Industrial Revolution Dbq

The Industrial Revolution, with its radical innovations, creation of capital, and shift towards urbanization, also brought a plethora of issues for the common laborer. These issues, such as low wages, unbearable working conditions, and strenuous working hours were greatly protested by the working class, yet were unable to be resolved. However, it cannot be argued that this failure to create a resolution was largely due to the fact that American corporate leaders had implemented a successful strategy to suppress the cries of laborers; several other more significant reasons contributed to the failure of workers to adopt a powerful solution to overcome their situation. In addition to the minor reason that corporate leaders created powerful tactics

However, all American corporate leaders that sought to control the worker/owner relationship recognized the factors (if wielded properly) that leveraged or weakened their authority. For example, Carnegie manipulatively sought to ensure the security of his labor force after the Braddock Lockout by targeting unions- if “[his former employees] wanted to return to work, they could sign an ironclad agreement that barred membership in the union” (Krause 237). In another example, Carnegie expounds upon his “Gospel of Wealth,” saying that it had made him “a custodian of the public good,” reinforcing the Social Darwinist attitudes and garnering the support of the general public (Krause 240). Although it is also true that corporations “could call upon federal courts” to take actions in their favor, it is the fault of unions to repeatedly try a failed approach instead of unifying and strengthening themselves to try a radical one (Bailey 531). Another widespread tactic for corporations was blacklisting, a strategy that was easy to use because of the replaceable nature of “unskilled” workers. However, if these workers had been part of a union instead of prevented from being so, the working class surely would have had enough leverage to demand universal rights for laborers due to the sheer population of the group; the “gravest weakness of organized labor was that it still embraced only a small minority of all workingpeople-about 3 percent” (Bailey 536). In culmination, it is apparent that American corporate tactics, although effective in ensuring the failure of establishing a healthy worker/owner relationship, were based on the root causes that stemmed partially from the working