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The Pinker guard testimony was a prime example of how mistreated the labor workers were. Pinsetter’s guards were sent to keep strikers out of the factories due to the homestead act of 1892. Business men hired Pinker to infiltrate unions, supply guards and regulate the strikers. Pinker also hired a goon squad, a group Of thugs, which were usually associated with anti-union or pro-union violence. The skilled members of the steel industry wanted a wage increase due to the fact that the industry was growing rapidly. The steel industry, run by
Henry Clay Brick because Andrew Carnegie put him in charge, was quite assured that a pay raise was not going to be seen. Brick actually countered with a 22% pay cut when brought the idea of a pay raise. Brick locked all the workers out of the mills because he didn’t plea any bargain agreements, allowing no entrance for any of the workers. A meeting was held with the AAA leaders to discuss the violation caused by the lock out of all the employees. The Knights of Labor (which were the most valuable of all of the unions) agreed to leave the company alongside the killed members of the union.
All of the workers were set on keeping the mill closed until they saw bargain agreement. That is when the strike really began. Brick believe that any man could be replaced and do just as well as a job as a skilled member and work for the same pay or less. The company began to post ads for replacing the old works as far as Boston, SST. Louis, and Europe. After the long lasting strike and all the violence that happened over a pay raise, the union collapsed. There was not a change in pay. For most workers ring this time, they actually took pay cuts just to have some sort of income.
Brick demanded that the Homestead works be shut down and the unionization works collapsed. The thought of unionizing a company was feared after the Homestead Act of 1892. The ending result was that workers did not get a pay raise, lost work, or most companies sought a wage decrease which played a role in the Long Depression. The overall outcome of the strike lead to the leaders of the strike being charged with conspiracy, riot, and murder. The leaders of the strike were intended to one night in jail and pressed to pay a 10,000 dollar bond.
There was still hope in the strike due to the fact that the union charged the company executives in state court The company executives were also forced to post a bond of 1 0,000 dollars, but did not have to spend a day in jail. A majority of the men could not come up with that sort of money and had to either spend time in jail or go into hiding. Both sides would suffer so the union and company executives came to the agreement to drop the charges in The ending of a 95-day occupation the support for the strikers slowly separated.
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers were on the verge of going bankrupt by the job action. The Knights of Labor District Assembly were found guilty of conspiring with nonunion workers. What was left was only 53 members of the union. Due to the strike, it crumbled the AAA (Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers) force within the American labor movement causing many steel companies to cut wages just like the Homestead Act. Another one of the more influential concepts of the Progressive Era was women suffrage.
Suffrage can be defined as the right to vote at political elections. While the right to have some sort of political influence was the main focus Of women suffrage during the Progressive Era, they also strives for simple equality. The reason that this was such a powerful strive was because it sparked the beginning for the whole advancement for women as a gender. Before the progressive ear men were looked at as far superior than woman. Women were in charge of the household when the man was gone. The children were taught by their mothers in religion and beliefs.
The accessibility for the women were to tend to the children and could not get a job that a man had. Compared to the way that our society acts now, this all seems far-fetched and ridiculous; however, back then, it was the standard way that any average American viewed life. There were even numerous women who spoke out against women’s rights. They believed in the tradition and didn’t think women worthy of any higher standard. Anti-feminist radicals have even feared that, through voting, women would “grow beards. ” “Social equality was as threatening to some women as it was to most men.
Women’s rights were growing increasingly throughout the Era. Their status as workers grew exponentially, increasing threefold in a matter of 1 5 years. They were able to inherit and own their own land, making them liable for trade in the market. There became a demand for what they had to offer. After years of struggle and painstaking pressure on the government, on August 26th, 1920, they were allotted the right to vote. Through all and all there was so change that came from the progressive era. There was also the start of what activist strives for and now have become equal rights.