Industry Comes of Age

lroad: –––

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Millionaires look for areas to invest their capital + patents

were issued at high rates = Key inventions:

- Phone (Alexander Bell); leads to women working the

“switchboard”; Electric light, phonograph (Edison);

mimeograph, Dictaphone, moving pictures.

Typewriters & Secretaries

The Telephone

• Alexander Graham Bell or Antonio Meucci?

Thomas Edison Light Bulb

Phonograph

Eastman Kodak

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(oil); illegal–

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1.

2.3.4.

•••

Labor v Big BusinessMassive immigration creates favorable labor market for owners Major court case, Commonwealth v Hunt (1842), gives way for unions to take action

- Massachusetts SC: labor unions are legal organizations, have the right to strike

Tactics:- Labor Unions: Collective bargaining, pickets, strikes,

boycotts, slowdowns- Owners/Managers: Lockouts, blacklists, scabs,

yellow-dog contracts, government intervention (court injunction, police)

UnionizationIn response to cheap wages, poor working conditions, and unfair business practices, labor unions began to organize on a national level

National Labor Union (‘66): one of the first + major national- Secured 8hr workday for federal employees; membership open to

allKnights of Labor (‘69): found early success through strikes

- Membership open to all - except Chinese laborers (endorsed Chinese Exclusion Act)

American Federation of Labor (‘86): formed in wake of AFL / Haymarket- Autonomy to crafts; exclusive membership

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Laborers: Strikes & Riots

Haymarket Riot (1886)

- Bomb kills 4 people on May Day

- Knights of Labor (worked in tandem) and

anarchists are blamed for the excessive violence,

giving the union a negative public perception againGreat Railroad Strike of 1887

- Panic of 1973 leads to laborers’ wages cut

- Strikes occur across the NE (Baltimore & Ohio RR)

- Federal troops are used, giving labor unions a

negative public perception

Laborers: Strikes & Riots (continued)

Homestead Strike (1892)- Carnegie (via Frick) locks out steel mill workers, uses

Pinkertons to enforce lockout → court injunctions and criminal prosecutions bring strike to an end

Pullman Strike (1894)Why? Wages cut while rents in Pullman community remained the same… What? Non-union workers strike as Eugene V Debs leads boycott, resulting in massive slowdown***Owners use Sherman Antitrust Act to file federal injunction (US mail used these RRs) → Pres. Cleveland calls in federal troops (30 people die, $80m in damages)***

America Moves to the City

Immigration & Urbanization

Evidence1900, New York had 3.5 million people; second largest in the world (London was first)

- Chicago and Philadelphia had over 1 million people.

- No American city had 1 million people in 1860.

The U.S. population in 1900 doubled to about 80 million since 1870 (105 million by 1920)- City population

had tripled; 40% in 1900

Immigration & Urbanization

Old Immigration

New Immigration

New Immigration

Ellis Island, NY

Medical Exams & Quarantine

Ellis Island, NY

Statue of Liberty, 1886

Torch– Light & hope

Seven Spires– “Seven Seas”

Stone Tablet– July IV MDCCLXXVI

Statue of Liberty

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame."Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries sheWith silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

Angel Island, San Francisco

Japanese “Picture Brides”

A New Immigration“New Immigration” → from S & E Europe 1880-1920

- Poland, Italy, Greece, Hungary

Push/Pull factors:

- Jobs, “birds of passage,” lack of military conscription,

and to avoid religious persecution (Jews)

Urbanization...

- NYC and Chicago → dumbbell tenements

- Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives

Challenges FacedAssimilation Proves Difficult (w/out native resistance!)

- Many were unskilled and so received lower wages; language barriers made it hard to unionize

- Highly illiterate (schools were English-only) and lived in “ghettos”

Politics & Patronage

- Political bosses (re: Tammany Hall) gave immigrants jobs and resources in exchange for votes → became a strong voting presence

Theories of Culture

Melting Pot Assimilation

Salad Bowl Pluralism

Chinatown• San Francisco

• Los Angeles

• New York City

“Little Italy”

The Lives of Immigrants

"Dumbbell" tenements developed in 1879; 7 or 8 stories high with little ventilation while families were crammed into each floor

- Comprised 50% of New York City housing

- Despite later criticism, these dwellings actually were an improvement

Cities had deplorable conditions.

- Rampant crime: prostitution, cocaine, gambling, violent crime

- Unsanitary conditions persisted as cities could not keep up with growth

Tenements• One or more

families living in a small apartment

• Poor sanitation & ventilation

Tenements

Tenements

Dumbbell Tenement

Immigrant Families

SweatshopsUrban factories with poor wages & working conditions

Jacob Riis

How the Other Half Lives (1890)

• Described the working and living conditions of immigrants

• First “muckraker”

Assimilate or Accommodate?Social Gospel: Crusaders attempted to improve the horrible conditions in cities… Motivation: fear of violent revolution among the working class; Christians should work to improve life on earth rather than waiting for the afterlife

Jane Addams - Chicago: Founded the Hull House (1889) → a model for urban development (Settlement House Movement): provided housing, food, and education for poor women and immigrants

- Primarily a women’s movement: northern, white, middle-class, college-educated and prosperous

- Teaching or volunteerism were almost the only permissible occupations for a young woman of the middle class

- Women were prohibited in politics due to Victorian ideals and the cult of domesticity.

Assimilate or Accommodate?Re: Nativism → Fear/distrust/hatred of foreigners

- “They’re taking our jobs”- “They are minions of the Pope”- “They’re anarchists/socialists”- American Protective Association

(1887) - Urged voting against

Catholics to keep them out of office; favored tougher immigration laws

Hull House

“The Pope’s Dream:” This cartoon references

anti-Catholic attitudes common in the 19th

century that Catholics were anti-democratic

and loyal primarily to the Pope.

Thomas Nast: Catholic Invasion

Immigration LawsEmergency Quota Act (1921)- < 3% (based on pop. from home country) allowed (based

on 1910 census)- This favored S / E European immigrants

National Origins Act (1924)- < 3% → < 2% (based on 1890 census)

- This hurt S / E European immigrants

These two acts signified an end to previously unrestricted

immigration

Immigration LawsChinese Exclusion Act (1882)

- Unlawful for Chinese laborers to enter the country

- Chinese already living in the US are ineligible for citizenship (for the next 10yrs)- Context: The Burlingame Treaty in 1868

between the U.S. and China allowed unrestricted immigration to work on the transcontinental railroad

- 1870: Chinese = 75k or 9% of California population

- Renewed in 1892; made permanent in 1902 (until 1943)

Immigration Laws

Gentlemen’s Agreement (1907)- Japanese immigration

restricted; kids in school

Webb Alien Land Act (1913)- Aliens (i.e., Asians) in

California couldn’t own agriculture land

Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882

1st transcontinental railroad connected the west coast to eastern cities in 1869

Chinese workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the western leg

Irish workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the eastern section