Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORM

prolific womb of governmental

The financial panic of 1893

injustice we breed the two great

heightened the tension of this de-

classes — tramps and millionaires. bate . Bank failures abounded in the South and Midwest; unemployment

The pragmatic portion of their soared and crop prices fell badly .

platform called for the national- The crisis and President Grover

ization of the railroads; a low tar- Cleveland’s defense of the gold stan-

iff; loans secured by non-perishable dard sharply divided the Democrat-

crops stored in government-owned ic Party . Democrats who were silver

warehouses; and, most explosively, supporters went over to the Popu-

currency inflation through Treasury lists as the presidential elections of

purchase and the unlimited coin- 1896 neared .

age of silver at the “traditional” ratio

The Democratic convention that

of 16 ounces of silver to one ounce year was swayed by one of the most

of gold .

famous speeches in U .S . political

The Populists showed impres- history . Pleading with the conven-

sive strength in the West and South, tion not to “crucify mankind on a

and their candidate for president cross of gold,” William Jennings

polled more than a million votes . Bryan, the young Nebraskan cham-

But the currency question soon over- pion of silver, won the Democrats’

shadowed all other issues . Agrar- presidential nomination . The Popu-

ian spokesmen, convinced that their lists also endorsed Bryan .

troubles stemmed from a shortage

In the epic contest that followed,

of money in circulation, argued Bryan carried almost all the South-

that increasing the volume of mon- ern and Western states . But he lost

ey would indirectly raise prices for the more populated, industrial

farm products and drive up indus- North and East — and the election

trial wages, thus allowing debts to — to Republican candidate William

be paid with inflated currency . Con- McKinley .

servative groups and the financial

The following year the country’s

classes, on the other hand, respond- finances began to improve, in part

ed that the 16:1 price ratio was nearly owing to the discovery of gold in

twice the market price for silver . A Alaska and the Yukon . This pro-

policy of unlimited purchase would vided a basis for a conservative

denude the U .S . Treasury of all its expansion of the money supply . In

gold holdings, sharply devalue the 1898 the Spanish-American War

dollar, and destroy the purchasing drew the nation’s attention further

power of the working and middle from Populist issues . Populism and

classes . Only the gold standard, they the silver issue were dead . Many of

said, offered stability .

the movement’s other reform ideas,

however, lived on .

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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

THE STRUGGLES OF LABOR

19th century and fostered huge con-

T

centrations of wealth and power was

he life of a 19th-century Ameri- backed by a judiciary that time and

can industrial worker was hard . again ruled against those who chal-

Even in good times wages were low, lenged the system . In this, they were

hours long, and working conditions merely following the prevailing phi-

hazardous . Little of the wealth that losophy of the times . Drawing on a

the growth of the nation had gener- simplified understanding of Dar-

ated went to its workers . Moreover, winian science, many social think-

women and children made up a high ers believed that both the growth of

percentage of the work force in some large business at the expense of small

industries and often received but a enterprise and the wealth of a few

fraction of the wages a man could alongside the poverty of many was

earn . Periodic economic crises swept “survival of the fittest,” and an un-

the nation, further eroding industri- avoidable by-product of progress .

al wages and producing high levels

American workers, especially the

of unemployment .

skilled among them, appear to have

At the same time, technologi- lived at least as well as their coun-

cal improvements, which added so terparts in industrial Europe . Still,

much to the nation’s productivity, the social costs were high . As late

continually reduced the demand for as the year 1900, the United States

skilled labor . Yet the unskilled labor had the highest job-related fatality

pool was constantly growing, as un- rate of any industrialized nation in

precedented numbers of immigrants the world . Most industrial workers

— 18 million between 1880 and 1910 still worked a 10-hour day (12 hours

— entered the country, eager for in the steel industry), yet earned less

work .

than the minimum deemed neces-

Before 1874, when Massachusetts sary for a decent life . The number of

passed the nation’s first legislation children in the work force doubled

limiting the number of hours wom- between 1870 and 1900 .

en and child factory workers could

The first major effort to orga-

perform to 10 hours a day, virtually nize workers’ groups on a nation-

no labor legislation existed in the wide basis appeared with the Noble

country . It was not until the 1930s Order of the Knights of Labor in

that the federal government would 1869 . Originally a secret, ritualistic

become actively involved . Until society organized by Philadelphia

then, the field was left to the state garment workers and advocating a

and local authorities, few of whom cooperative program, it was open

were as responsive to the workers as to all workers, including African

they were to wealthy industrialists .

Americans, women, and farmers .

The laissez-faire capitalism that The Knights grew slowly until its

dominated the second half of the railway workers’ unit won a strike

193