U.S. History

1. U.S. History

2. 1. In what significant way did the development of the incandescent lightbulb improve 19th c. urban conditions? • A. It created the possibility of home-based businesses. • B. It prompted more immigrants to remain in large cities. • C. It enabled passenger trains to operate at night. • D. It replaced the dirty and dangerous gaslight.

3. 2. What historic situation is most comparable to the lightbulb replacing oil lamps? • A. The railroad replacing the automobile. • B. Electric engines replacing steam engines. • C. Steel production replacing oil production. • D. The telegraph replacing the telephone.

4. Thinking history….. • http://www.yourememberthat.com/media/2145/Jerry_Seinfeld__History_Class/#.UoI_pnCkq3g

5. What are the “big” questions throughout history? • For this unit, we’re looking at the “modernization” of America.

6. I can. . . • Evaluate the impact of the new inventions and technologies of the late nineteenth century • Identify and evaluate the influences on business and industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries • Identify labor and workforce issues of the late nineteenth century, including perspectives of owners/managers and Social Darwinists

7. Natural Resources Fuel Industrialization • Black Gold • Edwin Drake uses a steam engine to drill in Titusville, PA • Oil boom in the Midwest, converting it to kerosene (gasoline was originally thrown away) • Bessemer Steel Process • 1887 iron ore deposits discovered in the Mesabi Range in MN • Bessemer process infuses air into molten iron to remove the carbon, making it lighter and stronger (steel) • New Uses for Steel • Railroads, barbed wire, and the farm machines of McCormick and Deere • Bridges and the first skyscrapers

8. Brooklyn Bridge

9. Home Insurance Building in Chicago

10. Inventions Promote Change • The Power of Electricity • 1876: Edison’s laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ • George Westinghouse made electricity safer • Electric streetcars and the spread of the city • Inspired Inventions • Incandescent light bulb, typewriter, telephone, phonograph • New Products and Lifestyles • Expanding urban population demands inventions • Women in the workforce; expansion of all factory work • Workers lose power, but consumers gain power • However, the workweek did lessen by 10 hours • As new industries are born/expanded: Advertising and recreation

11. New Products and Lifestyles • Expanding urban population demands inventions • Women in the workforce; expansion of all factory work • Workers lose power, but consumers gain power • However, the workweek did lessen by 10 hours • As new industries are born/expanded: Advertising and recreation • Department Stores • Mail order catalogs

13. Streetcar (and then the subway)

14. Typewriter

15. Telephone

16. Phonograph, radio, music, leisure…

19. Railroads Span Time and Space • A National Network • By 1856 RR had expanded to the Miss. River • By 1869 the Transcontinental RR is completed • Romance and Reality • Dreams of unsettled lands and adventure • However, the building of the road was difficult and primarily completed with immigrant labor • Union Pacific: Irish, Civil War Vets, African Americans • Central Pacific: Chinese • Railroad Time • RR created a united nation (Symbolism) • creation of 24 time zones (4 in the U.S.); Congress okays it in 1914

25. Opportunities and Opportunists • New Towns and Markets • Cities emerged as specialists (Chicago: stockyards; Minneapolis: grain industries; etc.) • Credit Mobilier • Corruption building the RR • Union Pacific officers skimmed off $23 million in stocks, bonds, and cash (paying off 20 representatives in Congress)

26. Working Conditions • 1900: 1 in 6 kids age 10-15 worked outside the home • Most workers had 12-16 hours/day, 6 days/wk • No paid vacation, no sick leave, no workers comp

27. Labor Union Issues • Knights of Labor 1869 • Blacks, women, unskilled workers • “an injury to one is the concern of all” • Equal pay, 8 hour work days • American Federation of Labor • Samuel Gompers • Used strikes as a major tactic • Achieved shorter workweeks and higher wages

28. Industrial Unionism • Both skilled and unskilled workers in an industry • Eugene Debs • American Railway Union • Eventually turned to socialism: a system based on gov’t control of business and property and equal distribution of wealth

29. Union Incidents • Great Railroad Strike of 1877 • Haymarket Riot

30. Pullman Strike • Pullman • Pullman sleeper • He employed so many he built a company town • See other powerpoint! • http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xeaixx_impact-of-the-pullman-strike_tech

31. Pullman Sleeper

32. Pullman Company Town

34. Fewer Control More • Growth and Consolidation • Oligopolies form through mergers: when one company bought out the stock of another • When firms bought out all others they formed a monopoly • Often they did this by setting up a holding company: a company that does nothing but buy up stock • Another way was to form a trust: turning your stock over to a board of trustees (who also hold competing companies stock) to manage. You get dividends. • Rockefeller and the Robber Barons • Standard Oil (Rockefeller) went from controlling 3% to 90% of the nation’s oil in 10 years • He paid workers low wages and undercut competitors to run them out of business • To counter this they pointed to the “Gospel of Wealth” • Rockefeller gave away over $500 million to the Rockefeller Foundation, $80 million to the University of Chicago • Carnegie gave away $325 million; Carnegie Foundation, Carnegie Hall, 3,000 libraries • Sherman Antitrust Act

35. The Grange and the Railroads • Railroad Abuses • RR had a built in monopoly • Misuse of government land grants • They fixed prices; charged different rates • Granger Laws • The Patrons of Husbandry was formed in 1867 for the purpose of est. a social and educational outlet for farmers (organization, cooperatives, political action) • Successful at the state level • Munn v. Illinois: states won the right to regulate RR • Interstate Commerce Act • 1886: States cannot set rates for interstate commerce; this is the national government’s authority • The Panic of 1893 • 600 banks and 15,000 businesses fail; 3 million people lose jobs • RR were then taken over by the likes of Morgan and Vanderbilt • By 1900, 2/3 of the nation’s RR tracks were owned by seven companies

41. Carnegie’s Innovations • Management Techniques • Hired the best chemists and metallurgists; employed the newest techniques and machines in his plants; offered stock to his assistants; encouraged competition amongst them to increase production • Business Strategies • Vertical integration • Horizontal integration • By 1901 Carnegie produced 80% of the nation’s steel

43. Social Darwinism and Business • Principles of Social Darwinism • Grew out of Darwin’s theory of biological evolution • success of a few and the failure of others justified the Laissez-faire economic principle • Herbert Spencer applied Darwin to business: Free competition would ensure survival of the fittest • A New Definition of Success • This idea natural was endorsed by the nation’s 4,000 millionaires. • However, Protestants bought into it as well: personal responsibility and blame. • Riches were a sign of God’s blessing; the poor must be lazy or inferior • Popular novels chronicled this: Horatio Alger “rags to riches” stories were very popular

46. Business Boom Bypasses the South • Economic Causes • Social Causes