1 / 24

Rise of Industrial Economy: Money, Labor, & Innovation

Explore the transformative era of 1865-1914 with the rise of industrial economy, corruption in transportation, inventions that changed daily life, new corporate models, the impact of money, and the challenges faced by labor unions. Witness the evolution of wealth concentration, labor struggles, and the emergence of significant figures like J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and labor leaders such as Samuel Gompers and Eugene V. Debs. Discover the roots of modern capitalism, industrial progress, and the rise of organized labor movements.

raymond-dickson
Download Presentation

Rise of Industrial Economy: Money, Labor, & Innovation

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. Modern Money and Its Discontents Big Business and Labor, 1865-1914

  2. Rise of an Industrial Economy • Second Industrial Revolution—integrated transportation and communication; electric power; scientifically-based research and development • Laborers were increasingly a proletariat—only their labor to sell in the marketplace.

  3. Railroads • First Transcontinental Railroad completed in 1869 • Financed by private capital and government land grants (129 million acres of public lands between 1850 and 1870 alone) • Much corruption—Credit Mobilier Scandal; “Robber Barons”

  4. Transcontinental Railroad

  5. Robber Barons: Gould and Vanderbilt

  6. Inventions Change Lifeways • Alexander Graham Bell—Telephone—1876 • Thomas Alva Edison—Light bulb in 1879; the phonograph in 1877 • George Westinghouse—airbrake for trains and Alternating Current (beginning of power grid) in 1886. • J. W. McGaffey—vacuum cleaner 1869 • These inventions relied on electricity

  7. Electric Generator

  8. Edison and Westinghouse

  9. New Corporate Models • John David Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust • Corporation: “hasn’t a body to be damned or a soul to be kicked” • Vertical Integration: from raw material to market—Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Steel • Horizontal Integration—control the bottlenecks: John David Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust (refining monopoly)

  10. Carnegie and Rockefeller

  11. Oil wells in Titusville, Pa.

  12. The Business of Money • J. P. Morgan and Investment Banking • Interlocking boards of directors • Assumed control over 1/6 of all U. S. railroading • United States Steel (1901) controlled about 90% of U. S. steel production

  13. James Pierpont Morgan

  14. Richard Sears & Alvah Roebuck • Wide range of low priced consumer goods • You could even buy a mail order church—just not the pretty girl on page 614 • Rural Free Delivery plus the railroad made this mail order business possible • 6 million catalogs per year by 1900

  15. New Economy Produced Harm for Many • Concentration of wealth • Alienation of labor • Child labor • Low wages • Industrial accidents

  16. Workers Try to Organize • Contrary to “individualism” • Strife between skilled and unskilled labor • Race/Ethnicity—Dennis Kearney’s Workingmen’s Party • Pinkerton’s as Strikebreakers • Government Prosecution (Sherman Anti-Trust Act)

  17. Knights of Labor • Growth under Terrence V. Powderly • Success in early railroad strikes led membership to swell to 700,000 by 1886 • Lost favor as a result of Haymarket Affair in 1886

  18. Samuel Gompers and Unionism pure and simple 500,000 members by 1890 and 2 million by 1914 American Federation of Labor

  19. 1890s Strikes Illustrate Challenges faced by Unions • Homestead Strike—1892 • Pullman Strike--1894

  20. Eugene Victor Debs, 1855-1926—“While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

  21. Mary Harris “Mother Jones” (1837-1930)

  22. Socialism and Labor • Socialist Party—polled 900,672 votes in 1912 • IWW • Western Federation of Miners and Big Bill Haywood

  23. William D. Haywood—Leader of WFM

More Related