“Online Friday” 2/8 (thanks, Nemo)

by Dr. H - February 8th, 2013

Since when did we begin naming snowstorms? Anyway. We don’t have class today; this is the “online version” instead. Stay safe and warm today!

Some quick reminders and news:

  • Please remember that the online quiz is open until 9:00 am Friday 2/8.
  • Your SkillBuilder is due Friday morning on the regular schedule, by the start of your classtime. Send it as an email attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf) with your LAST NAME as the start of the filename. Example: Hangen.Skillbuilder3
  • Next Friday will be in-class exam #1 – click here to download the study guide. You may bring with you to the exam ONE 3×5 index card with anything you want on it.
  • The reading for Monday is ACH Chapter 18 (the entire chapter – read for main ideas, not for the little details)
  • Got questions? Leave a comment, or email me. See you Monday!

Today’s reading was ACH Ch 17, p. 528-537 about labor organizing. Begin by thinking about some of the wretched conditions that late 19th century workers experienced (click on any of the pictures for more details).

Child Labor

Manuel, the young shrimp picker, 5 years old (Biloxi, Mississippi)

Dangerous, Dirty Workplaces

A view of Ewen Breaker (PA) Coal Co.

No Compensation for Workplace Injury

Harry McShane.

Unregulated Waste Disposal
Scavenger. Location: Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts
Poor Quality Housing

Housing conditions at Lynchburg (VA) Cotton Mills

(All of these photographs were taken by Lewis Hine, in his work documenting American workers for the National Child Labor Committee. Click here to see more of Hine’s work)

Between 1870 and 1900, there were a number of movements and organizations that sought to unite the “producing classes” – which included both wage laborers and farmers, since both groups saw themselves “at the mercy of large corporations” (Henretta 529). Such movements include:

  • Grange (founded 1867) – cooperative rural aid society that provided meeting halls, banks, insurance, grain storage, and farm equipment. Supported paper currency (Greenbacks) and allied with labor in some parts of the country to form the Greenback-Labor political party.
  • Knights of Labor, which started as a fraternal society for garment workers and expanded to be a large and politically active organization that included both men and women, skilled and unskilled, and black and white. Their motto was “An Injury to One Is the Concern of All.” Their leader was Terence Powderly and they were at the height of their influence in 1886 (due in part to the tireless work of Leonora Barry) when the Haymarket Riot decimated their public image and their membership numbers plummeted. We do have the KL to thank for Labor Day, though.
  • Farmers’ Alliances, which took up many of the same issues that Grange and Greenbackers had and tried to organize a system of cooperative exchanges for crops and farm products, and helped pass the Hatch Act and the legislation that formed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).
  • The American Federation of Labor, led for many years by Samuel Gompers of the Cigar-Makers Union, which took a very different strategy and focused more narrowly on negotiating wages, benefits and working conditions directly with employers.

Question for reflection: Who–or what kinds of workers–were included within and who might have been left out of these labor organizations. Who benefited, and who didn’t, and why?

Comments are closed.