Industrial Supremacy

1. Ch.17 Industrial Supremacy

2. Why by the 1900’s was the United States the leading industrial power in the world? Bell Ringer 1/22

3. 1865-1900 Railroads went from 35,000 to 193,000 miles of track. Significance: Increase mass production Increase consumption Economic specialization New time zones Stock Holder corporations. Railroads

4. Trunk Lines- Major route between cities -Cornelius Vanderbilt Western Railroads -Promote settlement of Great Plains -Link West and East Railroads cont…

5. Federal Land Grants -Promoted poor construction -Corruption Transcontinental railroads Union Pacific Central Pacific Railroads cont…

6. Railroads were severely over-built Unfair rates were being charged 1893 –Financial panic occurred and 25% of all railroads went bankrupt JP Morgan and other bankers bought them and consolidated the railroads. -More efficient railroads Customers and farmers at the mercy of the railroads. Competition and Consolidation

7. What types of goods were being produced in industries? Post Civil War Industries Steel, Petroleum, Electric power, Industrial machinery. Industrial Empires

8. Henry Bessemer in England and William Kelley in US started blasting air through molten iron and produced high-quality steel. Andrew Carnegie- -Self-made man -Used a business practice known as vertical integration (do everything business) U.S Steel Corporataion- Carnegie retired and went into philanthropy. Sold his company for $400 million to JP Morgan. Became a company controlling over 3/5’s of the nation’s steel business. Steel Industry

9. Edwin Drake drilled the first U.S oil well in 1859. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil Trust in 1863. Worked out deal with railroad companies Forced companies to sell out- Predatory pricing Horizontal Integration- Take over the competition. By 1881- Owned 90% of oil refinery business. Oil Industry

10. Trusts(Monopolies) 1880’s- Middle class citizens feared unchecked power of monopolies. Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)- Too vague and not followed through. US v. EC Knight Co. –Ruled Sherman Antitrust Act could only apply to commerce, not manufacturing. Antitrust Movement

11. Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations) • Business should be regulated by the “Invisible hand” and use the governmental mindset of Laissez-Faire Social Darwinism- Survival of the fittest Gospel of Wealth- Hard work= material gain from God. Laissez-Faire Capitalism

12. Telegraph (transatlantic cable) Alexander Graham Bell (Telephone) 1876 Typewriter, Cash register, calculating machine, adding machine, Kodak camera, fountain pen’, and safety razors. Technology and Inventions

13. Thomas Edison- Extremely well known inventor. Created worlds first research laboratory (big deal) (phonograph, incandescent lamp, generating electric power, motion picture camera, etc… George Westinghouse- Air brakes for railroads High-Voltage alternating current *Enabled cities to be powered!!! Edison and Westinghouse

14. Department Stores R.H Macy (New York) Marshall Fields (Chicago) Frank Woolworth’s Five and Ten Cent Store Mail-Order Companies Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward Marketing Consumer Goods

15. Horatio Alger Myth Wrote a ton of books on honest, hard-working poor people becoming successful and wealthy. Reality??? Richest 10% of US population controlled 9/10 of the nation’s wealth. “Self-Made Man”

16. Growth of corporations led to the growth of white collar jobs (Accountants, Clerical workers, and salespersons) Expanding Middle Class

17. 1900- Two-Thirds of all working Americans worked for wages, worked 10 hour days, and six days a week. Tons of workforce = low wages. David Ricardo- “iron law of wages” Wage Earners

18. 1870-1880’s- Mostly England, Ireland, Northern Europe End of century: Italians, Poles, Russians, Greeks, Slavs, etc…) Labor Contract Law- Shady business Immigration and Work Force

19. Increased amount of them working. Needed their income to survive Extremely low pay for women and children. Passed child labor laws but were ineffective. Women and Children

20. National Labor Union- 1866, first attempt at combining unions. “Molly Maguries”- Militant labor group that sometimes used terrorist tactics. Bad image for unions. Knights of Labor- Second national labor union. 1) Worker cooperatives Abolition of child labor Abolition of trusts Lost followers because of the Haymarket riot Unions

21. During an economic depression Railroad companies cut wages to reduce costs. Strike from Baltimore to Ohio Railroad began. 500,000 workers joined President Hayes used federal troops to end the labor violence. Great Railroad Strike of 1877

22. Chicago 80,000 Knights May Day labor movement to get 8 hour work days. Held a meeting on May 4th and police tried to break up the meeting. A bomb was thrown and killed 7 police. Made the Knights look radical and violent. Haymarket Riot

23. 1886 25 craft unions Wanted higher wages and improved working conditions Grew very big but still lacked major victories until much later. American Federation of labor (AFL)

24. Henry Clay Frick, manager for Carnegie’s Homestead Steel plant 1892- Cut wages by 20% which started a strike. Frick shut the plant down and brought in 300 Pinkertown Detective Guards. National Guard was sent to put down the strike. Public turned against the strikers. Homestead Strike

25. 1894 Pullman Palace Car Company Pullman Company slashed wages 25%. Workers went on strike and had the American Railway Union to stop handling Pullman cars/equipment. (Led by Eugene Debs) Workers of 27 states strike. Pres Grover Cleveland send federal troops. Pullman Strike

26. Federal Court ruled and end to the strike. Debs defied the ruling. Strikers were jailed and the company brought in new workers. Pullman Strike cont…