Response to Prompt

Respond to the prompt:

"Explain why unions had little success during the period 1871-1900 in improving the economic and social position of U.S. workers."

 

      Unions had little success in improving the positions of U.S. workers because the Big Businesses were becoming too big and too powerful for the unions to take on. Strikes were the only true way to make a change to the treatment of workers; and therefore, going on strike was the most effective tactic of the Union Workers. However, this soon became one of the worst things to do because there were so many immigrants and cheap-laborers that once the normal workers had gone on strike, they were fired completely and the business gave their position to one of the immigrants. With their main tactic useless, the unions had little other choice but to go at the businesses politically. This was even more pointless than going on strike because many if not all of the most powerful people that the unions could turn to were being bribed by the businesses to give nothing to the unions. With political corruption and immigrants waiting to take the jobs of strikers, there was nothing that the unions could do for their members, making them ineffective during this time period.

OPVL 1

9-12-10
C-Block
Document #2

ORIGIN:
           This document is a secondary document because it is a translation of a translation of a "speech" made by a Native American Wovoka (Jack Willson).

PURPOSE:
            The document's purpose was to allow the Americans to read what was said. The purpose of the oral message was to inform the other Native Americans that they must dance for 5 days and obey the Americans and not cause them trouble or harm, and at the end of the dancing, when they returned, the messiah would come down and return the Native Americans and their land back to its roots. He would also make the Americans leave their land.

VALUE:
             For one thing, this document, which the Americans used as an excuse to attack the Native Americans, shows not only that the Native Americans were going to act peacefully, but also that the would obey the Americans. This means that the Americans attacked the Native Americans out of either fear or desire, but not self-defense.

LIMITATION:
             Though this document tells us that the Native Americans were going to obey the Americans peacefully, it does not tell the Americans' side of the story, so the cause of the attack cannot truly be determined from this document alone.