INDUSTRIAL AGECHAPTER 6

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IN THE LATE 1800, THE US WAS CONSIDERED A TIME OF GROWTH IN

BUSINESS, UNIONS, AND IMMIGRANTS

EDWIN DRAKE- OIL

• Seneca Oil Company to investigate suspected oil deposits• Steam engine to power drill• First person to drill for oil 1858 near Titusville, Pennsylvania

STEEL

•Bessemer Process- technique involved by Henry Bessemer and William Kelly 1850 injecting air into molten iron to remove the carbon and other impurities. This method was allowing the US to produce 90% of the world’s steel by 1880.

WHY STEEL??

• RAILROADS!! Barbed wire, McCormick’s and Deere’s farm machines

• Brooklyn bridge (1883), • sky scraper with

steel frame (William le Baron Jenny- father of skyscrapers)

Home Insurance Building

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

• growing urban population provided cheap labor and markets for new products • Why was it cheap? • Who provided the labor??

MEN AT LUNCH

Here are the immigrants who built, by hand, the greatest skyline in the world.

Here are the unsung heroes of Manhattan.

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

• Thomas Edison- Incandescent light bulb and entire system for producing and distributing electrical power• Charles Sholes- typewriter• Alexander Graham Bell- telephone

RAILROAD

• -allowed for westward expansion (companies, people, commerce moves west)

• Harsh living conditions for railroad workers. Romance and reality

• linked previously isolated cities, town• promoted trade• individual towns began to specialize in

something• Chicago: stockyards• Minneapolis: grain industries• sell large number of its product to entire country

ROMANCE VS REALITY

Romance

• Access to available land• Adventure• Fresh start • Made possible by the

hard workers

Reality

• Central Pacific Railroad• immigrants

• lay tracks by hand• attacks from NA• accidents and

diseases• 1888: 2,000 dead

20,000 injured

PROFESSOR C.F. DOWD

• Each company ran on its own time• 24 time zones•US• Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

•How did the growth of the railroads influence other industries?

• Iron, coal, steel, lumber, and glass needed for railroad’s demand for materials and parts.

COMPANY TOWN

• George C. Pullman- factory for making sleeper and other railroad cars• built a town near factory for employees• town provided basic needs • clean, well-constructed brick houses and apt

buildings-1 window per room (luxury) • services- doctor, shops, athletic fields• affects the south

COMPANY TOWN= NOT SO GLORIOUS

• strict guidelines• could not hang out on front steps• could not drink alcohol• tightly controlled environment= ensure stable

work force• Did not lower rents, led to Pullman Strike

FARMERS VS RAILROAD

railroads entered into formal agreements to fix prices- kept farmers in dept

charged different customers different ratesdemanded more for shorter hauls

GRANGER LAWS

• Munn v Illinois-1877• Interstate Commerce Act-1887- federal

government supervise railroad activities

ANDREW CARNEGIE

• Steel, 1899 Carnegie Steel Company• 1. make better products cheap• 2. incorporated new machinery and a new

accounting system to • 3. attracted talented people by offering them

stock in the company and he encouraged • competition among his assistance

• Goal: Control as much of the steel • industry

MONOPOLY (HOW IT WORKS)

•Veritical integration- buy out the suppliers

•Horizontal integration- buy out the companies producing similar products (limited competition)

SOCIAL DARWINISM AND LAISSEZ FAIRE

• philosophy- Charles Darwin• natural selection- pick of the weak

“survival of the fittest”• laissez faire- “allow to do”• marketplace should not be regulated• government should not intervene in a business

MONOPOLY

• Mergers- “cant beat them, join them”• horizontal integration• one corporation bought out the stock of

another• a firm that bought out all of its

competitors= monopoly• complete control over an industry’s

production, wages, and prices

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

• Standard Oil Company- huge profits but paid his employees extremely low, driving his competitors out of the market. When he controlled the market, he hiked prices far above original levels.• 1890- controlled 90% of nations refineries

• This tactic is what gave the name Robber barons

PHILANTHROPISTS

• give away a large sum of money to a charity or an organization• Rockefeller- $500 million Rockefeller Foundation• funds to create University of Chicago• medical institution that help find a cure for yellow fever

ROCKEFELLER’S DEFENSE FOR MILLIONAIRES

• “It will be a great mistake for the community to shoot the millionaires. For they are the bees that make the most honey, and contribute most to the hive even after they have gorged themselves full.”

SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT-1890(STOP MONOPOLIES)

• Government concerned that expanding corporations would stifle free competition• illegal to form a trust that interfered with free

trade between states or with other countries• hard to define trust• eventually stopped enforcing act

EMERGENCE OF LABOR UNION

• Laborers joined together to try and improve their working conditions- seven day work week-12 or more hours a day-working conditions 675 laborers were killed by work related accidents each week-Child labor

• Average pay 1899: -women $267 year-men $498 year-Andrew Carnegie $23 million

LABOR UNIONS

• First large scale Labor Union:NLU- National Labor Union segregatedKnights of Labor- “An injury to one is the concern of

all” -8 hr work day, equal pay for equal work- faded out, but labor unions increased and divided

SAMUEL GOMPERS AND AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AFL)

• focused on collective bargaining, negotiation between representatives of labor and management to reach written agreements on wages, hours, and working conditions. • The AFL used strikes as a major tactic to get what

was demanded. • This labor union only included skilled laborers

EUGENE V DEBS AND AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION (ARU)-

• included skilled and unskilled laborers • 1894- won a strike for higher wages (pullman

strike)• membership- 150,000

IWW AND SOCIALISM

• Socialism-government controls business and property however there would be an equal distribution of wealth. • A radical group, Industrial Workers of the World

(IWW) 1905, or known as wobblies.• headed by William “Big Bill” Haywood• Major strike in 1912- the Lawrence Textile strike

THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1877

• Great Strike of 1877- Baltimore and Ohio Railroad-protest 2nd wage cut in 2 months. 50,000 miles freight and passenger lines stopped for over 1 week- President Hayes had to intervene

THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR-

• May 4th 1886• 3,000 people crowd Chicago’s Haymarket Square

to protest police brutality- (one striker killed and several wounded day before)• someone dropped a bomb into the police line-

police fired• 7 police and 7 workers died• 8 charged for the riot- 4 hanged and 1 committed

suicide in prison• After riot- labor unions have a bad reputation

THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE

• Carnegie Steel Company’s Homestead Plant in PN• June 29, 1892- company cuts wages• hired armed guards to protect the plant and

scabs• workers forced out the guards• 3 detectives and 9 workers died• National Guard • strike continued till November• Changed Carnegie’s reputation

PULLMAN STRIKE

• Pullman Company laid off 3,000 of its 5800 employees• cut pay and did not lower rent• Eugene Debbs and ARU• Strike turned violent• federal troops called in• Debbs jailed and workers blacklisted

WOMEN’S LABOR MOVEMENT

• Mary Harris Jones• supported Great Strike of 1877• organized United Mine Workers of America• death threats and jail• led a march with wounded children to Teddy

Roosevelt