AP/IB American History
Mr. Blackmon
The Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration, Urbanization
I.
Problems of the American Worker
A.
Number of industrial workers increased dramatically
B.
Living standards
1.
Increase output improved the standard of living
2.
Unskilled workers however still cannot support a family on a single income.
It was imperative for wives and children to work in order to support the
family.
3.
Industrial workers did not share equally in growth.
C.
Problems
1.
Mechanization undercuts pride of artisans and skilled workers and diminish
the dignity of labor
2.
Mechanization decreased the bargaining power of a workers with his
employer.
3.
Mechanization made jobs more monotonous and repetitious, with the speed
at which men must work now becoming the speed of machines.
4.
Relations between employer and employee became impersonal and therefore
more ruthless.
5.
Work places were often unhealthy and unsafe. The US led the world in
industrial accidents.
6.
Workers were very susceptible to the boom-and-bust cycle. During the
depressions, men would be laid off (in an era before unemployment insurance
or welfare) or wages cut sharply. At the same time, management saw no
problem with continuing to pay the same large dividends. Such practices
caused intense bitterness.
D.
Women and Children
1.
A significant proportion of the work force were women and children.
a.
Women were working outside the home
b.
An overwhelming majority of salespersons, cashiers, and office
workers were women (which hasn't changed)
c.
20% of American women worked in industry
d.
By 1900, 1,700,000 children were working in industry.
2.
Wages and Hours
a.
For us, living in an era of the legally mandated 40 hour week and the
8 hour day, the hours and wages are almost beyond comprehension.
b.
In 1860, an 11 hour industrial workday was standard.
c.
In 1880, this had declined to a mere 10 hour day, 6 days / week.
d.
Some examples from the lives of professional baseball players:
(1)
Al Bridwell was 13 when he worked 10 hours / day for 6 days
/ week for $1.25 / week. By the time he was 18 and signed a
pro contract, he was making all of $3.00 / week, or an annual
salary of $300.00.
AP/IB American History
Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
Mr. Blackmon
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(2)
II.
Stanley Coveleski, a Hall of Fame spitballer, went to work in
the coal mines of Pennsylvania at 12. He worked from 7:00
am to 7:00 pm, 6 days a week, 72 hours / week, for $3.75 per
week.
3.
Causes of Discontent as if one has to think about it much)
a.
Poverty
b.
Rising aspirations
c.
Increasing gap between the rich and the poor
d.
Separation of people into classes in a society that had never been
particularly class conscious in comparison with Europe.
4.
Mobility
a.
Transiency of the American way of life.
b.
Urban mobility retarded growth of community spirit and a sense of
belonging.
c.
Rags-to-riches stories, as expressed in the Horatio Alger stories, were
statistically quite rare. Carnegie is atypical.
d.
Most industrial workers subscribed to middle-class values: hard work
and thrift.
The New Immigration
A.
Industrial expansion demanded labor to work the factories. US economic expansion
could not have occurred without the huge influx of foreign workers.
1.
The collapse of peasant economies in Central Europe hastened this process.
That collapse is partly due to the enormous efficiency of the American
farmer, whose wheat could undersell local peasants.
2.
European peasants did not come to the United States exclusively. They
migrated to other European cities: London, Vienna, Naples, Warsaw, Berlin;
and other nations: Argentina and Brazil. (Dinnerstein and Reimers 43)
3.
Europeans had a vision of America as a land of opportunity and freedom, and
that drew them like a magnet.
B.
Sources and Statistics
Region of Origin
1871-1890
1891-1910
900,000
877,000
1,700,000
2,778,000
1,830,000
4,608,000
Eastern Europe
261,000
2,291,000
2,552,000
Central Europe
2,663,000
3,681,000
6,344,000
408,000
3,015,000
3,423,000
7,010,000
11,694,000
18,704,000
Scandinavia
North West Europe
Southeastern Europe
Totals
Total From Region
AP/IB American History
Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
Mr. Blackmon
Page 3
Source, Blum 478
C.
D.
The table above demonstrates that the source of the New Immigration shifted from
earlier immigration. These immigrants were mostly peasants: poor, uneducated,
clannish, and non-Protestant (Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish)
1.
They included Italians (SE Europe) Greeks (SE Europe) Russians (esp.
Russian Jews) (Eastern Europe), Serbs, Poles, Hungarians (Central Europe)
2.
The table above understates the magnitude of the migration since it ends at
1910. The migration continued until the 1920s, although curtailed after
World War I broke out. Nevertheless, 5,000,000 Italians traveled to the US
from 1876-1930.(Dinnerstein and Reimers 44) Between 1880 and 1920, one
third of the Jews of Eastern Europe came to the US. (Sowell 69)
3.
80% of the New Immigrants settled in the Northeastern United States,
between Washington DC, St. Louis, the Mississippi, the Canadian border,
and the Atlantic Ocean. This population was overwhelmingly urban.
(Dinnerstein and Reimers 47)
Opposition to the New Immigration (this merely hints at the problem; I will develop
the problem of Nativism and xenophobia through the next several units)
1.
Fear that they would not be good citizens, that they did not share traditional
US values, especially for democracy and capitalism
a.
In particular, conservatives blame immigrants for "un-American"
ideas such as socialism, anarchism, or communism. In this manner,
they sought to invalidate these ideas by associating them with
foreigners.
b.
A cultural clash compounded the problems of explosive urban growth
2.
Worry over the social problems which such heavy numbers might cause
a.
poverty
b.
crime
c.
over-crowding
d.
job competition
e.
(gee, does this sound familiar to those of us living in Miami? Every
wave of immigration has evoked the same set of fears as we have
seen in Miami. The ethnicity of the group which evokes the fears,
seen from this historical perspective, is an accident. What matters is
that they are "different" and in large numbers.)
3.
This influx causes a racial reaction. This time period saw the formulation of
what George Mosse defines as modern European racialism. The United
States, as an essentially European culture, shared the growth of this brand of
racism. The form developed here was Anglo-Saxon racialism. I will discuss
this at greater length in my Progressivism handout, and in the context of
Imperialism (unless I change my mind and insert it here). The subject pops
up repeatedly, particularly in the 1890s and 1920s in the United States, and
AP/IB American History
Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Mr. Blackmon
Page 4
the 1880s to 1940s in Europe.
a.
To be brief, Anglo-Saxon racialism can be seen at least as early as
Manifest Destiny, where much of the justification lay with the idea
that the Anglo-Saxons were superior to Mexicans or Indians.
Historically, Anglo-Saxan racialism had always been directed against
Indians and Africans. Now, with the New Immigration, it is directed
against other, nevertheless inferior, Europeans. Modern European
racialism is not really the same thing as color prejudice. AngloSaxon (or Teutonic) racialists could see Slavic or Mediterranean
peoples as belonging to a different "race" (as opposed to nationality
or ethnicity)(I can cite Jefferson in a letter talking of the French as a
different race from the British), both of whom are "white." And of
course, these racialists could certainly think of Jews as a distinct race.
. . . This type of thinking places one firmly on the path that led
ultimately to the gas chambers and ovens of Auschwitz and the
obscenity of the Holocaust.
The racialists wished to keep out inferior races. They extend their racism to
include other groups besides Indians and African-Americans.
Organized Labor was often hostile to the New Immigrants for very practical
reasons: the immigrants competed for jobs, drove wages down, and supplied
strike breakers.
Employers professed alarm at the radicalization of the workers (ie. influence
of European ideas such as anarchism and socialism)
There is a distinct strain of nativism and xenophobia among the Populists
(who were overwhelmingly old-stock Protestant as well as rural, whereas the
New Immigrants are urban as well as Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish). There
is more than a trace of hysteria in their anti-Semitism for instance. Henry
Ford continues that streak.
There is a resurgence of Nativism and Xenophobia
a.
The American Protective Association, a fiercely anti-Catholic (a
traditional American prejudice) was formed in 1887.
b.
Josiah Strong, who I discuss in terms of Imperialism, ties his
nativism in with anti-Catholicism. His Our Country: Its Possible
Future and Its Present Crisis (1885) is an important spokesman.
c.
Prejudice toward New Immigrants functioned socially rather than
legally (as in the case of African-Americans)
(1)
Please correlate the time period during which the South in
particular (but not exclusively) imposes Jim Crow laws upon
African Americans with the New Immigration. They match.
The racist arguments of the white Southerners found a more
receptive ear among white Northerners fearful of what they
regarded as other inferior races. Racism is not a Southern
problem, it is an American problem.
AP/IB American History
Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
d.
E.
Mr. Blackmon
Page 5
A literacy test law was in 1896 passed as a requirement for
immigrants to enter the country. President Grover Cleveland vetoed
it. The bill was passed again in 1913, when William Howard Taft
vetoed it. World War I brought irresistible pressure to bear: the bill
was passed over President Woodrow Wilson second veto in 1917.
(Dinnerstein and Reimers 67-73)
The Italians
1.
With sincere apologies to everyone else, I am singling out the two largest
single groups for particular attention. They are the likeliest to be singled out
on an essay.
2.
Economic conditions in Italy were terrible. In Sicily, an agricultural laborer
could expect to earn 8-32¢ a day, but not to work all year. Between 1871 and
1905, the Italian population increased by 25% but the economy, especially the
rural economy weakened.
3.
78% of the Italians were males.
4.
The Italians were despised by old stock Americans, and inflicted with
derogatory slang terms such as "wop," "dago" or "guinea" (terms which will
not be used in my class except in an academic context).
5.
Italians and crime were often equated.
6.
They entered a wide range of economic activities: construction, winemaking, fishing, stockyards, textiles, mining, and other forms of manual
labor.(Dinnerstein and Reimers 50)
7.
There was, however, a distinct tendency to open their own businesses, even
if only a pushcart, as soon as possible. They dominated the New York City
fruit business, and entered many types of small-businesses, such as
restaurants, bakeries, barbershops, grocery stores, etc.
8.
In common with Greek immigrants, Italian padrones or labor agent, exercised
considerable and tyrannical control over new immigrants. Their chief lever
was securing jobs. Abuses could be and often were awful; they also helped
the immigrant adjust to a new environment. (Dinnerstein and Reimers 52)
9.
As a group, the Italians placed little weight on individual success, but great
weight on family success. History had taught them that only family members
or close blood relatives could be trusted; no one else. Family honor was
everything; laws passed by society (which, in Italy, was an instrument of
oppression) were unimportant. (Think of The Godfather.
10.
In Italy, education had been a monopoly of the aristocracy and the clergy, and
used to oppress the peasant. The Italian immigrant often pulled children out
of school as early as the law permitted and set them to work. Material
progress, not intellectual, counted, and the family, not the individual.
(Dinnerstein and Reimers 55-6) This is a peasant attitude rather than an
Italian one, and was shared by Polish and other East European Slavs (but not
by the Greeks, who resemble the Jews in this respect) (Dinnerstein and
Reimers 59-62)
AP/IB American History
Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
11.
F.
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Their Catholicism differed in important respects from that of the Irish, and
they resented the domination of the American Catholic Church by the Irish
clergy.
The Russian Jews
1.
In the Middle Ages, the Jews were "not simply religious dissenters . . . they
were also an alien people in country after country, bearing an alien culture,
speaking a different language, wearing different clothes, and generally living
in separate communities or sections of towns." (Sowell 71) They were
excluded from landownership, which forced them into an urban existence,
and also forced them into certain types of economic activities, such as small
tradesmen and money-lenders (the origin of the Shylock stereotype). Where
such middlemen are a distinct ethnic group, they are usually hated by the
masses who have to deal with them. Peasants blamed the Jews for
oppressions caused by the aristocracy or monarchy (who often, in Eastern
Europe, used the Jews as agents for activities such as tax and rent collecting).
2.
In Eastern Europe, Jews usually lived in ghettoes, separate walled
communities that were self-governing.
3.
When Russia absorbed much of Poland in 1791, it found itself for the first
time with a substantial Jewish population. Catherine the Great confined them
to the Pale of Settlement.
4.
The early to mid 19th century saw brutal attempts to russify the Jews.
5.
The assassination of Alexander II in 1881 ushered a period of official and
semi-official anti-Semitism of great brutality that lasted as long as the Tsar.
a.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the worst anti-Semitic text ever
written, was the concoction of the Tsar's secret police.
b.
Jews were often among liberal, socialist reformers within the Russian
Empire, and the secret police wished to discredit all Jews.
c.
Since the average peasant hated the Jews, pogroms--orchestrated riots
and massacres-- were useful in diverting the attention of the peasants
from their real oppressors to imagined ones.
d.
This atmosphere of vicious repression spurred the migration of
2,000,000 Jews from Eastern Europe. 75% of all Russians coming to
the United States were Jews, and 75% of all Jews arriving in the
United States were from Russia (please bear in mind that Poland no
longer exists at this time) (Sowell 78-9)
6.
This migration caused strains with their fellow co-religionists in the US,
mostly German Jews who had achieved a high degree of assimilation. The
newcomers were much poorer, more orthodox, less educated (but much better
educated that others of the New Immigrants), adopting styles of dress--ear
locks, skull caps, beards, Russian style clothing--and language (Yiddish)
different from the German Jews. The German Jews feared (quite rightly, as
it turned out) an outburst of anti-Semitism in the US that would erase their
gains. The tensions between the two groups are real (shockingly, the
AP/IB American History
Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
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derogatory term "kike" was coined by German Jews to apply to Russian
Jews.) (Sowell 80-1)
a.
Weighing against this was the powerful Jewish tradition of
philanthropy. Strenuous efforts were made to help the newcomers
adjust. "The pogroms in Russia from 1903 to 1906 provided a focus
for organized Jewish efforts to help their brethren in distress, and out
of this came the American Jewish Committee. . . [which] pledged
itself to protect the civil right of all Jews throughout the world. In
1913 Jews organized another defense organization, B'nai B'rith's
Anti-Defamation League. . . . . The Jewish faith . . . embodies ethical
prescriptions that make charity a social obligation, and no matter how
loose the formal religious bonds, most Jews still regard philanthropic
activities as an absolute necessity." (Dinnerstein and Reimers 57)
b.
Russian Jews organized their own philanthropic organizations as soon
as they were able.
67% of all Jewish male immigrants were skilled workers, as opposed to 20%
for the other groups (Dinnerstein and Reimers 51)
An astonishingly high percentage poured into New York City and stayed
there, especially the lower east side of Manhattan, which had a population
density at about the turn of the century of 700 per acre, more than the worst
slums of Bombay (Sowell 83)
The Russian Jews were not as mobile as other groups. Their religious beliefs
precluded them from most industrial jobs, which required work on Saturday.
They also required kosher food and synagogues.
Jews had dominated most aspects of garment production in Europe, and they
replicate that in New York. Half of New York's Jewish workers were in the
garment industry, and 70% of all Jewish workers in New York on the eve of
World War I were in the garment industry. (Dinnerstein and Reimers 51)
The Jews arrived just as the garment industry was beginning to adopt the
mass production of ready made clothes.
a.
The invention and promotion of the sewing machine by Isaac Singer
may be regarded as crucial.
b.
In 1885, there were 241 garment factories in New York City, 234 of
which were owned by Jews. (Sowell 84)
c.
Sweatshops permitted women and children to contribute to the family
income, and permitted Jewish women to work without leaving
children unattended or leaving the neighborhood. (Sowell 84)
d.
Contemporary accounts record that, for all the terrible conditions,
sweatshop workers could save a substantial portion of their earnings
and thus provide for the future of their children.
There seems considerable agreement that the most striking quality among the
Jewish New Immigrants is their desire for education. Their culture revered
the learned man. The poorest families sent their children to school, and
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Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
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provided strong encouragement to do well. Public facilities such as libraries
were heavily utilized by adults and children. (Sowell 86-7, Dinnerstein and
Reimers 58) This is one key to the relatively rapid economic rise of the East
European Jews.
The Chinese and Japanese
1.
Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese properly belong in the New
Immigration. I am including them here for several reasons:
a.
I have neglected them entirely, which doesn't seem right.
b.
They faced quite serious prejudice, which becomes very relevant to
the history of xenophobia and Nativism.
c.
They are often coupled in immigration essays along with Scots-Irish
(colonial era), Germans and Irish (Age of Jackson) and the New
Immigration in immigration essays.
2.
The Chinese
a.
The time period discussed runs from the mid-19th century to no later
than 1920. Chinese immigration after World War II is very different.
b.
The immigration of Chinese to the US is just a small part of a much
larger immigration of about 8 million Chinese from their homeland
prior to 1930.
c.
The 19th century is a period of turmoil and suffering for China. The
failing Manchu dynasty could not protect the nation from internal
chaos and external exploitation. The 1840s saw the Opium Wars, the
1860s the Taiping Rebellion (which may have been the bloodiest war
in human history prior to World War I). The suffering of the Chinese
people was intense.
d.
Most of the Chinese who came to the US at this time came from the
Toishan district of Kwantung province. This gave them an unusual
degree of homogeneity given the tremendous regional differences
within China (Chinese share a common written language, but not a
common spoken one).
e.
The Chinese shared two qualities with the Sicilians, and for similar
reasons:
(1)
The overwhelming importance of family as the only sure
refuge in a hostile and oppressive world (hence all those kung
fu revenge flicks; one would almost think based on them that
Chinese did nothing all day but walk around the countryside
fighting. This is as truthful as describing US Special Forces
by Rambo)
(2)
Secret criminal societies, the tongs, originally instruments of
popular resistance to oppression.
f.
The Chinese give great respect to learning, and utilized their
opportunities for education in the US to the fullest when those
opportunities finally came.
AP/IB American History
Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
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h.
i.
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Page 9
Toishan is not as overwhelmingly agricultural as much of the rest of
China. Its population are often tradesmen.
The numbers of Chinese are not really large compared to the New
Immigration
(1)
25,000 in 1851
(2)
63,000 in 1870
(3)
6,000 entered the country in 1880
(4)
12,000 in 1882
(5)
40,000 in 1882 (Sowell 136)
(6)
Almost all settled on the West Coast
The Chinese faced intense and racist hostility from white
Californians.
(1)
Only the worst and poorest paid jobs were open to Chinese,
who worked for miserable wages.
(2)
Labor unions were leaders in the effort to exclude the
Chinese, as they feared that competition from the Chinese
would drive down the wages of white workers.
(3)
The Central Pacific Railroad was built largely by 10,000
Chinese.
Discrimination was both social (beating, robbing, threats,
intimidation etc) and legal:
(1)
California had a law from 1854 to 1874 preventing Chinese
from testifying against a white man, very similar to the slave
codes and Black codes forbidding a n African American from
testifying against a white man.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 virtually ended new immigration
into the US. This was devastating to the immigrants already here,
who were overwhelmingly male
State laws followed which prevented them from becoming
naturalized citizens and then requiring citizenship to enter many
occupations or to own land. The net effect is similar to restrictions
placed on East European Jews, with some results that are also similar.
(1)
The loophole is that children born on US soil of alien parents
are US citizens, and cannot be excluded from occupations or
land ownership. This crucial fact of US law is still operative
today, and will still be crucial to those who wish to restrict the
rights and privileges of illegal aliens. And, by the way,
California is still in the forefront of the struggle. Big hearted
state. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,
yearning to be free!" Perhaps we should add, "as long as they
are white!" Or we could just return the Statue of Liberty.
The great tragedy for most of the Chinese already here is that they
were denied all hope of a family life--to men whose culture
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Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
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emphasized the family above all else. Most were unable to return to
China, and so were stuck here.
(1)
A trickle of women entered, many as prostitutes, but not
enough to change the demographics but enough to give
reformers ammunition to attack all Chinese immigration.
(2)
The development of normal population distributions and the
beginning of assimilation into US culture is therefore
substantially delayed.
n.
The Chinese were tolerated economically only in jobs whites needed
but did not want to do: domestics, agricultural laborers, railroad
workers, cooks, launderers. Even in 1920, half of all employed
Chinese worked in laundries or restaurants. (Sowell 139)
o.
The Chinese withdrew into self-contained enclaves, the Chinatowns,
(similar to the Jewish ghettoes). They were mostly self-governing,
receiving little assistance from outside, and asking for little. The
Chinese attempted to be as inconspicuous as possible, causes as little
friction as possible, avoid politics or controversy. Like the European
Jews, resistence was futile and would lead only to destruction. They
had to rely upon camouflage and wit to survive. (Sowell 139)
p.
Socially, the disparity of men to women was the critical problem. In
1890, the ratio was 27:1; in 1930, it was still 4:1. (Sowell 140)
q.
Life within Chinatown was controlled by clans, the Six Companies
(short for Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association) and the
tongs.
r.
Chinatowns at the turn of the century were centers of vice
(prostitution, gambling, and opium) both for lonely Chinese men and
for whites.
s.
Despite these hardships, Chinese in the US sent remittances back to
families in China that were significant. Since most came from
Toishan, this area visibly showed the effect of money sent from
America.
t.
As the new century began, the intensity of American racism faded
some, which improved conditions. Slowly, more children were born
and a more normal population distribution begins to appear.
Economic progress was made via the Chinese institution of rotating
credit associations (normal banking facilities were denied them).
Chinese values made these work as defaults would have ruined them;
but a default shamed the entire family, and were exceedingly rare.
(1)
Those children born in the US were citizens and therefore not
restricted by California or US law.
u.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, and marks a new
era in the life of Chinese Americans; but that is for another handout.
The Japanese
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Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
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Page 11
The Japanese faced many similar problems to the Chinese,
particularly in the brand of racism leveled at them. In the early
period, the one under study in this handout, they fared better for
reasons relative to Japan's relative strength. In the next period, which
covers World War II, they fared much worse, and for the same reason.
The shameful internment of the Nisei in World War II will not be
covered here.
The United States brought Japan out of its feudal slumber in 1854.
In 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown and the Meiji
Restoration (1868-1912) begun. This is the period of rapid
modernization and partial Westernization in Japan. Japanese
immigrants to the US came during this period.
The Meiji Era witnessed dramatic changes in Japanese social
structure and economic activity. It also witnessed a sharp increase in
population while traditional economic activities declined. It was
inevitable that some Japanese would migrate.
Such migration was not viewed as permanent, but as a temporary
sojourn. (Sowell 158-9)
Unlike China, Japan possessed sufficient power and prestige to
control the outflow of immigrants and to take an active interest in
them once they had departed. This will affect US foreign policy and
will certainly benefit the Japanese who came here.
The scale of migration in the late 19th and early 20th century was not
large:
(1)
2,000 in the 1880s
(2)
6,000 in the 1890s
(3)
100,000 in the 1900s
(4)
Immigration restriction in the 1920s virtually stopped all
immigration.
Immigrants were overwhelmingly male: 7:1 in the 1890s and 24:1 in
the 1900s. (Sowell 160)
The Japanese government more or less hand picked the migrants for
health, character, and work habits.
These people sent back substantial amounts of money, averaging 2
years' wages in Japan. The economic impact of these remittances
gave Japan a legitimate concern for its immigrants abroad.
Like the Chinese, the Japanese found themselves in strenuous manual
labor: working in meatpacking plants, fieldwork, canneries, lumber
mills and mines. They accepted low pay, long hours, and hard work
without demur. If paid on a piece-work basis (and many were), they
often earned twice as much as other laborers. They were at first
welcomed by employers as model employees.
Their very virtues became a source of attack. Labor unions hated
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Gilded Age: Labor, Immigration
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m.
n.
o.
p.
q.
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Page 12
them. As they prospered, and moved up, farmers found themselves
now competing with these very efficient farmers. The result was
persecution.
(1)
Racialists began to talk (or shout) darkly of a "Yellow Peril"
threatening California, the same kind of racialist slop that was
bruited about by Kaiser Wilhelm when he sent troops to help
crush the Boxers in China and threatened to intervene in the
Russo-Japanese War on behalf of his cousin Nicky.
The California Alien Land Law of 1913 forbade the owning of land
by aliens ineligible for citizenship ie Asians.
The segregation of the San Francisco school district in 1906 (there
were 93 Japanese pupils out of 25,000 (Dinnerstein and Reimers 66)-quite a terrifying "Yellow Peril"--caused an international incident.
The Japanese, who had just won a victory over Russia--the first
victory by a non-white race over a European power in modern times-protested.
(1)
President Theodore Roosevelt seems to have been in a
difficult spot. He could not dictate the laws of California, but
the Japanese were understandably angry. He negotiated the
Gentlemen's Agreement in 1907, which restricted visas to the
US. One benefit of the restriction to those Japanese already
in the US was that wives were allowed to join husbands.
Many wives were married in Japan by proxy, and traveled to
the US sight unseen by their husbands. Such a practice was
not unusual for Japan, where parents often arranged
marriages, but shocked American sensibilities.
The creation of family units of American soil (as the sex ratio
dropped to 7:1 in 1910 and 2:1 in 1920 (Sowell 163) meant that these
people were now here to stay: Japanese Americans, not sojourners.
This first generation Japanese-Americans, or Issei, were highly
literate, and extremely hard working. They were highly prized as
agricultural workers, and forced their own wages up as employers bid
for their services. As they were able to acquire land for themselves
(before 1913), they paid above average wages to other Japanese, thus
keeping their wage scales up.
As tenant farmers, they paid higher rents, but were so productive that
landlords found themselves with an economic incentive to defend
their interests in the legislature. From tenant farming, many avoided
the Alien Land Law by leasing their farms. Others moved into
gardening with great success.
The second generation, the Nisei, were native Americans, and thus
free from the restrictions of American law.
Like the Chinese, the Japanese valued education greatly, and did well
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s.
III.
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with their opportunities.
The next stage pertains to the Nisei, but relates more to World War
II, and so will be saved for a later lesson.
Urbanization
A.
There is explosive growth of US cities, especially in the Northeast US, where most
immigrants settled. This growth would have caused serious problems under any
circumstances. As it was, traditional governmental forms collapsed, old-stock
Americans moved to the suburbs, and left the inner cities to the big-city boss, who
catered to the immigrant.
B.
Ethnic neighborhoods
1.
Most large cities developed distinct Italian, Jewish, Polish etc.
neighborhoods, as immigrants clustered together for cultural and social
support.
2.
Different groups then established their own churches, newspapers, schools,
and social organizations.
3.
Such enclave drew criticism from old-stock Americans for "resisting
American values" and opposing cultural assimilation (does this sound
familiar?)
C.
Urban problems are chiefly caused by the speed and scope of growth:
1.
Sewer and water facilities were inadequate
2.
fire protection and garbage collection fail; streets crumble
3.
Lack of zoning laws led to indescribable crowding, which aggravated all
other problems.
D.
Early reform efforts included:
1.
New York City tenement laws and a tenement design contest
a.
Architect James E. Ware developed a dumb-bell design to maximize
use of space while providing important amenities, like fresh air, and
toilets.
2.
Jacob Riis, himself an immigrant, published the powerful photographic
study, How the Other Half Lives, in 1890.
E.
City Government
1.
Wealthy, old-stock Americans fled the center of the city for the suburbs.
2.
The Big City Boss and his political machine fills the power vacuum thus left.
3.
These men mobilized the immigrant voter by providing a sort of ramshackle
welfare state (for a price) for the immigrant.
a.
Power rested on the ward boss, who controlled and knew a given
neighborhood.
(1)
The ward boss found jobs (often public service jobs
controlled by the city boss)
(2)
they distributed food
(3)
They "fixed" minor offenses with the police
(4)
They provided disaster relief
(5)
They helped immigrants adjust to American life
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(6)
F.
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In return, they asked for, and received, unquestioning loyalty
at the polls. As they say in New York, vote early, and vote
often.
b.
Their principle tool to make money was the "kickback."
(1)
William Marcy "Boss" Tweed of New York stole about
$200,000,000 from 1869-1871.
(2)
Another New York example was Richard Choker, who
controlled Tammany Hall from the 1880s to 1900.
(3)
Perhaps the last of the great big city bosses was Mayor
Richard Day of Chicago.
(4)
The bosses were essentially thieves working where middleclass and upper class Americans were indifferent.
(5)
However, since they did try to provide services for
immigrants where no one else wished to, they were not simply
a destructive force in US life. It seems significant that their
power waned when government began providing many of
these services.
Urban Improvement
1.
Recognition of the role which microorganisms play in the propagation of
disease led to an effort to clean urban water supplies.
2.
Businessmen wanted honest government primarily as a means of reducing the
tax bill: graft was expensive.
3.
City lighting projects were started.
a.
The idea was that city lighting would reduce crime and stimulate a
night life (let's remember, even in cities, life was dictated largely by
the rhythm of the sun.
b.
Of course, installing gas lines was a rich source of graft and
kickbacks, as bosses sold the contracts.
4.
Elevated trains, electric trolleys, and underground railroads applied electrical
energy to the problems of urban transportation, which allowed much greater
urban sprawl.
a.
The "walking city" now extended from 2.5 to 6 miles or more
b.
Suburbs grow rapidly as the middle-class abandons the inner city.
c.
Economic segregation in turn helps foster the growth of urban slums.
5.
Steel-cable suspension bridges help span major rivers to encourage traffic.
a.
The great example was the Brooklyn Bridge, built by John A.
Roebling in 1883.
6.
Architecture
a.
The use of steel-skeleton buildings (in turn made possible by cheap,
high quality steel from the Bessemer process) allowed the building of
the first genuine skyscrapers.
(1)
Electrical power applied vertically to elevators made such
buildings practical.
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b.
G.
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Louis H. Sullivan designed the Wainwright Building and the
Prudential Building. He stressed functional designs.
c.
Frederick Law Olmsted designed Central Park in New York.
Religion and Urbanization
1.
The American religious tradition, based on an agricultural society,
emphasized that one is responsible for one's own behavior, hence for one's
own salvation.
2.
Traditional Protestantism failed to adjust to new conditions.
a.
Many congregations fled to the suburbs.
b.
Pastors became extremely conservative, preaching to comfortable
congregations in comfortable churches.
(1)
Henry Ward Beecher becomes the nation's best known
clergyman, preaching that poverty was sin and labor unions a
form of despotism and tyranny (in between seducing members
of his congregation)
3.
Roman Catholicism
a.
The Catholic Church has always been more involved in alms giving
and orphanages, etc.
b.
Its leaders were committed to the concept that vice was personal but
poverty was an act of God.
c.
Its leadership tended to be neutral toward organized labor.
d.
Pope Leo XIII attacked the excesses of capitalism in Rerum
Novarum in 1891, and defended the right to form unions and the duty
of government to care for the poor.
4.
Evangelism
a.
Urbanization also sparked a new wave of evangelism.
b.
The leading figure was Dwight L. Moody.
c.
Mission schools in the slums provided not only spiritual but
recreational activities.
d.
The YMCA, founded in 1851, addressed an urban flock.
e.
The Salvation Army, formed in the 1880s, also responded to the city.
f.
The weakness of all of these is that they did not focus on the causes
of urban ills. Their approach is still personal rather than systemic.
(1)
In my opinion, this remains an enduring point of disagreement
between persons of good will but differing theological
orientation. The Progressive Era and the New Deal ushered
in a period where attempts were made to root out vice and
crime through government action aimed at the source.
Conservative opponents often argue that government action,
by failing to change individual lives, will always fail. As I
write this (1995) current debate on issues such as welfare
reform and drug programs are beginning to recognize that
those drug treatment programs that are most successful are
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5.
6.
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precisely those with a spiritual dimension to them--to change
the outlook and lifestyle of the individual. This is much the
same way that Alcoholics Anonymous, etc. works; although
not denominational or even strictly Christian, the influence of
Christian theology is unmistakable. This year, a former
student (who had been a heavy drug user in high school and
beyond) told me that she was now drug free for one year
through a program similar to AA. She spoke about how she
was now reading the Bible I had given her years before and
which she had kept through various peregrinations. Whether
she is theologically a "Christian" in the sense used by
evangelical Christianity, I've no idea--probably not--but the
anecdote clearly points to her need for a valid spiritual life.
The Social Gospel was a response by Protestants to specifically urban
problems. Its leaders were disgusted by the philistinism of Henry Ward
Beecher, and more determined to engage the Church in systemic reforms than
the evangelists.
a.
They focused on improving living conditions.
b.
They therefore advocated a political agenda:
(1)
civil service reform
(2)
child labor laws
(3)
regulation of monopolies
(4)
income taxes
(5)
inheritance taxes
c.
Washington Gladden is one leader, with Applied Christianity in
1886. He did not challenge the basic values of capitalism
d.
Charles M. Sheldon wrote a successful novel about a reforming inner
city minister with In His Steps. (1896)
The Settlement Houses
a.
These commonly formed centers for education and recreation in poor
districts.
b.
Examples were:
(1)
London's Toynbee Hall
(2)
South End House, run by Robert A. Woods in Boston (1892)
(3)
Henry Street Settlement, run by Lilian Wald, founded in
1893 in NYC
(4)
The most famous, Hull House, founded by Jane Addams in
1889 in Chicago.
c.
Workers
(1)
A very large percentage were middle-class women just out of
college. They are the first great wage of college educated
women, the fruits of the beginnings of feminism in the Age of
Jackson. They have few professional opportunities, are
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idealistic, and talented.
they agitated for tenement house laws, regulation of the labor
r women and children, and for better schools.
d.
They set up playgrounds, libraries, classes, and day nurseries.
e.
It was clear from the settlement houses that private efforts to cope
with the problems of urbanization were not in and of themselves
adequate. Government action would be needed. This would require
a very sharp break with the American tradition of self help and
minimum government involvement.
Labor Unions and Strikes
A.
Unions are the workers' response to business consolidation. An increase in the size
of the corporation led to an increase in the size of workers' organizations.
B.
The National Labor Union (1866)
1.
The first national labor union, led by William H. Sylvis.
2.
He was utopian and visionary, with strong influence from Jacksonian utopian
movements.
a.
They opposed the wage system
b.
Advocated the admission of both women and African Americans to
membership, which put them far ahead of the rest of the nation.
c.
He dreamed of forming workers' cooperatives.
3.
The union attracted little political support.
4.
Its peak membership was 600,000. (Bruner 119)
5.
Sylvis died in 1869; the National Labor Union had died out by 1872.
C.
The Molly Maguires
1.
The Molly Maguires have their origin before the Civil War in the anthracite
coal fields of Pennsylvania. They have been interpreted as a desperate labor
organization and also as a criminal ring. I am inclined to the latter view,
although I remain open to persuasion.
2.
There is a strong element of ethnic conflict with the Mollies: mine owners
were usually English or Welsh; the Mollies were Irish. Conditions were
certainly very harsh indeed, and one should not be surprised that desperate
men might take desperate measures to better their lot. That does not
necessarily mean that they were Robin Hood reincarnated.
3.
By the Panic of 1873, the Mollies had become a force to be reckoned with
in the coal fields, dealing in extortion, sabotage, and murder. They did not,
however, organize any strikes or unions. They are essentially a secret
criminal organization.
4.
A Pinkerton agent, James McParlen, successfully infiltrated the gang and was
able to provide the evidence to hang 10 leaders in 1876.
a.
A. Conan Doyle based one of his 4 Sherlock Holmes novels on this
incident in The Valley of Fear. If you like good mystery stories, this
is for you.
D.
The Great Strikes in 1877 are the bloodiest and costliest strike in US labor history.
(2)
IV.
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E.
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They were a series of spontaneous and violent outbursts against chiefly the railroads.
1.
It began with sharp pay cuts at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (firemen,
who could barely feed their families were reduced from $1.75 to $1.58 per
day) (Smith 168)
2.
Management refused even to talk to delegations of workers.
3.
Wildcat strikes begin, which began paralyzing freight traffic. By July 17, the
yards at Baltimore were in the possession of the strikers.
4.
Other centers included Martinsburg, WVA, and Pittsburgh.
5.
The president of the B&O at no time agreed even to speak with the strikers
or discuss their grievances. Instead he demanded that President Rutherford
B. Hayes call out troops to protect B&O property--ie, act as a management
agent to break the strike. A far cry from government by the people, for the
people, of the people.
6.
The pattern for the strike was similar in many places. The strikers were at
first peaceful. Militia called in locally sometimes refused to act; militia
brought in from afar (the Philadelphia militia, made up of middle-class men)
proved willing to shoot the strikers. In general, the shooting started with the
militia. Usually, the militia found itself in serious trouble with armed and
angry strikers. Observers noted how frequently women were among the
strikers, inciting the men to determination and courage.
7.
In Pittsburgh, the enraged strikers began systematically to destroy railroad
property: 125 locomotives, 3,500 cars, tons of coal and coke, depots, a grain
elevator, etc.
8.
On July 24, President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered the use of federal troops
to put down an insurrection. The strikes flicker out.
9.
Close examination shows the strikes to have been remarkable for the
discipline of the strikers. 100 to 200 persons (mostly strikers) were killed;
given the intensity of the strikes, that is quite low. They policed their own
ranks. Property damage was systematic, and ran into hundreds of millions of
dollars.
10.
Marxist organizations like the Workingmen's Party in Chicago failed utterly
to take advantage of the strikes, since they did not fit into their ideological
straitjacket. They were spontaneous, premature, and not ideologically driven.
11.
Their spontaneity pointed toward widespread unhappiness and misery. A
spark set them off. (in fact, many revolutions occur just that way).
12.
Middle-class America recoiled in fear at the revelation that a revolution
might be lurking just beneath the surface of their comfortable lives. Class
divisions in America had never seemed so deep. Middle-class America,
represented by Henry Ward Beecher, is determined to crush anything that,
they feared, threatened traditional institutions. (Smith 168-88)
The Knights of Labor (1869)
1.
The Knights, founded by Uriah S. Stephens, a reformer with wide interests,
proved to be larger and of greater importance.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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a.
Initially it was organized as a secret organization along masonic lines.
Terence V. Powderly succeeded Stephens as Grand Master Workman or
president in 1879.
Like the Jacksonians, they supported political objectives that had no direct
connection with working conditions.
a.
The Knights have a strong utopian element as well. They frowned on
strikes as a weapon in a labor dispute, yet their growth was due in
large measure to some successful railroad strikes. The answer to this
contradiction is that the Knights were not tightly organized with strict
organizational discipline.
b.
They defined "toilers" very broadly to include almost anyone except
a business owner.
(1)
They are inclusive, the very opposite of craft union
organization.
(2)
Like the National Labor Union, they welcomed women,
African Americans, and immigrants. Although this is
compatible with today's attitudes, this was a source of
weakness in the mid and late 1800s. Women, African
Americans, and immigrants all provided cheap labor--cheaper
than workers already in place. Their competition drove wages
down and provided strike-breakers. The hostility of
organized labor to women, African Americans, and
immigrants must be understood in these terms--a direct
pocket book issue.
Their growth clearly delineates their fortunes:
a.
1882
42,000 members
b.
1885
110,000 members
c.
1886
700,000 members
d.
1890
100,000 members
The strike against Jay Gould's Missouri Pacific Railroad brought recruits at
first, but ultimately failed. Powderly had not sanctioned the strike.
Haymarket Square Riot 1886
a.
The death blow for the Knights, and a very significant stage in the
labor-management struggle.
b.
The trouble began at the McCormick Harverster Factory in Chicago.
1,000 union men were locked out and replaced by scabs. Pinkerton
agents were brought in to "protect" the plant.
c.
A strike quickly followed
d.
On May 3, a large rally of workers was being addressed by August
Spies, an anarchist, when they were attacked by scabs, and
Pinkertons. As a melee ensued, the Chicago police intervened. They
opened fire, killing 6 and wounding 20, all union men.
e.
On May 4, a rally to protest the killings was held at Haymarket
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F.
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Square. As the last speaker was concluding his speech, he was
ordered by police to "disperse peacefully or take the consequences!"
The meeting, mind you, was peaceful. The speaker was in the
process of replying when a bomb was thrown. Police opened fire,
workers returned fire, and when the smoke cleared, 7 police and 4
demonstrators were dead, and over 200 were wounded. No one ever
determined who threw the bomb, but personally, I believe it was a
provocateur.
f.
The newspapers screamed for blood (remember that Gould controlled
the wire services). Management successfully convinced the bulk of
middle-class America that the bloodshed was the result of foreign
anarchists, socialists, etc.
g.
8 union men were indicted and tried on charges of conspiracy to
commit murder. The trial was presided over by Judge Joseph E.
Gary, who was flagrantly biased in his rulings. 7 were convicted and
sentenced to death in proceedings that simply cannot stand the light
of examination.
(1)
Two men were given clemency (life), one committed suicide,
4 were hanged. (Bruner 122-7)
(2)
Later, Gov. John Peter Altgeld, who was sympathetic to the
workers, pardoned the two still alive.
7.
Haymarket was a public relations disaster for the Knights of Labor. There
was a strong backlash against labor in the country. The Knights, although not
involved in the affair, paid the price.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL), under the leadership of Samuel
Gompers was founded in 1886, and proved to be more successful and lasting.
1.
The AFL was a craft union, that is it organized all workers according to
skills
2.
Craft unions are oriented toward skilled workers (who can be said to have
mastered a craft) and thus appeal to a much smaller segment of the industrial
workers. Eventfully, this will lead to the schism of the AFL and the
formation of the industrial union, the Congress of Industrial Workers (CIO).
3.
The AFL was hostile to African Americans, women, and immigrants.
African Americans were excluded from membership.
4.
Gompers ignored larger political reforms, and took a very pragmatic and
more productive approach. He concentrated on "bread and butter issues":
higher pay and shorter hours.
5.
He does not challenge the structure of capitalism; he is in no way a Socialist.
Degler quotes a revealing exchange between Gompers and a Socialist
Congressman. Socialists by definition have in mind a utopia where no
further gains would be necessary. Gompers had no fixed ultimate goal. He
believed most workers would always be workers. He simply wants a bigger
piece of the total pie for the workers. (Degler 288-9)
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6.
G.
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Gompers was fully prepared to strike. A craft union was in a stronger
position to strike than the Knights, since skilled workers could not be so
easily replaced by scabs.
7.
Politically, Gompers would support any candidate favorable to workers,
regardless of their party, or any other consideration.
a.
The AFL was associated with a legislative agenda, including mine
safety, an 8 hour day, and employers' liability for industrial accidents.
8.
Membership in 1892 was 300,000. (Bruner 129)
9.
The Homestead Strike of 1892 proved nearly as disastrous for the AFL as
Haymarket did for the Knights.
a.
Economic depression in 1892 gave Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie's
lieutenant in charge of the Homestead plant, the opportunity to break
the union. Carnegie prided himself on his good treatment of his
workers, but Carnegie was in Scotland, and supported Frick
throughout the crisis.
b.
Frick was a hard-nosed, cold blooded man who hated unions on
principle and who was determined to squeeze the last ounce of profit
out of the plant.
c.
Frick started the crisis slashing wages.
d.
Although the AFL excluded unskilled workers, the entire plant work
force joined when the AFL went out on strike. Frick locked the
factory and called in 300 Pinkerton thugs.
e.
The Pinkertons tried to take possession of the plant, but were resisted.
A gun battle erupted, and the Pinkertons were trapped by the workers
and forced to surrender.
f.
The governor of Pennsylvania called out the militia and, behind their
bayonets, Frick reopened the plant with non-union workers.
g.
On July 23, a final disaster hit the strikers. A Russian born anarchist,
Alexander Berkman, who had to connection to the strikers, traveled
to Homestead to assassinate Frick. Berkman botched it in every way:
emptying his pistol and stabbing Frick, but without injuring him
sufficiently to even make him leave his desk for a doctor. The press
made Frick into an all-American, native born hero facing down the
hordes of foreign anarchists out to subvert the country.
h.
The strike collapsed, leaving the steel industry without effective
unions for 40 years.
(1)
Frick cut wages for skilled workers 40%, unskilled workers
averaged 16½¢ an hour
(2)
Frick put in two 12 hour shifts and ran the plant day and
night. His profits rose from $27,000,000 in the previous 17
years to $106,000,000 in the next 9. (Bruner 130-4)
The Pullman Strike (1894) and American Socialism.
1.
The backdrop of the Pullman Strike is the Panic of 1893, a serious
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Mr. Blackmon
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depression amid rising tensions within the nation and real fears on the part of
middle-class America of social revolution. Please do not forget that the
Farmer's Revolt is in full-swing at the time.
George Pullman had always taken a paternalistic attitude toward his workers.
He built, for instance, a town for his workers (cleverly called Pullman).
Of course, the workers paid rents to Pullman for their housing, had to buy
from Pullman-owned stores, paid for their water and gas from Pullman.
Pullman's rents were 25% higher than surrounding communities, and his
water and gas charges well above the cost to him of buying it from the utility
companies. The industrialist and political guru, Mark Hanna, (no friend to
labor!) regarded as another way to make a profit.
When the Panic hit, Pullman laid off 3,000 of 5,800 workers, and cut wages
25% to 40% without reducing rents or utility bills. Pullman also continued
paying the same hefty 8% dividends to stock-holders ie: he was maintaining
dividends in the face of depression by taking it from his workers' meager
wages.
Pullman refused requests from workers for a comparable reduction in rents.
Pullman fired three of the committee members who approached him.
The Pullman workers went out on strike. They also asked their union to
strike in support.
The leader of the American Railway Workers' Union was Eugene V. Debs,
who was reluctant. However, when Pullman told him, "The workers have
noting to do with the amount of wages they shall receive; that is solely the
business of the company." (Bruner 138), he agreed to a strike.
The Chicago yards were paralyzed. This is quite serious since Chicago is the
rail hub of the United States.
a.
At first, workers cut out Pullman cars from trains. When they were
fired, everyone walked off.
b.
Management then began attaching mail cars only to freight trains.
The strikers were perfectly willing to move mail cars but not freight.
Management however needed an excuse for federal intervention.
c.
Management by-passed the governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld,
assuming that he would be sympathetic to the strikers (which was
true; he was the man who pardoned the Haymarket rioters).
d.
Management went to Attorney General Richard Olney, a man who
had become rich as a railroad lawyer, and demanded federal
intervention on the grounds that the strike was interfering with the
mail service.
e.
Olney sent in 3,400 special deputies to run the trains. Violence
ensued. Olney edited and distorted the extent and nature of the
violence. Altgeld wrote President Grover Cleveland to correct the
impression, but Cleveland would not listen to him.
f.
Cleveland sent in federal troops to break the strike.
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g.
V.
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Judge Peter Grosscup in Chicago then issued an injunction against the
strike. When Debs refused to comply, Grosscup found him in
contempt and jailed him.
h.
The strike was broken and the American Railway Union was
destroyed. (Bruner 134-43)
10.
Debs came out of jail a convinced Socialist. he was convinced that the
workers could never receive justice at the hands of the government.
a.
He helped found the Socialist Democratic Party in 1897. He ran for
president 5 times. In 1917, he was jailed again under the Sedition Act
for opposing US entry into World War I. He received 901,062 votes
in 1920 while in prison. He was pardoned by Warren G. Harding and
died in 1926.
11.
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) were formed in
1905. Led by "Big Bill" Haywood, they openly advocated violence and
sabotage. As such, they were a godsend to conservatives, who could
exaggerate their importance to their heart's content. At its peak, the Wobblies
probably only had 60,000 members. The Sedition Act in World War I was
used heavily against them. By the 1920s, they were defunct.
Social Legislation and the Conservative Courts.
A.
As the turn of the century approached, the Supreme Court grew increasingly
conservative in its judgements. Fear of social upheaval led them to issue ruling after
ruling that protected the interests of a very narrow segment of the nation-corporations and financiers--at the expense of everyone else. The Court accepted the
Conservative ideology and enforced it in rulings with the force of law.
B.
The Fourteenth Amendment was reinterpreted so as to pervert its intent and
meaning.
1.
Corporations are legal individuals; the Court applied XIV Amendment
protection very broadly to corporations in a way that it chose not to do for
African Americans.
a.
The judges saw all attempts to regulate business, such as through
tenement laws or minimum hour laws or laws restricting child or
women's labor, as dangerous extensions of the government's police
power.
b.
Lochner v. New York (1905)represents the Court's thinking: it
voided a 10 hour day for bakers.
(1)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. pointed the way to the future with
his dissent: "A constitution is not intended to embody a
particular economic theory, whether of paternalism or of
laissez faire."
c.
The use of injunctions to break a strike, such as was used against the
American Railway Union and Eugene V. Debs, is another example.
2.
Other cases from the time period in a similar vein include:
a.
The Slaughter House cases (1873): These cases involved "a
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b.
c.
d.
e.
Mr. Blackmon
Page 24
Louisiana statute creating a monopoly of the business of slaughtering
livestock in New Orleans, thereby driving other butchers out of
business. Some of the latter challenged the statute on the ground that
it deprived them of their privileges and immunities as citizens of the
United States" [under the XIV Amendment] The Court "virtually
devitalized the privileges and immunities clause by distinguishing
between the privileges which inhered in state citizenship and those
inhering in national citizenship alone, and holding that the clause
protected only the latter." (Swisher 85-6)
The Civil Rights cases (1883) defined the application of the section
of the XIV Amendment that "Congress shall have power to enforce,
by appropriate legislation, the projections of this article," which was
clearly intended to provide the authority to ensure the civil rights of
the freedmen from infringement, as sharply as possible. "The Civil
Rights Act of 1875 gave equal rights to use of inn, theaters, public
conveyances and other facilities. . . . The Supreme Court held that the
Fourteenth Amendment had not given Congress substantive power to
protect civil rights but only power to correct abuses by the states. By
this decision Congress was relieved of its basic obligation for the
protection of the civil rights of" of African Americans. (Swisher 91-2)
Such a ruling can only be viewed as a perversion of the intent and
language of the Amendment.
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust (1895) Under pressure from
reformers and Populists, "Congress in 1894 enacted a federal income
tax law with exemption of lower incomes so that well-to-do people
were called on to pay an increased proportion of the cost of the
federal government. Wealthy and conservative people, frightened
already by the Populist Movement, regarded the new tax as the first
step in a dangerous drift toward socialism." (Swisher 95) The Court
held the income tax to be unconstitutional, although an income tax
had been passed and enforced during the Civil War. It required the
Sixteenth Amendment to reverse this decision.
US v. E.C. Knight (1895) The American Sugar Refining Company
was ruled not to be in restraint of trade although it controlled 98% of
all sugar refining in the U.S. because it did not engage in "trade" ie
did not load its refined sugar onto freight cars and transport it across
a state line. It only sold to wholesalers. The ruling emasculated the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Plessy v. Ferguson ruled virtually unanimously that segregation was
legal so long as separate but equal facilities were provided. The
majority opinion haled that the legislature of Louisiana was at liberty
to act "with reference to the established usages, customs, and
traditions of the people . . . . We consider the underlying fallacy of the
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plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced
separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of
inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the
act, but solely because the colored raced chooses to put that
construction upon it. . . . The argument also assumed that social
prejudices may be overcome by legislation and that equal rights
cannot be secured to the negro except by an enforced commingling of
the two races. We cannot accept this proposition. . . . Legislation is
powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based
upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in
accentuating the difficulties of the present situation. If the civil and
political rights of both races be equal one cannot be inferior to the
other civilly or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially,
the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same
plane." (Swisher 101)The lone dissent was written by John Marshall
Harlan, the only Southerner on the Court, a Kentuckian who, as a
young man, had been a slaveholder, and a bitter opponent of
emancipation. He had changed his views, and now believed that only
federal protection would prevent the oppression of African
Americans. He wrote his dissent in the Civil Rights cases using the
same inkwell Roger B. Taney had used to write Dred Scott (a highly
self-conscious decision) (Westin 21-5) and continued in the same
vein here: "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor
tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens
are equal before the law. . . . . In my opinion, the judgement this day
rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision
made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case." (Swisher 101)
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Works Cited
Blum, John M., Morgan, Edmund S., Rose, Willie Lee, Schlesinger,
Jr., Arthur M., Stampp, Kenneth M., and Woodward, C. Vann.
The National Experience: A History of the United States. 5th
ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981.
Bruner, James E. Jr. Industrialism:
New York: Benziger, Inc. 1972.
Degler, Carl.
America.
Out of Our Past:
3rd ed. New York:
The American Experience.
The Forces That Shaped Modern
Harper and Row, 1984.
Dinnerstein, Leonard and Reimers, David M. Ethnic Americans: A
H i s t o r y o f
Immigration.
Third
Edition. New York:
Harper & Row, 1988.
Smith, Page. The Rise of Industrial America. A People's History
of the Post-Reconstruction Era. New York: Penguin, 1984.
Sowell, Thomas. Ethnic America: A History. New York: Harper
Collins, 1981.
Swisher, Carl Brent. Historic Decisions of the Supreme Court.
Princeton, New Jersey: Van
Nostrand, 1958.
Westin, Alan F. "Ride In: A Century of Protest Begins." .
Historical Viewpoints.
Garraty, John, Ed 3rd Ed. 2
Vols. New York: Harper &
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Works Consulted
Bailey, Thomas A., Kennedy, David M. The American Pageant.
Ed. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath, 1983.
7th
Boyer, Paul S.; Clark, Clifford Jr.; Kett, Joseph F.; Purvis,
Thomas; Sitkoff, Harvard; Woloch, Nancy. The Enduring Vision:
A History of the American People.
New York:
D.C. Heath.
1990. [Referred to as Boyer]
Current, Richard N., Williams, T. Harry, Freidel Frank, Brinkley,
Alan.
American History:
A Survey.
6th Ed.
New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
Garraty, John. The American Nation.
Row, 1983.
5th Ed.
New York:
Harper &
Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David E.
America:
A Narrative
History. 3rd Ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992.