Read the passage below.
"We are modern workers, but we are also citizens of a republic. The division of labor, the introduction of machinery, and the concentration of capital have changed our status. In the old days, an apprentice became a journeyman, and a journeyman became a master. Today, the worker is a mere cog in a vast machine, bound to a lifelong dependency on the owners of capital. We must organize not merely to beg for a few cents more an hour, but to reclaim our independence as self-governing producers through cooperation."
—Adapted from a labor petition to the United States Congress, 1884
Which of the following best explains how the ideology expressed in the passage differed from the approach of the American Federation of Labor (AFL)?
- The AFL accepted the wage system and focused on collective bargaining to secure immediate economic improvements, whereas the authors of the petition sought to replace the wage system with cooperative worker ownership.Answer
- BThe AFL sought to achieve its goals by forming a formal political alliance with agrarian reformers to establish government ownership of major industries.
- CThe AFL urged the federal government to act as a neutral arbitrator in labor disputes and establish federal regulations over workplace safety.
- DThe AFL prioritized organizing unskilled industrial laborers and immigrant workers to build a single, unified national union.