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1908-1914 The Third RevolutionOften a political revolution, however violent, alters the lives of working people very little. Despite the radical change in the form of government after 1789, life for most in America barely changed. Not until the Industrial Revolution made it to North America did life begin to substantially change for working Americans and Canadians. But with the advances of the industrial age came workers’ greatest hardships. Progress’ promise brought terrible oppression to workers at a magnitude never before imaginable. It took a third revolution to build the foundations of social justice, job safety and humane working conditions to the working people of North America—and it took organized labor to bring that third revolution about.
During the first decades of the 20th century, because of both work by labor-backed politicians, artists, writers and social workers known as Populists, and because of tragedies such as New York’s 1913 Triangle Shirt Waist Company fire, the consciousness of the nation began to wake up to the horrible plight working people suffered. The Triangle fire claimed 147 lives, mostly young seamstresses who were trapped behind locked exits, many jumping to their death from windows because proper fire escapes were nonexistent. For the first time photographers like Jacob A. Riis captured on film the cruel living and working conditions of immigrant and poor’ workers, and published those photographs in books available to a wide public. And writers such as Upton Sinclair published books pointing out dangers to workers and consumers like his The Jungle exposing the horrors of the meat-packing industry. At the same time, politicians, some more radical than others, began to speak to the problems caused by industrialization. Eventually pro-labor legislation such as the creation of the Department of Labor, the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Hepburn Act, the Adamson Act, and constitutional amendments allowing for the direct election of senators and the collection of a progressive income tax, were passed by Congress. And state laws to limit hours of work and combat child-labor exploitation were passed across the country. Many of the laws lacked enforcement provisions; and many were twisted around and used against organized labor, as was the case with the Sherman Act. But the legislation nonetheless represented a turning point in the progress of working people in America. Page 1 of 3 |
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