Samuel Gompers Progressive Era

Samuel Gompers: Representative of the Progressive Era Samuel Gompers, with the aid of the American Federation of Labor, strongly represents both the accomplishments and the failures of the Progressive Era. Gompers’ accomplishments includes labor reform for many skilled wage-laborers but his failure was an underlying racial prejudice seen in the Federation. During the Progressive Era many reformers believed that there was a need for political and social improvement via political action and that the federal and state governments needed to take more control and improve the general welfare of all citizens. These new ideas of changing society for the better were often blended with racial and ethnic prejudices of older times. Many progressives were …show more content…
The AFL was founded when unions felt like they needed organization other than the Knights of Labor. The labor unions would file complaints about the Knights and conflict arose, the union's’ “failure to find an amicable solution for the conflict finally led to action” and that action led to the formation of the AFL. The AFL was a labor union which only admitted skilled workers and would work to demand more rights for the workers. In order to improve society Gompers wished to establish and strengthen unions, which he was eventually successful, “Gompers’ ultimate achievement… lay in creating a viable national federation of skilled trades unions that made solid gains for their members”. Gompers wished to form unions of skilled laborers so that he could make more negotiations with the large companies. Unions that were made up of unskilled workers were generally less effective since they could be easily replaced but skilled workers were much harder to be replaced so if they were to go on strike or threaten to go on strike it would hurt the company. This idea of having skilled trades unions was Gompers’ greatest success however only admitting skilled workers was not only so that more gains could be made but it was formed out of an outdated racial prejudice that was covered up by the AFL’s acceptance …show more content…
Most of the limitations of the Progressive Era stemmed from an animosity towards immigration and old racial prejudices towards the blacks of the nation. Progressives often saw the immigrants as less capable than Americans which led to some progressives helping the immigrants assimilate so they could thrive in America, like Jane Addams, but others were hostile to the immigrants thinking that most contribute nothing and only take. No matter what view progressives had about the immigrants nearly all beleived they Gompers wished for stricter immigration laws for all new immigrants, especially the Chinese. His racism directed towards the Chinese can be seen in 1894 when there was a “demand for more rigid enforcement of the laws restricting the immigration of the Chinese” which was claimed to be in the self interest of the U.S. economy and was needed to “save the working classes of this Republic”. Gompers also disagreed with the economic structure and practice of China and in a speech addressing the issues of labor and the importance of its reform he said that if work hours were not reduced then, in regards to industrial prosperity, “America ought to be at the tail end, and China at the head of civilization” which expresses his prejudices towards China and the Chinese, using their economic structure as the negative in an example of comparison, Gompers also goes on

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