Reforming the Industrial Order



Reforming the Industrial Order

Chap 9 Sec 2 Notes

Reforming the workplace

• 1900 the Avg. laborer worked 10hrs/day 6 days/week for $1.50/day women and children were paid less

Female and Child Labor

• 1900 -½ of women in jobs as factory workers, store clerks etc. earned $6 or less per week

o Barely enough to survive

• Significant barriers when try to increase wages

o Piece workers penalized for working too fast

▪ “Outage for a girl to earn $25 a week”

▪ would be fired if you protest

• John Spargo “The Bitter Cry of Children “ in 1906 charged textile industry with enslavement of children

• Few children had attended school or could read

• Child worked or family starved

Labor Laws

• Prohibit or limit child labor and improve conditions for female workers

• Florence Kelley persuade Illinois legislature to prohibit child labor and limit number of hours women could work

o More than 2 million children worked in factories in 1910

o Girls worked 16 hours in canning factories

• In 1904 Florence Kelley organized National Child Labor Committee to persuade state government’s to pass child labor laws

o 1912 child labor laws- passed by 39 states

▪ Some limited older children’s hours to 8-10 hours/day – barred from working at night and in dangerous occupations

▪ Others required that children be able to read and write

• Enforcement was lax- some owners refused to follow laws

• George Creel Children in Bondage 1913 describes problem of child labor

o Also campaigned for laws to force factories to limit hours employers demanded

• 1903 Florence Kelley helped pass a law in Oregon limiting laundry workers to 10 hour days

o Utah already had laws limiting workdays to 8 hours in certain jobs

• Fight for higher wages

o 30 million men and 7.5 million women employed in 1910- 1/3 lived in poverty

o Catholic monsignor John Ryan called for establishment of minimum wage in 1910 level to approximate normal standard of living

o Massachusetts passes first minimum wage law in 1912-set wages for women and children

o 1938 Federal gov’t pass minimum wage law

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

• March 25,1911 Saturday

o 500 employees mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women

o Finishing shift- fire starts in rag bin

o 8th floor of 10 story building a blaze

o Escape impossible

▪ 2 stairways- fire doors locked owners afraid girls would steal fabric

▪ Elevator shaft jams

o 60 workers jump to deaths to escape fire

▪ 143 die in fire

• Popular outrage forces lawmakers to pass laws to help workers

o NY City enacted strictest and first fire safety code in U.S.

Progressivism and Supreme Court

• Business fought back through courts

• 14th amendment prohibits states from depriving “any person of life, liberty or property w/o due process of law”

o Owners claimed regulatory laws deprived them of property

o Supreme Court sided w/business owners and declared early laws unconstitutional

o Court also ruled some legislation violated freedom of contract

• 1905 Lochner vs. New York—overturned law limiting bakers to 10 hour work days

o Workers should be free to negotiate and accept any conditions of employment

• Muller vs. Oregon (1908)

o Supreme Court upheld law limiting hours in laundries

• Louis Brandeis argued for keeping law on work hours for women - “Brandeis Brief”-format for defense of social legislation- women are fragile

Labor Unions

• Fought for closed shops- must belong to a union

o Most favored “working within system”

o Wanted changes but w/o replacing capitalism

• Some favored socialism- government ownership of factories, utilities, transportation and communication

AFL

• American Federation of Labor

o Samuel Gompers leader

• AFL grew 4 fold from 1900 to 1914

o Excluded unskilled workers

o Mostly eastern European and African American workers excluded

• Belief that skilled workers had greatest potential to cause change and win higher wages

• By 1902 only 3% of African Americans were union members

ILGWU

• International Ladies Garment Workers Union

• Established in 1900 in N.Y. City

o Unionize workers in sewing shops

• 1909 workers in 3 shops walked off job wanted ILGWU to call General strike

• Nov 1909 “Uprising of 20,000”

o Workers walked off job and demanded recognition of ILGWU as union

o Strike lasted throughout winter

o Got assistance from Women’s Trade Union League

o Owners brought in African Americans to replace workers- some joined strike

• Results mixed

o Got wage increase

o Got reduced working hours

o However owners refused to recognize union

• Membership grew from 400 to 65,000

IWW

• International Workers of the World

o “Wobblies” opposed capitalism

o Led by “Big Bill” Haywood

• Denounced AFL cooperation w/business owners and failure to include unskilled workers

o Enlisted African -Americans, Asians and Hispanics

• Successes

o Philadelphia raised wages from $1.25/day to $4/day

o Pursued goals through boycotts, general strikes and sabotage

o 1912 led strike of 10,000 textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts

• Failures – several strikes failed

o Many Americans grew weary of IWW tactics

o Government cracked down on union

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download