Haymarket Riot Essay

On May 11th, 1894, one of the most violent labor strikes in American history took place in Pullman, Illinois. This labor strike, initiated by the American Railway Union (ARU) and led by Eugene Debs against the extremely wealthy and powerful George Pullman and his company, the Pullman Palace Car Company. This strike became a turning point in the national battle regarding U.S. labor laws, and was instrumental in the regulation of corporations by the government. The event that would eventually give birth to Labor Day took months of riots, struggles, and ultimately, violence. It showed America how important the lives and wellbeing of American workers was, and helped the nation recognize the rights that employees

Although many say that the bombing that caused the Haymarket Riot did not help the cause of the protestors, I claim that the bombing helped the eight hour work day movement by striking fear into the employers, which

In the first half of the 19th Century the working class in the newly industrializing American society suffered many forms of exploitation. The working class of the mid-nineteenth century, with constant oppression by the capitalist and by the division between class, race, and ethnicity, made it difficult to form solidarity. After years of oppression and exploitation by the ruling class, the working class struck back and briefly paralyzed American commerce. The strike, which only lasted a few weeks, was the spark needed to ignite a national revolt by the working class with the most violent labor upheavals of the century.

In the book, “Bread and Roses”by Bruce Watson, the textile mill workers went on strike to stand for what’s right in Lawrence Massachusetts January 12, 1912. Nearly 30,000 textile workers walked off their jobs, for 3 months. Workers were furious as they paraded, picketed and stood up violently with authorities. As they demanded better working conditions, and pay to feed their families. This strike shook America in many ways leaving Mill owners devastated without workers to work in their textile mills.

Life in the early 1900’s wasn’t easy. Competition for jobs was at an all time high, especially in New York City. Immigrants were flooding in and needed to find work fast, even if that meant in the hot, overcrowded conditions of garment factories. Conditions were horrid and disaster was inevitable, and disaster did strike in March, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York set on fire, killing 146 workers. This is an important event in US history because it helped accomplish the tasks unions and strikes had tried to accomplish years earlier, It improved working conditions in factories nationwide and set new safety laws and regulations so that nothing as catastrophic would happen again. The workplace struggles became public after

In the 1800s and early 1900s working conditions were much harsher than now. Long hours and small wages made up a day in the life of someone living in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. The Haymarket Riot was the result of the bombing in Chicago. “In the summer 1886 the campaign for an eight-hour day, long a rallying cry that united American laborers, culminated in a national strike on May 1, 1886. Between 300,000 and 500,000 workers struck across the country. In Chicago, police forces killed several workers while breaking up protestors at the McCormick reaper works. Labor leaders and radicals called for a protest at Haymarket Square the following day, which police also proceeded to break up. But as they did, a bomb exploded and killed seven policemen. Police fired into the crowd, killing four. The deaths of the Chicago policemen sparked outrage across the nation and the sensationalization of the “Haymarket Riot” helped many Americans to associate unionism with radicalism” (Yawp). As a result of the Haymarket Riot was the loss of members of the Knight of Labor. “The national movement for an eight-hour day collapsed”(Yawp). The Haymarket Riot played an important role in illustrating how labor was in the late 1800s to the

Despite being able to cause a small improvement in workers’ pay and hours, labor unions ultimately died out by the 1900s due to their methods. Unable to truly focus on the plight of skilled workers, most labor unions instead focused on that of unskilled workers, pushing aside the skilled workers. (Doc D). The actions of labor unions ended up being counterproductive, forcing companies to wage war against the labor unions. These stricter contracts such as that of Western Union Telegraph Company, forced workers to affiliate themselves against labor unions. (Doc E) One important thing to note is that the workers’ rights advocates were never able to coincide on one factor. As evidenced in an illustration in 1887, labor unions had to compete with other movements such as socialism, anarchism, and other labor unions. (Doc F). Because of this, the media, although recognizing the labor union movement, began viewing the labor unions as dangerous entities. Although the initial strikes such as the Wabash strike were successful, the ones that followed proved detrimental to the movement, and caused the steady decline of the labor unions. Because some of the strikes were dangerous, many strikes resulted in the deaths of those involved, such as the Homestead Crisis, and Pinkerton (Doc G). Combined with events such as the Wildcat strike, Haymarket strike, the Pullman Strike, the public began to associate a negative

From July 24 to July 28, this charged atmosphere kindled what one observer called a “labor explosion.” In addition to walkouts and protests by railroad workers, sympathetic actions by other

These benefits were greatly needed as seen in the working conditions experienced by the Italian immigrants of this time. These groups were organized locally which also led to their downfall because of too much local power rather than a form of national leadership. The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1185, was unique in that it restricted its membership to only skilled workers and was also organized by trade instead of locality. For this reason it “became known as the “aristocracy” of labor” (Additional Links: The War between Capital and Labor). The Italian immigrants, for example, were not commonly found in the American Federation of Labor because they were unskilled and were not unionizing. President of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers believed in the power of the strike and most importantly the belief of the eight-hour workday. In Chicago, over one thousand people gathered at the West Randolph Street Haymarket, where people bought hay for their horses. Originally it was a peaceful gathering until someone threw a bomb into the crowd. The police responded by shooting into the crowd. An unknown number of demonstrators were killed or wounded. “Sixty police officers were injured and eight eventually died. Politicians and the press blamed radicals for the violence, although there was no evidence linking specific people to the bomb” (Lecture

On March 25, 1911 a disastrous tragedy hit our nation that forced a needed change in the factory industry. In New York’s Greenwich Village a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, one of the most prominent factories around owned by Mr. Isaac Harris and Mr. Max Blanck. Approximately 146 workers, mostly women, died in this fire, making it the most catastrophic fire incident in New York City. Just before this accident, these same women were on strike for the horrible and unsafe conditions they faced in such factories, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory being the most influential reason for the strike. This accident was more than an accident; it was society neglecting to take action in order to provide safer conditions for female factory workers, it was the lack of care in the nation at the time for women and their rights.

In Chapter 1, Forbath discusses the presence of the courts in the 19th century and rejects the notion of American exceptionalism. Regarding the intervention of workers’ movements, Forbath refers to cases and quantitative data to show “judicial actions” and “judge-made state policy” made the judiciary the center of law in 19th century America. Also, Forbath cites quantitative studies as he states American workers were no more individualistic than their European counterparts and that “workers’ disposition toward collective action was greater in the United States than in most European nations.” Consequently, Forbath draws a connection between the growing presence of courts and lack of individualism in American labor.

The tragedy of March 25, 1911 was a crucial turning point and important era of awareness of worker powerlessness during the age of early American industrialization. The fire that consumed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory remains a haunting memory for this nation. The fates of innocent workers sent a wave of grief throughout the entire nation. The victims died as a result of a serious neglect for safety features within the facility and brought widespread attention to the dangerous working conditions of factories, which led to the development of a series of progressive legislation, and provided more stringent regulations on the safety of workers. This essay will use documents and outside sources to discuss the influence the Triangle Fire had

transformed radically with the Industrial Revolution era. The labor movement renovated the way employers directed business and impacted the labor of skilled craftsmen. With the revolution altering the workforce and corporations becoming decentralized, business became more mobile. Industrial development changed the way companies performed business and radically changed the working conditions for workers needing the need for a more formal labor relations procedures. Labor unions became more widespread during this era with several rising to the top: Knights of Labor (KOL) American Federation of Labor (AFL) Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Events that are well known including the Haymarket Riot and the Pullman Strike, took place among extreme labor negotiations. In addition, in an attempt to launch and regulate fair trade practices in interstate and international commerce, the government passed laws that were focused toward labor unions and the labor relations development. The laws passed either advanced or were detrimental to labor administrations. Many laborers realized in order to have actual headway made, they would have to work for it themselves. This required establishing into trade unions, the very existence of which was illegal until l824. The struggle to develop these reforms were long and difficult , and often turned out violent. Still, towards the end of the nineteenth century, trade unions had made considerable advancement toward improving the living and working conditions that industrial workers had to

However it seemed as though the opposite was the case. Workers generally laboured in poor and dangerous working conditions and only received salaries that were insufficient (Gale Encyclopaedia of U.S. Economic History, 2000). These conditions, coupled with the fact that de-skilling of low-wage industrial jobs, meant that these workers were easily replaceable by the many immigrants who were continually entering America in the same era (Hirshman & Mogford, 2009). Now according to Merton, the inability of the community of achieve their ends, in this case a decent livelihood, and the helplessness of their situation would be catalysts for social discord. A case in point, the cumulation of the eight hour day movement in 1886, where workers demanded eight hour work days for ten hour pay, greatly supported by labour unions (Commons et al., 2000), in the United States led to 1,411 strikes. This was more than twice the number in 1885 and around triple that of the previous five years (Report of the Commissioner of

Labor unions emerged at the time of the financial crisis. A crowd of poor workers gathered outside Rockefeller's house and started to create a scene by trashing the place. Finally, the police arrived and broke up their demonstration. But the law enforcement authority was sympathetic towards the blue collar workers. As a result, they did not go for any physical violence against the protesters. Rather, they took up a much more