The Industrial Age 1870-1900

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The Industrial Age1870-1900

• The Gilded Age

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What was the Industrial Revolution?

• a. It was the revolution that freed immigrants
  and working class people from oppressive bosses.
• b. It was the historic period when the US gained
  its independence from England.
• c. It was an era of industrial giants, of robber
  barons who amassed great wealth and power often
  through cheating/corruption.
• d. None of the above.

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Thats Right C!!!!!
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What REALLY Caused the Industrial Revolution?

• Greedy Businessmen?
• An Ambitious Government?
• A Demanding Public?

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NO!!!!
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Technology caused the Industrial Revolution

• Abundance of natural resources (coal, crude oil,
  lumber, water, ) and new means to harness them.
• An EXPLOSION of world-changing inventions.
• A growing URBAN population and consumer culture.

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Industrial Age Inventions

• Typewriter
• Cash Register
• Adding Machine
• Flush Toilet
• Tin Can
• Railroad Refrigeration
• Telephone

• Incandescent Bulb
• Phonograph
• Motion picture
• Airplane engine
• Automobile engine

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What was the Most Important Invention of the
Industrial Age?

• Light Bulb?
• Telephone?
• Typewriter?
• Flush Toilet?

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NONE OF THE ABOVE!

• WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE TOILET (OF COURSE)

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Bessemer Steel Process

• Prior to the Civil War, iron was the strongest
  metal. However, it was heavy and broke when it
  was compressed. It also rusted.
• The Bessemer Process took the carbon out of the
  iron and created lighter, rust-resistant, and
  flexible steel.
• By 1880, Bessemer steel had 90 of U.S. market.

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Uses of the New Steel

• Railroad Tracks 90 of steel in 1882
• Barbed Wire
• Farm Machines steel plow, reapers, threshers
• Tin Cans
• Brooklyn Bridge (1883) wonder of the world
• Skyscrapers - 1 Home Insurance Blding
• Chicago, Illinois.
• Factories

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What were the Big Three Industries from
1870-1900?

• Chrysler?
• Ford?
• General Motors?

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Wrong AGAIN!
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3 BIG INDUSTRIES

• RAILROADS (J.P. Morgan)
• OIL (J.D. Rockefeller)
• STEEL (Andrew Carnegie)

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J.D. Rockefeller Oil

• In 1862, at the age of 23, Rockefeller (a
  bookkeeper-clerk) invested 4,000 in an oil and
  kerosene refinery. It was a risky investment
  since the gasoline engine had not been invented
  yet.
• In 1870, Rockefeller created the Standard Oil of
  Ohio company. It had 4 of the market.
• J.D. bribed R.R.s to ship his oil at lower costs
  than competitors. He also lowered the cost of his
  oil knowing that his competitors would not be
  able to lower their prices AND make a profit.
  This drove some oil companies out of business and
  increased his share of the market.
• By 1879, Rockefeller refined 90 of U.S. oil.

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Andrew Carnegie Steel

• Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant who worked as a
  bobbin boy in a PA textile mill when he was 13.
• By 17, he was the personal assistant to the
  manager of the PA Railroad. He invested his
  earnings and was wealthy by age 30.
• In his 30s, Carnegie owned an iron plant.
  However, by 1872 he saw that the new steel was
  the future and built a steel plant in PA.
• Carnegie built his fortune by having superior
  management skills and by buying up all the
  suppliers coal iron ore mines, ore
  freighters, and R.R. lines. This way he
  controlled quality and cost.

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How did America Justify the New Industrial Order?
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Social Darwinism

• Charles Darwin The Origin of Species (1859).
  Wrote that nature had clear rules that guided
  competition among within species, allowing for
  the survival of the fittest.
• People believed that to take /power away from
  the rich would only weaken society.

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Gospel of Success

• Work during the Industrial Revolution became a
  form of worship.
• Capitalists preached the message that
  wealth/power in the hands of a few was necessary
  for the success of society.
• Capitalists also preached that the wealthy should
  be benevolent to the poorer brethren.

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To take power or money away from millionaires
was like killing off our generals in war. It was
absurd to pass laws permitting societys worst
members to survive or to sit down with a slate
and a pencil to plan out a new social
world.William G. SumnerYale Professor 1902
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So were the Robber Barons kind to their poorer
brethren?
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Rarely!
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How did the Other Half Live?

• Poor families lived in cellars and drank infested
  water.
• Liquid sewage ran through the streets (it was
  documented that in Baltimore, in one week, 139
  children died).
• Families lived in overcrowded situations. As many
  as 55 families lived in one tenement (slum)
  house, usually one family per room.

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NY Times Survey 1869

• Only 1/4th of NYCs working class earned enough
  to get by. The rest (3/4) lived in slums and
  barely survived.
• 45 of the US workers lived above the poverty
  level (most were just above).
• 40 lived below the poverty level and relied on
  their childrens income to survive.
• 1/4th of that 40 were destitute many turned to
  begging and crime.
• Poverty level was based on figure of 500/year
  for a family of five.

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Conditions in the Slums

• No garbage removal
• No plumbing
• Little fresh air or water
• Poor could be seen lying in the street with the
  garbage.
• The poor were highly susceptible to disease due
  to unsanitary conditions.

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Children as Laborers

• Children provided cheap labor.
• Children could work inside delicate machinery
  where adults didnt fit.
• By 1900, one out of every 10 girls and one out of
  every 5 boys between 10-15 worked 8 hour days.
• In some cities, as many as 50 of the children
  worked.

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And we arent talking McDonalds Jobs!
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PART TWO

• The Rise and Fall of Unionism

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In the Beginning. . .

• . . . was the growth of big business which needed
  huge factories to support their industrial
  dreams.
• Hence, the birth of the factory system.

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THE FACTORY SYSTEM

• Prior to the Civil War, 60 of all laborers
  worked on a farm.
• By the 1890s 60 worked in factories.
• 1.5 million factory workers (1860)
• 6 million factory workers (1900)
• Most factories were huge, employing 10,000-15,000
  workers.
• 2 out of 3 Amer.relied on factory wages.

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Result of the Factory System

• Loss of independence and identity
• Work became monotonous
• Dependence on Slave Wages.
• Workers were supervised by foremen who imposed
  fines for singing, joking, smoking, or
  conversation on the job.

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Goals of Unions

• Initially, unions were formed to challenge the
  new Industrial Order. (In other words, to take
  down the Robber Barons big business)
• These radical (anarchist) movements failed to
  gain widespread public support.
• The most successful unions aimed at small changes
  within the system (like shorter work days,
  increased ). Non-violent means were emphasized.

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Obstacles to Unions

• Business leaders found unions threatening and
  used force to prevent them.
• Federal courts always favored capital over labor
  (no support there).
• Public opinion viewed unions as trouble.
• Racial, cultural, gender diversity kept laborers
  from achieving solidarity.

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These differences made it easy for the bosses to
play one group against the other.
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Great Strike of 1877 1st Nationwide Strike

• 1877 U.S. in depths of depression.
• Railroads cut wages (10) to keep their profits
  up.
• Some R.R. hadnt paid workers for 2 months.
• Anger exploded and workers went on strike without
  a plan.
• Strike began in Martinsburg, WV, where workers
  ran train engines into the roundhouse.
• Soon 600 trains jammed the yards.

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Feds Response to Strike

• President Hayes was asked to send fed. troops
  because state militia was made up of too many
  R.R. workers.
• Fed. troops were busy fighting Indians out West.
• Congress wouldnt give for more troops.
• J.P. Morgan gave to pay for new officers
  helped organize troops.

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The Strike Spread

• For one week workers from all trades joined the
  strike, destroying trains tracks and burning
  buildings (in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg
  PA, St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco)
• The public feared a socialist revolution.
• Strikers took over small towns.
• State Militia surrendered to strikers.

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Okay youve got our attention, now what?

• Strikers didnt have a plan beyond destroying
  property.
• Eventually, they lost their momentum and fed.
  troops moved in to establish order.

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Results of the Great Strike of 1877In one week

• 100 people died
• 1,000 people went to jail.
• 100,000 workers had taken part in the strikes.
• More than ½ of the U.S. 75,000 miles of track had
  stopped running.
• Laborers realized they had power in numbers.
• Workers realized that they could not change the
  Industrial Order.
• Communities built armories (forts).

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Irony of 1877 The same year the blacks learned
that they would be powerless in the South
(Reconstruction ended), laborers learned that
they too were basically powerless in American
society.
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On the other hand

• The Great Strike of 1877 encouraged others to
  organize and strike.
• It set the stage for the Pullman Strike and the
  Homestead Strike.

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Haymarket Affair

• 1885

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Background

• Spring of 1886, the Amer. Fed. Of Labor called
  for nationwide strikes for 8-hour days
• In Detroit, 11,000 workers marched in a 8-hour
  parade.
• In Chicago, 40,000 workers went on strike.
• R.R. were paralyzed in Chicago.
• Militia/police were on high alert.
• Lists of anarchists were distributed.

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The Chicago Mail (Newspaper) said that Albert
Parsons and August Spies (2 anarchists) be
watched. Keep them in view. Hold them
personally responsible for any trouble make an
example out of them.
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May 3, 1886

• Strikers at McCormick Harvester Works were
  fighting scabs.
• Police fired into the crowd of strikers running
  from the scene.
• Four strikers were killed many wounded.
• August Spies, enraged by the killings, printed
  the following flyer

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Revenge! Workingmen, to Arm!!!! You have for
years endured the most abject humiliations, you
have worked yourself to death When you ask them
now to lessen your burdens, they send their
bloodhounds out to shoot you, kill you? To arms
we call you, to arms! August Spies
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May 4, 1886

• A peaceful protest was called at Haymarket
  Square.
• 3,000 originally attended.
• The rains dwindled the crowd to 300.
• The mayor spoke.
• 180 police showed up to break up the meeting.

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BOOM!!!!!!
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A Bomb was thrown at the police

• 66 officers wounded in all 7 died.
• Police fired into the crowd of mostly unarmed
  people.
• Police killed three and wounded 200.

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The Evidence

• No one knew who threw the bomb.
• Chicago police arrested 8 anarchist leaders
• The evidence against the men was their ideas and
  their writings.
• Only 1 of the 8 were at Haymarket Square that
  night.
• The 1 who was there was the speaker so he
  couldnt have done it.

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The Trial

• Jury found the 8 men guilty by association.
• All were sentenced to death.
• Appeals were denied.
• Supreme Court said it had no jurisdiction.

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The Punishment

• One year after the trial, 4 of the guilty were
  hanged.
• Another died by committing suicide in jail.
• The executions angered the public. 25,000 people
  held a funeral march in Chicago.
• 60,000 signed a petition to the gov. of IL
  eventually gov. pardoned last three men.

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Effects of Haymarket Affair

• In the short run, public opinion supported police
  and turned against strikers.
• In the long run, the Haymarket Affair inspired
  more class anger and moved generations of
  radicals (including Hippies in the 1960s).

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Federal Regulation

• Although the government had a hand in creating
  the monopolies, it also had the responsibility of
  protecting the public.
• Two significant pieces of legislation were
  created in the late 1800s that were designed to
  curb abuse by business

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Interstate Commerce Act

• Passed in 1887 in response to a Supreme Court
  ruling that states could not set RR rates on
  Interstate Commerce.
• Def. of Interstate Commerce RR traffic that was
  passing through a state.
• After public outcry, Congress passed the IC Act
  giving the right to regulate RR activities to the
  Feds.

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Success/Failure of ICC

• Successes ICC made it illegal for RR to either
  give or accept rebates/bribes, or change shipping
  rates without telling the public first.
• Failure the RRs bypassed the ICC by appealing
  their cases to Fed. Courts who could delay a
  ruling for up to 10 years.

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Sherman Anti-Trust Act -- 1890

• Def. of Trust method of combining competing
  companies, to form one large corporation.
• Trusts were so powerful, it was difficult for new
  companies to break into the business.
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act was passed to insure free
  competition (to prevent big business from
  suppressing competition)
• The act stated that any attempt to interfere with
  free trade by forming a trust was illegal.

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Why was a trust bad?

• Trusts drove competitors out of business with
  low, low prices.
• Once there was no more competition, trusts jacked
  prices up to unfair amounts.

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Failure of Sherman Anti-Trust Act

• Wording was too general and made it hard to
  enforce.
• Trusts would dissolve when they felt under
  pressure from the act and simply reorganize as
  single/smaller corporations again.
• Supreme Court threw out 7 out of 8 anti-trust
  cases.

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Success of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

• 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt became known as
  a trust buster.
• He filed 44 anti-trust suits (examples the
  railroad trust, the beef trust, the oil trust,
  and the tobacco trust).
• Desired federal regulation over complete
  dissolving of trusts

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Child Laborers

• 2 million children (some as young as 3) worked in
  factories, mills, mines, and fields because they
  provided cheap labor.
• Children workers kept all wages low even the
  wages of adult workers.
• Children worked 12 hour days (or longer), six
  days a week.
• They endured the noise and dust of factories,
  developing health problems.
• They were unable to go to school and had very
  little hope for a better future.
• The injury and death rate among child laborers
  was extremely high.