economic conflict in nineteenth century america. *population growth in the united states created a...
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ECONOMIC CONFLICT IN NINETEENTH
CENTURY AMERICA
The Rise of Industry and Organized Labor
*Population growth in the United States created a large pool of cheap industrial laborers.
*A rich supply of natural resource: timber, coal, iron ore, precious metals.
*Entrepreneurial spirit reflected in legal code: protecting private property, low taxes.
*J.P. Morgan dominated banking industry: liberal lending practices; easy credit.
* Railroad systems stimulate the economy in the West.
The Growth of Corporations
Because corporations main goal is just to make money, they don’t always act in the most responsible manner. Some corporations used unfair methods to eliminate competition and raise prices on consumers – a move which hurts free enterprise, and hurts consumers, but benefits the corporation and its shareholders. Corporations have used the profit motive to justify poor working conditions, unfair business practices like trusts, pools, or monopolies, and other forms of corruption.
In addition, corporations are a have a collective mindset which can, at times, discourage the taking of personal responsibility: the board of directors can justify many of its decisions by citing the need for shareholder to make money. If others are influenced negatively, but the ends justify the means, then so be it.
The Amoral Disposition of Corporations
The Case Against CorporationsThe Consolidation of Economic and Political Power in 19th Century Thought
While the Communist
Manifesto was not
strictly intended for an
American audience, it did
resonate with more
radical labor unions in
the 19th Century – and it
still does today in certain
circles. By and large,
though, Americans
commitment to the
maintenance of property
rights and the peaceful
exchange of power
prevented any
widespread endorsement
of Marxism.
The Communist Manifesto, 1848
Abraham Lincoln warned in the 1860s that Corporations were a threat to American Liberty
“I see in the near future
a crisis approaching
that unnerves me and
causes me to tremble
for the safety of my
country. As a result of
the war, corporations
have been enthroned
and an era of corruption
in high places will
follow, and the money
power of the country
will endeavor to prolong
its reign by working
upon the prejudices of
the people until all
wealth is aggregated in
a few hands and the
Republic is destroyed.”
Corporations Built the United States Economy
On the other hand,
companies like
Andrew Carnegie’s
US Steel company
and Rockefeller’s
Standard Oil
provided the
resources to build
much of the United
States – creating
jobs for a growing
populations,
establishing the
modern economy,
and unifying the
nation.
James Pierpont Morgan
By using his banks
to invest in
troubled railroads –
then merging the
railroads with rival
companies to
decrease
competition and
increase prices –
J.P. Morgan was
able to make an
enormous fortune.
His companies
were known for
unfair business
practices.
Railroads Stimulated the Economy by Facilitating Regional Trade
Railroads influenced
major industries
across the United
States – mining,
ranching, farming,
steel, coal, and real
estate speculation
were all bound to the
industry throughout
the 19th Century.
Anti-competitive
practices like pools
hurt consumers, and
small businesses,
though. Everyone
had to settle up with
the Rails.
Monopolies are
companies which
have eliminated all
competition in their
particular field of the
economy. Without
competitors,
companies can
charge extremely
high prices, hurting
consumers and
workingmen. If
rivals attempt to
emerge, monopolies
can usually strangle
them out of the
market by
undercutting them.
MONOPOLIES, MONOPOLIES, MONOPOLIES.
John D. Rockefeller
The Standard Oil Trust of John D. Rockefeller
The Standard Oil Trust
Carnegie Steel
helped to build
America – from the
railroads spanning
the country to the
skyscrapers
touching the sky to
the Brooklyn
Bridge, connecting
the major
population centers
of New York and
Brooklyn in 1883.
Andrew Carnegie’s Steel Company
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Railroad Baron
Cornelius
Vanderbilt
consolidated most
of the Railroads in
the state of New
York and created a
vast fortune for
himself and his
family. Like many
other aristocrats
of the Gilded Age,
he became a great
philanthropist
after accumulating
great wealth.
In this political cartoon, Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Cyrus Field, and Russell Sage are portrayed as living a life of luxury at the expense of the masses.
Trusts are
combinations of
businesses which join
together in order to
decrease or eliminate
competition and raise
prices. The most
notorious of these was
the Standard Oil Trust,
which had a strangle
hold on the petroleum
industry for decades.
To maximize profits,
competition was
undermined and
employees were poorly
compensated.
Trusts
The Exploitation of WorkersCorporations, trusts, and interstate business models who were driven by the profit motive were willing to allow:
• Low wages
• Dangerous Conditions
• Long hours
• Child labor
Women outnumbered men in a number of workplaces, including the ones below:
The Textile Mills – of the Cotton Industry
The Tobacco Factories of the South
Garment Factories of New York City
Women in the Workplace
Women at the Textile Mills – Lowell Mills, Massachusetts
Women in the Tobacco IndustryNorth Carolina
Garment Industry of New York City
Children were forced to work in a variety of fields, including all of the following:
textiles, tobacco factories, coal mines,
garment sweatshops.
Because of the exploitation of children in the workplace, reform minded individuals like Florence Kelley and Horace Mann began to advocate for compulsory education in the United States.
Child Labor
Children Working in the Coal Mines
Children of the Textile Mills
The dangers faced on the job were numerous, depending on the type of work men and women did.
Coalminers could face cave-ins or air quality issues that caused immediate dangers or long-term concerns like emphysema or “black lung.”
Textile workers often faced lung disease from exposure to tiny cotton fibers.
Steelworkers were in danger of burns or crushing injuries constantly.
Dangerous Working Conditions
Dangers in Textile Mills
Women faced
issues with their
lungs from
working in textile
mills as well,
breathing in
cotton and fiber
filaments all day.
Many women and
children lost
fingers and toes
in the high
velocity machines
as well.
Steel Mills were extremely dangerous work environments.
Due to the open
cauldrons of
molten steel, and
the heavy
mechanized tools
which could
crush limbs, steel
mills were
notoriously
dangerous. And
most companies
offered no
compensation to
workers injured
on the job.
The Meatpacking Industry
Due to the de-
assembly line
methods used in
meat packing
plants – requiring
hasty knife work,
many workers
were injured on
the job – losing
fingers, or worse!
Labor Incidents of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries
Turmoil and Conflict between Organized Labor and Industry.
Terence V. Powderly, Knights of Labor
America’s first major
labor union, this
group accepted both
skilled and unskilled
employees and
protested low wages
and unsafe conditions
at public rallies. In
1886, at a meeting
against the
McCormick
Harvesting Company
in Chicago, IL, an
anarchist threw a
bomb into the crowd
killing several police
officers and
protesters. The
Knight reputation
soon declined – blame
by association.
The Knights of Labor
Samuel Gompers, leader of the AFL
The American Federation of Labor
When Andrew
Carnegie attempted
to slash his workers
wages, they walked
out on strike.
When he hired
strikebreakers, or
“scabs” to replace
them, they fought
violently to prevent
the mills from re-
opening.
Eventually, the
Pennsylvania State
Militia forced and
end to the conflict
using violent force
of their own.
The Homestead Strike of 1892
“Mother” Jones
was one of the
many women
involved with
supporting labor
unions. She was
especially
interested in the
plight of working
children –
fighting for child
labor laws – but
also very much
involved with
supporting
strikers and
leading protest
rallies.
Mother Jones: Mary Harris Jones
In one of the saddest
and most well
publicized disasters
of the early 20th
Century, a group of
approximately 150
immigrant laborers
were trapped –
literally locked in by
their employers – in a
burning building in
New York City.
Changes to fire codes
and improvements to
the working
conditions were soon
passed to protect
employees and
factory workers.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911
Eugene V. Debs
The leader of the American Railway Union and a tireless advocate for the rights of labor, Debs would be imprisoned for his role in the Pullman Strike and later as a violator of the Sedition Act during World War I. He was a confirmed member of the Socialist Party, and ran for President several times – once from prison. Although he always lost, he garnered close to 5% of the vote.
When workers at
George Pullman’s
sleeping and dining
car companies went
on strike to protest
a wage cut, Eugene
V. Debs of the
American Railroad
Workers Union
directed him men
not to load or
unload any train
with a Pullman car
attached – the
result was
deadlock, then
intervention by the
President, Grover
Cleveland.
The Pullman Strike
The Industrial Workers of the World: “The Wobblies”
The Wobblies
Describing
themselves as
“One Big Union”
and engaging in
singing and public
demonstrations as
well as outright
violent acts, this
union was feared
for its radical and
ideological agenda
– they fought for
higher wages and
safer working
conditions.
Joe Hill: The Wobblies Singing Martyr
Joe Hill, the songwriter and protester who lead dozens of strikes in the miner’s camps of the West, was eventually convicted of a murder which took place at one of the protesters sites. He was put to death in Utah during the 1910s. Wallace Stegner’s historical fiction on his life gives a thorough account of the Wobblies activities.
William “Big Bill” Haywood“Big Bill” Haywood was a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a member of the Socialist Party of the United States. Because he preferred direct action – read: violence – instead of political maneuvering, he was frequently in conflict with the Socialists (who preferred political demonstrations) and the owners of companies (who preferred to make more money!). He played a key role in both the Colorado Labor Wars of the 1910s and the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912 in Massachusetts. After being accused of murdering the Governor of Idaho – and acquitted – Haywood eventually emigrated from the United States and became a resident of the Soviet Union.
Unions – through their direct actions campaigns and their educational programs – put heavy pressure on corporations and political bodies to reign in the excesses of capitalism. Unions would eventually establish minimum wage laws, reduce labor hours and increase leisure time, improve safety conditions in the workplace, and ban child labor.
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was a passed in 1890 – although judges willfully misinterpreted the law for years in order to disrupt unions.
Theodore Roosevelt and his successors – William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson – enforced the Sherman Anti-Trust Act more vigorously, ending unfair business practices by railroads and breaking up the Standard Oil Trust.
In 1914, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act was passed to allow even more vigorous prosecution of unfair business practices.
Resolving Unfair Business Practices