They were opposed
1. To the hiring out of convict labor.
2. To the importation of foreign labor under contract.
3. To interest-bearing government bonds, and in favor of a national currency issued directly to the people without the intervention of banks.
%535. The Workingman in Politics%.—As these ends could be secured only by legislation, they very quickly became political issues and brought up a new set of economic questions for settlement. From 1865 to 1870 the matters of public concern were the reconstruction measures and the public debt. From 1870 to 1878 they were currency questions, civil service reform, and land grants to railroads. From 1878 to 1888 almost every one of them was in some way directly connected with labor.
SUMMARY
1. Great inventions founded and developed new industries.
2. These in turn expanded the ranks of labor, and led to the rise of corporations and labor organizations, and a demand for a long series of reforms.