The Incorporation of America, 1865–1900

Revolutions in Technology and Transportation

After the C.W. 35,000 miles of RR; by 1990 there were 192,556

-1862 Union Pacific RR hired by Congress to build a RR from Omaha, Neb to the west (Credit Mobilier construction company did the $50 million for $75 million)

-Central Pacific RR from Sacramento (869 miles east) [used Chinese workers]

-the 2 RR met in 1869 in Ogden, Utah

GIANTS OF INDUSTRY

(1) Cornelius Vanderbilt – modernized the RR =

-popularized the use of the steel rail instead of iron

-contributed $1 million to build Vanderbilt University

Problems

-RR owners acted as monarchs – stockbrokers manhandled the stocks;

-bribes of public officials

-some companies formed monopolies (pools)

(2) Andrew Carnegie

-a poor Scotch immigrant

-eventually took over the largest steel-making plant in US in Homestead, PA

-sold it in 1901 to J.P. Morgan for $330 million (became US Steel Corp)

-Carnegie was a philanthropist and donated much money to charities

(3) John D. Rockefeller-worked in the oil industry-he knew that oil was useless until it was refined so he bought several

refineries (often through ruthless methods) to drive out the competition-created Standard Oil-he would lower his prices until he drove out the competition

2 Types of Business Structures

(1) Horizontal – consolidating many firms into the same business (monopoly)

-Rockefeller used this model

(2) Vertical – system of consolidating firms involved in all stages of a products manufacturing

-Carnegie used this model

2 types of industrialists

(1) Captains of Industry = those who had worked hard, made the country better, and refused to worship wealth for its own sake

(2) Robber Barons = those who amassed massive amounts of wealth, sometimes through shady means

2 philosophies dominated the era

(1) Social Darwinism – “survival of the fittest” (in business)

(2) Gospel of Wealth –a person’s wealth was by God’s good graces and therefore should be shared with others

Labor in the Age of Big Business

Effects of Industrialization

-company towns sprung up – employer-owned villages

-immediately available work force

-rent from workers

-paid in scrip = form of currency that could be used only the employer-owned stores

-employer-owned stores = high prices

In order to lower production costs & create higher profits, the owner paid low wages & worked them long hours

-some places would have workers work 7 days a week, 364 days a year

-1900 steel workers worked 12 hr days / 7 days / wk

-Bessemer Steel Furnace

-1907 – steel workers earned 16 cents / hr

-floor of the plant so hot that it would melt the workers’ shoes

-it was poorly lit, poorly ventilated

-1911 fire at the Triangle Shirt Waist Company killed 100 workers because there were no fire escapes

**Child Labor

-1900 there were 2 million children (aged 10 to 15 yr old) working (coal mines, factories, etc.)

View of the Ewen Breaker of the Pa. Coal Co.

Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up

on to the spinning frame

to mend broken threads and to put back the empty

bobbins. Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Ga.

A general view of spinning room, Cornell Mill. Fall River, Mass.

A general view of spinning room, Cornell Mill. Fall River, Mass.

At 5 p.m., boys going home from Monougal Glass Works.

Government attempts regulation-1887- Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) – was to oversee railroad

operations; was 1st body set up to do such a thing-unfortunately, it could not make laws or control the RR

-1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act -outlawed any trust that operated “in restraint” of trade or commerce-Unfortunately used against labor unions, due to the unions use of “restraint of trade”

Labor Unions-not liked by the company owners-encouraged workers to go on strike if they didn’t like the working

conditions

-bribe judges to force workers back to work & request troops be brought in

-force new workers to sign contracts saying they would not join unions

Go to page 118

-copy the chart on the strikes of the late 1800’s

Unions

(1) Nat’l Labor Union (1866)

-attracted all groups (skilled, unskilled)

-wanted 8hr work day & arbitration of worker disputes

(2) Knights of Labor {The Noble Holy Order of the Knights of Labor} 1869 –secret org

-led by Terence Powderly

-skilled & unskilled, men & women

-Kept out sellers of alcohol, gamblers, lawyers, bankers, stockbrokers

-wanted social & economic reforms

-Haymarket Square Market (May 4, 1886) police advanced on a meeting and someone threw a bomb killing several

-now they were assoc. w/ violence & death

(3) American Federation of Labor (1886)

-only skilled laborers (won’t be as successful)

-Samuel Gompers

-limited its’ issues to that of wages and working conditions

By 1900, US began to see the need for reform

Politics in the Gilded Age

-from Mark Twain, meaning a thin layer of glitter over a cheap base

- “Conspicuous Consumption: highly visible displays of wealth and consumption

-Why?

-widespread corruption in government and business

-failure of the Presidents to solve the problems

Spoils System

-led to President Garfield’s death on July 2, 1881 by Charles Guiteau

-led to the Pendleton Act of 1883

Society Changes

-entertainment: amusement parks, vaudeville, nickelodeons – movie theatres that charged a nickel for a silent picture

-sports: baseball was becoming popular

-jazz music: “Ragtime” by Scott Joplin

--Charles Darwin (On the Origin of the Species)

-theory of evolution; Scopes Trial

--Education = grade school became compulsory (required)

-1900 – 6,000 high schools

-teacher training schools created

-Chautauqua Movement – pushed for adult ed (1874)

--Advancements for African Americans

-Booker T. Washington – helped the ed & econ (Tuskegee)

-George Washington Carver – peanut research

-W.E.B. DuBois – created the NAACP in 1910

-Plessy v. Ferguson – 1896 est “Separate but Equal” doctrine

& the Progressives

The Industrial City

Populating the CityAfter the C.W., city populations tripled

-1890 NYC, Chicago, Philly had more than 1 million

-created slums in the cities- “The Plenty of America” called to many Europeans>1850 to 1870’s 6 million immigrants came here-by 1882 alone, 788,992

Before 1880 – immigrants came from Western Europe & Br-fair-skinned -highly literate-Protestant -skilled

After 1890 – “New Immigrants” came from southern & eastern Europe

-dark-skinned -not skilled

-illiterate -usually just stayed in cities

Why did they come?

Push Factors

Factors that caused them to leave home

Wars

Famines

Lack of Freedom

Lack of Opportunity

No Jobs or Land

Pull Factors

-Factors that drew them to America

-Freedom

-Desire to Own Land

-Mostly the availability of Jobs

Govt role (early on) – did very little

-early on fed govt did little to slow the flow of immigrants

-did not check on diseases or insanity

-this job fell to the “unofficial govt” = bosses

-traded jobs for votes (gave them housing, food, clothing {Tammany Hall: Boss Tweed}

-not everyone exploited them: Jane Addams = Hull House to help them w/o a favor in return

Nativism returned

-belief that native –born Americans were betterXenophobia – the fear of immigrants

-would have a hard time adjusting to American culture

-blamed them for the poor urban conditions & pushed wages low

Congress finally stepped in to reduce immigration.

-Ellis Island used as a processing port

-1882 – law passed to keep out paupers, criminals, convicts, & prohibited importation of workers under contract

Immigration Act of 1917- (1) required adults to be able to read, (2) barred immigration from China, Japan, India, & Asia; (3) later included the insane,

polygamists, prostitutes, alcoholics, anarchists, & the diseased

{1978 quota est = 290,000 / yr for entire world}

Exit Slip – Immigration

1. The major port of entry after 1892 for European immigrants to America?a. Long Island b. Ellis Island

2. Immigrants who came mostly from countries of Eastern and Southern Europe?a. New Immigrants b. Old Immigrants

3. Most of the 12 million who came to the U.S. in NYC were turned away.a. True b. False

4. Most immigrants from Asia arrived here? a. San Diego, CA b. San Francisco, CA

Populist

Notes

(different powepoint)

Review the problems of the US

Unit 7 Background and Review handout

THE PROGRESSIVES

By 1900, the US faced many problems

(1) Poor working conditions

(2) Consumer fraud

(3) Unfair practices by large corporations

(4) Political corruption

Progressives

-Reformers who believed new ideas and honest government could solve the many social problems facing America

-targeted: (a) Corrupt Governments,

(b) Big Business (Trusts),

(c) Poverty and Poor Living Conditions,

(d) Harsh Working Conditions,

(e) Women’s Issues (Suffrage)

The Muckrakers

-1st step was to expose the problems

-muckrakers = writers who brought the problems to life through their stories & articles

--Lincoln Steffens The Shame of the Cities –

corruption in city government

--Ida Tarbell

The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904)Exposed the practices of Rockefeller and his oil

company

--Jacob Riis –journalist and photographer

Dedicated to solving problems of the poor: especially housing-related ones in NYC

How the Other Half Lives (1890)

--Upton Sinclair – The Jungle

Theodore Roosevelt’s The Square Deal

1902 Anthracite Coal Strike (PA)

Owners and Laborers won a “Square Deal”

Used Presidency to push through his ideals

Roosevelt = “Trust buster”

-1903 created the Dept of Commerce & Labor

-1906 Pure Food & Drug Act – which forbids the use of harmful additives in foods & misleading ads

-he broke up trusts and monopolies

-Hepburn Act – reinforced the ICC

-set limits on shipping costs

-set max prices for bridge tolls and ferries

T.R. The Conservationist

Yellowstone, WY (1872)Yosemite & Sequoia CA (1890)John Muir (CA Naturalist)5 National Parks & 51 Bird Sanctuaries Use it, but Don’t Abuse it! = TR’s Rational Use Policy

The Election of 1912

Republican Party Split – Taft vs. T.R.

T.R. joins Progressive Party or Bull Moose Party

Because the party is split, Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) wins

Wilson created The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prevent large companies from destroying smaller ones

-Clayton Anti-trust Act (1914)

-strengthened the Sherman Anti-trust Act

-spells out what businesses can’t do

-Federal Reserve Act

-put banks under national government control

-sets interest rates for money banks lend out

17th Amendment – Direct Election of Sen.

18th Amendment – Prohibition of alcohol

19th Amendment – Women Got the Vote