...Cheyenne Savoie April 11, 2013 HIST 203 The Pullman Strike The Pullman Strike started on May 11, 1894. It was a conflict that was going on all across the nation. It included the American Railroad Union (ARU) and other railroads that occurred in America at that time. Beginning in a town called Pullman Illinois, with over four thousand employees that worked for the Pullman Palace Car Company. The strike started because the employees were upset with their current changes in reducing their pay. George Pullman was the president of the Pullman Palace Car Company. He designed the passenger railroad car, which included comfortable seats as well as sleeping cars for people to travel. He also takes credit for creating the “model” community of Pullman, Illinois. In 1894 there was a depression that led to the Pullman Palace Car Company cutting wages to almost forty percent, and lay off tons of workers. As the workers got more and more angry as bad things kept happening in this depression, they decided to join the ARU and start a strike against George Pullman as he decided to not increase his wages. Throughout the strike there were two major newspapers that kept up with the recent gossip and incidents that were occurring. The Chicago Times supported the union, and the Chicago Tribune opposed the ARU boycott. During the time of the strike both newspapers differed in regards to the violence that was happening, while the Chicago Tribune was focusing on the violence of the...
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...Labor strikes in the 1800s and 1900s began when employees went on strikes for various reasons such as, wage cuts, new machinery, and longer work hours with less pay. A strike is a group of employees who organize a work stoppage to put pressure on their boss or company until their demands are met. Countless smaller strikes were all due to the same reasons listed above or a few other reasons. The first nationwide strikes were the railroad strikes. Many workers were upset due to their wages being cut, they were already struggling with money and now they are getting even less than before. The strikes began to spread and it became known as a General Strike. In some of the labor strikes military and militia were sent in to help stop the...
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...On account of the Pullman strike of 1894 the Illinois Governor George Altgeld needed to manage the laborers on strike who were dying of hunger. Perceiving how these individuals were citizens of his state he couldn't sit by and enable them to just die of starvation. (Altgeld, p.1) However Altgeld needed Mr. Pullman to deal with the circumstance all alone he expressed that as senator he couldn't permit this and since the state simply burned through 50 thousands to ensure his property it was to his greatest advantage to solve the issue himself. (Altgeld, p.1) In 1929 the Stock Market crashed and effectly affected the nation financially. By the 1930s the nation was in a deep depression and everything was tumbling to pieces (Hankel, Stock Market...
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...earliest and more influential of labor organizations came to be in 1860; The Knights of Labor. The Knights of Labor mission was to “inform, and support working families, and to organize them to better represent their rights” (The Knights of Labor, 2011, ¶1) By the end of the 1800s the Knights had become a national fixture and included all workers into the group such as lawyers, doctors, gamblers and bankers. The main focus of the Knights of Labor were to push for an eight-hour work day; to rid child labor from existence, to do away with convict contract labor as they opposed the source of cheap labor taking jobs away from workers who needed a job; and equal pay for all their workers. In the early goings, they were opposed to the use of strikes however that trend changed and work stoppages had become a very good tool to use. The Knights of Labor had reached its apex in 1886 with over 700,000 members however their organizational structure was not up to the task and the movement was all but abandoned. They remained a fixture in the labor movement until 1949 when the remaining members dropped their affiliation (The Knights of Labor, 2011). The Labor Movement in the late 1800s experienced a number of incidents that escalated into violence. In 1877; railroad workers in West Virginia protested a ten...
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...How far was the 1890s the most significant Turning point in trade union & labour rights in the period 1865-1992? The 1890’s had been a turning point for the development of trade union ad labour rights, however it could be said that the period of the 1930’s and the New Deal could be proved as a more significant turning point as well as the start of the period for the development of trade union and labour rights. The 1890s was the time trade unions begun to develop and start to threaten the power of the `robber barons' with powerful strikes. Trade unions wanted the right to exist and collectively bargain with the employer. This was the process where a group of employees formed a unit and bargained with the employer to better their rights. In the 1890s, union membership was steadily growing reaching a membership of just under a thousand by 1900s. This shows that Unions were slowly becoming recognised as membership grew, meaning that employers were under more obligation to accept them. With the creation of the first Industrial Union in 1893, the American Railroad Union, it meant that some unskilled workers could be organised and recognised. This was important as previously mainly craft unions only accepted skilled workers like the American Labour Federation (1874). However, the ARU set a precedent that other industrial unions could do the same, making unions more powerful. However, there were some negatives in this period, lessening the 1890s impact as a turning point. For...
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...To what extent was the new deal the most important turning point in the developments of trade union and labour rights in the USA in the period 1865 – 1992? Workers during the period 1865 to 1992 did not have many rights employers had all the power when it came to labour rights and trade unions were still trying to gain recognition from employers and the government. The New deal was the most important turning point in the developments of trade union and labour rights although other turning points need to be mentioned such 1890s, WW2 or the 1960 I believe the new deal was the most important turning point. During the depression the new deal policies of Franklin.D.Rossevelt did have a huge impact on labour and trade union rights in the USA for example the national industry recovery act which was passed on the 16th June 1933 which aimed to ask companies to cooperate and employ agreed codes of practice about issues about production levels, wage rates, working hours and trade union rights. Although this act gave rights to workers some big companies such as the Ford companies refused to sign this and the NRA was declared unconstitutional in 1935. More importantly the Wagner Act of 1935 was the most important new deal policy given to the workers as this was the first time Trade unions were allowed to exist and also the Wagner act gave workers the right to collectively bargain through their own chosen representatives. This brought a change as since 1865 as then workers had little...
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...J.P. Morgan not to attend the event. Rev. Dr. Madison Peters agreed that “all history teaches that the concentration of wealth is the forerunner of social upheaval.” It is little wonder that there was such concern over social upheaval. The 1890s had been marked by Pullman strike, Homestead strike, Populist Party, and so on. This is true considering how the gap between the rich and poor due to this unequal concentration of wealth led to unfair working conditions of the poor been trampled upon by the employers. This later on led to the uprising of unions such as the Knights of Labor (1869) and the American Federation of Labor (1886) who fought against unfairness at workplace and towards making working life suitable for the working class....
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...accumulation that blanketed the post-Civil War South… Convicts were worked either inside prisons by outside contractors or by all sorts of manufacturing facilities outside prison walls, ranging from small-scale carpentry shops to very large textile and shoe factories. New York state led the way, but there was virtually no state in the union that didn’t provide this kind of coerced and very cheap labor.” Prisoners were not the only victims of coercion from wall street owners. Farmers also felt the blunt force of crushing debt as they were forced to work on leased land with only 25% profit of crops going to them. Immigrants also lived on leased land as they worked in factories. “Nearly seven million migrated to America from Europe between 1881 and 1894, increasing numbers of them from the continent’s rule hinterland. In 1907 five thousand immigrants arrived at Ellis Island each day. By 1910, immigrant working class women from the old country constituted the core of the workforce in textiles and garment manufacturing, and in mechanical laundries and in domestic service.” The gap between privately owned business and large corporations was a prime feature of American industrial capitalism. As stated in the text, “Export of factory-made goods swamped local, self-contained economies not involved in accumulating capital but rather in the reproduction of ancient ways of life.” Industrial goods often drove smaller businesses under as the merchandise large industries sold were cheaper and more...
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...1. Define subsidies and land grant colleges and explain their influence of the migration of settlers out West. Subsidies are grants given by a government to individuals or groups in form of tax reduction or cash. Land grant colleges were colleges established as a result of Morril Act. The act awarded federal land to states to fund the cost of building mechanical and agricultural colleges. Land grant colleges such as Iowa State University and Kansas State University, were set up to teach certain branches of learning that include mechanical arts and agriculture. 2. Two examples of where the federal government violated treaties as a result of continued settlement into the west and give the results of these conflicts During the nineteenth century the Native Americans were deprived much of their land and were forcefully removed from the west. The white authority failed to honor the treaties they had signed and made the natives vacate their own land. This resulted to relocation of a mass of people from the west. After the war the white authorities started treating the natives in a hostile manner. They claimed ownership of the Indian lands in the west by the terms of 1783 peace treaty. This resulted to relocation of the India from the west. 3. (a)Explain the use of the Dawes Severalty Act in trying to force natives to assimilate to the American culture. What were the unintended consequences? The Dawes Severalty Act provided for elimination of tribal ownership of land...
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...1. Define subsidies and land grant colleges and explain their influence of the migration of settlers out West. Subsidies are grants given by a government to individuals or groups in form of tax reduction or cash. Land grant colleges were colleges established as a result of Morril Act. The act awarded federal land to states to fund the cost of building mechanical and agricultural colleges. Land grant colleges such as Iowa State University and Kansas State University, were set up to teach certain branches of learning that include mechanical arts and agriculture. 2. Two examples of where the federal government violated treaties as a result of continued settlement into the west and give the results of these conflicts During the nineteenth century the Native Americans were deprived much of their land and were forcefully removed from the west. The white authority failed to honor the treaties they had signed and made the natives vacate their own land. This resulted to relocation of a mass of people from the west. After the war the white authorities started treating the natives in a hostile manner. They claimed ownership of the Indian lands in the west by the terms of 1783 peace treaty. This resulted to relocation of the India from the west. 3. (a)Explain the use of the Dawes Severalty Act in trying to force natives to assimilate to the American culture. What were the unintended consequences? The Dawes Severalty Act provided for elimination of tribal ownership of land...
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...Thematic Essay Practice – Reform Movements US History/Napp Name: __________________ From the August 2004 New York States Regents/ U.S. History & Government THEMATIC ESSAY QUESTION Directions: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs addressing the task below, and a conclusion. Theme: Reform Movements Task: Some suggestions you might wish to consider include the abolitionist movement, Populist movement, Progressive movement, women’s rights movement, civil rights movement, and the labor movement. Gathering the Facts: 1- The Abolitionist Movement • “The goal of the abolitionist movement was the immediate emancipation of all slaves and the end of racial discrimination and segregation. • Advocating for immediate emancipation distinguished abolitionists from more moderate anti-slavery advocates who argued for gradual emancipation, and from free-soil activists who sought to restrict slavery to existing areas and prevent its spread further west. • Radical abolitionism was partly fueled by the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening, which prompted many people to advocate for emancipation on religious grounds. • Abolitionist ideas became increasingly prominent in Northern churches and politics beginning in the 1830s, which contributed to the regional animosity between North and South leading up to the...
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...The End of Reconstruction Abstract Other Americans simply tried to portray the new economy as essentially the same as the old. They believed that individual enterprise, hard work, and free competition in open markets still guaranteed success to those willing to work hard. An evolving mass print culture of cheap newspapers, magazines, and dime novels offered proselytizers of the old values new forms of communication. The End of Reconstruction Reforms in the South seemed unlikely in 1877 when Congress resolved the previous autumn’s disputed presidential election between Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes on the backs of the nation’s freed blacks. A compromise gave Hayes the presidency in return for the end of Reconstruction and the removal of federal military support for the remaining biracial Republican governments that had emerged in the former Confederacy. With that agreement, Congress abandoned one of the greatest reforms in American history: the attempt to incorporate ex-slaves into the republic with all the rights and privileges of citizens. The United States accepted a developing system of repression and segregation in the South that would take the name Jim Crow and persist for nearly a century. The freed people in the South found their choices largely confined to sharecropping and low-paying wage labor, especially as domestic servants. Although attempts at interracial politics would prove briefly successful in Virginia and North Carolina...
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...GLF steel industry railroad industry coal industry steel industry- over 400 steel companies. But only produced 200,000 tons of steel In 1900 – fewer than 80 steel companies But they produce 10million tons of steel Railroad industry – customers of steel coal and timber industry Government realized that railroad was so important So they gave it a lot of land. Coal Industry – Saudi Arabia of coal More here than anyone in the world. The Working People of The Gilded Age. Category A workers – white collar people. Had higher status Doctors Lawyers Ministers Journalists Needed higher education. **category A&B =Middle Class Category B workers – Skilled workers Worked with hands Did not dress nicely to work Got paid very well due to their skills Sometimes more than category A’s Carpenters Plumbers Category C workers- Not very skilled Got very dirty Dangerous jobs Taken for granted Coal miners All miners Category c workers were in the new immigrants class 1880 – cutoff point for immigrants. Before 1880 immigrants came from the western European areas. These were OLD immigrants These people were WASPs (white Anglo-Saxon protestants) Although there were some Catholics as well....
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...• There was unrest throughout the land because industrialists concentrated more and more power in fewer and fewer hands. • Progressive theorists insisted that society could no longer use the “let-alone” or laissez faire policy. • Before 1900, politicians and writers begun to pinpoint targets for the progressive attack. Bryan, Altgeld, and the Populists flamed about the “bloated trusts” with corruption and wrongdoing. • Henry Demarest Lloyd wrote Wealth Against Commonwealth in 1894, it was about the Standard Oil Company and on its “predatory wealth” and “conspicuous consumption” • Veblen viewed parasitic leisure class engaged in wasteful “business” which was making money for money’s sake rather than the productive “industry” which was making goods to satisfy real needs. • Jacob A. Riis was Danish and immigrated to the U.S. He was a reporter for the New York Sun, and he wrote How the Other Half Lives. It shocked the middle class Americans in 1890; he talked about diseases, and how dirty and how bad off the New York slums were. It influenced New York City police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt. • Theodore Dreiser wrote the The Financier and The Titan. He battered promoters and profiteers. • A lot of the socialists were European immigrants where there were already socialist movements in the old world. Messengers of the social gospel promoted a brand of progressivism based on Christian teachings. They used religious doctrines to demand better conditions for the poor. The...
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...I. Introduction What is Police brutality? Police brutality is the use of “excessive and/or unnecessary force” by police when dealing with civilians. Police brutality can be present in number of ways. The most obvious form of police brutality is a physical form. Police officers can use nerve gas, batons, pepper spray, and guns in order to physically intimidate or even intentionally hurt civilians. Police brutality can also take the form of false arrests, verbal abuse, psychological intimidation, sexual abuse, police corruption, racial profiling, political repression and the improper use of Tasers. Nowadays, many countries have laws which address police brutality. Under these laws, police brutality is seen as a very serious offense and investigated by a commission of district attorneys. Unfortunately, even with the law covering police brutality, many complaints made by civilians about excessive use of force are not investigated. Researchers suggest that it happens because the police have the authority to use force when necessary, and, often, it is difficult to prove that police brutality has taken place. More police officers now constantly record all interactions with civilians. Later on the recorded conversations can be reviewed in the case of an investigation. Even though racial profiling still exists, anyone regardless of race, gender or age can become a victim of police brutality. If a person experienced police misconduct, he or she needs to write down the names of all witnesses...
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