5-3.4 Vocabulary1. capital – accumulated goods devoted to the production of other goods.2. wages – an amount of money that a worker is paid based on the number of

hours, days, etc., that are worked.3. Labor – work.4. industrial economy (society) – a society in which most people make their

living based on manufacturing.5. agrarian economy (society) – a society in which most people make their living

by farming.6. immigrant – a person who leaves one country to settle permanently in

another.7. profit – the return on a business undertaking after expenses have been met.8. monopoly – the exclusive control by one company or group over the means

of producing and/or selling a commodity or service.9. labor unions – organized association of workers united in their view of wages,

hours, and working conditions.10. Progressive reformers – people who, in response to industrialization after the

U.S. Civil War, worked to create social reforms, such as the creation of settlement houses and the enactment of child labor laws.

11. mortgage – a legal agreement in which a person borrows money to buy property (such as a house) and pays back the money over a period of years

12. foreclosure – a legal proceeding that bars or extinguishes a mortgagor's right of redeeming a mortgaged estate

13. advocate – a person who argues for or supports a cause or policy

14. sanitation – the process of keeping places free from dirt, infection, disease, etc., by removing waste, trash and garbage, by cleaning streets, etc.

15. constituents - any one of the people who live and vote in an area

16. collective bargaining – talks between an employer and the leaders of a union about how much a group of workers will be paid, how many hours they will work, etc.

17. strikes – a period of time when workers stop work in order to force an employer to agree to their demands

18. compulsory school – required by a law or rule

19. unconstitutional – not allowed by the constitution of a country or government : not constitutional

20. trusts – a firm or combination of firms or corporations for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices throughout a business or industry.

21. Prohibition – another term used for the 18th Amendment, which prohibited (not allow) the making, selling, and transporting alcohol in the United States.

22. Propaganda - ideas or statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are spread in order to help a cause, a political leader, a government, etc.

5-3.4Summarize the impact of

industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of big business, including the

development of monopolies; long hours, low wages, and unsafe working

conditions on men, women, and children laborers; and resulting reform

movements.

The growth of Big Business was both a cause and an effect of increased immigration.

• Cause: Big Business encouraged the United States Government to continue an open immigration policy so that the workforce would be plentiful and cheap.

• Effect: immigrants were attracted to jobs created by Big Business and enabled the businesses to grow bigger because they worked for low wages and therefore the businesses made greater profits.

Big Business was also caused by:• Availability of natural resources (land)• New inventions and technologies• Capital for investments • The role of entrepreneurs who created monopolies

Andrew Carnegie (steel industry) John D Rockefeller (oil industry) Monopolies kept wages low and labor unions from being effective

• As industries grew, the U.S. shifted from an agrarian economy based on agriculture to an industrial economy based on manufacturing.

• Farmers were able to produce more crops because of mechanization. As a result, the prices they got for their crops fell (supply and demand). Unable to pay mortgages on land and equipment because of low profits, many farmers lost their farms to foreclosure and moved to the cities in search of jobs in industry.

• In the late 1800’s, many African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers left the South for cities in the Midwest and the Northeast in search of jobs in factories and to escape Jim Crow Law.

• By 1920, the majority of people in the United States lived in cities.

The Big Shift

• As cities grew due to the increase in immigration and movement from the farm, middle class Americans were concerned about the living conditions and the corruptions of city governments.

• Crowded conditions led to problems providing sanitation. Issues related to water and housing contributed to opportunities for corruption among city officials who were often supported by their ethnic constituents.

• Middle class Americans lived in the cities too and paid taxes for city government.

Cities Grow

Progressive Reformers at the Economic Level

• Progressive reformers advocated the establishment of city parks, beautification projects, safer housing, and sanitation. They also promoted teaching immigrants to adapt to their new country by establishing settlement houses where immigrants were taught social skills.

• Progressive reformers were also very concerned about unsafe conditions in factories and about the long hours that workers, particularly women and children, were expected to work.

• They did not support labor unions’ actions such as collective bargaining and strikes to address these issues. Instead, they advocated the passage of laws.

• Conditions in the factories were publicized by the increasingly popular newspapers and magazines, illustrated with photographs showing the unsafe working conditions.

• Writers of exposes about corporate power and unsafe working conditions were called muckrakers, a term first used by President Teddy Roosevelt, because they exposed the corruption of the system.

• Reformers advocated restricting child labor and passing laws requiring that children attend school. This was in direct opposition to the wishes of many working class families who needed the income provided by their working children. Workers sometimes resented the interference of reformers in their lives.

• Some compulsory school attendance laws were passed at the state level, but a federal child labor law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

• The federal government did not successfully enforce child labor laws or minimum wage and maximum hours laws for workers until the New Deal reforms following the Great Depression.

Progressives at the Federal Level

• Progressives feared that Big Business not only had too much control over the economy, but also that trusts had too much influence over the American government.

• During the late nineteenth century, Congress passed a law declaring monopolies, or trusts in restraint of trade, to be unlawful [Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890]. However, this law did not end monopolies because the Supreme Court limited its effectiveness.

• When Theodore Roosevelt became president in1901, there was an assertive (take action) progressive in the White House.

• Roosevelt was encouraged by muckraking writers: Ida Tarbell – exposed oil trusts Upton Sinclair – exposed meat-packing trusts

• Roosevelt began to use the old law to successfully break up trusts and earned the name “trust-buster.”

• Roosevelt also protected the rights of the consumer by pushing for the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act and he promoted the regulation of railroads.

• President William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson continued this work and are known, along with Roosevelt, as the progressive presidents.

Progressive Reformers at the Social Level

• Progressives were also concerned about improving society by controlling the moral behavior of all Americans and particularly of the immigrants.

• The movement to limit the consumption of alcohol [the temperance movement] had been going on since the time of the American Revolution and got a popular boost as a result of the influx of immigrants in the late 19th century.

• Some states passed prohibition laws and others passed blue laws to limit the sale of alcohol.

• When World War I started, propaganda against the Germans, who were known for their beer drinking and the voluntary rationing of grain, helped progressives push through Congress a national prohibition amendment that was then ratified by the states.

• The 18th Amendment outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. However, it could not stop people from drinking thus prohibiting illegal activities such as bootlegging and speakeasies until repealed by the 21st amendment in the 1930’s.