Topic Summary: The War between Capital and Labor

Workers | Unions | Cities | Immigration | Settlement House Movement

Introduction: In an age when workers are protected by federal and state laws as well as by sound business practice, it is hard for us to imagine a time when workers—especially unskilled, often immigrant workers—were completely on their own and at the mercy of their employers. Before the industrial age, factories and workplaces were small enough that the owner most likely knew everyone by name and often worked alongside his or her employees.  The age of the huge factory and impersonal management changed all that, and the patent unfairness with which workers were treated became a scandal. For one small example, if a worker was injured on the job by faulty machinery or other cause over which he or she had no control, there was no mechanism for providing compensation, and if a worker sued (unlikely in that few workers could afford a lawyer), he or she had to prove that it was not worker negligence that caused the accident. It is very difficult to prove a negative in such circumstances.
Historian Page Smith examines this era in Volume 6 of his “People's History of the United States” and calls the events surrounding what is known as the industrial revolution “The War between Capital and Labor.” It is an apt title: the two sides were indeed at war, with armies of armed men fighting on both sides. The level of human violence and destruction of property did in fact often create warlike conditions between 1865 and 1900. Hundreds were killed or seriously wounded and millions of dollars’ worth of property was destroyed.

American Industry on the Rise

The so-called Robber Barons were men of great achievement but could also be cold, ruthless, calculating and impervious to the negative effects of what they were doing. They built great institutions, amassed great wealth, did much good and much harm. Individually and collectively they have been studied in detail.

• Andrew Carnegie and Steel: Carnegie’ s United States Steel became the nation's first billion-dollar corporation. Carnegie himself arose from modest beginnings to become one of the wealthiest men in the world.  Carnegie was a leading philanthropist who felt that the wealthy had an obligation to perform public good works with the money they had earned.  
• John D. Rockefeller and Oil. John D. Rockefeller epitomized what the robber barons were all about. He was ruthless in his pursuit of markets for goods produced by the Standard Oil Corporation, and his influence was felt worldwide. Like Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller gave much of his wealth to foundations, especially in support of education for African-American women and developments in medicine. The wealth and influence of the Rockefeller family continues to the present time.
• Cornelius Vanderbilt and the Railroads. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt began his business career in the shipping business but turned to railroads in the 1850s. He eventually gained control of the New York Central Railroad and in 1873 connected New York and Chicago by rail. Although he was not a great philanthropist, he did contribute $1 million to Central University in Tennessee, now Vanderbilt University.
• Thomas Edison and the Business of Invention. Not really one of the robber barons because he did not create huge industries by cutthroat means, Thomas Edison nevertheless came to understand the relationship between invention and business, though he did it the hard way. Early in his career he often found himself broke, and although he was an inventive genius, it took him a long time to figure out how to make money with his inventions. When he finally did, he became one of the great entrepreneurs and inventors in American history and founded the company that eventually became General Electric.  The hundreds of patents he owned included the light bulb, motion picture machines, phonographs and other devices which became common components in the homes of most Americans.

The Workers.

Background: The Worker in the Western World has a troubled history. Thomas Hobbes described life in nature as poor, solitary, nasty, brutish, short—and for many workers that was the case. Various political theories attempted to explain or find solution for the plight of the working classes. Socialist explanations saw evil as inevitable when capitalism was left to its own devices; Liberalism called for freedom from oppression, first from government, then from business; Communism—Marxism and Leninism—saw the history of man as the history of class struggle. The ultimate goal of Communism was labor ownership of the means of production and a state run by the proletariat.

Classical economists saw labor as commodity, to be bought and sold according to market demands, and were pessimists about hopes for the working poor. Adam Smith held government intervention harmful and advocated international division of labor. Thomas Malthus argued that the immediate plight of the working class could only become worse. If wages are raised, the poor would produce more children and drive themselves back to the poverty level. If they could be persuaded to raise their standard of living, maybe the cycle could be broken. David Ricardo formulated the "Iron Law of Wages." If wages are raised more children will be produced; they will go into the market place and reduce the value of labor; fewer children & then cycle repeats. Wages always work toward minimum level. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels saw a history of oppression, outlined in Communist Manifesto of 1848. Marx's sister and brother-in-law, the Avelings, traveled and reported on labor conditions in the U.S. Marx saw slavery in South as logical extension of capitalism. Wrote for the New York Tribune during Civil War.

Andrew Carnegie expressed bitterness about the war between capital and labor. Saw move toward cooperation vs. competition as "the destruction of individualism, private property and the law of accumulation." The wealthy should use millions to aid public—"raise the moral and intellectual level of the masses" and not give quarters to the poor. The ideology of capitalism rests on natural and divine laws. "In the long run wealth only comes to the moral man"—material prosperity makes the nation "sweeter, more joyous, more unselfish, more Christlike." Such capitalistic notions were resisted vigorously by the poor.

Capitalists didn’t understand their workers. Employers sought docile, sober workers. By 1880 5 million Americans were in manufacturing, construction, transportation. They are employees, not producers; dependent upon hourly wages and the good will of their employers. The worker was seen as "a mere machine"; he could not make the simplest decisions, had no self-respect. The degradation of the skilled labor class one of the major grievances of labor. Starvation wages were not enough to support a family—work was marred by inequities and corruption. Working families could survive only by "ruthless underconsumption." Workers were victims of business cycles—the winds of change swept many away. Piece work/lower wages brought in to reduce labor costs. Workers separated from employers.

Women and Children in the Labor Force. There were many new jobs for women: from 1880-1900 employed women go from 2.6 to 8.6 million. In 1880 4% of clerical workers were women; by 1920, 50%. But women couldn't get into management. Among the poor, women had to work, also children. Unions were generally hostile to women; men believed women shouldn't work for wages because they undercut wage levels. Some separate women's unions did exist, and they sought special legislation for female workers, etc. The ILGWU led massive strike against NYC sweatshops under middle class leadership; not militant, but insistent. In the 19^th century no special concern existed over children or women doing hard work; they had always worked within the family on farms, etc. By 1890 18% of the labor force consisted of children between the ages of 10 and 15. A state of quasi slavery existed where parents bound children to working; child labor was not really addressed until the Progressive Era.

Labor Conditions: Industrial safety was a large issue: factory work was very dangerous, and it was difficult if not impossible to hold factory owners responsible for deaths and injuries. Around 1900 25-35,000 deaths and 1 million injuries per year occurred on industrial jobs—many of them railroad jobs, which were very dangerous. Fires, machine accidents, wrecks, etc. were common There was no federal regulation of safety and no enforcement of safety regulations. Insurance and pensions were rare, and courts were not sympathetic to worker claims; no liability was seen if the worker was negligent, or if the employer was not. Poor English was a problem: Many couldn't read safety regulations, etc. Only about 2% of those injured or killed recovered on claims.

Summary of the Union Movement and other events:

Points:

• In all the confrontations of the late 19th century, workers were generally the losers.
• Immigrants and blacks were often targets of resentment because they were used as strikebreakers.
• Generally the union movement was secondary to the general struggle for jobs—in the labor game it was a buyers' market.

The American Federation of Labor was a combination of national craft unions—the aristocracy of labor; it did not encourage unskilled workers. Samuel Gompers, former head of cigar makers’ union, becomes head. The AFL raids the Knights of Labor for members, leaders. Goals were limited and achievable with system that existed: hours, wages, right of collective bargaining; did not threaten system as Knights did. No “pie in the sky" but rather “gentle transition.” Let the power of labor grow. Specific goals also included:

• “Job ownership”—the right to continue to work
• Immigration curbs
• Relief from technological unemployment
• Labor legislation
• Collaboration with employers.

American Federation of Labor web site.

Samuel Gompers was opposed to radicals and theorists, sought practical solutions—wages, hours. Worked on legislation but as a secondary goal. Used strike carefully as a weapon to hurt profits, force stockholders to pressure management. Didn’t want to use strikes in bad times when scabs were available, but rather in good times, when it hurt more. Gompers also opposed to Labor Party—did not want labor making commitments to parties. The AFL has over 1,000,000 members by 1901; by 1917 2.5 million in 111 unions. Dues were collected for strike funds, etc. Eventually the AF of L became interested in politics and backed friendly candidates.

Life in the Cities: American cities in the last half of the last century could be seen in a sense as all things to all people: Farmers and residents of rural areas saw them as pits of degradation and corruption. Immigrants saw them as perhaps crowded and dirty but filled with opportunities for work, education and cultural stimulation. Poor working class people saw them as prisons, perhaps, or merely places where they could eke out an existence, living from day to day.

The cities were marked by splendid museums, theaters, skyscrapers, parks and mansions, but they just as frequently had appalling slums, crime, prostitution, disease and, especially in those un-airconditioned times, horribly malodorous air from poor plumbing, inadequate waste removal and the droppings of thousands of horses. Cities were simply unable to keep up with the influx of immigrants and refugees from the farms. They lacked the wealth and resources to handle to multiplying problems, and their political systems were often tainted by corruption. Yet they were vibrant, lively places, and despite the odds, people were able to survive and even prosper.

In places like New York, more foreign tongues were spoken than English, and many ethnics did not "melt," but they got along, and for many, even the worst condition were far less hopeless than those they had left behind. Between 1870 and 1900, the city became a symbol of a new America. In the late nineteenth century, people flocked to the city, drawn by economic opportunity and the promise of a more exciting life. Cities grew on the basis of a new technology of metal-frame skyscrapers, electric elevators, streetcar systems, and green suburbs, producing an increasingly stratified and fragmented society. The use of steel beams allowed architects to raise buildings to previously impossible heights and the streetcar allowed those with sufficient wealth to move from the crowded city centers. Skyscrapers and suburbs became the defining characteristics of the American city.

Immigration. [Film from the Ellis Island Museum: "Island of Hope, Island of Tears"]

Between the end of the Civil war and 1910, 25 million people entered the U.S. They joined rural Americans in the cities looking for jobs and other opportunities. These "new" immigrant came from different parts of Europe from those that had provided new citizens before the war: Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Turkey. They practiced different religions, including different forms of Christianity, and brought new and strange cultural ideas with them. They frequently ghettoized themselves, settling in ethnically solid neighborhoods that persist to the present day. They started schools and churches and generally adapted themselves to American culture while retaining their own individuality, both enriching and being enriched by the interaction. They found much to admire in American democracy and took enthusiastically to politics and education, things from which they had generally been excluded in their native lands.

http://www.irischang.net/index.cfm

Settlement Houses. Coping with the problems of the cities, especially in poorer areas, was beyond the ability of city governments and of churches. Into the vacuum stepped a new breed of professional social workers, often women, who created what were called settlement houses to alleviate the appalling conditions that existed in the industrialized cities. They offered education and training, including English language, they dealt with city hall and did their best to cut red tape. They also worked in the political arena to try to reform things such as public health matters and child labor. The most famous of these workers Jane Addams, whose Hull House in Chicago offered both classical academic and practical education to anyone who lived in the slums.

For college educated women around the turn of the century there were few opportunities for them to put their education experience to practical use. Business management was virtually closed to them, as were the professions of law, medicine, the military, the ministry, and higher education, as well as others. In general women were confined to clerical work below the executive level, grueling factory labor, domestic employment, missionary work, nursing, and primary and secondary education. The settlement house movement was, therefore, to some extent a product of women's frustration. Social work as it evolved in the 20th century was not yet a full-blown profession, so women who saw the terrible needs of poor women in the cities, many of them immigrants, created the profession on their own, frequently with financial assistance and moral support from fathers, husbands, or businessmen who shared their views.

Perhaps the most famous woman who ever worked in the settlement house movement was Eleanor Roosevelt. Early during her marriage to Franklin Roosevelt she worked with settlement houses in New York City. On one occasion she had to escort a young woman back to her residence in one of the city's worst slums. Being somewhat uncertain about what she might find there, she asked Franklin to accompany her, and he did. (He was not yet involved in politics but was a practicing attorney in New York City.) When they had delivered the woman to her squalid quarters, he said to Eleanor as they emerged, “My God, I didn't know people lived like that.” FDR's biographers mark this as a consciousness-raising event in his political evolution; but the remark also demonstrates how oblivious many prosperous people were to the horrifying conditions in which millions of people lived.

See Twenty Years at Hull House by Jane Addams, available in libraries and bookstores.

Summary: The Gilded Age was a time of enormous progress for the country. Production expanded in unimaginable proportions, living standards rose dramatically for millions, great fortunes were amassed, millions of immigrants found hope on America's shores and technology began to supplant human muscle power with machine power, with huge increases in productivity. Bu tall that progress had a price. As reformer Henry George pointed out, the existence side by side of massive evidence of progress with appalling conditions of poverty is one of the paradoxes of the age. Labor was nearly crushed, and a massive workers' rebellion might have occurred with no one knows what results. Reform was essential, and it came in the form of the Progressive Movement.

History 122 Part 1