As early as 1850, there were efforts to bring together and organize groups that fought for the betterment of working conditions throughout Indiana. There was a group of Indiana artisans that formed the Indiana chapter of Mechanics’ Mutual Protection. Started in New York, this organization was organized to protest the inclusion of convict labor with machine factory work as early as the 1830s. The organization quickly moved to Indiana and fought to increase wages, obtain better educational opportunities for workers, and look after the families of workers who were ill and could not work.
The opportunities that the Mechanics' Mutual Protection sought to have implemented were the first major revisions that the state of Indiana saw in labor reform. This organization sought out local lawmakers who would eventually implement laws throughout the state. They strived for these changes despite the thought of the mid-19th century that factories and businesses were independent and should be free from government oversight. The Mechanics' Mutual Protection and the organizations that would later join the fight in labor reform had a long and hard fight to achieve their goals.
This stop contains an important part of the early formations of labor organizations. At this stop, the Kenosha History Center holds an early constitution of the Mechanics' Mutual Protection from 1849. This constitution would have been very similar to the one the Mechanics' Mutual Protection organization used in Indianapolis, Indiana, when they formed in 1850.
]]>This stop displays the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company from Muncie, Indiana. The Ball brothers started in Buffalo, New York, and to expand their growing business moved to Muncie, Indiana in the late 19th century. Their facility of factories in Muncie became one of the largest manufacturing plants in the country of glass jars. This stop gives an example of what factories would have looked like in the late 19th century.
Labor in factories in the mid to late 19th century had little regulation. An 1881 Indiana Department of Statistics published a factory condition report stating the average factory worker earned $1.00 to $1.50 in a ten to twelve-hour workday. This is around the average wages for factory and manufacturing for 1881. These factory workers also worked six days a week regularly. The wages would be used to pay for the urban housing nearby and necessities for a five-person family. Some industries in the state would even require a seven-day work week.
People pushing for reform, such as the Prohibition Party in 1872, felt that the state government had a responsibility to regulate working conditions. The government should control and require a certain number of working hours and regulate safety concerns. The state government believed in the freedom of business to work their employees as they saw fit. The businesses of the mid to late 19th century looked further than just the labor of men to fill the needs of the growing industrial market.
There was common use of women in labor. There was division in the type of labor that women did depending on their education and marital status. Married women were discouraged from working in this period. Educated women were employed in administrative work, while less educated women were employed in factories. Children too were prone to unconventional labor practices. One mother of a child that was working in a glass manufacturing factory would rather send her boys straight to hell than send them back to the glass house (glass factory). Although these conditions were seen as a punishment, from as early as 1867 there were regulations put on the labor and conditions children were prone to. These regulations restricted child labor for more than ten hours in factories and the age at which children could work. Unfortunately, these regulations did not stop young kids from working, and it took time for lasting widespread changes in labor to take hold.
]]>Irishmen often brought regional feuds from Ireland to the United States. Due to the number of Irish workers on canal projects, these were prevalent in Indiana. Two groups— the Corkonians and the Fardowns—held a longstanding feud. The Corkonians came from the Irish province Munster, specifically in County Cork. The Fardowns came from the provinces of Connaught and Leinster. The hostility between the two groups was ultimately due to competition for employment. The Corkonians and Fardowns had violent encounters near many canal and railroad worksites in Indiana, later referred to as the Irish War.
In 1835, groups of Corkonians and Fardowns were working on the Wabash and Erie Canal. Construction contractors knew about the feud and tried to keep the groups separate. The Corkonians worked the northern section of the fifty-mile line, leaving the southern section for the Fardown men. The men stayed in separate camps and often worried that members of the other party would burn down their shelters or kill them at night. Contractors reported that some men camped in the woods to avoid such a fate. Most men came to work armed, sometimes with weapons they had stolen from locals. Small-scale brawls became so frequent that worksite authorities planned to remove one of the groups from the line entirely.
In July, rumors of a big clash began to spread around the canal camps. The groups planned to meet in the middle of the two camps, near Lagro. As men on both sides prepared for the fight, work on the canal slowed to a halt. On July 10, a reported 600 Irishmen met in Lagro, about 300 from each faction. Canal Commissioner David Burr managed to arrange a truce that lasted long enough for Indiana militias to arrive. The militias arrested over 100 Irish laborers a few days later. Without a nearby jail to hold so many men, officials took eight of the faction leaders to Indianapolis and released the rest to return to work. The eight leaders were released shortly after arriving. One Corkonian leader, Jeremiah Sullivan, was later re-arrested and sent to the state penitentiary. He was the only participant in the clash to receive legal punishment.
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