AMSCO Chapter 17 The Rise of Industrial America 1865-1900
Working Women
-1/5 of adult women in 1900 was working for wages -most young and single -woman's proper role was in home raising children (if could afford) -worked in factories that were extension of the home-textile, garment and food-processing industries -moved into male occupations (secretaries, book-keepers, typists, telephone operators) which became feminized and lost status-received low wages and salaries
Andrew Carnegie
-1850s-worked up from poor Scottish immigrant to superintendent of Pennsylvania RR -1870s-started manufacturing steel in Pittsburgh- outdistanced competition w/ salesmanship and latest tech -used vertical integration -1900- at top of steel industry -employed 20,000 workers and produced more steel than all steel mills in Britain
Railroads
-1865-35,000 to 1900-193,000 miles of rails -nation's first big business -created national market for goods -encouraged mass production, consumption and economic specialization -American Railroad Association- 4 times zones- became standard time across the country -led to creation of modern stockholder corporations, dvlpmt of complex structures in finance and business management and regulation of pompetition
antitrust movement
-1880s- middle class feared unchecked power of trusts and urban elites resented increasing influence of the new rich -could not cub trusts on state level -got Congress to pass Sherman Antitrust Act
Wage Earners
-1900-2/3 of working americans worked for wages -usually 10 hrs a day, six days a week -wages determined by laws of supply and demand -large supply of immigrants competing for factory jobs caused wages to be barely above the level needed for bare subsistence -most wage earners could not support a family on one income -1890- 11/12.5 mil families averaged less than $380/year
William Graham Sumner
-American social Darwinist-professor at Yale University -argued that help for the poor was misguided because it interfered with the laws of nature and would only weaken the evolution of the species by preserving the unfit
Haymarket bombing 1886
-Chicago-80,000 Knights in 1886, but also 200 anarchists-advocated violent overthrow of all gov't -May Day mvmt called for general strike to achieve 8 hr day -labor violence broke out at Chicago's McCormick Harvester plant -May 4-workers held public meeting in Haymarket square -police attempted to break up meeting, s/o threw a bomb and killed 7 police officers -8 tried for crime and 7 sentenced to death -many concluded union mvmt radical and violent
transatlantic cable
-Cyrus W. Field invented improved transatlantic cable in 1866 after civil war -made it possible to send messages across the seas instantly -by 1900, cables linked all continents- global communications
Herbert Spencer
-English social philosopher -thought Darwin's ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest should be applied to the marketplace -the concentration of wealth in the hands of the 'fit' was a benefit to the future human race
Homestead strike 1892
-Henry Clay Frick-manager of Carnegie's Homestead Steel plant near Pittsburg- cut wages by nearly 20% -resulted in strike -used lockout, guards and strikebreakers to defeat steelworkers' walkout after five months -failure of strike set back union mvmt in steal industry
pools
-RR's attempts to survive speculators -competing companies came together and secretly and informally agreed to fix rates and share traffic
rebates
-RRs' attempts to survive speculators -discounts RR companies offered to favored shippers while they charged high rates to farmers
Russell Conwell
-Reverend who gave popular lecture "Acres of Diamonds" -preached everyone had a duty to become rich
United States v. E. C. Knight
-Supreme Court ruled Sherman Antitrust act could only apply to commerce not manufacturing
In re Debs 1895
-Supreme court approved used of injunctions against strikes-gave employers a very powerful weapon to break unions -Debs served 6 mon. sentence- concluded more radical solutions needed to cure labor problems
Union and Central Pacific
-Union Pacific worked west from Omaha, Nebraska while Central Pacific worked east from Sacramento over Sierra Nevadas -Gen. Grenville Dodge directed Union Pacific- used war veterans and Irish immigrants for labor -Charles Crocker directed Central Pacific- used Chinese immigrants for labor -RRs met on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah
vertical integration
-a company controls every stage of industrial process, from mining the raw materials to transporting the finished product
Factors of US Economy Growth
-abundance in natural resources (esp. for industrialization) -abundant labor supply- immigrants -US largest market in world for industrial goods b/c of growing pop. and advanced transportation -capital was plentiful -dvlpmt of laborsaving tech increased productivity -business friendly government policies -emergence of talented entrepreneurs
social Darwinism
-based on Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection -offended many but bolstered the views of economic conservatives
Knights of Labor
-began in 1869 as secret society to avoid employer detection -led by Terence V. Powderly -went public 1881- opened membership to all workers (incl. Af. Am and women) -wanted worker cooperative, abolition of child labor, and abolition of trusts and monopolies -in favor of settling disputes through arbitration, not strikes -loosely organized so could not control those who striked -gree rapidly- peaked at 730,000- declined rapidly after Haymarket riot turned public opinion against union
interlocking directorates
-business men like J.P. Morgan used these to monopolize RRs -same directors ran competing companies
Adam Smith
-business should be regulated by impersonal economic forces of the law of supply and demand and not government -origin of concept on laissez-faire
concentration of wealth
-by 1890s, richest 10% of pop controlled 90% of nation's wealth -many millionaires created by industrialization-lived very ostentatiously
U.S. Steel
-company headed by J. P. Morgan -Carnegie sold his company in 1900 for $400 million here -first billion dollar company and largest enterprise in the world -168,000 employees and controlled 3/5+ of nation's steel business
railroad strike of 1877
-during economic depression -one of the worst outbreaks of labor violence -RR companies cut wages to reduce costs -strike on Baltimore and Ohio RR spread across 11 states and shut down 2/3 of the country's rail trackage -for the first time since 1830s, a president (Hayes) used fed troops to end labor violence -over 100 ppl killed
research laboratory
-established by Edison in 1876 in Menlo Park, NJ -world's first modern research laboratory -single most important contribution to science and industry -introduced concept of mechanics and engineers working on a project as a team rather than individually
Standard Oil Trust
-exhorted rebates from RR companies and temporarily cut prices for Standard Oil kerosene to force rival companies to sell out -by 1881 company controlled 90% of oil refinery business -put together a trust of various companies he acquired and managed w/ board of trustees--- horizontal integration -controlled supply + prices of oil products and got large profits -many other companies followed example and created trusts in sugar, tobacco, leather and meat industries
National Labor Union
-first attempt to organize all workers both skilled and unskilled in all states -founded in 1866 has ~640,000 members after two years -wanted higher wages, 8 hr day, equal rights for women and blacks, monetary reform, worker cooperatives -main victory- won 8 hr day for employees of fed. gov't -lost support after depression that began in 1873 and the unsuccessful strikes of 1877
Panic of 1893
-forced 1/4 of all RRs to bankruptcy
horizontal integration
-former competitors are brought under a single corporate umbrella
John D. Rockefeller
-founded company in 1863- Standard Oil Trust- in oil refinery -took control of oil business by using latest tech and efficient practices -retired w/ a $900 million fortune
American Federation of Labor
-founded in 1886- association of 25 craft unions -did not advocate reform program to remake Am. society -led by Samuel Gompers from 1886 to 1924 -went after basics of higher wages and improved working conditions-directed local unions of skilled workers to walk out until employer agreed to negotiate a new contract -by 1901- had 1 mil. members- largest union in nation
Cornelius Vanderbilt
-had earned millions from a steamboat business -used money to merge local railroads into New York Central Railroad 1867
Protestant Work Ethic
-hard work and material success are signs of God's favor
J. Pierpont Morgan
-he and other bankers moved in and took control of bankrupt RRs to consolidate them -eliminated competition (from panic) allowed consolidated RRs to stabilized rates and reduce debts -by 1900 seven giant systems controlled nearly 2/3 of nation's RRs -positive: more efficient system -negative: system controlled by a few powerful men (including Morgan) and created regional RR monopolies
laissez-faire capitalism
-if gov't did not participate, then businesses would be motivated by their own self-interest to offer improved goods and services at low prices -American industrialists appealed to theory to justify methods of doing business even though accepted protection of high tariffs and federal subsidies
Marketing Consumer Goods
-increased output of US factories as well as invention of new consumer products created aneed for businesses to find ways of selling to the public -R. H. Macy in NY and Marshall Field in Chicago brought large department stores -Frank Woolworth's Five and Ten Cent Store brought nationwide chain store in towns and urban neighborhoods -Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward were mail-order companies that used rail system to ship to rural customers -Kellogg and Post brought packaged foods to Americans -Gustavus Swift and other packers used refrigerated RR cars and canning to bring mass-produced meat and vegetable products to consumers -advertising and new marketing techniques promoted a consumer economy
middle class
-industrialization created jobs for accountants, clerical workers, salespersons -which in turn created jobs for professionals (doctors and lawyers), public employees, and storekeepers
watering stock
-inflating the value of a corporation's assets and profits before selling its stock to the public
Alexander Graham Bell
-invented telephone in 1876 -huge leap in communications technology
Samuel F. B. Morse
-invention of a workable telegraph in 1844 -standard part of modern living by time of civil war -first radical change in the speed of communications
David Ricardo
-justified low wages "iron law of wages" -raising wages would increase work pop., and the availability of workers would cause wages to fall
federal land grants
-land was given by gov't to RR companies along proposed route of RR -expected the RR to 'make every effort to sell' land to settlers to finance contruction -thought to increase value of gov't lands and provide preferred rates for transporting gov't stuff like mail and troops -negative consequences: 1. promoted hasty and poor construction 2. led to widespread corruption in gov't (Crédit Mobilier) -resulted in RRs controlling 1/2 of land in some western states
Second Industrial Revolution
-late 19th century-shift in industrial production -moved from textiles, clothing and leather to steal, petroleum, electric power, and industrial machinery (heavy industry)
Eugene V. Debs
-leader of American RR Unions -told workers not to handle trains with pullman cars -RR owners supported Pullman-attached Pullman cars to mail -fed. court issued injunction-could not stop the running of mail- made abandon strike and boycott -when did not respond to injunction, Debs and other union leaders arrested and jailed which ended the strike -turned to socialism and helped found American Socialist party in 1900
trunk line
-major route between large cities, w/ smaller branch lines connecting the trunk line w/ outlying towns -reduced inefficiencies of different gauges and incompatible equipment -Ex: New York Central RR, Baltimore and Ohio RR, Pennsylvania RR
George Westinghouse
-more than 400 patents -air brakes for rail roads 1869 -transformer for producing high-voltage alternating current 1885- made the lighting of cities and operation of electric machinery possible
upward mobility
-movement into a higher economic bracket -these opportunities existed, but rags to riches like Andrew Carnegie were unusual -statistical wealthy businessman of the day was a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant male who came form an upper- or middle-class background and whose father was in business or banking
Bessemer process
-new process for making large quantities of steel -launched rise of heavy industry -1850s, both Henry Bessemer in England and William Kelly in US discovered that blasing air through molten iron produced high quality steel -Great Lakes region became leading steel producer b/c of many coal reserves and Minnesota's access to iron ore
Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
-prohibited any "contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restrain of trade or commerce" -too vague to stop dvlpmt of trust in 1890s
New York Central Railroad
-ran from New York to Chicago -operated more than 4,500 miles of track
white-collar workers
-salaried workers whose jobs generally do not involve manual labor -high numbers needed to fill organized administrative structures of growing corporations
Employer tactics for undermining unions
-scabs/strikebreakers- pple desperate for jobs who would take the place of those striking -lock out- closing factory to break movement before its organized -blacklists- circulating names of prounion workers -yellow-dog contracts- must sign an agreement to not join a union to get a job -private guards- protect from violent strikes -court injunctions- legally forbids people or unions from taking any kind of action
gospel of wealth
-some found religion more convincing than social Darwinism in justifying wealth of successful industrialists and bankers -applied Protestant work ethic to business and personal life
William Vanderbilt
-son of Cornelius Vanderbilt and heir of his father's transportation empire -one of the business men that dominated the RR systems -didn't care that customers and small investors felt they were victims of 'slick financial schemes and ruthless policies'
Jay Gould
-speculator for RRs -went into RR business for quick profits and aek millions by selling off assets and watering stock
Thomas A. Edison
-started as a telegraph operator -patented first invention- machine for recording votes- in 1869 -established a laboratory in 1876 in Menlo Park, NJ -more than a thousand patented inventions from lab -phonograph, incandescent lamp (1st electric lightbulb), dynamo for generating electric power, mimeograph machine, motion picture camera
Pullman strike 1894
-strike of workers living in George Pullman's model company town near Chicago -Pullman manufactured RR sleeping cars-pullman cars -1894-announced general cut in wages and fired leaders of the workers' delegation that came to bargain -workers laid down tools and appealed to American Railroad Union for help led by Eugene V. Debs
transcontinental railroads
-the first was to connect Cali w/ rest of states (Union and Central Pacific) completed in 1869 -Southern Pacific- connected New Orleans to Los Angeles 1883 -Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe- connected Kansas City and Los Angeles 1883 -Northern Pacific- connected Duluth, Minnesota with Seattle, Washington 1883 -Great Northern Pacific-connected St. Paul, Minnesota w/ Seattle, Washington 1893 *only transcontinental RR built w/o federal subsidies
Other Important Inventions
-typewriter 1867 -cash register 1879 -calculating machine 1887 -adding machine 1888 -George Eastman's Kodak camera 1888 -Lewis E. Waterman's fountain pen 1884 -King Gillette's safety razor and blade 1895
Horatio Alger
-wrote popular novels w/ rags to riches plots through hard work, honesty and some luck -many ignored widening gap b/w rich and poor b/c they believed in 'self-made man'
