The Machine Age

1. The Machine Age 1877-1900

2. Age of Invention & Economic Growth • Thomas A. Edison (New Jersey) • Light bulb power plants  some of the most important inventions of the century. • *Extends workday • Age of Invention (last quarter of 19th century) • Technological advances mass production tremendous growth • *“captains of industry” “robber barons” (rich and powerful political machines)

3. Industrialization, Corporate Consolidation and Gospel of Wealth • Economics of Scale: • Newer more efficient technology more production  cost per unit decreases  buying MORE raw product  cheaper selling price  keeping machines and electricity up to date  lower costs (bills)  cheaper price of products made  sales go higher • Assembly line production: • positive side- allows for faster production and sometimes better quality. • Negative- tedious (14 + hours a day) • Factories were very dangerous. (500,000 injuries per yr.) • No laws around to protect workers at the time.

4. Continued…Monopolies.. • HOWEVER: concern for businessmen was not the safety of their workers but in the profits coming in. • Continued to increase government regulations (uncertain as to HOW) • Corruption existed (even with those in charge of enforcing the so-called regulations • Government was extremely PRO business which means little to no regulation corruption and more opportunities for the “economies of scale” larger businesses corporate consolidations (new forms of business) Holding companies (monopolies)- complete control of an entire industry *Horizontal: example- Standard Oil, Rockefeller. Combining several small same industry companies (buying them legally OR illegally) and making them into one large business. (trusts). *No room for competition. * Illegal today.

5. Continued…Monopolies and Issues • Vertical Integration: • *Legal today • *One company owns ALL the factors of production • *Still allows for competition • Issues: • 1. Fast growth (seems GREAT at first) requires lots of money business men borrow money  business occasionally failed  unable to pay back money  bank failures • 2. Monopolies  extremely wealthy & powerful men  conflicting interests  class conflict • As a response to the public’s growing complaints and resentment toward the wealthy business men: Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) back and forth with regulations between governments and courts. (open interpretation)

6. Continued…Andrew Carnegie • Open interpretations: • *In some cases outlawed labor unions because they “restrained free trade” • * U.S v. E.C Knight Co, 1895: did NOT violate Sherman Anti-trust because local manufacturing NOT subject of congressional regulation of interstate commerce. • Another response: • Andrew Carnegie- philanthropist and believed in giving back (Gospel of Wealth) • Built libraries, museums, funded medical research • Charles Darwin- Survival of the fittest  through healthy competition • Social Darwinism seemed doubtful, not consistent. Carnegie’s stance against government regulation clashed when he also supported government assistant to business

7. Factories & City Life • In an effort to reduce costs, manufactures hired: • Women and children • Immigrants • Many in the cities lived in poverty  crime, diseases, dirty & unhealthy • Cities growing in population, not enough hosing available (tenements) • growing number of ethnic neighborhoods (ghettos) • Horrible working conditions • Latinos and blacks got the worse end of the stick • Poverty increased in cities  those who could afford it, moved away due to advances in mass transportation. (lead to a growing middle class)

8. Continued… • Municipal Governments • Virtually none existent  no garbage pick up, no local police departments, no water and sewage, etc… • Municipal services, not provided by the government were provided by political bosses (political machines). In return, they expected community members to vote for them. • Resorted to criminal activity to provide these services

9. Continued…Change Seekers: • Labor Unions: • Often seen as radical • Created in an effort to do something about the horrible working conditions • Business and Courts hostile towards labor unions • Knights of Labor (Uriah Stephens): One of the FIRST national labor unions in U.S • 8 hour workday • Equal pay (men and women) • Child labor laws • Safety and Sanitary Codes • Federal income tax. • 1880s begin to decline (leader: Terrence Power) • Haymarket Square Riot (bomb)

10. Continued… • Many of the earlier unions socialist philosophies • As a result, begin to focus on issues such as shorter work days & higher wages • American Federation of Labor (AFL); Samuel Gompers: • did not include unskilled workers. • Trade unions (exclusively open to workers of a single trade) • Women: • Efforts at urban reform. • Jane Addams- Settlement houses • Schooling, childcare, cultural activities • Assimilation? • Increased government services in the urban areas

11. -Life for the Wealthy-Journalism • Rich continued to get richer; life generally improved for upper and middle classes. • Access to luxuries and leisure • Sports, theaters, vaudeville, etc… • Popular Novels and Newspapers • Public begins to read the above more and more • Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph revolutionize the industry • Introduce “yellow journalism”: Catchy headlines, scandals, interesting reads

12. Jim Crow Laws & Other DevelopmentsSouth • Agriculture remained a major form of labor. • HOWEVER, Reconstruction produced SOME industrious results • Textile mills reduced reliance on the North • Tobacco processing plants • Sharecropping crop lien system • Jim Crow Laws  Plessy v Ferguson  De Jure segregation (reversed Civil Rights Act of 1875) • Booker T. Washington (M.L.K)- economic independence – Tuskegee Institute – accommodationist • W.E.B Du Bois (Malcom X)

13. Railroads & Developments in the West • Ranching and mining: growing industries. • Ranchers: ignored property rights of the Native Americans • Individual Miners: lacked resources prospected (sell their rights to companies) • Lincoln’s challenge: Transcontinental Railroad (one side of the country to the other) • Built mostly by former farmers, immigrants, freed slave & Civil War vets • Railroads: • *Owned privately but “paid for” by the public (directly and indirectly)  governments provided funding and grants • *Ironically owners did not want any government regulation whatsoever. • *Overcharged and undercharged where beneficial • *Farmers suffered the most from this practice (list of grievances)

14. Railroads continued… • Buffalo Massacre by Railroad Companies: • Would literally get in the way of the trains  virtually extinct • Very important resource for Native Americans • Influences battles (Sioux tribe makes first move  government sends in army) • Little Big Horn/ George Custer • Other changes: • *Transforms small depot towns into vigorous cities (easier travel) • *Causes other industries to grow too • *Time zones (standardized method of time telling) • *Pushes the country west

15. Moving West • America moves West: • New states • “Frontier” Era gone (Frederick Turner’s Frontier Thesis) 1st period in U.S history over. • Great Plains: Farming & Ranching- main source of employment • New machinery, mail & catalogue shopping • Standardizes mass culture- still very lonely • Homestead Act (1862) • Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)  agricultural science

16. Continued… • Native Americans suffered the most • *Originally considered, however, treaties made between settlers & Native Americans were immediately broken  warfare • * New approach: reservations  system fails • - lowliness of land • - different tribes unable to get along • - no self government • - some settlers IGNORED reservations and took that land too! • Helen Hunt Jackson: A Century of Dishonor  reform  Dawes Severalty Act • Similar to the Homestead Act • Assimilation • Humanitarian Solution to the “Indian Problem” • Resisted  Poverty  sell to speculators  homeless

17. National Politics • Gilded Age (Mark Twain)  beautiful on the outside, rotten on the inside • U.S seemingly entered a period of prosperity • *The wealthy relied heavily on the poor’s labor (horrible, unsafe conditions) • Politics also seemed to be an example of a perfect democracy  heavy corruption • Political machines ran the cities • Business men bought votes in Congress  little protection of the laborers • Important to note: U.S Presidency, generally NOT corrupt. • Rutherford B Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur  CIVIL SERVICE REFORM • Including Sherman Anti-Trust & Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act • Grover Cleveland v Benjamin Harrison  Billion Dollar Congress

18. Continued…Response to Corruption & Other Political Issues • Railroad Regulation Munn v. Illinois (1877) state law in Illinois regulating railroads is upheld (only Congress was allowed to regulate)  Wabash case (1886) states could NOT establish $$ involving interstate commerce. (precedent for business regulation) • Interstate Commerce Act (Interstate Commerce Commission I.C.C) supervise railroad activates • Women’s Suffrage Susan B. Anthony (trying to convince congress to pass amendment) • American Suffrage Association; 1890  right to vote on school issues

19. Silver Issues & the Populist Movement • Post Civil War production generally increased on all fronts. • Farmers face trouble: • Greater supply  dropped prices  trouble for farmers silver standard (inflation) value of money drops (makes paying back debts easier/ affordable)  opposed by Northern banks • *Silver mined in the West (influenced support of miners, Midwestern and southern farmers) • * class strife • Leads to the Grange Movement (1867): campaigning for the allowance of farmers to buy machinery, sell crops as a group  reap the benefits of the economies scale (remember the first few slides?)  movement dies out due to lack of money. • Farmers’ Alliance (even more successful)  People’s Party  Populist movement

20. People’s Party- Populist Movement • Populist Convention in 1892- James Weaver • Coinage of silver • Government ownership of railroads & telegraphs • Graduated income tax • Direct election of U.S Senators • Shorter workdays Did not win election  1 million votes  catches Washington DC’s attention (particularly Democrats) Cleveland takes office & country enters a 4 yr. financial crisis (1893-1897) Makes the Populist goals easier and more attractive  easy money! Radical movements also take popularity (Eugene V Debs, Socialist Party)

21. Continued… • 1896 Election: Democrat William Jennings Bryan VS Republican William McKinley • Bryan finds a political voice for the farmers. • Free Silver • Cross of Gold Speech • “Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.“ • Lost campaign  economy improves  ends the Populist movement (until the Progressives)

22. Foreign Policy: Tariff and Imperialism • 1900: U.S leading industrial nation in the world • Tariffs  Major Controversy  but dominated national policies due to the U.S market expanded to international markets (protect domestic markets)  (also hurts farmers and of course the laborers) • 1890: McKinley Tariff: duties on imported good raised 50% & also had major impacts on foreign land- Hawaii & Cuba • Since many American’s faced poverty, not many able to purchase the items they made at work. SO this leads to America’s search for new markets (along with nationalism)  imperialism

23. Continued… • William H. Seward set this precedent during Lincoln and Johnson’s presidencies. (Alaska, Monroe Doctrine) • American businesses  production and facilities in Latin America  political power • Expansionism VS Imperialism • Captain Alfred T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890) • Success of foreign trade  New Navy • Hawaii  searching for routes to Asia 1800s missionary work 1870s (sugar)  1890 Hawaii’s economy collapses due to McKinley Tariff U.S presence overthrows native government 1898 Annexed  Japan outraged (WWII) • Cuba revolts again Spanish control instigated by U.S (high tariffs) Maine attacked  U.S gets involved  drives Spain out of Cuba & Philippines  Treaty of Paris (3rd one by the way)  Independent Cuba & we get the Philippines, Puerto Rico & Guam. • * yellow journalism

24. Continued… • Cuba: • Teller Amendment • U.S presence in Cuba for a few yrs. following their independence • Platt Amendment (gives U.S control of Cuba’s foreign affairs) to “protect Cuba’s political and social stability and independence”. • Philippines: • Should the U.S annex or grand independence? • Annexation excuse: U.S has obligation to Christianize the nation. • Guerilla War ensued • Independence granted after WWII – 1946 • Should the native population of the newly acquired lands be protected under the Constitution? • Supreme Court rulings: Insular Cases (1901-1903) – Constitution protection did NOT apply • Open Door Policy- U.S hoped to gain entrance to Asian markets • European nations already colonized in China • Boxers (Chinese nationalists) rise up against European imperialist  U.S sends troops  Germany , France & England grew more receptive to U.S foreign policy.

25. Review… • Pg. 185-186