Unit 1: Industrialization, Immigration & The Progressive Movement

A NATIONWIDE HOLIDAY

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

Learning Goal 6 – I will be able to

4. 
   Strike – strategy sometimes
   

1. 
   Strategy unions sometimes try – workers refuse to work until demands met
   

4. 
   3 Major Strikes
   

1. 
   Haymarket Riot – Chicago, 1886
   

1. 
   7 police and 4 civilians killed
   
2. 
   Started as a peaceful demonstration, then police arrived
   
3. 
   Someone threw a bomb that wounded many police officers and killed 7. Police fired into the crowd, killing several and wounding 100 more
   
4. 
   Reported differently by various newspapers
   
5. 
   Blamed on unions & anarchists, membership in Knights of Labor declined
   
   1. 
      Fear/distrust of immigrants
      

2. 
   Homestead Strike – Pittsburgh
   

1. 
   1892, Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead steel factory
   
2. 
   Union members protested plan to buy new machinery
   
3. 
   Management locked out workers, (Carnegie can survive if his factory doesn’t produce anything for a couple days, but the workers can’t go long without working because they’ll run out of money) and hired Pinkertons (“detectives” to come in and break up the strike) to keep workers out
   
4. 
   Workers seized control of the plant, shots fired when Pinkertons tried to get in – 16 dead & National Guard called in, union defeated
   
5. 
   Union membership hurt
   

3. 
   Pullman Strike – Chicago
   

1. 
   May 11, 1894 stopped traffic on many railroad lines
   
2. 
   Federal government ordered workers to return to their jobs
   
3. 
   Federal troops sent to Chicago to stop the strike, threatened the delivery of US Mail, leading to Federal Troops being called.
   
4. 
   Union defeated
   

4. 
   All these defeats damaged the labor movement for years and union membership declined
   

Learning Goal 6 – I will be able to