Business and Labor in the Gilded Age

1. Business and Labor in the Gilded Age Innovation, Profits, and Workers’ Rights

2. Major Issues • Forms of business innovation in late 19th-c. • New technologies and processes • Social class in America • The Labor Question • Labor-Business conflicts • Forms of labor organization • Politics & trade unions • American Radicalism

3. Industrial Capitalism: Different Perspectives on Success Business/Managers Workers

4. Pittsburgh & Steel in the Gilded Age

9. Pushing Coke from By-product Oven, by Aaron Henry Gorson, ( n.d.) .

10. Gorson, River Embankment

11. Gorson, The Burn Off

12. Gorson, At the Riverhead

13. Gorson, Pittsburgh Steel Mill at Night

14. Steel Images: Attitudes Towards Industry?

15. Late 19th-Century Business Innovations • Capitalism = dynamic system, always changing • Capitalists always trying to find new ways to achieve profits and control • Use of new technologies and methods of production • New ways of getting the most value out of employees • Cutting costs for labor, supplies, transport, processing

16. J.M.W. Turner, “Rain, Steam, Speed, The Great Western Railway,” 1844

17. Capitalism = new ways of thinking about time, space, speed, self, and society Freedom & Power for some; exploitation and powerlessness for others New ways of thinking about individual, society, one’s place in the world Exciting & Troubling at the same time J.M.W. Turner, “Rain, Steam, Speed, The Great Western Railway,” 1844

18. Role of Railroads • Capital-intensive industry = needed a lot of $ to pay for machinery and rails • Answer: Corporations and stocks • New transportation routes = new markets, a national market for goods • A far-flung business = new management structures = departments & white collar jobs • Railroad managers move on to other industries – Carnegie and others • Great market for steel

19. Rise of Big Business • Modeled on railroads • Looked to increase profits by cutting costs, increasing output of goods, cutting down on competition • Get Bigger - Vertical integration – swallow up suppliers and sellers – Swift meatpacking • Monopoly – Rockefeller Oil – sweetheart deals with railroads (also vertical int.) • Better marketing – advertising advantages • Crush competitors by lowering prices or buying them out (horizontal integration)

20. Rise of the Corporation • Link to clips from documentary The Corporation • What is the corporation? • Benefits? • Problems?

21. New Industries = New Social Classes in America • Myth: America is class-less society (no classes) • Gilded Age saw creation of new classes and new class conflicts • Nouveau-riche (New rich) elite – non-inherited wealth, entrepreneurs, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt • Middle-class – white collar managers, engineers, office workers • Changes in working-class: growth of unskilled manufacturing workforce • Different classes had different ideas of how economy should work, who it should benefit most, who should have power

22. Different Perspectives on Social Class in America

23. The American Elite • Elite Ideology – the elite’s perspective on the world • Way they viewed: • Themselves • The society • The economy • The government’s role, politics • Work – who does what and why? • Wealth – who should get it and why? • Who should have power, who shouldn’t? • Gender roles (in family, society, politics, work, etc.) • Who should make decisions, who shouldn’t? • Was capitalism a good thing and for whom?

24. John D. Rockefeller Painted by John Singer Sargent Impressions of painting

25. Upper Class View of the World • William Graham Sumner & Social Darwinism: • Survival of the fittest • Fittest?: lifestyle, superior, heredity, race, intelligence • Inequality is natural, normal, good • Process = progress • Charity? Or govt. action?

26. Impressions of Painting John Singer Sargent Video J.S.S. Video #2

27. Abbott Thayer, “Winged Figure,” 1889

28. Abbott Thayer, “The Virgin”

29. Abbott Thayer, “Angel,” 1889

30. Thomas Dewing, “Summer,” 1890

31. Upper Class Gender Roles:Victorian Separate Spheres • Men • Women Problems with Victorian Separate Spheres?:

32. Definition of Social Class • How does class work in this time period?

33. American Labor: Traditions & Challenges

34. Labor Songs of Gilded Age • Mining Songs

35. The Labor Question • End of Reconstruction, ignoring plight of southern blacks; “end of frontier” – nation turned to growing labor conflict and economic concerns • Labor Question: What share of the wealth, power, and rights would workers have in the new modern industrial economy? • What models of worker power were most effective in opposing Capital/Big Business? • What forms of organization were most inclusive or exclusive of all American workers? • What strategies did capital use to fight and control workers? • What role did the government play in the Labor Question?

36. Different Labor Visions: The Change from Traditional Male Labor to New Industrial Labor

37. Thomas Anschutz, Ironworkers – Noontime

38. Interpretation of Painting • Impressions?

39. Traditional Labor Relations • Related to Free Labor Ideology • Craft workers and skilled trades – apprenticeships and training = dignity of work • Independence vs. “wage slavery” • Manly brotherhood and fraternity • Exclusivity = training (no women or minorities) • Control over workplace and work pace/output • Bargaining power with owners, some became owners themselves • Basis for trade unions

40. The Veteran in a New Field, 1865 Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) Oil on canvas

41. Artisanal/Farm Household Economy Power =Taken The Time and Effort To Achieve a Leadership Role. Male breadwinner, Farmer or skilled worker /\ Dependents: Apprentices Women Children Big Business - Unskilled or semi-skilled industrial work Power = Owners/stockholders /\ Managers White Collar workers /\ Men—women—immigrants (Low pay, little power) Traditional Labor Hierarchy Under Threat

42. Different Steps and Workers in Iron-making process • Iron Charger - Placed the iron ore into the smelting furnace • Iron Founder - Founds or casts iron • Iron Moulder - Made molds for casting iron • Iron Puddler - Made wrought iron using the puddling process • Iron Roller - Worked a machine that rolled iron to form and shape it • Iron Turner - Used a lathe to turn items from iron • Ironmaster - Foundry owner / manager • Ironsmith - Blacksmith • Laborers - unskilled workers who moved materials

43. Big Business = Threat to Labor • Why would changes in manufacturing be a threat to workers? • Carnegie and the Homestead Strike, 1892 • Broke power of trade unions • Replaced skilled workers with unskilled • Steel industry non-union until 1930s • Frederick W. Taylor • Scientific management – • What does Taylor think about Schmidt?

44. Homestead Strike, 1892:Burning Barges

45. Westinghouse Corporation Films, 1904 • Skilled Male Work& Skilled Furnace Work • Less-Skilled Work • Women’s Work 1 & Women’s Work 2 • The Time-Clock • Major Issues in Films?

46. The New Working Class • “New immigrants” from southern and eastern Europe • Traditional gender divisions, but rising # of women in industry • Black workers used for dirtiest lowest-paid jobs • In south, 19th c. textile industry often reserved for white families • Child labor • All of these groups formerly excluded from manufacturing, but could now take unskilled or semi-skilled jobs – threat to male domain

47. ? Options Available for the Worker?

48. Responses: Unions and Politics • Trade Unions (Sam Gompers & AFL)– protect traditional crafts and trades (mostly white males), power in workplace, force employers to bargain – “More” of the pie • Knights of Labor -- organize all “producers”, create new society with respect for producers, education • Ind. Workers of the World (IWW) – organize all workers into One Big Union, fight as a class, unions will run economy and society (syndicalism) • American Railway Union (Debs) – all rail workers in one union (model for other industries too) • Socialist Party (Debs) – along with unions, fight for political power to change system

49. Knights of Labor: Beliefs & Goals • Stop child labor • Proper share of the wealth • Arbitration, rather than strikes • Equal pay for equal work, women’s rights • Appeal to #s, larger pool of workers who could join organization • Dealing with reality of changing workforce • Getting govt. involved on the side of workers – banking, land issues • 8-hour day • Shifting power to workers • Weekly pay • Right to organize a union

50. Knights of Labor: Beliefs & Goals • Value knowledge, rather than wealth • Government involvement on the side of labor • Equal pay for equal work • Abolish child labor • 8-hour day • Shifting power to workers • National money paid to workers • Reform justice system • Fair land distribution • Reform banking • Organize all workers, inclusive