expansion of industry natural resources inventions railroads big business & labor labor unions

Expansion of Industry Natural Resources Inventions Railroads Big Business & Labor Labor Unions

Natural Resources We went from an agricultural nation to an industrial power Black Gold: Indians used it for fuel & medicines, Americans used it to light kerosene lamps Big Break came in 1859 by Edwin L. Drake

Natural resources: Black Gold In 1859 Drake successfully used a steam engine to drill for oil in Pennsylvania This breakthrough started an oil boom that spread to Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and later Texas. At first oil was transformed into kerosene But with automobile, gas became the most important form of oil

Natural Resources: Coal & Iron Coal production skyrocketed 33 million tons in 1870 to 250 million tons in 1900 Steel is made from removing the carbon from iron Steel is more flexible and durable Henry Bessemer developed a cheap & efficient manufacturing process to do this Known as the Bessemer Process

Uses for Steel Steels biggest customer became the railroads used it for laying tracks Barbed wire Farm machinery Used on construction sites: Brooklyn Bridge, skyscrapers (with steel frames you could build as high as you wanted)

Inventions Change the Way People Live & Work Thomas Edison: light bulb, electricity Electricity completely changed the nature of business in America Electric power ran all types of machines Soon became available in homes & appliances for the home Streetcars made travel cheap & expanded the outward growth of cities Industries grew as never before could locate anywhere they wanted

Inventions Change Lifestyles Typewriter invented by Christopher Sholes changed how we work Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell changed how we communicate Created more jobs, especially for women In 1870: women made up 5% of workforce, by 1910 they accounted for 40% of the workforce

Inventions & Working Conditions Jobs that were previously done at home were now being mass produced in a factory Some jobs became easier with the help of machinery Standard of living increased: due to machinery & inventions the workweek was reduced by 10 hours Urban expansion allowed for new inventions & products

Product Demand An industrial explosion created a demand for shipping routes for both raw materials and finished products and increased the demand for rail networks. Technological advances in the production of steel made rapid expansion of the railroads possible.

Section 2 Objectives To identify the role of the railroads in unifying the country To list positive & negative effects of railroads on the nations economy To summarize reasons for, and outcomes of, the demand for railroad reform.

Railroads: A National Network In 1869 Central Pacific & Union Pacific Railroads met at Promontory, Utah It was a linking of the first transcontinental railroad a gold spike marks the spot where they connected In 1861 the nation had 30,000 miles of track. By 1890 it had 210,000 miles of track.

Railroads: Romance and Reality Railroads brought a romance to travel by bringing dreams of adventure, unsettled land & a fresh start to many Americans Reality: The workers, who made the above possible, had harsh and stark lives Central Pacific hired Chinese immigrants Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants Accidents, pneumonia and diseases killed thousands of workers each year In 1888, 2,000 killed, 20,000 injured

Railroad Reality cont All railroad workers-surveyors, tracklayers, engineers, firemen & brakemen- faced difficult conditions & numerous hazards. Were paid very little for a tremendous amount of hard work Whites were paid $40-$60 a month with free meals, Chinese were paid $35 a month and had to supply their own food

Railroads: Unify Nation & Time Laborers worked hard to transform the country from disconnected & individual locations into a united nation. Each city worked on its own time so no two stops had the same time. Each city/town said noon arrived when the sun was overhead In 1870, Prof. C.F. Dowd suggested that the earths surface be divided into 24 time zones & that the U.S. should have 4 time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific) By1883, everyone adopts a standardized time system

Discuss 1 st Objective How did the role of the railroad unify the country?

Opportunities Iron, coal, steel, lumber & glass industries grew rapidly trying to keep up with the railroads demand for raw materials & parts Growth of railroads led to a growth in towns, helped establish new markets & offered opportunities

Opportunities: New Markets & Towns Isolated cities became linked due to railroads Trade was promoted among cities/towns a network of suppliers nationwide Towns began to specialize in certain products Chicago = stockyards, Minneapolis=grain, Pennsylvania=steel Towns prospered due to mass production & mass selling of goods

Opportunists: Pullman George Pullman manufactured rail cars/sleepers Required a large & steady workforce Built a town for his employees: brick houses/apartment buildings, medical & legal offices, shops, church, library, theatre & an athletic field Town was controlled by Pullman. He didnt want employees to make the company look bad. He wanted a stable workforce & more profits Workers became dissatisfied and went on strike

Opportunists: Credit Mobilier Stockholders in the Union Pacific Railroad formed a construction company called Credit Mobilier Gave their own company a contract to lay tracks at 3 times the costs Kept the profits and paid off government officials Pocketed $32 million in stocks, bonds & cash

Opportunists: Railroads Railroads themselves took advantage of farmers Would charge outrageous prices for hauling goods of farmers Price fixing Would charge different customers different rates Wanted to keep farmers in their debt

Granger Laws Grangers were poor farmers Took political action against railroads They sponsored state & local political candidates, elected legislators *&* pressed for laws that would protect their interests Due to the Grangers persistence: Illinois first to establish maximum freight & passenger rates Ended discrimination against farmers

Munn v. Illinois States challenged the Granger laws on regulation Supreme Court upheld the Granger laws States won the right to regulate the railroads for the benefit of farmers & consumers Established an important principle: the federal governments right to regulate private industry to serve the public interest. (Is this good or bad?)

Big Business and Labor: Objectives To identify management and business strategies that contributed to the success of business tycoons such as Andrew Carnegie To explain Social Darwinism and its effects on society To cite methods used by ruthless businessmen to eliminate free competition To describe the reasons for the slow industrialization of the South

Carnegies Innovations Rags to riches story At age 13 worked 12 hr days at a cotton mill Then worked as a messenger for telegraph service. Worked his way up the ladder Thomas A. Scott hires him as a personal secretary at Pennsylvania Railroad Was given a chance to buy stock in the company When he earned his first dollars from dividends off that stock he said, Heres the goose that lays the golden eggs!

Carnegie cont Made so much off dividends he left PR and opened up his own steel company

Carnegies Management Techniques Continually sought for ways to make better products more cheaply Used detailed accounting systems to track the cost of every item and process he used Hired the best of assistants and encouraged competition among them Offered them stocks in the company Increase production cut costs

Carnegies Business Strategies Attempted to control the entire steel industry Vertical Integration: bought out all of his suppliers (coal, iron, freighters & railroads) Controlled every aspect: raw materials, transportation, & manufacturing process Gave him total power over the quality & cost of his product

Carnegies Business Strategies cont Horizontal Consolidation: Buying out competing businesses. (a merger) Controlled both his supplier & competitors Carnegie was producing 80% of the steel business Almost a monopoly

Social Darwinism & Business Social Philosophers explained Carnegies success like this: No government regulation of business Free competition in the market place Survival of the fittest companies Success & failure in business were governed by natural law (free market) & that no one especially the government- had no right to interfere

Social Darwinism cont Made sense to the millionaires Also appealed to the working class: if they worked hard, they too could become rich Stories of rags to riches success became popular

Growth and Consolidation Oligopoly: a market in which only a few sellers provided a particular product Usually resulted when businesses with similar products merged Monopoly: When a business bought out all of its major competitors and had complete control over its industrys production, quality, wages paid & prices charged

Growth & Consolidation cont Holding Companies: A corporation that did nothing but buy out the stock of other companies Trust agreement: Participants in a trust turned their stock over to a group of trustees people who ran the companies as one large corporation. In return those companies would receive dividends on profits earned by the trust Trusts were considered illegal but had many gray areas & loopholes

John D. Rockefeller First job was a produce clerk at the age of 16 Started his first company at the age of 19 & grossed $450,000 Took advantage of trusts and gained control of the oil industry in America (Standard Oil) In 1870 controlled 2-3% of the oil industry, by 1880 controlled 90%

Rockefeller cont Instead of passing on the savings to customers, Rockefeller kept the profits He paid his employees low wages, drove his competition out of business by selling his oil at a lower price than it cost to produce it. When he had control of the market he hiked the price up far above the original price to gain back lost profits Because he dominated businesses he received rebates and kickbacks

Robber Barons Due to their ruthless tactics, some business men are called Robber Barons Carnegie & Rockefeller defended their wealth by pointing out they gave a large percentage of their profits/wages to charities. Sherman Antitrust Act: Formed by the government to prevent big businesses from interfering in free competition or forming monopolies Was hard to enforce & eventually the government stopped trying to enforce it

Current Monopolies Utility companies (gas & electric) Comcast (now there is AT&T, Direct TV) Microsoft Pharmaceutical drug companies National Healthcare????

Business Boom Bypasses the South South was still trying to recover form the Civil War Lacked money to invest Had few major cities Southern economy remained agricultural farmers were at the mercy of railroad rates & going into debt Northerners controlled 90% of the railroad business

Business Boom Bypasses the South cont Southern businesses had to compete with not only well established Northern companies, but also had to fight for the skilled workers Some businesses prospered: forestry, textile, tobacco, furniture Exploitation of both the Southern laborers & the Northern wage earners drew all American workers together in a nationwide labor movement demanding their rights

Chapter 14, Section 4 Objectives To describe the exploitation of workers including women & children To summarize the emergence & growth of unions To explain the violent reactions of industry & government to union strikes To identify the influence of women in the labor movement To describe the role of the government in opposing union activity

Workers Are Exploited Workers Are Exploited Industrial innovations diminished workers skills & accomplishments Most factory workers worked 12 hour days or more and 6 days a week Steel mills often demanded 7 days of work No vacations, or sick leave No unemployment compensation No reimbursement for injuries sustained on the job, yet injuries happened frequently

Workers exploited cont Hazardous working conditions Factories were dirty, poor ventilated & poorly lit Dangerous or faulty equipment Workers had to perform repetitive, mind- dulling tasks hour after hour with this poor equipment Workers had little choice but to put up with these conditions because they needed money

Women and Children Most families could not survive on the little pay one person received in the household. Everyone in a family had to work In 1890: 4 million women worked In 1910: 8 million women worked 20% of boys under the age of 15 held full time jobs 10% of girls under the age of 15 held full time jobs Some were as young as 5 years old Many worked from dawn to dusk

Women and Children cont Children went hungry & were exhausted by the long hours Many had crippling or fatal accidents Worked so many hours that there wasnt anytime for school Forfeited there own future to help their families Many of the work was tedious & tiresome Paid the lowest wages: 27 cents for a 14 hour days of work.

Typical Yearly Wages in 1899 Women: $269 per year Men: $498 per year Andrew Carnegie made $23 million per year with no income tax.

Why Fight for a Labor Union? Unsafe working conditions Extremely long hours of work No benefits Low, low wages On the job injuries with no compensation Tedious jobs that required no skills

Labor Unions Emerge National Labor Union Knights of Labor

National Labor Union Small unions existed since the early 1800s The NLU was the first large scale union to organize in 1866. Formed by William H. Sylvis Had 300 local unions from 13 states To make the NLU most effective he encouraged women & blacks to join Some did, others did not leading to: Colored National labor Union (CNLU)

National Labor Union cont Grew to 640,000 members Convinced Congress to legalize an 8 hour work day for government workers Formed its own political party The Labor Reform Party Main goal was to link existing unions together

Question How would forming their own political party help them in their quest to gain better wages and working conditions?

Knights of Labor Focused its attention of industrial workers Organized in 1868 Its motto: An injury to one is the concern of all Open to all workers regardless of race, gender or degree of skill Supported an 8 hour work day & equal pay for equal work

Knights of Labor Advocated arbitration before striking Strikes were a last resort Terrence Powderly became head of Knights of Labor in 1881 Under Powderlys leadership expanded membership from 28,000 in 1880 to 700,000 in 1886

Union Movements Diverge Labor activism diversified Different movements within the union emerged Received support from socialists and social reformers

Craft Unionism & Samuel Gompers All skilled workers from many different industries organized unions Led by Samuel Gompers, the Cigar Makers International Union joined with other trade & craft unions in 1886 Formed the American Federation of Labor (AFL) AFL focused on collective bargaining (group negotiations) to reach written agreements AFL used strikes as a major tactic to achieve its goal

Craft Unionism cont AFL had successful strikes that helped them win higher wages & shorter work weeks for skilled workers Weekly wage in 1890: $17.50 Weekly wage in 1915: $ 24.00 Average work wee fell from 54.5 hours to just under 49 hours

Industrial Unionism & Eugene Debs Wanted to reach beyond just skilled laborers and include all laborers who worked in a specific industry Eugene Debs made the first attempt to form an industrial union the American Railway Union (ARU) In 1894 he won a strike for higher wages Membership climbed to 150,000 Due to losses suffered due to major strikes this union didnt last long, but it made its mark

Socialism and the IWW Some activists thought there was an underlying problem that had to do with a capitalist system Private ownership and free competition make the rich richer and the poor poorer Turned to socialism: government control of business & property and equal distribution of wealth Appealed to the poor workers felt that they could be empowered

Socialism & the IWW cont Threatened the wealthy whose wealth it could confiscate In 1905, an extremist group organized the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Headed by William Big Bill Haywood & included miners, lumberers, & dock workers Membership never exceeded 150,000 included women & black workers Gave dignity & solidarity to unskilled workers barred from other groups

The Great Strike of 1877 Began in July, 1877 in Martinsburg, WV Workers for the Baltimore & Ohio railroads went on strike due to reduced wages President Rutherford Hayes intervenes and calls the militia and Federal troops to get involved Strike quickly spreads from coast to coast Railroads were stopped in their tracks

The Great Strike cont Riots broke out and violence erupted In Baltimore the militia shot and killed 10 people including a 16 year old student and a newsboy Striking workers burned a town, and sent a part of a train crashing into freight cars. In Pittsburgh, Federal troops fired and killed 20 civilians Across the country over 100 people died Eventually strikers retreated. Strike lasted for almost two weeks

The Haymarket Affair On May Day 1886, the workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. in Chicago began a strike in the hope of gaining a shorter work day Knights of Labor represented these workers On May 3, police were used to protect strikebreakers and a scuffle broke out; one person was killed and several others injured. The following day, May 4, 2,000 gathered for a rally

The Haymarket Affair cont The gathering was peaceful until police sent units into the crowd to force it to disperse At that point, a pipe bomb was thrown into the police ranks; the explosion took the lives of seven policemen and injured more than 60 others The police fired into the crowd of workers, killing four. Knights of Labor reputation was tarnished and they never recovered from the bad press Mood was hysteria

The Haymarket Affair 8 men convicted 7 sentenced to death 1 killed himself in prison, 4 others killed hanged themselves In 1892 clemency was granted to the remaining 3 that were still in jail All in all it was a setback for labor unions and the labor movement

The Homestead Strike Work conditions at Carnegie Steel Co were poor Steelworkers went on strike on July 6, 1892 after the plant manager Henry Frick announced he was cutting wages Frick hired guards to protect the plant Hired scab workers Riots erupted and the National Guard had to be called in. 3 guards and 6 workers dead Union lost much support & the workers gave in

The Pullman Strike Began May 11, 1894 Workers walked out of the Pullman Palace Car Co. due to declining wages & stalled negotiations ARU supported these workers & stood by them declaring they would no longer work trains of Pullmans Crippled railroad traffic nationwide Federal government intervened: no boycotts, sent soldiers in

The Pullman Strike Vandalism & violence occurred: rail cars were damaged Workers were angry and burned the yards and anything in it President Cleveland ordered the strikers to return to work. This enraged the workers. A riot ensued, Eugene Debs (head of ARU) was arrested. The strike became a lost cause nothing was gained same wages & working conditions Pullman was now recognized as a greedy & intolerant man

Women in the Labor Movement Demanded better working conditions Equal pay for equal work End child labor

Women in the Labor Movement Mary Harris Mother Jones *most prominent woman organizer *daughter of an Irish union activist *supported the Great Strike of 1877 *joined the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) *Led miners in strike & had their wives march in front of the mine entrance banging pots and pans *led women mill workers in strike and persuaded their husbands to join a union *led children who worked in a march to President Theodore Roosevelts home *She had a tremendous impact & influenced child labor laws to be passed

Women in the Labor Movement Pauline Newman & the Garment Workers * at 16 became the first female organizer of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union * Supported the Uprising of 20,000 the massive 1909 strike against shirtwaist companies (Triangle Waist Fire)

Government Pressures on Unions Management took steps to weaken unions by refusing negotiate didnt allow union meetings fired union members hired new employees only if they signed a contract saying they wouldnt join the union Industrial leaders & courts turned Sherman Anti-Trust Act against unions: federal injunction against all strikes saying it hurt trade

Government Pressures on Unions Consumers are sympathetic but get frustrated when there is a shortage of goods due to a strike People feared riots & a socialistic revolt Union was losing members

expansion of industry natural resources inventions railroads big business & labor labor unions

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