rap2016_ch19

Quiz for Document 19–1: Thomas O’Donnell, Testimony before a U.S. Senate Committee, 1885

Choose the best answer to each question.

1. Why was textile worker Thomas O’Donnell unable to escape the underemployment of Fall River, Massachusetts, to a farm in the West?

There was no need for skilled textile workers like him in the West.

Immigrants had taken up most of the western homesteads already.

He could not afford to travel out West to claim free homestead land.

He did not want to leave his familiar neighborhood and community.

2. What did O’Donnell think was the solution to his employment troubles?

Strikes by mill workers

Government intervention

Westward migration

A return to mule spinning methods

3. What survival strategy did O’Donnell use to compensate for unsteady work?

Taking in boarders at his home

Sending his children to work

Foraging for fuel and food

Migrating to new location

4. Which aspect of O’Donnell’s predicament seemed most troubling to Senator Blair?

That a skilled worker could not find adequate employment

O’Donnell’s apparent lack of work ethic

O’Donnell’s unreasonable hopes for government intervention

The impact of O’Donnell’s underemployment on his family