History of the American Labor Movement and Populist Politics (1877-1900) Study Notes

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Shift in American History

• Historical Significance of 1877: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 represents a massive structural and ideological shift in American history. It marks the end of the era of Reconstruction (which concluded with the Compromise of 1877) and a definitive turn away from the matters of the South and Black civil rights.
• New National Focus: Post-1877, the nation focused on the West, economics, westward expansion, and industrial development. This transition is encapsulated in the railroad strike.
• Rise of the Working Class: After the strike, two things were very clearly present:
  • Solidarity: Working-class people began seeing themselves as a collective unit operating in solidarity.
  • Class Warfare Concept: This "us versus them" mentality is often referred to in modern terms as class warfare, though the core concept was the realization of a shared working-class identity.
• Economic Drivers of the Strike:
  • The Cause: The strike resulted from an economic downturn or recession.
  • Corporate Response: Modern corporations based on investment models and stock ventures covered market losses by laying off workers and cutting wages.
  • Wage Labor Shift: Before the Civil War, most Americans were agrarian (living in small communities/farms with Victorian lifestyles). Post-war, more Americans worked for a check (wage labor) than ever before, making them vulnerable to market contractions.
• Impact and Scope: The strike shut down more than $30$ cities across the United States. It brought American commerce and infrastructure to a complete halt, comparable to closing every airport in the modern day.
• Industry Synergy: In St. Louis, river barge workers joined the strike, shutting down the Mississippi River and preventing barge traffic from traveling to New Orleans.
• Government Intervention: Governors first called the National Guard. Eventually, President Rutherford Hayes—who had just ordered the Union Army to leave the South to end Reconstruction—ordered the army into the cities to restore peace.

The Knights of Labor and the Early Union Movement

• The Rise of Unions: In the wake of the 1877 strike, the Knights of Labor became the principal labor organization of the 1870s and 1880s.
• Combating Negative Labels: The Knights were aware they were labeled as radicals, anarchists, and "un-American" immigrants. They used literature and speeches to promote the social and cultural uplift of the American working man, tying their movement to "small-r republicanism."
• Industrial Union Structure: Unlike later unions, the Knights of Labor was an industrial union, meaning they organized entire industries. In the railroad industry, everyone—from the porter and sweeper to the locomotive fireman—was under the same umbrella. This gave them immense negotiating power.
• Success of 1886: By 1886, the Knights of Labor had more than $1,000,000$ members nationwide.
• The May Day Strike: On 05/01/1886, they organized a one-day national strike. Half a million workers participated, singing songs and demonstrating for rights.
• The Eight-Hour Workday: The primary goal was the eight-hour workday ($8$ hours for work, $8$ hours for rest, and $8$ hours for "whatever we want"). This challenged the "Gospel of Wealth" promoted by figures like Andrew Carnegie, who argued against charity. The workers' counter-argument was that starvation wages and $15$-hour days prevented self-betterment.

Radical Leftist Philosophy: Anarchism in America

• Anarchist Symbolism: The symbol of a circle with an "A" is an anti-capitalism and anti-government symbol.
• Core Beliefs: Anarchists believe all forms of government are a form of slavery. They view the wealth gap not as a matter of religion or evolution, but as an attempt by small groups of elites to control people through wages and working conditions.
• Goals: To free America and the world, the existing capitalist system and the United States government must be overthrown.
• Benjamin Tucker and Liberty: Tucker published a well-read magazine called Liberty. He used the First Amendment (Freedom of the Press) to advocate for violence against the U.S. government and corporations. He was a "lightning rod" for authorities but difficult to stop legally.
• Public Perception: Anarchists became the "boogeymen" used to paint the entire labor movement as un-American. Notable groups like the Molly Maguires (Irish anarchists) sent mail bombs to politicians.
• Assassination of William McKinley: In 1901 (mentioned also as 1899 contextually), President William McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist on a train platform, the third president assassinated in office.

The Haymarket Affair and the Fall of the Knights

• Chicago Setting: In the 1880s, Chicago was the second-largest U.S. city, heavily populated by immigrants and serving as the industrial gateway to the West.
• The McCormick Harvester Strike:
  • Today known as Case International (the "red tractor people").
  • In 1885, $300$ skilled iron molders formed a union and initially won their demands.
  • Management responded with mechanization, using new machines to replace skilled labor with unskilled machine work. The union workers were eventually fired.
• Initial Violence: During the May Day aftermath, Chicago anarchists joined the striking iron workers. A fight broke out; the police captain fired into the crowd, killing two people. This sparked city-wide protests against police brutality.
• The Bombing (May 4, 1886): At a demonstration in Haymarket Square (attended by approx. $2,000$ people), police arrived to disperse the final few hundred strikers. A stick of dynamite was thrown into the police ranks.
• Consequences: $8$ deaths and approximately $60$ wounded. The city was placed on lockdown. Authorities raided labor and immigrant organizations.
• The Trials: Eight anarchists were charged. Despite weak/circumstantial evidence, all eight were convicted.
  • Albert Parsons: The leader, not an immigrant, was on the platform next to the police when the bomb was thrown (suggesting he could not have thrown it), yet he was executed.
  • Marshall Field: The department store millionaire threatened to use his fortune to destroy anyone who tried to commute the sentences.
  • Outcomes: One committed suicide, four were hanged on Dungans Island (public execution), and three had sentences commuted to life in prison (due to being under age $20$).
• Legacy: The Knights of Labor were blamed and discredited; membership plummeted from over a million to less than $5,000$ by 1896.

The American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Samuel Gompers: Leader of the AFL, which emerged as a conservative, palatable alternative to the Knights of Labor in 1886.
• Craft Unionism: Unlike the industrial model, the AFL was a craft union. It organized workers by specific skill (carpenters, electricians, etc.).
• Demographics: Membership was overwhelmingly white, male, born in the United States, and highly skilled.
• Success: By 1900, it had over $1,500,000$ members. It remains a major labor organization today.

The Pullman Strike of 1894 and Corporate Paternalism

• George Pullman: Owner of the Pullman Palace Car Company (the sleeping cars on trains).
• The Company Town: Pullman built a town out of Chicago (an "industrial utopia") where he controlled everything: housing, food, schools, and churches.
• Paternalistic Control: In Western mining towns, company towns were even more extreme, with company laws, judges, jails, and even graveyards.
• The Panic of 1893: A massive economic contraction where companies lost $50\%$ of their value overnight.
• The Conflict: Pullman cut wages by $25\%$ but refused to lower the high rent in his company town.
• The Strike: In May 1894, workers formed a union; the leaders were fired. A national strike ensued, involving other railroad companies.
• Record Arrests: Over $150,000$ people from $27$ states were arrested. It was the first truly national strike and demonstrated the limits of "corporate paternalism."

Mother Jones and the Children’s Crusade

• Mary Harris Jones ("Mother Jones"): Labeled the "most dangerous woman in America" by Teddy Roosevelt in 1902.
• Personal Tragedy: An Irish immigrant who lost her husband and four children to yellow fever in 1867, and her dress shop to the 1871 Chicago Fire.
• Activism: She focused on exploited children in the mining towns of Appalachia (Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia), where children suffered from black lung and lost fingers in the mines.
• The Children's March: She organized $30$ to $40$ (eventually $300$) orphaned or mutilated children to march from Pennsylvania to New York. They camped for four months on the lawn of President Theodore Roosevelt’s childhood home at Hyde Park to shine a light on child labor.

Homesteading and the Farmers' Alliance

• Western Recourse: People fleeing industrial centers headed to Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska for "Free Land" (Homesteading).
• Nicodemus, Kansas: A success story of a Black homesteading community founded by people fleeing the Jim Crow South in Texas.
• Sod Houses: Because there were no trees on the prairie, they built houses from mud bricks (packed in wood boxes and dried). These were often started by digging a hole in the side of a hill.
• The 1889 Land Rush: A lottery race in Oklahoma where people paid $10.20$-$20.00$ for a flag and raced to "stake their claim" on pieces of land with creeks or prairies.
• The Farmers' Alliance:
  • Started as a cooperative (co-op) in Texas in the 1870s.
  • Goal: Buy seeds and machinery (like McCormick harvesters) in bulk, share shipping costs, and provide agricultural education (fertilizer, crop yields).
  • By 1890, it was in $43$ states.

The Populist Party (The People's Party)

• Origins: Evolved from the Farmers’ Alliance when corporate farms and railroads fought back against cooperatives.
• Third-Party Success: The most successful third-party movement in American history. It spoke for the "producing classes" and argued that government worked for special interests rather than the people.
• Role of Women: High participation and leadership. By 1890, over $250,000$ women were active leaders. The Populists allowed women to vote/stand for office, unlike Democrats/Republicans.
• Proposed Reforms:
  • Heavy government regulation of industry (standard rates for railroads).
  • The Sub-Treasury Plan: Government warehouses for storing crops to wait out market drops.
  • Direct government loans through post offices to bypass predatory banks.
• Political Gains: In 1892, they elected William Peffer (the only Populist Senator), sent eight to Congress, and took over several state houses (notably in Kansas).

The Election of 1896 and Bimetallism

• Candidates: William Jennings Bryan (Democrat & Populist candidate) vs. William McKinley (Republican).
• The Inflation Issue: Populists wanted to end the Gold Standard to introduce "Bimetallism" (adding silver to currency) to print more money and lower inflation.
• Campaign Styles:
  • Bryan: Whistle-stop tour (traveling by train, shaking hands, kissing babies).
  • McKinley: Front-porch campaign with $200,000,000$ in corporate funding. They hired surrogates (famous athletes, actors) to sell McKinley and paint Populists as radicals/un-American.
• Results: McKinley won the industrial states (NY, PA, OH); Bryan won the South and West.
• Legacy: The Populist party was swallowed by the Democrats. While they didn't win immediate national office, their rhetoric shifted the national debate toward government regulation of the economy.

Allegory of The Wizard of Oz

• L. Frank Baum: A Populist newsman who wrote the book (1898-1899) as a political allegory.
• Symbolic Correlations:
  • Dorothy: Representing the "everyday person."
  • Silver Slippers (Ruby in movies): The Silver Standard (Bimetallism).
  • Scarecrow: The farmer—not stupid, just uneducated.
  • Tin Man: The dehumanized industrial worker needing "liquidity" (oil) and a heart.
  • Cowardly Lion: William Jennings Bryan (loud oratory, but seen as a coward for opposing overseas empire).
  • Winged Monkeys: The Plains Indians.
  • The Wizard: A politician (specifically the President) who changes his face for his audience.
  • Oz (Emerald City): Washington D.C., where you have to wear "Gilded Glasses" to see the beauty and miss the poverty underneath.
  • Toto: The Prohibition movement (Teetotalers napping at the heels of America).

Questions & Discussion

• Q: Is it about the government?
• A: Yes. The 1877 strike represents a big shift where the government turned away from the South and Reconstruction toward matters of the West and industrial development.
• Q: Solidarity?
• A: Yes, that is the word. Working-class people seeing themselves in solidarity against the elites.
• Q: What was the company name today [McCormick Harvester]?
• A: Case International. They are the red tractor people.
• Q: Did they [homesteaders] have a bathroom?
• A: No, they had an outhouse—a wooden shed with a hole in a platform.
• Q: Why do we only have two parties in America?
• A: Because our parties define themselves in direct opposition. If one side is for something, the other is against it. Also, the major parties co-opt (absorb) third-party messages to maintain control.
• Q: Does the book [Wizard of Oz] explain each in more detail?
• A: Yes, it is a very dark book where things like the underbelly of D.C. are exposed once the glasses come off.
• Q: Any more questions? No? Class dismissed. Have a good day.