Unit 1, Lecture 1:Industrialization in America

Age of Progress

• Many new inventions are produced at once.– Light bulb, steam engine for trains, tractor

• New goods are produced, at a faster rate.– People can buy new things– Clothes, cars

Railroads are King

• Made travel reliable and movement westward a possibility.

• Transcontinental Railroad: Railroad line that goes across the continent (across the U.S.)

• Immigrants are hired to build railroads.– Harsh conditions– 1888: 2,000 employees killed and 20,000 injured

• Time zones are set up. – Helps standardize time across the country

Benefits and Problems

• Helps industry grow, also small towns– Iron, coal, steel, lumber, and glass– Small towns have more infrastructure

• Potential for abuse in the system– Pullman Railcar Company: new small towns– Credit Mobilier: Stockholders and company pocket

profits illegally • Growth of the Grange– Organization of farmers, protect their interests– Munn vs. Illinois: Upholds granger laws (laws

governing railway treatment of farmers)

• Interstate Commerce Act: Supreme Court rules that a state cannot set rates ( $ charges) on commerce between states. – Now the job of the federal government, and the

ICC• Vulnerable to economic crash of 1893– Poorly managed, overbuilt, competition

Titans of Industry

• Andrew Carnegie– 1899: Carnegie Steel Company makes more steel

than all of England combined– Makes new products cheaply– Uses new technology– Encourages competition in workers

• John D. Rockefeller – Oil tycoon who uses the trust system (agreements

with other companies) to get total control of the oil industry in America

Social Darwinism vs. Gospel of Wealth

• Social Darwinism: Survival of the fittest for people. Rich are wealthy because they are better suited.

• Gospel of Wealth: Rich have a duty to make sure their money does good work in the world.

Quick Question:

• Turn to an elbow partner. Do you agree more with Social Darwinism or the Gospel of Wealth? Why?

(Be ready to share.)

Vertical and Horizontal Integration

• Vertical Integration: Process of buying our suppliers, other parts of a production chain.

• Horizontal integration: Buying companies that make similar products.

• Both processes lead to dominance in industries, few people with lots of control

Labor Unions

• Debate over craft unions (for skilled workers) and industrial unions (for everyone in an industry).– Samuel Gompers (Craft Unionism)– Eugene Debs (Industrial Unionism)

• Socialism: economic and political system based on government control of business, property, and distribution of wealth. – Seen as threat.– IWW (Wobblies, union)

Strikes and Violence

• Haymarket Affair: A bomb is tossed into a crowd protesting police brutality against a striker. Several people are charged and hanged.

• Homestead Strike: Carnegie steel plant: battle between strikers and Pinkerton agents. Several die, and steel unions end for many years.

• Pullman Company Strike: Workers protest unfair living conditions/wages.