INDUSTRIALIZATION1865 - 1901
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Andrew Carnegie
John D. Rockefeller
Samuel GompersCornelius
Vanderbilt Thomas Edison
J. P. Morgan
Causes of Industrialization• National Resources (Raw Materials)
– Water, timber, coal, iron, copper– Needs helped settle the West - RR
• Oil– Kerosene– 1859 - Edwin Drake 1st oil well, Titusville,
Pa.• Population Increase – Large workforce
– 1860 – 1910, tripled due to immigration• Free Enterprise
– Laissez –faire– Entrepreneurs
New Inventions► Alexander Graham Bell
1876, Telephone (AT&T)
► Thomas Alva Edison 1877, Phonograph 1879, Light Bulb 1889, Edison General Electric Company (GE)
► Textile Industry Northrup Automatic Loom Standard Sizing Power-driven Sewing Machine Mass production of Shoes
Railroads Linking the Nation
– 1865, 35,000 miles– 1900, 200,000
miles
Transcontinental Railroad– 1862, Pres. Lincoln,
Pacific Railway Act– Union Pacific – Irish
immigrants– Central Pacific –
Chinese immigrants
Railroads cont. Spurring Growth
– Increased markets & desire for raw materials– Consolidation of smaller lines (Vanderbilt)
American Railway Association - 1883– Time Zones, safer more reliable– Air Brakes, pull longer, heavier trains– Standard Gauge, unite all lines
Land Grant System– Gave RR companies land in the unsettled West– Sold land for $$ to finance rail construction
Refrigerated Railroad Car made it possible to ship meat from slaughterhouses to cities
GustavasSwift - meatpacking
Scandals Robber Barons
RR Entrepreneurs Built fortunes by swindling taxpayers,
bribing govt. officials, & cheating on contracts
Credit Mobilier Scandal – 1872 Construction company of Union Pacific
stockholders Overcharged RR, investors kept extra $$ Used up federal $$, sold stock to
congressmen in exchange for more federal $$
Big Business Corporation
Produces more goods cheaper
Continue to operate in poor economic times
Can negotiate rebates from RR – lowers operating costs
Drives out smaller competitors
Pools Companies agree to maintain
prices of certain products
Business Practices Monopoly
– Single company achieves control of an entire market
– Many states begin outlawing
Trusts– Legal maneuver
allowing trustee to control several companies & run them as one
Holding Companies– Produce no
product– Controls several
companies, merging into one large enterprise
Trust Busting
Selling the Product Advertising
New ways to market 1900 - $90 million in ads
Department Stores Shopping becomes a past time (fun) Everything under one roof (Macy’s)
Chain Stores Group of similar stores owned by same company Lower prices instead of elaborate service
(Woolworth’s) Mail Order
Catalogue buying (Sears)
Working in the U.S.
Workers– Machines replacing skilled labor
– Working conditions unhealthy & dangerous
– $.22 per hour, 59 hours per week
– Skilled craft workers – higher wages
– Laborers – few skills, lower wages
– To improve conditions – organize into Unions
Early Unions
• Trade Unions
– Limited to workers with skills• Industrial Unions
– United craft workers & common laborers in a particular industry
• Anti-Union Methods– Contracts to not join a union– Blacklist – not hire suspected Union organizers– Lockout – locked workers out & refused to pay them– Strikebreakers – replace workers during strikes (Scab)
Union Problems
No laws protecting the right to organize
Courts ruled strikes were “conspiracies that interfered with trade”
Perception that unions threatened American Institutions
Marxist, Anarchists, or Revolutionaries
Rarely successful
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Cut wages Nation’s 1st labor
protest 80,000 workers, 11
states President Hayes
sends troops to regain order 100 killed, millions in damages
Failure led to organization of Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor1st nationwide industrial union
–8 hr. work day–Govt. bureau of labor stats–Equal pay for women–Abolition of child labor–Creation of worker owned factories–Use of arbitration – 3rd party
negotiators
Haymarket Riot of 1886
8 hr. dayClash between police & workersAnarchists set off bomb – police open fire– 7 cops, 4 workers die– 8 arrested, 4 executed (only 1 a
Knight)Knights of Labor membership declines
Carnegie Steel Works during the 'Battle of Homestead
Pullman Strike American Railway Union (ARU) Eugene V. Debs
Cut wages (depression)
ARU stopped handling Pullman cars
Paralyzed U.S. economy
Attached mail cars Detach Pullman cars = detach mail cars Violation of federal law, interfering with U.S. mail
George Pullman
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
• 1881, Samuel Gompers• Politics
– Reject socialist/communistic ideas
– Fight for small gains– Strike only if negotiations fail
• Goals– Companies to recognize unions & collective
bargaining– Closed shops – hire only union workers– 8 hr. work day
Working Women
• Domestic servants, teachers, nurses, secretaries
• Paid less for same job
• Excluded from unions
• Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL)– 8 hr. work day– No evening work– No child labor– Collected funds to help striking women