CHAPTER 13 THE SOCIALIST CHALLENGE Emma Goldman Anarchist and feminist Political consciousness was shaped by o Factory work

rk o Haymarket executions o Homestead Act o Long prison term of her lover Alexander Berkman o Depression of the 1890s o Strike struggles of New York Served prison sentence at BlackwellsIsland

Mark Twain World-acclaimed writer of funny serious-American-to-the-bone-stories By 1900 he was 65 years old Famous socialist writer was neither a anarchist or radical

Famous Socialist Writers Upton Sinclair o Wrote The Jungle published in 1906 o First published in the Socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason o Translated into 17 languages/ read by millions o The book spoke of socialism/ how great it would be if everybody shared the riches of the earth o Influenced by Jack Londons People of the Abyss Jack London o Influenced Upton Sinclair o Member of the Socialist party o Came from the slums of San Francisco o Worked many odd jobs before being a writer o Been jailed and clubbed by the police o Preached socialism in the Alaskan gold camps in the winter of 1896 o Gained notoriety for writing adventure books o Wrote The Iron Heel/ in it warning of a fascist America, preaching socialism

Big Business By 1900, problems within the system became apparent Bankers were in control

By 1904, 1000 railroad lines had been consolidated into 6 great combinations each allied with either Morgan or Rockefeller interests By 1907, there was a panic, financial collapse, and crisis o Big businesses were not hurt o Profits after 1907 were not as high as the capitalist wanted Industry was not expanding as fast Industrialist began to look for ways to cut costs

Frederick W. Taylor and TAYLORISM Steel company foreman Taylorism o System of finely detailed division of labor, increased mechanization, and piecework wage systems, to increase production and profits o Purpose was to make workers interchangeable o Well fitted for the auto industry In 1911, published Scientific Method o Powerfully influential in the business world

Factory Conditions Factories were a perfect breeding spot for diseases Many accidents and sickness It would get too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter Men women and child would work 70 and 80 hours a week If you dont come in on Sunday, you not need come in on Monday In 1909, women organized and decided to strike o Colored women also joined o 20,000 had walked out o Everday a 1,000 new members joined the union, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union o In more than 300 shops, workers won their demands o Women now became officials in the union o Pauline Newman was influential Conditions did not change much Triangle Shirtwaist Company o Picket in the cold/ they knew they could not win o March 25, 1911/ fire broke out on the 8/9/10 floors o The fire ladders only reached the 7th floor o 500,000 workers spent all day, perhaps 12 hours above the 7th floor o The factory did not obey laws/ doors were locked and did not open outwards o Over 146 workers were burned or crushed to death

In 1904, 27,000 workers were killed on the job One year 50,000 accidents took place in New York factories alone

Unionization After the turn of the century there were 2,000,000 members of labor unions (1 in 14) 80% in the American Federation of Labor(AFL) o Head guy/ Samuel Gompers o Exclusive union, almost all skilled white males o Racism was practical Women workers were growing o Doubled from 4 million in 1890 to 8 million in 1920 o Made up 1/5 of the labor force o Only 1 in a 100 belonged to a union Black workers o In 1910, made up 1/3 of the earnings of white workers o Excluded from most AFL unions o Gompers said he did not want to interfere with the internal affairs of the South o Lonshoremen E.S. Swan

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Implemented in June 1905, Started in a hall in Chicago a convention of 200 socialists, anarchist, and radical trade unionists from all over the United Stated Opposed the AFL Organizers were o Haywood and Eugene Debs, leaders of the socialist party o Mother Mary Jones, a 75 years old white-haired women, organizer for the United Mine Workers of America Nickname (Wobblies) Aimed at organizing all workers in any industry into One Big Union, undivided by se, race, or skills Spoke of direct action Militant and courageous Got bad press In 10 years after its birth the IWW became a threat to the capitalist class Attacked by the newspapers, courts, police, the army, and mob violence Tarrings, featherings, and beatings/ some were even killed like Joe Hill

American Woolen Company

Lawrence, MA Work force was immigrant families Lived in crowded, flammable wooden tenements Average wage was $8.76 week Dr. Elizabeth Shapleigh wrote o A considerable # of the boys and girls die within the first 2 or 3 years after working o 36 out of 100 of all men who work in the mills will die before they are 25 Workers striked, IWW was there to help Local mayor called out to the local militia: the governor ordered out the state police Strikers were beaten by the authorities some was killed Strikers would wear white armbands that read, dont be a scab Children of strikers would be sent to sympathetic families in other cities to take care of them until the strike ended City officials said that no more children would be permitted to leave Lawrence The American Woolen Company decided to give in

Women in the Workforce In 1900 there were 500,000 women office workers In 1870 there had been only 19,000 women office workers Women were switchboard operators, store workers, nurses million were teachers o Formed a Teachers League that fought against the automatic firing of a pregnant women Black women faced double oppression

Socialist Party Eugene Debs became a Socialist while in jail Main newspaper, Appeal to Reason Socialism moved out to smaller circles of city immigrants Strongest Socialist state organization was in Oklahoma At this time many Socialist were in office Women were active in the Socialist movement/ Helen Keller 3% of the Socialist partys member were women in 1904 15% were women by 1913 Socialist women were active in the feminist movement of the early 1900s There were blacks in the Socialist party, but the Socialist party did not go much out of its way to act on the race question

Blacks Began to organize

A National Afro-American Council formed in 1903 To protest against lynching, peonage, discrimination, disfranchisement o The National Association of Colored Women Condemned segregation and lynching W.E.B. Du Bois o Born in Massachusetts o First black to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard(1895) o Just written and published The Souls of Black Folks o Socialist sympathizer, although only a brief party member o First editor of the NAACP Niagra Movement o Civil rights organization o Named after where the meeting took place o Member are W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) o Formed in 1910 o Whites dominated the leadership of the new organization W.E.B. Du Bois was the only black officer o Concentrated on legal action and education o Persistent manly agitation is the way to liberty

Progressive Period New laws were passed under Theodore Roosevelt o Meat Inspection Act o The Hepburn Act To regulate railroads and pipelines o A Pure Food and Drug Act New Laws passed under Taft o The Mann-Elkins Act To put telephone and telegraph systems under the regulation of the Interstate Commerce Commission At this time a number of states passed laws regulating wages and hours, providing for safety inspection of factories and compensation for injured workmen Time of public investigations aimed at soothing protest Ordinary people benefited from these changes A study of immigrants in New York/ 1905 and 1915 finds that 32% of Italians and Jews rose out of the manual class to higher levels

Colorado Coal Strike Began in 1913 Led to the Ludlow Massacre of 1914

Mexico

11,000 miners in Southern Colorado , mostly foreign born worked for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation Owned by the Rockefeller family Striked because of low pay, dangerous conditions The town they lived in were controlled by the mining companies they work for Mother Jones at the time an organizer for the United Mine Workers helped workers with their strike until she was arrested o She was kept in a dungeon like cell, then expelled from the state Miners were evicted from their shacks when the strike happened Aided by the United Mine Workers Union who provided tents Gunman using Gatling guns and rifles, raided the tent colonies Many miners were killed Miners would fight back Colorado Governor called in the National Guard to break up the strike o Rockefellers supplying the guards wages Leader of the Strike Lou Tikas, was lured up the hills in Ludlow to discuss a truce, but instead was shot and killed by the National Guard Women and children were killed in Ludlow this is known as the Ludlow Massacre

American warships were attacking Vera Cruz, city on the coast of Mexico Left 100 Mexicans dead We attacked because Mexico had arrested American sailors and refused to apologize to the U.S. with a 21 gun salute Unemployment was growing and times were hard in 1914 could guns divert attention? Make America rally against a common enemy?