U S History
Classwork
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Unit 2
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Business and Government Fight Against Labor Unions
The Bosses of the Senate
Political cartoonist Joseph Keppler created this cartoon in 1889, just one year before Congress passed the Sherman
Antitrust Act. Trusts had become a popular way for some business tycoons to create a monopoly. In a trust agreement,
corporations joined with competing companies and turned their stock over to a group of trustees - people who ran the
separate companies as one large corporation. In return, the companies received certificates that entitled them to
dividends on profits earned by the trust. Trusts, however, were not legal mergers. The government had become
concerned that expanding corporations would stifle free competition.
Questions and Activities
1. Look in your textbook, page 155. According to the Constitution; Article 1, The Legislature; Section 3, The Senate;
Paragraph 1, Numbers; how were Senators chosen (it is crossed out)?
2. According to the cartoon, who do you think are the bosses of the Senate?
3. How does the cartoonist use size relationships to make his point?
4. What do the three signs across the top of the cartoon say?
5. What impression do you get from the number and kind of trusts represented in this cartoon?
6. What is the sign in the middle of the cartoon a parody of?
7. What does it imply?
Sherman Antitrust Act
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Panics, Strikes, Riots and Protests
Using the power point presentation, Panics, Strikes, Riots and Protests, answer the following
questions.
1.
What was corporate greed blamed for?
2.
According to the cartoon, who was allied against the working man?
3.
What was celebrated for the first time in 1882?
4.
What happened to the number of strikes as the 19th century progressed?
5.
What year saw the most strikes?
6.
What year saw the greatest number of striking workers?
7.
According to the Census Bureau, how much did the average family of four need to meet minimum living
standards?
8.
What was the average yearly income in 1890 for working families?
9.
What were some reasons that employers did not pay better?
a.
b.
c.
10.
Why did the majority of American generally oppose the labor movement?
11.
What were employers counting on in case of a strike?
12.
List two things for which unions were blamed.
a.
b.
13.
How were union leaders portrayed by anti-labor publications?
14.
According to the cartoon on page 12, what is a “scab?”
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Unit 2
15.
According to the carton on page 13, how were union leaders viewed?
16.
According to the cartoon on page 14, what was the workingman’s dilemma?
17.
According to the cartoon on page 15, what was the purpose of a strike?
18.
What is a boycott?
19.
What are four ways that corporations and businesses tried to stop unions?
a.
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b.
c.
d.
20.
What is an injunction?
21.
How was an injunction used to stop striking union members?
22.
Whom did employers use to break up unions, rallies and strikes?
23.
What act of Congress, that was supposed to be used against monopolies, was actually used against unions?
24.
How many times were state troops called out to deal with labor unrest between 1875 and 1910?
Panic of 1873
25.
The bankruptcy of which company set off the Panic of 1873?
26.
As a result of the Panic of 1873, what happened to railroads?
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
27.
What the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 considered?
28.
How much of the country was involved?
29.
Who was used to help end the strike?
to businesses?
to unemployment?
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30.
How does the Great Railroad Strike compare with other strikes in terms of violence?
31.
What precedent does the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 set for future strikes?
32.
What actions by the railroad companies precipitated the strike?
33.
Where did the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 begin and why?
34.
What happened when the Governor called for the National Guard?
35.
How did President Hayes respond?
36.
Why did city leaders in Pittsburg have to call for help from Philadelphia?
37.
Besides railroad workers and sympathizers, to where else did the Pittsburgh strike spread?
38.
What were the effects of the Great Railroad Strike?
Haymarket Riots – Chicago. 1886
39.
Upon what had the Labor movement been focused, between 1884 and 1886?
40.
What happened on May 3, 1886?
41.
What was held to protest the killings at the McCormick plant?
42.
What happened at that Haymarket Square rally?
43.
How many people were arrested and how many were charged?
44.
Who were the eight men arrested for the bombing and how were they involved?
45.
What was their sentence?
46.
How many were hanged?
47.
What happened to three anarchists who were not executed?
48.
What were the consequences for the labor movement because of the Haymarket Riot?
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Homestead Steel Strike, 1892
49.
Who owned the steel mill in Homestead Pennsylvania?
50.
What was his position on unions?
51.
Who managed the factory?
52.
What was his position on unions?
53.
What did Frick decide to do about the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers?
54.
Why did Frick demand an 18% cut in wages?
55.
When negotiations broke down, what action did Frick take?
56.
What did the striking workers try to do?
57.
What was Frick’s plan to take back the steel plant?
58.
What broke out when the Pinkerton’s tried to land at the steel factory?
59.
What was the result of the fighting?
60.
What happened to the Pinkerton guards who surrendered?
61.
Before the Governor could send 8000 state militiamen, what happened to Frick?
62.
Even though the assassin was not connected with the strikers, what was the effect of the assassination attempt?
63.
How did the strike end?
64.
What happened to the union as a result?
65.
Concerning the workers, what was the result of the strike?
Panic of 1893
66.
What was the worst financial downturn in the 19th century?
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67.
What were four effects of the Panic of 1893?
68.
Why did President Cleveland do nothing to end the depression?
69.
What was the first march on Washington called?
70.
What was the purpose of the march on Washington?
71.
What was Coxey proposing?
72.
What happen when Coxey’s Army got to Washington?
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The Pullman Strike, 1894
73.
What did the Pullman Palace Car Company do?
74.
What did Pullman found in 1880?
75.
Why did some of Pullman’s workers never see their earnings?
76.
Why were Pullman’s workers so angry in the early 1890’s?
77.
What happened when the workers formed a grievance committee in order to bargain with Pullman?
78.
What union did the Pullman workers join?
79.
Who was the leader of the ARU?
80.
How did the ARU support the Pullman strikers?
81.
What were Debs and the ARU careful not to do?
82.
In the aftermath of the violence that erupted, what happened?
83.
Charged with interfering with the US Mail, what did President Cleveland and the Justice Dept. get from the federal
courts?
84.
How was the Pullman strike broken? What happened to most of the strikers?