Friday's Homework, 10/21

1. The most powerful union in the country was the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, which was affiliated with the AFL. Their members were skilled workers, in great demand by employers and thus had significant power in the workplace. 
2. By the mid-1880's, the steel industry had introduced new production methods and new patterns of organization that were streamlining and steel making process and, at the same time, reducing the companies' dependence on skilled labor.
3. By 1890, Carnegie and his chief lieutenant, Henry Clay Frick, had decided that the Amalgamated "had to go," even at Homestead. Over the next two years, they repeatedly cut wages at Homestead.
4. In 1892, the Amalgamated call fir a strike because Frick announced another wage cut at Homestead. 
5. When this strike happened, Frick abruptly shut down the plant and called in 300 guards from the Pinkerton Detective Agency. 
6. When the Pinkertons show up, the strikers prepared for them by pouring oil on the water and setting it on fire, and they met guards at the docks with guns and dynamite.
7. The governor of Pennsylvania, at the company's request, sent the state's entire nation Guard contingent, some 8,000 troops to Homestead. 
8. The amalgamated was symbolic of the general erosion of union strength in the late nineteenth century, as factory labor became increasingly unskilled and workers thus became easier to replace.
9. The employees lived in houses that the company built. They did not like the regimentation and the high rates. 
10. Workers at the Pullman factory went on strike because they slashed wages by 25%, citing the declining revenues the depression was causing. 
11. Eugene Debs led the American Railway Union. Debs's union instructed its members who worked for the offending companies to walk off their jobs.
12. John Peter Altgeld, was the governor for Illinois. He refused to call out the militia to protect employers now, because he felt sympathy for the workers. 
13. Railroad operators asked the federal government to send regular army troops to Illinois, on the pretext that the strike was preventing the movement of mail on the trains. 
14. Labor weakness are obvious in this passage, because wages for workers rose hardly at all, state laws governing hours and labor and safety standards, and gradually some guaranteed compensation for workers injured on the job. This left workers with less political power and considerably less control of the workplace than they had had forty years before.

Immigration

  When people think about being a nation of immigrants, they think about the bad that comes from it. But, in reality more good has come from it than bad. Immigrants brought along new languages, religions, and cultures. This is why the United States is such a diverse place, and the ideal place for one to live.

   The reason this is an ideal place to live is not only because of those three facts, but because of all the freedom that U.S. gives to its people. One of my ancestors came from the Philippines, so I understand what it is like to be culturally diverse. She's always telling me stories about the life on her mansion and how wonderful it was, but i wish i could see it in person. This is how immigrants effect me and my life. 

Thursday homework

Individual unions of skilled crafted workers helped to stand up against the new corporate economies.

Changing America

 In "Faces of America," Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shows us, some celebrities backgrounds. By seeing this, I can see how important our ancestors are to our lives. When Henry Gates talks to each one of the celebrities, they are astonished to see and hear what he is showing and telling them.
 I think that learning and knowing about ones' ancestors is important for everyone, because it can influence the way one grows up and how they get to where they are. Many ancestors come from outside of the United States but, they always end up inside of the United States. One would appreciate learning about their ancestors, because who doesn't want to learn about where your family came from or what they did for a living. Many people are very surprised when they figure out what they ancestors did.