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Postwar Industrialization, Labor Unions and Populists “The Gilded Age” 1877-1910

Postwar Industrialization, Labor Unions and Populists “The Gilded Age” 1877-1910. From the Orange Book. Theme of the Gilded Age :. Rise of industrialism in the United States and the interplay of business and politics. The Age of Railroads. Railroads encourage growth

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Postwar Industrialization, Labor Unions and Populists “The Gilded Age” 1877-1910

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  1. Postwar Industrialization, Labor Unions and Populists“The Gilded Age”1877-1910 From the Orange Book

  2. Theme of the Gilded Age: • Rise of industrialism in the United States and the interplay of business and politics

  3. The Age of Railroads • Railroads encourage growth • Local reliable travel, westward expansion possible • Gov’t subsidies and land grants such as the Pacific Railway Act

  4. Gov’t Encourages Growth: • Government makes land grants/loans and subsidies to railroads to help them build • Helped settle the west- (Homestead Act) • Develop the country and increase trade

  5. Transcontinental Railroad • 1869 • Central Pacific: (west) Chinese immigrants • Union Pacific: (east) Irish immigrants, Civil war vets • Dangerous job (accidents, disease)

  6. Effect on Native Americans • Government moved many to reservations • Some laws passed to assimilate the Natives- “act white” • Were expected to continue to give up their lands

  7. A New Industrial Age • 3 Factors leading to 2nd Industrial Revolution: • Natural Resources • Creative Ideas- government supported (patents) • Growing Markets- increase in labor (immigration, migration)

  8. Coal resources in U.S.

  9. Oil resources in U.S.

  10. The Expansion of Industry • Black Gold • Edwin L. Drake: uses steam engine to drill for oil (1859)

  11. Natural Resources Fuel Industrialization • Bessemer Steel Process • Put air into iron to remove carbon  steel • Stronger, durable, rust resistant • New uses for steel • Railroads, barbed wire, farm machines • Construction: Brooklyn Bridge, skyscrapers

  12. Inventions Promote Change • Thomas Edison • 1880: patents incandescent light bulb • Creates system for electrical production and distribution • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Edison_patents

  13. Inventions • Electricity changes business • Becomes available to homes • Encourages invention of appliances (improve living) • Allows manufacturers to locate plants anywhere (no longer dependent on water)

  14. Inventions Change Lifestyles Christopher Sholes Typewriter, 1867 Alexander Graham Bell Telephone, 1876

  15. New Towns and Markets Iron, coal, steel, lumber, glass industries grow to meet demand from railroad building Railroads link isolated towns, promote trade & interdependence New towns grow along railroad lines

  16. Railroad Time RRs connected U.S. but time was still determined by towns 1883 U.S. towns adopt time zones

  17. Opportunities and Opportunists • George M. Pullman • Build railcar factory on Illinois prairie (1880) • Provides housing, doctors, shops, sports field for workers • Company tightly controls residents to ensure stable work force (no drinking, loitering)

  18. Pullman Car

  19. Pullman, Illinois

  20. The Grange and the Railroads • Railroad Abuses • Farmers angry over being overcharged for transportation prices • Granger Laws • The Grange (a farmers’ organization) presses for laws protecting farmers’ interests • Sets principal that federal government can regulate private industry to benefit public interest

  21. Interstate Commerce Act • Public outrage leads to Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 • Federal government can supervise railroads • Establishes Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

  22. Henry Ford Mass production of Cars

  23. John D. Rockefeller Standard Oil Company Andrew Carnegie U.S. Steel Robber Barons: business men/bankers who dominated industries and built up huge fortunes Cornelius Vanderbilt Railroads J.P. Morgan Banking/Finance

  24. Business Boom Bypasses the South • South recovering from Civil War, hindered by lack of capital ($) • North owns 90% of stock in RR • Duke family • Duke Power, Duke University, American Tobacco

  25. Compared to Bill Gates Carnegie’s worth: $298.3 billion Rockefeller’s worth: $663.4 billion Gate’s worth: $73billion http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/

  26. Robber Barons’ Legacies

  27. 125,000 acres! 6 years to complete 4 acres of floor space -250 rooms- -34 bedrooms- -43 bathrooms- -65 fireplaces- -Pool, gym, and bowling alley in the basement- Biltmore House

  28. Clothing of the 1880s

  29. “What a funny little government”

  30. Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” • “Gospel of Wealth” • Carnegie’s ideas on how the wealthy should use their money Carnegie says: rich should be involved with philanthropy- describes the danger of allowing large sums of money to be passed into the hands of persons or organizations ill-equipped mentally or emotionally to cope with them. -the wealthy entrepreneur must assume the responsibility of distributing his fortune in a way that it will be put to good use, and not wasted on frivolous expenditure -Urges the rich to administer surplus wealth for the good of the people

  31. Have you been paying attention? • John D. Rockefeller became a magnate of the: • Oil industry • Steel industry • Railroad industry • Cotton industry • Which of the following men became rich and powerful as a finance capitalist who exerted influence over a number of different types of businesses? • Andrew Carnegie • Buck Duke • J.D. Rockefeller • J.P. Morgan

  32. New Business Strategies • Carnegie searches for ways to make better products more cheaply • He hires talented staff, offers company stock, promotes competition

  33. New Business Strategies • Vertical Integration • Buy out suppliers to control materials • Horizontal Integration • Merge with competing companies • Carnegie controls almost entire steel industry

  34. New Business Strategies Steel Industry Steel Plant Steel Co. A U.S. Steel Steel Co. B Iron Ore Vertical Integration Horizontal Integration

  35. Social Darwinism Best-adapted will survive (survival of the fittest) Economists used Social Darwinism to justify laissez faire (government shouldn’t interfere with business) Social Darwinism ideals: the rich were the natural rulers – justified neglect of the poor in the name of “race progress” – emphasis on competition

  36. Sherman Antitrust Act “The Bosses of the Senate” • Sherman Antitrust Act (1896) • Made trusts illegal if they interfere with free trade • Not enforced: prosecuting companies difficult

  37. Labor Unions Emerge • Exploitation and unsafe conditions unite workers across regions • 12 hour days, 6 days a week • Repetitive, mind-dulling tasks • No vacation, sick leave, injury compensation • Most family members work (including children) • Women/children had jobs that require few skills and received lowest pay

  38. Child Labor

  39. Early Labor Organization p. 118 • National Labor Union (NLU)(1866)- first large scale national organization • 1868 NLU gets Congress to give 8 hour work day to civil servants • Local chapters of NLU reject blacks  Colored National Labor Union forms • Noble Order of the Knights of Labor-1869 • Open to women, blacks, unskilled • Support 8 hour work day, equal pay, arbitration

  40. Craft Unions • Skilled workers • Samuel Gompers helps found American Federation of Labor (AFL) 1886 • Uses collective bargaining for better wages, hours, conditions • Strikes successfully, wins higher pay, shorter workweek

  41. Industrial Unions Industrial unions include skilled, unskilled workers in an industry Eugene V. Debs forms American Railway Union, uses strikes

  42. Socialists: • Believed gov’t should be more involved in the economy- gov’t should regulate and make more decisions about what and how items are produced • Wealth should be shared

  43. Socialism and the IWW • Some labor activists turn to socialism • Wanted government control of business • Wanted equal distribution of wealth • Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)- 1905 • Organized by radical unionists, socialists (included African Americans) • Industrial unions gave unskilled workers dignity, solidarity

  44. Strikes Turn Violent • Great Strike of 1877 • Baltimore & Ohio Railroad strike spreads to other lines • Governors says impeding interstate commerce • Federal troops intervene

  45. Strikes Turn Violent • Haymarket Affair • 3,000 gather at Chicago’s Haymarket Square, protest police brutality • Violence ensues, 8 charged with inciting riot, convicted • Public opinion turns against labor movement

  46. Strikes Turn Violent • Homestead Strike • 1892 Carnegie Steel workers strike over pay cuts • National Guard reopens plant • Steelworkers don’t remobilize for 45 years

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