Chapter 4: The Expansion of American Industry

1850-1900

A Technological RevolutionChanges in Daily Life

Daily Life in 1865:– No electric lighting– No refrigeration– Travel and long

distance communication slow

Daily Life in 1900:– Electric lighting– Refrigeration– Easier to

communicate and travel

WHY THE CHANGE?!?!?

New Ideas & Inventions

• Between 1860 and 1890, 500,000 patents (licenses to make, use, or sell and invention) were issued.

• Inventions included:

-The typewriter:

New Ideas & Inventions

The Phonograph The Sewing Machine

New Ideas & Inventions

• Daily life was made easier

• New American industries were created and old one expanded from investment

• Standard of living was higher

• Industrial productivity (amount of goods & services created in a given period of time) increased

Railroads Improve Transportation

Transcontinental Railroad

• A railway extending from coast to coast

• Began in 1862—most workers immigrants

• Government involvement vital—gave loans and land grants

• 2 companies:

--Central Pacific= eastward out of Sacramento (Chinese)

--Union Pacific= westward out of Omaha (Irish)

• Took 7 years to complete

Meeting in the Middle…

Rail Problems and Solutions• Safety Improved:

– airbrakes developed– telegraph system

from moving trains—reduced collisions

– standard time zones introduced—improved scheduling

• Made life easier for passengers and businesses

Advances in CommunicationThe Telegraph:• Perfected by Samuel Morse:

– Morse Code: Code of short and long electrical impulses to represent the letters of the alphabet

"Mr. Watson, come here, I want you."

Telephone:• “Talking

Telegraph” patented by Alexander Gram Bell

• Built long-distance telephone lines and switchboards

Interesting Phone Facts…• Several days after the famous "Mr. Watson

come here ...." Bell was testing his instrument over a longer distance. Bell and Watson were upstairs with one instrument while Charles Williams was using the other instrument downstairs. Someone called for Bell from another and as he went to the other room he handed the instrument to Watson and Bell said "here, hold this"; thus the term "putting someone on hold" was born.

• When Alexander Graham Bell died on August 4, 1922, millions of phones went dead. In Bell's honor, all phones served by the Bell System in the USA and Canada went silent for one minute.

Electric Power

• Resulted in industrial development & changed daily life:– Refrigeration possible– Created new jobs (ready-made clothing industry)

• Thomas Edison:– Light bulb & electricity with power stations– Companies: General Electric & Westinghouse

encouraged spread

The Bessemer Process• New process for making steel more

efficiently (easier cheaper)• Iron had been used of railroads & building

frames• Steel is lighter, stronger, & more flexible• Made mass production (production in

great amounts) of steel possible—a new age of building began

• Led to many changes and developments in America’s industrial growth

Brooklyn Bridge

The Growth of BIG Business

money, money, MONEY!!! (. . .money)

Robber Baron or Captains of Industry?

• Terms used to describe industrialists:

• Robber Barons:– Built fortunes by stealing from the

public=drained resources & had laws interpreted in their favor

– Ruthless towards competitors

– Workers paid low wages & faced unsafe working conditions

Robber Baron or Captains of Industry?

• Captain of Industry:– Increased the supply of goods by

building factories, raising productivity, & expanding markets

– Created jobs=raised standard of living

– Founded libraries, museums, & universities

Andrew Carnegie

• Founded 1st steel plants to use Bessemer Process

• Established Carnegie Steel Company=controlled the market

• Preached a “Gospel of Wealth”

What Do YOUYOU Think?

Were industrialists like Andrew Carnegie Robber Barons or

Captains of Industry?

Why?Why?

Social DarwinismSocial Darwinism• Based on Charles

Darwin’s theory of evolution

• Applied to the struggle between workers and employers

• Held that society should do as little as possible to interfere with people’s pursuit of success

Social Darwinism

Survival of the Fittest

Laisse-faire (“let it be”)

Government does NOT interfere

Capitalism

Gaining the Competitive Edge

• Monopoly: Complete control of a product or service

• Cartel: A loose association of business that make the same product

– Example: OPEC

The Standard Oil TrustThe Standard Oil Trust• John D.

Rockefeller:– Formed the

Standard Oil Company

– Transported oil at a low cost=could set prices lower than competition

– Wanted to buy out competition= against the law

• Trust: A group of several businesses that get together under one group of people (a single managing board) without merging their companies.

• Trusts limit competition

Sherman Antitrust Act• Outlawed any

combination of companies that restrained interstate trade of commerce.

• Rarely enforced/vague wording

• Limited power of BIG BUSINESS

19th-century political cartoon of Rockefeller, caricatured as "King of the

World" sitting on a barrel of oil. (©Bettman/CORBIS)

Methods of Industrial Control • Horizontal

Consolidation:- Bringing many firms

together that are in the same business

- Method by which John D. Rockefeller controlled the Standard Oil Trust

Political Cartoon showing The Standard

Oil Company was a harmful monopoly

Methods of Industrial Control• Vertical Consolidation:

– Controlling/buying many different businesses for the purpose of producing one product for one business.

– Method Andrew Carnegie used for his steel industry.

– “Economies of Scale” • Production increases, cost of each item produced is lower

(products are cheaper to produce AND cheaper to buy).

• Form of mass production• Also drove out competition (smaller businesses)

Industrialization & Workers

Growing Work Force

• Around 14 million people immigrated to the U.S. between 1860 and 1900

• Came for work—most moved to cities

• Factory wages were low—whole family had to work

• Little public assistance for the poor

• 12 hour days, six days a week

• Most paid based on what they produced:– Piecework: those who worked fastest &

produced the most earned the most

• Workers performed one small task, over and over—led to a:– Division of Labor: increased efficiency &

productivity

• Unhealthy conditions stunted them in mind and body

• Jacob Riis looked at the impact of factory work on children

Breaker Boys

The Sweeper Boy

Glass Factory Workers

A Driver in a West

Virginia Mine

Coal Breaker Boys

Newsboy

The Slebzak Family

Spinner in a New England Mill Child Picking Long Island

Potatoes

Child Labor Picture Response

•Pretend that you have just viewed these pictures of child labor, published in the Kenosha News.

•Prepare a Letter to the Editor of the newspaper in which you respond to the photos. –You may take either side of the issue or try to address both sides of the issue

Gulf Between Rich & Poor• 1890 census: richest 9% of Americans held

75% of the nation’s wealth

• Some become politically active in an effort to improve their lives:

• Socialism: An economic & political philosophy that supports economic equality among ALL Americans – A small number of American workers called for an

end to free enterprise– Most chose to work within a system by uniting to

form labor unions

The Rise of Labor Unions• 1st were called trade

unions• Began as a way to

provide help in bad times

• Goals:– shortened workdays– higher wages– better working

conditions– End child labor

The American Federation of Labor• AFL founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886

• Sought to organize only skilled workers in a network of smaller unions, each devoted to a specific craft.

• Focused on issues of workers’

wages, hours, & working conditions

Collective Bargaining• AFL relied on economic pressure, such as

strikes & boycotts against employers

– Tried to force employers to participate in collective bargaining: a process in which workers negotiate as a group with employers—had more power to negotiate contracts as a group

Reaction of Employers to Unions

• Employers disliked and feared unions—wanted to deal with employees as individuals

• Took measures to stop unions:– Forbade union meetings

– Fired union organizers

– Forced new employees to sign “yellow dog” contracts: workers promised to never join a union or participate in a strike

– Refused to recognize & bargain with unions

BIG Business=Advantages over Labor

Railroad Strike of 1877• 1st major nationwide

strike• Began over wage cuts

during a depression• Workers reacted in

violence—riots started in Baltimore, spread

• President Hayes sent federal troops to put down strike

• Troops again needed after deadly riot

Haymarket Riot• Demonstration in 1886 for an eight-hour workday—strikes

in many cities• At Chicago factory, police broke up a fight between strikers

and scabs (workers who replace striking

workers)—several workers killed• Led to a protest rally

in Chicago’s Haymarket

Square—bomb thrown at

police, several killed• American public

Associates unions with

Violence & radical ideas

Homestead Strike: 1892

• Andrew Carnegie’s partner Henry Frick attempted to cut workers’ wages at Carnegie Steel:– Union at plant in Homestead, PA called a

strike

– Frick used the Pinkertons (a private police force known for their ability to break strikes)—led to shootout with strikers

– Following a failed assassination attempt of Frick by radical—union called off the strike

Pullman Strike: 1894• Railway workers’ strike

that spread nation-wide• Eugene V. Debs called

for a boycott of Pullman cars after company refused to bargain with workers

• Marked a shift in the federal government’s involvement with labor –employer relations: federal troops were sent in to end the strike

Major Strikes Characteristics• Federal

government supported employers

• Violence was part of the events

• Strikes occurred as a result of worker unrest over working conditions and/or pay