Industry in America

1. Industry in America 1865 - 1900

2. Leading industrialists – “Captain of Industry” or “Robber Baron” • Harsh working conditions and difficult life for workers

3. Andrew Carnegie • From Scotland • Was a “bobbin boy” in a textile mill and earned $1.20 a week; worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad; then made millions in steel industry • Necessity for railroads and booming construction • Philosophy: “Watch the costs and the profits will take care of themselves.”

4. Carnegie • Vertical Integration: • Control all portions of manufacturing process from raw materials to distribution • Sold out in 1901 for half a billion; known for philanthropy

5. John D. Rockefeller • Formed Standard Oil in 1870; cut costs and strictly managed use of resources • Undercut competition by lowering prices and then raising prices after buying out rivals • Never able to escape negative image even though he was a philanthropist

6. Rockefeller • Vertical Integration: • Purchased own tanker cars to transport oil to his customers • Horizontal Integration: • Controlled about 90% of US oil refining capacity by 1879

7. Thomas Edison • Born in OH; invented phonograph, motion picture camera; perfected the light bulb • Established “invention factory” at Menlo Park, NJ • Leading research facility; different teams allowed multiple inventions to be pursued • Came to symbolize inventive impulse of Americans • Work hard and you can be successful

8. Costs of Industrialization • US a major industrial power by 1900 • Environmental degradation • Mining (coal, iron), pollution – air and water • Factory life wasn’t always an improvement over life on a farm • Dangerous, crowded, dehumanized

9. Labor • Workers and management on different terms • “Old” vs. “New” Perspective • OLD – laborers worked in small shops, took pride in their work and worked at their own pace • NEW – large factories were the norm; tasks were repetitive and pace was set by the “clock and whistle” • average work week: 55-60 hrs. • Dangerous conditions: • 1889 (first year of reliable statistics in RR) over 2,000 railroad workers died and 20,000 injured on the job

10. Wages • Skilled worker: (Bricklayer) earned $3.00 a day • General Laborer: $1.30/day • Southern mill worker: .84/day

11. Steel Industry • Very tough job • Furnaces had to be kept running • Shifts: 7 days/week; 12 hours/day • Shift change: night and days shifted once a month so one group had an entire day off per month • Other group had to work 24 hours straight • Dangerous working conditions

12. Women and Children • Child Laborers • 1900: almost 2 million children worked for wages • Very little supervisions, lots of accidents • Able to work in small spaces and paid lower wages • Employed in textile mills and glass factories, etc.

13. Women Workers • Sought out because could be paid less than male counterparts • 1900: 17% of workforce • 1890s – typewriter and telephone provide opportunities for safer jobs for women with high school education

14. Unions • Laborers unhappy with conditions and began to organize into unions • Knights of Labor (1869) • Open to all laborers • 1880s over 700.000 members • Goals: equal pay for women; end child labor; limit Chinese immigration

15. K of L • Saw Chinese immigrants as competitors for jobs • 1880s movements against Chinese in WA • Allowed blacks and women to join • Pushed for an 8 hour work day • Graduated income tax

16. K of L • Haymarket Square Riot (May 4, 1886) • Background: Laborers in Chicago held a general strike and ended up fighting with police • Strike sympathizers held a rally near Chicago’s Haymarket Square and a bomb went off • Seven police killed; four demonstrators killed • Lost support because of association with violence

17. American Federation of Labor • Formed in 1884; headed by Samuel Gompers • Union of skilled workers • Goals: eight hour day; employer liability for injuries on the job • 1.6 million members by 1904

18. Labor Unions • Origins of modern unions set by late 1800s • Only included about 5% of workforce by late 1800s • Many emplorers, like Carnegie, fought to break unions

19. Advertising • As nation industrialized we also see growth of advertising • Encouraged people to buy their products  Quaker Oats, Ivory Soap, Kodak Cameras • Few regulations in place by govt.

20. Conclusion • US became an industrial power and was led by people like Carnegie, Rockefeller and Edison; however, it was often on the backs of individual laborers who worked under difficult conditions

21. Respond in your journal: • By 1900 the US was a major industrial world power but it came at what cost?

22. US in 1900 • Daily life • African Americans • Farmers • Immigrants • Domestic Policy • Panic of 1893 and 1896 • Presidential Election • Spanish American War

23. African Americans • 9 million in US in 1900 • 90% lived in the South • Exodusters – left deep south to Kansas to establish homesteads • Sharecropping developed as a compromise between former slaves and landowners

24. Sharecropping • Landowners subdivided plantations into 50 acre plots • Families responsible for raising crops on plot • Sharecroppers handed over 50% of their crops as “rent” for the land • In the deep South, 75% of the land was sharecropped

25. Barrow Plantation

26. Crop-Lien • Merchants advanced sharecroppers supplies on credit • Seed, tools, livestock, furniture • Interest rates: often 50% or more because no collateral