The Role Of Capitalism In The 1910s

The early twentieth century was marked as one of most prosperous eras in American history where the American economy had risen to become one of the wealthiest on the planet. While the rapid expansion of American capitalism led to profound wealth for many in the ruling class, the unjust treatment of workers and labor unions demonstrated the limits of prosperity during 1910s and 1920s. With the lack of government support and intervention, American workers and unions witnessed some of the most violent labor conflicts in the nation 's history. Not only were they suppressed into virulent conditions, political and social reform were also stagnated and languished in despair. However, by the eve of World War II, the American economy had undergone such …show more content…
From the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of Roaring Twenties, political reform and effective labor organizing was stagnated by both government inaction and decline in union membership that would eventually persist until the introduction of welfare capitalism and improved labor relations in the New Deal in the 1930s.
Throughout the 1910s, the magnitude and suppression of labor strikes reflect the negative and violent attitude of the government towards organized labor. From the 1910s to the 1920s, the struggle for effective labor organizing and political reform was extremely violent as the wealthy capitalists were able to enforce their prerogative through their influence on the government. Not only did the government often respond with brute force, the armed militia and local …show more content…
Oregon, the American labor movement stood at a critical crossroad in the 1920s as union membership fell in the face of economic prosperity and businesses who fostered a public fear of unions as anarchistic and unpatriotic. With establishment of the National War Labor Board, the government sought to “arbitrate disputes between workers and employers in order to ensure labor reliability” during World War” (Martínez-Matsuda 1 October 2015) which enforced political reform in improving the living and working conditions of workers. As the war efforts continued, the government began to shift its past stance on workers and organized labor in order to discourage strikes and increase production. While the government is starting to transform their policy on workers and labor unions, the decline of effective labor organizing and political reform in the Roaring Twenties can be attributed to the rapid fall in union membership and the economic prosperity of the time. As businesses adopted welfare capitalism, organized labor seemed irrelevant because the rapid economic growth transformed “the daily leisure, living pattern, and even desire of workers” (Dubofsky & McCartin 140). As noted by Lizabeth Cohen in her book, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939, welfare capitalism created a culture in which “the