Great+Railroad+Strike+of+1877

= The Great Railroad Strikes of 1877 = by Annie White and Kaila Tzianabos



__The Companies: __ By 1877 the dominating railroad companies were the Pennsylvania Railroad company and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad company. These companies doubled the length of their freight trains and extended railroad lines without increasing the labor. With a shortage of workers already, the companies decided to lay off workers, cut their wages, and decrease their work week to 2-3 days. Although this concept enraged the railroad workers, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company held enormous power and had no real sympathy for the workers. These railroad companies’ actions were mainly for their own benefit, the worker’s opinions did not matter to them.

__Workers: __ The workers of the Railroads in 1877 played a large role in the Great Railroad Strike. It was these workers who initiated the strike and made it famous for what it is to this day. During the Panic of 1873, workers were laid off or they got their wages cut. These workers were mostly __immigrants__ who would do any kind of work to support their families. They worked twelve hour days and earned a mere $1.75 a day for their hard labor. Not only was the job they had to do hard, but they sustained serious injuries, such as losing a limb or being smashed between two rail cars. If you did not like these conditions or you got injured, someone else would have no problem taking your job. A job was a necessity to support a family back then, so most men just put up with the conditions. After the wage cut workers decided to go on strike, and these strikes usually turned into violent mobs that killed many. The strikers were supported by farmers and western businessmen because of their common problems with the railroads. After the strikes had ended, the strikers wereseen as heroes by many.

__The problems! __

In 1873 a financial panic broke out in the United States. Workers from large firms were being let go and their wages were being cut to very small amounts. A few years later, in 1877, the depression was still affecting businesses across the U.S. Many railroad companies including the North Pennsylvania Railroad started to cut the wages of the workers by 2 cuts of 10% and doubled the length of freight trains without increasing the labor. In fact the labor of workers was being cut to a work week of only 2-3 days! Enraged railroad workers went on strike announcing that they would stop the strike once wage cuts were reversed, until then the strikers took drastic measures by damaging $4 million dollars of rail road equipment and using violence as a way to get their anger out on railroad companies. This shoes that the workers were __anarchists,__ which means that they used violence as a way to overturn the government. __Strike! __

As businesses slowly started to collapse, their owners grew desperate to revive them. Many owners resorted to cutting the wages of their workers and all together laying them off. The Pennsylvania Railroad made two 10% wage cuts, and Baltimore and Ohio were doing the same. The cuts caused the workers there to go on strike in Martinsburg, West Virgina. The strikers obstructed the freight trains, and the militia was called to try to move them. They were unsuccessful, and “strike fever” spread to the surrounding areas. In Pittsburgh strikers became violent when the National Guard was called, killed twenty people, and wounded many more. Violence was spreading to other areas as well in Baltimore, a 20-year-old volunteer described the violent strike scene: "We met a mob, which blocked the streets, wrote Charles A. Malloy. "They came armed with stones and as soon as we came within reach they began to throw at us." This angered strikers, so they ruined thousands of rail cars, locomotives and railroad buildings. In total, four million dollars worth of equipment had been damaged. In St. Louis, Missouri, a strike occurred that ruined the city for nearyl a week. Chicago was no different, with 20,000 strikers and 50 people dead from trying to cease the strikes. Federal troops were called in, and with over 100 dead, they ended the strikes.



__Back to Work!: __

The strike scared many business owners into undoing the wage cuts, and they promised they would never do it again. With one hundred people dead, a thousand in jail, and one hundred thousand people on strike, they were smart to try to prevent future strikes. The “Coal and Iron Police” were strengthened, and National Guard Armories were built. To ensure that the railroads took care of their workers, the railroad companies were monitored by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Bibliography:

====“Great Railroad Strike of 1877.” ABC-Clio. []. ==== ==== “THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO R. R. STRIKE.”Baltimore Sun.July 18,1877. [] ==== ====<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 11.25pt 0in 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">﻿ ==== ====<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Yellen, Samuel. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">American Labor Struggles //. New York: S.A. Russell, The Harbor Press, 1936. ==== <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Malloy, Charles A. “Illinois during the guilded age.” <span style="color: #000099; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> :

====<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“ 1877: The Great Railroad Strike, An exerpt from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States .__http://libcom.org/history/1877-the-great-railroad-strike__. ====

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pictograpghy: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Picture 1: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/ashp/1877/f1877-1.html ---What was the Great Strike of 1877? Picture 2: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/ashp/1877/f1877-2.htmlRailroad Workers of 1870's Picture 3: [] - The American Frankenstein Picture 4:http://web.gc.cuny.edu/ashp/1877/f1877-4.html The Red Flag in New york