Background.

A changing economy, moving toward larger industries and complicated corporate structures, meant that workers lost significant control over their work. Though the court in the 1890s had allowed corporations to expand, the courts had not been friendly to workers who tried to form unions. Working people were expected to negotiate individually for their wages and working hours. Courts used injunctions to prevent workers from striking, and the courts were equally skeptical of state attempts to improve working conditions. In 1885 the Supreme Court had struck down a New York law that regulated working conditions for cigar makers. Working in their tiny tenement apartments, cigar makers rolled tobacco into cigars. Often the entire family, women and young children, spent long hours rolling cigars for which they were paid by the piece. This kind of work, often the only kind available to an unskilled...