We want more school houses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more constant work and less crime; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful and childhood more happy and bright. These in brief are the primary demands made by the Trade Unions in the name of labor. These are the demands made by labor upon modern society and in their consideration is involved the fate of civilization.
Samuel Gompers, address to American Federation of Labor,
August 28, 1893
http://www.history.umd.edu/Gompers/index.htm
Why, it may be asked, do students need to know about the history of
union membership? Because the free trade union movement is one of the bulwarks
of a democratic society and because some of the fundamental economic and
social reforms of the past century—such as the banning of sweatshops
and child labor—can scarcely be fathomed without knowing something
of the saga of the labor movement. The labor movement story is one of men
and women, laws and campaigns, ideas and conflict. This is the stuff of
history.http://www.history.umd.edu/Gompers/index.htm
Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn Jr. What Do Our 17-Year Olds Know: A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature. (NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1987), p. 69.
Motivation:
Looking at the two quotes, would you agree that Diane Ravitch would have been a supporter of Samuel Gompers had she lived in the late nineteenth century? Explain.
Essential Question:
To what extent have the conditions of American workers improved over the past 100 years?
Background
After the Civil War, the United States witnessed an accelerating movement of people westward, a rapidly increasing number of immigrants, and the large growth of urban areas. Along with these trends, the massive changes in how corporations were organized and operated and the growth of the labor movement during this period wrought significant changes in American life. The right to organize, to bargain for wages and working conditions, the equitable distribution of wealth and power, and the role of government in ensuring social justice are issues that remain sources of controversy today.
Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and the first general secretary of the
Brotherhood of Carpenters, and later first secretary of the American Federation
of Labor, and Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the New York
Central Labor Union, are both credited with being the first to propose
the idea of a holiday honoring American workers. But regardless of who
originated the idea, there is no doubt that on September 5, 1882, some
10,000 to 20,000 workers, at the risk of losing their jobs, gathered in
New York City and marched from City Hall to Union Square in support of
an eight-hour workday. The idea quickly spread to many communities, and
in 1887, Oregon became the first state to make Labor Day an official holiday.
And after having used federal troops to suppress the Pullman strike, an
anti-union U.S. President Grover Cleveland sensed that he had to recognize
the contributions of workers and together with Congress, enacted the first
national Labor Day in 1894.
A historical essay on Labor Day with addtional resources can be found
in this issue of HISTORY NOW: /historynow/preview/06_2005/historian4.php
For more background on the first Labor Day, how it came about and what
it means, see: the U.S. Department of Labor website: http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm
- Questionnaire and discussion. To initiate a discussion of
labor issues in the last third of the nineteenth century, have students
respond by indicating whether they strongly agree, agree,
strongly disagree, or disagree with each of the following
statements. Create a chart divided into four columns, and respond to
each statement. Tell the students that they should respond to the statements
from the perspective of a worker and a business owner living in the
late nineteenth century, and then respond to the same statements from
the perspective of a worker and a business owner in the late twentieth
century:
- Workers have the right to organize and bargain as a group about
working conditions.
- Workers have the right to protest, hold parades, give speeches,
and withhold their services without being fired by their employers.
- Eight hours is a reasonable period of time for a workday.
- Business owners have the right to establish working conditions
at their companies.
- Business owners should be able to prevent unions from organizing
workers they have hired.
- A business owner should be able to control an entire industry.
For example, if a company is able to control most railroads, mines,
or steel mills, it should be allowed to do so.
- It is the function of government to make laws regulating business
practices, such as the number of businesses a corporation can own
and how much of the marketplace it can control.
- It is a proper function of government to make laws regulating
working conditions such as pay, hours of work, and health and safety
conditions.
- Government should be provided with the power to help end strikes.
- Workers have the right to organize and bargain as a group about
working conditions.
- Background on labor history. Students should have some familiarity
with, or conduct some research about, labor history from approximately
1870 to 1900. One way to review or reconstruct this period, is to complete,
individually or as a class, a chart of notable labor disputes during
this time with the categories of: Date, Labor Dispute, Place, Company
and Leader, Union and Leader, Issue(s), and Outcome.
- Simulation. After students have completed activities 1 and
2, divide the class into four groups: company executives, labor leaders,
progressive reformers and newspaper reporters. Have each group research
the eight-hour-day movement. Conduct a public hearing in which students
playing the role of senators question representatives from each of the
four groups. Have newspaper reporters prepare articles on the hearings.
Have legislators write a bill creating a law mandating no more than
an eight-hour day for presentation to the president. Have the class
discuss the bill, and decide if the president should sign it.
For a brief overview of the eight hour day movement, see The Encyclopedia of Chicago: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/417.html
A song written in the 1800s during the union campaign for the eight hour day still resonates for many of us working in the 21st century:
We mean to make things over
We're tired of toil for nought
But bare enough to live on; never
An hour for thought.
We want to feel the sunshine; we
Want to smell the flowers
We're sure that God has willed it
And we mean to have eight hours.
We're summoning our forces from
Shipyard, shop and mill
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will!
Song sung by the Knights of Labor and other workers (1886)
For information on the Haymarket tragedy (described in Joshua Freeman’s essay in this issue of HISTORY NOW) as well as archives on anarchism, see:
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/
disasters/haymarket.html
For information about the Knights of Labor, the Haymarket affair, and the life and work of Lucy Parsons, union advocate and wife of Albert Parsons, unjustly accused and executed as a participant in the Haymarket riot:
http://www.lucyparsonsproject.org/haymarket/
schneirov_nights_of_labor.html
Further Activities- Have the students research the history of Labor Day in their
communities. For one example of an in-depth look at labor issues
in one city (Detroit) since the first Labor Day, see the newspaper
article, “How Labor Won Its Day.”
http://info.detnews.com/history/
story/index.cfm?id=150&category=business
- Have students interview one or more retired workers about their
conditions of employment when they were younger. Ask them to get
ready for the interviews by reading about earlier working conditions
and prepare lists of questions to ask the interviewees.
- Compare the actions of U.S. President Grover Cleveland, a president
who opposed labor unions but declared Labor Day a national holiday,
and the issues faced and the actions taken by Illinois Governor
John Peter Altgeld (see http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/prisoner.htm
for information about Governor John Peter Altgeld and the pardoning
of the Haymarket prisoners). Who did more for workers?
- Research the life of key business and labor leaders in the last
part of the nineteenth century. Report on their goals, how they
achieved or failed to achieve their objectives, and what difference
they made in American society.
-
Business leaders: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Jay Gould,
J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller
Labor leaders: Eugene V. Debs, Samuel Gompers, Terence V. Powderly
- Debate the following topics: If people work hard and play by the rules they will be successful. Newspapers and television stations report more favorably about (business) (labor). The capitalist economic system provides the greatest opportunities for the most people. Labor Day has lost its significance because all the important issues have been resolved.
General Resources
http://www.dol-union-reports.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/books.htm
US Dept of Labor's "Labor Hall of Fame."
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/browse/
Library of Congress--browse by topic; by time period; by collections containing types of materials, by place.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/cc_labor.php
Library of Congress site for numerous resources related to the history of labor.
http://www.geocities.com/m_lause.geo/AmLabHist/VLreinst.html
Links to many research institutions for labor.
http://www.history.umd.edu/Gompers/index.htm
A documentary history of the American working class including information about Samuel Gompers, AFL, Knights of Labor, IWW, and an extensive bibliography.
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/articles.htm
Labor history articles from Illinois Labor History Society.
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/curricul.htm
Illinois Labor History Society. Many online resources and "A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers."
http://6hourday.org/knightsoflabor.html
Official website for today's Knights of Labor
The Haymarket Incident
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/haymarket.htm
The Haymarket Tragedy with links to related articles
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/prisoner.htm
Governor John Peter Altgeld Pardons the Haymarket Prisoners
- Have the students research the history of Labor Day in their
communities. For one example of an in-depth look at labor issues
in one city (Detroit) since the first Labor Day, see the newspaper
article, “How Labor Won Its Day.”
