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The Rise of Industrial America

The Rise of Industrial America. By 1900, the U.S. had emerged as the leading industrial power in the world. Its manufacturing output exceeded that of its three largest rivals, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Factors of Growth. Natural Resources: coal, iron ore, copper, lead, timber and oil

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The Rise of Industrial America

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  1. The Rise of Industrial America By 1900, the U.S. had emerged as the leading industrial power in the world. Its manufacturing output exceeded that of its three largest rivals, Great Britain, France, and Germany

  2. Factors of Growth • Natural Resources: coal, iron ore, copper, lead, timber and oil • Labor supply: immigrants and population growth • Capital: money to invest in new business ventures • Technology: 440,000 patents between 1860 and 1890 • Government: business friendly policies protected entrepreneurs • Transportation: railroads, steamboats

  3. Railroads • Nation’s first big business • Created a market for goods and so led to mass production of those goods • Promoted other industries: coal and steel • Time zones created • Creation of modern stock-holder corporation

  4. Railroads • “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt used his own money to merge railroads in to the New York Central Railroad • Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B & O) • Pennsylvania Railroad • Chicago becomes important RR center

  5. Transcontinental Railroad • During the Civil War, Congress authorized land grants and loans to build the transcontinental RR • Union Pacific employed thousands of Irish and war veterans • Central Pacific employed thousands of Chinese • Finished in 1869 • Other transcontinental RRs were built

  6. Transcontinental Railroad

  7. Industrial Empires - Steel • In 1870s Andrew Carnegie started manufacturing steel in Pittsburgh, and soon dominates • Vertical Integration: company controls every stage of the industrial process (from mining to transportation) • By 1900, Carnegie Steel was producing more steel than all of Britain • Sells his company in 1901 for a quarter billion dollars • Philanthropist

  8. Industrial Empires - Oil • John D. Rockefeller founded a company that controlled most of nation’s oil refineries • Standard Oil Trust • Controlled 90% of oil refinery business by 1881 • Horizontal Integration: competitors bought by single company • Trusts: various companies run by a board of trustees (former competitors brought under a single corporate umbrella) • Monopoly

  9. Industrial Empires - Oil

  10. Bosses of the Senate (1890)

  11. Antitrust Movement • Trusts came under attack/scrutiny in 1880s • Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890, which prohibited any “contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce.” • Supreme Court rules in United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895) that the act applies to commerce, not manufacturing

  12. Laissez-Faire Capitalism • Industrialists appealed to this philosophy to justify their methods • Social Darwinism: survival of the fittest • Gospel of Wealth: Protestant work ethic, hard work and material success are signs of God’s favor • Philanthropy

  13. George Eastman • In 1888 he perfects the Kodak camera, the first camera designed specifically for roll film • In 1892 he establishes the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY • Mass produces photography equipment and film • He donates over $75 million to establish the Eastman School of Music and U of R school of medicine

  14. Inventions • Typewriter – 1867 • Telephone – 1876 • Cash register – 1879 • Fountain pen – 1884 • Adding machine – 1888 • Thomas Edison has more than a thousand patented inventions (lightbulb)

  15. The Impact of Industrialization • By 1890s, the richest 10% of U.S. population controlled nine-tenths of the nation’s wealth • Mansions (Newport, RI), yachts, and lavish parties • Widening gap between rich and poor • “Self-made men” or rags to riches • Horatio Alger, Jr. novel portrays young man who become rich through hard work • Horatio Alger myth

  16. Expanding Middle Class • Growth of large corporations • Thousands of white-collar jobs are available • Middle management • Accountants, clerical workers, and salespersons • Doctors, lawyers • To what degree and in what ways did the industrial development of the late nineteenth century accentuate class, gender, and ethnic differences?

  17. Wage Earnersand Working Women • By 1900 most wage earners worked 10 hour days, six days a week • Wages determined by supply and demand • 1 out of 5 women worked for wages in 1900 • Most were young and single • Most people still believed, if economically feasible, women belonged at home • Textiles, garments, secretaries, typists and telephone operators

  18. Labor Discontent • Factory system is much different from “cottage industry” • Factory system is highly structured and regulated to inc. productivity • Assembly Line: mass production • Tyranny of the clock • Dangerous: chemicals and pollutants • Strikes and labor unions

  19. The Struggle for Organized Labor • Industrial Warfare: • lockout: closing factory to break labor movement • blacklists: no hiring lists • yellow-dog contracts: to get hired you must agree not to join a union • Great railroad strike of 1877: waged cut + strike, President Hayes sends federal troops to break strike

  20. Attempts to Organize National Unions • National Labor Union: 1866,skilled and unskilled workers, wanted higher wages, 8 hour work day, equal rights for minorities • Knights of Labor: 1869, Terence V. Powderly, open membership to Afr.-Ams. and women, wanted to end child labor and abolish trusts • Declines after Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886

  21. Haymarket Bombing • 80,000 Knight of Labor members go on strike, plus 200 anarchists • Police attempt to break up the meeting, a bomb is thrown and seven police officers are killed • Many Americans concluded that the union movement was too radical and violent • Knights of Labor lost popularity

  22. American Federation of Labor • AFL, founded in 1886 • Samuel Gompers • Higher wages and better working conditions • Collective bargaining • By 1909 – one million members

  23. Pullman Strike • Pullman, IL • Company town manufactured railroad sleeping cars • Workers went on strike over wage cuts • President Cleveland sends federal troops to break the strike • Supreme Court rules in favor of employers • By 1900 only 3% of American workers belonged to unions

  24. Lewis Hine and Child Labor • Photographer Lewis Hine documented the epidemic of child labor in the late 1800s and early 1900s • Reformers (mostly middle class) were outraged by various industrial outrages • It took decades of speeches, statistics and photos to bring change

  25. Lewis Hine and Child Labor

  26. Lewis Hine and Child labor

  27. Lewis Hine and Child Labor

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