INDUSTRIAL SUPREMACY Ch.17

BELL RINGER1/22 Why by the 1900’s was the United

States the leading industrial power in the world?

RAILROADS1865-1900Railroads went from 35,000 to 193,000 miles of track.

Significance: Increase mass production Increase consumption Economic specialization New time zones Stock Holder corporations.

RAILROADS CONT…

Trunk Lines- Major route between cities-Cornelius Vanderbilt

Western Railroads-Promote settlement of Great Plains-Link West and East

RAILROADS CONT…

Federal Land Grants-Promoted poor construction-Corruption

Transcontinental railroadsUnion PacificCentral Pacific

COMPETITION AND CONSOLIDATION Railroads were severely over-built Unfair rates were being charged 1893 –Financial panic occurred and 25% of all

railroads went bankrupt

JP Morgan and other bankers bought them and consolidated the railroads.

-More efficient railroadsCustomers and farmers at the mercy of the

railroads.

INDUSTRIAL EMPIRES

What types of goods were being produced in industries?

Post Civil War Industries Steel, Petroleum, Electric power,

Industrial machinery.

STEEL INDUSTRY Henry Bessemer in England and William Kelley in US started

blasting air through molten iron and produced high-quality steel.

Andrew Carnegie--Self-made man-Used a business practice known as vertical integration (do

everything business)

U.S Steel Corporataion- Carnegie retired and went into philanthropy.

Sold his company for $400 million to JP Morgan.Became a company controlling over 3/5’s of the nation’s steel

business.

OIL INDUSTRY Edwin Drake drilled the first U.S oil well in 1859. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil Trustin 1863. Worked out deal with railroad companies Forced companies to sell out- Predatory pricing Horizontal Integration- Take over the

competition. By 1881- Owned 90% of oil refinery business.

ANTITRUST MOVEMENT

Trusts(Monopolies)1880’s- Middle class citizens feared unchecked

power of monopolies.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)- Too vague and not followed through.

US v. EC Knight Co. –Ruled Sherman Antitrust Act could only apply to commerce, not manufacturing.

LAISSEZ-FAIRE CAPITALISM

Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations) Business should be regulated by the“Invisible hand” and use the

governmental mindset of Laissez-Faire

Social Darwinism- Survival of the fittest

Gospel of Wealth- Hard work= material gain from God.

TECHNOLOGY AND INVENTIONS

Telegraph (transatlantic cable) Alexander Graham Bell (Telephone)

1876 Typewriter, Cash register, calculating

machine, adding machine, Kodak camera, fountain pen’, and safety razors.

EDISON AND WESTINGHOUSE Thomas Edison- Extremely well known inventor. Created worlds first research laboratory (big deal)(phonograph, incandescent lamp, generating

electric power, motion picture camera, etc…

George Westinghouse- Air brakes for railroadsHigh-Voltage alternating current*Enabled cities to be powered!!!

MARKETING CONSUMER GOODS

Department Stores R.H Macy (New York) Marshall Fields (Chicago) Frank Woolworth’s Five and Ten Cent Store

Mail-Order Companies Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward

“SELF-MADE MAN”

Horatio Alger Myth Wrote a ton of books on honest, hard-

working poor people becoming successful and wealthy.

Reality???

Richest 10% of US population controlled 9/10 of the nation’s wealth.

EXPANDING MIDDLE CLASS

Growth of corporations led to the growth of white collar jobs

(Accountants, Clerical workers, and salespersons)

WAGE EARNERS

1900- Two-Thirds of all working Americans worked for wages, worked 10 hour days, and six days a week.

Tons of workforce = low wages.

David Ricardo- “iron law of wages”

IMMIGRATION AND WORK FORCE

1870-1880’s- Mostly England, Ireland, Northern Europe

End of century: Italians, Poles, Russians, Greeks, Slavs, etc…)

Labor Contract Law- Shady business

WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Increased amount of them working. Needed their income to survive

Extremely low pay for women and children.

Passed child labor laws but were ineffective.

UNIONS

National Labor Union- 1866, first attempt at combining unions.

“Molly Maguries”- Militant labor group that sometimes used terrorist tactics. Bad image for unions.

Knights of Labor- Second national labor union. 1) Worker cooperatives Abolition of child labor Abolition of trustsLost followers because of the Haymarket riot

GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1877

During an economic depression Railroad companies cut wages to

reduce costs. Strike from Baltimore to Ohio Railroad

began. 500,000 workers joined President Hayes used federal troops to

end the labor violence.

HAYMARKET RIOT

Chicago 80,000 Knights May Day labor movement to get 8 hour

work days. Held a meeting on May 4th and police

tried to break up the meeting. A bomb was thrown and killed 7 police. Made the Knights look radical and

violent.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AFL) 1886 25 craft unions Wanted higher wages and improved

working conditions Grew very big but still lacked major

victories until much later.

HOMESTEAD STRIKE

Henry Clay Frick, manager for Carnegie’s Homestead Steel plant

1892- Cut wages by 20% which started a strike.

Frick shut the plant down and brought in 300 Pinkertown Detective Guards.

National Guard was sent to put down the strike.

Public turned against the strikers.

PULLMAN STRIKE

1894 Pullman Palace Car Company Pullman Company slashed wages 25%. Workers went on strike and had the

American Railway Union to stop handling Pullman cars/equipment. (Led by Eugene Debs)

Workers of 27 states strike. Pres Grover Cleveland send federal troops.

PULLMAN STRIKE CONT…

Federal Court ruled and end to the strike.

Debs defied the ruling. Strikers were jailed and the company

brought in new workers.