Chapter 4

The Triumph of Industry

1865 - 1914

Section 1: Technology and Industrial Growth* Americans enthusiastically embraced innovation and technology

* U.S. Industrial Revolution followed the lead of the English Industrial Revolution

I. Encouraging Industrial Growth**The demands of the Civil War challenged industry to

produce both consumer and war goods quickly and more efficient than ever before

A. Natural Resources Fuel GrowthA. “unlimited” supplies of natural resources in the U.S.

1. coal mines – Eastern U.S. – for fuel2. forests – construction lumber 3. navigable river ways – transportation of resources4. Oil – Edwin Drake - built the 1st oil drill in Titusville, Pa. in 1859

made oil cheaper to produce and easy to transport.a) KEY to the further development of American Industry.

B. The Workforce Growsa. Large numbers of immigrants arrive to America

seeking work and a new life. Mostly Asians and Europeans - ¾ million in 1881 & 1 million in 1905.

i. Why – political upheaval, religious discrimination, and crop failures.

ii. Willing to work for lower wages – desperate for work…

iii. Industries now had a large and willing workforce

C. Capitalism Encourages Entrepreneurs

** Rags to riches became the American dream. See Horatio Alger excerpt pg 101

1. Entrepreneurs – People who invest money in a product or enterprise in order to make a profit. Government Policies Encourage Free Enterprise

a. Government gave railroad builders millions of acres of land in return for building links between the east and west.

b. Government created protective tariffs – taxes that made foreign made goods more costly than those made locally. Why?

c. Government practiced laissez faire policies – Allowed businesses to operate with minimal government interference. Good or bad??

Key Points • large supply of natural resources

• large and growing population of workers

• wide open opportunities to those willing to risk a business

• minimal government interference

II. Innovation Drives the Nation

• By the late 1800’s the drive for innovation and efficiency seemed to touch every aspect of American life.

• The # of patents grew dramatically as more and more people got involved in industry. Patents – a grant by the federal government granting the holder the exclusive right to develop, use, and sell an invention.

A. Electricity Transforms Life

a. Thomas Edison – 1876 opened world’s 1st research lab in Melo Park, NJ.

i. 1,000 patents, light bulb, city power plants

ii. many other inventions created were based off of Edison’s research and development.

B. Revolutionizing Communications

a. Samuel Morse – 1844 – Telegraph machine that could send electrical impulses across electrifies lines. Those impulses could be constructed into messages.

b. Alexander Graham Bell – patent on the telephone which enhanced electrically sent messages into voices being transmitted.

1. By 1900 there were 1 million telephones in the U.S.

Major Inventions of 1800’s – Pg 102

• What were the business/industrial ramifications of these new communication inventions?

C. Steel: A Practical Wonder

a. Henry Bessemer – 1850’s Created a process for purifying iron which resulted in a strong, but lightweight steel. Bessemer Process

b. American industry rapidly adopted the process and by 1890 the U.S. was producing & using more steel than any other country.

c. Steel made it possible to build skyscrapers, bridges, and elevators.

d. Suspension bridges – bridges in which the roadway is suspended by steel cables. Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 was the longest bridge in the world.

1. Built by John Roebling Co. – His company also built the Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Steel Video

• Click Here

D. Technology and Transportation

a. 1869 – George Westinghouse invented air brakes for RR cars

b. 1887 – Telegraph system for trains

c. Refrigerated cars for food.

d. By 1883 there were 3 transcontinental railroads. These RR linked the farthest western regions of the U.S. with the more industrialized and populated regions east of the Mississippi River.

e. Railroad Time – Divided the world into 24 time zones, 1 for each hour of the day.

24 Time Zones Today

i. Allowed trains to run on set schedules and made the accurate tracking of shipments possible.

ii. Was only used by railroad companies, but now is internationally used. (U.S. – Eastern, Central, Mountain, & Pacific)

f. advances also occurred with the development of electric streetcars and automobiles which allowed city dwellers to move further away from the rapidly overgrowing cities.

• Railroads in the American Industrial Revolution Video Segment. (2:44)

• Click Here

E. A Spiral of Growth

* All of these changes, and innovations led to enormous growth and development throughout the U.S.

a. Railroads could transport resources, goods, and people much more quickly and cheaper than in years past.

b. Many of the RR companies business and management practices were being successfully adopted in other areas of business.

c. Mass Production – Systems were developed that allowed businesses to manufacture enormous quantities of goods faster which reduced the cost of consumer goods in America.

III. The Impact of IndustrializationA. Linking World Markets

a. By the 1880’s the U.S. was dominating the international marketplace

b. Exports of U.S. food and goods rapidly expanded the American economy.

c. For this reason the U.S. was not only rapidly becoming and economic power, but a political power as well.

Why are economic power and political power connected?

B. Changing American Society

a. Farms were becoming more and more mechanized as more inventions directly related to farming were created.

b. This led to less farming jobs available and many farming people abandoning their lives on the farms to head to cities were industrial jobs were more readily available.

c. Americans now had easy access to the most modern clothing and supplies that would have been made by hand (and more expensive).

d. Cost of living increased and more and more Americans had to work harder and longer to make the money required to sustain their new lives.

C. Thinking About the Environment

a. Little thought was given to the effects of mass production on the environment.

b. Pollution was out of control – city air was filthy, waterways were being polluted with factory wastes, sewer systems were inadequate to meet the needs of growing population, erosion of natural resources and fears that industry was overtaking society became real

c. 1872 – The U.S. government’s new National Park Service set aside lands such as Yellowstone Park to respond to those fears about the environment.

• What examples can we name of how Industrialization affected the daily lives of Americans?

Section 2: The Rise of Big Business

** Big Business turned the U.S. into one of the most powerful countries in the world.

I. Fighting for ProfitsA. The Corporation Develops

• Corporation – Group ownership of a company (pg 108)» A group of people share ownership and risk of the

company

» If a business fails the investors only lose what they invested

» This solved many fears of expanding business and industry.

• Corporations were perfectly suited to expanding businesses.

– Access to more cash to buy, transport, and run factories all with less risk.

B. Gaining a Competitive Edgei. Raised profits with their buying powerii. Decreased wages to lower their own costsiii. Ran research labs to find better ways to run their factories

iv. Monopoly – Complete control of a product or servicea. Bought out their competition or drove them out of

businessb. Once a monopoly was gained, prices were often raised

dramatically = bad for consumers.

v. Cartel – Businesses making the same product agree to limit their production so the prices stay high.

vi. John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil) and Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie Steel) became the best known American industrialists – were often referred to as Robber Barons.

C. Horizontal and Vertical Integration

• See pages 110-111 for detailed explanation

• These terms/ideas will be on the test

II. Debating the Role of Big Business* While big business blossomed, smaller companies and

businessmen began to questions the legality of the practices being used to dominate the markets

A. “Robber Barons” or “Captains of Industry”?i. robber baron – term often used to describe

American industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller.

a. These men became very smart about the way that they controlled their industry

b. Often created cartels or monopolies that put smaller companies out of business and eventually raised prices that hurt the average American consumer.

Robber Barons of the 1880’s

B. Social Darwinism Catches On

i. Social Darwinism – Charles Darwin’s theory that only the strong survive.

a. People used this philosophy to condone their business practices.

b. These same people argued that the government had no business involving themselves into the private business affairs of companies.

c. Social Darwinism was also used to justify racial discrimination against minorities in America.

III. The Government Imposes Regulations

A. Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) – 1st federal office created to monitor American business operations.

i. could only monitor business (not pass laws) that was conducted while crossing state lines – ie…railroads

ii. investigated complaints of unfair business practices.

B. Sherman Anti-Trust Act – 1890i. Outlawed the creation of any trust that restrained the free trade of

other businesses. 1st real attempt at government regulation of American business

ii. Difficult to enforce due to lawsuits filed by big business leadersiii. Big business often turned the tables by using it to file complaints

against labor unions that they felt were impeding upon their business operations

Section 3: The Organized Labor Movement

• Workers began to rebel against low wages, unsafe conditions, and unfair treatment

• The great wealth being produced by factories was NOT passing on to the workers

• Workers, many who were immigrants, minorities, and women often faced discrimination

I. Workers Endure HardshipsC. Factory Work

i. Immigrants made up the majority of factory workers since they would often worked for lower wages.

ii. Would often take any job for any wage

iii. Sweatshops – small, dirty, unsafe mass production workshops were many immigrants worked for scraps of what the businesses were making.a. Owners regulated such things as breaks, days allowed to work,

& hours worked.b. Workers could be fired for the smallest of offenses such as

being late, sickness, or getting injured on the job.

iv. Work places were very dangerous as there were no government regulations protecting workers. Get hurt, and a new worker would be found.

Sewing Sweatshop

D. Families in the Workforce

i. More and more jobs opened for women as laundresses, telegraph operators, and typists.

ii. Wages were so low that in most families both parents HAD to work which often led to children coming to work.

iii. This led to children being put to work to earn some extra $ for the family

iv. By the end of the 1800’s 25% of all children between10-16 worked full time in horrid conditions for next to nothing.

E. Living in Company Towns

i. Company towns – housing communities that were owned by businesses and rented to families.

ii. Local stores owned by company as well – charged high $$

iii. Many times at the end of the month employees owed the company money

iv. Wage slavery – workers were required by law to remain working for the company if they owed them money. They were stuck and could not quit or move

II. Labor Unions Form

A. Early Labor Protestsi. Collective bargaining – Negotiating as a group

with the employer for better wages or working conditions. (Pro sports today)

ii. Strike – A work stoppage until demands of workers are met.

iii. 1st American labor union formed in 1834 – National Trades Union

B. Socialism Spreads

i. Socialism – Economic and political philosophy that favors public control of property and income. Believed that wealth should be shared by all.

ii. Karl Marx – Wrote “The Communist Manifesto” in 1848 denouncing capitalism and predicting that workers would overturn it.

a. became the basis of Communism years later.

C. Founding the Knights of Labor

i. Founded by Uriah Stephens in 1869.

ii. Included all laborers, skilled and unskilled including African Americans.

iii. Under the leadership of Terence Powderly the

union grew to over 700,000, but was pretty much

dead by the 1890’s

D. Forming the AFLi. American Federation of Labor (AFL) – Labor

union founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886.

a. A craft union of skilled workers that sought to give themselves strength by creating funds to support workers on strike.

b. focused on specific issues such as wages, working hours, and work conditions.

III. Strikes Rock the Nation

As labor unions became more organized and popular confrontations between workers and owners naturally grew.

A. Violence Erupts in Haymarket Square

i. May 1 1886 – Thousands of workers nationwide took part in a national demonstration for an 8 hr workday.

ii. May 4 1886 – protesters gathered at Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest police action against the demonstrators.

iii. An anarchist protester threw a bomb into the police gathered nearby and full on riot occurred. a. dozens killed, 8 anarchists tried for murder, 4 executed.

b. even though the people involved in starting the violence were not part of a labor union…to the rest of the U.S. unions began to be associated with violence.

c. Employers became even more wary of unions.

B. Steel Workers Strike at Homestead

i. Andrew Carnegie operated a steel mill in Homestead, Pa.

ii. Workers went on strike for better wages in the summer of 1892

iii. Carnegies partner, Henry Frick, brought in the Pinkerton Detective Agency to supply security for new workers brought in.

iv. A gunfight broke out between striking workers and the detectives as workers spotted the scabs being snuck in to the plant.

C. Workers Strike Against Pullmani. 1893 – the Pullman Palace Car Company near

Chicago began laying off workers and cutting wages by 25%.

ii. Pullmans workers lived in his company town…anyone thought to be part of a union movement was fired and kicked out of town.

iii. Workers desperately joined in with the American Railway Union led by Eugene V. Debs.

iv. Debs turned the Pullman issue into a national strike by his union and all members refused to touch Pullman cars. Pullman Strike

Pullman Strike• A special train which patrolled the

Rock Island railroad during the Pullman strike, carrying a company of the 15th U.S. Infantry. The strike spread to most of the railroads west of Chicago. Although Illinois reform Governor John P. Altgeld declared that he had the city under control, President Grover Cleveland got a court injunction against the striking Railway Union, and ordered federal troops to Chicago, on the grounds that it was the federal responsibility to deliver the mail. When violence broke out in the rail yards, the army seized rail yards in California and Illinois, and escorted the trains out of the stations in defiance of the strike..

v. The Federal government eventually stepped in when the U.S. mail was disrupted by striking workers refusing to handle mail that had been placed on Pullman cars.

vi. Eugene V. Debs was arrested for refusing to stop the strike.

vii. Once again, Americans were getting the idea that unions were not in the best interest of the country.

D. Effects on the Labor Movement

i. Employers began filing complaints with the government about labor union methods

ii. Often times the government sided with employers and severely handicapped the growth of unions in the U. S. for over 30 years.

iii. For the time being…labor unions began to die, but workers were now committed to making changes in the way that workers were treated by owners.

John D. Rockefeller Video

• Click Here to Play(4:50)