HIST 2620 1nd Edition Lecture 6 Outline of Last Lecture I Living Conditions II Political Machines and Organized Crime III Gilded Age IV The Antitrust Movement V Labor Strife VI Organization of American Labor Outline of Current Lecture I Haymarket Riots II Pullman Strike III Political Power IV Civil Service Reform V Tariff Issue VI Greenback and Silver Movements VII Depression of 1893 1897 VIII Farmer s Alliance Current Lecture These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute I Haymarket Riots II There was a strike in support of the 8 hour day the AFL was born at this time and they were advocates of this concern May 1st the same day a strike against a particular company the McCormick harvester works was happening as well On the 3 rd the police were called in to keep the police and are going to try to break up the strike and one striker is killed Chicago at this time is known for police that are against labor unions So then a protest is called for the day after may 4 to protest the killing of the striker This particular protest was expected to have 20000 people show up but it was cold rainy day so only 1500 2000 people showed up It was peaceful until a police official acting against mayor s instruction tried to break up the protest and a bomb was thrown 60 people were injured and 7 policemen were killed This angered police thus they rounded up 10 suspects and called them anarchists The 10 of them are brought up on charges 10 convicted 9 would be sentenced to hang with 1 committing suicide and 3 of them are pardoned by state of Illinois One of these men John Peter Altgeld Knights of labor blamed for this even though they had nothing to do with it Pullman Strike He had manufactured railcars that were used for luxury means He developed a town for his workers to live called it Pullman Illinois He decided that in the downturned economy he would cut the wages of his workers while keeping rents and prices in the stores the same His workers are now being paid less but living at the same costs The local group that was tied to the American Railway Union led by Eugene V Debs decided that they would go out on strike The ARU had just had a successful strike against the great northern railroad in spring 1894 They believed they were without hope because he owned everything Debs decides they can t turn their back on the Pullman workers and represent the ARU The federal government will not let this happen because the ARU goes out on strike and affects the most fundamentally important part of American industrialization Action is to be taken out AGAINST the strikers Over the protest of the Governor of Illinois the president Grover Cleveland sends out governmental troops to break up the strike Debs is sent to jail and the attorney general of the time Richard Olney uses the Sherman anti trust act against the ARU He argues that what the ARU was doing was restraining trade by undertaking the strike and the government withholds this Deb is sent to prison for 8 months and when he gets out he is a true socialist Unfortunately for the ARU it dies off when Debs is sent to jail III Political Power IV Looking at the economic issues that were concerning us at the time they were very grave due to rapid industrialization and the money currency system that was in place Many wanted to reform it Also farmers were in great distress Labor protests worried America due to violence The partisan battle goes on this time as if these issues don t exist These attitudes will change in the later part f the 19th century 5 presidential elections between 1876 1892 were most closely contested in history Each winner won by only a bare minimum The balance is close as well this leads to a political stalemate The republicans try to whip up support for themselves but have one weapon that Democrats didn t use They remind them that the Democrats were the ones who got them into the Civil War Waved the bloody shirt is a metaphor for this Different states seemed to be more important than others when choosing a candidate democrats important state wins and Ohio and Indiana were important to win the election for republicans Civil Service Reform The civil service needed to be reformed due to the system that was in place The system of getting jobs at this time was the spoil system This goes back to Andrew Jackson he had a concept of the presidency that he was the only person that they will cast ballots for or against The ultimate representative since the people have given him a mandate He should be able to lead and nominate party members because of this The big problem that comes from this is that the bureaucracy is highly politicized and people are named to positions for party support Not for demonstrated ability Before naming someone to this position they must take a competitive exam to make sure they know about the job Grant named George William Curtis to the special civil service commission He was the editors of Harvard s weekly and starts his work but there was a huge conflict in congress Congress used patronage to maintain political power by populating bureaucracy with their supporters To stop this reform they got Grant to believe that those working on the commission were going further than they were supposed to Grant ends up making comments about the reformers they all get mad and then they are out of commission No civil service reform at this point due to this The Republican Party wanted to reform The republican party was divided into factions o Mugwumps wanted as much reform as possible wanted to reform everything o Stalwarts stood against reform o Half breeds wanted reform but not as much as the Mugwumps Garfield Elected in 1880 started serving in 1881 He was interested in Reform and is the only person to serve as president that was a preacher in a particular denomination He was a very religious man and believed that reform was necessary One person that was V absolutely against Garfield was Charles Guiteau He was a civil bureaucrat who wanted Garfield to give him a job because he wanted to consider the system a bit more Guiteau decides the best way to get himself a job would be to get rid of Garfield and get Chester A Arthur in presidency So Guiteau kills Garfield and thinks he s going to now get a job He screams I AM A STALWART AND NOW ARTHUR IS PRESIDENT Arthur becomes president and was known to be on the Stalwart position but