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II. Big Business and Organized Labor. A. New Ways of Doing Business. Entrepreneurs devise new ways to raise money and organize businesses Corporations sold stocks to shareholders (limited risk) Trusts were a group of corporations run by a single board of directors
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A. New Ways of Doing Business • Entrepreneurs devise new ways to raise money and organize businesses • Corporations sold stocks to shareholders (limited risk) • Trusts were a group of corporations run by a single board of directors • Bankers, such as J.P. Morgan, began investing in corporations and owning trusts
B. The Growth of Big Business • Giant corporations establish monopolies • Andrew Carnegie integrates steel • John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust • Debate over trusts- A threat to free enterprise? • Social Darwinism
C. Changes in the Workplace • Women and children made up a large part of the workforce in tobacco factories, textile mills and garment sweatshops • Factory work was very dangerous • Employers not obligated to pay worker’s if they were hurt on the job • Unsafe conditions lead to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911
D. Workers Organize • Labor unions begin to fight for safer conditions, better pay, and less hours • Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor, try to influence politicians • Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), ; collective bargaining • Strikes- the public usually sided with owners
Labor Conflicts • Haymarket Square, May 1886 • Homestead Strike, July 1892 • Pullman Strike, May 1894