Industrialization, Growth,

&The Progressive Movement

Growth of US Industry

• Military demands during the Civil War encouraged industrialization in the North

• US benefited from a wealth of natural resources needed to industrialize

• 1870 – 1910 – increased technological inventions (telephone, light bulb, electric motors, refrigeration, elevators)

• Rise in mass production & assembly lines

Robber Barons & The Gilded Age• Industrialization created new opportunities for

generating wealth• Growth of the railroad industry & the construction of

transcontinental railways made railroad owners very wealthy

• Robber Barons – industrial capitalist who at times used sharp dealings to gain control of an industry – Cornelius Vanderbilt – railroad– John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil – Andrew Carnegie – steel (a noted philanthropist –

one who donates their fortune to charitable causes)– J.P Morgan – finance & banking–Washington & Buck Duke – tobacco

Robber Barons and the Gilded Age

• Trust- when companies join together for one operation

• Monopolies – one supplier of a good & no competition

• Laissez–faire capitalism – no interference by the government into business/let business take a natural course

• Gilded Age (1870s – 1900s) – thin gold layer covers corruption, greed, & poverty

Early Government Regulation

• Interstate Commerce Act (1887)– regulate railroad rates/railroad companies

• Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) – designed to promote competition & make monopolies illegal – Supreme Court ruled that this act only applied to distribution, not manufacturing

Industrialization & the Citizen

• Dramatic increase in affordable consumer goods

• Increased job market in urban centers/suburbs

• Rise of an international market – US businesses invested & competed abroad as well as home

• Produced a higher standard of living for many

Urbanization & Immigration

• 2nd half of 1800s saw a dramatic growth in the size & number of US cities due to industrialization/jobs

• Migration in the US to the urban areas from rural areas for high wages & lifestyle

• Immigration from Europe/Asia to American cities– Ellis Island (NY harbor) – opened in 1892 to

receive the large number of immigrants arriving

Urbanization & Immigration

• Increased diversity in US population – cultural pluralism

• Rise in nativism – distrust of foreigner– Immigrants took jobs, lived in ethnic ghettos in

cities, different religions, rivalries existed amongst the immigrant groups as well

– Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) – prohibited immigration from China until 1943

Urban Conditions• Industrialization/urbanization increased

problems as well as opportunities• Low wages, unsafe working conditions, child

labor, 14 + hour workdays, cramped & unsanitary living quarters– Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (1911) – fire in a

sweatshop kills 146 people. Unsafe work conditions. Lead to demand for better working conditions and government regulation

• Urban slum/ethnic neighborhoods/tenements – areas of cities where newly arrived immigrants tended to live

Urban Conditions

• Increased role government regulation with police, fire, & sewage– Cities became increased political battlegrounds

• Political machines – unofficial political body which traded jobs for votes to keep its candidates in office– Tammany Hall & “Boss” Tweed

The Rise of Labor Unions

• Problems with living/work conditions that faced industrial worker lead to a rise in labor union activity

• Union – an organization where a group of workers form to protect their mutual interests – wages, work hours, unsafe conditions–Knights of Labor–American Federation of Labor (AFL) – led by

Samuel Gompers

The Rise of Labor Unions

• Methods used by labor unions– Strikes - refuse to work until demands are met– Boycott - refuse to buy or pay for a product– Collective bargaining - workers negotiate with

the management as a united group–Mediation/arbitration - having a third neutral

party step in • Eugene Debs – effective labor organizer &

socialist

The Rise of Labor Unions

• Methods used by business owners/management– Blacklist – list of union members companies

would not hire– Lockout – employees not allowed to return to

work– Hire scabs – replacement workers– Injunctions – court orders forbidding strikes

that would threaten public interests

The Rise of Labor Unions

• Violence used at times by both sides– Great Strike of 1877 – federal troops sent by the

government to put down strike– Haymarket Riot – strike for 8 hour workday turned

violent – bomb kills police & workers – turns public against unions as they seem too violent

– Pullman Strike – national strike against railway company – again federal injunction against the strike & federal troops sent in to enforce court ruling

Industrialization & the FarmerPopulism

• Industrialization had positive and negative impacts on farmers– Pros – better mechanization & fertilizers to harvest

more crops– Cons – overproduction lowered crop prices &

lowered farmer profits– Most farmers fell increasingly into debt

Industrialization & the FarmerPopulism

• Argued for government regulation of railroad rates, farm subsides, & increased circulation of money (greenbacks & bimetallism)– The Grange – cooperation of farmers to buy & sell goods

• Rise of the Populist Movement– Movement to meet the needs of the farmers, regulate

business, set working standards, introduce election reform, & appeal to the “common man”

– Populist movement dealt a death in the election of 1896– However, many of its ideas were adapted by later Progressives

Reform and the Progressives• Progressive Period (1890s – 1910s) – era of political, social, & economic

reform against some of the problems of the Gilded Age • “Muckrakers” – journalist who wrote of corruption & abuse in either

big business or government – Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle – horrid conditions in meat processing– Jacob Riis – How the Other Half Lives – horrid living & working conditions

immigrants dealt with• Jane Addams – established Hull House settlement house – homes to

help poor immigrants • Temperance & Prohibition

– 18th Amendment – illegal to manufacture or sell alcohol: latter repealed by the 21st Amendment

• Women’s Suffrage Movement – Susan B. Anthony & National American Women’s Suffrage Association– 19th Amendment: granting women the right to vote

Political Reforms– Pendleton Act – Civil Service Commission – civil service exam for official

government positions. Appointments based upon merit rather than political leanings

• President Theodore Roosevelt – Anthracite Coal Mine Strike (1902) – Roosevelt arbitrates in favor of the

workers over management – change from previous administrations– Roosevelt would go on to break up numerous trust and monopolies – A great conservationist of natural resources /viewed as a successful

reformer• President William Howard Taft – expanded upon Roosevelt’s antitrust cases but

failed to win Progressive support• Roosevelt spilt the Republican Party running with the Progressive (or Bull

Moose) Party in 1912 against Taft• This split allowed for a Democratic victory – President Woodrow Wilson

– Wilson enforces antitrust laws – Clayton Antitrust Act– Establishes Federal Reserve – oversee banking in US– 16th Amendment – Federal graduated income tax– 17th Amendment – direct election of Senators by voters

Racial Reforms– Jim Crow laws & segregation of restaurants, schools, &

transportation still in place• Plessey v. Ferguson – over the segregation of railway

cars / Supreme Court rules that segregation was legal as long as the facilities were “separate but equal” in quality. In fact facilities for African Americans were not equal

• Notable African American reformers:– Booker T. Washington – established Tuskegee Institute to

train African Americans in skilled trades to achieve equality – consented to present segregation

– W.E.B. Du Bois – Harvard educated/ argued for political & legal activity to improve blacks social conditions – helped establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)