Organized Labor Movement
DBQ: Organized Labor Movement
By 1900, the United States had become the number one industrial power in the world. One factor that allowed the country to climb to its prime position was its abundant labor supply, largely composed of immigrants who had arrived between 1865 and 1900. However, the spot came at a cost; laborers were working long hours for low wages under poor conditions for the dominating monopolies of the time. Hoping to better these undesirable situations, multiple labor unions would form in the last half of the nineteenth century. Despite the continual efforts of these organizations little change was experienced from 1875 to 1900 due to disharmony among those competing to represent the laborer, the long-standing negative perceptions Americans held regarding unions, and the especially lethal combination of the tactics used by employers and the supportive pro-business government of the time. Popular labor unions of this period included the National Labor Union, founded in 1866; the Knights of Labor, founded as a secret society in 1869, becoming open to the public in 1881; and the American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886. While they all wished to arrive at the same conclusion the unions had different ideas of the best way to reach that point; for example, the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor had nearly opposite stances. Under Terence V. Powderly, the Knights of Labor sought to reform by means of negotiating rather than strikes, not to say that some branches of this loosely organized group did not resort to such measure; but the AF of L, with Samuel Gompers as their leader, believed that without some occasional strong action that no change would be made and that all benefits would be reaped by the employer, leaving the laborer with no improvements (Document I). The American Federation of Labor also differed from some labor unions in the fact that it solely focused on feasible economic goals and was an organization of craft
By 1900, the United States had become the number one industrial power in the world. One factor that allowed the country to climb to its prime position was its abundant labor supply, largely composed of immigrants who had arrived between 1865 and 1900. However, the spot came at a cost; laborers were working long hours for low wages under poor conditions for the dominating monopolies of the time. Hoping to better these undesirable situations, multiple labor unions would form in the last half of the nineteenth century. Despite the continual efforts of these organizations little change was experienced from 1875 to 1900 due to disharmony among those competing to represent the laborer, the long-standing negative perceptions Americans held regarding unions, and the especially lethal combination of the tactics used by employers and the supportive pro-business government of the time. Popular labor unions of this period included the National Labor Union, founded in 1866; the Knights of Labor, founded as a secret society in 1869, becoming open to the public in 1881; and the American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886. While they all wished to arrive at the same conclusion the unions had different ideas of the best way to reach that point; for example, the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor had nearly opposite stances. Under Terence V. Powderly, the Knights of Labor sought to reform by means of negotiating rather than strikes, not to say that some branches of this loosely organized group did not resort to such measure; but the AF of L, with Samuel Gompers as their leader, believed that without some occasional strong action that no change would be made and that all benefits would be reaped by the employer, leaving the laborer with no improvements (Document I). The American Federation of Labor also differed from some labor unions in the fact that it solely focused on feasible economic goals and was an organization of craft