Workers organize: unions, strikes and new labor laws

Grade 11 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   The Knights and the AFL, 1878 and 1886. Card A: "The Knights of Labor preamble". Who made it: the Knights of Labor, in its preamble. When: 1878. Where: Reading. For whom: members, other workers and the public. Why: to say what the order wanted. Excerpt (Preamble of the Knights of Labor; Thirty Years of Labor, 1889, p. 245): "The prohibition of the employment of children in workshops, mines and factories before attaining their fourteenth year. … To secure for both sexes equal pay for equal work. The reduction of the hours of labor to eight per day, so that the laborers may have more time for social enjoyment and intellectual improvement, and be enabled to reap the advantages conferred by the labor-saving machinery which their brains have created." Card B: "Gompers looks back on the AFL's start". Who made it: Samuel Gompers, first president of the American Federation of Labor. When: written 1925, about 1886. Where: New York. For whom: readers of his autobiography. Why: to explain why the AFL was formed. Excerpt (Seventy Years of Life and Labor, chapter XIII; Seventy Years of Life and Labor, 1925, p. 264): "We needed a consolidated organization for the promotion of trade unionism under which work could go forward daily for the organization of all workers of America skilled as well as unskilled. We needed a central office and officers who could give all their time to the Federation work. The old Federation was committed to relief by legislation. As year by year we learned the inadequacy of our program, we tried to revise our constitution to authorize action in the economic field. Now the time had come to stop patchwork, and rebuild."

2. 1.

   Ari compares the Knights' preamble (card A) with Gompers's account (card B). Which difference is supported?

   • The Knights name goals such as hours and child labor; Gompers stresses economic action.
   • Gompers wanted the Federation to keep relying on legislation for relief, as card B says.
   • The Knights wanted wage gains, while Gompers wanted laws to cut hours, as each card shows.
   • Both documents describe one organization at two dates, since the Knights later became the AFL.
3. 2.

   Card A (1878) asks for equal pay for both sexes and a ban on child work under fourteen. What does that tell Bo about the Knights' aims?

   • Their aims went beyond one trade's pay to wider reform in workers' lives.
   • They aimed to help skilled craftsmen in one trade, as the equal-pay demand shows.
   • They had already won these demands by 1878, which is why the preamble lists them.
   • They aimed at the eight-hour day alone, since the card ends with that demand.
4. 3.

   Gompers wrote card B in 1925 about events around 1886. How should Esme treat the account?

   • As a useful insider's account, written long after, so open to hindsight and self-justification.
   • As a record made in 1886, since the card says it is about the start of the AFL.
   • As weaker than a newspaper of 1886, since memory fades and an autobiography is long after.
   • As a reliable account, since the first president of the AFL was present at its founding.

5. Use this

   The Pullman strike of 1894. Card A: "The Pullman strike of 1894, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Workers at the Pullman Company near Chicago struck on May 11, 1894. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, then refused to handle Pullman cars, which slowed railroad traffic across the country. The government won an injunction against the boycott. It said the boycott threatened trade between the states and the delivery of the mail, and it cited the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Federal marshals and troops were sent to the Chicago area. Debs and other union leaders were charged with contempt of court, and Debs was jailed in 1895. On July 12 the AFL voted not to back a general strike, because it believed the strike was already lost. The injunction affirmed a broad federal power over trade between the states, which made national strikes very hard to carry out.

6. 4.

   On what ground did the government win its injunction against the boycott, Jun asks?

   • That the boycott threatened trade between the states and the delivery of the mail.
   • That Debs had already broken a contempt order before the boycott began, as the card says.
   • That the strike broke the Pullman Company's contracts with its own workers, as the card says.
   • That the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 banned strikes by railroad workers, as the card says.
7. 5.

   Kira reads closely. The last line of card A says the injunction affirmed broad federal power over trade between the states. What did that mean for later strikes?

   • It ended the American Railway Union at once, since its leaders were jailed in 1894.
   • It made national strikes very hard to carry out, since the courts could bar them.
   • It banned unions from the railroads, so no railroad worker could organize afterward.
   • It gave workers a right to a federal hearing, so national strikes became easier.
8. 6.

   The AFL voted on July 12 not to back a general strike, believing the strike already lost. What does that show Luz about the cause of defeat?

   • Debs's jailing caused the vote, since the leaders were charged before July 12.
   • The AFL's refusal caused the defeat, since the strike failed after the vote on July 12.
   • The AFL's refusal followed the defeat in its own view, so the card does not show it caused it.
   • The AFL had opposed the strike from the start, since it did not support the general strike in July.

9. Use this

   Working children, 1880 to 1930. Card A: "What 'gainful worker' meant, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: The Census counted 'gainful workers' by asking each person aged 10 or over about an occupation in which he or she earned money or helped produce goods for sale. The count left out children doing only household chores or odd jobs at home. Answers varied from person to person, so the figures from one census to the next do not always compare exactly. Historical Statistics takes its 1870 to 1930 counts from a later Census report, Comparative Occupation Statistics, and calls them a generally reliable measure of long-term trends. Card B: Table "Workers aged 10 to 15, 1880 to 1930", columns Year | Workers aged 10 to 15 (thousands): 1880 | 1,118; 1890 | 1,504; 1900 | 1,750; 1910 | 1,622; 1920 | 1,417; 1930 | 667. Data: US Census Bureau, Historical Statistics of the United States (1975), series D 75-84. These are gainful workers, a count of occupations.

10. 7.

    A student says working children aged 10 to 15 fell by nearly two thirds from 1900 to 1930. Is that fair to say from table B, Milo asks?

    • No: the count fell about 38 percent, found by dividing the 1930 count by the 1900 count.
    • Nearly: the count fell about 62 percent, though the table counts only children in gainful occupations.
    • Yes: the table shows child work ended, since the count fell by so much between the two censuses.
    • No: the count fell by 1,083 thousand, which is a number of children and not a fraction of them.
11. 8.

    Card A says the census asked each person aged 10 or over about earning money, and left out chores at home. What does that mean for the table, Noah asks?

    • The table is unusable, since answers varied from person to person in the way they were given.
    • The table counts the work of children of any age, since each person was asked about work.
    • The table counts children on farms, since the census asked about occupations that earned money.
    • The table leaves out chores and odd jobs at home, so it is not a count of all child work.
12. 9.

    A student says child work declined steadily from 1900 to 1930. Does table B fit that, Pia asks?

    • Yes, since the fall averaged about 36 thousand a year, a steady rate across the thirty years.
    • No: the count fell a little from 1900 to 1920 and sharply from 1920 to 1930.
    • No, since the count rose after 1900 until the child labor law of 1916 took effect.
    • Yes, since the count fell at each census after 1900, which is what steady decline means.

13. Use this

    The Triangle fire and what followed. Card A: "The Triangle fire and what followed, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: On March 25, 1911, a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, on the upper floors of a ten-story building in New York City, took the lives of 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women and girls. Unions, the National Women's Trade Union League and a citizens' committee pressed for action. On June 30, 1911, the state set up a Factory Investigating Commission. In four years it held hearings across the state and drafted bills on fire safety, factory doors, wages, hours and child labor. Thirty-six of those bills became law. Card B: "Who pushed for reform after the Triangle fire, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Reform groups had worked on factory conditions before 1911. The National Women's Trade Union League, founded in 1903, sent out a questionnaire to factory workers after the fire and collected hundreds of replies. It helped form a citizens' committee of twenty-five people, which called a mass meeting attended by thousands. The meeting asked the state to create a fire prevention bureau and to seek new labor laws. The state commission then heard 222 witnesses, and 36 of its bills became law.

14. 10.

    Card A says the Triangle fire took the lives of 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women and girls. What does that let Ren say?

    • Who most often worked those floors; the card does not explain why the fire spread.
    • The workers' age explains the toll, since young workers could not escape quickly from the floors.
    • The company broke the law that day, since the card names the company.
    • Immigrant workers started the fire, since the card names them first.