goal 5 industrialization and the gilded age
TRANSCRIPT
THE EXPANSION OF INDUSTRY
At the end of the 19th century, natural
resources, creative ideas, and growing
markets fuel an industrial boom.
THE AGE OF THE RAILROADS
The growth and consolidation of railroads
benefits the nation but also leads to
corruption and required government
regulation.
RAILROADS SPAN TIME AND SPACE
Railroads Encourage Growth
New Towns and Markets
First transcontinental railroad completed,
spans the nation
Railroad Time: dividing earth’s surface into
24 time zones - U.S. railroads, towns adopt
time zones
NATURAL RESOURCES FUEL INDUSTRIALIZATION
By 1920s, U.S. is world’s leading industrial
power, due to:
wealth of natural resources
government support for business
growing urban population
BLACK GOLD
Native Americans make fuel, medicine from oil
Edwin L. Drake successfully uses steam engine to drill for oil
Petroleum-refining industry first makes kerosene, then gasoline
BESSEMER STEEL PROCESS
Abundant deposits of coal, iron spur industry
Bessemer process puts air into iron to
remove carbon to make steel
Cheap, efficient way to mass produce steel.
NEW USES FOR STEEL
Used in railroads,
barbed wire, farm
machines
Changes construction:
Brooklyn Bridge; steel-
framed skyscrapers
Flat Iron Building – an early NYC skyscraper built with steel framework
THE POWER OF ELECTRICITY
Thomas Alva Edison
Incandescent light bulb
Creates system for electrical production, distribution
Electricity changes business; runs numerous machines
Becomes available in homes; encourages invention of appliances
Allows manufacturers to locate plants anyplace; industry grows
INVENTIONS CHANGE LIFESTYLES
Christopher Sholes invents
typewriter
Alexander Graham Bell -
telephone
Office work changes;
women are 40% of clerical
workers
Westinghouse – power
generation and appliances
CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY (ROBBER BARONS)
John Rockefeller –Standard Oil
Andrew Carnegie –Carnegie Steel (U.S. Steel)
J.P. Morgan – Banking and Finance
“Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt – shipping and railroads.
American Industrialist leaders including Carnegie (center), JP Morgan (left of Carnegie) and Henry C Frick (right of Carnegie)
Caption reads: History repeats itself – Robber Barons of the Middle Ages and the Robber Barons of Today
GROWTH AND CONSOLIDATION
Businesses try to control industry with mergers - buy out competitors
Form monopolies - control production, wages, prices – get rid of competition, prices go up
Holding companies buy all the stock of other companies
Trusts exchange companies’ stock for trust certificates.
trustees run separate companies as if one
CARNEGIE’S INNOVATIONS
New Business Strategies:
Carnegie searches for ways to make better
products more cheaply
Uses vertical integration—buys out suppliers
to control materials, price and quality
Drives out the competition and controls
almost entire steel industry
ROCKEFELLER’S INNOVATIONS
Rockefeller created the Standard Oil Trust
Used the strategy of Horizontal Consolidation
Merge, buy out or drive out the competition
Standard Oil once controlled 90% of oil in
U.S.
SOCIAL DARWINISM AND BUSINESS
Darwin’s theory of biological evolution: the
best-adapted survive
Social Darwinism, or social evolution, based
on Darwin’s theory; only the strongest
businesses survive
Economists use Social Darwinism to justify
doctrine of laissez faire
A NEW DEFINITION OF SUCCESS
Idea of survival, success of the most capable
appeals to wealthy
Notion of individual responsibility in line with
Protestant ethic
See riches as sign of God’s favor; poor must
be lazy, inferior
Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth – it is the duty
of those with money to help the less
fortunate.
SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT
Government thinks
expanding corporations stifle
free competition
Sherman Antitrust Act: trust
is illegal if it interferes with
free trade
Prosecuting companies
difficult; government stops
enforcing act
BIG BUSINESS AND LABOR
The expansion of industry results in the
growth of big business and prompts laborers
to form unions to better their lives.
Better pay, better hours, better conditions.
LABOR UNIONS EMERGE
Long Hours, Danger, Exploitation, unsafe conditions
Most workers have 12 hr days, 6 day workweeks
perform repetitive, mind-dulling tasks
no vacation, sick leave, injury compensation
To survive, families need all members to work, including children
Sweatshops, tenement workshops often only jobs for women, children
require few skills; pay lowest wages
EARLY LABOR ORGANIZING
National Labor Union—first large-scale
national organization
Local chapters reject blacks; Colored
National Labor Union forms
Knights of Labor open to women, blacks,
unskilled
Knights support 8-hour day, equal pay,
arbitration
CRAFT UNIONS
Craft unions include skilled workers from one or more trades
Samuel Gompers helps found American Federation of Labor (AFL)
AFL uses collective bargaining for better wages, hours, conditions
AFL strikes successfully, wins higher pay, shorter workweek
INDUSTRIAL UNIONS
Industrial unions include skilled, unskilled
workers in an industry
Eugene V. Debs forms American Railway
Union; uses strikes
SOCIALISM AND THE IWW
Some labor activists turn to socialism:
government control of business, property
equal distribution of wealth
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or Wobblies
Organized by radical unionists, socialists; include African Americans
Industrial unions give unskilled workers dignity, solidarity
THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1877
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad strike spreads to
other lines
Governors say impeding interstate
commerce; federal troops intervene
THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR
3,000 gather at Chicago’s Haymarket
Square, protest police brutality
Violence ensues; bomb is thrown into police
8 charged with inciting riot, convicted
Public opinion turns against labor movement
Marks beginning of end for Knights of Labor
THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE
Carnegie Steel workers strike over pay cuts
Win battle against Pinkertons; National
Guard reopens plant
Steelworkers do not remobilize for 45 years
The Carnegie Steel Company locked workers out of its Homestead Works in
June of 1892. The lockout touched off the deadliest labor battle in U.S. history.
COMPANY TOWNS
George M. Pullman builds railcar factory on
Illinois prairie
Provides for workers: housing, doctors,
shops, sports field
Company tightly controls residents to ensure
stable work force
THE PULLMAN COMPANY STRIKE
Pullman lays off 3,000, cuts wages but not
rents; workers strike
Pullman refuses arbitration; violence ensues;
federal troops sent
Debs jailed, most workers fired, many
blacklisted
GOVERNMENT SIDES WITH EMPLOYERS
Management and Gov’t Pressure Unions
Employers forbid unions; turn Sherman
Antitrust Act against labor
Gov’t sends troops to break up strikes
Legal limitations cripple unions, but
membership rises
THROUGH THE “GOLDEN DOOR”
1870–1920, about 20 million Europeans
arrive in U.S.
Some immigrants seek better lives; others
temporary jobs
Many flee religious persecution: Jews driven
from Russia by pogroms
Flee war, famine, drought, criminal behavior,
etc.
OTHER IMMIGRANTS
About 300,000 Chinese arrive; earliest attracted by gold rush
work in railroads, farms, mines, domestic service, business
Japanese work on Hawaiian plantations, then go to West Coast (more than 200,000)
About 260,000 immigrants from West Indies; most seek industrial jobs
Mexicans flee political turmoil; after 1910, 700,000 arrive
COMING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
Almost all immigrants travel by steamship, most in steerage
Ellis Island—chief U.S. immigration station, in New York Harbor
physical exam by doctor; seriously ill not admitted
Inspector checks documents to see if meets legal requirements
1892–1924, about 17 million immigrants processed at Ellis Island
COMING ACROSS THE PACIFIC
Angel Island - immigrant processing station
in San Francisco Bay
Immigrants endure harsh questioning, long
detention for admission
IMMIGRATION BEFORE/AFTER 1880
OLD IMMIGRANTS NEW IMMIGRANTS
N and W Eur.
Fair hair and skin
Some education
Some resources
Protestant
S and E Eur., Asia, Mexico
Darker hair and skin
More illiterate
Poorer
Mostly Catholic, Jews and Orthodox.
A NEW LIFE
Cooperation for Survival
Immigrants must create new life: find work,
home, learn new ways
Many seek people who share cultural values,
religion, language
ethnic communities (enclave) form
Friction develops between “hyphenated”
Americans, native-born
EDUCATION FOR IMMIGRANTS
Immigrants encouraged to attend school, be
Americanized
Some resent suppression of their native
languages
Many public school systems have readings
from Protestant Bible
Catholics have parochial schools
THE RISE OF NATIVISM
Melting pot—in U.S. people blend by
abandoning native culture
immigrants don’t want to give up cultural
identity
Nativism—hatred of immigrants -- favoritism
toward native-born Americans
Nativists believe Anglo-Saxons superior to
other ethnic groups
ANTI-ASIAN SENTIMENT
Nativist -- fear Chinese
immigrants who work
for less
political pressure to
restrict Asian
immigration
Chinese Exclusion Act
bans entry to most
Chinese
THE GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENT
Nativist fears extend to Japanese, most
Asians in early 1900s
San Francisco segregates Japanese
schoolchildren
Gentlemen’s Agreement - Japan limits
emigration
in return, U.S. repeals segregation
RAPID URBANIZATION
Industrialization leads to urbanization, or growth of cities
Three groups who move to the cities to find jobs:
Immigrants
Displaced Farmers - technology decreases need for laborers
Southern Blacks: move to cities in North, West to escape racial
violence
find segregation, discrimination in North too
competition for jobs between blacks, white immigrants causes tension
THE CHALLENGES OF URBANIZATION
The rapid growth of cities force people to
contend with problems of:
housing, transportation, water, and
sanitation.
crime, fire, disease, lack of jobs
URBAN OPPORTUNITIES
Most immigrants settle in cities; get cheap
housing, factory jobs
Americanization movement—assimilate
people into main culture
Ethnic communities provide social support
URBAN PROBLEMS
Housing
Working-class families live in houses on
outskirts or boardinghouses
Later, row houses built for single families
Immigrants take over row houses, 2–3
families per house
Dumbbell Tenements - multifamily urban
dwellings, are overcrowded, unsanitary
TRANSPORTATION
Mass transit—
move large
numbers of people
along fixed routes
– allows people to
move out from the
city center
Electric trolleys
are the most
efficient
PROBLEMS OF OVERCROWDING
Water -- inadequate or no piped water, indoor
plumbing rare
Sanitation
Streets: manure, open gutters, factory
smoke, poor trash collection
Contractors hired to sweep streets, collect
garbage, clean outhouses
often do not do job properly
PROBLEMS OF OVERCROWDING
Crime:
As population grows, thieves flourish
Early police forces too small to be effective
Fire hazards: limited water, wood houses,
candles, kerosene heaters
Most firefighters volunteers, not always
available
REFORMERS MOBILIZE
Social Gospel movement—preaches salvation through service to poor
The Settlement House Movement
Settlement houses—community centers in slums, help immigrants
Social welfare reformers work to relieve urban poverty
provide educational, cultural, social services
send visiting nurses to the sick
help with personal, job, financial problems
Jane Addams founds Hull House in Chicago
AMERICAN LEISURE
Amusement Parks
Cities begin setting aside green space for recreation
Amusement parks built on outskirts with picnic grounds, rides
Bicycling and Tennis
Early bicycles dangerous; at first, bicycling is male-only sport
Tennis imported from Britain; becomes popular
SPECTATOR SPORTS
Americans become avid fans of spectator
sports
Boxing and baseball become profitable
businesses
POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE
Local and national political corruption in the
19th century leads to calls for reform.
THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL MACHINES
Political machine—organized group that
controls city political party
Give services to voters and businesses for
political/financial support
Immigrants and the Machine
Machines help immigrants with naturalization,
jobs, housing
THE ROLE OF THE POLITICAL BOSS
Whether or not city boss serves as mayor,
he:
controls access to city jobs, business licenses
influences courts, municipal agencies
arranges building projects, community services
Bosses paid by businesses, get voters’
loyalty, extend influence
MUNICIPAL GRAFT AND SCANDAL
Election Fraud and Graft
Machines use electoral fraud to win elections
Graft—illegal use of political influence for
personal gain
Machines take kickbacks and bribes to allow
legal/illegal activities
THE TWEED RING SCANDAL
William M. Tweed, or Boss Tweed, heads
Tammany Hall in NYC
Leads Tweed Ring, defrauds city of millions
of dollars
Cartoonist Thomas Nast helps arouse public
outrage
Tweed Ring broken, Tweed sent to prison
CIVIL SERVICE REPLACES PATRONAGE
Patronage Spurs Reform
Patronage—government jobs to those who help candidate get elected
Civil service (government administration) are all patronage jobs
Some appointees not qualified; some use position for personal gain
Reformers press for merit system of hiring for civil service
REFORM UNDER HAYES, GARFIELD, AND
ARTHUR
Stalwart Chester A. Arthur is vice-president
Garfield gives patronage jobs to reformers; is shot and killed
As president, Arthur urges Congress to pass civil service law
Pendleton Civil Service Act—appointments based on exam score
CRÉDIT MOBILIER SCANDAL
Wish for profit leads some railroad magnates
to corruption
Union Pacific stockholders form construction
company, Crédit Mobilier
overpay for laying track, pocket profits
Republican politicians implicated; reputation
of party tarnished
TECHNOLOGY AND CITY LIFE
Skyscrapers:
Invention of elevators, internal steel skeletons lead to skyscrapers
Skyscrapers solve urban problem of limited, expensive space
Electric Transit:
Before Civil War, horse-drawn streetcars run on iron rails
Electric streetcars (trolleys) run from suburbs to downtown
ENGINEERING AND URBAN PLANNING
Steel-cable suspension bridges link city
sections
Need for open spaces inspires science of
urban planning
Frederick Law Olmstead spearheads
movement for planned urban parks
helps design Central Park