Effects of technological development on worker/work-place
Union movement
Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor
Haymarket, Homestead, and Pullman
18. Urban Society
Lure of the city
Immigration
City problems
Slums
Machine politics
Awakening conscience; reforms
Social legislation
Settlement houses: Jane Addams and Lillian Wald
Structural reforms in government
20. National Politics, 1877-1896: The Gilded Age
A conservative presidency
Issues
Tariff controversy
Railroad regulation
Trusts
Agrarian discontent
Crisis of 1890s
Populism
Silver question
Election of 1896: McKinley versus Bryan
Essay Choices
Which do you feel were the most influential factors in the 19th century transformation of the American economy? What were the consequences of this transformation?
How was the late-19th century American working class both a beneficiary and victim of the growth of industrial capitalism?
Analyze the way in which the size and membership, organization, and effectiveness of the labor movement changed in the late 19th century. What were the advantages and disadvantages of belonging to a union? (Adapted from the 1985 U.S. AP History free-response question.)
Why do they call it the Gilded Age?
The term Gilded Age refers to the political and economic situation 1876 to 1900.
The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain
A period of ruthless profit, government corruption, mass consumption, and vulgarity in taste and manners.
Historians Comment (Charles and Mary Beard)
“With a stride that astonished statisticians, the conquering hosts of business enterprise swept over the continent;
25 years after the death of Lincoln, America had become, in the quantity and value of her production, the first manufacturing nation of the world.
What England accomplished in a hundred years, the United States had achieved in half the time.”
What is the Industrial Revolution about?
Production
Transportation
Immigration
Rise of Cities
Decline in pop from rural areas
Corruption
Union Activism
Racism/Nativism
Reform- (Progressives- Fix the problems of industrial society)
= The Transformation of the US national Economy
When does the Industrial Revolution take place?
Various periods of American History
1st Industrial Revolution 1800-1860 begins in early 1800’s with textile manufacturing and iron production
2nd IR really takes off in the latter part of 1800’s, ca 1870-1915
The development of factory production has consequences for virtually every portion of society.
Industrialization brings positives effects:
Inventions are created-More products--produced faster-- produced cheaper
Jobs are created--- people have money to buy more goods-economy gets better for everyone
Rich people get richer-- create more factories or businesses -- create more jobs--economy gets better for everyone
Immigration-when jobs are available-------people move to the location of jobs-industrialization causes immigration--
Factories are built where people live-------cities grow
The development of factory production has consequences for virtually every portion of society.
Industrialization brings negative effects:
Industrialization causes--pollution-air, water
Industrialization causes---poverty- government doesn’t protect workers at first- workers compete with other workers for low skill jobs- workers work long hours- get low pay- unsafe working conditions
Poverty is so bad-children need to work
Massive wealth is created by factory owners- causes corruption- business owners use money to influence government officials
Changes due to Industrialization
Technology: New products and inventions consumer and business
Business Organizations: Corporation, Trusts
Cities Grow: rural to urban migration and immigration, c
Labor Protections: unions, working conditions, benefits, safety
Reform Movements: the Progressives will react to the changes brought by industrialization, pollution, food and drug regulations, political reforms
Sources of Industrial Growth
Raw materials
Large Labor Supply
Technological Innovation
Entrepreneurs
Federal Gov = eager to support business
Domestic Markets for goods
Business Organization
Iron and Steel
1870-1880s Iron Production soared
Then Steel= 40,000 miles of track
Aided by the Bessemer Process
Blowing air and secret ingredients through molten iron to burn out impurities
Rail Roads: B and O, Pennsylvania, Reading, Short Line, Southern Pacific, Central Pacific
Railroad Industry spurs development
Iron for Engines, and rails, later steel
Farms, lumber, Buffalo Hunters
Employment- Chinese in West, and Irish in East
Aids transportation, access to raw materials and markets, spurs construction
Land is granted to RR companies in exchange for building the RR- esp Transcontinental RR
Later RR will own tremendous amount of land and sell it to people moving WEST
By 1880s there are 150,000 miles of Rail creating an national economy.
Rail Roads continued
Standard Time (4 zones)
Growth of Track
1860- 52,000 miles
1870- 93,000 miles
1890- 163,000 miles
1900- 193,000 miles
Chicago is a major rail hub-
Government paid subsidies, $ to RR in order to complete and aid in Western railroad development
The Big 4 Famous RR executives Stanford, Huntington, Vanderbilt, Crocker
Railroads Continued
Farmers will be angry with RR for price fixing and monopoly
Grangers- or farmer groups push state regulations on railroads- these laws are negated by the Interstate Commerce Act 1887, removing any jurisdiction over railroads by states, only the Federal Government can regulate trade between states.
Free Enterprise: Capitalism “Business and Government don’t mix.” In the United States this statement has been argued for over for many years. Do they Mix? What do you think?
Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations (1776)
Laissez-faire Capitalism: “Let it Be”
The Market System:
Laws of supply and demand determine prices (The Invisible Hand)
According to Smith’s ideas:
Business should be free of government interference.
Smith understood that:
Business owners or Entrepreneurs, as a rule, want to make as much money or profit as possible.
They don’t want to pay taxes.
They want to provide goods or services at the lowest possible price and creating the most profit.
According to Smith a
Pure Market Economic System would achieve the maximum good for society:
Characteristics
No government control
Freedom of choice
Private Property
Profit
Competition
The IR brings Changes in Business
Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?
Robber Baron
late-nineteenth-century industrialists, especially those who ostentatiously displayed their wealth
Wealthy manipulator of Government, paying corrupt officials to enact laws the support business= congress- tariffs
Squeezing out competition unfairly-creating monopolies and then enacting unfair rates or prices on consumers (RR-farmers)
Exploiters of the working class- who pay the workers as little as possible and reap huge profits
Captain of Industry/Industrial Statesman”
Capitalist leaders helped the country more
They deserve the riches they create
They provide progress, jobs
Drive technology
"Millionaires are the bees that make the most honey and contribute most to the hive even after they have gorged themselves full."--Andrew Carnegie
Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?
John D. Rockefeller
Standard Oil
Bought out competition
1881 Standard Oil Trust controlled 90% of oil refinery business
Used horizontal integration to ruthlessly control and conquer the Oil industry
Jim Fisk and Jay Gould
Corrupt business practices
Investments
Andrew Carnegie (1873)
Pennsylvania Steel Works
Cut costs
Made deals with RRs
Bought rival copmanies
Henry Clay Frick manager
Owned coal mines
Iron mines
Ships
Controlled from mine to market
Used vertical integration
Created Steel trust
Very wealthy
Carnegie Steel 1901 (sold to J.P. Morgan$450 Million
US Steel later worth $1.4 Billion)
New Business Organization
New Business organization:
Corporation- a company sells stock or pieces of ownership in a company, investors buy stock which entitles them to a share in the profit
Owners of stock- have limited liability, they are not personally responsible for loses in the business and can not lose more than their investment
Companies incorporate to eliminate liability, raise money from sale of stock
Spurs the growth of corporations and the middle class
Dividend- a return on profits, paid to stock holder
Sole-Proprietorship
Business http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture05.html (Great Web Site)
Trust: stockholders in individual corporations
transfer stocks to a group of trustees, in exchange for shares in the trust itself
Holding Company: trust or corporation that buys stock or owns businesses in other industries, oil refinery owns a railroad.
Horizontal Integration: expansion of one corporation or owner takes over other businesses in and industry, example Standard Oil- forces out of business other oil companies.
Vertical Integration: form of business expansion where one industry controls aspects of the business, raw materials, to the distributor example: Carnegie began with steel mills, then railroads, coal mines, iron mines, and distributor of
Development of Holding Companies, Trusts, and Corporations
Results in the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of a few people.
increase in technology and the types of products that are produced-
Sherman Anti-trust Act 1890
1890- Congress passes law that addresses trusts in commerce industry
“Every contract or combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce” is illegal.
Law is weak and applied on a limited basis
Progressives will strengthen laws in the early 1900s
Supporters Critics
Adam Smith
Horatio Alger “Myth of the Self Made Man”
Gospel of Wealth- Carnegie
Social Darwinism
William Graham Sumner
Conwell Acres of Diamond
Farmers- hated RR
Labor- hated corporations
Karl Marx
Lester Ward (Anti-Darwinian)
Henry George Progress and Poverty
Edward Bellamy Looking Backward
Gospel of Wealth By Andrew Carnegie
The rich have a responsibility to give back for the good of society.
People with great wealth have the responsibility to use their riches to advance social progress (moral issues)
“All revenues in excess of personal needs are held in trust and should be used for common good.”
Carnegie- a self made man, immigrant, later philanthropist, believed in this,
“All revenue generated beyond your own needs should be used for the good of the community.”
“The person of wealth was the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren”
Individualism and Horatio Alger (Link)
All had in common the idea that great wealth was possible if the individual will work hard enough for it…
Alger’s book, Sink or Swim helped
Also Supporter of capitalism
Acres of Diamonds
Conwell
Social Darwinism
Based on the scientific studies of Charles Darwin- Natural Selection
Ideas are applied to society and business
Later will be applied to race- Classical Racism
William Graham Sumner, Yale professor supported these ideas
Used to defend the power of new corporate elites.
Only the fittest survived
“There is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings.”
Rockefeller
“The growth of large business is merely the survival of the fittest. This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working out of the law of nature and a law of god.”
Sumner and Social Darwinism
William Graham Sumner, Yale professor supported Social Darwinism
Said “Millionaires are the product of Natural Selection”
Pro-Business View of society
Used to defend the power of new corporate elites.
Only the fittest survived
Pro Capitalism/Laissez Fair
Anti-Socialism
Anti-Government Interference in Economy
Anti Reform
Aide to the poor hinders natural process of progress
Who should be associated with this Quote?
“The law of the survival of the fittest was not made by man and cannot be abrogated by man.
We can only, by interfering with it, produce the survival of the un-fittest.”
Lester Ward Anti-Darwinist 1880’s
“Evolution does not apply to human society”
Humans naturally use reason and can change/adapt to the environment
Progress occurs through invention and planning
Laissez-fair, not natural
Government should serve the people = intervene in society
Education will improve society
“If nature progresses through destruction of the weak- man progresses through protection of the weak.”
Evolution through human intelligence will help economic and social problems
“Active Government & positive planning=Good for Society
Due to Excessive Capitalism Social Critics Emerge 1880s
Edward Bellamy
Looking Backward: 2000-1887
Socialist view
Suggested a socialist society would emerge- and class divisions would disappear and all would be equal
Henry George
Progress and Poverty
Saw excesses of Industrialization
Offered a solution- tax on land to create a social state- to solve poverty
Henry George Explained why poverty existed.
“This association of poverty with progress is the great enigma of our times. So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the house of have & the house of want…
Progress is not real and cannot be permanent.”
From Poverty and Progress
Gap Between Rich and Poor
10% of population owns 90% of wealth
2/3 of the population were working class, employed by someone else.
The United States is a nation of immigrants. By 1860 1/4 of population was born in another country.
Immigration to the United States occurs in waves.
The First Wave of Immigrants: 1820-1860-
Irish- 2 million
German- 1.5 million
British- 750,000
Scandinavia
1825- 10,000 immigrants
1845- 100,000 per year
1854- 428,000
Second Wave of Immigration 1860-1920
1865-1890- 9 million arrive
1890-1915 16 million arrive
1910 ½ the people of cities are Immigrants
New Immigrants Second Wave of Immigration 1870-1914, 25 million European Immigrants by 1920, 40% of pop-foreign born
1870- 1 in 7 were Irish Immigrants (New York)
Southern and Eastern Europe
Italians 3.6 million come.
Greeks
Russian (Jews)
Turks
Polish
Serbian
In the West- Chinese and then Japanese
1880- 457,000 Immigrants landed in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans
Most were unskilled:
Worked in Factories
Construction
Docks
Warehouses
Domestic Servants
Emma Lazarus- Poet
“Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
Immigration
Push Factors
Factors that pushed immigrants out of their native lands to America:
Poverty-
Lack of Economic Opportunity
Political Repression - No freedom
Ethnic conflict-
War- conscription
No jobs
No hope of a future
Famine/ starvation/drought
Pull Factors
Factors that pulled immigrants out of their native lands to America:
Economic Opportunity
Jobs/ workers were needed
Land
$
A future of land ownership
Peace and stability
Freedom to make a better life
Early Immigration
Irish Potato Famine 1846-1851
August 1845 the Irish potato crop was blighted or stricken with a disease.
The disease ruined the main source of nutrition for the population.
Famine, starvation, and disease killed much of the population.
While the poor of Ireland starved British land owners and merchants made money.
1845- 25 million bushels if grain was shipped out.
1846-50 3 million live animals were exported
1847 1.3 million gallons of grain derived alcohol was exported.
1845-1860 the population of Ireland was reduced by 1/3.
1845 population = 8.2 million
1860- Pop = 5.8 million
1920- Pop = 4.2 million
1 million died from starvation and disease.
2 million left to America
1860-1926 4 million more went to the US.
How did/do people react to immigrants coming to America?
Whenever a new group enters into an established community tension is caused and a pattern of development can be seen.
Examples:
When the Irish came in the 1840’s the established groups of British and Germans did not like the new Irish.
Irish where different:
Language- Irish
Religion Roman Catholic
Culture different from British
Lifestyles-
They were looked down upon and discriminated against. See cartoons.
Xenophobia- anti foreigner attitudes
Nativism- The idea of blaming immigrants for problems.
Established groups blamed the new groups for problems:
Taking Jobs, Lazy -Famous Slogan: “No Irish Need Apply”
People said they were responsible for: Crime
Immorality- alcohol abuse
Catholics- not loyal to America
Dirty-
Inferior, Damaging to the United States
City life for Immigrants
The “New” group usually congregates together and forms an almost isolated community and institutions in the giant and growing cities of America.
The Irish came together in great neighborhoods and sections of all Eastern Cities.
They formed their own political groups and parties.
They used their large numbers to build powerful political groups that dominated some large Cities and industries in those cities.
Example: Police and Firemen in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia.
They helped each other in exchange for loyalty during the voting season.
Jobs, security,
Political Machine:
The best example of ethnic group organization was called the Political Machine.
This was an organization of political and community leaders that manipulated democracy for material gain. Leaders of an ethnic community would use their influence to raid public funds and offer rewards to loyal community members.
Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall of New York City, were infamous for their political strength and corruption. They were reputed to have stolen millions in public funds.
Social Gospel
1876-1890’s 6 Pres 4 were Republicans
Hayes- (Repub) 1876- disputed election Secret Deal, ie., Reconstruction Compromise of 1876, did not run again in 1880.
Garfield (Repub) 1881, Assassinated by Guiteau, Office Seeker,
Arthur- VP under Garfield, allegations of corruption earlier in career, supported Civil Service Reform, not nominated for the next election
Cleveland (Dem)1884 close election against corrupt Blaine (Repub), lots of Mudslinging, adultery… pro-capitalist, low tarriff
Harrison- (Repub) 1888, close election, pro-tariff and big business
Cleveland (Dem) 1892- Runs and wins again-2 terms
McKinley (Repub) 1896- Extremely pro business, pro- gold standard- will advocate strong laissez faire attitude in government, supported by the supreme court
Pendleton Civil Service Act 1883
The Pendleton Civil Service Act established an independent three-member
Civil Service Commission that would fill government jobs on the basis of an entrance exam and not favoritism- Anti-Corruption measure
Benjamin Harrison 1888
Cleveland won the popular vote but lost in the electoral college in an election noted for paid votes
Harrison had seemed to support some type of reform, but many of his appointments were questionable
He did appoint Theodore Roosevelt to the Civil Service Commission
In 1890 to repay the veterans for their support Congress passed the Dependent Pension Act which almost doubled the pension rolls
Republicans controlled Congress allowing Harrison even greater freedom
Farmer’s Alliance
The first alliance was formed in 1873
Like the Grange it was aimed at improving the social and recreational conditions of the farmers
They too, soon became involved in politics
The movement was especially popular in the South and Midwest as farmers sought help to fight increasing debt and declining prices
In 1886 the Colored Alliance was formed to represent black farmers
Also in 1886, Texas suffered a severe drought. President Cleveland vetoed a bill that would have helped the farmers
In response the farmers challenged the Democrats in the polls
In response the farmers challenged the Democrats in the polls
In 1887 a blizzard swept through the West and devastated many farms. Without government aid many farmers became supportive of the idea of a third-party
Although many parties appeared the most successful was the Populist party
Third party could take votes away from one of the major parties (it could make the difference in the election
Becomes an significant part of the 1896 election
Populist Party
Involved in the elections between 1892-1908 the won control of many state legislatures and Kansas even elected a Populist candidate to the Senate
In 1892 the Populist party met in Omaha to decide on a national platform and nominated James Weaver as their candidate
The platform was finance, transportation, land, a one-term presidency, and limiting immigration
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
The Sherman Antitrust Act was the first legislation to limit trusts
It was based on the constitutional power to regulate interstate trade
Stockholders transferred their shares to one person or trustees who then controlled the company and eliminated competition
The Sherman Act authorized the government to dismember trusts and to prevent monopolies
In 1895 the Supreme Court abolished the Sherman Act in the United States v. E. C. Knight Company
Election of 1896
The Republicans nominated William McKinley from Ohio (good war record, congressional track record, well-liked)
At the democratic convention in Chicago the party was in disarray and could not find a good candidate
William Jennings Bryan took the stage and delivered his “Cross of Gold” speech and immediately gained the nomination
He was a silverite from Nebraska
The democrats demanded unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16-1
William Jennings Bryan
Democrat, Strongly Christian, reflected traditional farmer values
Pro-silver, farmers, and westerners
Becomes the Democratic Nominee for the Election of 1896
Populists support him
Later will defend the teaching of Creation in the Scopes Trial, Tennessee vs. Evolution in schools.
“Cross of Gold Speech”
“I come to speak to you in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty- the cause of humanity,”
Burn down your cities and leave your farms and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country”
“Having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them;
You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!”
