Evolution of Democracy through Industrialization, Immigration, and Labor

Goal 4, 5Industrialization, Immigration, and Labor Chapter 15,16

Key Vocabulary • Monopolies • Trusts • Munn v. Illinois • Rebates • KickbacksJ • John D. Rockefeller • J. P. Morgan • Andrew Carnegie • Busines Combinations • Entreprenuership • Patents • Vertical Integration • Horizonal integration • Chinese Exclusion Act • Sweatshops • Tenement Settlement Houses Jane Adams Urbanization Bessemer Process Social Darwinism Standard Oil’ Nativism Melting Pot U.S. Steel Labor Union Collective-Bargaining Arbitration American Federation of Labor Closed Shops Company Town

Edwin Drake George Westinghouse Gospel of Wealth Horatio Alger Gilded Age Working Conditions Wages Child Labor Craft Unions Trade Unions Samuel Gompers Negotiation Mediation Arbitration Sherman Antitrust Act Pendleton Act Political Machines Boss Tweed Tammany Hall Thomas Nast Credit Mobilier Graft Australian Ballot • Strikes • Yellow-Dog Contracts • Lockouts • Blacklists • Injunctions • Homestead strike • Haymarket Riot – Knights of Labor • Pullman strike • Eugene Debs • Ellis Island • Elevator • Electric trolleys • Jacob Riis • Telephone/Alexander Graham Bell • Thomas Edison • Typewriter • Amusement Parks • Spectator Sports • Frederick Law Olmstead • Cornelius Vanderbilt

Objectives • Objective 5.01 Urban issues – Housing, Sanitation, Transportation *The rise of ethnic neighborhoods *New forms of leisure

Objective 5.02 - Relationship of big business to government - Influence of Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth - Emergence of New Industries: railroads, steel, and oil - Changes in the way businesses formed and consolidated power - Influences of business leaders as ‘captains of industry’ or as ‘robber barons’ • Objective 5.03 - Formation of labor unions - Types of unions - Tactics used by labor unions - Opposition to labor unions

Objective 5.04 - Impact of law and court decisions - Operation of political machines - Patronage v. The Civil Service System - Impact of corruption and scandal in the government - The election of 1896

Essential Questions • 1) How does the nature of democracy in the United States continually evolve as society grows and changes? • 2) How did the changes in technology and business impact the economic, political, and social life of America?

Links about events and people • National Humanities Center timeline for 1865-1913 • Gilder-Lehrman institute for American History (module on Gilded Age and Immigration)

Part One:Immigration and Industrialization • New York City – the Nation’s largest Port • Ellis Island (Atlantic) Angel Island (Pacific) • *These places were major ports for entry into the U.S.

Immigrants struggled with culture shock • 2 ideas about immigrants and immigrant life prevalent in America The Melting Pot (Tomato Soup) – immigrants should blend in [early 20th Century] Cultural Pluralism (Salad Bowl) – differences should be appreciated [latter 20th century and early 21st]

Nativism • There were four major waves of European immigrants from 1880-1920. These immigrants were often called ‘New Immigrants’ because they were from Eastern Europe. Old Immigrants *from western Europe *knew the English language *Generally, had an educated skill *Generally, were of Protestant faith New Immigrants *from southern and eastern Europe *Did not know the English language *Did not have skills *Were more Catholic than Protestant

Nativists, people that viewed immigrants as a threat to jobs and livelihood, disliked foreign and ethnic minorities. • They believed they were trying to protect Americans from outside influences *The American Protective Association (Anti-immigrant, Anti-Catholic) The Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882 This act barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States for ten years. In 1892, the act was renewed for another ten years. In 1902, Chinese immigration was made illegal until 1943.

Social Darwinism • Some people in the age of mass immigration, urbanization, and industrialization were influenced by a theory of social evolution called social darwinism. • Herbert Spencer – Sociologist • First coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” • Social Darwinism was the theory that only the strong people or classes survive through natural selection • The theory also maintained that governments should not get involved in this natural cycle by regulating the economy or trying to address social problems • Social Darwinists bought into the ‘rags to riches’ stories of Horatio Alger – stories that stressed the values of hard work and honesty as a way to prosper in America [Ragged Dick by Alger is a good example]

Immigrant Living • Immigrants, arriving to Ellis Island, were often greeted by members of a political machine • Political Machines (like Tammany Hall, a democratic machine [organization] in New York) promised immigrants jobs and housing in return for votes • Immigrants usually housed in tenements in Ethnic Neighborhoods • Jacob Riis [a muckraker] later wrote about tenement living in How the Other Half Lives, an expose on immigrant life

Many immigrants worked in unhealthy conditions • There was no job security, no work compensation, no standard workday hour law, no restrictions against child labor • If a father was hurt on the job, often his oldest son replaced him at work • The crowded living and working conditions led to epidemics of cholera and other diseases – close living and working conditions, and often poor medical facilities, led to quick spreading of disease • Nativists blamed the diseases on the immigrants

Immigrants were aided in education and sanitation through Settlement Houses • Jane Addams – founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889 • Settlement Houses provided support, education, English lessons, and child care for immigrants • Progressive women like Jane Addams would settle in poverty stricken areas in cities and help to educate children and immigrants

Jane Addams and Hull House

Part Two: Business in the Age of the Robber Barons • 1869 – The Transcontinental Railroad • The companies that built the transcontinental railroad were the first modern corporations

The TCR set off a population and economic explosion in the west *Built primarily by Chinese (Union Pacific branch) and Irish Labor (Central Pacific branch) *Greatly expanded the cattle industry *Improved the mining industry *Railroads sold off remaining land to create homesteads and cities *Credit Mobilier Scandal – 1872: disgraced several gilded age politicians, showed government corruption with the railroad entreprenuers.

The Robber Barons • Robber Barons were individuals that cornered the market on their particular industry. Because they had the capital to invest in business ventures, they often specialized in cornering the competition and buying out other entrepeneurs. • To some, these entrepreneurs were called the ‘captains of industry’ due to their investment and philanthropy. To others, they were ruthless individualists that crushed competition • Some examples of ‘robber barons’ are: NameIndustry Andrew Carnegie Steel Cornelius Vanderbilt Rails/Ships John D. Rockefeller Oil J. P. Morgan Investments

Andrew Carnegie *Originally formed a company to produce iron railroad bridges *Bessemer Process [from England] – a way to take the impurities out of steel *Process revolutionized the steel industry *Carnegie built a steel mill and an industrial empire

Carnegie practiced Vertical integration – a business practice of buying companies that sold supplies in a related industry and that transported his product. He bought up supplies when they were cheap, controlled wages, and basically controlled every phase of the production of his product. – That’s Vertical Integration • Carnegie, by the early 1900s, was the second richest man in the world • Later, J.P. Morgan bought Carnegie Steel for over $400 Million dollars. U.S. Steel, the new company, still operates today

Carnegie practiced the Gospel of Wealth – he argued that the wealthy should support institutions such as hospitals and public libraries to improve society *Carnegie Hall *Carnegie Hall at Tuskegee institute – this was the place where Bible study was held on Sundays on the campus for Black students in Tuskegee, Alabama. *George Washington Carver taught the students at that time at Tuskegee

Cornelius Vanderbilt Made his fortune in shipping and then railroading His grandson, George, commissioned the building of Biltmore Estate

John D. Rockefeller Rockefeller made a habit of buying up oil refineries near Cleveland, Ohio *He Merged them into a company called Standard Oil Rockefeller practiced Horizontal Integration – the practice of merging competing companies, buying out or crushing competitors. Owning every major part of an industry and buying out competition, Now that’s horizontal integration.

Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was sometimes called a monopoly because it blocked competition • Standard Oil was accused of being a Trust – an illegal business combination • It was broken up by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1911 during the presidency of William Howard Taft • Standard Oil was broken into over 10 separate oil companies – some still operate today

With the creation of corporations and monopolies, people had differing opinions about trusts. Some thought they were good for the economy and stimulated competition – others perceived them as a danger. This is an argument the Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson will debate during the 1912 presidential race.

J. P. Morgan Morgan was the greatest financier of the 19th Century *Morgan raised money to help corporations build the railroads, bougt up and repaired bad banks to make a profit *When the U.S. Government needed money – they often went to Morgan *He bought Carnegie Steel *Morgan died in 1913, the same year that the Federal Reserve System was created – a Bank for Banks to help the economy

Big City Politics • Government leaders in urban areas often had a hard time taking care of the people • In turn, the populace [like immigrants] turned to political machines • One of the most famous political machines was Tammany Hall in New York City • Tammany Hall was a democratic party machine. Machines such as Tammany supplied votes to candidates for local and state office that were often corrupt

Say Hi to Boss Tweed

Political Machines, like Tweed’s, were corrupt • Because government was small, it could not usually regulate elections, etc. • Therefore, Tammany Hall bought and stole votes, encouraged judicial corruption • How? By using Patronage – handing out city jobs and political office to political party supporters • New York City lost millions of dollars in Graft – illegal payments and fraudelent behaviors

People gradually called for changes in corrupt government and more government regulation of business. • Result – The Pendelton Act of 1883, The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. The Pendleton act of 1883 replaced the patronage system with the Civil Service System – requiring an examination for government jobs The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 reguired gov’t inspection and setting of railroad rates The Sherman Anti-Trust Act outlawed business monopolies because they got in the way of competition ****These three laws did not change things overnight, but paved the way for government Regulation of business and political practices

Part Three: The Confrontations between Business and Labor • Opportunities for leisure time occurred as a result of industrialization • bicycling, cameras, football, the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, going to the park • In the 1870s, the first National Parks were created and other parks were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead – America’s premier landscape architect [Biltmore House, Niagara Falls, Fenway, Central Park, etc. • The electric trolley and the telephone created other kinds of leisure • The lighting of city blocks by Thomas Edison • The Edison phongraph • The first moving picture was shown to the public in New York City in 1896

However, the work conditions in the factories were not fun *Child Labor was rampant. Young girls worked in the textile mills while some young boys worked in the mills and the coal mines *There was no standard work day hour – people worked as long as their was work with no conception of working compensation or overtime *Company towns like Pullman, Ill. or Homestead, PA were tough places to live *Workers lived in company owned homes *Workers bought supplies at company stores with company script *If workers decided to strike, they were abandoned by the company and black-listed

The Worker • Industrial workers usually worked 12-16 hours per day • They were paid very poorly; women often being paid less than men • Work divided between skilled and unskilled labor • Some laborers began to join unions Trade Unions – include different kinds of workers Craft Unions – organizes workers with a specific occupation

Unions • Unions were [are] organizations of workers to provide job security and protections from abuse • Some unions in particular industries required closed shops – where a business only hires union members [this was later dealt with by the taft-hartley act during the Truman administration] • However, unions have relied on the strike and the boycott to get their aims achieved • A strike was a very dangerous thing to do in the early era of industrialization – it meant risking every thing (including your home, career, and maybe your life)

Knights of Labor (1869) – an union of skilled and unskilled laborers • The Knights of labor as a union was destroyed by the Haymarket Riot of 1886

During the Haymarket Riot in Chicago, protesters and police fought with each other. • The previous day, police had shot several striking workers during a riot at the McCormick Reaper factory in Chicago. • Workers and their supporters met at Haymarket Square to protest police violence. • A bomb killed eight policeman. • Several protesters were arrested, imprisoned, or executed • It was the end of the Knights of Labor

The American Federation of Labor (1886) • Samuel Gompers, a former cigar worker was the president of the union • The AFL was one of the first organizations of craft unions • The AFL is still active today

How Industry stopped Unions and strikes • Yellow Dog Contracts – you are hired by refusing to join a union • Coal and Iron Police – hired by owners to intimidate • Pinkerton Detectives – hired by owners to intimidate • Lockouts, Blacklists, Injunctions – strikers are locked out of the factory and replaced with scabs or shunned by other business owners in the community or specifically forbade to strike • Hiring Scab Workers – these were usually unskilled laborers or minorities

Two Famous Strikes at end of the 19th Century • The Pullman Strike (1894) • Eugene Debs, head of the American Railway Union, called a strike • Workers were angry over low pay and long hours • The Pullman Company cut worker’s wages, but not the rent on their homes • Federal troops were called in by President Cleveland to break the strike

This was the first time that the government had gotten involved in directly breaking a strike • Eugene Debs would run for president on the Socialist Party ticket more than once, even campaigning from Jail. He was a tireless supporter of the American worker.

The Homestead Strike (1892)

Steel workers at the Carnegie steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania had shut down the steel plant • The plant boss, Henry Clay Frick, used the first lockout in American History to keep the workers out of the plant • Workers clashed with over 300 pinkerton detectives • The strike was not successful but it created sympathy for the workers • Anarchist Emma Goldman and her lover tried to assassinate Frick, but were not successful

Lessons of Immigration, industrialization, and Urbanization • Government regulation of business became a necessity as businesses boomed and corruption grew • Progressive reforms were on the horizon in local government, housing, elections, suffrage, and tax reform • Companies like standard oil and holding companies like northern securities were broken up during the progressive era • Reforms in working conditions, child labor, and gov’t control of business were shortly to improve • The ideas of Social Darwinism, class struggle, and ‘survival of the fittest’ would guide America as an evolving world power and lead to major social and political reform during the era of Franklin Roosevelt.

Evolution of Democracy through Industrialization, Immigration, and Labor