Summary:
Discusses how labor reform in turn of the century America was rejected by both the owners of big businesses and government officials. Describes the horrible working conditions most Americans endured during that time.
"They don't give a damn whether we live or die" (Matewan). This is an example of what most workers thought of their owners. This was quite true with most owners when industrialization spread over large cities and huge companies throughout the United States from the 1880s -1920s. Industrialists were avaricious for profits and wanted to abridge their costs. The industrialists' voracious appetite for profits caused working conditions in industries to decline precipitously. Laborers had to work for long hours for extremely low wages and also had to buy from their company stores. The company stores would charge everybody different rates so most of the laborers remained perpetually in debt. The laborers had to work with dangerous machines working at a very fast pace, which sometimes resulted in accidents, such as cut off fingers.....
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