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CHAPTER 9: DISCONTENT AND REFORMOUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORYagainst the great railroad baron, JayGould, in 1885. Within a year theyadded 500,000 workers to their rolls,but, not attuned to pragmatic tradeunionism and unable to repeat thissuccess, the Knights soon fell intoa decline.Their place in the labor movementwas gradually taken by theAmerican Federation of Labor(AFL). Rather than open membershipto all, the AFL, under former cigarunion official Samuel Gompers,was a group of unions focused onskilled workers. Its objectives were“pure and simple” and apolitical:increasing wages, reducing hours,and improving working conditions.It did much to turn the labor movementaway from the socialist viewsof most European labor movements.Nonetheless, both before thefounding of the AFL and after,American labor history was violent.In the Great Rail Strike of 1877, railworkers across the nation went outin response to a 10-percent pay cut.Attempts to break the strike led to riotingand wide-scale destruction inseveral cities: Baltimore, Maryland;Chicago, Illinois; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;Buffalo, New York; andSan Francisco, California. Federaltroops had to be sent to several locationsbefore the strike was ended.Nine years later, in Chicago’sHaymarket Square incident, someonethrew a bomb at police aboutto break up an anarchist rally insupport of an ongoing strike at theMcCormick Harvester Company inChicago. In the ensuing melee, sevenpolicemen and at least four workerswere reported killed. Some 60 policeofficers were injured.In 1892, at Carnegie’s steel worksin Homestead, Pennsylvania, agroup of 300 Pinkerton detectivesthe company had hired to break abitter strike by the AmalgamatedAssociation of Iron, Steel, and TinWorkers fought a fierce and losinggun battle with strikers. The NationalGuard was called in to protectnon-union workers and the strikewas broken. Unions were not letback into the plant until 1937.In 1894, wage cuts at the PullmanCompany just outside Chicago led toa strike, which, with the support ofthe American Railway Union, soontied up much of the country’s railsystem. As the situation deteriorated,U.S. Attorney General RichardOlney, himself a former railroadlawyer, deputized over 3,000 menin an attempt to keep the rails open.This was followed by a federal courtinjunction against union interferencewith the trains. When riotingensued, President Cleveland sent infederal troops, and the strike waseventually broken.The most militant of the strikefavoringunions was the IndustrialWorkers of the World (IWW).Formed from an amalgam of unionsfighting for better conditions in theWest’s mining industry, the IWW, or“Wobblies” as they were commonlyknown, gained particular prominencefrom the Colorado mineclashes of 1903 and the singularlybrutal fashion in which they wereput down. Influenced by militantanarchism and openly calling forclass warfare, the Wobblies gainedmany adherents after they won a difficultstrike battle in the textile millsof Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912.Their call for work stoppages in themidst of World War I, however, ledto a government crackdown in 1917that virtually destroyed them.THE REFORM IMPULSEThe presidential election of 1900gave the American people a chanceto pass judgment on the Republicanadministration of President McKinley,especially its foreign policy.Meeting at Philadelphia, the Republicansexpressed jubilation over thesuccessful outcome of the war withSpain, the restoration of prosperity,and the effort to obtain new marketsthrough the Open Door policy.McKinley easily defeated his opponent,once again William JenningsBryan. But the president did not liveto enjoy his victory. In September1901, while attending an expositionin Buffalo, New York, he wasshot down by an assassin, the thirdpresident to be assassinated since theCivil War.Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley’svice president, assumed the presidency.Roosevelt’s accession coincidedwith a new epoch in Americanpolitical life and international relations.The continent was peopled;the frontier was disappearing. Asmall, formerly struggling republichad become a world power. Thecountry’s political foundations hadendured the vicissitudes of foreignand civil war, the tides of prosperityand depression. Immense strideshad been made in agriculture andindustry. Free public education hadbeen largely realized and a free pressmaintained. The ideal of religiousfreedom had been sustained. Theinfluence of big business was nowmore firmly entrenched than ever,however, and local and municipalgovernment often was in the handsof corrupt politicians.In response to the excesses of19th-century capitalism and politicalcorruption, a reform movementarose called “progressivism,” whichgave American politics and thoughtits special character from approximately1890 until the Americanentry into World War I in 1917. TheProgressives had diverse objectives.In general, however, they saw themselvesas engaged in a democraticcrusade against the abuses of urbanpolitical bosses and the corrupt“robber barons” of big business.Their goals were greater democracyand social justice, honest government,more effective regulation ofbusiness, and a revived commitmentto public service. They believed thatexpanding the scope of governmentwould ensure the progress of U.S. societyand the welfare of its citizens.The years 1902 to 1908 markedthe era of greatest reform activity,as writers and journalists stronglyprotested practices and principlesinherited from the 18th-centuryrural republic that were proving194195