The Rise of Industrial America

By 1900, the U.S. had emerged as the leading industrial power in the world. Its

manufacturing output exceeded that of its three largest rivals, Great Britain, France,

and Germany

Factors of Growth

Natural Resources: coal, iron ore, copper, lead, timber and oil

Labor supply: immigrants and population growth Capital: money to invest in new business ventures Technology: 440,000 patents between 1860 and

1890 Government: business friendly policies protected

entrepreneurs Transportation: railroads, steamboats

Railroads Nation’s first big business Created a market for goods

and so led to mass production of those goods

Promoted other industries: coal and steel

Time zones created Creation of modern stock-

holder corporation

Railroads “Commodore” Cornelius

Vanderbilt used his own money to merge railroads in to the New York Central Railroad

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B & O)

Pennsylvania Railroad Chicago becomes important

RR center

Transcontinental Railroad During the Civil War, Congress

authorized land grants and loans to build the transcontinental RR

Union Pacific employed thousands of Irish and war veterans

Central Pacific employed thousands of Chinese

Finished in 1869 Other transcontinental RRs

were built

Transcontinental Railroad

Industrial Empires - Steel In 1870s Andrew Carnegie started

manufacturing steel in Pittsburgh, and soon dominates

Vertical Integration: company controls every stage of the industrial process (from mining to transportation)

By 1900, Carnegie Steel was producing more steel than all of Britain

Sells his company in 1901 for a quarter billion dollars

Philanthropist

Industrial Empires - Oil John D. Rockefeller founded a

company that controlled most of nation’s oil refineries

Standard Oil Trust Controlled 90% of oil refinery

business by 1881 Horizontal Integration:

competitors bought by single company

Trusts: various companies run by a board of trustees (former competitors brought under a single corporate umbrella)

Monopoly

Industrial Empires - Oil

Bosses of the Senate (1890)

Antitrust Movement

Trusts came under attack/scrutiny in 1880s Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in

1890, which prohibited any “contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce.”

Supreme Court rules in United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895) that the act applies to commerce, not manufacturing

Laissez-Faire Capitalism Industrialists appealed to this

philosophy to justify their methods

Social Darwinism: survival of the fittest

Gospel of Wealth: Protestant work ethic, hard work and material success are signs of God’s favor

Philanthropy

George Eastman In 1888 he perfects the Kodak

camera, the first camera designed specifically for roll film

In 1892 he establishes the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY

Mass produces photography equipment and film

He donates over $75 million to establish the Eastman School of Music and U of R school of medicine

Inventions Typewriter – 1867 Telephone – 1876 Cash register – 1879 Fountain pen – 1884 Adding machine – 1888 Thomas Edison has more than

a thousand patented inventions (lightbulb)

The Impact of Industrialization By 1890s, the richest 10% of

U.S. population controlled nine-tenths of the nation’s wealth

Mansions (Newport, RI), yachts, and lavish parties

Widening gap between rich and poor

“Self-made men” or rags to riches

Horatio Alger, Jr. novel portrays young man who become rich through hard work

Horatio Alger myth

Expanding Middle Class Growth of large corporations Thousands of white-collar jobs

are available Middle management Accountants, clerical workers,

and salespersons Doctors, lawyers

To what degree and in what ways did the industrial development of the late nineteenth century accentuate class, gender, and ethnic differences?

Wage Earnersand Working Women

By 1900 most wage earners worked 10 hour days, six days a week

Wages determined by supply and demand

1 out of 5 women worked for wages in 1900

Most were young and single Most people still believed, if

economically feasible, women belonged at home

Textiles, garments, secretaries, typists and telephone operators

Labor Discontent Factory system is much

different from “cottage industry”

Factory system is highly structured and regulated to inc. productivity

Assembly Line: mass production

Tyranny of the clock Dangerous: chemicals and

pollutants Strikes and labor unions

The Struggle for Organized Labor

Industrial Warfare: lockout: closing factory to

break labor movement blacklists: no hiring lists yellow-dog contracts: to get

hired you must agree not to join a union

Great railroad strike of 1877: waged cut + strike, President Hayes sends federal troops to break strike

Attempts to Organize National Unions

National Labor Union: 1866, skilled and unskilled workers, wanted higher wages, 8 hour work day, equal rights for minorities

Knights of Labor: 1869, Terence V. Powderly, open membership to Afr.-Ams. and women, wanted to end child labor and abolish trusts

Declines after Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886

Haymarket Bombing 80,000 Knight of Labor

members go on strike, plus 200 anarchists

Police attempt to break up the meeting, a bomb is thrown and seven police officers are killed

Many Americans concluded that the union movement was too radical and violent

Knights of Labor lost popularity

American Federation of Labor AFL, founded in 1886 Samuel Gompers Higher wages and better

working conditions Collective bargaining By 1909 – one million

members

Pullman Strike Pullman, IL Company town manufactured

railroad sleeping cars Workers went on strike over

wage cuts President Cleveland sends

federal troops to break the strike

Supreme Court rules in favor of employers

By 1900 only 3% of American workers belonged to unions

Lewis Hine and Child Labor Photographer Lewis Hine

documented the epidemic of child labor in the late 1800s and early 1900s

Reformers (mostly middle class) were outraged by various industrial outrages

It took decades of speeches, statistics and photos to bring change

Lewis Hine and Child Labor

Lewis Hine and Child labor

Lewis Hine and Child Labor