As production became mechanized and relocated to factories, the experience of workers underwent significant changes. Previously, farmers and artisans had controlled the pace of their labor and the order in which things were done. If an artisan wanted to take the afternoon off, he could. If a farmer wished to rebuild his fence on Thursday instead of Wednesday, he could. Their workdays allowed for socialization and, sometimes, breaks for drinking. Indeed, journeymen were often promised alcohol as part of their wages. One member of the group might be asked to read a book or a newspaper aloud to the others. In the warm weather, doors and windows might be opened, and work stopped when it was too dark to see.

Work in factories proved to be quite different. Employees were expected to report at a certain time, usually early in the morning, and to work all day. They could not leave when they were tired or take breaks other than at designated times. Those who arrived late found their pay docked; five minutes tardiness could result in several hours worth of lost pay, and repeated tardiness could result in dismissal. The monotony of repetitive tasks made days particularly long. Hours varied according to the factory, but most factory employees toiled ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week. In the winter, when the sun set early, oil lamps were used to light the factory floor, and employees strained their eyes to see their work and coughed as the rooms filled with smoke from the lamps. In the spring, as the days began to grow longer, factories held blowing-out celebrations to mark the extinguishing of the oil lamps. These blow-outs often featured music and dancing.

President Roosevelt was an activist who itched to enter the fray. On June 8, 1902, he asked his Commissioner of Labor, Carroll D. Wright, to investigate the strike and report back to him. Wright avoided going to the coalfields because he felt that as the President's representative his "presence there would do more harm than good." Instead, he headed for New York City, where he interviewed presidents of coal roads, independent mine operators, financiers, mine foremen, and superintendents. He also heard the miners' side from John Mitchell, whom he summoned to New York. Wright worked assiduously, and within 12 days, he sent by special courier to the President a substantial report accompanied by tables and statistics. On October 23, 1902, the 163-day anthracite coal strike ended. The following morning President Roosevelt met briefly with the commissioners and asked them to try to establish good relations between the employers and the workers in the anthracite fields. The commissioners refused to comment to reporters, and then met for almost 2 hours at Wright's office, one block from the White House. Roosevelt's efforts to end the strike were successful. Both sides finally agreed to the findings of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, and peace was restored in the coalfields. More important in the long run, a new role was established for the Federal Government in labor disputes. During the dramatic confrontation with the mine operators and workers on October 3, 1902, Roosevelt had said, " I speak for neither the operators nor the miners but for the general public." He made labor and industry accept the fact "that the third party, the great public, had vital interests and overshadowing rights" and so set a precedent for the Federal Government to intervene in labor disputes, not as strikebreaker but as a representative of the public interest. The success of the strike commission granted the workers 9 hours a day and a 10 percent wage increase. Teddy Roosevelt's intervention was a landmark in American Labor history.

By the fall of 1934, the measures passed during The Hundred Days had produced a limited degree of recovery; more importantly, they had regenerated hope that the country would surmount the crisis. Yet by 1935 Franklin Roosevelt knew he had to do more. Although the economy had begun to rise from its nadir during the winter of 193233, it was still far below its level before the stock market crash of 1929. Millions of Americans were still unemployedmany had been jobless for several yearsand the destitute were beginning to listen to demagogues who criticized the New Deal for not going far enough. Roosevelt foresaw the possibility that in the 1936 presidential election he would face a significant third-party challenge from the left. To meet this threat, Roosevelt asked Congress to pass additional New Deal legislationsometimes called the Second New Dealin 1935. The key measures of the Second New Deal were the Social Security Act, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Wagner Act. The Social Security Act for the first time established an economic safety net for all Americans, providing unemployment and disability insurance and old-age pensions.

Questions:

1. What are some of the attitudes towards unions discussed in the article above?

2. What was the major takeaway from the article above?

3. How does it tie into what laws govern labor law, what the law requires, several terms used in labor law, and what management can and cannot do regarding collective bargaining in the workplace?

4. What is one further question, or topic that can be explored more from the information provided in the article?