Unit 1: Chapter 61870-1900Overview

Technology• Inventions, Innovation, Automation

Railroads• Expansion, Corruption, Regulations

Big Business• Trusts, Robber Barons, Philanthropists• Unions

Expansion of Industry

Edwin L. Drake• 1859• Steam engine to drill oil• Started oil boom

Created oil (petroleum) refining industry

• Cleveland & Pittsburgh• Transform oil for other

products

Expansion of Industry• Asphalt roads• Kerosene lamps• Gas – thrown away• Heart valves• Tires• Eyeglasses

Expansion of Industry• CDs• Home heating

•Golf balls•Plastics

Expansion of Industry

Henry Bessemer• 1850• Created Bessemer Process

– Cheap, efficient process– remove carbon from iron to make steel– Steel lighter, flexible, rust resistant

Expansion of Industry

Brooklyn Bridge

Expansion of Industry

Brooklyn Bridge• Spans nearly 6,000 feet over East River

• Connects Manhattan & Brooklyn

• First steel wire suspension bridge

Expansion of IndustrySkyscrapers

• Home Insurance Building• Chicago, 1885•10 stories high• 1st Building supported by steel frame

Expansion of IndustryThomas Edison• Opened Menlo Park Lab

in 1876• Perfected light bulb• Created entire system for distributing electrical power• Completely changed business and home life• Edison

Expansion of IndustryChristopher Sholes

• 1867 - Invented first typewriter

• More women work in offices• By 1940 – women held 40% of clerical jobs

Expansion of IndustryAlexander Graham Bell

• 1876 - Telephone

• Beginning of world-wide communications• Creates more new jobs for women

Expansion of IndustryEffects:• Standard of living rose• Workweek shrunk–10 hours = more leisure time• Consumerism• Urbanization

Transcontinental Railroad

Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads

•Met at Promontory, Utah

•May 10, 1869

•Created the 1st transcontinental railroad

By 1890, about 180,000 miles of rail crossed U.S.

Transcontinental Railroad

• Effects– Brought land, adventure and fresh starts to

more people

– Harsh life for the workers• Chinese• Irish immigrants• Civil War veterans

Transcontinental Railroad

Dangers•Native American attacks

•Mountainous terrain

•Many accidents, deaths, injuries, diseases

Transcontinental Railroad• Effects

– Created Time Zones

– Brought growth in• Glass, steel, iron, coal, lumber industries• Towns, new markets for goods• Trade between more towns• Specialization in some cities, towns

Transcontinental Railroad

George Pullman – Railroad car mogul

• Started company to build RR sleeper cars – Built nearby town for workers – Illinois

• Nice apts, with windows

• Provided all services

• Strict rules – no hanging out, no alcohol

• Goal: stable workforce – control and profits

– Pay decrease without rent decrease = violent strike in 1894

Transcontinental RailroadPullman Town

"We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman Church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell".

Transcontinental RailroadCredit Mobiller

An example of a “trust” formed to• Reduce competition• Earn excessive profits• Union Pacific RR stockholders formed company

– 2-3 times higher prices– Gave bribes to Congressmen to overlook– $23 million in corrupt money– Hurt farmers– Only received “slap on the wrist”

Transcontinental RailroadFarmers fought back through Grange

• Government regulations

• Munn vs. Illinois– Supreme Court upheld Granger laws

• Established the principle that government had the right to regulate private industry to protect the public

• Interstate Commerce Act– Federal government could regulate RR– Goal to reduce excessive RR rates– Not very effective until 1906

Big BusinessAndrew Carnegie

• Scottish immigrant

• Carnegie Steel Co.– Made a fortune in steel

• “Rags to Riches”

• Industrial mogul

• Tried to control steel industry– Vertical, horizontal integration

Andrew Carnegie

Big BusinessAndrew Carnegie

• Donated most of his wealth

“Man who dies rich, dies disgraced”

Carnegie Free Library of Braddock in Braddock, Pennsylvania, built in 1888, was the first Carnegie Library in the U.S.

Carnegie Free Library of Braddock in Braddock, Pennsylvania, built in 1888, was the first Carnegie Library in the U.S.

Vertical & Horizontal Integration

Big BusinessJohn D. Rockefeller• Standard Oil Co.• Joined Trust Agreements

– Competitors fix prices– Goal: Reduce competition– Illegal– Creates monopolies– Huge profits, low wages

• “Robber Barons”• Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890 – outlawed

Trusts that reduced free trade

J.P. Morgan, Banker, Financier

Big BusinessSocial Darwinism

• Theory to explain business success

• Success or failure in business is natural selection– “Strongest survive” –

• that’s how it should be

• Theory says no one should intervene in business– No government regulations– Laissez Faire

Labor - Unions• Main goals: collective bargaining, better

pay & working conditions

• Collective Bargaining – workers negotiate contracts with management to win workers’ rights– Pay– Health insurance– Hours– Work conditions – safety, breaks, etc.

Labor-Unions• Eugene V. Debs – Union/labor leader

– turned to socialism American Railway Union

• Knights of Labor

• American Federation of Labor

• United Mine Workers• Many failed, but added to union

momentum, created solidarity and dignity for workers

• Many strikes turned violent – unions lost public support

Haymarket Affair & Strike• 3,000 in Chicago protest police brutality at

McCormick Harvester plant day before– Police fire on protestors after bombed tossed at them– Nearly 10 people killed, including police– Some charged with inciting a riot: 4 hung, 1 suicide

• Steel strike also results in violence, deaths

• Pullman strike – many blacklisted from jobs in RR

• Violence = Decrease in support for unions

Pullman Strike

Mother Jones

Mary Harris “Mother” Jones – Irish immigrant

– “mother of the laboring class”

– Death threats, jail

– Marched 80 injured children to President Roosevelt’s home

– Resulted in passage of child labor laws

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire – NY, 1911

8th-10th floors on fire Workers fleeing, but doors are locked Only unlocked door was blocked by fire No sprinkler system, fire escape collapsed 146 female workers, including children, died Factory owners cleared of manslaughter Could no longer ignore working conditions NY studies factory working conditions