Three Sources on a Mill Strike
A student is writing about why workers walked out of the Cardwell textile mill in 1912. Three sources are on the desk. Source A is a letter from the mill's owner to shareholders saying the great majority of operatives are content and well paid, and that the walkout is the work of outside agitators. Source B is a speech by a strike organizer printed in the town's labor newspaper, stating that the company cut wages from $9.00 to $7.50 a week and that 4,000 workers walked out. Source C is a state labor bureau report giving the number of workers employed at the mill in each month of 1911 and 1912; a footnote notes that the bureau's inspector was refused entry to mill property. The teacher has asked for one paragraph explaining why the strike happened.
1. Which source is most reliable for establishing the size of the wage cut, and which is least reliable? Justify your answer using each source's interests and closeness to events.
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Reliability depends on the claim, not on the source. A source can be excellent for one question and useless for another.
- Source C is the most reliable record here, but only for employment levels. Monthly counts kept by an agency are routine, not advocacy, and were compiled as the events happened. Its footnote is also valuable evidence in itself: being denied entry tells you the state could not verify conditions inside the mill.
- Source B is the only source that names a wage figure. It is partisan (an organizer's speech reprinted in a labor paper), so the number should be treated as a claim to be checked. Still, it was published at the time and the speaker had direct knowledge of the grievance. It is not worthless, just not sufficient alone.
- Source A is the weakest for the wage question. The owner is writing to shareholders, has a financial stake in the outcome, gives no numbers, and makes a broad assertion about contentment. That does not make the letter useless; it is strong evidence of what the owner wanted shareholders to believe.
A good paragraph says: there is one specific wage figure, it comes from an interested party, and it needs independent confirmation.
2. Sources A and B give conflicting causes: outside agitators versus a wage cut. How should the student handle the conflict rather than simply choosing one?
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Treat the two causes as competing hypotheses and test them against a source with a timeline.
Source C's monthly employment figures can do real work here. If employment dropped before outside organizers arrived in Cardwell, the wage cut is the better explanation. If workers stayed on the job until organizers appeared, the owner's account gains support.
Also ask a question the sources do not answer directly: if there were no genuine grievance, would 4,000 people have been willing to lose pay? A wage cut can create the conditions and an organizer can turn those conditions into a walkout. Both explanations can be partly true, and the strongest paragraph says so.
A weak paragraph picks the source that agrees with the writer. A strong one states the evidence, weighs it, explains what sequence matters, and admits what remains unknown.
3. What single additional source would most help, and why that one?
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The company's payroll records or wage ledger. They are internal records kept for accounting, not written to persuade the public, and they would confirm or refute the move from $9.00 to $7.50 directly. Even a self-interested party keeps accurate internal accounts, which is why business records are often more trustworthy than business statements.
Other defensible choices:
- Court testimony, if strikers were prosecuted; testimony under oath carries risk for the liar.
- A local merchant's diary or a newspaper not aligned with either side (check its ownership first).
- Census manufacturing schedules listing wages paid.
The reasoning to state: choose a source that is both independent of the two sides and able to speak to the specific figure in dispute. A source that is neutral but silent on wages does not help.