Summer Assignment2015-2016

Labor supply

Tech innovations

Entrepreneurs

Gov’t assistance of business

Domestic market for manuf. goods

American Industrial Growth

Union Pacific (Omaha) going west &

Central Pacific (Sacramento) going

east

Land grants

Promontory Point, Utah (May 1869)

created 4 time zones out of necessity

Transcontinental RR

Economy of scarcity to abundance (Simon Patten)

National brandsChain stores – A&P, Woolworths (nat’l network)

Greater variety & low pricesMail-order Catalogs- Montgomery Ward, Sears &

RoebuckRural areas included in trends & tech

Changing Nature of Economy

Electricity plays major roleMeant “going out” – public places

Amusement parks, movie palaces, vaudeville houses, dance halls, saloons, sports…

Race, class & gender all factors – high brow/low browMen – spectator sports & gambling (baseball #1)Working class leisure

New found time but not $Street camaraderieSaloons –“regulars”–ethnic basis, political connections, dark

vices Movies – 1st true mass enter. medium

“Birth of a Nation” – had real plot (totally racist but elaborate)

Role of “Pragmatic” thinkingEncouraged by DarwinismGov’t promotion of higher ed. – “land grant” institutions

Entertainment & Life’s Extras

Iron/steel industry & rr interrelated

Petroleum- lubricant & then multiple uses

Dawning of auto industry – by 1910 total social influence

Beginning of corporate r&d - corp/univ partnerships

Scientific management – Frederick Taylor

Mass production & assembly line

Corporations- new ventures so costly needed size & capital

corps provide – lure of limited liability

Managerial style – hierarchy of control (middle

management)

Corporate integration – vertical & horizontal

Big Changes

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons

•Carnegie – steel industry – vertical

integration

•Morgan – buys out Carnegie – US Steel(billion

$ comp)

•Rockefeller – Standard Oil – prime ex of

monopoly /horizontal

Trusts shift to holding companies (lots of power in hands of the few)

Corp. size grew, costs cut, complex industrial infrastructure, new mrkts, more jobs, mass production

Hugely controversialUndemocratic or Protestant work ethic on

steroids?Corrupt rise to power or ingenuity of self

made men?Gap bwtn rich & poor growingSeries of recessions blamed on monops.

Who holds the power(and how did he get it)?

Massive influxDomestic – rural migrationsForeign – 1865-1915 huge #s – recruitment of

unskilled Increased ethnic tensions

Vulnerable @ work – conditions & cycles

Centralized control of factory work (no control or connection to product)

Women – threatened social valuesChildren – social ill but laws weak or

bypassed

Workers

Massive immigration (southern & eastern Europe) b/c opportunities

Nativism inspires xenophobic organizations @ all levels

Quality of housing for poor not a concernSouth – former slave quartersCities – tenements (large occupancy & low rent)How the Other Half Lives – Jacob Riis

Urbanization

Public spaces & servicesPublic park as counter to congestion

Frederick Law Olmstead – Central ParkMuseums & libraries – cities as source of

knowledge“City Beautiful” Movement – Euro inspired-

revitalize old sections w/new impressive structuresDaniel Burnham’s “Great White City” (1893

Chicago World’s Fair) – whole-scale redesigning – attempted but not achieved

“Back Bay”–out ward expansion Boston marsh zone neighborhood

Skyscrapers – upward expansion Passenger elevators, steel girder construction,

architectural design

City Planning

CrimeFire – “great fires” destroyed large areas

Less flammable building materialsProfessional fire dept.

Disease close quarter living & working conditions

Indigence Pollution – as related to health issues

Public Health Services (TB, poisonings)*public health as responsibility of fed. gov’t –

forerunner of OSHA (1970)

City Strains

Cowboy – myth vs reality – the

“natural man”

The Frontier (“closed” 1890)

Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis

Democratizing politically & socially

Independence & individualism

Pragmatism

Safety valve

Romanticized West

“Long drives” – east Texas to Chicago – lost a lot herd on the wayChisholm Trail (Abilene, Kansas)

railhead

More land going to ag rather than grazing

Barbed wire (Glidden)

• farm life tough & dangerous• Bonanza farms –

irrigation• Family farms still

dominated• $ needed to irrigate,

use chems & machinery too much for avg fam. – “land monopoly”

Threats to way of lifeBureau of Indian Affairs – generally incompetent War against buffalo – (sport, fads, food & hides, rr devel) -

Almost wiped out 1875Relocations pit tribe vs tribe

Distrust – Sand Creek Massacre (1864) Cheyenne

Outright Hunting – mining & settler conflicts

Little Big Horn (1876) Sioux (Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse)-unity

Chief Joseph (1877) Nez Perce

*Resistance by Ghost Dance-whites retreat, buffalo return

Wounded Knee (1890) Sioux – role of machine guns

Assimilation – Dawes Severalty Act(1887)

Allowed white settlers to buy land so lost land & culture

Had to prove degree of “civilization” to get citizenship

Native Americans

Electoral Stability

High voter turnout

Cultural/regional party identification

Political Stalemate

“Do-little” GovernmentRole of the National Government

Interpreted and accepted roles & responsibilities

Stalwarts – Roscoe Conkling, NYHalfbreeds – James Blaine, MEMugwumps – wouldn’t play the “game”– sat the

fence

Party Patronage

Rutherford & Lemonade Lucy Hayes•Removed last Recon. Troops from south

James Garfield•Ohio Halfbreed•Gave majority of patronage jobs to halfbreeds

Chester Arthur•Stalwart•Tried for distance from Stals.•Pendleton Act

James Blaine“Rum, Romanticism and Rebellion”

Grover ClevelandReputation of reform & anti corruptionGets mugwump supportLarge NY Catholic turnout

Election of 1884

Cleveland’s First Term•Frugal & limited gov’t

•Civil service reform

•Vetoed many private pension bills (Civil War)

•Interstate Commerce Act of 1887

•Dawes Act

•Anti-tariff

Key issue is tariffGrover ClevelandBenjamin HarrisonElectoral votes vs popular votes

Billion-dollar Congress (Repubs have both houses)Sherman Anti-trust Act (1890)McKinley Tariff (1890)Civil War Pension increasesSherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890

Election of 1888

1890 Congressional shiftGrowing agrarian discontent

Return of the Democrats

• Oliver Kelly

• First organized 1870s in the Midwest, the south, and Texas

• Cooperative associations

• Social &educational components

• Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger Laws.”

• Rapidly declined by late 1870s

The Grange

Social Darwinism

Gospel of Wealth

Horatio Alger myths

OR

• Gov’t should shape econ/society or else – Caesar’s

Column

• Henry George

• Laurence Gronlund

• Edward Bellamy

New Theories

Mostly failures – seen as threat to liberty of contract

Middle class viewed unions as troublemakers/radicals/ foreigners

“Molly Maguires” – seen as violent intimidators Great Railroad Strike (1877) -1st major nat’l

labor conflictRioted, destroyed equip.Militias called outConflicts no longer local issuesWorkers frustrated w/management & gov’t’s

protectionsFragility of unions

Early Union Attempts

Knights of Labor – Terrance PowderlyAccepted almost everybodyBroad themed philosophical goalsTemporarily popular &

then disbanded

American Federation of Labor – Samuel GompersLimited membershipSkilled craftsmenAllowed women to reduce

wage threatWages & conditions primary

concerns

Haymarket Square (1886 – Chicago)- public meeting re:8hr day – bomb thrown/police killedSymbol of social chaos, radicalism & anarchy

Homestead Strike (1892 – Pittsburgh)Wage cuts w/out collective bargainingBrought in Pinkertons & then militia to protect

“scab”workersPublic opinion anti union Setback in steel industry union movement till 1930s

Pullman Strike (1894 – Chicago)Wages cut but no rent cuts in company townEugene Debs leads call for walk off & boycottOwners link pullmans to mail cars so fed. court

issues injunction (supported by Cleveland) & Debs jailed

Strike folds

Protests & Strikes

Wages not keeping up w/COL

Lost legislative challenges

Strikes ineffective

Unions represented small % of workers

Women, unskilled, minorities, immigrants

Ethnic/racial/language barriers

Shifting/transient workforce

Belief in next generation moving to

management

Why organized labor didn’t work…yet

• Begun in the late 1880s (Texas first – the Southern Alliance; then in the Midwest—the Northern Alliance).

• Built upon the ashes of the Grange

• More political and less social than Grange

• Ran candidates for office.

• Controlled 8 state legislatures & had 47 representatives in Congress during the 1890s.

Farmers’ Alliances

In 1889 both the Northern and Southern Alliances merged into on—the Farmers’ Alliance.

James Weaver

Small, low-tech farmers, sharecroppers & tenant

farmers

“raise less corn & more hell”

–Mary Lease

Did ok in pres. election but very well in st. & nat’l

legislative contests

“Challenge to the brutal & chaotic

way the economy was developing”

People’s Party - Populists

1. System of “sub-treasuries.”

2. Abolition of the National Bank.

3. Direct election of Senators.

4. Govt. ownership of RRs, telephone & telegraph companies.

5. Government-operated postal savings banks.

6. Restriction of undesirable immigration.

7. 8-hour work day for government employees.

8. Abolition of the Pinkerton detective agency.

9. Australian secret ballot.

10.Re-monitization of silver.

11.A single term for President & Vice President

Omaha Platform

In Support of Gov’t Owned Companies

Conservative Cleveland reelectedStock market crash (b/c big corp

bankruptcies)Bank failuresTightening of creditFledgling comps. fail Skyrocketing unemploymentMitigating factors

Depressed crop pricesEuro. depression = loss of mkts

Less Euro gold in US

Panic 1893

Here Lies Prosperity

“A petition with boots”

Jacob Coxey & his “Army of the Commonweal of Christ.”

March on Washington “hayseed socialists!”

Historically bi-metal

1870s changed

Mint ratio 16:1

Market ration

1873 Congress discontinues silver coinage

Crime of ’73

Free silver movement

Silver Question

Wm McKinley (Repub, Ohio) oppose silver

coinage

Mts & plains state delegates go over to Dems

Wm Jennings Bryan (Dem, Nebraska)

South & west delegates incorp. Populist ideas –

free silver

“Cross of Gold” speech sways convention

Populists no other choice so “fuse” w/Dems

Election 1896

You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!

McKinley (w/Hanna direction & $) followed tradition“front porch” campaign

Bryan did opposite – lot less $ & a lot more movement

Campaign of 1896

Bryan: The Farmers’ Friend(The Mint Ratio)

18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”

The Seasoned Politician

vs.

The “Young” Newcomer

Into Which

Box Will the

Voterof ’96 Place His

Ballot?

1896 Election Results

• Focus on silver undermined efforts to build bridges to urban voters

• Did not form alliances with other groups

• During end of campaign – rising wheat prices

• McKinley’s campaign was well- organized and highly funded.

• Seen by many as a demagogue

• Campaign seen as undignified • Presidential candidates “stood” for office

rather than “running” for it

Why Did Bryan Lose?

Gold Triumphs Over Silver•1900 Gold Standard Act

• confirmed the nation’s commitment to the gold standard.

• A victory for the

forces of conservatism

End of stalemate & stagnation of Gilded ageBegan era of Repub. dominance of presidency

& CongressRepubs – party of “free soil, free labor & free

men” now business, industry & strong nat’l gov’t

Urban dominanceBeginnings of modern politicsDemise of Populists

Significance of 1896 Election

• The economy experienced rapid change.

• The era of small producers and farmers was fading away.

• Race divided the Populist Party, especially in the South.

• The Populists were not able to breakexisting party loyalties.

• Most of their agenda was co-opted bythe Democratic Party

Why Did Populism Decline?