Unit 5: The End of the Gilded Age

OHS US HISTORY TEAM

Learning Objectives

• Explain the rise of the labor movement

• Explain the response by business and government

• Describe the rise of trusts and monopolies

• Describe their impact on workers and consumers

• Describe the governments response to trusts and monopolies

• Describe the working conditions in industrial America

Big Concepts

• As the nation industrialized and urbanized workers faced many challenges – low pay, dangerous conditions, long hours

• Women and children worked for less pay

• Workers began to organize into unions

• Unions went on strike against big business

• At first the government sided with big business

• Slowly the government began passing laws to break up powerful monopolies

Key Vocabulary

• YELLOW = MUST COPY

• GREEN = COPY IF TIME PERMITS

Labor Union

• A organized collection of workers

• Fight for – better pay, shorter hours, safe work place

Strike

• Union tactic to refuse to work

• Disrupt the business

• Stand outside company / carry signs / give speeches

• Force business to negotiate

Eugene Debs

• Union leader and social activist

• Founded American Railway Union – one of first unions in America

• Led Pullman strike

• Ran for president as socialist

• Jailed multiple times

Samuel Gompers

• Labor Leader

• Founded American Federation of Labor

• Used collective bargaining to increase pay and lower working hours

Important Events

• Great Railroad Strike of 1877 – railroad workers strike, soldiers used to break strike. Led to better labor organization and larger state militias.

• Pullman Strike – Railroad strike led by Debs, government supports the Pullman railroad company

• Haymarket Square Bombings – Workers protest police brutality –bombs kill police – public turns on labor unions

• Coal Creek Labor Saga – Tennessee coal miners go on strike and are replaced by prisoners leading to violent conflict. State sends troops.

Trust and Monopoly

• Trust – group of investors who control multiple businesses• JP Morgan controlled many separate railroad companies

• Monopoly – one business that controls a certain part of the economy• Standard Oil – Controlled 90% oil market

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

• first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices

• first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts

Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914

• defines unethical business practices, such as price fixing and monopolies

• upholds various rights of labor unions

Chronology Timeline

1877 – Great Railroad Strike “Great Upheaval”

1894 – Pullman Strike

1891– Coal Creek Labor Saga

1886 – Haymarket Square Bombings

1890 – Sherman Antitrust Act

1914-Clayton Antitrust Act

1886 – Gompers forms the AFL

Continuity and change

Continuity Change

IndustrializationRailroadsUrbanization

Unions formBusiness versus laborAntitrust lawsEnd of laissez-faire