1875- 1900 dbq free essay sample

Through out the period of 1875 and 1900 many strikes and labor movements occurred. Many labor unions tried to reform laborers’ wages and the conditions in which they were working. Even though there were many efforts for reform by organized labor, they were unsuccessful in improving the position of the laborers. In document A there is a chart of the daily hours and index of average daily wages. It shows that daily hours went from 9. 9 in 1875 to 9. 4 in 1891. This is a very slight drop in daily hours considering most unionists were shooting for 8 hours of work a day. The wages didn’t go up much either. The index of daily wages went from 169. 9 in 1875 to 172. 5 in 1891. That is only a 3 dollar raise over the course of 16 years. It is very clear that the efforts of the unionist were unsuccessful in dropping work to their preferred limit and unsuccessful at raising wages to a desired rate. We will write a custom essay sample on 1875- 1900 dbq or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In document B a writer for The New York Times is claiming how hopeless the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 is. This shows how the newspapers and magazines were on the side of management because they felt labor was hostile. In document C there is a laborer standing over the dead goose who laid the golden egg labeled capital. On the side is a communist. This again shows that the magazines, in this case Harper’s Weekly, branded the labor movements as radical. In document D a laborer is asked about how labor was different labor is different than 15 years ago. He said that there were fewer laborers because the labor is now split up into parts. This led to a loss of specialization which in turn led to job loss across the nation. In document E there is a copy of a work contract. This contract was stating that you as a laborer couldn’t join a union or you would be fired. This particular contract is known as a yellow dog contract or iron clad contract. In Document F there is a picture of three chefs fighting over the â€Å"labor interest broth. † This is showing that there were too many labor groups trying to represent laborers which inhibited the ability to unify. In document G there is a coroner’s list of people killed in the Homestead strike. This document shows that there were multiple types of ethnic groups which made it hard to unify. Even though there were many efforts for reform by organized labor, they were unsuccessful in improving the position of the laborers. There were multiple unions and multiple ethnic groups which made it hard to unify. Also labor groups were listed as radicals by newspapers and magazines which made it hard for labor unions to get a grip in society. Overall, lack of unification led to unsuccessful labor movements.