mass production of automobiles assembly-line system “i am going to democratize the automobile”...
TRANSCRIPT
MASS PRODUCTION OF AUTOMOBILES
Assembly-line system
“I am going to democratize the automobile” – Henry Ford
SituationSituation
1907 – Ford lowered prices and sales went up
1908 – Introduced Model T “Tin Lizzie” - $850.00 stripped down
1913 – adopted meat packers’ techniques and created a moving assembly line
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1913 – sold 248,000 cars – produced 1 every 93 minutes
1925 – turned out a new car every 10 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf8d4NE8XPw
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•1904 – large corporations controlled 2/5 of the capital in the US = Oligopolies
i.e. 6 financial groups dominated Railroad Industry
•1909 – 1% of industry produced ½ of all manufactured goods
•TRUSTS – These companies worked together to keep prices high. SituationSituation
DEBATE: Critics wanted to break the trusts up – others argued that large-scale business was a mark of the times
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Civil ReformersCivil Reformers
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
•Describes the filthy conditions in meatpacking houses
•Got the attention of the public and the government
•The Meat Inspection Act
•The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
•FDA
RooseveltRoosevelt
“TRUST BUSTER” – not entirely accurate
•Distinguished between “good” and “bad” trusts
•Promised to protect the “good” and control the “bad”
RooseveltRoosevelt
•February 14, 1902 – brought suit against the Northern Securities Company for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act
•Company controlled the rail networks of Northern Pacific, the Great Northern and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroads –JP Morgan and Rockefeller
•5-4 Supreme Court ruled to dissolve the Company.
RooseveltRoosevelt
•1902 – 1904 – Roosevelt moved against the beef trust, the American Tobacco Company, the Du Pont Corp, and Standard Oil
RooseveltRoosevelt
•WAS HE REALLY AGAINST BIG BUSINESS??
•1904 – during bid for re-election he asked for support from big business – including $150,000 from J.P. Morgan
•1907 –allowed Morgan’s US Steel to absorb the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company
Roosevelt is portrayed as Jack the Giant Killer and the Giants are the Captains of Industry and Wall Street
TAFTTAFT
•Despite Roosevelt’s reputation as the “Trust Buster” more Trusts were “busted” by Taft
•Man-Elkins Act of 1910 – placed telephone and telegraph companies under government control
TAFTTAFT
•“rule of reason” – allowed Supreme Court to determine whether a business exerted a “reasonable” restraint on trade
•1911 – sued US Steel for 1907 acquisition of Tennessee Coal and Iron Company
WilsonWilson
•Banking Reform – Federal Reserve Act
•Gave President more control over the banks
•Established Federal Trade Commission – to oversee business methods
WilsonWilson
•Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)
•Prohibited unfair trade practices
•Forbade pricing policies which created monopolies
•Made corporate officers personally responsible for anti-trust violations
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Mass Production’s goal = to make each product exactly the same
By 1920 – almost ½ of all industrial workers labored in factories which employed more than 250 people
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RESULTS:
Workers lost control of workplace
Conveyer belts were sped-up to heighten production
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FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR
“Scientific” labor management
Train workers for particular tasks
Time and motion studies
Differential pay rates that rewarded those who worked fastest
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Jobs became monotonous and dangerous
Meat cutters sliced fingers and hands
46 steel workers were killed in just one mill in 1906
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MARCH 1911 – Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire
Seamstresses were trapped in the building because exit doors had been closed & locked by the company to prevent theft and to shut out union organizers
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Workers stampeded down the narrow staircases and the single fire escape
Others leaped from the building’s top floors
146 people died
Civilian ReformersCivilian Reformers
•Samuel Gompers
•American Federation of Labor [AFL]
•Union for skilled workers
•Industrial Workers of the World [IWW]
•Union for unskilled workers and foreign born laborers
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HENRY FORD
Introduced $5 day – doubling wage rate for common labor
Reduced working day from 9 to 8 hours
Personnel department to place workers
Civilian ReformersCivilian Reformers
FORD’S POLICY PRODUCED RESULTS:
•Turnover declined
•Absenteeism declined
•Output increased
•IWW was pushed out
Civilian ReformersCivilian Reformers
•LOUIS BRANDEIS
•Muller v. Oregon
•The “Brandeis Brief”
•Used medical evidence to support claims that poor working conditions led to unhealthy workers
RooseveltRoosevelt
ANTHRACITE COALMINERS’ SRIKE – PA
140,000 miners walked off the job
Roosevelt ordered Army to prepare to seize the mines – leaked word of his order to Wall Street
Alarmed Morgan and the Union made a settlement
RooseveltRoosevelt
An independent commission appointed by Roosevelt created a deal
10% wage increase
Cut in work hours
Roosevelt saw government as an honest impartial broker
“Square Deal” for both labor and capital
TAFTTAFT
Backed laws to regulate safety in mines and Railroads
Mandated 8-hour work days for government employees
WilsonWilson
1914 – Ludlow Colorado
State militia and mine guards fired machine guns into tent colony of coal strikers
Killed 26 men, women and children
Wilson sent federal troops to end the violencehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrZeYODHmlA
WilsonWilson
Wilson signed Adamson Act – 1916
Imposed an 8 hour work day on interstate Railroads
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1900 – More than 5 million women work
More women than men graduated from high school – but most professions were closed to them
Women attended “new business schools – training in stenography, typing, & bookkeeping
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1920 – ¼ + of all employed women held clerical jobs – many others taught
Critics – women’s employment endangered the home
Threatened reproductive functions
Robbed them of their “special charm”
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1900 – 1920 – The Birth rate did continue to drop
1916 – 1 in every 9 marriages ended in divorce, compared to 1 in 21 in 1880
CIVILIAN REFORMERSCIVILIAN REFORMERS
MARGARET SANGER
PIONEER IN BIRTH CONTROL – LEAD TO CREATION OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD
MARGARET DREIER
WOMEN’S TRADE UNION LEAGUE
1920 – 19TH AMENDMENT TOOK EFFECT
CIVIL REFORMERSCIVIL REFORMERS
Ida Tarbell
Editor in Chief – McClure’s Magazine
Muckraking magazine that examined and exposed the lives of the working class during the Progressive Era
WILSONWILSON
At first he believed it was a state issue and refused to endorse woman suffrage
1913 – 1st Mother’s Day
By 1916 – He came out in support of giving women the right to vote
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1900 – 3 million + children worked
Nearly 20% of children between 5 and 15 held full or almost full time jobs
Thousands worked in the mines & southern cotton mills
CIVILIAN REFORMERSCIVILIAN REFORMERS
oIndividual States passed compulsory education and minimum age laws
oNational Child Labor Committee established
oJohn Dewey – education is directly related to experience – opened Lab School in Chicago
TAFTTAFT
oCreated the Children’s Bureau
WILSONWILSON
oKeating-Owen Act
oProhibited shipment in interstate commerce of products manufactured by children under age 14
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Violence was common
1900 – 1914 White mobs murdered more than 1,00 black people – mutilating them and burning them alive
Race Riots broke out
1906 – Atlanta, Georgia
1908 – Springfield, Illinois
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Often illiterate – they were forced to sign contracts tying them to their jobs
Armed guards controlled camps and whipped anyone caught trying to escape
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Few Unions admitted blacks
Illiteracy rate dropped from 14% in 1900 to 30% in 1910
However, they didn’t have equal school facilities, teachers’ salaries and education materials
CIVIL REFORMERSCIVIL REFORMERS
Niagara Movement
•Claimed for blacks, “every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil, and social; and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest.” – W.E.B. DuBois
CIVIL REFORMERSCIVIL REFORMERS
NAACP
• Founded by: William E. Walling – wealthy southerner & Settlement house worker; Mary Ovington, a white anthropology student; and Oswald Garrison Villard, grandson of the famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison
CIVIL REFORMERSCIVIL REFORMERS
NAACP cont…
•By 1910 – it had more than 6,000 members
•Of top 8 officers – DuBois was the only black
•1911 – with National Urban League the NAACP pressured employers, labor unions and government on behalf of African Americans
WILSONWILSON
1912 – Election – appealed to black voters
Once in office – appointed Southerners to high office, and Southern segregationist views on race dominated the nations capital
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CIVILIAN REFORMERSCIVILIAN REFORMERS
Social- Justice Reformers
launched crusade to remove evil of drink from American Life WCTU
1920 – 18th Amendment – prohibited sale and transportation intoxicating liquors
CIVILIAN REFORMERSCIVILIAN REFORMERS
1910 – Mann Act
Prohibited the interstate transportation of women - attempts to stop prostitution
ROOSEVELTROOSEVELT
Conservation
Along with Gifford Pinchot – he supported the wise use of natural resources, not locking them away
Placed power sites, coal lands & oil reserves as well as national forests in public domain
WILSONWILSON
INCOME TAX
Authorized by the 16th Amendment
1% on individuals and corporations earning $4,000 annually
an additional 1% on incomes over $20,000