Franklin Benjamin Gowen (February 9, 1836 – December 13, 1889) served as president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad , commonly referred to as the Reading Railroad, in the 1870s and 1880s. He is identified with the undercover infiltration and subsequent court prosecutions of Molly Maguires , mine workers, saloonkeepers and low-level local political figures who were tried for multiple acts of violence, including murder and attempted murder of coal mine operators, foremen, workers, and peace officers.
180-776: The United Mine Workers of America ( UMW or UMWA ) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care . By 2014, coal mining had largely shifted to open pit mines in Wyoming, and there were only 60,000 active coal miners. The UMW
360-509: A conspiracy to raise wages . Unlike in Pullis , however, the court held that the combination's existence itself was not unlawful, but nevertheless reached a conviction because the cordwainers had refused to work for any master who paid lower wages, or with any laborer who accepted lower wages than what the combination had stipulated. The court held that methods used to obtain higher wages would be unlawful if they were judged to be deleterious to
540-511: A conviction . After Pullis in 1806, eighteen other prosecutions of laborers for conspiracies followed within the next three decades. However, only one such case, People v. Fisher , also held that a combination for the purpose of raising wages was illegal . Several other cases held that the methods used by the unions , rather than the unions themselves, were illegal . For instance, in People v. Melvin , cordwainers were again convicted of
720-508: A US$ 25 million bond issue and sent agents to buy up Schuylkill County coal land for the Coal & Iron Co. During the period from 1871 to 1874, Gowen's Philadelphia and Reading Railroad continued to borrow at the rate of US$ 16 million per year to buy up and develop Schuylkill County coal lands, including numerous existing mining operations. In a number of cases, loans were extended to foundering mine operators to keep them afloat, and Reading money
900-761: A central element of the New Deal coalition that dominated national politics from the 1930s into the mid-1960s during the Fifth Party System . Liberal Republicans who supported unions in the Northeast lost power after 1964. In recent decades, an enduring alliance was formed between labor unions and the Democrats, whereas the Republican Party has become hostile to unions and collective bargaining rights. The history of organized labor has been
1080-603: A combination to raise wages is illegal was allowed to die by common consent. No leading case was required for its overthrow". Nevertheless, while Hunt was not the first case to hold that labor combinations were legal, it was the first to do so explicitly and in clear terms. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen — now part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — was founded in May 1863. The National Labor Union (NLU), founded in 1866,
1260-463: A competitive and dangerous place to work. With the owners imposing reduced wages on a regular basis, in response to fluctuations in pricing, miners sought a group to stand up for their rights. American Miners' Association The first step in starting the union was the creation of the American Miners' Association . Scholars credit this organization with the beginning of the labor movement in
1440-697: A decade. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was a regional carrier only, not a trunk line with its own through connections to Pittsburgh, Chicago and beyond, like the Pennsylvania , the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) or the Erie railroads. Rather than a hauler of general freight and passengers, the Reading initially had been formed in the 1830s specifically for the purpose of hauling anthracite coal from Schuylkill County to Philadelphia and points between. In
1620-593: A degree that they had not experienced previously, which limited their opportunities and created substantial risks of downward mobility that had not existed prior to that time. These conditions led to the first labor combination cases in America. Over the first half of the 19th century, there are twenty-three known cases of indictment and prosecution for criminal conspiracy, taking place in six states: Pennsylvania , Maryland , New York , Louisiana , Massachusetts , and Virginia . The central question in these cases
1800-496: A discrimination complaint was filed by the Coal Employment Project , a women's advocacy organization, against 153 coal companies. This action was based upon Executive Order 11246 signed in 1965 by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson , which bars sex discrimination by companies with federal contracts. The complaint called for the hiring of one woman for every three inexperienced men until women constituted 20 percent of
1980-497: A greater chance of injury, and had fewer social services. American industry had the highest rate of accidents in the world. The US was also the only industrial power to have no workman's compensation program in place to support injured workers. From 1860 to 1900, the wealthiest 2 percent of American households owned more than a third of the nation's wealth, while the top 10 percent owned roughly three-quarters of it. The bottom 40 percent had no wealth at all. In terms of property,
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#17327911681442160-597: A miners' strike action in the Schuylkill coal fields in 1869–70 that resulted in fluctuations of coal traffic on the Reading. The two sides in the dispute were a loose coalition of mine operators, the Anthracite Board of Trade; and a young union, the Workingmen's Benevolent Association (WBA). Both the miners and the operators were interested in manipulating the price of anthracite at market by controlling
2340-572: A national level. In the 1920s, about 12,000 Nova Scotia miners were represented by the UMWA. These workers lived in very difficult economic circumstances in company towns . The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation , also known as the British Empire Steel Corporation, or BESCO, controlled most coal mines and every steel mill in the province. BESCO was in financial difficulties and repeatedly attempted to reduce wages and bust
2520-613: A nonunion company in Connecticut. Owner Dietrich Loewe brought suit against the union for unlawful combinations to restrain trade in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act . The Court ruled that the union was subject to an injunction and liable for the payment of triple damages. In 1915 Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes , speaking for the Court, again decided in favor of Loewe, upholding a lower federal court ruling ordering
2700-625: A partnership to operate a coal mine nearby. The mine failed (1859), leaving 23-year-old Gowen US$ 20,000 in debt. But undaunted Franklin Gowen—married now—studied law in the office of Benjamin Cumming, a Pottsville attorney. He was admitted to the bar in 1860. He established his own practice, at the same time becoming active in the local Democratic party. Gowen served as Schuylkill County's elected District Attorney (1862–64), though in that period, according to his generally sympathetic biographer, he
2880-527: A peaceful rally, killing seven policemen and wounding many others. The anarchists—who had built the bomb—were blamed. Their spectacular trial gained national attention. The Knights of Labor were seriously injured by the false accusation that the Knights promoted anarchistic violence. Some Knights locals transferred to the less radical and more respectable AFL unions or railroad brotherhoods. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions began in 1881 under
3060-540: A private client against the Standard Oil trust . In the course of these hearings, Gowen cross-examined John D. Rockefeller . James Gowen, described later in life as a "hot-tempered, domineering, old Irishman", emigrated from Ireland in 1811. He was listed as a "wine merchant" in property records regarding his 1834 purchase of 500 S. 5th Street in Philadelphia for $ 3,000. The property, which would become
3240-559: A private law practice that led him first to represent the Reading Railroad and a few years later to take on its presidency. Throughout his time with the railroad and afterward, Gowen continued practicing law and trying cases — sometimes as a special prosecutor on behalf of the state of Pennsylvania. At the time of his death, he was pursuing a case before the Interstate Commerce Commission on behalf of
3420-834: A result of a withdrawal of the Pittston Coal Group also known as the Pittston Company from the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) and a refusal of the Pittston Coal group to pay the health insurance payments for miners who were already retired. The owner of the Pittston company at the time, Paul Douglas, left the BCOA because he wanted to be able to produce coal seven days a week and did not want his company to pay
3600-464: A secret and unified group would not turn into a successful union. The founders, John McBride , Chris Evans and Daniel McLaughlin , believed that creating an eight-hour work day would not only be beneficial for workers, but also as a means to stop overproduction , which would in turn help operators. The union was able to get cooperation from operators because they explained that the miners wanted better conditions because they felt as if they were part of
3780-511: A settlement was finally reached between the UMWA and the Pittston Coal Company. The union's history has sometimes been marked by internal strife and corruption, including the 1969 murder of Joseph Yablonski , a reform candidate who lost a race for union president against incumbent W. A. Boyle , along with his wife and 25-year-old daughter. Boyle was later convicted of ordering these murders. The killing of Yablonski resulted in
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#17327911681443960-435: A specialty of scholars since the 1890s, and has produced a large amount of scholarly literature focused on the structure of organized unions. In the 1960s, the sub-field of new labor history emerged as social history was gaining popularity broadly, with a new emphasis on the history of workers, including unorganized workers, and their gender and race. Much scholarship has attempted to bring the social history perspectives into
4140-430: A strike, Douglas threatened that if a strike were to take place, that the miners would be replaced by other workers. The UMW called this action unjust and took the Pittston company to court. Miners worked from January 1988 to April 1989 without a contract. Tension in the company grew and on April 5, 1989, the workers declared a strike. Many months of both violent and nonviolent strike actions took place. On 20 February 1990
4320-754: A surprise witness, what proved to be damning evidence in several murder trials. A series of murders July and September 1875, following the breakdown of the WBA and its Long Strike, led to several arrests over the next year of men identified as Mollie Maguires. Arrests, trials, convictions and hangings of Mollie Maguires occurred in the adjoining counties of Schuylkill and Carbon, in 1876–78. Catholics were excluded from juries. Gowen himself acted as special prosecutor in more than one trial in Schuylkill, most notably in 1876 at that of John "Black Jack" Kehoe , whom he characterized in his summation as "chief conspirator, murderer, and villain" and "with having made money by his traffic in
4500-557: A theory of mining the Schuylkill Basin coal field promoted by Eli Bowen in his 1862 book, Coal, and the Coal Trade , where he called for "large capital" to sink two "enormously deep and permanent shafts" to a depth of two thousand feet "before a single pound of coal is allowed to be sent to market." "[W]ith night and day shifts," Bowen estimated, the shafts "could be sunk down within two or three years." Shafts once sunk,
4680-599: The AFL–CIO and citywide federations have competed, evolved, merged, and split against a backdrop of changing values and priorities, and periodic federal government intervention. In most industrial nations, the labor movement sponsored its own political parties, with the US as a conspicuous exception. Both major American parties vied for union votes, with the Democratic Party usually much more successful. Labor unions became
4860-649: The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen , and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen . Their main goal was building insurance and medical packages for their members, as well as negotiating work rules, such as those involving seniority and grievance procedures. They were not members of the AFL, and fought off more radical rivals such as the Knights of Labor in the 1880s and the American Railroad Union in
5040-589: The Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Denver and Rio Grande Railway . In early 1886, the Knights were trying to coordinate 1,400 strikes involving over 600,000 workers spread over much of the country. The tempo had doubled over 1885, and involved peaceful as well as violent confrontations in many sectors, such as railroads, street railroads, and coal mining, with demands usually focused on the eight hour day. Suddenly, it all collapsed, largely because
5220-561: The major economic depression of the early 1890s , the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages in its factories. Discontented workers joined the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V. Debs , which supported their strike by launching a boycott of all Pullman cars on all railroads. ARU members across the nation refused to switch Pullman cars onto trains. When these switchmen were disciplined,
5400-440: The "Long Strike", the work stoppage lasted through June 1875, ending in the collapse of the union. In October 1873, Gowen met in Philadelphia with Allan Pinkerton . Pinkerton's published account of the meeting depicts Gowen laying out in some detail the existence, background and nature of a criminal secret society called Mollie Maguires, transplanted from Ireland to the coal region of Pennsylvania. Pinkerton's detective agency
5580-406: The "coal pool" or "anthracite combination"—including other big coal executives Asa Packer , Thomas Dickson, George Hoyt, and Samuel Sloan—which established "the first industry-wide price-fixing agreement in America." It both set the sales price for coal and allotted the tonnage each member railroad was allowed to haul to market for the coming year. This anthracite combination fared well, even with
United Mine Workers of America - Misplaced Pages Continue
5760-409: The "mining would be carried on night and day, with three eight-hour shifts." "[A]fterwards you can work it like a machine." The object of these deep diggings was to reach the famous Mammoth Vein , an undulating seam of high-quality anthracite twenty-five feet thick, projected as providing a virtually inexhaustible supply. This indeed was the shared vision and plan of Gowen and Keim from the outset of
5940-433: The 1880s. There were 37,000 strikes between 1881 and 1905. By far the largest number were in the building trades, followed far behind by coal miners. The main goal was control of working conditions, setting uniform wage scales, protesting the firing of a member, and settling which rival union was in control. Most strikes were of very short duration. In times of depression strikes were more violent but less successful, because
6120-502: The 1890s. They consolidated their power in 1916, after threatening a national strike, by securing the Adamson Act , a federal law that provided 10 hours pay for an eight-hour day. At the end of World War I they promoted nationalization of the railroads, and conducted a national strike in 1919. Both programs failed, and the brotherhoods were largely stagnant in the 1920s. They generally were independent politically, but supported
6300-651: The 1930s he used UMW activists to organize new unions in autos, steel and rubber. He was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s. After resigning as head of the CIO in 1941, he took the Mine Workers out of the CIO in 1942 and in 1944 took
6480-500: The AFL, yet was widely criticized as he called nationwide coal strikes damaging the American economy in the middle of World War II. Coal miners for 40 years hailed him as the benevolent dictator who brought high wages, pensions and medical benefits. The union's history has numerous examples of strikes in which members and their supporters clashed with company-hired strikebreakers and government forces. The most notable include: By June
6660-492: The AFL. The UMW grew to 800,000 members and was an element in the New Deal Coalition supporting Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Lewis broke with Roosevelt in 1940 and left the CIO, leaving the UMW increasingly isolated in the labor movement. During World War II the UMW was involved in a series of major strikes and threatened walkouts that angered public opinion and energized pro-business opponents. After
6840-758: The American Federation of Labor, the WFM spawned new federations, including the Western Labor Union (later renamed to the American Labor Union ). The WFM took a conservative turn in the aftermath of the Colorado Labor Wars and the trials of its president, Charles Moyer , and its secretary treasurer, Big Bill Haywood , for the conspiratorial assassination of Idaho's former governor. Although both were found innocent,
7020-491: The Coal & Iron Co. Three years into the project, however, the Mammoth Vein was estimated as still 800 feet (240 m) deeper than digging had reached. Even after the colliery became operative in 1875, its production never reached even 1/10 of its projected output 750,000 tons per year. In total, the mine operated only ten years, with a cumulative output of 275,871 tons. The aggressively expansive operations of
7200-458: The Coal & Iron Co. by infusing into that subsidiary as "capital investment" funds borrowed by the parent railroad, only to mysteriously shuffle large portions of that "investment" back to the parent to cover high dividends paid to railroad shareholders. In light of those consistent high dividends, though, these accusations were sloughed off, and there was no shareholder revolt to derail him. The specific destination of coal bound to Philadelphia
7380-468: The Coal & Iron Co., including the Twin Shaft project, required vast outlays of money, and the coal and iron operations were not returning a profit on those outlays. Rather, the source of Coal & Iron Co. funding was an increasing load of debt owed by the parent railroad: increased by US$ 65 million during the first five years of Gowen's presidency—almost twice the railroad's valuation when he took
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7560-440: The Court of Star Chamber early in the 17th century. The precedent was solidified in 1721 by R v Journeymen Tailors of Cambridge , which found tailors guilty of a conspiracy to raise wages. Leonard Levy went so far as to refer to Hunt as the " Magna Carta of American trade-unionism", illustrating its perceived standing as the major point of divergence in the American and English legal treatment of unions which, "removed
7740-508: The Gowen household and store, consisted of a brick building with retail space on the ground floor and living quarters above it. He sold the property to Peter Woods for $ 4,500. in 1846. James Gowen served as director, and later as comptroller, of Philadelphia's public schools; and also as a director of the Bank of Pennsylvania . He was an ardent Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican . Franklin Gowen
7920-488: The IWW allowed men and women as members, and organized workers of all races and nationalities, without regard to current employment status. At its peak it had 150,000 members (with 200,000 membership cards issued between 1905 and 1916 ), but it was fiercely repressed during, and especially after, World War I with many of its members killed, about 10,000 organizers imprisoned, and thousands more deported as foreign agitators. In 1927
8100-598: The IWW also led a successful Colorado general coal strike for better conditions. The IWW proved that unskilled workers could be organized. The IWW exists today, but its most significant impact was during its first two decades of existence. In 1908 the US Supreme Court decided Loewe v. Lawlor (the Danbury Hatters' Case). In 1902 the Hatters' Union instituted a nationwide boycott of the hats made by
8280-518: The IWW organized a strike of more than twenty thousand textile workers , and by 1917 the Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) of the IWW claimed a hundred thousand itinerant farm workers in the heartland of North America. Eventually the concept of One Big Union spread from dock workers to maritime workers, and thus was communicated to many different parts of the world. Dedicated to workplace and economic democracy ,
8460-666: The Knights were unable to handle so much on their plate at once, and because they took a smashing blow in the aftermath of the Haymarket affair in May 1886 in Chicago. The Haymarket affair started as a strike organized by the Knights at the McCormick Reaper Factory in Chicago. Along with the McCormick strike, on May 1, 80,000 mostly immigrant workers led a general strike in Chicago, along with 340,000 workers in
8640-667: The Long Strike and the Mollie Maguire prosecutions and hangings have grown even more so with the passage of time. Gowen's multi-faceted role in particular—from his 1871 and 1875 testimonies positing a Mollie-like criminal enterprise at the heart of the WBA, which he also rhetorically linked to Communism; to the coincidental timing of the hopeless Long Strike precipitated by the Schuylkill Coal Exchange that Gowen had organized, on one hand, and his bankrolling
8820-590: The Mollie Maguires," in which he portrayed the murders and other crimes attributed to Mollies as being an evil unparalleled in all human history, and as not locally motivated, but driven by orders from other places—Pittsburgh, New York—even other lands—England, Ireland, Scotland; and his three-hour argument in 1881 before a gathering of outraged stockholders of the bankrupt Reading Railroad, inside Philadelphia's Academy of Music , by which he turned open hostility into enthusiastic rounds of applause Kehoe received
9000-524: The NPU set up a joint conference for all miners. John McBride, the president of NPU, suggested that the Knights of Labor should join the NPU to form a stronger union. John B. Rae reluctantly agreed and decided that the merged groups would meet on January 22, 1890. When the union was founded, the values of the UMWA were stated in the preamble: We have founded the United Mine Workers of America for
9180-633: The National Progressive Miners Union. Adopting the model of the union was initially established as a three-pronged labor tool: to develop mine safety; to improve mine workers' independence from the mine owners and the company store ; and to provide miners with collective bargaining power. After passage of the National Recovery Act in 1933 during the Great Depression , organizers spread throughout
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#17327911681449360-533: The National Progressive Union of Miners and Mine Laborers (NPU). Although the goal of the NPU in 1888 was ostensibly to create unity between the miners, it instead drew a stronger line distinguishing members of the NPU against those of the NTA #135. Because of the rivalry, miners of one labor union would not support the strikes of another, and many strikes failed. In December 1889, the president of
9540-601: The Pennsylvania Railroad, he was invited to Philadelphia to head the corporation's legal department. Leaving Pottsville behind, Gowen sold his home to George DeBenneville Keim , a fellow attorney and close personal friend, who was to figure significantly during Gowen's future presidency of the railroad. In 1877, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society . Once established in Philadelphia as chief counsel for
9720-405: The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad of this shipping terminus / transshipping hub. In 1871–72, he undertook to undermine business of the competing independent coal dealers in the area—known as "factors"—by setting up a new sales organization under the auspices of the Coal & Iron Co. Gowen's aim was not only to market the Reading organization's coal, but that of other mine operators whose output
9900-492: The Reading's allotted tonnage, then lining these loaded cars on side tracks, thus limiting the availability of empty cars for hauling the other mine operators' output. The result was haphazard disruption of production and sales for these operators. Once again, in 1875, Franklin Gowen was called before an investigative committee, for issues raised by his role and actions in another miners' strike (the "Long Strike"—see below), and more substantially for his high-handed maneuverings in
10080-517: The Reading, was not only aware of, but very close to these endeavors—and secret purchases of Schuylkill County coal lands, in violation of the railroad's corporate charter. The core of the Reading's business, however, remained anthracite hauling, and as president Gowen sought to stabilize this core by obtaining control over both ends of the industry that the railroad connected: anthracite production and marketing. Gowen's drive to stabilize production began almost as soon as he became president, following
10260-629: The Red Cross as volunteers to help soldiers and their families, and with rare exceptions, women did not protest the draft. The United States Department of Labor created a Women in Industry group, headed by prominent labor researcher and social scientist Mary van Kleeck . This group helped develop standards for women who were working in industries connected to the war, alongside the War Labor Policies Board , of which van Kleeck
10440-522: The U.S. Gowen was not a disinterested party in the original dispute, however, his real concerns being to stabilize revenues for the Reading and to do so by introducing his own manipulations of anthracite prices. So in the next mining season, when workers and operators entered into fresh disputes over the 1870 contract, he organized a loose (for the time being) combination of anthracite haulers that uniformly hiked freight rates to prohibitive levels, thereby cutting mine operators' revenues so ultimately to force
10620-467: The United States to organize all coal miners into labor unions. Under the powerful leadership of John L. Lewis , the UMW broke with the American Federation of Labor and set up its own federation, the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). Its organizers fanned out to organize major industries, including automobiles, steel, electrical equipment, rubber, paint and chemical, and fought a series of battles with
10800-415: The United States was becoming increasingly inegalitarian to the point of becoming like old Europe, and "further and further away from its original pioneering ideal." Nationwide from 1890 to 1914 the unionized wages in manufacturing rose from $ 17.63 a week to $ 21.37, and the average work week fell from 54.4 to 48.8 hours a week. The pay for all factory workers was $ 11.94 and $ 15.84 because unions reached only
10980-529: The United States. The membership of the group grew rapidly. "Of an estimated 56,000 miners in 1865, John Hinchcliffe claimed 22,000 as members of the AMA. In response, the mine owners sought to stop the AMA from becoming more powerful. Members of the AMA were fired and blacklisted from employment at other mines. After a short time the AMA began to decline, and eventually ceased operations. Workingman's Benevolent Association Another early labor union that arose in 1868
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#173279116814411160-406: The WFM, headed by Moyer, separated itself from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) (launched by Haywood and other labor radicals, socialists, and anarchists in 1905) just a few years after that organization's founding convention . In 1916 the WFM became the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers , which was eventually absorbed by the United Steelworkers of America . During
11340-418: The West to oppose any support for nations at war with Nazi Germany.) Lewis was an effective strike leader who gained high wages for his membership while suppressing his opponents, including the United States government. He was one of the most controversial and innovative leaders in the history of labor, gaining credit for building the industrial unions of the CIO into a political and economic powerhouse to rival
11520-484: The Workingmen's Benevolent association, extending throughout the entire coal fields of Pennsylvania. I do not charge this Workingmen's Benevolent association with it, but I say there is an association which votes in secret, at night, that men's lives shall be taken, and that they shall be shot before their wives, murdered in cold blood, for daring to work against the order.... I do not blame this association , but I blame another association for doing it; and it happens that
11700-404: The aim of achieving unquestioned leadership of the coal trade on the Delaware. The Reading's Port Richmond facilities in 1852 were estimated to comprise 49 acres (200,000 m ), including 20 wharves that would allow more than 100 vessels to be loaded simultaneously, and space for storage in slack times of a quarter million tons of coal. Franklin Gowen endeavored to improve upon the benefits to
11880-401: The allowed pursuits of the Reading by amending its charter was not a matter of simply a board decision and filing of papers. This legal obstacle to increasing the Reading's control over coal production Gowen sneaked around in 1871 by eking out, through political allies, the Pennsylvania legislature's chartering a new corporation, the Laurel Run Improvement Company , whose vaguely set-out purpose
12060-434: The amount produced; but they were in dispute over how fluctuations in real market prices should reflect back upon wages in the mines. Franklin Gowen was asked by the Board of Trade to mediate. This resulted in the "Gowen Compromise," a sliding-scale arrangement tying wages to the rise and fall of anthracite's market prices. This scheme was incorporated in July 1870 into the first written contract between miners and operators in
12240-475: The antitrust prohibition and established for the first time the Congressional principle that "the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce". However, judicial interpretation so weakened it that prosecutions of labor under the antitrust acts continued until the enactment of the Norris-La Guardia Act in 1932. State legislation 1912–1918: 36 states adopted the principle of workmen's compensation for all industrial accidents. Also: prohibition of
12420-413: The autonomy of each trade union affiliated with it and limiting membership to workers and organizations made up of workers, unlike the Knights which, because of its producerist focus, welcomed some who were not wage workers. The AFL grew steadily in the late 19th century while the Knights all but disappeared. Although Gompers at first advocated something like industrial unionism , he retreated from that in
12600-404: The birth of a pro-democracy movement called the " Miners for Democracy " (MFD) which swept Boyle and his regime out of office, and replaced them with a group of leaders who had been most recently rank and file miners. Led by new president Arnold Miller , the new leadership enacted a series of reforms which gave UMWA members the right to elect their leaders at all levels of the union and to ratify
12780-421: The cause and lobbied for minimum wages and restrictions on hours of work and child labor. Also under Dreier's leadership, they were able to pass crucial legislation for wage workers, and establish new safety regulations. In 1911, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan, New York City . Due to the lack of fire safety measures in the building, 146 primarily female workers were killed in
12960-532: The coal region, such as the Lehigh Valley and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western , whose corporate charters allowed them to also be involved in mining operations, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad's charter prohibited it. At this time in the U.S., the granting, regulation, and rescission of corporate charters were managed by the legislative rather than executive branch in most states. So adding to
13140-520: The coal region. Neither did the imposition of wages through the anthracite combination's exerting control over coal prices at market. Neither, to be certain, were mining disputes the beginning or end of labor upheavals in America in the 1870s. As noted above, in the 1871 legislative investigation of coal field agitations and the Reading, Gowen portrayed the WBA as having at its core a murderous, secret association. In his 1875 testimony before another investigative committee, he characterized this same core of
13320-555: The coal trade. Even the legality of the 1871 charter of the Laurel Run Improvement Company and the Reading Railroad's transformation of that shell into the powerful Coal & Iron Co. were assailed. The investigating legislators' final report was fully in Gowen's favor. Also as in other instances, Gowen's orations were broadcast in pamphlet form and in newspaper advertisements. The "Gowen Compromise" of 1870 did not end strife over wages and other conditions in
13500-470: The colonial period were temporary and isolated, and rarely resulted in the formation of permanent groups of laborers for negotiation purposes. Little legal recourse was available to those injured by the unrest, because strikes were not typically considered illegal. The only known case of criminal prosecution of workers in the colonial era occurred as a result of a carpenters' strike in Savannah in 1746. By
13680-496: The company was losing money anyway. They were successful in times of prosperity when the company was losing profits and wanted to settle quickly. The Federation made some efforts to obtain favorable legislation, but had little success in organizing or chartering new unions. It came out in support of the proposal, traditionally attributed to Peter J. McGuire of the Carpenters Union, for a national Labor Day holiday on
13860-409: The conference, they were not able to vote against actions which they thought detrimental to gain rights for workers. The conference passed resolutions requiring the Knights of Labor to give up their secrecy and publicize material about its members and locations. The National Federation held another conference in 1887 attended by both groups. But it was unsuccessful in gaining agreement by the groups as to
14040-513: The contract and the miners went on strike. Duke Power attempted to bring in replacement non-union workers or " scabs " but many were blocked from entering the mine by striking workers and their families on the picket line. Local judge F. Byrd Hogg was a coal operator himself and consistently ruled for Eastover. During much of the strike the mine workers' wives and children joined the picket lines. Many were arrested, some hit by baseball bats, shot at, and struck by cars. One striking miner, Lawrence Jones,
14220-400: The contracts under which they worked. Decreased faith in the UMW to support the rights of the miners caused many to leave the union. Coal demand was curbed by competition from other energy sources. The main cause of the decline in the union during the 1920s and 1930s was the introduction of more efficient and easily produced machines into the coal mines. In previous years, less than 41% of coal
14400-425: The county to face down these fierce anti-draft feelings and disruptions, and finally conscription was effected under military force. When his own draft number came up that same year, Gowen—by then a father of three—was well-off enough to pay for a substitute, a common practice among those who could afford it. When Gowen left public office in 1864 in favor of his more lucrative private law practice, among his clients
14580-489: The death penalty and was hung. He was later exonerated and posthumously pardoned by the State of Pennsylvania. One twentieth-century commentator described Gowen's oratory skills thus: Even in cold print..., his speeches tend to unsettle the judgment. By 1867, having impressed the Reading Railroad's management in Philadelphia with his legal exertions on their behalf, including the above-mentioned state Supreme Court victory over
14760-414: The demand for coal began to increase, and some operators decided to pay the workers their original salaries before the wage cut. However, not all demands across the country were met, and some workers continued to strike. The young union suffered damage in this uneven effort. The most important goal of the 1894 strike was not the restoration of wages, but rather the establishment of the UMWA as a cooperation at
14940-410: The driving force to change the way workers were organized, and the UMW was one of the charter members when the new Congress of Industrial Organizations was formed in 1935. However, the AFL leadership did not agree with the philosophy of industrial unionization, and the UMW and nine other unions that had formed the CIO were kicked out of the AFL in 1937. In 1942, the UMW chose to leave the CIO, and, for
15120-641: The early 19th century, the career path for most artisans still involved apprenticeship under a master, followed by moving into independent production. However, over the course of the Industrial Revolution , this model rapidly changed, particularly in the major metropolitan areas. For instance, in Boston in 1790, the vast majority of the 1,300 artisans in the city described themselves as "master workman". By 1815, journeymen workers without independent means of production had displaced these "masters" as
15300-413: The embodiment of the democratic promise of the revolution. In ruling that a combination to raise wages was per se illegal, recorder Moses Levy strongly disagreed, writing that "[t]he acts of the legislature form but a small part of that code from which the citizen is to learn his duties ... [i]t is in the volumes of the common law we are to seek for information in the far greater number, as well as
15480-407: The employment of women in war-related industries through recruitment drives. As a result, women not only began working in heavy industry, but also took other jobs traditionally reserved solely for men, such as railway guards, ticket collectors, bus and tram conductors, postal workers, police officers, firefighters, and clerks. World War I saw women taking traditionally men's jobs in large numbers for
15660-537: The entire ARU struck the railroads on June 26, 1894. Within four days, 125,000 workers on twenty-nine railroads had people quit work rather than handle Pullman cars. Strikers and their supporters also engaged in riots and sabotage . The railroads were able to get Edwin Walker, general counsel for the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway , appointed as a special federal attorney with responsibility for dealing with
15840-399: The face of opposition from the craft unions that made up most of the AFL. The unions of the AFL were composed primarily of skilled men; unskilled workers, African-Americans, and women were generally excluded. The AFL saw women as threatening the jobs of men, since they often worked for lower wages. The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was created in 1893. Frequently in competition with
16020-612: The federal court order, and the ARU disintegrated. Australian historian Peter Shergold confirms the findings of many scholars that the standard of living for US industrial workers was higher than in Europe. He compares wages and the standard of living in Pittsburgh with Birmingham, England . He finds that, after taking into account the cost of living (which was 65 percent higher in the US),
16200-675: The fee for the insurance. The Pittson company was seen as having inadequate safety standards after the Buffalo Creek flood of 1972 in which 125 people were killed. The company also was very financially unstable and in debt. The mines associated with the company were located mostly in Virginia, with mines also in West Virginia and Kentucky. On 31 January 1988 Douglas cut off retirement and health care funds to about 1500 retired miners, widows of miners, and disabled miners. To avoid
16380-517: The fines were typically modest. One of the central themes of the cases prior to the landmark decision in Commonwealth v. Hunt , 45 Mass. 111 (1842), which settled the legality of unions , was the applicability of the English common law in post-revolutionary America. Whether the English common law applied—and in particular whether the common law notion that a conspiracy to raise wages
16560-482: The first Monday in September. It also threw itself behind the eight hour movement, which sought to limit the workday by either legislation or union negotiation. In 1886, as the relations between the trade union movement and the Knights of Labor worsened, McGuire and other union leaders called for a convention to be held at Columbus, Ohio, on December 8. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions merged with
16740-494: The first time in American history . Many women worked on the assembly lines of factories, producing trucks and munitions, while department stores employed African American women as elevator operators and cafeteria waitresses for the first time. The Food Administration helped housewives prepare more nutritious meals with less waste and with optimum use of the foods available. Morale of women remained high, as millions joined
16920-567: The first women to work in an underground coal mine in the United States. They were the first female members of UMWA to work inside a mine. Cherry and Baldwin were hired by the Beth-Elkhorn Coal Company in Jenkins, Kentucky . However, more pervasive were hiring practices discriminatory against women. The superstition that a woman even entering a mine was bad luck and resulted in disaster was pervasive among male miners. In 1978
17100-548: The general welfare of the community. Commonwealth v. Morrow continued to refine this standard, stating that, "an agreement of two or more to the prejudice of the rights of others or of society" would be illegal. Another line of cases, led by Justice John Gibson of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania 's decision in Commonwealth v. Carlisle , held that motive of the combination, rather than simply its existence,
17280-402: The helm in 1869. Annual interest on this debt, about US$ 4 million, was a little less than the average profit of the railroad during those years. The public face of the Reading's finances—prospectuses and annual reports—obscured these realities. In 1874, Franklin B. Gowen came under attack again, this time charged before stockholders of accounting sleight of hand—of cloaking continuous losses in
17460-524: The incident. This incident led to a movement to increase safety measures in factories. It also was an opportunity for the Women's Trade Union League to open conversation for the conditions of women's workplaces in the labor movement. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members became known as "Wobblies", was founded in Chicago in 1905 by a group of about 30 labor radicals. Their most prominent leader
17640-465: The increasing anthracite trade. Beyond any work of this kind, Gowen was involved in representing the Reading against personal-injury negligence claims, some of which he argued successfully before the state Supreme Court, exonerating the Reading from liability. Throughout his career, Franklin Gowen was renowned as an eloquent and persuasive speaker. A number of his orations were published and sold in pamphlet form. In an 1866 contract dispute—when Gowen
17820-693: The interests of other family members) in Mt. Airy, just north of Germantown. Young Franklin attended John Beck's Boys Academy , a boarding school in Lititz, Pennsylvania , from the ages of nine to thirteen. At that point, however, his formal schooling was curtailed. Instead he was apprenticed to a Lancaster dry goods merchant/coal dealer named Thomas Baumgardner, who held an interest in an iron furnace at Shamokin, Pennsylvania . Baumgardner liked and came to trust Franklin so that at age 19, Gowen found himself dispatched as clerk (i.e., bookkeeper) for that iron business. It
18000-681: The labor union. He did everything in his power to produce the cheapest product and to ensure that non-union workers would benefit. As conditions for the miners of the WBA worsened, the union broke up and disappeared. After the fall of the WBA, miners created many other small unions, including the Workingman's Protective Association (WPA) and the Miner's National Association (MNA). Although both groups had strong ideas and goals, they were unable to gain enough support and organization to succeed. The two unions did not last long, but provided greater support by
18180-426: The laws of supply and demand; as preventing men from working, forcing the poor to pay high prices for coal, and ruining the iron industry. It was in these same hearings that Gowen first began to formulate in public discourse his theory that the miners' union had at its core a murderous criminal association: This organization first came into full fledged existence, in all the [coal] regions, in 1869. They then formed
18360-501: The leadership of Samuel Gompers . Like the National Labor Union , it was a federation of different unions and did not directly enroll workers. Its original goals were to encourage the formation of trade unions and to obtain legislation, such as prohibition of child labor, a national eight-hour workday, and exclusion of Chinese and other foreign contract workers. Strikes organized by labor unions became routine events by
18540-405: The leadership of Terence V. Powderly they championed a variety of causes, sometimes through political or cooperative ventures. Powderly hoped to gain their ends through politics and education rather than through economic coercion. The Knights were especially successful in developing a working class culture , involving women, families, sports, and leisure activities and educational projects for
18720-624: The looting and arson of company property. This crisis led to the Nova Scotia government acting in 1937 to improve the rights of all wage earners, and these reforms served as a model across Canada, at both provincial and federal levels. In the summer of 1973, workers at the Duke Power -owned Eastover Mining Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky , voted to join the union. Eastover management refused to sign
18900-528: The majority. By that time journeymen also outnumbered masters in New York City and Philadelphia. This shift occurred as a result of large-scale transatlantic and rural-urban migration. Migration into the coastal cities created a larger population of potential laborers, which in turn allowed controllers of capital to invest in labor-intensive enterprises on a larger scale. Craft workers found that these changes launched them into competition with each other to
19080-431: The membership. The Knights strongly promoted their version of republicanism that stressed the centrality of free labor, preaching harmony and cooperation among producers, as opposed to parasites and speculators. One of the earliest railroad strikes was also one of the most successful. In 1885, the Knights of Labor led railroad workers to victory against Jay Gould and his entire southwestern railway system, consisting of
19260-698: The miners for a union which could withstand and help protect the workers' rights. Although many labor unions were failing, two predominant unions arose that held promise to become strong and permanent advocates for the miners. The main problem during this time was the rivalry between the two groups. Because the National Trade Assembly #135, better known as the Knights of Labor , and the National Federation of Miners and Mine Laborers were so opposed to one another, they created problems for miners rather than solving key issues. This union
19440-504: The miners into accepting wages that the combination wanted. Feelings ran so high against this, that Gowen found himself having to mount a vigorous self-defense before state legislators against what was deemed unprecedented assumption of power by a corporation. Gowen, both testifying and cross-examining other witnesses, defended himself by taking the offensive. He attacked the WBA generally, and its leader, John Siney, personally, as ignorant, demagogic, wrong-headed in their misunderstandings of
19620-428: The mining industry and also wanted the company to grow. But in order for the company to grow, the workers must have better conditions so that their labor could improve and benefit the operators. The union's first priority was to get a fair weighing system within the mines. At a conference between the operators and the union, the idea of a new system of scaling was agreed upon, but the system was never implemented. Because
19800-473: The more skilled factory workers. The United Mine Workers was successful in its strike against soft coal mines in the Midwest in 1900, but its strike against the hard coal mines of Pennsylvania turned into a national political crisis in 1902 . President Theodore Roosevelt brokered a compromise solution that kept the flow of coal going, and higher wages and shorter hours, but did not include recognition of
19980-578: The most important causes that come before our tribunals." As a result of the spate of convictions against combinations of laborers, the typical narrative of early American labor law states that, prior to Hunt in Massachusetts in 1842, peaceable combinations of workingmen to raise wages, shorten hours or ensure employment, were illegal in the United States, as they had been under English common law. In England , criminal conspiracy laws were first held to include combinations in restraint of trade in
20160-400: The most part it was impossible to tell how many trade and mixed LAs there were at a given time. Local assemblies began to arise and fall all around, and many members began to question whether or not the Knights of Labor was strong enough to fight for the most important issue of the time, achieving an eight-hour work day. This Union was formed by members of the Knights of Labor who realized that
20340-412: The new organization, known as the American Federation of Labor or AFL, formed at that convention. The AFL was formed in large part because of the dissatisfaction of many trade union leaders with the Knights of Labor, an organization that contained many trade unions and that had played a leading role in some of the largest strikes of the era. The new AFL distinguished itself from the Knights by emphasizing
20520-429: The next actions to take. In 1888, Samuel Gompers was elected as President of the National Federation of Miners, and George Harris first vice president. Throughout 1887–1888 many joint conferences were held to help iron out the problems that the two groups were having. Many leaders of each groups began questioning the morals of the other union. One leader, William T. Lewis , thought there needed to be more unity within
20700-412: The next five years, were an independent union. In 1947, the UMW once again joined the AFL, but the remarriage was a short one, as the UMW was forced out of the AFL in 1948, and at that point, became the largest non-affiliated union in the United States. In 1982, Richard Trumka was elected the leader of the UMW. Trumka spent the 1980s healing the rift between the UMW and the now-conjoined AFL–CIO (which
20880-540: The only men who are shot are the men who dare to disobey the mandates of the Workingmen's Benevolent association. This idea, already formed in his mind well before any pointed investigation of such a spectral secret society, Gowen was to expand and propound later in the decade into the image of an international conspiracy as the ultimate target behind the prosecution of coal-region Mollie Maguires. Unlike later-formed anthracite-hauling railroads tied to other portions of
21060-452: The onset of a national depression following the Panic of 1873 . In anticipation of lagging demand for coal in 1874, a long, formal agreement was put in place to enforce regulation of the trade more effectively. Some coal operators remained outside the coal pool, and for these the Reading Railroad devised a new annoyance: continuing to load coal cars with Coal & Iron Co. anthracite even beyond
21240-415: The post-Civil War climate of Northern industrial growth and prosperity, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad even prior to Gowen's presidency was involved in dual processes of consolidating control over sub-regional carriers that fed into it, by either acquisition or lease; and of building connections through other lines to Pittsburgh and beyond. Gowen, as Pottsville counsel and especially as chief counsel of
21420-520: The powerful Council of National Defense , where he set up the War Committee on Labor. The AFL membership soared to 2.4 million in 1917. Anti-war socialists controlled the IWW , which fought against the war effort and was in turn shut down by legal action of the federal government. During WWI, large numbers of women were recruited into jobs that had either been vacated by men who had gone to fight in
21600-415: The production of anthracite to keep its price profitable. Because the efforts of the WBA benefited the operators, they did not object when the union wanted to take action in the mines; they welcomed the actions that would secure their profit. Because the operators trusted the WBA, they agreed to the first written contract between miners and operators. As the union became more responsible in the operators' eyes,
21780-437: The purpose of ... educating all mine workers in America to realize the necessity of unity of action and purpose, in demanding and securing by lawful means the just fruits of our toil. The UMWA constitution listed eleven points as the union's goals: John L. Lewis (1880–1969) was the highly combative UMW president who thoroughly controlled the union from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the labor movement and national politics, in
21960-403: The railroad hauled, as well. Depicting the factors, who sold typically at commissions of 20 to 25 cents a ton, as sitting "at the water's edge like leeches, sucking the life-blood of a healthy trade," he offered to operators who previously marketed through the factors to sell their coal at only 10 cents per ton. A number of operators found the proposal immediately agreeable. But Gowen's next move
22140-526: The railroad, Gowen further gained the trust of the current president, Charles E. Smith , so that when Smith took a needed ocean voyage for his health in mid-1869, 33-year-old Gowen was put in charge upon Smith's recommendation to the Board of Managers. When Smith was unable to return for the next board election in January 1870, Gowen was elected president in his own right, a position he would occupy for more than
22320-480: The rapid growth and consolidation of large railroad systems after 1870, union organizations sprang up, covering the entire nation. By 1901, 17 major railway brotherhoods were in operation; they generally worked amicably with management, which recognized their usefulness. Key unions included the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Division (BMWED), the Order of Railway Conductors ,
22500-530: The rest of the United States. Attending the strike were a rising movement of armed anarchists formed as a result of the police violence of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 . While beginning relatively peacefully, police and strikers began to clash. As strikers rallied against the McCormick plant, a team of political anarchists, who were not Knights, tried to piggyback support among striking Knights workers. A bomb exploded as police were dispersing
22680-565: The rules, Gowen also organized Schuylkill County's independent coal operators into the Schuylkill Coal Exchange. By autumn 1874 it was common knowledge that these operators (including the Coal & Iron Co.) were intent upon precipitating a ruinous miners' strike by which to destroy the WBA (by this time renamed the Miners and Laborers Benevolent Association, or M&LBA). Such a strike was indeed brought about by severe slashes in wages offered to miners (20% cut) and mine laborers (10% cut). Known as
22860-490: The secret order would have been found in England, Ireland and Scotland. Kehoe was initially tried and convicted of conspiracy, and subsequently of a murder that had occurred during Gowen's term as District Attorney—despite another man's signed admission of guilt for the murder. Kehoe was posthumously pardoned by Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp in 1979. Controversial at the time, circumstances and events surrounding both
23040-468: The souls of his fellow-men". In this same summation he speculated that had detective McParland had one more year to complete his undercover investigation, the jury "would have had the pleasure ... of hanging some men who are not citizens of Schuylkill county," such as "the head of this order at Pittsburg, and ... its head in New York"; and suggested further that the ultimate source and directive force behind
23220-506: The standard of living of unskilled workers was about the same in the two cities, while skilled workers had about twice as high a standard of living. The American advantage grew over time from 1890 to 1914, and there was a heavy steady flow of skilled workers from Britain to industrial America. Shergold revealed that skilled Americans did earn higher wages than the British, yet unskilled workers did not, while Americans worked longer hours, with
23400-404: The stigma of criminality from labor organizations". However, case law in America prior to Hunt was mixed. Pullis was actually unusual in strictly following the English common law and holding that a combination to raise wages was by itself illegal. More often combination cases prior to Hunt did not hold that unions were illegal per se , but rather found some other justification for
23580-539: The strike. Walker went to federal court and obtained an injunction barring union leaders from supporting the boycott in any way. The court injunction was based on the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which prohibited "Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States". Debs and other leaders of the ARU ignored the injunction, and federal troops were called into action. The strike
23760-573: The study of organized labor. By most measures, the strength of organized labor has declined in the United States over recent decades. The history of labor disputes in America substantially precedes the Revolutionary period. In 1636, for instance, there was a fishermen's strike on an island off the coast of Maine and in 1677 twelve carmen were fined for going on strike in New York City . However, most instances of labor unrest during
23940-470: The third party campaign of Robert M. La Follette in 1924. The first effective labor organization that was more than regional in membership and influence was the Knights of Labor , organized in 1869. The Knights believed in the unity of the interests of all producing groups and sought to enlist in their ranks not only all laborers but everyone who could be truly classified as a producer. The acceptance of all producers led to explosive growth after 1880. Under
24120-816: The time was less than conducive to normal conduct of criminal investigations: First, at that time an elected county sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer. Second, and much to the point during Gowen's tenure, in July 1863, roughly the midpoint of his D.A. service and of the Civil War, a national conscription act was passed to bolster Union forces. The eruption of anti-draft riots in New York and other cities threatened to replicate in Schuylkill County as well. Threats and violence, including murder, occurred in several localities. Federal troops were deployed to
24300-456: The time, a strike was the only way that they believed they would be heard. The Knights of Labor tried to establish a strong and organized union, so they set up a system of local assemblies, or LAs. There were two main types of LAs, trade and mixed, with the trade LA being the most common. Although this system was put into place to create order, it did the opposite. Even though there were only two categories of LAs, there were many sub-divisions. For
24480-497: The union . Led by J. B. McLachlan , miners struck in 1923, and were met by locally and provincially-deployed troops. This would eventually lead to the federal government introducing legislation limiting the civil use of troops. In 1925 BESCO announced that it would not longer give credit at their company stores and that wages would be cut by 20%. The miners responded with a strike. This led to violence with company police firing on strikers, killing miner William Davis , as well as
24660-545: The union as "Communists." In September 1873, the failure of Jay Cooke & Co. precipitated first the Panic of 1873 and in its wake the worst U.S. financial depression up to that time, which resonated with the concurrent transatlantic Long Depression . Initially, northeastern U.S. anthracite markets were not badly affected, largely due to controls put in place by Gowen's coal pool. In 1874, in addition to shoring up this coal pool's internal checks to make sure all members played by
24840-531: The union as a bargaining agent. The Women's Trade Union League , formed in 1903, was the first labor organization dedicated to helping working women. It did not organize them into locals; its goal was to support the AFL and encourage more women to join labor unions. It was composed of both working women and middle-class reformers, and provided financial assistance, moral support, and training in work skills and social refinement for blue-collar women. Most active in 1907–1922 under Margaret Dreier Robins , it publicized
25020-564: The union began in the 1920s and continued through the 1930s. Slowly the membership of the UMWA grew back up in numbers, with the majority in District 50 , a catch-all district for workers in fields related to coal mining, such as the chemical and energy industries. This district gained organizational independence in 1961, and then fell into dispute with the remainder of the union, leading in 1968 to its expulsion. Diana Baldwin and Anita Cherry , hired as miners in 1973, are believed to have been
25200-429: The union did not deliver what it had promised, it lost support and members. During this time, the rivalry between the two unions increased and eventually led to the formation of the UMW. The first of many arguments arose after the 1886 joint conference. The Knights of Labor did not want the NTA #135 to be in control, so they went against a lot of their decisions. Also, because the Knights of Labor were not in attendance at
25380-552: The union into the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Lewis was a Republican, but he played a major role in helping Franklin D. Roosevelt win re-election with a landslide in 1936, but as an isolationist supported by Communist elements in the CIO, Lewis broke with Roosevelt in 1940 on anti-Nazi foreign policy. (Following the 1939 German-Soviet pact of nonaggression, the Comintern had instructed communist parties in
25560-491: The union to pay damages of $ 252,130. (The cost of lawyers had already exceeded $ 100,000, paid by the AFL). This was not a typical case in which a few union leaders were punished with short terms in jail; specifically, the life savings of several hundreds of the members were attached. The lower court ruling established a major precedent, and became a serious issue for the unions. The Clayton Act of 1914 presumably exempted unions from
25740-469: The union was given more freedoms. As a result, the health and spirits of the miners significantly improved. The WBA could have been a very successful union had it not been for Franklin B. Gowen . In the 1870s Gowen lead the Reading Railroad , and bought several coal mines in the area. Because he owned the coal mines and controlled the means of transporting the coal, he was able to slowly destroy
25920-466: The union's membership, but it was poorly organized and soon declined. They fought encroachments of machinery and unskilled labor on autonomy of skilled shoe workers. One provision in the Crispin constitution explicitly sought to limit the entry of "green hands" into the trade, but this failed because the new machines could be operated by semi-skilled workers and produce more shoes than hand sewing. With
26100-412: The union, and that competition for members between the two groups was not accomplishing anything. As a result of taking this position, he was replaced by John B. Rae as president of the NTA #135. This removal did not stop Lewis however; he got many people together who had been also thrown out of the Knights of Labor for trying to belong to both parties at once, along with the National Federation, and created
26280-404: The unions, loss of control over jobs, drop in demand, and competition—decreased the faith of miners in their union. By 1998 the UMW had about 240,000 members, half the number that it had in 1946. As of the early 2000s, the union represents about 42 percent of all employed miners. At some point before 1930, the UMW became a member of the American Federation of Labor . The UMW leadership was part of
26460-633: The use of an industrial poison, several states require one day's rest in seven, the beginning of effective prohibition of night work, of maximum limits upon the length of the working day, and of minimum wage laws for women. On 23 September 1913, the United Mine Workers of America declared a strike against the Rockefeller -owned Colorado Fuel and Iron , in what is better known as the Colorado Coalfield War . The peak of
26640-522: The violence came after months of back-and-forth murders that culminated in the 20 April 1914 Ludlow Massacre that killed over a dozen women and children when Colorado National Guard opened fire on a striker encampment at Ludlow . The strike is considered the deadliest labor unrest in American history. Samuel Gompers and nearly all labor unions were strong supporters of the war effort. They used their leverage to gain recognition and higher wages. They minimized strikes as wages soared and full employment
26820-430: The war, or had been created as part of the war effort. The high demand for weapons and the overall wartime situation resulted in munitions factories collectively becoming the largest employer of American women by 1918. While there was initial resistance to hiring women for jobs traditionally held by men, the war made the need for labor so urgent that women were hired in large numbers and the government even actively promoted
27000-541: The war, the UMW concentrated on gaining large increases in wages, medical services and retirement benefits for its shrinking membership, which was contending with changes in technology and declining mines in the East. The UMW was founded at Columbus City Hall in Columbus, Ohio , on January 25, 1890, by the merger of two earlier groups, the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union. It
27180-416: The wealthiest 1 percent owned 51 percent, while the bottom 44 percent claimed 1.1 percent. Historian Howard Zinn argues that this disparity along with precarious working and living conditions for the working classes prompted the rise of populist , anarchist , and socialist movements. French economist Thomas Piketty notes that economists during this time, such as Willford I. King , were concerned that
27360-446: The workforce. This legal strategy was successful. Almost 3,000 women were hired by the close of 1979 as underground miners. A general decline in union effectiveness characterized the 1970s and 1980s, leading to new kinds of activism, particularly in the late 1970s. Workers saw their unions back down in the face of aggressive management. Other factors contributed to the decline in unionism generally and UMW specifically. The coal industry
27540-523: Was William "Big Bill" Haywood . The IWW pioneered creative tactics , and organized along the lines of industrial unionism rather than craft unionism; in fact, they went even further, pursuing the goal of " One Big Union " and the abolition of the wage system. Many, though not all, Wobblies favored anarcho-syndicalism . Much of the IWW's organizing took place in the West, and most of its early members were miners, lumbermen, cannery, and dock workers. In 1912
27720-427: Was "doing too well with his private practice to have time to bother with prosecuting criminals." Others argue that Gowen would have diligently prosecuted numerous cases but for his suspects uniformly being furnished with alibis by fellow criminals, some of whom he brought to justice two decades later as Mollie Maguires. Whatever Gowen's personal attitude towards his official duties, the climate in Schuylkill County at
27900-538: Was already an established presence in the coal fields, having been active supervising the Coal and Iron Police , a private police force authorized by the state of Pennsylvania in 1865, paid for by railroad, mining and iron interests. Pinkerton was glad to take on additional work for the Reading Railroad. One of his detectives, James McParland , infiltrated what he testified was the Mollies' innermost circle and provided, as
28080-675: Was also a member. After the war, the Women in Industry Service group developed into the US Women's Bureau , headed by Mary Anderson . Franklin B. Gowen Other aspects of Gowen's presidency include: Franklin Benjamin Gowen was born in Mount Airy, Pennsylvania , now part of Philadelphia , the fifth child of an Irish Protestant immigrant, James Gowen, a successful grocer , and his wife, Mary (née Miller), who
28260-486: Was also put up to build iron furnaces along its rail lines. In collaboration with his close friend, George deBenneville Keim—who had bought Gowen's Pottsville home in 1864, and was subsequently appointed first president of the Coal & Iron Co.—Gowen's perhaps most crucial business bet was made upon these lands: development of the Pottsville Twin Shaft Colliery. This enterprise was based on
28440-430: Was broken up by United States Marshals and some 2,000 United States Army troops, commanded by Nelson Miles , sent in by President Grover Cleveland on the premise that the strike interfered with the delivery of US Mail . During the course of the strike, 13 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. An estimated $ 340,000 worth of property damage occurred during the strike. Debs went to prison for six months for violating
28620-722: Was created in 1955 with the merger of the AFL and the CIO). In 1989, the UMW was again taken into the fold of the large union umbrella. Throughout the years, the UMW has taken political stands and supported candidates to help achieve union goals. Labor history of the United States The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws , and other working conditions. Organized unions and their umbrella labor federations such as
28800-420: Was cut by the machines. However, by 1930, 81% was being cut by the machines and now there were machines that could also surface mine and load the coal into the trucks. With more machines that could do the same labor, unemployment in the mines grew and wages were cut back. As the problems grew, many people did not believe that the UMW could ever become as powerful as it was before the start of the war. The decline in
28980-536: Was during this Shamokin period that Gowen met and courted his future wife, Esther Brisben (sometimes spelled Brisbane) of Sunbury . After completing his apprenticeship, Gowen relocated to Pottsville, seat of Schuylkill County and the principal municipality in the southern portion of Pennsylvania's coal region . There he helped found the Pottsville Literary Society (at one of whose meetings he orated on "The Triumphs of Genius"), and entered into
29160-410: Was illegal applied—was frequently the subject of debate between the defense and the prosecution. For instance, in Commonwealth v. Pullis , 3 Doc. Hist. 59 (1806), a case against a combination of journeymen cordwainers in Philadelphia for conspiracy to raise their wages, the defense attorneys referred to the common law as arbitrary and unknowable and instead praised the legislature as
29340-418: Was invariably whether workmen in combination would be permitted to use their collective bargaining power to obtain benefits—increased wages , decreased hours, or improved conditions—which were beyond their ability to obtain as individuals. The cases overwhelmingly resulted in convictions. However, in most instances the plaintiffs' desire was to establish favorable precedent , not to impose harsh penalties, and
29520-496: Was killed in the final days of the Civil War. Col. George Gowen, who had originally moved to Schuylkill County to assist in his brother's mining enterprise, was regarded in Pottsville as a local hero, and the G.A.R. post and local militia company were given his name. Much legal activity in Pottsville at the time had to do with clearing disputed land titles on behalf of both individuals and companies hoping to reap profits from
29700-460: Was left with 35,000 members, of whom 20,000 were coal miners, chiefly in underground mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. However it was responsible for pensions and medical benefits for 40,000 retired miners, and for 50,000 spouses and dependents. The UMW was founded in Columbus, Ohio , on January 25, 1890, with the merger of two old labor groups, the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and
29880-401: Was modeled after the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The Union's emergence in the 1890s was the culmination of decades of effort to organize mine workers and people in adjacent occupations into a single, effective negotiating unit. At the time coal was one of the most highly sought natural resources, as it was widely used to heat homes and to power machines in industries. The coal mines were
30060-500: Was more commonly known as the Knights of Labor and began around 1870 in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. The main problem with the Knights of Labor was its secrecy. The members kept very private their affiliation and goals of the Knights of Labor. Because both miners and operators could become members, there was no commonality to unite the members. Also, the union did not see strikes as a means to attain rights. To many people of
30240-500: Was not as well received: he offered to consolidate under the Coal & Iron Co. the sales businesses of fifteen factors who also owned their own mining operations. This proposal rebuffed, Gowen moved to shut down the businesses of independent factors (who did not have their own mines) by denying them continued wharf room at Port Richmond. The public controversies stirred up by all these actions lasted into 1873. Rising above it all, in January of that year Gowen presided over formation of
30420-476: Was not prepared economically to deal with such a drop in demand for coal. Demand for coal was very high during World War II, but decreased dramatically after the war, in part due to competition from other energy sources. In efforts to improve air quality, municipal governments started to ban the use of coal as household fuel. The end of wartime price controls introduced competition to produce cheaper coal, putting pressure on wages. These problems—perceived weakness of
30600-511: Was of German American descent. Although his formal education was ended by his father at age 13, when he apprenticed the youth to a Lancaster, Pennsylvania merchant, as a young adult Gowen studied law with a local attorney in Pottsville, Pennsylvania . Following admission to the bar and joining the local Democratic party, he was elected District Attorney for Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in 1862. He left that position in 1864 to pursue
30780-609: Was reached. To keep factories running smoothly, Wilson established the National War Labor Board in 1918, which forced management to negotiate with existing unions. The AFL unions and the railway brotherhoods strongly encouraged their young men to enlist in the United States Armed Forces . They fiercely opposed efforts to reduce recruiting and slow war production by the anti-war IWW and left-wing Socialists. President Wilson appointed Gompers to
30960-487: Was shot and killed by a Strikebreaker . Three months after returning to work, the national UMWA contract expired. On November 12, 1974, 120,000 miners nationwide walked off the job. The nationwide strike was bloodless and a tentative contract was achieved three weeks later. This opened the mines and reactivated the railroad haulers in time for Christmas. These events are depicted in the documentary film Harlan County, USA . The Pittston Coal strike of 1989-1990 began as
31140-550: Was that city's Port Richmond area along the Delaware River. In this complex of rail yards and wharves, coal was unloaded for local marketing or for transshipment by boat to other markets such as New York and Boston. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, one of Gowen's predecessors as president of the Philadelphia & Reading, John Tucker, undertook to bolster the railroad's presence and control in Port Richmond with
31320-399: Was the Workingmen's Benevolent Association . This union was distinguished as a labor union for workers mining anthracite coal. The laborers formed the WBA to help improve pay and working conditions. The main reason for the success of this group was the president, John Siney , who sought a way both to increase miners benefits while also helping the operators earn a profit. They chose to limit
31500-477: Was the Reading Railroad. His practice prospered, and he was finally able to satisfy the lingering judgments against him from the mine failure and to buy a fashionable home in Pottsville. In 1865, his two young sons—James and Franklin Benjamin, Jr.—died from illness, leaving his daughter Ellen an only child: she was to have no other brothers or sisters. Also that spring Franklin's beloved younger brother, George,
31680-463: Was the Reading's local counsel in Pottsville—he won handily for the Reading, against its rival Pennsylvania Railroad, before the state Supreme Court, "bolster[ing] his points with legal citations, classical quotations, humorous stories, and even a toy train." Other notable instances included his closing argument as prosecutor in the 1876 murder trial of John Kehoe, vilified at the time as the "King of
31860-655: Was the fifth of ten children born to James Gowen and Mary Miller. Mary, 16 years James's junior, came from an early-immigrated German family: by tradition, her ancestors had been closely associated with Francis Daniel Pastorius , founder of Germantown (now part of Philadelphia), the first permanent German settlement in Pennsylvania. Prior to Franklin's birth in 1836, the Gowens moved from central Philadelphia to take up their residence in Mary's family home (James had bought out
32040-478: Was the first national labor federation in the United States. It was dissolved in 1872. The regional Order of the Knights of St. Crispin was founded in the northeast in 1867 and claimed 50,000 members by 1870, by far the largest union in the country. A closely associated union of women, the Daughters of St. Crispin , formed in 1870. In 1879 the Knights formally admitted women, who by 1886 constituted 10 percent of
32220-495: Was the key to illegality. Gibson wrote, "Where the act is lawful for an individual, it can be the subject of a conspiracy, when done in concert, only where there is a direct intention that injury shall result from it". Still other courts rejected Pullis ' rule of per se illegality in favor of a rule that asked whether the combination was a but-for cause of injury . Thus, as economist Edwin Witte stated, "The doctrine that
32400-460: Was to be involved in coal and iron, and whose shares could be purchased by "any railroad or mining company". This new company was quickly bought outright by the Reading as a subsidiary and renamed the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company (the Coal & Iron Co). In the meantime, Gowen obtained passage through the legislature of another bill permitting the Reading Railroad to borrow an unlimited amount of money. Gowen quickly arranged for
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