FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100  
101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>   >|  
" in Europe was contrasted repeatedly with that prosperity that was typical of America. The insistence upon the argument revealed the desire to conciliate a class that was being noticed in American society for the first time. The great labor problem before the Civil War had been that of getting enough laborers and meeting the competition which the abundant free lands of the West had offered. Labor organizations and strikes had been so unusual that public opinion had not yet come to regard them as normal features of society. But the manufacturing development of the sixties in iron and steel, in textiles, and in other machine industries, threw workmen together in increasing number, taught them their interests as a class, and set the scene for an outbreak of strikes when the shops shut down or reduced wages in the depression of the seventies. About 1877 these strikes shocked society by their violence. Neither had the public been educated to the strike itself, nor the labor leaders to that moderation, without which public sympathy cannot be retained or strikes won. A feeling adverse to organized labor swept the country and endangered the existence of the labor movement. POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION, 1850-1910 (Table and Diagram based upon Thirteenth Census, 1910, Population, Vol. 1, pp. 129, 130.) Total Foreign Population. and Mixed Foreign Born. Parentage. 1910 91,972,266 18,897,837 13,345,545 1900 75,994,575 15,646,017 10,213,817 1890 62,947,714 11,503,675 9,121,867 1880 50,155,783 8,274,867 6,559,679 1870 39,818,449 5,324,268 5,493,712 1860 31,443,321 4,096,753 1850 23,191,876 2,240,535 [Illustration: graph] The Knights of Labor received the heaviest weight of disfavor. This was an industrial union, founded in 1869, embracing labor of all trades, and held together by a secret organization. Dismissal so often followed admitted membership in a union that secrecy was defensible, but secrecy mystified and frightened the public. The policy of secrecy was abandoned in 1882, after the excesses of the "Molly Maguires" had brought discredit upon all organized labor. Under the leadership of Grand Master Workman Powderly the Knights carried on an open and aggressive campaign
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100  
101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

public

 

strikes

 

secrecy

 
society
 
Knights
 

organized

 
Foreign
 

Population

 

Parentage

 

abandoned


policy
 

excesses

 

frightened

 

mystified

 

admitted

 
membership
 

defensible

 

Maguires

 

brought

 
carried

aggressive

 
campaign
 

Powderly

 

Workman

 

discredit

 

leadership

 

Master

 
Dismissal
 

Illustration

 

received


trades

 

embracing

 

secret

 

organization

 

founded

 

weight

 

heaviest

 

disfavor

 

industrial

 

opinion


regard

 

unusual

 

organizations

 

abundant

 

offered

 

normal

 
features
 

machine

 

industries

 

workmen