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The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Railroad companies continued to cut their workers' wages even while increasing their own profit. Workers finally rebelled in July of 1877 and struck from Baltimore to St. Louis. Companies and states tried to suppress the strikes with varying results, but in the end, federal troops were used to put an end to the strikes. Nevertheless, it revealed the tension between workers who wanted unions, better pay, and fewer hours, and companies who wanted to make a profit. -
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Scientific Management (Taylorism)
Frederick Taylor espouses the ideas of Scientific Management (Taylorism) as a better way of running the American industry, Taylorism was the idea of subdividing tasks and assigning different workers to different tasks. This sped up production rates and made workers interchangeable, both of which increased profits. Taylorism became quite popular from 1880 to 1890 and allowed for mass production to be born. -
National Strike
On May 1st, 1886, American workers wanting an 8-hour workday united together in a national strike. Between three hundred thousand and five hundred thousand workers went on strike. -
The Haymarket Square Riot
Several police officers are killed in a bomb explosion at a protest in Haymarket Square, Chicago. The deaths were associated with unions and the Knights of Labor, the leading union at the time, would never recover its former influence or membership. -
The American Federation of Labor
When the Knights of Labor declined after the Haymarket Square incident, the American Federation of Labor emerged as a more conservative and less violent alternative. The AFL famously advocated for a "pure and simple trade unionism" and generally tried to avoid the use of strikes in their mission to give workers practical gains such as fewer hours, better wages, and better working conditions. -
The First National Convention of the Populists Party
The Populists Party (also known as the Peoples Party) holds its first national convention in Omaha, Nebraska. Farmers were dissatisfied with the two-party system that seemed incapable of meeting their needs, so they created the Farmer's Alliance. The Farmer's Alliance would later grow to become the Peoples Party and the most influential third party in American history. -
William Jennings Bryan for President
William Jennings Bryan was an extremely skilled orator, and in 1896 he received the Democratic Party's nomination for president. He ran against the gold standard championed by his Republican opponent, William McKinley. In spite of widespread support, Bryan lost to McKinley in the 1896 election, and his nomination by the Populists Party for president in the same election led to the unraveling of that party as its voters moved back into the Democratic party. -
Monopoly
The later part of the 1800s and the early years of the 1900s saw the rise of giant monopolies. Men such as J. D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Andrew Carnegie created monopolies in their fields that made them some of the richest men in history. By 1900, the top 10 percent of the nation controlled 90 percent of its wealth.