We want more school houses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more constant work and less crime; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful and childhood more happy and bright. These in brief are the primary demands made by the Trade Unions in the name of labor. These are the demands made by labor upon modern society and in their consideration is involved the fate of civilization. (Vol. 3: Address, Aug. 28, 1893)
"Why, it may be asked, do students need to know about the history of union membership? Because the free trade union movement is one of the bulwarks of a democratic society and because some of the fundamental economic and social reforms of the past century-such as the banning of sweatshops and child labor-can scarcely be fathomed without knowing something of the saga of the labor movement. The labor movement story is one of men and women, laws and campaigns, ideas and conflict. This is the stuff of history."
What Do Our 17-Year Olds Know: A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature, Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn, Jr. (NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1987), p. 69.
Essential Questions:
To what degree should business, labor, and government determine conditions of employment? If there are conflicts, how are satisfactory solutions reached? In what ways do national holidays serve cultural purposes?
Background
After the Civil War (1861-65) the United States witnessed an accelerating movement of people westward, a rapidly increasing number of immigrants, the large growth of urban areas, and massive changes in how corporations were organized and operated along with the growth of the labor movement -- all of which wrought significant changes in American life. The right to organize, to bargain for wages and working conditions, the equitable distribution of wealth and power, and the role of government in ensuring social justice are issues that remain sources of controversy today.
Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and the first general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters, and later first secretary of the American Federation of Labor and Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the New York Central Labor Union, are both credited with being the first to propose the idea of a holiday honoring American workers. However, there is no doubt that on September 5, 1882 some 10,000 to 20,000 workers, at the risk of losing their jobs, gathered in New York city and marched from City Hall to Union Square in support of an eight hour work day. The idea quickly spread to many communities and in 1887 Oregon became the first state to make Labor Day an official holiday. And, after using federal troops to suppress the Pullman strike, an anti-union U.S. President Grover Cleveland sensed he had to recognize the contributions of workers and with Congress enacted in 1894 the first national Labor Day.
For background on the first Labor Day, how it came about and what it means, see The U.S. Department of Labor: http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm
Useful information about Labor Day can be found at the Library of Congress website: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query
Objectives
As a result of this study, students will be able to:
- Analyze cause and effect relationships in historical perspective
- Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas
- Analyze conflicting forces from multiple perspectives
- Examine ideas, events and personalities that shaped American culture
- Make decisions and draw conclusions based on research and reasoned judgments
- Students should have some familiarity with, or conduct some research about, labor history from approximately 1870-1900. One way to review or reconstruct this period, individually or as a class, is to complete a data retrieval chart of notable labor disputes during this time with categories of: Date - Labor Dispute - Place - Company and Leader - Union and Leader - Issue(s) -- Outcome
- To determine the level of knowledge and understanding that your students possess, ask for oral responses to the following questions:
Q: When is Labor Day?
Q: Why do we celebrate Labor Day?
Q: When was Labor Day first celebrated in the United States?
Q: When did Labor Day become a national holiday?
Q: Who founded Labor Day?
Q: Is Labor Day just about unions?
Q: What international holiday is Labor Day's closet relative?
For responses to these questions, see: http://www.aflcio.org/aboutunions/laborday/faq.cfm
- Questionnaire and discussion. To initiate a discussion of labor issues in the last third of the 19th century, have students respond by indicating whether they strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree, or disagree with each of the following statements:
- Workers have the right to organize and bargain as a group regarding working conditions.
- Workers have the right to protest, hold parades, give speeches, and withhold their services without being fired by their employers.
- Eight hours is a reasonable period of time for a workday.
- Business owners have the right to establish working conditions at their company.
- Business owners should be able to prevent unions from organizing workers they have hired, including hiring workers to let them know what is going on or armed guards.
- Business owners should be able to control an entire industry, for example, if a company is able to control most railroads (or mines, or steel mills, etc.) it should be able to do so.
- It is a proper function of government to make laws regulating business practices such as the number of businesses a corporation can own and how much of the marketplace it can control.
- It is a proper function of government to make laws regulating working conditions such as pay, hours of work, and health and safety conditions.
- It is a proper role for government to help end strikes if workers are protesting, giving speeches and withholding their services.
- Government policies that allow large numbers of immigrants to enter the country help business and hurt labor.
- Workers have the right to organize and bargain as a group regarding working conditions.
- After students have gained sufficient background information regarding labor issues, divide the class into four groups-Senators, company executives, labor leaders, newspaper reporters. Have each research the Eight Hour Day Movement. Conduct a public hearing in which Senators questions experts from business and labor regarding the wisdom of writing such a law. Have newspaper reports prepare stories on the hearings. Have Senators write a bill (which we assume will pass the House of Representatives without change) for presentation to the President. Have the class discuss, perhaps campaign and decide if the President should sign the bill. (While the eight hour day eventually became a standard it was not until President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Fair Labor Standards Act" in 1938 that made eight hours a legal work day throughout the country.)
For a brief overview of the eight hour day movement, see The Encyclopedia of Chicago: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/417.html
We mean to make things over
We're tired of toil for nought
But bare enough to live on; never
An hour for thought.
We want to feel the sunshine; we
Want to smell the flowers
We're sure that God has willed it
And we mean to have eight hours.
We're summoning our forces from
Shipyard, shop and mill
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will!
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/
disasters/haymarket.html
Information on the Haymarket Tragedy, archives on anarchism, etc.
http://www.lucyparsonsproject.org/haymarket/
schneirov_nights_of_labor.html
Info about the Knights of Labor, the Haymarket affair and the life and work of Lucy Parsons, union advocate and wife of Albert Parsons, unjustly accused and executed as a participant in the Haymarket riot.
- What Does it Take to be Successful? Have students investigate the lives of business or labor leaders of the 1880s. Note their accomplishments and explain what actions they took to become leaders in their field. Write a conclusion that summarizes the lessons of their lives.
Have students re-take the introductory questionnaire from the perspective of today. Then have them prepare a short essay titled: Wanting More for Less: Business and Labor in the 19th Century and Today.
Further Activities
- Research the history of labor day in your community. For one example of an indepth look at labor issues in one city (Detroit) since the first Labor Day, see the newspaper article, "How labor won its day."
http://info.detnews.com/history/
story/index.cfm?id=150&category=business
- Oral History. Interview one or more retired workers about their conditions of employment when they were younger. Read about earlier working conditions and prepare a list of questions before conducting your interview.
- Compare U.S. President Grover Cleveland, a president who opposed labor unions but declared Labor Day a national holiday and the issues faced and the actions taken by Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld. Who did more for workers?
- Labor Day in other countries. Research the history of labor days in other countries and compare with the U.S.
- Biographical study. Research the life of key business and labor leaders in the last part of the nineteenth century. Report on their goals, how they achieved or failed to achieve their objectives and what difference they made in American society.
-
Business leaders: John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick,
J. Pierpont Morgan, or Jay Gould.
Labor leaders: Terence V. Powderly, Samuel Gompers, Lucy Parsons, Eugene Debs
- Debate/discussion topics. Have students discuss or debate such topics as:
If people work hard and play by the rules they will be successful.
Newspapers and television stations report more favorably about (business) (labor).
The capitalist economic system provides the greatest opportunities for the most people.
Labor Day has lost its significance because all the important issues have been resolved.
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/haymarket.htm
The Haymarket Tragedy with links to related articles
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/prisoner.htm
Governor John Peter Altgeld Pardons the Haymarket Prisoners
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/cc_labor.php
Library of Congress site for numerous resources related to the history of labor
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/browse/
Library of Congress--browse by topic; by time period; by collections containing types of materials, by place
http://www.dol-union-reports.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/books.htm
US Dept of Labor's "Labor Hall of Fame"
Labor Day and Labor Movement
http://www.dol.gov/dol/opa/public/aboutdol/laborday.htm
History of Labor Day
http://www.usis.usemb.se/Holidays/celebrate/labor.html
United States Information Services Labor Day Page
http://www.geocities.com/m_lause.geo/AmLabHist/VLreinst.html
Links to many research institutions for labor.
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/articles.htm
Labor history articles from Illinois Labor History Society
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/curricul.htm
Illinois Labor History Society. Many online resources and "A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers."
http://www.history.umd.edu/Gompers/index.htm
A documentary history of the American working class including information about Samuel Gompers, AFL, Knights of Labor, IWW, and an extensive bibliography
http://6hourday.org/knightsoflabor.html
Official website for today's Knights of Labor
