ional strike called for changing the standard workday from 12-hours to eight. During a Cleveland steel strike, violent confrontations led local newspapers to attach the "un-American" Polish workers as "Ignorant and degraded whelps". Union members were often called "Communistic scoundrels who revel in robberies, bloodshed, and arson".
             The brutal depression of 1893-1894 triggered some of the worst labor conflicts in the country's history, including the strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company. When George Pullman slashed wages and hiked rents in his company town, a national strike and boycott was called on all railways carrying Pullman cars. Railroad traffic ground to a halt as 260,000 workers struck, and battles with state and federal troops broke out in 26 states. The strike failed, many of its leaders imprisoned and many strikers blacklisted.
             Women during this era were also striving for equality. In the 19th century, women began working outside their homes in large numbers, mostly in textile mills and garment shops. Immigrant women and poor American-born women had no choice but to work. They worked in factories in that were crowded and poorly ventilated. Women as well as children worked as long as 12 hour days, it was not until 1910 that the states began to pass legislation limi
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