bobbin-boy for twenty cents a day, was in the eighties building up a steel business that was making him one of the richest men in the world. John D. Rockefeller, who began life as a clerk, was now the head of the Standard Oil Company and was coming into wealth that was al ready being counted by the tens of millions of dollars and that was one , day to be counted by the hundreds of millions. Andrew Carnegie. And what were the first-fruits of corporate industry? To the impartial observer the social blessings of concentration were not apparent. President Cleveland in a message to Congress in 1888 said: "Our cities are the abiding places of wealth and luxury; our manufactures yield fortunes never dreamed of by the fathers of the Republic. . . . The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening and classes are rapidly forming, one composing the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor. As we view the achievements of aggregated capital we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters." THE REGULATION OF THE RAILROADS Statesmen seemed to shrink from the task of taking hold of the corporations and placing them where they would be "the carefully restrained creatures of the law," yet there was one thing the lawmakers were compelled to do: public opinion demanded that they do something to remedy the evils that were rampant in railroad management. We have seen (p. 446) that in the seventies it was determined that a State had the power to regulate charges made by a common carrier. But The Firstfruits of Concentration The Regulation of Interstate Com merce The Interstate Commerce Commission a State could only regulate intrastate business, that is, business carried on by the railroads wholly within its boundaries. Business carried on between points in different States would have to be regulated by Congress (47) if it were regulated at all. Now it was perfectly clear that the regulation of interstate commerce was as necessary as the regulation of intrastate commerce. As early as 1873 railroads doing an interstate business had formed the habit of granting special privileges to favored individuals, to particular corporations, and to particular localities. "We well know," said a responsible observer, "that it is their [the railroads'] habit to break down certain localities and to build up others, and to monopolize certain business by means of the numerous corporations which they own and control." By 1879 petitions were pouring in upon Congress to correct the evils of interstate commerce. But the railroads were powerful and were able to secure a protracted and shameful delay. At last the people of the West and South in an angry mood demanded that Congress take action. Accordingly, in 1887 Congress responded to the demand and enacted an Interstate Commerce Law providing for the appointment by the President of an Interstate Commerce Commission consisting of five members. The commission was given power to compel railroad officers to produce their books and testify; to take notice of violations of the law and order the violator to desist from his illegal acts and fine him if he did not; to provide a uniform system of railway accounting; and to obtain from each road an annual report of its operations and finances. The act creating the commission declared that freight and passenger rates should be just and reasonable; that there should be no discriminations between persons and localities; that there should be proper facilities for the interchange of traffic between connecting lines; and that railroads should print and make public their freight and passenger rates. The language of the statute was so indefinite and vague that a member of the House of Representatives was led to assert on the floor while the bill was upon its passage that it would take five years to ascertain precisely what the powers of the commission were. As a matter of fact it took ten years to determine what these powers were, and when the question was at last settled (in 1897) by the courts, it was found that Congress had not given the commission power to fix effectively the rates that the railroads should charge. The Interstate Commerce Law of 1887 was full of defects, but it was the first effort of Congress to regulate interstate traffic, and it was a step in the right direction. The act was a declaration that henceforth railroads doing an interstate business would be subject to Federal control. LABOR CONSOLIDATION; LABOR TROUBLES At the time Congress was considering the problem of regulating the railroads it was plain that the ever-present labor problem was growing more serious. Consolidation was going. on among working-men as well as among capitalists. The thing that operated most powerfully to bring working-men together was the necessity of matching the combinations of their employers with combinations of their own; they could not hope to stand up against the corporations unless they availed themselves of the strength that goes with union. Knights of Up to this period most labor organizations were composed only of those who were engaged in the same trade or occupation. There was, however, one labor association that admitted not only wage-earners of different trades but all persons over sixteen, whatever might be their occupation, except that it did. not admit "saloon-keepers, gamblers, bankers, or lawyers." This was the society known as the Knights of Labor. The ambition of this organization was to build up "one big union.' Its motto was, "An injury to one is the concern of all," and Labor its object was "to secure to the workmen the full enjoyment of the wealth they create and sufficient leisure to develop their intellectual, moral, and social faculties." The Knights declared in favor of woman suffrage, an eight-hour day, government ownership of the railroads, and the prohibition of the employment of children (p. 290) under fourteen years of age. The Knights of Labor were organized in 1869, but the real growth of the order began after the labor troubles of 1877. The American tion of Labor In 1882 the Knights had a membership of 140,000 and by 1886, under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, the membership reached the high mark of 730,000. After 1886 the Knights began to decline both in power and in numbers. The decline of the Knights of Labor was due chiefly to the rise of the American Federation of Labor, which dates its organization from 1881. The Federation of Labor was organized with the purpose of uniting the trade-unions into a federated body in much the same way as the States are united under the Federal Government. Each trade-union joining the federation was to be allowed to govern itself in respect to those matters which pertained to its own trade, and it was to govern itself with its own officers. The difference between the Knights of Labor and the Federation of Labor is stated by Samuel Gompers, for more than forty years president of the Federation, as follows: "The Knights admitted any one to membership the Federation confines membership to working-men, not admitting even farmers who are employers of labor on their farms. The Knights were a centralized society based on lodges established by the central union; the Federation is based on its unions' individuality. But chief of all, the Knights assumed that organization of all classes of workers in one union in each locality would bring about the best results, while the Federation realized that the organization of each trade in its particular union and the affiiliation of all unions in a comprehensive federation was sure to strengthen each and bring advantage to all." The objects of the Federation are: to secure legislation in the interest of the working masses; to encourage the sale of union-labeled goods; to influence public opinion by peaceful and legal methods in favor of organized labor; and Samuel Gompers. to aid and encourage the labor press of America. The federation seemed to meet the needs of the working-men. Its growth at first was slow, but its numbers kept on increasing until at last its members were counted by the million. Labor consolidation proved to be no solution of the labor problem; it did not bring industrial peace. At the time the Interstate Commerce Act was under discussion the country Labor was seething with discontent, the manifestations of unrest Troubles among railroad workers being extremely angry and troublesome. In 1886, upon the recommendation of Mr. Cleveland, a bill was brought up in Congress to establish a commission of arbitration that should have for its chief duty the peaceable settlement of controversies between interstate railroad corporations and their employees. Although the bill failed to pass, it was a timely measure, for arbitration was needed in all parts of the country. In 1886 from the shipyards of Maine to the railways of Texas and the Far West there were strikes and lockouts in nearly every branch of industry. In the labor disturbances the Knights of Labor were especially active, for they were now at the height of their power. In the summer of 1886 a member of the Knights of Labor employed by the Texas Pacific Railroad was discharged for what the railroad authorities regarded as a sufficient reason. The Knights resented the discharge of the man and demanded his reinstatement. When this was refused a strike was ordered, and soon six thousand miles of railway were tied up. In many places there was violence and loss of property. In East St. Louis a squad of deputies fired upon a crowd, and several persons were killed. The strike lasted seven weeks, but in the end the strikers lost. market But the most serious social disturbance of 1886 occurred in The Chicago where on May 40,000 working-men went on a strike, Hay their demand being an eight-hour day. On May 4 a mass-meet- Affair ing of the working-men was held in the Haymarket Square and was addressed by some anarchistic leaders, although the meeting itself was not an anarchistic gathering. One of the speakers denounced all government and shouted: "The law is your enemy. We are rebels against it." The speakers were so |