadelphia who was obsessed with all sorts of rituals and secrets and so forth, but after 1877, many workers became interested in organization and look ed to the nights. The knights were never effective recruiters, but people were looking for an organization and so in 1879, the knight of labor had 9,000 and then had 42,000. Then they were discussing monetary reform. They began discussing an eight ahour day. Organizing for coop rative schemes for the workers. Trying to gain state and local political influence. Many began imembrace iembracing of henry george who called for a single tax on land. Whats interesting besides their wide ranging agenda is their broad leverage. They were highly inclusive. They reached across lines of skill. So its skill and unskilled workers. Immigrants and foreign workers. Catholics and prod testanprotes. Black members as well as white. Male as well as female. So this was a very large and Inclusive Organization and they were building a lot of momentum in the 1880s. Youll see in a moment they have a decline, however. And at the moment when we see them start to decline, a totally different ideal in labor comes to the floor. That is craft unionism. The American Federation of labor. Founded in 1886. Their leader is samuel gompers. His papers are at the federal libraries if you want to lerner more. They werent inclusive. They were only focused on elite crafts men. This was strategic, you can say, because the skilled craftsman have more leverage when it comes to negotiation. Theyre harder to replace so maybe you have to talk to them and they had much narrower goals. The phrase was pure and simple unionism. Were going after bread and butter issues. Shorter hours, more wages. Not trying to change the world though, so this more conservative, elite union, would be the one to survive the chaos were going to talk about now moving forward. In the meantime, the 1880s would witness rekha pitchlations of many of the troubling themes of the 1870s. Once again, a Major Economic panic. This one in 1884 followed once again by an industrial downturn followed once again by labor troubles. Most noteworthy in this time was a period known as the great uphee value. Its a sporadic series of events in many ways. In may of 1886, there was a successful strike by unorganized Railroad Workers against the Union Pacific railroad. It capitulated within two days and the workers say now that were on a role, lets join the knights of labor. Make this a permanent fixture. In june of 1884, we saw the beginning of a major mine strike in the river valley of ohio where 4,000 workers plus their families and the community went out on strike. They, the strike lasted six months. The miners lost, but whats noteworthy is it taught them the usefulness of organization and coordination. Because if you go on strike, you dont get paid. So the strike doesnt last very long because you have to eat. But they were able to organize and raise funds. They had a 100,000 relief fund that enabled them to keep this fight up for six months and once gerngs it demonstrate d to workers the value of organization organization. Then in march of 1885 came a major strike against the missouri pacific railroad, which was trying to have a pay cut. Most of which was owned by our buccaneering friend jay gould. On e behalf of the workers, which probably tells us more about gould than the governors but never the less, gould gave back the pay cut and once again, workers saw value in organization. It all meant dramatic growth for the knights of labor. Then they had 700,000 member, but this would be the knights High Water Mark and one reason for the decline is the first of several famous and telling episodes within American Labor religion. We can call them really explosions in the guilded age. The hey market affair. There was a strike at the mccorm irk reaper works in chicago on may 3rd, 1886. There were anarchists in chicago and they said this violence, to us, is a wonderful example of our broader critique of american capitalism and so we want to take advantage of this moment to use this tragedy in order to demonstrate to people the validity of our so they called for protests beginning may 4th. They were well attended by the working classes. Especially german immigrants. There was a large turn around. It was peaceful by all accounts. At least in the beginning. It was relatively tame. According to the tame mayor of chicago. Mainstream politician, carter harrison, who was there, who witnessed the events and was satisfied that things were going to be fine and went home. In fact, a lot of people were deciding that things were okay and it was time to go home, but it wasnt. Because what happened next is the rally was starting to break up. Someone through a pipe bomb. And a policeman was killed and the policeman began to fire and a shootout ensue and six police and four protestors were killed in the cross fire. We never figured out who threw the pipe bomb, but that doesnt really matter. We knew who to blame. The anarchists. These germans and radicals. Four ended up being executed. Others received long prison citizens. Pardoned the three surviving anarchists, saying this whole thing had been a travesty of justice. We still dont know who threw the pipe bomb. We know it wasnt them. Never the less, the resulting fear of radicalism led to increasing antilabor sentiment nationwide. 1892 was a period, we could have picked any number of incidents to talk about. In new orleans, there was a general strike that went on and on and involved 25,000 workers. Dozens of different organizations. Black workers and white workers many new orleans. There was a Major Incident in the coal mining fields of eastern illinois. Starting in 1892 going into 1892 in which tennessee miners protested against the use of convict labor. Which was being used to undermine their wages. And they protested by arming themselves, burning down the stockades where the quigt ts we convicts were being held. The militia came in and ended up being defeated. But the one im going to choose to spend more time on occur nd a place weve gotten to know a little bit in this class. Homestead, pennsylvania. Steel works. The Steel Workers there were trying to organize and trying to join a National Group known as the iron and Steel Workers. At one point in his career Andrew Carnegie favored the principle of collective bargaining, but it was hit itin too close to hom