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Profits, Paternalism, and Rebellion: A Case Study in Industrial Strife

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Julian C. Skaggs  and
Richard L. Ehrlich
Julian C. Skaggs
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Widener College
Richard L. Ehrlich
Affiliation:
Director of Education and Research, Plimoth Plantation
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Abstract

As production workers in late-nineteenth-century American heavy industry moved towards regular use of concerted action, including the strike, to gain their demands, employers generally adopted rigid policies of opposition. That it was a frightening period for manufacturers, with prices for their goods steadily falling and widespread business failure, has been emphasized by Edward C. Kirkland and others. But lack of scholarship in business archives has improverished labor-management history on this point. Professors Skaggs and Ehrlich offer one case history, based on a study of the “inner truth” of such a conflict in the 1880s. It confirms the suspicion that it was not practical economic imperatives but a long-run policy to maintain the principles of paternalism that often accounted for the intransigence of management.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , Summer 1980 , pp. 155 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1980

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References

1 Vedder, Richard K., The American Economy in Historical Perspective (Belmont, California, 1976), 317.Google Scholar

2 This firm's financial records were kept on the basis of a fiscal year running from November 1 to the following October 30. Fiscal years in this article are identified by the new calendar year that commences during each 12-month accounting period. Thus the firm's experience in 1884 actually covers the period November 1, 1883 to October 30, 1884. For further details on the history of the firm, see Skaggs, Julian C., “Lukens, 1850–1870: A Case Study in the Mid-Nineteenth Century American Iron Industry,” (Doctoral dissertation, University of Delaware, 1975)Google Scholar, pari passu.

3 Lukens Collection, accession 50, book 49, Eleutherian Mills Historical Library, Wilmington, Delaware (hereafter cited as Lukens Collection).

4 Charles Huston and Sons to S. V. Bacorn, November 13, 1886, and to J. B. Wilson and Company, October 30, 1886, accession 50, book 383, Lukens Collection. These sentiments were reiterated frequently to both customers and commission agents during the fall of 1886.

5 Chester Valley Union, November 6, 1886.

Puddlers took cast iron and converted it into wrought iron in a reverberatory furnace. Once the converted iron was removed from the furnace it was rolled into a slab by means of a waterpowered roll train located in the puddling mill.

In the plate mill there were three groups of men. One group worked at the heating furnaces. At each furnace there was a heater, his helper, and a piler. Once the iron was brought up to temperature it was passed to the rolling crew. This gang of men consisted of a screwman, roller, assistant roller, transfer carriage man, peelman, catcher, straightener, and leverman. These men rolled the hot iron down to gauge and guided the sheet through the rolls. This took several passes and was hot, hard work since some plates ran over 2,500 pounds. Once the iron cooled it went to the shears where the plate was cut to size. This was done by a hand trimmer and five assistants. The production crews were all paid by the ton. Common labor and clerks were paid by the day. In October 1886 the pay schedule (per ton) was the following:

6 Charles Huston and Sons to William L. Bailey, October 22, 1886, book 383, Lukens Collection.

7 Charles Huston and Sons to Central Iron Works, October 23, 1886, book 383, Lukens Collection.

8 Charles Huston and Sons to: Paxton Rolling Mills, November 6, 1886; J. W. Hoffman and Company, November 4, 1886; J. B. Wilson and Company, Limited, November 3, 1886; James Moore, November 6, 1886, book 383, Lukens Collection; Chester Valley Union, November 6, 1886.

9 Chester Valley Union, November 6, 1886, January 29, 1887.

10 Chester Valley Union, November 6 and 27, 1886; Charles Huston and Sons to: E. E. Souther, November 4, 1886; C. W. and H. W. Middleton, November 4, 1886; Pusey and Jones, November 4, 1886; Paxton Rolling Mills, November 6, 1886, book 383, Lukens Collection.

11 Charles Huston and Sons to: William J. Bailey, October 22, 1886; Paxton Rolling Mills, November 6, 1886; the Tanner and Delaney Engine Company, November 8, 1886, book 383, Lukens Collection.

12 Chester Valley Union, November 20, 1886.

13 Charles Huston and Sons to: G. W. and H. W. Middleton, November 11, 1886; John Q. Denney, November 10, 1886; Lloyd and Symes, November 12, 1886; J. B. Wilson, November 11, 1886; S. V. Bacorn, November 11, 1886, book 383, Lukens Collection.

14 Charles Huston and Sons to John Q. Denney, November 18, 1886, book 383, Lukens Collection.

15 West Chester, Pennsylvania, Local News, November 23, 1886.

16 Charles Huston to Charles L. Huston, April 12, 1887, box 9, Lukens Collection.

17 Charles Huston and Sons to Washington Hastings Company, December 12, 1886, and to S. V. Bacorn, December 24, 1886, box 384, Lukens Collection.

18 Charles Huston and Sons to tenants, January 1, 1887, book 384, Lukens Collection. These notices were delivered by a constable, and at least three families were evicted by order of a justice of the peace. Charles Huston and Sons to tenants, January 1, 1887, book 57, pp. 44 and 45, Lukens Collection.

19 Charles Huston and Sons to: D. Costello, January 5, 1867; the Tanner and Delaney Engine Company, January 6, 1887; Paxton Rolling Miills, January 11, 1887, book 384, Lukens Collection.

20 Chester Valley Union, January 29, 1887.

21 Charles Huston and Sons to Alfred Reid, February 9, 1887, book 384, Lukens Collection; book 37, pp. 642, 643, book 57, pp. 35, 38, Lukens Collection.

22 Charles Huston and Sons to Paxton Rolling Mills, February 2, 1887, book 384, Lukens Collection.

23 Chester Valley Union, January 29, 1887; Charles Huston and Sons to J. W. Hoffman and Company, March 3, 1887, book 384, Lukens Collection.

24 All cost and price data were retrieved from letter press copy books and ledger books, accession 50, book numbers 1215 through 1234, passim.

Capital invested in 1871 is estimated to be $180,000. The census of manufactures shows Lukens with a capital investment of $100,000 in early 1870. The new steam-powered mill that came into service in late 1870 cost $80,000, hence the figure $180,000. In 1881 Charles Huston wrote R. G. Dun and Co. that the capital invested in the firm was $188,827.96. In 1882 a new three-high rolling mill was installed in the existing structure and it cost $30,000 giving a new figure of approximately $220,000 for capital investment. The mill remained essentially unchanged from 1882 to 1890.

Return on capital is obtained by dividing capital invested into the profits reported in the ledger at the end of the fiscal year.

25 Although productivity (output per worker) cannot be measured due to the absence of systematic employment data, it is likely that only a small part of the decline in wage costs per ton was a function of increased productivity and the remainder attributable to slippage in wage rates.

26 Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington, D.C., 1975), part 1, p. 212.

27 Charles Huston and Sons to: C. Kratz, September 8, 1880, book 1216; J. B. Wilson, July 12, 1881, book 1218; Geisen Manufacturing Company, July 27, 1882, book 1220; S. V. Bacorn, January 30, 1885, book 1228, Lukens Collection.

28 Charles Huston and Sons to Marry Griffith, February 26, 1862, book 197, Lukens Collection.

29 Charles Huston and Sons to John Wilson, July 9, 1885, book 1227, and to Seidel and Hastings, September 25, 1874, book 1209, Lukens Collection.

30 Charles Huston and Sons to Kemble and Warner, July 5, 1865, book 350, Lukens Collection.

31 Charles Huston and Sons to R. G. Dun and Company, February 26, 1887, book 1234, Lukens Collection.

32 Charles Huston and Sons to A. Gibbons, January 20, 1885, book 1226, Lukens Collection.

33 Charles Huston and Sons to John Wilson, July 9, 1885, book 1227, Lukens Collection.

34 Charles Huston and Sons to: Carpenter and Wilson, July 5, 1873, book 1207; A. B. Warner, September 3, 1875, book 1209; J. F. Bailey, August 13, 1886, book 1232, Lukens Collection.

35 Charles Huston and Sons to J. W. Hoffman, September 30, 1886, book 1232, Lukens Collection.

36 Charles Huston and Sons to Lindsay Parvin and Company, November 24, 1886, book 383, Lukens Collection.