Political Cartoon

America has gone through different economical phases, especially when one of the big issues is the working class and the conditions that the working class faced. The most rigorous and grueling conditions were brought about in the era of 1870-1920. At this time the make up to the working class shifted drastically, the work expectation was not possible, and the working conditions were horrendous. The world of the ‘working class’ thus changed drastically.

In the 1870’s, there was a flood of immigrants coming into the country. They had no skills, spoke broken English (if any), and were willing to work for virtually no pay. These immigrants began to make up the “new” working class, (Hollitz, 105). The work that these men did was not easy and by no means was it safe. Occupations varied from laborers to brakemen to coal miners to iron and steel workers, (Hollitz, 28-34). By the 1920’s jobs had become more specialized. In order to get hired, one needed to be a skilled worker with experience and an apprenticeship under their belt, (Bell, 30). Beginning in 1906, women began to take the work world by storm (Wright, 114). People began building allow women to go to work, rather than worrying about keeping the enormous houses clean (Wright, 115). Within thirty years, the average pay rose from ten cents an hour for hard labor on the railroads to fifteen cents an hour for a boy to work in a glass factory, (Bell, 224). The changes that happened in fifty years completely revolutionized the archetype of a working class family. In 1870, a working class family was poor and could barely afford to feed themselves. By 1920, the working class family could afford a decent sized house, a car, and to spoil themselves every once in a while.

The working ...

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... working class by getting involved in a war. Gompers recognized that there was unrest in the working class. There were problems with work hours, safety, and benefits. He believed the government was trying to cover up complaints by starting something bigger, so that the complaints were not the most important things on the hypothetical table. While Gompers did not completely understand the particulars of the war he did understand the main idea. He tried to scare the listeners by saying Chinese immigrants were going to come into our culture and take over. He compared immigrants to slaves saying, they would work for virtually no money. Therefore, bringing the wage rate down and making jobs harder to find. Samuel Gompers conveyed passion and spoke with confidence. He made people believe what he was saying, and scared them into wanting to take action against the war.