The Expansion of American Industry

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• The Expansion of American Industry
• (1850-1900)

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A Technological Revolution

• Indoor electric lighting did not exist in 1865.
  Instead, the rising and setting of the sun
  dictated the rhythm of a days work.
• After dark, people lit candles or oil lamps if
  they could afford them. If they could not they
  simply went to sleep, to rise at the first light
  of dawn.

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A Technological Revolution

• Imagine summers without the benefits of
  refrigeration!
• Ice was available in 1865, but only at great
  cost.
• People sawed blocks of ice out of frozen ponds
  during the winter, packed them in sawdust, and
  stored them in icehouses for later use.

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A Technological Revolution

• Communication was also very slow in those days.
• Most mail from the East Coast took ten days to
  reach the Midwest and three weeks to get to the
  West.
• An immigrant living on the frontier would wait
  months for news from relatives in Europe.

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A Technological Revolution

• By 1900, daily life had changed dramatically in
  the United States.
• Between 1790 and 1860, the Patent and Trademark
  Office of the Federal Govt issued just 36,000
  patents (licenses to make, use, or sell an
  invention).
• In contrast, b/w 1860 and 1890, 500,000 patents
  were issued for inventions.

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Complete a chart for each invention what, who,
when, and importance!

• Telegraph
• Telephone
• Phonograph
• Filament Light bulb
• Central Power Station
• (direct current)
• Transformer (alternating)
• Bessemer Process
• Brooklyn Bridge

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Electric Power

• Thomas A. Edison (There is always a better way
  to do something, find it!
• He patented over 1,000 inventions!
• Helped to make electricity widely available.
• Improved stock ticker
• Phonograph
• 1882, Central power station
• Westinghouse
• 1885 George Westinghouse and alternating current.
• Use of transformer made use of electricity in
  homes practical.
• General Electric and Westinghouse Electric.

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The Railroad gets connected!

• In 1850, steam powered ships still provided much
  of the nations transportation.
• Before the Civil War, most of the railroad tracks
  were in short lines that connected neighboring
  cities, mainly in the East.
• There was no standard track width, or gauge, so
  each train could only travel on certain tracks.
• As a result, goods and passengers often had to be
  moved to different trains, which caused costly
  delays.
• To make matters worse, they were dangerous b/c
  trains could not communicate and brakes were
  unreliable.eeekkkk ?

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The Transcontinental RR

• In 1862, a huge project began in Sacramento, CA
  by the Central Pacific RR company and in Omaha,
  NB by the Union Pacific RR company to connect one
  line.
• On May 10, 1869, the project was complete with
  the final Gold spike being driven in by Leland
  Stanford at Promontory Point, Utah.
• Most of the workers on the railroad were
  immigrants. Irish for the Union Pacific and
  Asian, especially Chinese, for the Central
  Pacific.
• This railroad officially connected the east to
  the west.

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Problems with the RR

• Rails were not standardized, this caused a lack
  of mobility.
• Trains were often noisy, dirty, and
  uncomfortable.
• People feared for their safety and distrusted
  most trains.
• And scheduling for the train to be On Time was
  a nightmare, b/c of the time differences from
  town to town. Each town set its time according
  to solar time.

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Solutions for the RR

• Steel rails replaced iron rails and signals and
  track gauges became standardized.
• George Westinghouse developed more effective air
  brakes and Granville Woods patented a telegraph
  system for communicating with moving trains, thus
  reducing the risk of collisions.
• In 1883, the railroads adopted a national system
  of time zones to improve scheduling. As a
  result, clocks in broad regions of the country
  showed the same time.
• Four time zones were used Eastern, Central,
  Mountain, and Pacific (we still use these today)

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Changes brought forth by the RR
Govt reg. of private industry
Grow of towns and cities
Rapid Growth of Railroads
Creation of nationwide market
Consolidation of RR
Greed and Corruption
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Section 2 The Growth of Big Business

• The period of invention after the Civil War set
  the stage for the great industrial growth.
• Still, it would take more than technology to
  change the U.S., it would take entrepreneurial
  people to make the difference.
• These individuals became known as Robber Barons!

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Robber Barons (Captains of Industry)

• Robber Baron implies that these individuals build
  their fortunes by stealing from the public, and
  in turn drained the natural resources.
• Captains of Industry paints a more positive image
  of hard work and success in the building of the
  business world as we know it.

Andrew Carnegie
John D. Rockefeller
Cornelius Vanderbilt
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3 Major Players

• Make a list of the three major players in the
  growth of big business and add all the details of
  their particular business.
• Include a picture of the each man and a picture
  of his business.
• Complete this for homework, it will be due on
  Monday, December 12th!

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Big Business
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Big Business Problems

• Monopolies and Cartels
• Monopoly complete control of a product or
  service.
• Cartel a loose association of business that
  make the same product.
• Trust managing companies as a single unit. Ex.
  Standard Oil (John D. Rockefeller)
• Sherman Antitrust Act law that prevents any
  combination of companies that restrain
  interstate trade or commerce.
• Social Darwinism Those who were more fit
  would survive in the business world. (Carnegie
  really believed in this idea)
• Methods of Industrial Control
• Horizontal consolidation (same type of business
  bought by one company, ex. Rockefeller w/oil)
• Vertical consolidation(different type of business
  bought by one company, ex. Carnegie w/steel)

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Section 3Industrialization and Workers

• The Growing Work Force
• Immigration
• 1860 1900 14 million immigrants to U.S.
• Contract Labor Act 1864 law allowed employers
  to enter into contracts with immigrants.
• Similar to Indentured Servants.
• 8 9 million migrants entered the cities.
• Look at the graphs on pg. s 419 420.
• Write a brief statement describing what you
  leaned from each graph

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Increasing Efficiency

• In 1881, Frederick Winslow Taylor set out to
  improve worker efficiency in the steel plant
  where he was chief engineer.
• He began to study the workers, trying to see how
  much time it took to do various jobs.
• Then he broke down each task into a of steps
  and determined how long each step should take.
• He wanted more productivity from less time.
• The workers hated Taylors ideas, they feared
  that increased efficiency would result in layoffs
  or a lower rate of pay for each piece of work.

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Frederick Winslow Taylor

• In 1911, he wrote, The Principles of Scientific
  Management.
• Many people continue to use this formula in their
  business.

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Factory Work

• Factory workers were(are) ruled by the clock.
  When to start, stop, or break.
• Factory work changed work from the days of
  being a craftsman.
• A craftsman would traditionally make a product
  from start to finish, which required a variety of
  tasks.
• Factory workers performed only one small task,
  over and over, and rarely saw the finished
  product.
• This concept became known as Division of Labor.

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Life in a Factory

• Workers called Hands
• Discipline was strict
• Fined for being late, talking back, or refusing
  to do a task
• Work was boring
• Loud, dark, and ventilation was poor
• Many fires from fatigue, faulty equip.,
  carelessness
• Many deaths on the job
• In 1882, average killed was 675 a WEEK, today
  it is around 120 week

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Section 3 cont.

• Working Families
• Because of low wages, everyone in the family had
  to work.
• Children left school at 12 or 13.
• Mothers worked in the factory.
• Some boys after 13 stayed in school, but most
  girls went to work in the factory.
• If a parent died, 6 7 year olds had to work.
  (no work, no food)
• Social Darwinism govt. aid did not exist.

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Section 3 cont.

• Women Children
• Women
• No chance of advancement.
• No training.
• Excluded from higher paying jobs.
• Children
• 1880s 5 of working population.
• No child labor laws.
• Stunted growth.
• 1892 Jacob Riis wrote, Children of the Poor
• By the early 1900s, child labor legislation was
  implemented.

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Section 4The Great Strikes

• Rich vs. Poor
• 1890 9 of pop. held 75 of nations wealth.
• Socialism economic and political philosophy
  that favors public (social) control of property
  and income.
• Cooperate, not compete.
• Karl Marx Communist Manifesto
• Labor Unions
• Trade Unions
• The Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers
  (shoemakers)
• 1806, Outlawed for engaging in strikes.
• National Trades Union

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Section 4 cont.

• The American Federation of Labor (AFL)
• Samuel Gompers
• Only skilled workers.
• Three main issues for unions
• Higher Wages
• Shorter Working Hours
• Safer Working Conditions
• Collective Bargaining group bargains
• with employer for changes

Samuel Gompers
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UnionsEmployersForbade union meetings.Fired
union organizers.Yellow Dog contracts
workers promised not to join or strikeRefused
collective bargaining if strikes
occurred.Refused to recognize unions as the
workers legitimate representatives.
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Four Major Strikes 1877-1894

1. Railroad Strike 1877
2. Haymarket Strike 1886
3. Homestead Strike 1892
4. Pullman Strike - 1894

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Railroad Strike - 1877

• When the BO RR announced a 10 wage cut in the
  midst of a depression, workers reacted with
  violence.
• The rioting spread rapidly from Baltimore to
  Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, and other cities.
• President Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881) sent in
  federal troops to put down the strike in W. Va.
• Soldiers fired on the rioters, killing and
  wounding many. A crowd of 20,000 set fire to the
  RR company property.
• From the 1877 strike on, employers relied on
  federal and state troops to repress labor unrest.
• A new and violent era in labor relations had
  begun.

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Haymarket Strike - 1886

• May 1, 1886, groups of workers mounted a national
  demonstration for an eight-hour workday.
• Their slogan was, 8 hrs. work, 8 hrs. rest, 8
  hrs. for what we will!
• This led to fight at Chicagos McCormick reaper
  factory between strikers and scabs.
• Scabs are workers called in by an employer to
  replace striking laborers.
• Several of the workers were killed when police
  tried to break it up.

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Haymarket Strike - 1886

• Union leaders called for a protest rally on the
  evening of May 4 in Chicagos Haymarket Square.
• A group of anarchists, radicals who violently
  oppose all govt, joined the strikers.
• That evening someone threw a bomb into a police
  formation, killing seven officers.
• A riot followed and over a dozen were killed.
• Investigators never found the bomber, yet eight
  anarchists were tried for conspiracy to commit
  murder.

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Haymarket Strike - 1886

• Four were hanged, another committed suicide.
• Governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois decided
  later there was not enough evidence so he
  pardoned the remaining three.
• To many unionists, the anarchists who took part
  in the Haymarket Riot forever would be heroes.
• To employers, however, they remained vicious
  criminals determined to undermine law and order.
• Much of the American public came to associate
  unions in general w/violence and radical ideas.

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Homestead Strike - 1892

• Summer of 1892, while Andrew Carnegie was in
  Europe, his partner Henry Frick tried to cut
  workers wages at Carnegie Steel.
• The union at the Carnegie plant in Homestead, PA
  called a strike.
• Frick intended to crush the strike and he hired a
  private police force to do the job.
• Again, several people were killed and many
  Americans were angry with the steel company,
  until..

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Homestead Strike - 1892

• Anarchist Alexander Berkman tried and failed to
  assassinate Frick.
• Berkman was not associated w/the union, but the
  public connected him anyway.
• This led to a huge distrust of unions in many
  Americans eyes.

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Pullman Strike - 1894

• This strike involving the RR marked a shift in
  the Federal Governments involvement with
  labor-employer relations.
• Sleeping-car maker, George Pullman considered
  himself a caring industrialist.
• He donated money to build schools, banks, and
  utilities in his hometown of Chicago.
• But, when the economy took a nose dive in 1893,
  he had to lay off workers and cut wages.
• A small group tried to protest to him and he
  fired them on the spot, causing the local union
  to go on strike.

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Pullman Strike - 1894

• Pullman refused to bargain and shut down the
  plant.
• The American Railway Union, lead by popular labor
  organizer Eugene V. Debs, called for a boycott of
  Pullman cars throughout the country.
• By June of 94 over 120,000 RR workers joined in
  the strike.
• The strike got out of hand and the fed. Gov. was
  brought in to help.
• The strike broke the Sherman Antitrust Act
• On July 4, 1894 President Grover
  Cleveland(1885-89 1893-97) sent in 2,500
  federal troops to enforce the law.

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Pullman Strike - 1894

• The Pullman strike and its outcome set an
  important pattern.
• In the years ahead, factory owners appealed
  frequently for court orders vs. unions.
• The Fed. Gov. regularly approved these appeals
  and helped to limit the growth of unions for the
  next 30 years.