-
5 Workers and Politics, 1880–1894
- The University of North Carolina Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
C H A P T E R 5 Workers and Politics, 1880-1894 I ^^ oBirmingham's skilled whiteworkers citizenship meant access to political power commensurate with their fundamental role as the creators of society's wealth. When Birmingham's earlyboosters recruited white skilled workers, they always linked economic status and race to prestige within the community. Skill and race set the craftsman apart from the mass of unskilled blacks and conferred upon him rights denied "wage slaves." Before 1894 skilled workers did indeed exercise substantialpolitical power. Candidates for office eagerlysought their support and responded to their demands. Workingmen won election to city and county offices and held positions of leadership in the local Democratic Party. The rolling mill district emerged in the late i88os and the 18905 as the center of working-class politics in the town. David Fox and Sylvester Daly, both former puddlers and members of the AAISW, built a powerful Democratic machine in the first ward. By 1892 Fox and Daly had expanded their base out of the first ward into workingclass neighborhoods across the town through workingmen's political clubs. The voters rewarded them for their efforts in 1892 when they elected Fox to the mayor's office. Fox and other candidates who sought votes among workers exploited conflicts generated by economic growth. Issues arose in the sphere of production that could not be contained within the workplaces of the city. Employers often injected these issues into the political system by seeking the protection of the state in conflicts with their workers. Workers then joined their 77 fellow citizens to resist "corporate domination" of the "people's" legislature . They looked to the state when defending themselves against employer practices that they perceived to be violations of their rights as workers and citizens.1 This is not to suggest, however,that workers agreed on the bestway to address the problem. Some workers in the i88os advocated cooperation with Republicans or abandonment of the two-party system, while others demanded loyalty to the Democratic Party. This division frequently followed racial lines. Blacks tended to support those who challenged the power of a Democratic Party that discouraged black voting and in 1888 prohibited black participation in its primaries. Opponents of the Fox-Daly machine in the iSgos openly appealed to black voters during their campaigns against "machine rule." White workers loyal to Fox resisted reform movements they considered to be efforts to deprive them of their rights as citizens and as white men. Class and racial conflict shaped the town's political culture. When white workers migrated to Birmingham in the i88os, they generally aligned with the Democratic Party, which controlled city politics. During the i88os, however, a number of political movements arose to compete with Democrats for workers' loyalty.The local Republican Party and an independent political movement under the auspices of the Knights of Labor linked conflicts between workers and employers to corporate dominance of the Democratic Party and the state legislature.2 As proof of the pernicious effect of this unholy alliance, they pointed to the convict lease system, exploitative company stores, and infrequent payin company scrip. The Democratic state government, they charged, provided corporations in Jefferson County with convicts who competed with free miners and allowed them to impose the system of scrip payment that deprived miners of a fair return for their labor. Because miners did not receive their pay regularly in legal tender, they relied on credit from company stores to secure supplies necessary for their work. Company stores charged higher prices than private establishments in the district, raising miners' costs. Critics of the Democrats argued that the fight against such practices could not be limited to the workplace, because the corporations defended themselves through their influence in the state legislature. All producers would eventually suffer from such corporate arrogance, the political reformers insisted. If corporations could use the state to advance its designs against the freedom of miners, they could use their political power against all of the people. Workers must not allow companies to use 78 : Workers and Politics, 1880-1894 [18.118.140.108] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 05:27 GMT) the state to extend their authority. If they did so, where might the abuses end? The reformers suggested that the practices ofmining companies would spread across the district along with other state-supported schemes to restrict workers' freedom. And the threat did not end here. Merchants lost much of their natural market because of the commissary, the use...