Read the following excerpt from testimony given before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor in 1883:
'The trade has been subdivided and those subdivisions have been again subdivided, so a man never learns the machinist's trade now... In the place of a boy learning a trade, he is put on a machine to run it, and he is kept on that machine... It has a very deforming effect upon the mind and brain, as well as the character of the man... he becomes a mere machine himself.'
The technological and industrial changes described in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following developments during the late nineteenth century?
- AA widespread return to localized, household-based production systems that bypassed urban factory networks
- BThe federal government's strict maintenance of a laissez-faire stance by refusing to intervene in labor-management conflicts
- The rise of broad-based labor organizations like the Knights of Labor that welcomed unskilled and semi-skilled workersCevap
- DThe political dominance of the Progressive Party in passing federal laws that prohibited the mechanization of craft industries
Cevap
The rise of broad-based labor organizations like the Knights of Labor that welcomed unskilled and semi-skilled workers
The correct answer is correct because industrialization and the subdivision of labor led to 'deskilling,' which stripped workers of specialized craft autonomy. Because workers who ran single machines were easily replaced, labor leaders recognized the need for broad-based industrial unions—such as the Knights of Labor—that could organize both skilled and unskilled workers to exert collective power.
Adım Adım Çözüm
Anahtar Kavram
The deskilling of the Gilded Age industrial workforce and the rise of inclusive labor organizing strategies.