Sumner says about the business leaders that “…their own wealth… and millions more… scattered in the hands of thousands, would not exist but for them.”

Phillips says “…labor [is] the creator of all wealth [and] is entitled to all it creates.”

Which do you agree with?Discuss with a partner

{

Business and Labor

In the Gilded Age

{Law? What do I care about the law? Haven’t I got the power?

-Cornelius Vanderbilt

A common attitude

{A consortium of independent organizations formed to limit competition by controlling the production and distribution of a product or service

The Trust System

Robber Barons

John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil

Andrew Carnegie – US Steel

Henry Frick – Steel Cornelius Vanderbilt –

New York Central Railroad

J.P. Morgan - Financier

Though amassing their fortunes at the expense of their workers, a few of the robber barons, most notably Andrew Carnegie, practically invented the idea of philanthropy.

Carnegie endowments built libraries, research centers, a university, and many other functions of the public good.

A Potential Silver Lining

Low pay Long hours Dangerous conditions No job security Managers had all the power, workers

were left with no recourse for mistreatment

Labor vs Management

Knights of Labor (1869) Broad base, not well organized, variety of

issues (led to disunity and failure) American Federation of Labor (1886)

Organized into trade unions (local unions based upon skill)

Trade unions of same skill would make up a larger national union of all those who worked in the same trade

AFL would be the umbrella organization for all trade unions

Samuel Gompers was the founder

Rise of the Labor Union