Causes Of The Great Railroad Strike Of 1877

As the rich became richer and the poor became poorer, it was realized by the laborers of the railroad that their nation's economic growth and prosperity was not being equally shared among the people. Coupled with years of wage cuts (35% over 3 years), and workforce reductions, that then required remaining workers to work 15-18 hour days, the workers fought back.

The construct of the Transcontinental railroad began in 1863 and ended in 1869. After it was complete people used it very much to travel across the country and people still it today to travel to places. People offend only believe the railroad was one of the most amazing that happen to our country and it only caused great things to happen. However, this is not all true. The railroad did cause great things like it helped increase westward expansion in the United States of America but it also caused a lot of horrible things like causing the removal of many Native American tribes in the west. So, after the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, there were positives effect but also negative effects that occur in the US.

Because of the rising change of social and industry they kind of caused friction towards political views. Miners and steelworkers were the first workers to use the strike ad a bargaining tool against their business owners.

During the Progressive Era of the Gilded Age, many laborers were being mistreated by the companies that they worked for. Because of this, workers started forming labor unions or organized association of workers, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. Many of these labor unions failed, while few of them achieved their goals and still exist today. Many factors contributed to the failure of these labor unions. The labor unions were given a bad image, the reason for this was the media, and they did this by publishing articles depicting the unions as violent, communist groups. The government supported big business during this time, since the government had a lot of power; this was a huge setback in the labor unions’ battles.

Crises, such as the great railroad strike of 1877, Homestead strike of 1892, Pullman strike of 1894, and the depression of 1893-1894, were results from the rise of industrial capitalism. By 1900, America produced one-third of the world’s goods. Due to this, cities became polluted and overcrowded, and became breeding grounds for diseases like typhoid and cholera. The working situations were not much better, with unskilled industrial laboring class, child labor, low wages, locked fire doors, and allowance of toxic fumes in the factories; many people were disgusted by the way America’s economy grew, while its people were left in poor health.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 manifested into the first of a series of labor strikes in the United States and the first general strike of the nation. Working on the railroads, labor workers already had poor working conditions and low wages. However, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) had made its second wage cut in the past eight months; both cuts by ten percent. In response to this, labor workers refused to allow any freight trains to roll in and out of the station until the restoration of their original wages. The railroad strikers included individuals from railroad workers to other labor sympathizers alike. The Great Strike of 1877 succeeded for the labor economy because of the large number of labor supporters, the overpowering of the militia, and the power of initiative from the people.

* The Great RR Strike of 1877 shut down railroads from WV to CA & resulted in hundreds of deaths

In the late 1800, conflicts arose from farmers, workers, and railroad companies. These issues were resolved by significant battles among them, but never had an affect on the railroads. The railroads charged an extraordinary amount of money for transportation of products. This made farmers extremely outraged, and made them use their money more wisely than spend it on the transportation of their products. The railroad companies misused their money given by the government to gain profit of off land grants. The competition led to workers going on strike for their budgets being cut. These concepts show that railroads, in their wasteful competition, exploited farmers and workers because of budget cuts, transportation of products, and rates.(Introduction, Timeline)

Harper’s Weekly, an American magazine, published in New York City from January 3, 1857 until May 13, 1916. Harper’s Weekly contained many topics of interest for its readers including national and international news, informative essays, short stories of fiction and even humorous anecdotes. “Among the recurring features were the political cartoons of Thomas Nast, who was recruited in 1862 and worked with the Weekly for more than 20 years. Nast was a feared caricaturist, and is often called the father of American political cartooning. He was the first to use an elephant as the symbol of the Republican Party” (Halloran). A very famous innovation of Harper's Weekly was the use of many illustrations that helped to highlight the featured articles. These illustrations were a significant part of Harper Weekly’s content and they helped to increase its readership. It also became known for using some of the most famous illustrators of the time including; Winslow Homer, Granville Perkins, Livingston Hopkins and Civil War illustrators Alfred and William Waud. “By 1860 the circulation of the Weekly had reached 200,000. . . Harper's Weekly was the most widely read journal in the United States throughout the period of the Civil War. So as not to upset its wide readership in the South, Harper’s took a moderate editorial position on the issue of slavery. Publications that supported abolition referred to it as Harper’s Weakly” (RareNewspapers). When the Great Strike of 1877 came about, the

The two major Railroad Strikes were the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and Railroad Shop workers Strike of 1922. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, was due to workers not being happy about the pay cuts that were being made by their employer so often. Northern Railroads began cutting salaries and wages. Because of various railroads cutting wages by 10% back to back, workers were not willing to continue working under those conditions. Not only were the wages of the workers being cut, the amount work of work given to the employees increased and the employer did not hire additional workers. This then caused railroad employees to respond by taking control of the rail yard switches, and blocking movement of trains. Throughout various cities such as Baltimore, Pittsburg, St. Louise, and Chicago, Violent acts began to occur. Many people died throughout the cities. The strike cause the country’s commerce to become paralyzed and pushed governors in different states to utilize militia members to reopen rail traffic. This action also helped set the stage for violence that would occur later in the 1880s and 1890s.

The hours were long and the pay was very low. If an employee got injured on the job, the company often would do nothing to help with their medical costs or support their family while they couldn’t work. Some workers couldn’t even support their families with their low wages and as a result many households didn’t have enough for food. One of the reasons that the Pullman strike occurred was many of Pullman’s workers who had worked for him for over a decade were not getting adequate food (Doc 3). Child labor was also a big problem.

Rail transport was hardly a new market – in fact, it had already been through its beginning stages, its boom and its near-collapse, in the form of the Panic of 1873. Lowered wages and fewer jobs resulted in strikes, many of which were violent in nature. These clashes continued until 1880, at which point the nation had 17,800 freight trains, 22,000 passenger trains, and the American railroad industry was reborn in meteoric fashion.

The Great Railroad Strike, also known as the Great Upheaval, commenced on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Due to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads lowering wages for the third time in a year, the workers began to revolt. The strike lasted 45 days before it was put down by local and state militias and federal troops. The strike in West Virginia set off a chain reaction resulting in workers in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, and Missouri going on strikes. The strike disrupted work everywhere, as 100,000 workers across the country supported it. Workers burned down factories and destroyed railroads, engines, and cars. In response to the chaotic strike, the railroads organized private militias, as did the city and state governments,

The strike started on July 13th, after the B&O Railway company cut the wages of their workers again. This was the third wage cut which has been inflicted on railroad employees this year. Along with cutting the wages, the work week was also cut down to only 3 or 4 days. The rail companies planned to increase the amount of freight being transported but also planned to limit the size of the crews. Those were the main reasons the strike began.

I feel that the Great Railroad Strike of 1887 was a major issue because it made Americans realize just how deeply Americans were invested in the railroads. At the time, the biggest investment banking firm in America, Jay Cooke