![Page 1: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Business and Labor in the Gilded Age
Innovation, Profits, and
Workers’ Rights
![Page 2: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Major Issues
Forms of business innovation in late 19th-c. New technologies and processes Social class in America The Labor Question Labor-Business conflicts Forms of labor organization Politics & trade unions American Radicalism
![Page 3: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Industrial Capitalism: Different Perspectives on Success
Business/Managers Profit Efficiency Time-management Expansion Low turnover Control over workplace,
workforce Stockholder equity Productivity Bright future for business
Workers
Quality of life Good working conditions Higher wages Advancement opportunities Benefits Job stability/security Profit-sharing Bigger piece of the pie Gratitude/ acknowledgment
![Page 4: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Pittsburgh & Steel in the Gilded Age
![Page 5: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
![Page 6: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
![Page 7: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
![Page 8: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
![Page 9: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Pushing Coke from
By-product Oven,
by Aaron Henry Gorson,
( n.d.) .
![Page 10: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Gorson, River Embankment
![Page 11: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Gorson, The Burn Off
![Page 12: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Gorson, At the Riverhead
![Page 13: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Gorson, Pittsburgh Steel Mill at Night
![Page 14: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Steel Images: Attitudes Towards Industry?
![Page 15: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Late 19th-Century Business Innovations Capitalism = dynamic system, always changing Capitalists always trying to find new ways to
achieve profits and control Use of new technologies and methods of
production New ways of getting the most value out of
employees Cutting costs for labor, supplies, transport,
processing
![Page 16: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
J.M.W. Turner, “Rain, Steam, Speed, The Great Western Railway,” 1844
![Page 17: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
J.M.W. Turner, “Rain, Steam, Speed, The Great Western Railway,” 1844
Freedom & Power for some; exploitation and powerlessness for others
New ways of thinking about individual, society, one’s place in the world
Exciting & Troubling at the same time
Capitalism = new ways of thinking about time, space, speed, self, and society
![Page 18: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Role of Railroads
Capital-intensive industry = needed a lot
of $ to pay for machinery and rails Answer: Corporations and stocks New transportation routes = new markets, a
national market for goods A far-flung business = new management
structures = departments & white collar jobs Railroad managers move on to other
industries – Carnegie and others Great market for steel
![Page 19: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Rise of Big Business Modeled on railroads Looked to increase profits by cutting costs,
increasing output of goods, cutting down on competition
Get Bigger - Vertical integration – swallow up suppliers and sellers – Swift meatpacking
Monopoly – Rockefeller Oil – sweetheart deals with railroads (also vertical int.)
Better marketing – advertising advantages Crush competitors by lowering prices or
buying them out (horizontal integration)
![Page 20: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Rise of the Corporation
Link to clips from documentary The Corporation
What is the corporation? Benefits? Problems?
![Page 21: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
New Industries = New Social Classes in America Myth: America is class-less society (no classes) Gilded Age saw creation of new classes and new
class conflicts Nouveau-riche (New rich) elite – non-inherited
wealth, entrepreneurs, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt
Middle-class – white collar managers, engineers, office workers
Changes in working-class: growth of unskilled manufacturing workforce
Different classes had different ideas of how economy should work, who it should benefit most, who should have power
![Page 22: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Different Perspectives on Social Class in America
![Page 23: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
The American Elite Elite Ideology – the elite’s perspective on the world Way they viewed:
Themselves The society The economy The government’s role, politics Work – who does what and why? Wealth – who should get it and why? Who should have power, who shouldn’t? Gender roles (in family, society, politics, work, etc.) Who should make decisions, who shouldn’t? Was capitalism a good thing and for whom?
![Page 24: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
John D. RockefellerPainted by John Singer Sargent
Impressions of painting
![Page 25: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Upper Class View of the World
William Graham Sumner & Social Darwinism: Individual liberty = individual wealth Inequality of wealth is natural Survival of the fittest Poor – it’s their fault, lazy, vice, uneducated Laissez-faire argument – limited govt. Inequality is good – eliminates the weak Idea of social improvement - evolution
![Page 26: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Rauschenberg
Social Gospel There is a problem – greed, inequality A social problem Religious message – Christianity of love, golden
rule Stewardship idea Government involvement
![Page 27: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Impressions of Painting
John Singer SargentVideo
J.S.S. Video #2
![Page 28: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Abbott Thayer, “Winged Figure,” 1889
![Page 29: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Abbott Thayer, “The Virgin”
![Page 30: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Abbott Thayer, “Angel,”1889
![Page 31: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Thomas Dewing, “Summer,” 1890
![Page 32: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Upper Class Gender Roles:Victorian Separate Spheres
Men Women
Problems with Victorian Separate Spheres?:
![Page 33: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Definition of Social Class
How does class work in this time period?
![Page 34: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
American Labor: Traditions & Challenges
![Page 35: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Labor Songs of Gilded Age
Mining Songs
![Page 36: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
The Labor Question End of Reconstruction, ignoring plight of southern
blacks; “end of frontier” – nation turned to growing labor conflict and economic concerns
Labor Question: What share of the wealth, power, and rights would workers have in the new modern industrial economy?
What models of worker power were most effective in opposing Capital/Big Business?
What forms of organization were most inclusive or exclusive of all American workers?
What strategies did capital use to fight and control workers?
What role did the government play in the Labor Question?
![Page 37: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Different Labor Visions: The Change from Traditional Male
Labor to New Industrial Labor
![Page 38: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Thomas Anschutz, Ironworkers – Noontime
![Page 39: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Interpretation of Painting
Impressions?
![Page 40: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Traditional Labor Relations Related to Free Labor Ideology Craft workers and skilled trades –
apprenticeships and training = dignity of work Independence vs. “wage slavery” Manly brotherhood and fraternity Exclusivity = training (no women or minorities) Control over workplace and work pace/output Bargaining power with owners, some became
owners themselves Basis for trade unions
![Page 41: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
The Veteran in a New Field, 1865Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)Oil on canvas
![Page 42: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
Traditional Labor Hierarchy Under Threat
Artisanal/Farm Household Economy
Power =
Male breadwinner,Farmer or skilled worker
/\Dependents:
Apprentices
Women
Children
Big Business - Unskilled or semi-skilled industrial work
Power =
Owners/stockholders
/\
Managers
White Collar workers
/\
Men—women—immigrants
(Low pay, little power)
![Page 43: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Different Steps and Workers in Iron-making process Iron Charger - Placed the iron ore into the smelting
furnace Iron Founder - Founds or casts iron Iron Moulder - Made molds for casting iron Iron Puddler - Made wrought iron using the puddling
process Iron Roller - Worked a machine that rolled iron to form
and shape it Iron Turner - Used a lathe to turn items from iron Ironmaster - Foundry owner / manager Ironsmith - Blacksmith Laborers - unskilled workers who moved materials
![Page 44: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
Big Business = Threat to Labor Why would changes in manufacturing be a threat to workers? Carnegie and the Homestead Strike, 1892
Broke power of trade unions Replaced skilled workers with unskilled Steel industry non-union until 1930s
Frederick W. Taylor Scientific management –
What does Taylor think about Schmidt?
![Page 45: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
Homestead Strike, 1892:Burning Barges
![Page 46: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
Westinghouse Corporation Films, 1904
Skilled Male Work & Skilled Furnace Work Less-Skilled Work Women’s Work 1 & Women’s Work 2 The Time-Clock
Major Issues in Films?
![Page 47: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
The New Working Class “New immigrants” from southern and eastern
Europe Traditional gender divisions, but rising # of women
in industry Black workers used for dirtiest lowest-paid jobs In south, 19th c. textile industry often reserved for
white families Child labor All of these groups formerly excluded from
manufacturing, but could now take unskilled or semi-skilled jobs – threat to male domain
![Page 48: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
Options Available for the Worker?
?
![Page 49: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
Responses: Unions and Politics
Trade Unions (Sam Gompers & AFL)– protect traditional crafts and trades (mostly white males), power in workplace, force employers to bargain – “More” of the pie
Knights of Labor -- organize all “producers”, create new society with respect for producers, education
Ind. Workers of the World (IWW) – organize all workers into One Big Union, fight as a class, unions will run economy and society (syndicalism)
American Railway Union (Debs) – all rail workers in one union (model for other industries too)
Socialist Party (Debs) – along with unions, fight for political power to change system
![Page 50: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/50.jpg)
Knights of Labor: Beliefs & Goals Stop child labor Proper share of the wealth Arbitration, rather than strikes Equal pay for equal work, women’s rights Appeal to #s, larger pool of workers who could join organization Dealing with reality of changing workforce Getting govt. involved on the side of workers – banking, land issues 8-hour day Shifting power to workers Weekly pay Right to organize a union
![Page 51: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/51.jpg)
Knights of Labor: Beliefs & Goals Value knowledge, rather than wealth Government involvement on the side of labor Equal pay for equal work Abolish child labor 8-hour day Shifting power to workers National money paid to workers Reform justice system Fair land distribution Reform banking Organize all workers, inclusive
![Page 52: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/52.jpg)
Major Labor Conflicts and Issues, 1877-1892
![Page 53: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/53.jpg)
1877 Great Railroad Strike
Railworkers fought cuts in wagesduring Panic of 1873
Shut down rail lines across country
After attacked, burned rail facilities in Pittsburgh
Federal troops broke strike
Photos of Pittsburgh
destruction
![Page 54: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/54.jpg)
•Eight-hour Movement – the fight for the eight-hour day
•Protests, strikes, and political action
•Led to Haymarket Massacre in 1886
![Page 55: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/55.jpg)
Lead-up to Haymarket
Massacre:
A call for revenge against police
after strikers were shot at
McCormick Reaper Works
in Chicago on May 3rd, 1886
![Page 56: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/56.jpg)
![Page 57: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/57.jpg)
•Anarchists protested slaying of strikers
•Police intervened and bomb was thrown, killing police
•Eight anarchist leaders arrested, unfair trial, four executed
•Effects: national hysteria; crackdown on anarchists, radicals, and unions; May Day became international day of pro-worker and radical protest
Haymarket Square,
May 4th, 1886:
![Page 58: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/58.jpg)
Aftermath of Haymarket
Immigrants = Anarchists:
Go back to Europe (choice on left) or Receive American Justice (on right)
![Page 59: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/59.jpg)
Lasting Effects of Haymarket
Crackdown on unions, radicals, anarchists Employers, police, and govt. united Trade union idea won greatest support = the
most conservative option, protecting skilled male white workers, left the rest out
Red Scare, red-baiting – can defeat most protest movements by calling them anarchist or communist
![Page 60: Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062518/56649d165503460f949ecc47/html5/thumbnails/60.jpg)
Connections – Continuing Issues
Industrialization = new international markets, international engagement, imperialism
Industrialism mass production/mass consumption economy (Fordism)
Rising standard of living, but inequality, bad working conditions, pollution
Immigration issues Labor Question remained important Boom and bust economy depressions