1 / 47

America’s Industrial Age

America’s Industrial Age. Becoming an Industrial Power. Before the 1860s – U.S. mostly agricultural. By 1920s – Most industrialized nation ON EARTH. How?. Becoming an Industrial Power. Wealth of Natural Resources Oil (“Black Gold”), Coal, Iron Government Support for Business

dragon
Download Presentation

America’s Industrial Age

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. America’s Industrial Age

  2. Becoming an Industrial Power • Before the 1860s – U.S. mostly agricultural. • By 1920s – Most industrialized nation ON EARTH. • How?

  3. Becoming an Industrial Power • Wealth of Natural Resources • Oil (“Black Gold”), Coal, Iron • Government Support for Business • Growing Urban Population • Cheap Labor • Markets for New Products

  4. Steel Industry • Iron is soft (rusts & breaks b/c of impurities), removing carbon makes steel (strong, won’t rust) • Bessemer Process: Air is injected into molten iron, removing impurities (like carbon). Iron – impurities = steel

  5. Steel Industry • Railroads = biggest customers (1000s of miles of tracks) • Barbed wire & steel plows • Building techniques change: • Steel supports building weight = taller structures • Brooklyn Bridge (1883) was tallest structure on Earth (other than the pyramids in Egypt)

  6. New Inventions • Thomas Edison patents the incandescent lamp (1880) • Electricity made safe to use in homes, businesses • Businesses can now locate to ANYWHERE (not just by moving water or coal source) • Christopher Sholes invents typewriter (1867) • Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone (1876)

  7. New Inventions in the Workplace • More women employed in offices with invention of telephone, typewriter • 1870, women = 5% of office workers • 1910, women = 40% of office workers

  8. In Summary…

  9. Railroads • Iron, coal, steel, lumber, glass industries grow to keep up w/ railroad growth • Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Flagstaff, all exist because of railroads

  10. Railroads • George Pullman (using textile mill model) built a city for workers who built sleepers and RR cars at his IL factory • Town considered luxurious (most workers had own homes, access to doctors, shops, athletics) • HOWEVER – Pullman controlled every aspect of their lives. • Eventually, workers went on strike in 1894 when Pullman cut pay but not rent.

  11. Railroads and the Panic of 1893 • Corporate abuses, mismanagement, overbuilding, competition push many RRs to brink of bankruptcy. • By mid-1894 many taken over by financial companies (J.P. Morgan & Company) • By 1900, 7 powerful companies controlled over 2/3 of nation’s RRs.

  12. BIG Business and Great Man History

  13. Andrew Carnegie • (From Scotland) Worked on the RRs, was superintendent of the PA RR. Given chance to buy stock as a reward. • Used invested money to start his own steel mill.

  14. Andrew Carnegie • Successful due to Management Practices: • Kept trying to make products cheaper. Perfected machines, accounting systems. • Offered talented people company stock, encouraged competition among employees.

  15. Andrew Carnegie • Success also due to Business Practices: • Vertical Integration – Bought out his suppliers (coal fields, freighters, RRs, etc) • Horizonal Integration - Bought out his competition • By buying out competition, he controlled almost ALL the steel industry. • Sold his business to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million (approx. 1.3 billion in 2010 dollars)

  16. Social Darwinism • Explanation for why some people were so wealthy & some remained poor. • “Natural Selection” weeded out less capable(Ergo, rich = most adapted, capable) • Riches = God’s favorPoor = Inferior, deserve what they get

  17. Social Darwinism • Popularity of “rags to riches” stories (Horatio Alger)

  18. Consolidation • Industrialists wanted mergers (horizontal integration) • Mergers – One company buys out another’s stock • Monopoly – One firm buys out all its competitors, has control over its industry’s production, wages, prices • Monopolies could also be created via holding companies – corporations that existed to buy out stock of competitors. • J.P. Morgan created world’s largest corporation when United States Steel (holding company) bought out Carnegie Steel (1901)

  19. Standard Oil • John D. Rockefeller used different approach to monopolies: joining w/ competing companies in trust agreements. • Trust participants turned stock over to a group of trustees (people who ran separate companies as one large corp.)Not legal, used anyway. • Rockefeller used a trust to gain control of the US oil industry

  20. Standard Oil • 1870, Rockefeller’s company refined 3% of US oil • By 1880, they refined 90% • How? • Paid employees poorly • Undersold competition • When competition went out of business, raised prices ABOVE original levels

  21. “Robber Barons” • Term for wealthy & powerful businessmen who used exploitative tactics to gain their wealth. • Exerting control over national resources • Getting high levels of Gov. influence • Paying extremely low wages • Squashing competition • Acquiring competition/creating monopolies • Schemes to sell stock at inflated pricesto unsuspecting investors (impoverished them)

  22. Sherman Antitrust Act • Gov. worried growing power of corps. would stop free trade. • Passed Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) • Illegal to form a trust that interfered w/ free trade between states or other countries • Poorly written. All 8 cases were thrown out. Gov. gave up.

  23. Labor Unions

  24. Bad Working Conditions • 7-day work weeks, 12 hr days, NO vacation OR sick days (common for men working in steel mills) • Women = similar conditions (but not as bad) • 1882 – average of 675 laborers were killed in accidents EACH WEEK

  25. Bad Working Conditions • Wages were so low every family member, even children, had to work. • 25% of boys, 10% of girls ages 5-15 held jobs • 1899: men made $498/yr, women $267/yr.kids averaged about 27 cents for a 14 hrday

  26. Early Labor Unions • Formed to demand fair treatment • First nation-wide union: National Labor Union (NLU) • 1869 – Uriah Stephens organizes Knights of Labor • Motto: “An injury to one is a concern of all.” • Open to ALL workers (man or woman). • At height in 1886, over 700,000 members

  27. Labor Unions

  28. Labor Unions Craft Unions Industrial Unions Eugene V. Debs: first to combine ALL workers (skilled & unskilled) from ONE industry into a union. Organized American Railway Union (ARU) Grew to +150,000 mems. • 1886: American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed. • Samuel Gompers president • Members: workers from a specific craft • Focus: Collective Bargaining • Used strikes to get higher wages, shorter work weeks

  29. Labor Unions • Eugene V. Debs later turned to socialism • Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) created (though membership never topped 100,000)

  30. Labor Strikes • Industry & Government saw union activity as a threat to the entire capitalist system. Responded with force.

  31. The Great Strike of 1877 • Workers on Baltimore & Ohio RR went on strike for a wage cut. • President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered federal troops to end it. It “interfered with interstate commerce.”

  32. Haymarket Square Affair • May 4 1886: Workers gathered to protest police brutality and to promote the 8-hr workday. • As protesters dispersed, a bomb was thrown into the police. • In the chaos that followed 7 policemen were killed, 60 injured; civilian casualties likely as high. • A major setback for the labor movement. (labor activities = violence & danger)

  33. Homestead Strike • Workers protested pay cut at PA steel plant. • Police hired so scabs (replacement workers) could be hired. • 3 police, 9 workers killed. • PA National Guard called in, plant closed for 5 mo.

  34. Pullman Company Strike • Strike over cut wages. • Pullman refused to negotiate, ARU boycotted Pullman trains. • Pullman hired strikebreakers, violence ensued. Federal troops sent in to stop it.

  35. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire • Poor conditions in factories could no longer be ignored after the fire in 1911. • Factory only had 1 fire escape, no sprinklers. Full of cloth & oil. • 146 women died. Doors locked to keep them from leaving, many jumped to their death or died inside the building. • Some changes in local rules (for women & children in workplace) made after.

  36. Response to Labor Unions • Employers feared unions as they grew more powerful. With help of courts, turned Sherman Antitrust Act against labor. • Saying a strike “hurt interstate trade” got Gov to intervene. • Labor Unions continued to grow anyway.

More Related