Industrial America in the Late Nineteenth Century

1. Industrial America in the Late Nineteenth Century Corporate consolidation of industry Effects of technological development on the worker and workplace Labor and unions National politics and influence of corporate power Migration and immigration: the changing face of the nation Proponents and opponents of the new order, e.g., Social Darwinism and Social Gospel

2. Introduction • Through the late 19th century, America underwent a remarkable industrial transformation. Spurred by the expansion of national markets and the railroads that wove them together, industry exploded. • This explosion of industrial innovation, mechanization and mass production had long-reaching economic and social ramifications. The American economy experienced remarkably steady growth through the last decades of the 1800s. Millions of jobs were created, attracting huge numbers of immigrants from across the globe, as well as substantial internal migrations from farms to cities and towns from coast to coast. Consumer goods came within reach of most Americans, and the aggregate standard of living increased dramatically.

3. But industrialization had some decidedly negative effects as well. The tendency of particular industries toward corporate consolidation concentrated wealth and political influence like never before. Starvation wages, dangerous working conditions, and overcrowded slums inflicted misery on the lowliest of the new industrial social order- the urban poor. In response, some workers attempted to organize large-scale unions, with varied success, to balance the scale between labor and powerful corporate interests. • The Labor Movement was but one facet of a broader debate about the new economic and social order unleashed with rapid industrialization. A debate that still colors the American conscience arose about the responsibility of citizen to society, and vice-versa. So-called Social Darwinists saw wealth disparity- masses of poor souls toiling for the privileged few – as a “natural” outcome of “survival of the fittest.” Others saw the negative social effects of industrialization as a threat to American values. Strongly influenced by American Protestantism, advocates of the “Social Gospel” used a religious rationale to promote the idea that organized aid for the poor was a Christian duty.

4. Corporate consolidation of industry • Through the last decades of the 1800s, many key American industries- the ones essential to industry itself- were increasingly consolidated into fewer and fewer corporate players. • Railroads were among the first industry to undergo widespread consolidation. The Vanderbilt empire swallowed entire rail systems throughout the East, while magnates in other parts of the country held a monopoly on rail traffic for huge swaths of the nation. • The steel and oil industries, the two main physical ingredients of industrialism itself, also reached near-monopolistic proportions. In the steel industry, Andrew Carnegie’s corporation controlled and owned every step in its manufacture- from the iron ore and coal mines to the finished product. This “vertical integration” of industry allowed Carnegie to achieve an economy of scale that forced many of the existing competition out of business. • John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company took consolidation a step further. Not only was S.O. vertically integrated, but also achieved a near-complete “horizontal integration”- whereby they monopolized distribution and retail of the final product. • Standard Oil is an extreme example, but like Rockefeller, other industries achieved near monopolies under a corporate structure called a “trust.” Trusts were essentially “holding” companies, in that they didn’t technically own the stocks of their constituent companies, but had the authority to act “in trust” on the shareholder’s behalf. These trusts were inevitably controlled by a handful of the biggest producers in a given industry, who colluded to set production levels, prices, and drive out competition. • Such collusion and ruthless business tactics seemed downright undemocratic to some, and a growing public clamor eventually led to groundbreaking federal action, with the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, followed by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890.

5. Effects of technological development on the worker and workplace • Technological developments connected with industrialization also transformed the lives of the worker and workplace. Crowded, filthy, un-ventilated factory floors, and noisy, dangerous working conditions were a far cry from the field and plow. • Ironically, as industrial production became more and more efficient through technology and innovation, the need for skilled workers yielded to low-paying and menial labor. Unskilled workers were largely expendable, and so had near zero leeway to negotiate any relief to their miserable situation. Some sectors of the labor force had limited success in organizing for better pay and working conditions, but the masses of unskilled laborers were typically exploited to the extreme. • While industrialism held some down, it offered opportunities for others. One unquestionable benefit of the changing industrial workplace was a significant expansion of the middle-class- due to white collar and professional occupations- management, accounting and clerical, as well as legal, banking, and financial services.

6. Labor and unions • One way for labor to balance the power of corporate capital over them was through organization into unions- groups of workers in a similar job who speak collectively to advocate for better pay and working conditions. Craft and artisan guilds had existed in the United States since the beginning, but not until the industrial era was there an attempt to organize labor on so large a scale. • The earliest attempts at organizing labor on a national scale were mostly unsuccessful. The National Labor Union was founded in the late 1860s, but dissolved after only a few years. The idea of a more inclusive labor union was revived again with the Knights of Labor, who enjoyed rapidly swelling membership (over 700,000) through the late 1880s. But the popular perception that the labor movement was connected with communism and anarchism hurt these broader efforts. Following a incident called the Haymarket Riot, the Knights of Labor were discredited and membership plummeted.

7. Skilled labor had considerably more success forming unions. Railroad workers, for example, successfully organized several occupation-based “brotherhoods,” (engineers, fireman, brakemen, etc.), but efforts to consolidate workers into an industry-wide labor union repeatedly failed to gain traction, due in large measure to the obstructions of railroad ownership. Two events related to the railroad unions put the corporate and political animosity toward industrial unionism into sharp relief: the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, and the Pullman Strike in 1894. In both cases, and despite some popular support, the collective action of railroad workers was ultimately crushed by federal troops and state militias. Another example of the difficulties facing industrial unionism was the Homestead Strike, a violent weeks-long clash at a Carnegie steel mill between the unionized workers, private security firms, and eventually, state militias. • Drawing on the idea of a union of unions, the American Federation of Labor was founded in 1886 to advocate on behalf of skilled labor (trade unions). Rejecting all pretense of socialism and promising to avoid strikes in favor of arbitration, the AFL steadily built its membership and emerged as a viable organization to represent skilled labor- which still exists today. • More radical labor organizations such as the International Workers of the World (“One Big Union”), however, continued to taint the popular perception of unionism as tantamount to anarchism. It would not be until the New Deal of the 1930s that workers’ rights to organize would receive federal sanction.

8. National politics and influence of corporate power • The rise of powerful corporate interests after the Civil War forever changed the relationship between business and government. Plutocratic captains of industry, like the railroad “robber barons,” along with Carnegie, Rockefeller and others, had enormous influence on legislation and public policy. • In the 1870s, a scandal erupted involving a number of congressman with financial interests in railroads. This “Credit Mobilier” scandal ruined careers and raised the public ire about the increasingly close connections between government and big business. Numerous other examples through the late 1800s further promoted the perception of government as a puppet of big business- setting the stage for the anti-big business/ anti-trust angle of the populist movement in the 1890s/early 1900s.

9. Migration and immigration: the changing face of the nation • The labor needs of American industrialization spawned a new wave of immigration from abroad, as well as a substantial internal migration from farm to town and city. • While the sheer numbers of immigrants is significant of itself (20 million between the 1880s and 1914), the origins of the immigrants were also important. Prior to the 1880s- the vast majority of American immigration had been from northern and western Europe- British, Irish, German-, but after 1885 or so, the ethnic origins of immigrants began to shift dramatically. Political and economic forces in Europe inspired huge numbers of southern and eastern Europeans to seek a better life in the US. For the first time, large numbers of Italians, Greeks, Czechs, Poles, Russians, and many other eastern and southern European ethnicities were moving to American cities. • Unquestionably, this “New” immigration was vital to industrialization, but it also inspired a substantial nativist backlash from those that feared core American values were at stake. Many new immigrants faced systemic discrimination in housing, jobs, and educational opportunities. Fears of the “changing face” of the nation eventually led to reform efforts aimed at assimilation and “Americanization” of foreigners in many urban areas.

10. Proponents and opponents of the new order, e.g., Social Darwinism and Social Gospel • The new social order imposed in the wake of industrialism raised new questions and debates about the roles and responsibilities of citizens to the social welfare at-large. A new socio-economic classification- the urban poor- developed as a sort-of permanent underclass- plagued by chronic poverty in dilapidated and crime-ridden slums. On the other extreme, the owners of industry and capital enjoyed unprecedented wealth, and displayed it in extravagantly opulent fashion. Mark Twain summed up the obvious contrasts between the masses of very poor and handful of very rich, dubbing the era the “Gilded Age.” For most, prosperity was but a veneer. • Borrowing from Charles Darwin’s evolutionary paradigm, the Social Darwinists saw the sharp social divisions emerging in the industrial age as “natural” to the human condition. The new social hierarchy represented a “survival of the fittest.” The rich deserved to be rich because they had the skills, knowledge, and determination to be the “fittest.” Meanwhile, the poor deserved to be poor because they innately lacked the intellect and drive to lift themselves from poverty. Social Darwinists could thus justify the growing disparity of wealth and the exploitation of the working poor as part of the “natural” order. • Others advocated a different view of individuals’ obligations to society as a whole. Largely informed by American Protestantism, the Social Gospel was a reform ideology that promoted aid to the poor as a Christian duty. Proponents of the Social Gospel believed that poverty bred immorality, and to halt the moral decay of America, efforts should be made to help lift the willing and able out of poverty. Much of the work of Social Gospel advocates was aimed at “Americanizing” urban immigrants through English language and civic education programs, as well as job training and placement. Many organizations associated with the Social Gospel movement had overtly religious aims- the YMCA and the Salvation Army, for example- while other offshoots of the movement became less directly associated with Protestantism- like the Settlement House movement.