An Industrial Society Labor Strife during the Gilded Age ( )

Gospel of Wealth Analyze Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” using the APPARTS sheet In the significance category, think about whether these Gilded Age entrepreneurs should be considered “Captains of Industry” or “Robber Barons”

Labor conditions during the Gilded Age U.S. had the highest rates of industrial accidents worldwide; in 1882 there were 675 laborers killed in work related accidents each week; in 1913 there were 25,000 factory deaths and 700,000 job related injuries U.S. was the only industrialized nation in the world that had no workmen’s compensation Breadwinners of many families were killed or maimed in industrial accidents

Labor conditions during the Gilded Age Workers lost autonomy in factories—the new machinery took over tasks once performed by skilled workers; managers now made decisions about pace Craft workers replaced by jobs that could now be performed by anyone By 1870, the majority of Americans now worked for wages The average hourly wage was 22 cents; the average annual salary was $490 Average work week was 60 hours, or 6 ten hour days Most steelworks had 12 hour days, 7 days a week for an 84 hour work day

Labor conditions during the Gilded Age Child labor In 1870 there were 750,000 children between the ages of 10 and 15 employed in hazardous working conditions In 1880 there were 1.8 million; 1 out of 6 children in the U.S. worked In 1900 there were 2 million southern cotton mills; 25% of their workforce was below the age of 15 Children as young as 8 were laboring alongside adults, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.

Lewis Hine Photographer Lewis W. Hine ( ) was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He studied sociology at Chicago and New York universities, becoming a teacher, then took up photography as a means of expressing his social concerns. His first photo essay featured Ellis Island immigrants. In 1908, Hine left his teaching position to become an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee In 1909, he published the first of many photo essays depicting working children at risk.

Furman Owens, 12 years old. Can't read. Doesn't know his A,B,C's. Said, "Yes I want to learn but can't when I work all the time." Been in the mills 4 years, 3 years in the Olympia Mill. Columbia, S.C.

Adolescent girls from Bibb Mfg. Co. in Macon, Georgia

A general view of spinning room, Cornell Mill. Fall River, Mass.

A moments glimpse of the outer world. Said she was 11 years old. Been working over a year. Rhodes Mfg. Co. Lincolnton, N.C.

Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back the empty bobbins. Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Ga.

The overseer said apologetically, "She just happened in." She was working steadily. The mills seem full of youngsters who "just happened in" or "are helping sister." Newberry, S.C.

One of the spinners in Whitnel Cotton Mill. She was 51 inches high. Has been in the mill one year. Sometimes works at night. Runs 4 sides - 48 cents a day. When asked how old she was, she hesitated, then said, "I don't remember," then added confidentially, "I'm not old enough to work,but do just the same." Out of 50 employees, there were ten children about her size. Whitnel, N.C.

Francis Lance, 5 years old, 41 inches high. He jumps on and off moving trolley cars at the risk of his life. St. Louis, Mo.

View of the Ewen Breaker of the Pa. Coal Co. The dust was so dense at times as to obscure the view. This dust penetrated the utmost recesses of the boys' lungs. A kind of slave-driver sometimes stands over the boys, prodding or kicking them into obedience. S. Pittston, Pa.

A young driver in the Brown mine. Has been driving one year. Works 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. Brown W. Va.

Oyster shuckers working in a canning factory. All but the very smallest babies work. Began work at 3:30 a.m. and expected to work until 5 p.m. The little girl in the center was working. Her mother said she is "a real help to me." Dunbar, La.

After 9 p.m., 7 year old Tommie Nooman demonstrating the advantages of the Ideal Necktie Form in a store window on Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. His father said, "He is the youngest demonstrator in America. Has been doing it for several years from San Francisco, to New York. We stay a month or six weeks in a place. He works at it off and on." Remarks from the by-standers were not having the best effect on Tommie.

Joseph Severio, peanut vender, age 11. Been pushing a cart 2 years. Out after midnight on May 21, Ordinarily works 6 hours per day. Works of his own volution. All earnings go to his father. Wilmington, Del.

A.D.T. messenger boys. They all smoke. Birmingham, Ala

Fish cutters at a Canning Co in Maine. Ages range from 7 to 12. They live near the factory. The 7 year old boy in front, Byron Hamilton, has a badly cut finger but helps his brother regularly. Behind him is his brother George, age 11, who cut his finger half off while working. Ralph, on the left, displays his knife and also a badly cut finger. They and many youngsters said they were always cutting themselves. George earns a $1 some days usually 75 cents. Some of the others say they earn a $1 when they work all day. At times they start at 7 a.m. and work all day until midnight.

Messengers absorbed in their usual game of poker in the "Den of the terrible nine" (the waiting room for Western Union Messengers, Hartford, Conn.). They play for money. Some lose a whole month's wages in a day and then are afraid to go home. The boy on the right has been a messenger for 4 years. Began at 12 years of age. He works all night now. During an evening's conversation he told me stories about his experiences with prostitutes to whom he carries messages frequently.

Labor Unions Difficult to organize unions Civic leaders were more concerned about property rights Industrialized worker was new; the nation just came from an agrarian world Immigrant workers came from various backgrounds; nativism increased As socialism increased in Europe; Fear that all labor activity was a socialist threat to capitalism

Labor Unions National Labor Union Formed in Baltimore in 1866 as a federation of craft unions; considered the first labor union in U.S. Group pushed for an 8 hour workday, greenbackism, equal rights for women and African Americans Convinced Congress to pass an 8 hour workday for federal employees Disbanded in 1872

Labor Unions Molly Maguires were an Irish labor group who worked in Eastern Pennsylvania coal fields Organized because of bad working conditions and poor habits of owners who tried to put down union activity Used extreme means—beatings, killings Peaked in ; in of them were convicted

Knights of Labor Founder was Uriah S. Stephens, a Philadelphia tailor Started in 1869 and grew tremendously after 1873 depression began One large union of all workers, skilled or unskilled, regardless of race or sex Had a national platform by 1878-called for elimination of convict labor competition, eight hour workday, paper currency, equal pay for men and women Preferred boycotts to strikes as a way to put pressure on employer 1879 Terrence Powderly succeeded Stephens 1880s membership soared from 100,000 to 700, group began to decline because of railroad strike failure and the outcome of the Haymarket affair

Labor Protests Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Haymarket Riot of 1886 Homestead Strike 1892 Pullman Strike 1893

Homestead Strike Bloody labor confrontation lasting 143 days in 1892 Centered on Carnegie Steel's main plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania Dispute between the National Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers of the United States and the Carnegie Steel Company over wages the arrival of a force of 300 Pinkerton agents from New York City and Chicago resulted in a fight in which 10 men—seven strikers and three Pinkertons—were killed and hundreds were injured. Labor defeated