THE RISE OF INDUSTRY

The Making of A Superpower

“Smokestack Lightning”• Ah, oh, smokestack lightning

Shinin', just like goldWhy don't ya hear me cryin'?Ah, whoo hoo, ooh...Whoo...

Whoa, oh, tell me, babyWhat's the, matter with you?Why don't ya hear me cryin'?Whoo hoo, whoo hooWhoo...

Whoa, oh, tell me, babyWhere did ya, stay last night?A-why don't ya hear me cryin'?Whoo hoo, whoo hooWhoo...

What is Howlin’ Wolf Singing about in the song “Smokestack Lightnin’?”

GROWTH OF THE RAILROAD• Closed the frontier

– 40,000 arrive in Nebraska alone w/in year

• No longer ship goods around S. America• Drives Industrial Revolution: Rapid

exchange of goods between coasts– Opened up new settlements & markets– Revolutionized Communication: Unified the

Nation– Spurred Industries needed to build Railroads

• Iron, Timber, Coal, Glass

• What was the impact on Native Americans?

Kings of the Railroad

• Govt. gives land grants to Railroads as incentives to build tracks– Receive 120 million acres of public land…what can railroads do with

this land?

• Railroad Tycoons/Robber Barons

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cyrus FieldsJay Gould

The Rise of Industry: Opener• The Civil War spurred massive

numbers to go work in industry/ factories

• By 1914, GNP of US 8x higher than in 1865

• The U.S. went from being a “late arrival” to the Industrial Revolution, in early 1800s, to the leading industrial power by WWI. How did America accomplish this? Make a list of factors that enabled the U.S. to industrialize rapidly.

What factors allowed the U.S. to become an Industrial Powerhouse?

• Abundance of Natural Resources on our soil– Iron, Coal, Timber, Copper, Oil, etc.

• Laissez-Faire Economics/Free Enterprise System– Minimal government regulation of the economy…keep taxes and regulations

low…– Creates business friendly environment for investing– What are the down sides?

• Technological Innovations– Electricity/Light Bulb…Impact?– Telegraph/Telephone…Impact?– Bessemer Process—Turn Iron to Steel…Impact?– Refrigerator…Impact?– Air Brake System for Trains—Impact?

What factors allowed the U.S. to become an Industrial Powerhouse?

• Massive Labor Force…why? – IMMIGRATION– Why might the government have had a lax policy on immigration in the years following the Civil

War?– How did immigration spur economic growth?

Mass Immigration

Big Business Takes Over• Corporations

– A company owned by many people, but treated as if they were a person

• Stockholders (owners)• Allows for growth

– What are the benefits of issuing stocks?• Allows for larger projects/investments• Capital to invest in new technology• Mass Production—Lowers costs• Limited liability…spreads risk

– What are the disadvantages?• High fixed costs; Can hurt small business

Growth of Monopolies/Trusts• Monopoly:

– A situation where 1 company owns all or nearly all of a given market for a product or service

• Vertical Integration– A company owning all of the different businesses necessary

to produce a specific product• Andrew Carnegie: Carnegie Steel• Ex. Oil Company: finds oil deposits, drills/extracts the oil, ships the

oil, refines it, and sells it to distributors and consumers

• Horizontal Integration– Business merges/combines with another business in the

same industry and at the same stage of production• John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil• Ex. Honda merges with Hyundai and Kia

Growth of Monopolies/Trusts• Trust

– Legal arrangement that allows one person to manage another person’s property

• Easier to estbl. Uniform control over production/prices w/ this system

– Allows trustees to control a group of companies as if they were 1 large, merged company

– Used to get around state laws which made it illegal 1 company to own stock in another

Sign at the bottom of cartoon: “All Freight must pass here and pay any tolls we demand.”

Rise of Robber Barons• Robber Barons

– A term used for businessman who used “questionable” practices to amass their wealth

• Use ruthless business strategies to destroy competition• Bribing politicians• Manipulating workers…extremely low wages/poor cond.• Combines sense of criminal, “robber,” with illegitimate aristocracy,

“baron”• Examples: Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan

• Social Darwinism– A belief that the “strongest” and the “fittest” should survive;

while the “weak” and “unfit” should be allowed to die.

Rockefeller/Standard Oil: Unscrupulous Business Practices

• (1) Temporarily undercutting the prices of competitors until they either went out of business or sold out to Standard Oil.

• (2) Buying up the components needed to make oil barrels in order to prevent competitors from getting their oil to customers.

• (3) Using its large and growing volume of oil shipments to negotiate an alliance with the railroads that gave it secret rebates and thereby reduced its effective shipping costs to a level far below the rates charged to its competitors.

• (4) Secretly buying up competitors and then having officials from those companies spy on and give advance warning of deals being planned by other competitors.

• (5) Secretly buying up or creating new oil-related companies, such as pipeline and engineering firms, that appeared be independent operators but which gave Standard Oil hidden rebates.

• (6) Dispatching thugs who used threats and physical violence to break up the operations of competitors who could not otherwise be persuaded.

Robber Barons

“This is a Senate of the monopolists, by the monopolists, for the monopolists.”

“People’s Entrance: Closed”

Sherman/Clayton Anti-Trust Act• Monopolies/Trusts eliminated competition and hurt the

consumer…thus the Sherman and Clayton-Anti-Trust Acts passed to break up trusts…

• Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)– Outlawed unfair trade practices– Made it illegal for company to hold stock in another, if by doing so it

reduced competition– Made owners/directors of businesses liable if they broke anti-trust

laws– Gave citizens right to collect legal damages thru law suits if injured by

trusts– Banned use of injunctions against strikes

http://www.linfo.org/standardoil.html

THE RISE OF LABOR

Colbert Report--Minimum Wage

As You Enter…

• Get out Notes Packet on Industry and Unions from last week…

Formation of Labor Unions• What is a labor union?

– Organization of workers formed to fight for workers rights

• Why do you believe labor unions began to form?– Low wages (kept down by cheap labor)– Long Hours (10-16 hr. days)– Child Labor– Horrible Conditions:

• Poor lighting, poor ventilation/toxic fumes, unsafe machines, no vacation time, minimal breaks, no sick days.

• What were the major demands of labor unions?– Better wages– 8 hour work day– Safer Working conditions– End to child labor

Child Labor OPVL-Marking the Text

• Draw a box at the end of the document and write the author’s main argument.

• Underline the sentences that tell you the author’s main ideas.• Star next to any information about the author, his purpose,

audience, and occasion for writing.• Put arrows next to information about the context: dates of

the document, location, historical events, etc.• Put boxes around any facts and examples the author uses to

support his argument.

Early Labor Unions• Knights of Labor

– One of the first major industrial unions– Utilize boycotts/arbitration/strikes– Demanded 8 hr. workday; equal pay for women;

end to child labor– Efforts hurt following violence of Haymarket Riot

• AFL– Main union of late 1800s…led by Samuel Gompers– Focused on Skilled Laborers…(engineers, welders)– Encourage closed shops, & calls for 8 hr. workday

Early Labor Unions• American Railway Union

– One of earliest & largest industrial unions– Led by Eugene V. Debs (would run for President 5

times…1900-1920…for Socialist Party)– Unionizing all railway workers, regardless of craft or

service

• IWW– Eugene V. Debs (co-founder)– Tried to unite all workers according to industry into one

union– Labor Union closely associated with Socialist Party

• Accused of being a radical org…thus failed to gain traction.

Opposition to Labor Unions• Who opposed the formation of labor unions? Why?

– Owners/Employers• Openly hostile to labor unions

– Viewed Unions as a threat to their “property rights”; feared would cut into their profits– Bring in strikebreakers, blacklist union members, use lockouts

• Relationship characterized by violent clashes between two sides…examples?

– Government often sided w/ employers • Court injunctions—orders blocking boycotts/strikes• Local Law enforcement & state militias limit efforts of strikers…often mass

arrests

– Many Americans view unions as “Radicals”…fear of Marxism & Anarchism…fueled by Nativism

THE GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE (July-September, 1877)

• First Major Strike in RR Industry• Triggered by 3rd wave of wage cuts

during econ. Recession• 80,000 workers strike; affected 2/3 of

RR in country• Leads to mass property damage

– 100 dead, $10 million in RR property destroyed

• Strike ended as police, state militia, and federal troops were called in to restore order

• Alarmed Americans—cause many to want peaceful way to resolve labor disputes

HAYMARKET RIOT (May, 1886)

Safari: Haymarket Riot Video Clip

• 1886-Supporters for 8 hour work day call for nationwide strike

• In Chicago, May 3, 1886• Police fire upon strikers killing 4

• May 4, 1886• Protest called in response to

police shooting• Bomb goes off in crowd. Kills 1

police officer, injures 6 others• Police and workers fire upon one

another…100 people injured• 8 immigrants arrested; 4

executed despite minimal evidence against them

• Critics of Unions use this event to portray Unions as “dangerous,” radical organizations.

HOMESTEAD STRIKE (June, 1892)• Carnegie Steel Company (in attempt to break

Steel Union) cuts wages 20%• Carnegie’s Manager: Henry Clay Frick

– Locks strikers out of plant– Brings in strikebreakers

• Union Response– Surround factory and armed strikers to keep

factory shutdown and keep strikebreakers out

• Frick Responds by hiring Pinkerton detective agency to break strike and allow strikebreakers to enter– Violence ensues between Pinkertons and strikers

• Outcome: – State government sends in militia to end violence– Strike Collapses as company hires strikebreakers

PULLMAN STRIKE (Summer 1894)• George Pullman-owner of Pullman Palace Railcar Company

– Lays off workers; slashes wages w/o cutting rent and food prices at company homes and stores where employees were expected to live and shop

• RR workers across country go on strike, refusing to handle any trains using Pullman Railcars– RR tied up nationwide

• Pullman locks workers out of factory• Government Response

– Fed. Govt. gets court injunction to end strike because it interferes with shipment of US Mail.

– Federal troops called in to end strike…strike fails

• Significance– Another example of government siding with employers to

crush union strike– Use of injunctions (formal court orders) became another tool

employers could use to crush strikes

Drawing Connections

What were the unions striking over in each of these cases?What was the response of the employers?Who did the government side with?What was the outcome of the strike for the union/workers?

Rise of the American Nation

The Melting Pot

19th Century US Immigration

“The Mortar of Assimilation—And The One Element That Won’t Mix”

Source: PuckDate: June 26, 1889

A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS

The Journey Over…Steerage• “Steerage was one huge place. It was the lowest deck. The stench, it was

the summer, in August, the humidity, the heat, having no air conditioning, having cooling facilities, it was very hot, compounded by the fact that there must have been anywhere from two to three hundred people in that huge cavernous area. The body smells, the body odors, the lack of sanitation, the lack of any kind of facilities, washing, there was no such thing as washing or bathing. The stench, the vermin, it was rat infested. But, being children, I guess, had its advantages, in this case because we always tried to get out of there. We tried to go, get out of the steerage, get out of the babble of voices, get out of the heat and the stench and get on the main deck. We all were permitted to stay there for a little while but we were constantly chased. But the crossing went for us, for me in particular, went very quickly.”--MORRIS ABRAHAM SCHNEIDER (Poland 1920)

Ellis Island

• Push/Pull Factors?

• How did immigrants of late 19th century differ from those earlier in the century?

• 12 million in 60 years

Angel Island

• Asian Immigration– Push/Pull Factors

• Unlike Ellis, it could take months to process– Why?

“Welcome to All”

“The Immigrant: The Stranger at our Gate”

• Emigrant: Can I come in?

• Uncle Sam: I ‘spose you can, there’s no law to keep you out.

Nativism• What is Nativism?

– Anti-immigrant movement by natives calling for limits to immigration to the U.S.

– “The belief that America is for Americans”• Why would many unions support Nativist policies?• The Passing of the Great Race …by Madison Grant

– Fear American racial purity being diluted by immigrants

• 1882—1st Restrictions on Immigration– Chinese Exclusion Act

• Ban Chinese immigration for 10 years• Prevented Chinese from becoming citizens

– School Segregation• Rising tensions between US and Japan

Immigration Act of 1924

• Limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890

• Why?– Law was aimed at further restricting the Southern

and Eastern Europeans who were immigrating in large numbers starting in the 1890s, as well as prohibiting the immigration of East Asians and Asian Indians.

Impact of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and Immigration Act of 1924

Nativism…A thing of the Past? Or Does History Repeat?

• Arizona S.B. 1070– Legal immigrants must carry documentation– With “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an illegal

immigrant, police must stop that person and ask for documents

– Citizens can sue local governments for not enforcing law

• Is this law a violation of the 14th Amendment, Equal Protection Clause?

• How might this law be an example of Nativism

Colbert Report PBS Newshour

Daily Show: Law and BorderDaily Show: Mexican American

Studies Ban

Early 20th Century Music

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hju5YFPH_eA

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hLT73VifzI

URBANIZATION

• Where do immigrants settle?

• Ethnic enclaves

• What challenges do they face?

Cities on the Rise• In 60 yrs.—number of

cities increase by 12 times– By 1920, more live in

urban areas than rural– Why?

• Industrialization

• Rising Skyscrapers• Mass Transit Emerges

Jacob Riis & “Muckraking”

• Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives (1890)– Documented the lives of the working class in NYC Slums

• Dark/cramped apartments, many living on the streets, entire families working

• Poverty, crime, disease• Pollution: manure in streets, soot/ash everywhere from

coal/wood fires, poor sewage systems• Exposes sweatshops• Brutal child labor practices

Jacob Riis’ Impact• One of the earliest works of “Muckraking”

– Journalism focused on exposing social ills, the abuses of business, and corruption in politics

– Riis: expose upper & mid-class society to the horrid conditions of the working poor

• Triggered a public reaction

• Led to the…– Tearing down of worst tenements, sweatshops,

reforming schools– Improvements in NY, Lower East Side…sewers, garbage

collection, and indoor plumbing

Competing Ideas• Social Darwinism

– What was it?– Examples in society?

• YMCA, Salvation Army

• Settlement Houses-Jane Addams

• Public Education

Political Machines• Informal political group whose

goal was to gain and keep power

• Provide necessities in exchange for votes– Often target immig. populations

• Graft/Fraud– Control primary process– Accept bribes for contracts– Spoils System/patronage

Tammany Hall: NY Political Machine

• Tammany Hall: NY Political Machine– Controlled all city services– Offer food, jobs in exchange

for votes– Rig elections/fraud– Had “allegiance” of local

business leaders– William “Boss” Tweed most

famous Tammany boss

• How does the cartoonist illustrate Boss Tweed’s control of Tammany Hall?

Government Reforms

Government Reforms•Pendleton Act

– Civil Service Reform

•Interstate Commerce Act– Limits RR rates to reasonable

amounts

•Sherman Anti-Trust Act/ Clayton Anti-Trust Act

– Goal: break up monopolies