Great+Railroad+Strike+of+1877

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The Railroad: Miles of railroads in the United States increased between 1830 and 1916. In 1830, there was only 23 miles of railroad tracks across the country. At the end of the Civil War, the tracks increased to 35,000 miles, and by 1916 there was 254,000 miles total. As time went on, miles of railroad were added. Railroads allow companies to ship products long distances.

The Problem: In 1873, a panic arose (The Panic of 1873). During this panic, large business firms on the east coast began to fail. Because of these business failures, the firms laid off workers as well as cutting their salaries. Employees working on the Pennsylvania Railroad were seriously affected. The PA railroad cut costs by doubling the length of freight trains without increasing the freight's support crew. This angered workers because the had to work harder to manage the freights, but were still had low salaries. These wage cuts angered the railroad workers.



The Strike: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was primarily caused by the wage cuts that the workers on the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroad received. The workers did not wanted higher salaries for the work they did. The strike started in Martinsburg, West Virginia on July 16, 1877. 80,000 railroad workers went on strike. The PA B&O railroads had made large 10% wage reductions. The because of the previous wage cuts, the workers suspected these upcoming cuts and planned a strike. Strikes spread from Baltimore and Pittsburgh to St. Louis and Chicago, as well as many other cities. The strike eventually caused railroad traffic to come to a halt all across the northern tracks. Mobs also closed the B&O and Illinois Central railroads. Not only did the railroad workers go on strike, but coal miners did as well because their wages were also affected by the cuts.



After-effects: The protests and strikes ultimately led to owners of businesses to get rid of the wage cuts. Also, unions used to shield railroad workers and their rights as employees were set up. The protests targeted railroad monopolies, and the strikes led to a movement involving business regulation. The Granger movement, which involved a decline in crop prices, was the first attempt to regulate business. This movement also had to do with discrimination in railroad freight rates as well as the railroad companies' purchases of land in the Midwest. Before 1877, only three railroad worker brotherhoods were in existence. In 1887, the Interstate Commerce Commission was for the purpose of monitoring the railroad companies.

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__Resources__

Primary:
 * "A Plan Agreeable To All Parties." // New York Times //. Historic New York Times, 26 Feb. 1878. Web. 16 May 2011.
 * "New York Business Prospects." // New York Times //. Historic New York Times, 22 Aug. 1877. Web. 16 May 2011.

Secondary: >
 * "Great Railroad Strike of 1877." //American History// . ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 11 May 2011.
 * VandeCreek, Drew. "Gilded Age: 1877: The Great Strike." //Illinois Historical Digitization Projects: Northern Illinois University Libraries// . Web. 11 May 2011. .
 *  Combs, Barry B. "Working on The Railroad, Circa 1868." //200 Years of American Worklife.// [Washington]: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, 1977. 93-97. Print.

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By: Steve Roesler