"This room with two windows giving on the street, and a rear attachment without windows, called a bedroom by courtesy, is rented at $12.25 a month. In the front room man and wife work at the bench from six in the morning till nine at night. They make a team, stripping the tobacco leaves together; then he makes the filler, and she rolls the wrapper on and finishes the cigar. For a thousand they receive $3.75, and can turn out together three thousand cigars a week. The point has been reached where the rebellion comes in, and the workers in these tenements are just now on a strike, demanding $5.00 and $5.50 for their work. The manufacturer having refused, they are expecting hourly to be served with notice to quit their homes, and the going of a stranger among them excites their resentment, until his errand is explained. While we are in the house, the ultimatum of the 'boss' is received. He will give $3.75 a thousand, not another cent."—Jacob A. Riis, from How the Other Half Lives, 1890

The immovability of the "boss" in Riis's text most clearly reflects which of the following? (1 point)

a
The ease with which unskilled labor could be replaced

b
State laws empowering skilled workers to strike

c
Panics of the 1890s that increased the working class

d
The introduction of tariffs that decreased the costs of luxury items