Laissez Faire: Lack of Government Interference in the United States in the 1800's

But, even though Pullman didn’t make any changes, the strike influenced that way the public viewed worker’s rights and the role of management and mediation of labor unions. Before government intervention, the public’s opinion about supporting the strike was split. The western and southern part of America generally supported the strike while the east generally opposed it (H.W.). But people began to question the amount of control of the government after President Cleveland sent in troops to shut down the strikes. 30 died and 57 were injured (Lawrence). Using military forces to union bust was a milestone in American history. Besides the Homestead strike two years earlier, the Pullman strike was first to be shut down violently by the military (Levitt). After these event, public opinion changed. The majority did not support the government and Pullman, and when Pullman died in 1897, people were said to have desecrated his body

The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike

Up until the 1880s, the United States economy followed the policy of laissez-faire (the idea that the government should have no involvement in the economy), and this led to competition which led to good prices of goods for the average consumer. However with the growth of many large companies that controlled the market, prices of goods raised due to the lack of competition. With consumers becoming frustrated and prices constantly rising, the government was forced to regulate the control of monopolies in the market.

Further evidence of the government’s support for the employers was illustrated by Cleveland’s use of Pinkerton agents to suppress the Pullman strike. The Pullman strike illustrates the often hostile approach of governments in the early part of the period, as the Federal government occasionally was active in their support for the employers, to the detriment of the workers, whose strike for higher wages failed as a result of the government.

Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States. George Pullman cut his railroad workers wages in regards of economic depression. The workers organized a strike, but soon enough they realized they needed additional help. Famed labor union Eugene V. Debs helped to establish an organization to create a national movement. After the railroad workers resorted to destructiveness it gained favor, which, it was brought to the attention of the attorney general. The Pullman Strike is widely seen to have reached the maximums because of George Pullman’s uncompromising and unsympathetic attitude towards his employee’.

New advancements made an influential impact on the U.S. economy and led to its initial success. The rail business expanded greatly after the Civil War. Transcontinental lines linked the East and West and by 1870, railroads could carry goods and passengers from coast to coast. Railroads served as a cheaper way to transport goods and

The Tariff of 1816 or the Tariff of Abominations supplied a bit of protection, but as the needs for it grew, the more it had to offer. The rates rose from 35% to 45% and there was more added to the list. During Andrew Jackson’s presidency, the Tariff of 1832 was passed which assisted the North because it got more people to purchase other products. However, the South weren’t happy because cotton wasn’t being bought by the English.

When their wages were lowered but their rent stayed the same, they knew something had to give. To retaliate, workers started the Pullman strike in 1894. Other strikes included the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which resulted when railroad companies cut their wages, and the Homestead Strike, which came about in 1892 over demands for increased production. There was also the Haymarket Riot in 1886 as a result of police brutality from a

As seen in the Pullman Strike, Ludlow Massacre, etc, the federal government took the side of the employers and sent in federal troops to break up strikes. This all changed in 1902 when Roosevelt took the side of the United Mine Workers in the Anthracite Coal Strike. Wilson knew that something had to be done since the coal supplies for winter were being threatened, and so he proposed both the operators and miners to accept an arbitration. The operators rejected but willingly gave in when Roosevelt threatened to seize the mines. This awarded the workers with a wage increase and lower working hours. Although the union didn’t achieve to earn the recognition they wanted, they were pleased with the government siding with them. He didn't stop there,

Lorenzo smith Mr. Alvarado P.5 Gilded Age During the Gilded Age America was going through a time of extreme change, advancements, and also conflicts. The gilded age was originally coined by Mark twain who described the times as gilded with gold and fortune but under the surface was filled with unnoticed conflicts. The Gilded Age lasted from 1870-1900 and was a time of rapid economic that created some of the big businesses we know today.

The canal and railroad systems, which grew up in the North, facilitated a much larger volume of trade and manufacturing while reducing costs a great deal. Great cities sprang up throughout the North and Northwest, bolstered by the improvement in transportation.

This established the idea that people would become “self-reliant”. Individual success was encouraged and government intervention was to be kept minimal. People aspired to achieve these objectives, for example, earning respect, conquering individual goals and measuring success by gaining material status. Laissez Faire was a philosophy used by previous conservative US Presidents, which also promoted minimal government involvement. As America became more industrialised the system faced many problems. The lack of government participation in both of these theories is what led to the American government only coming to the realisation of an economic crisis when it was too

The Pullman Strike was an effect to the Pullman Palace Car Company hit a depression and cut workers’ wages 25-40 percent while keeping the rent and housing prices the same. Many of the workers joined the American Railroad Union. Debs, socialists that followed Karl Marx’s classless society, backed up the workers which resulted in them being jailed. The strike is an example of a secondary labor boycott. The workers cut off the town from food and goods. President Cleveland ordered troops to break up the strike. The federal courts issued an injunction

Free land led to new opportunities, and it was up to each individual and their desire to work hard and climb the economic and social ladder: “…each frontier did indeed furnish a new field of opportunity, a gate of escape from the bondage of the past; and freshness, and confidence, and scorn of older society…”(Turner, 100). Everything was open to the man who knew how to seize the opportunity. The self-made man became the ideal of the West, and eventually every man in the U.S.A. should be like him.

The Homestead Movement was ultimately was ineffective because no inconsequential change occurred due to the violence of this movement. In 1892, Eugene V. Debs formed the American Railway Union, which resulted in one of the largest strikes in American history: the Pullman Strike (Ushistory.org). When workers repudiated to capitulate the pay cut in their checks, the Pullman Car Company fired 500 employees. Debs and members of the American Railway Union boycotted trains that used Pullman cars. On July 4, mobs started to tip over rail cars using fireworks since the federal troops sent in by President Grover Cleveland to handle the situation (Ladd). “This burning and rioting came to a zenith on July 6, when fires caused by some 6,000 rioters destroyed 700 railcars and caused $340,000 of damages in the South Chicago Panhandle yard” (Hofstader). Ultimately, the violence used in the Pullman Movement proved ineffective in attaining social change because the worker’s pay was not rehabilitated. The Labor Force Movements were more effective, however, in attaining social change compared to the Homestead and Pullman violent Strikes. The Labor Movements brought a halt to child labor, and gave health benefits, and aid to retired or injured workers. One of the hallmarks of the Labor Movement, are the strikes formed in which many workers