38 ChaPter^1
worked for themselves, they would drink and stay out late on the weekends
and then take a day off, which they jokingly called Saint Monday. They might
clean their workplace or tools, but would do little else. In addition, workers
might take off from work on the first day of spring, go to the beach on a hot
day, or bring in kegs of beer or grog, a mixture of rum distilled from molasses,
at lunchtime. Franklin complained, "Saint Monday is as duly kept by our
working people as Sunday; the only difference is that instead of employing
their time cheaply at church they are wasting it expensively at the ale house.”
Such cultural habits, however, would not be acceptable in an industrial
economy. Workers would have to be at work in the factory at a designated
time, work until the whistle blew for lunch or to end the day, and repeat that
process six or sometimes seven days a week. A pamphlet for immigrant
International Harvester workers which was used to teach English not only
provided a lesson in language but also workplace obedience: “I hear the
whistle. I must hurry. I hear the five minute whistle. It is time to go into the
shop... I work until the whistle blows to quit. I leave my place nice and
clean. I put all my clothes in the locker. I must go home.” Manufacturers
not only wanted to control workers in the factory, but outside the workplace
as well. Temperance, or anti-alcohol, movements were encouraged and fund-
ed by the bosses so that workers would be sober and able to work harder and
longer hours. One New Hampshire factory banned "spiritious liquor, smok-
ing, nor any kind of amusement" in work areas, and promised "immediate and
disgraceful dismissal" of employees found gambling, drinking, or "any other
debaucheries." One textile mill owner justified a six-day, 12-hour work
schedule because it kept workmen and children from "vicious amusements."
All over, where industry was emerging, an obedient group of workers was
considered essential to capitalist success.
This transformation in work culture from independence to obedience
angered many laborers, who wanted to retain their old workplace habits.
Huge numbers of workers, in fact, began to challenge the new capitalist sys-
tem. While the media, controlled by the Capitalists, wrote glowing stories
about men like Rockefeller and Carnegie and called them heroic “Captains
of Industry,” others were not so impressed and thought of them as “Robber
Barons.” One of the harshest critics was America’s most famous novelist, Mark
Twain, who created the term Gilded Age to describe the era after the Civil War.
Gild is a thin covering, usually of gold, that is intended to deceive the observ-