America's Industrial Revolution: Growth and Challenges

1. Chapter 14 Industrialization 1865-1901

2. The U.S. Industrializes • 1860: 30 million people • 1.3 million worked in industry • GNP: gross national product • Value of all goods and services produced by a country • Natural Resources: abundance of raw materials= industrial success • Ex. Water, timber, coal, iron, copper • Petroleum: new resource • Turned into kerosene • By 1900 oil fields turned up from PA - TX

3. The U.S. Industrializes Government debt low • A Large Workforce • 1860-1910 population tripled • 2 causes: • Large families • Flood of immigrants • Free Enterprise • Laissez faire: “let do” government should not interfere with the economy Low taxes US raised tariffs against foreign goods other countries did the same

4. New Inventions • Alexander Graham Bell • 1874 suggested the telephone to his assistant Watson • 1876 he transmitted a voice • 1877 organized Bell Telephone Co. Became American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T)

5. New Inventions • Thomas Alva Edison • 1877 phonograph • 1879 perfected light bulband electric generator • Battery and motion picture • 1882 supplied electricity to NYC • 1889 Edison General Electric COGE

6. Impact • Thaddeus Lowe: ice machine • Gustavis Swift: refrigerated RR car • Northrop auto loom- clothing industry • Clothing industry: standard sizes • Shoe making: factories put cobblers out of business • Cyrus Field: telegraph cable across Atlantic

7. Working in the U.S. • Machines replaced skilled workers • Conditions were dangerous and unhealthy • High number of injuries • Rise in the standard of living • Wages rose 50% between 1860-1890 • Average industrial worker made $.22 per hour and worked 59 hours per week • 1865-1897 US Deflation • Companies cut wages • People decided to combat this by creating unions

8. Early Unions • Craft workers: special skills and training • Machinists, iron molders, stonecutters, glass blowers, shoemakers, printers… • Higher wages and more control over shop floor • Common Laborers: few skills and lower pay • 1830’s craft workers began to create trade unions

9. Industry Opposes Unions • Employers regarded as illegitimate conspiracies • Opposed industrial unions • Techniques used to prevent: • Oaths • Contracts • Hired detectives to find out who was involved • Those workers were fired and blacklisted • Lockouts: locked out workers then hired other non-union people to replace them

10. The Knights of Labor • Goals • Eight-hour workday. • Worker-owned factories. • Abolition of child and prison labor. • Equal pay for men and women. • Safety codes in the workplace. • Prohibition of contract foreign labor. • Haymarket riot ruins reputation

11. Working Women • 18% of labor force in 1900 • “Women’s work”: • 1/3 domestic servants • 1/3 teachers, nurses, sales clerks, secretaries • 1/3 industrial workers: garment industry and food processing plants • Most unions excluded women • Women’s Trade Union League: 1st dedicated to promoting women’s issues • 8 hour day • Minimum wage • No evening work • Abolition of child labor

12. Linking the Nation • 1862 President Lincoln signs Pacific Railway Act • Transcontinental RR by Union Pacific and Central Pacific • To encourage rapid construction, the gov. offered land grants along the way • Chinese laborers in West • Creation of time zones

13. Robber Barons • Jay Gould “insider trading” • Credit Mobilier • Construction company set up by Union Pacific • Including a member of Congress! • Overcharged RR - used up grants, went bankrupt • Gave members of Congress shares in return for more grants