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Carnegie's Innovations and Labor Unions in the Late 19th Century

Explore Andrew Carnegie's successful strategies in the Carnegie Steel Company and the emergence of labor unions in the late 19th century. Discover the impact of his management practices and the challenges faced by workers in this period.

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Carnegie's Innovations and Labor Unions in the Late 19th Century

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  1. Chapter 6 Section 3: Big Business and Labor

  2. Carnegie’s Innovations • 1899 Carnegie Steel Company • Management practices • New machinery • Better quality products/cheaper • Accounting • Encouraged competition • Hired talented people -> offered them stock

  3. Andrew Carnegie’s _______________ strategies made him successful because _______________. • I agree with his strategies because ____________________. • I disagree with his strategies because ___________________.

  4. Social Darwinism • “Natural selection” = species that are best-adapted to their environment survive -> pass their traits to the next generation • Economy –> laissez faire (“allow to do”) – success or failure in business were governed by natural law • Industrialization = good • No govt. regulation

  5. Success • Individual responsibility • Protestant work ethic (hard work) • Accumulation of wealth = sign of God’s support • Poor = lazy and inferior

  6. Do you agree with this definition of success? Why?

  7. “Wealth and Its Uses” by Andrew Carnegie • Paragraph 1. Is it good for society for one man to accumulate a lot of wealth? Why? • Paragraph 2. Should rich people leave all of their money to their children? Why? • Paragraph 3. What is the second way millionaires can use their wealth? • Paragraph 4. What should millionaires do before they die? • How should they distribute their money? • Sordid = selfish • Bequeath = to hand down • Efficacious = desired effect/powerful • Furnish = to supply • Injurious = harmful • Testator = person with a will

  8. Fewer Control More • Mergers – one corporation buys out the stock of another • Monopoly = buy out all competitors/control wages and prices • Holding company – buy out stocks of other companies • J.P. Morgan bought Carnegie Steel • John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company • Trust agreements = competing companies join -> form one large corporation but all members earn money from their stocks • 90% of the oil industry (1880) • Pay low wages, reduce competition by selling oil at a low price, then he increased the price of oil • “Robber baron” • Gave away $500 million

  9. Fewer Control More • Sherman-Antitrust Act • Illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade • Hard to enforce • The South • Northern businesses owned railroad companies in South • Natural and urban resources in North

  10. Questions • 1. What is your opinion of Social Darwinism and the government staying out of business? • 2. What do you think about the business methods of Carnegie and Rockefeller? • 3. What is your opinion of how they managed their wealth?

  11. Labor Unions Emerge • 7 day work week , 14-hour day • No vacation, sick leave • 1882 – 675 laborers killed a week in factories • Wages were low -> everyone in family worked • Sweatshops = run-down apartment , lower wages than factories • $498 to $23 million

  12. Labor Unions Emerge • National Labor Union (1866) • 8 hour day for govt. workers • Craft Unionism • Samuel Gompers -> Pres. of American Federation of Labor (AFL) • Collective bargaining = negotiating between workers + management to win worker’s rights • Strikes = higher wages + shorter work weeks

  13. Labor Unions Emerge • Socialism = economic + political system where govt. controls business and property and equal distribution of wealth • Eugene v. Debs • Unionists and socialists form Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

  14. Strikes Turn Violent • Haymarket Affair 1886 • 3,000 protest police brutality in Chicago • Striker had been killed • Bomb – 7 cops die, several workers • Public turns against labor movement

  15. Strikes Turn Violent • 1892 – steelworkers strike over wages at Carnegie Steel Company’s Homestead plant in Penn. • National Guard ends it

  16. Strikes Turn Violent • Mary Harris Jones – leads coal mining strikes • Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC 1911 • Fire • Only one exit door unlocked • No sprinkler system • 146 women die • Changes in local labor laws for women and children

  17. Management and Govt. Pressure Unions • Did not allow union meetings • “Yellow-dog contracts” • Industrial leaders use Sherman Anti-Trust Act – say a strike hurt interstate trade • AFL membership climbs to 2 million by 1915

  18. Laborers formed _______________ as big businesses expanded because ___________________. One specific example would be __________________.

  19. Assignment • Read pp. 254-259 • Answer 1, 3, 4, 5, in complete sentences

  20. Assignment • Imagine you worker (factory, mines, etc.) and write a journal entry describing the conditions of your work. What are they like? Is it dangerous? Are you in a union? Would you join one? • Why did workers form unions in the late 19th century? • What factors limited success of unions? • At least one page for full credit

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