If that means working in a factory under horrible conditions, often times for 12 hours a day, all for wages that boarder next-to-nothing, so be it. It were those people that obtained jobs and incomes to feed their families, because no matter how bad or how hard the job was, even under the worst conditions, they gain the right to practice the freedom of speech and religion, which were major reasons they left their homelands to come to America. However, due to the fact that these foreigners would work for such low wages, despite the conditions, caused two things to happen: the owners of the factories to become more wealthy now that they have achieved practically free labor, and the American workers developed a fear and hatred for foreigners, as they thought (as often times this proved to be correct) the foreigners would be stealing jobs from them. This lead to such foreign policies as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Gentleman's Agreement, which forbade Chinese and Japanese workers from coming to America. While the "foreign workers" issue was quite alive at the time, there was also the formation of labor organizations and unions during this time period as well. The Knights of Labor, the first labor union (founded in 1869), were mainly garment workers seeking better working conditions. While this was the first large labor union, it life span was somewhat short, but not short enough to spread the idea throughout the nation. Several unions had sprung up shortly after, which had the potential to partially cripple the production of manufactured good. Some unions, however, were thought to be associated with anarchy and communism, and since have not been popular amongst employers.
With such a large influx of immigrants, the demand for jobs had also increased. However, many were struck with the harsh reality that, with the millions upon millions of other immigrants throughout the mid-late 1800's, there simply were not enough jobs for everyone.
