Reading for Social/Personal Responsibility Paper This assignment requires the student to read selected chapters from The Gilded Age: A History in Documents. Students will analyze and interpret these primary and secondary sources to formulate a short paper based on the social and personal responsibilities of various figures. The assignment is worth 50 points. Social and Personal Responsibility Paper: Students will choose a selection from The Gilded Age: A History in Documents to analyze and write a 1 page paper (Formatting requirements: single-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1” margins, no headings except name and paper title); Papers not meeting the stated formatting requirements will be docked 5 points). The definition of “1 page” is 1 full page (not half a page or ¾ of a page), with no words on another page. This is meant to help students learn to write in a precise and concise manner. The paper must discuss the social and personal responsibility of those involved in the events described in the selection and how these things might apply to modern America. Social responsibility is defined as a demonstration of civic responsibility and its engagement in various larger communities. Personal responsibility is defined as an evaluation of choices and actions of others or one’s own actions and relate the consequences (good and/or bad) to decision-making. Students must discuss these issues using critical thinking and effectively communicate their views on these topics in their papers. The deadline for submission of the paper portion is listed on the link to turn in this assignment. No late papers will be accepted, NO EXCEPTIONS. The students will turn 1 electronic copy to the class dropbox online, otherwise the student will be assigned a ZERO for the paper assignment. Failure to turn in this assignment will adversely affect your final course grade. Students may choose any of the chapter sub-sections in The Gilded Age to write about for their paper (e.g.: “Exodusters” or “From Rags to Riches” or “Sports” – These can be found in the Table of Contents. If the section you want to do is not formatted like the examples given here, you cannot do that section. Only chapter sub-headings are acceptable). Only one student per class can write on a particular section and preference will be on a first come, first served basis. If a student writes on the same section as another student who claimed it first, the second student will receive no credit for their paper. Claim your paper on the discussion board in the “Paper Assignment” tab. Writing tips: Statements such as “I think…” “I feel…” “I believe…” “This showed personal/social responsibility by…” and any other statement like these should not find their way into your paper. You can express these sentiments without resorting to high school level writing. Do not use contractions in formal writing (don’t, won’t, can’t, etc.). Use paragraphs, they are your friend! If you would like help becoming a better writer, please ask Dr. Smith for assistance. 1 THE SORROWS OF LABOR 57 Around 1900, the average Riot of 1874, in which demonstrating workers were attacked Gompers was an eyewitness to New York's Tompkins Square by police. He drew the following lessons from that event. I was in no way connected with the arrangement of this demon- stration and was present as an intensely interested workingman, and the import of the situation bore in upon me. As the funda- mentals came to me, they became guide-posts for my understand- ing of the labor movement for years to come. I saw how profes- sions of radicalism and sensationalism concentrated all of the forces of organized society against a labor movement and nullified wage for workers in manufac- turing was 21.6 cents an hour, and the workweek lasted six ten-hour days. Average annual earnings were $490, with no compensation for time off. labor movement could be safely entrusted only to those into ing in advance normal, necessary activity. I saw that leadership in the whose hearts and minds had been woven the experiences of earn- their bread by daily labor. I saw that betterment for working- men must come primarily through workingmen. I saw the danger of entangling alliances with intellectuals who did not understand that to experiment with the labor movement was to experiment with human life. Industrial Unions w While Gompers and the AFL made some gains through trade unionism, other American workers attempted to organize along industrial lines; that is, they organized workers accord- ing to industry rather than trade or skill. The United Mine Workers (UMW), founded in 1890, was an industrial union known for its militancy, which often led to bitter strikes marred by violence. Mother Jones devoted most of her Career to organizing for the UMW. In this excerpt from her autobiography, she described the especially difficult lot of coal miners and related the story of a successful organizing drive-won by the commitment of miners' wives-in the Pennsylvania coalfields at the turn of the century. hd Ver Before 1899 the coal fields of Pennsylvania were not organized. Immigrants poured into the country, and they worked cheap. There was always a surplus of immigrant labor, solicited in Europe by the coal companies, so as to keep wages down to barest living. Hours of work down under ground were cruelly long. Fourteen limb of the miner was unprotected by any laws. Families lived in company-owned shacks that were not fit for their pigs. Children north 9 hours a day was not uncommon, thirteen, twelve. The life or V INE SORROWS OF LABOR 55 Trade Unions Even before Haymarket, the Knights had come under attack by some craft unions that opposed their strategy of organiz- ing one big union. Craft unions, made up of skilled workers, such as cigar makers and iron puddlers (highly skilled work- ers who made iron bars), believed that they would lose their bargaining power—as skilled, hard-to-replace workers-by uniting with unskilled workers who had little leverage with employers. Unskilled workers easily could be replaced by the waves of desperate immigrants who provided employers with a cheap labor supply. As a result, while most Americans experienced a rising standard of living during the Gilded Age, skilled workers benefited far more than their unskilled counterparts. In 1886 craft unions organized the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Headed by Samuel Gompers, the AFL embod- ied "bread and butter" unionism. Embracing the capitalist order and rejecting the long-term, utopian goals of the Knights of Labor, the AFL eschewed politics and focused only on short-term, concrete aims, such as the eight-hour day and better wages. Unlike the Knights, the AFL did not hesitate to strike to achieve its ends. Moreover, the AFL, unlike the inclu- sive Knights, limited its membership. The AFL under Gompers's leadership made considerable gains for its craft-based members, and its membership grey to about 500,000 by the turn of the century. Yet the AFL represented only a fraction of Amer- ican workers, as craft unions excluded women and some immigrants, whom were viewed as "cheap" competition that would lower wages and the "dignity" of the union. Despite his rejection of radicalism and utopianism, Gompers had schooled in these ideas as a cigar maker in New York City. A teenaged immigrant from England, Gompers became a cigar maker at the age of 14 and soon joined the Cigarmak- ers Union. In his memoirs, he described his labor education, received from his fellow cigar makers on the shop floor. This depiction of the bombing at Haymarket Square, published in Harper's Weekly in 1886, exacer- bated the fears of many middle-class Americans that labor agitation inevitably led to chaos and violence The drawing depicts workers shooting at police and orator Samuel Fielden rabble-rousing as the bomb exploded- neither of which occurred. ESROOMS IN. JEFFERSON ST had been well- THE GILDED AGE 56 In 1873 came one of the most important changes in my life. I left my old job and found employment with David Hirsch Company at 122 Chambers Street, then the only union shop in & There a new On labor mat. Critics on the left attacked Samuel Gompers for the AFL's conservative goals and its exclusive membership, those on the right regarded him as a foreign-born radical whose organization would destroy individual initiative and proper- ty rights. Gompers bimself remarked: "We bave no ultimate ends. We are going from day to day. We are fighting only for immediate objects-objects that can be realized in a few years. the city. It was also a high-class shop, where only the most skilled workmen were employed. When I went to this shop, Hirsch was employing between fifty and sixty men. world opened to me. The cigarmakers employed at Hirsch's were practically all Germans—men of keener mentality and wider thought than any I had met before . They talked and read in German, but there was enough English spoken to enable me to understand that the trade union movement meant to those men something vastly bigger than anything I had ever conceived Many of them were men who had learned the labor movement in Europe and who were refugees because they were active for the struggle for political as well as economic freedom. With all the energy and confidence born of my young strength, I talked from my limited experiences. ters my thought was wild. I had been feeling profoundly the injus- tice that society meted out to wage earners. I was familiar with the vocabulary of revolutionists, but I had not yet attained a practical understanding of the scope and the power of economic organiza- tion. In truth, neither had the others. We were all groping our way, trying to develop the language, the methods, and the funda- mentals of trade unionism. Some had a better understanding- fortunately they were to become my teachers. Anyone who does not know the cigarmaking trade will find it difficult to appreciate the educational value of the little forum existing in each shop. It gave education in such a way as to devel- op personality, for in no other place were we so wholly natural. The nature of our work developed a camaraderie of the shop such as few workers enjoy. It was a world in itself—a cosmopolitan world. Shopmates came from everywhere—some had been near- ly everywhere. When they told us of strange lands and peoples, we listened eagerly. Shop life stimulated my mental development. In the shop there was also reading. It was the custom of the cigarmakers to chip in to create a fund for purchasing papers, magazines, and books. Then while the rest worked, one of our members would read to us perhaps for an hour at a time, sometimes longer. In fact, these discussions in the shops were more like public debating societies or what we call these days "labor forums." This practice had a great deal to do with developing the interest of cigarmakers in leading economic questions.
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