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131 Chapter 8 General Reformer Although the education bill was his major reform effort, Blair supported numerous social improvement and environmental programs. His reputation for leading reform movements prompted many activists to enlist his support. Some of these movements contributed to the impression that he was a visionary crackpot. For example, he reportedly sponsored legislation to melt the polar ice cap as a project to divert the Gulf Stream.1 Blair can best be described as a pragmatic reformer. Throughout his twelve years in the Senate, he sought ways to bring peace between capital and labor, improve the lot of southern blacks, end the abuse of alcohol, and provide women with greater rights. Because his views were shaped by the world preceding the Civil War, his rhetoric and solutions often did not correspond to current social and economic realities. Still, he was willing to work for changes that he thought would improve American life and to give the disadvantaged a fair hearing. Perhaps the most successful of Blair’s campaigns, from his perspective , was his effort to secure greater recognition of the rights of American workers. He accepted the Republican doctrine of the 1850s that there was no inherent conflict between capital and labor. At the same time, he recognized that the quality of life of American workers seemed to be declining as the United States became more industrialized. Unwilling to blame the economic system, he sought ways to restore harmony to the American workplace. Not unexpectedly, he concluded that most problems could be solved by educating laborers, discouraging alcohol use, and reducing race and gender disparities in pay and working conditions. While many contemporary and later observers dismissed these solutions as treating symptoms rather than problems, many labor union leaders in the Gilded Age regarded Blair as a special friend. He lent the prestige of the federal government to their efforts to reach the public, often using the same techniques that he did with the education bill. 132 Henry W. Blair’s caMpaiGn to reforM aMerica A Senate resolution passed on August 7, 1882, authorized Blair, as chairman of the Senate Education and Labor Committee, to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the growing labor unrest in the United States. As already noted, these hearings educated Blair about southern Appalachia and its political and economic leaders while also providing insights into the state of the industrial economy. The Senate resolution called for an Education and Labor Committee study of relations between labor and capital, wage and hour provisions, workers’ living conditions, and causes of strikes. This resolution also authorized the committee to report any legislation necessary to promote labor peace. Probably the most important item from Blair’s perspective was the part of the resolution that allowed the committee to break up into subcommittees to take testimony anywhere in the country.2 Because Congress was in session during the fall of 1882 and the winter and spring of 1883, the hearings got off to a slow start. Growing criticism of the committee’s lack of activity forced Blair to schedule four days of hearings in Washington in February 1883.3 A telegraphers’ strike against Jay Gould’s Western Union Company changed his original plan to hold committee meetings in August 1883. Working with Samuel Gompers and other union leaders, he arranged to spend most of August and September in New York City interviewing the principals in this dispute.4 In October, he and other members of the committee took testimony in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Boston. After these sessions, they visited factory and housing sites in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. In November, the investigation concluded with testimonies in Birmingham and Opelika, Alabama, and Atlanta, Columbus, and Augusta , Georgia. The Senate Education and Labor Committee secured more than four thousand pages of testimony on a wide variety of subjects, including materials that were not part of its original charge. In a remarkable display of stamina, Blair was present at every session and took an active role at all times. The February 1883 meetings in Washington reflected Blair’s lack of preparation and the labor movement’s low expectations of the potential of the hearings. Hobart D. Layton, grand secretary of the Knights of Labor, appeared as the major witness. The Knights leader, Terence Powderly, declined an invitation to participate, apparently viewing the hearings as insignificant. Layton emphasized his organization’s opposition to strikes.5 He attacked management practices, such as company towns, child labor, [52.15.63.145] Project MUSE...

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