In Lowell, Massachusetts, the construction of a big cotton mill started in 1821. It was the first of many that would be built there in the next 10 years. The machinery to spin and weave the cotton into cloth would be driven by waterpower. All that the factory owners needed was a cheap source of labor to run the machines. Most jobs in cotton factories did not require strength or special skills, the owners believed women could do the work as well as or better than men. The New England region was home to many young, single farm girls, but would New England farmers allow their daughters to work in factories? Many of them would not. They believed that eventually factory workers would be taken advantage of and would eventually wind up in poverty. Though the owners did succeed in attracting many of them by building decent houses in which the girls could live. These houses were supervised by older women who made sure that the girls lived by strict moral standards. The girls were encouraged to go to church, and taught to read and to write.

The factory workers did not earn very much; the usual pay was around $3.50 a week. The hours worked in the factories were long. Often, the girls worked 11 to 13 hours a day, six days a week. Workers and businessmen would both profit from the wealth created by mass production. For a while, the factory system at Lowell worked very well. The population of the town grew from 200 to around 30,000 in just 25 years. But eventually surroundings in Lowell’s factories had started to change. Faced with bigger competition, factory owners started to lower wages in order to lower costs. They increased the number of machines that each girl had to operate and began to overcrowd the houses in which the girls lived, sometimes packing eight girls to one room. Factory conditions degraded, and unsafe working conditions were everywhere.

In 1836, 1,500 factory girls went on strike to protest wage cuts. (The girls called this a "turn out.") But it did not help. Poor immigrants were beginning to arrive in the United States from Europe. To earn a living, they were willing to accept low wages and poor working conditions. Before long, immigrant women replaced the "Yankee" (American) farm girls. i

In colonial America, most manufacturing was done by hand at home. Some was done in workshops attached house. As the demand for manufactured goods increased, some workshop owners began hiring helpers. Relations between the employer and helper were mostly good. They worked side by side, had the same interests and held similar political views.

As the factory system grew, many specialized workers began to form guilds to protect their interests. The first union in America to hold regular meetings and collect dues was organized by Philadelphia shoemakers in 1792. Soon after, carpenters and leather workers in Boston and printers in New York also organized unions. Labor’s 3. Members of a union would agree on the wages that they thought were fair, they pledged to stop working for employers who would not pay that amount. They also sought to force employers to hire only union members.
Employers found the courts to be a good weapon to protect their interests. In 1806, eight Philadelphia shoemakers were brought to trial after leading an unsuccessful strike. The court ruled that any organizing of workers to raise wages was an illegal act. Unions were "conspiracies" against employers and the community. In later cases, courts ruled that almost any action taken by unions to increase wages might be criminal. These decisions destroyed the effectiveness of the nation’s early labor unions.

In 1842 the way opened again for workers to organize. That year union shoemakers in Boston were charged with refusing to work with non-union shoemakers. A lower court judge found the men guilty of conspiracy. But an appeal to a higher court resulted in a victory for labor unions in general. Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that it was not illegal for workers to engage peacefully in union activity. “It was their right to peaceably assemble”, he said.1

In the next twenty years, unions campaigned for a 10-hour working day, and also against child labor (mostly because it would take away from their jobs). In 1851, for example, New Jersey passed a law calling for a 10-hour working day in all factories. It also did not allow the employment of children under 10 years old. ii

In the years after the Civil War, the United States was changed by the growth of industry. Earlier the United States was mostly a nation of small farms. By 1900, it was a nation of cities, coal and steel. Though living standards rose, millions of workers lived in crowded, unsanitary tenements. Their conditions became desperate during depressions. Then it was common for workers to go on strike and battle their employers.
Between 1865 and 1900, violence during strikes occurred on several occasions. Probably the most violent conflict between workers and employers was the Great Railway Strike of 1877. The country had been under a severe depression for four years. The railroads had decreased the wages of railway workers by 20 percent. Many trainmen complained that they could not support their families. There was little that they could do about the pay decreases. During that time unions were weak and workers were afraid of going on strike; there were too many unemployed men who might take their jobs. Though some workers secretly formed a Trainmen’s Union to oppose the railroads.
In 1877, four big railroads announced that they were going to decrease pay another 10 percent. Also, the Pennsylvania line ordered freight train conductors to handle twice as many cars. On July 16, a strike began on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia. The strike spread to other lines. On July 19, Pennsylvania Railroad workers at Pittsburgh refused to let freight trains move. (They let passenger trains move freely because they carried United States mail.) The next day the governor sent state militiamen to remove the strikers from the freight yard. But these militiamen were from Pittsburgh. They had many friends and relatives with strikers. Soon they were conversing with the crowd of men, women and children at the freight yard.

The next day 600 militiamen arrived from Philadelphia. They were ordered to clear the tracks at the freight yard. The soldiers moved toward the crowd and shooting started. In the end, 20 people in the crowd died. Many more were wounded. News of the killings incited rioting and fires in the Pittsburgh rail-yards. President Hayes ordered federal troops to Pittsburgh to end the violence. When they arrived, the fighting had already ended. In the ruins, they found the wrecks of more than 2,000 railroad cars and many of the buildings lay in ashes.

Many strikers were sent to jail and others lost their jobs. Some people were convinced that miners, railroad workers and other laborers were common criminals. Many states passed new conspiracy laws to try and stop the unions. But the Great Railway Strike of 1877 helped the workers in some ways. A few railroads took back the pay cuts. More support was given to the strike by miners, ironworkers and others. It gave labor an awareness of its strength and solidarity.

The Railway Strike led many workers to join a new national labor organization-the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. Founded in 1869 by a small group of Philadelphia clothing workers, their union had been unable to organize. The reason, they believed, was that its members were too well known. Employers fired them and then put their names on a "blacklist." Other employers would not hire anyone whose name appeared on the list. ii

Membership in the Knights of Labor was open to wage earners over 18 years of age no matter race, sex or skill. New members had to take an “oath of secrecy.” They swore that they would never reveal the name of the order or the names of its members. The program of the Knights of Labor called for an eight-hour working day, laws establishing a minimum weekly wage, the use of arbitration rather than strikes, laws to protect the health and safety of workers, an end to child labor under 14 years of age and government ownership of railroads, telegraphs and telephones. It was impossible for the Knights to operate in complete secrecy. Reports of their activities reached the press. Newspaper stories usually exaggerated the strength of the group. Under pressure from the public, the Knights began to work openly. But they were still not allowed to reveal the name of any member to an employer.

Membership in the Knights increased slowly. By 1884, the order had only 52,000 members. But that year workers led by Knights of Labor organizers went on strike against two big railroad companies. Both strikes ended in complete victories for the Knights. Now workers everywhere rushed to join the order. Within two years membership in the Knights rose to 150,000. Newspapers warned their readers about the power of the Knights. One of them said, "Their leaders can shut most of the mills and factories, and disable the railroads." Many people associated the order with dangerous radicals.

Later railroad strikes by the Knights met with defeat. The order was not nearly as powerful as it had seemed. Workers began to leave it in great numbers. Within 10 years of its greatest victories, the Knights of Labor collapsed. As the Knights declined, a new labor organization began to challenge it for supremacy. This was the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Samuel Gompers, a leader of the Cigarmakers’ Union, formed it in 1886.

Gompers believed that craft unions of skilled workers were the best kind. Unskilled workers were easily replaced when they went on strike. Craft workers could not be replaced easily. The American Federation of Labor began with six craft unions. They were cigarmakers, carpenters, printers, iron molders, steel molders and glassmakers. The new group was not an immediate success. For 10 years, the AFL and the Knights fought each other. They invaded each other’s territory, started revolts and welcomed each other’s members into their own organization. They even supplied strikebreakers to companies against each other. The AFL, led by Gompers, grew in size and power. By 1904, it had 1.75 million members and was the nation’s dominant labor organization. i

At the same time, many workers in Europe were joining revolutionary labor movements which backed the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a new socialist system. Most American workers, however, followed the lead of Gompers, with his highly realistic approach to problems of labor. They were not interested in destroying the economic structure of the country but in making it work more for their benefit.

Gompers believed that unions should be concerned with the day-to-day welfare of their members and should not become involved in politics. He also was sure that socialism would not succeed in the United States but that demands for higher wages and fewer working hours could achieve the goal of a better life for working people. This was what was called "bread and butter" unionism. There was one outstanding exception to the "bread and butter" approach to unionism that was common to most of American labor. This was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a revolutionary labor union started in Chicago in 1905 under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs. The IWW wanted the overthrow of capitalism through strikes, boycotts and sabotage. Strong with textile workers, dockworkers, migratory farmers and lumberjacks, the union reached its peak membership of 100,000 in 1912. The IWW had practically disappeared by 1918, because of federal prosecutions and a national sentiment against radicalism, which began in 1917. ii

In the early 20th century, a powerful reform movement called Progressivism came into view. Its leaders were college professors, ministers, journalists, physicians and social workers. Their goal was to improve conditions for all Americans. They wanted to make the political system more considerate of humankind. They also wanted to make the nation’s economic system more democratic. They believed that those who owned the nation’s resources should share some of their wealth with the less fortunate. The movement appealed to farmers, women and laborers. It cut across political party and regional lines. The Progressive Movement had the support of three presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson.

The Progressives were concerned about labor’s problems. They were worried by the growing use of court rulings to stop strikes. In 1890, for example, Congress passed the Sherman Anti-trust Act. Its purpose was to punish big business corporations that combined to prevent competition. Yet more and more it was being used as a weapon against unions. The Progressives were unhappy about the use of federal troops and state militia against strikers. They were angry about so called “inhuman conditions” in factories and mines.

The Progressives and the AFL pressured state governments for laws to protect workers. Almost all states passed laws that did not allow the employment of children under 14 years old. Thirty-seven states forbade children under 16 years old to work between 7p.m. and 6a.m. Nineteen states established the eight-hour day for children under 16 in factories and stores. The Progressives were also concerned with the hours worked by women in industry. Forty-one states wrote new or improved laws to protect women workers. Most limited the workday to nine hours, or the workweek to 54 hours. ii

Of greatest importance of the Progressives was the problem of industrial accidents. They wanted workers to be paid for accidents regardless of cause. The cost of insurance to cover accidents, they said, should be paid by employers. By 1917, 13 states had passed workers’ compensation laws. Before this the employers were not held responsible for any accidents that occurred.

The alliance of Progressives and the AFL also campaigned for federal laws to aid labor. In response, Congress passed laws to protect children, railroad workers. It established a Department of Labor in the president’s Cabinet. Most important of all, Congress passed the Clayton Act of 1914. Its purpose was to stop the use of antitrust laws and court injunctions against unions. During World War I, organized labor made great advances. The federal government created the War Labor Board to settle disputes by arbitration rather than the unions resorting to strikes. This led to a big increase in union membership. In January 1917, the AFL had 2,370,000 members. By January 1919, it had 3,260,000 members. iii
As the 1920s began, organized labor seemed stronger than ever. But in 1917, a communist revolution overthrew the government of Russia. Communists also attempted revolutions in Germany, Hungary and Finland.
Immigrants entering the United States at this time were mostly from southern and eastern Europe. Many of them were attracted to the promises of socialist, communist and other radical political groups that advocated a drastic change in American society. There was widespread fear among more established Americans that a revolution might break out in the United States. In response to this fear, the federal government launched a series of raids, which resulted in the arrest and sometimes the deportation of aliens who were members of socialist, anarchist or communist organizations. About 500 aliens, including Russian "Red Emma" Goldman, were deported during this period. A number of them, like Goldman, rejected communism as they experienced it in the Soviet Union and later returned to the United States.

Meanwhile, workers were striking for higher wages all over the United States. Many Americans believed that communists and anarchists led these strikes. During the Progressive era, the public had sympathized with labor. Now the public became hostile to it. Employers encouraged anti-union movements, or created company unions that they sought to control. Courts found legal openings in the Clayton Act and issued rulings against union activity. The courts also found ways to use the Sherman Anti-trust Act against unions. Opposed by public opinion, business and the courts, union membership fell. The number of AFL members dropped to 2,770,000 by 1929. This decline took place even though the number of workers in industry rose by almost seven million.

For most Americans, the 1920s were well-off years. But in October 1929, the New York stock market "crashed," and the value of stocks went way down. The crash, part of a worldwide economic decline, led to the worst economic depression in the country’s history. People lost their jobs, their farms and their businesses. By 1932, 13 million men and women were unemployed. This was one out of every four in the work force. Many more workers had only part-time jobs. In the cities, jobless men stood on long lines for a handout of bread and soup. Many of them lived in shanties near garbage dumps. Men and boys searched the country, hoping to find work. ii

I n the past, depressions had usually hurt unions. Unemployment meant a drop in workers’ dues; they became powerless to prevent decreases in wages or long working hours. But in the Great Depression of the 1930s, unions actually benefited. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, promised Americans a "New Deal." He pledged to help the "forgotten man"-the worker who had lost his job, or the farmer who had lost his land.

Under Roosevelt, Congress passed laws to help business and create jobs. To help labor, Congress passed the Wagner Act. It guaranteed workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively. The law created a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The Board could order elections in which workers voted for the union that they wanted to represent them. (Workers could vote against joining any union also, if they wanted.) The NLRB could also stop unfair practices used by employers against unions.

Union leaders praised the Wagner Act. It provided an opportunity to increase membership. But the drive was slow at first by a dispute within the American Federation of Labor. The AFL was made up mostly of skilled workers organized into craft unions. But millions of unskilled workers were in industries like steel, rubber, and textiles. Some labor leaders believed that a single union should represent all the workers, skilled and unskilled. One big industrial union would be much stronger than a dozen different craft unions, they said. And so the “Committee for Industrialized Organization” (CIO) was formed. This organization was made up of individual industrial unions and focused on industries as a whole. The CIO became successful and challenged the AFL. Though eventually as working conditions improved, through and after World War II the AFL and the CIO moved closer together and eventually became known as the AFL/CIO. Which is still in existence today, shaping industries and helping workers have a voice just as others before them did, over one hundred and fifty years ago.

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