CHAPTER 13 NOTES

1. CHAPTER 13 NOTES

2. SECTION 1A TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION • Daily Life in 1865 • In 1865, life was vastly different then it is today. • The rising and setting of the sun dictated the rhythm of a day’s work. • In 1860, most mail from the East Coast took ten days to reach the Midwest and three weeks to go West.

3. Investing in Technology • By 1900, the picture of daily life had changed dramatically for millions of Americans. • Between 1860 and 1890 the federal government issued 500,000 patents for inventions such as the typewriter, telephone, and phonograph. • By the 1900s, Americans’ standard of living was among the highest in the world as a result of the nation’s growing industrial productivity.

4. Drake Strikes Oil • In 1859, Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania . • As new uses for oil began to appear, the oil business grew rapidly.

5. Edison, a Master of Invention • Thomas Edison’s goal was to develop affordable, in-home lighting to replace oil lamps and gaslights. • In 1880, Edison found a workable filament made of bamboo fiber for the first successful lightbulb. • Edison developed the idea of a central power station. • By 1890, power stations across the country provided electricity for lamps, fans, & printing presses

6. Electricity’s Impact on Business and Daily Life • Electricity helped to improve the productivity of the business world and transform the nature of the workplace. • Household use of electric current revolutionized many aspects of daily life including: refrigerators. • The Telegraph • Created by Samuel F.B. Morse in 1844, he devised a code of short and long electrical impulses to represent the letters of the alphabet.

7. The Telephone • The telephone was created by Alexander Graham Bell on March 7, 1876. • The earliest local phone lines could connect only two places, such as a home and a business. Soon central switchboards with operators could link an entire city. • By 1900, 1.5 million telephones were in use.

8. The Transcontinental Railroad • A railroad extending from coast to coast: Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California. • Members of Congress believed that the completion of a coast-to-coast railway would strengthen the country’s economic infrastructure. • Most of the workers were immigrants, Irish workers on the Union Pacific line at a rate of up to 6 miles a day and Chinese workers on the Central Pacific. • Finally, after seven years of grueling physical labor, the two crews approached each other in Utah, on May 10, 1869.

9. The growth of railroads also led to the development of many towns throughout the western part of the United States. • Railroads and Industry • Railroads played a key role in revolutionizing business and industry in the U.S. in several ways. • A faster and more practical means of transportation • Lower costs of production • Creation of national markets • A model for big business • Stimulation of other industries

10. The Bessemer Process • Developed by Henry Bessemer in the 1850s, the process made it much easier and cheaper to remove the impurities from steel. • The Bessemer process made it possible the mass production of steel. • As a result, a new age of building began. • A majestic symbol of this new age that endures is the Brooklyn Bridge.

11. SECTION 2 THE GROWTH OF BIG BUSINESS • Robber Barons or Captains of Industry? • “Robber barons” implies that the business leaders built their fortunes by stealing from the public. • “Captains of industry” suggests that the business leaders served their nation in a positive way.

12. Social Darwinism • Social Darwinists argued that society should interfere with competition as little as possible, and they opposed government intervention to protect workers. • They believed that if the government would stay out of the affairs of business, those who were most “fit” would succeed and become rich.

13. Business on a Larger Scale • Several characteristics help to explain how big business differed from earlier forms of business in the U.S. • Larger pools of capital • Wider geographic span • Broader range of operations • Revised role of ownership • New methods of management

14. New Market Structures • Oligopoly- A market structure dominated by only a few large, profitable firms. • Monopoly- Complete control of a product or service. To do this, a business bought out its competitors or drove them out of business. • Cartel- A loose association of businesses that make the same product.

15. Carnegie Steel • During the early 1870s, near Pittsburgh, Andrew Carnegie founded the first steel plants to use the Bessemer process. • Carnegie’s business prospered through vertical consolidation- gaining control of the many different business that make up all phases of a product’s development.

16. The Standard Oil Trust • In 1863, John D. Rockefeller built an oil refinery near Cleveland, Ohio. • In 1870, Rockefeller and several associates formed Standard Oil Company of Ohio. • Rockefeller ‘s business prospered through horizontal consolidation- which involves the bringing together of many firms in the same business.

18. The Government Response • Americans who feared that trusts were limiting industrial competition began to demand government action to break up these industrial giants. • The government was hesitant to interfere with the actions of big business. • Congress did pass a law, however, in 1890, in an attempt to limit the amount of control a business could have over an industry. The Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed any combination of companies that restrained interstate trade or commerce.

19. SECTION 3 INDUSTRIALIZATION & WORKERS • The Growing Work Force • Around 14 million people immigrated to the U.S. between 1860 and 1900. • Also some 8 or 9 million Americans moved to the cities during the late 1800s. • Factory Work • Most laborers worked twelve hours, six days a week. • In many industries, employers paid workers not by the time worked but by what they produced.

20. The Work Environment • Unlike farmers, who had more flexibility in the pace they worked, factory workers were ruled by the clock. • Workplaces were not always safe. The noise of the machines could be deafening, lighting and ventilation were often poor. • Fatigue, faulty equipment, and careless training resulted in frequent fire accidents.

21. Laboring in factories or mines and performing dangerous work was unhealthy for all workers, it especially threatened growing children. • The practice of child labor came under broad attack in the 1890s and early 1900s, prompting states to begin curbing this practice through legislation.

22. Working Families • In the 1880s, children made up more than 5 percent of the industrial labor force. • By the end of the 1800s, nearly one in five children between the ages of 10 and 16 was employed. • For many households, children’s wages meant the difference between going hungry or having food on the table.

23. As a result, children often left school at the age of 12 or 13 to work. • If an adult became ill, died or could not find or keep a job, children as young as 6 or 7 had to bring in cash. • Except in rare cases, government did not provide public assistance.

24. Section 4 The Great Strikes • Gulf Between Rich and Poor • In 1890, the richest 9 percent of Americans held nearly 75 percent of the national wealth. • The average worker could earn only a few hundred dollars a year.

25. Early Labor Unions • Unions began by providing help for their members in bad times, but soon became the means for expressing workers’ demands to employers. • The demands included shorter workdays, higher wages, and better working conditions. • The first national labor organization was the National Trades Union, which was open to workers from all crafts.

26. The Knights of Labor • The knights hoped to organize all working men and women , skilled and unskilled. • The knights wanted equal pay for equal work, 8 hour work day, and an end to child labor. • The American Federation of Labor • The AFL sought to organize only skilled workers in a network of smaller unions , each devoted to a specific craft.

27. The AFL tried to enforce employers to participate in collective bargaining, a process in which workers negotiate as a group with employers. • Reaction of Employers • Forbidding union meetings • Firing union organizers • Forcing new employees to sign “yellow dog” contracts, in which workers promised never to join a union or participate in a strike • Refusing to bargain collectively when strikes did occur • Refusing to recognize unions as their workers’ legitimate representatives.

28. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 • The strike began in July 1877, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad announced a wage cut of 10 percent in the midst of a depression. • Workers went on a strike, violence soon spread, the state governor requested assistance from the federal government.

29. Strikes Rock the Nation • From 1881 to 1900, the U.S. faced one industrial crisis after another. • Some 24,000 strikes erupted in the nation’s factories , mines, mills, and rail yards.

30. Haymarket, 1886 • On May 1, 1886, groups of workers mounted a national demonstration for an eight-hour workday • On May 4, a group of anarchists joined the strikers. Someone threw a bomb into a police formation, killing one officer. • In the riot that followed, gunfire between police and protesters killed dozens on both sides.

31. Homestead, 1892 • In the summer of 1892, Andrew Carnegie’s partner Henry Frick tried to cut workers’ wages at Carnegie Steel. • The Union at Carnegie Steel called a strike. • Frick called on the Pinkertons, a private police force, to end the strike. • In a shootout with strikers on shore, several people died and many were wounded.

32. Pullman, 1894 • The Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States on May 11, 1894. • It pitted the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company, the main railroads, and the federal government of the United States under President Grover Cleveland. • Much of the American public came to associate unions in general with violence and radical ideas.