Digital Overcast

Working Class of the American Industrial Revolution

Kien Lai | HIS 202 | 4/17/03 | California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Document # 1 / The poem by Emma Lazarus talks about the Statue of Liberty and how the statue symbolizes freedom for all those who come to America, rich or poor.

Document # 2 / The story, from the prospective of a little nine-year-old boy, talks about how the world perceives America during the Industrial Revolution. He describes how people who return from America are far better off, financially, then when they left home. Much of what is thought of America then still exists today. The land of the free were everyone is welcomed and the place where dreams come true.

Document # 3 / This document is a disturbing dialog between a worker and a chairman. The conversation is about the worker's struggle to support his family (a wife and two kids) by trying to find work. How meals are hard to come by and it's no wonder at the worker's yearly income of only $133. I think the wealthy would continue to take advantage of these workers if not for laws protecting them from such moguls. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, or so they say, at the expense of the poor.

Document # 4 / Many of the Knights of Labor Reform demands are in effect or have greatly influenced its conception today. The demands include / weekly pay, no child labor below the age of 14 years (now 16 years), equal pay for both genders (almost there), reduction of work hours per day to be cut to a maximum of 8 (in effect today), and profit sharing (adopted by many companies today, but only for upper level management).

Document # 5 / Samuel Gompers gives a motivational speech about demanding work hours to be cut to a maximum of 8 hours per day. He fights back with words to those who claim that if given leisure, the workers would just go out and get drunk, stating that the opposite would be true. Those who go out and get drunk do so for "artificial stimulant to restore the life ground out of him in the drudgery of the day" of a long work day extending beyond 8 hour days. The best quote from Mr. Gompers, however, was "He lives to work instead of working to live". Hence, the worker becomes nothing more than a replaceable machine.

Document # 6 / Andrew Carnegie talks about how masters and their followers lived, dressed, and ate alike. Fast forward to his time and you can easily tell the difference between the elite and the poor. What he says next is the heart of his intended message, that those who spend their entire lives accumulating wealth and fail to share it among his people will have lived an unworthy life and will "pass away 'unwept, unhonored, and unsung'". So a wealthy man is not judged by how much he accumulates, but how he gives back to the people who helped him attain it.

Document # 7 / Frederick Winslow Taylor is a genius. Through his "scientific selection of the workman", he was able to the maximize efficiency of a worker while at the same time having the worker content on performing what was asked of him. By providing incentives (higher pay) the worker (hand selected by Mr. Taylor) was well motivated in performing hard work without fail. The same scientific method was applied on other qualified workers and the same results occurred.

Document # 8 / The saloon is about the working class of the 19th century and how the discovery of drinking made the long workdays a little more tolerable. They would drink away their pain and grief with the little money they earned. Drinking gave them back their lives, "laughing and cracking jokes with...companions" and to some, made them happier than they've been in years.

Essay # 1 / The essay, by Oscar Handlin, talks about the exploitation of cheap labor through the dehumanization of grunt work. An inhospitable environment where their lives were consumed from dust till dawn and it would only be the employer who had a voice in when they would rest. The immigrants who once flooded the shores of America hoping to rebuild their lives with all the fortunes America had to offer, only to come to a foregone conclusion of having to assimilate or die of starvation. Assimilation into the cheap labor pool did not, however, mean financial security for wages were low and workers willing to work plentiful. So the possibility of being lad off was not seasonal or yearly, but hourly or daily for the worker.

Essay # 2 / The essay, by Roy Rosenzweig, talks about the popularity of saloons in Worcester. The saloons were generally a gathering place for the working class to socialize and interact with others like themselves. A the work days becoming shorter (typically 10 hours) men had more free time to enjoy and the saloons provided a place to do so. It was a place where gambling, storytelling, singing, debating, and drinking flowed freely. Although prohibition was becoming law, it was unenforceable and disregarded in the saloons. However, bans on drinking while on the job were stricter and had more of an impact on "popular customs". Reminds me a lot of Japan today with the employees go out to drink right after work to release all the stresses and baggage that goes along with their jobs. Also, much like what the author was talking about, not drinking is unheard of since it is somewhat a sign of weakness. If you don't drink, pretend or sip slowly (in Japan anyway).

Overall, I would have to agree with Roy Rosenzweig only because I can understand the desire to forget the stresses of daily life, even if it's only for a little while.