While Larson concentrated on the horrors of crime and murder during the Columbian Exhibition, there were many other unfortunate occurrences that happened that he didn't touch upon. These unfortunate occurrences would have only been greater if there had not been labor unions building the fair.
Hey, remember that time it was below freezing and super windy during both the winters and falls the Fair was being built? Wouldn't have sucked to be outside for 8 hours a day building an enormous structure that could be blown on top of you at any time? And not being able to see your family for months at a time while you sold your soul to the Columbian Exhibition construction?
Those things sound pretty terrible to me. Oh, and may I remind you that all of these conditions happened with labor unions.
Larson briefly mentions deaths of workers as he discusses the construction of the fair. I'm sure it's needless to remind you that many, many more workers died than the couple he mentioned.
Yes, the unionized labor upped the costs of construction and often slowed the process down, but without it, the conditions would have been worse than they were.
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3 comments:
I don't think Larson minimized the importance of the labor union. When he was writing from Burnham's perspective and displaying his frustrations, he might have mentioned the unions as a hinderance because that's what they were to Burnham. I thought that Larson mentioned the deaths and described the working conditions extensively, following his pattern,throughout the book, of showing both sides of the story.
agree, Larson highlighted the significance of the labor unions and how vital they were in improving the extremely dire working conditions that the fair's crew had to endure. In response to Jonah, I don’t think they were a bad thing because they were necessary to boost the morale of the workers. If the workers were constantly angry they wouldn’t have been able to get through the challenging days and nights of construction. Larson also emphasized how the labor unions in Chicago would be models for those to come after it.
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