Labor issues happened to be a big issue during the 19th century. During that time industrial capitalism was on the rise, new companies were making profits that brought in enormous amounts of money, and workers were being put in appalling conditions. What made labor issues so contentious was the fact that workers were being forced to work long hours, with little pay, and in harmful conditions. These factors led to many strikes, causing destruction and chaos across America. For example, there was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 in which strikes arose, many people lost their lives, and the railroads were shut down. During this trying time places like Chicago, Illinois and West Virginia, to name a few, had to call in the militia to try and halt these strikes. In the end federal troops were able to end the strikes for the time being. Then to further increase the issue at hand, you had individuals like J.D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P Morgan, who are described in the Yawp reading as robber-barons. These individuals were the faces of the largest moneymaking industries during that time, which then caused issues with inequality of control with the nation’s wealth. In a sense I could see how they may be “captains of industry” seeing as they brought large amounts of money to the table, but the conditions they set up for workers makes me think of them solely as “robber barons”.
To continue, later down the road you have People’s Party, or also known as the Populists. This party was formed by alliance members when the Republican and Democratic parties failed to properly represent individuals such as poor farmers. The whole idea of Populism was to represent those who felt their needs were being brushed under the rug by the other political parties. Now the real question was how well did Populism really help those individuals in need. In a sense, yes Populism was a success, but on another note, it wasn’t. Populists still had the conflict of racial division and within section V of chapter 16 The American Yawp states that they “… were often at the forefront of the movement for disfranchisement and segregation”. While Populists gained a lot of traction, and political victories they were still very divided and had a hard time keeping up with the diversity of their reformers. To add on though, the Populist party was “… the most significant third-party movement in American history…the Populist vision laid the intellectual ground work for the coming progressive movement” as stated within The American Yawp chapter V.
After the Populists came the Socialists who continued to bring farmers and workers together. The Socialists believed that too few people had the majority of wealth and argued that even though workers helped produce riches for investors, they were still given harsh and unfair conditions to work in. Within the Socialist Party, segregation was nonexistent. No matter a person’s religion, class, race and so on, everyone was welcome. While the party went on to expand their numbers, there were a number of things that dragged the party down. According to The American Yawp, the Socialist Party failed due to its unable to turn people away from viewing socialism and American values as well as government oppression and censorship incompatible. Not only that but the way that the socialist’s policies were being embraced by individuals and the internal disagreements that arose influenced the downfall of the party.
