UNIT 9: THE GILDED AGE

Gilded:1. To cover with or as if with a thin

gold layer.2. To give an often deceptively

attractive or approved appearance to.

Term originally coined By Mark Twain.

The New Industrial Age: 3 ingredients that turned the nation

into the world’s leading economy:Ingredient #1: Abundant and Available resources:

a) Coal fields of the Appalachians (PA, WV, KY)

b) Iron ore in The Great Lakes regionc) Petroleum (PA, TX, WY, OK, etc.)

Huge Labor Pool:Ingredient #2: Huge labor pool (Two Sources):

A) Immigration:a. 1840-90, most from

northern Europe (GB,

Germany, Scand.)b. 1890-1920, most

from southern eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Russia). Called “New

immigrants.

Huge Labor Pool, cont.: Please note: Asians were not a part of

these two huge waves of immigration. Why?1. Chinese Exclusion Act (1882):

Congress made it illegal for Chinese to enter US.

2. Gentlemen’s Agreement (1907): Japan agrees not to issue passports to their citizens and US agrees to accept immigrants already here.

Huge Labor Pool, cont.:B)Migration from the deep

south (poor southern whites and former slaves left the rural south and went to large cities in the north).

Many found work as unskilled laborers in mines, factories, and mills.

Ingredient #3: Strong Business Leadership: Most talented young men went

into business, not politics or professional careers (doctor, lawyer, etc.).

Many built large corporations that controlled entire industries.

Some became very wealthy at the same time the avg. worker struggled to survive.

The Robber Barons: John D. Rockefeller: Started

Standard Oil (now Exxon-Mobil).

Andrew Carnegie: Built United States Steel Corp.

Charles Pillsbury: You know, the doughboy!

Andrew Mellon & JP Morgan: Banking

Cornelius Vanderbilt: Railroads and Shipping

John Jacob Astor & James B. Duke: Tobacco

How They Lived:

Justifying their wealth

Social Darwinism Belief that, as in the animal

kingdom, in the world of business, only the strong survive.

The rich justified their wealth by arguing that it was the “natural order” of life…

Any effort by gov’t to regulate business was argued to go against nature

How Did They Become So Wealthy?

Vertical and Horizontal Integration.1. Vertical: Control of an industry

from top to bottom (raw materials to finished product).ex. Carnegie: owned mining companies (iron and coal) owned rail lines and freight ships owned steel mills (finished products).

2. Horizontal: Buying out all your competitors.

The Labor Movement The effects of Industrialization:● Workers became machine

operators, skilled at one aspect of production, not craftsmen who knew every step (job satisfaction lost).

● Factories took away personal freedom

● $ gap grew between workers and employers

● Economic conditions forced more children to work

Stop Whining About Homework!

Workers joined unions Unions established in many

industries

for example:

- International Cigar Makers Union- American Railway Union- United Mine Workers

The Labor Movement Labor’s Main Goals:

1. Higher wages 2. Better/safer working conditions

3. Fewer hours Labor’s main tactics to

achieve goals:1. Negotiation & bargaining

2. Work slowdown3. Strikes4. Violence

The Labor Movement: Management’s Main

Weapons to Break the Unions:1. “Yellow Dog” contracts2. Lockouts3. “Scab” labor4. Strikebreakers (armed thugs)5. “blacklisting”

Labor Strikes and Violence:

There had been a # of local strikes before 1870, but in 1877 there was the first nationwide strike…

The Great Strike of 1877:-wages for workers on Baltimore & Ohio RR were cut 2nd time in 2 months workers go on strike.

The Great Strike of 1877, cont.

Result:1. Work stoppage stalled nation’s RRs as strike spread to other lines.2. President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered federal troops in to run the RR. (US Constitution gives fed gov’t the right to regulate interstate commerce).-The strike was broken soon thereafter.

More ConflictThe Haymarket Riot (1886):1. Get a book…use the index at the

back2. Read first, then make a few notes

on what happened that day3. Most important: what were the

outcomes/results of the riot?

More Strikes and Violence…

1. Homestead Steel Strike (1892): Homestead, PA.

take notes on this as you did for the events at Haymarket

Homestead Strike Video - The Men Who Built America - History.com

Gov’t, Business, and Labor Gov’t sided with big business from

1870-1890 (“laissez faire” capitalism).

Teddy Roosevelt earned national reputation as a “trust buster”... Break up monopolies

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): made monopolies illegal.