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Industrial Age- Study NotesChanges in Daily Life (About 2 days)Industrialists (About 1-2 days)Business Terms (About 1 day)Factory Labor (About 1 day)Working Conditions and Unions (About 1.5 days)CHANGES IN DAILY LIFE- Section 1In the years following the Civil War, the United States developed into an industrial powerhouse. Inventors and scientists, backed by business leaders, created an explosion of inventions and improvements. Their efforts brought about a technological revolution that energized American industry and forever changed people’s lives.INNOVATION- Post Civil War, the US saw tremendous growth and the many new ideas and inventions. Patents increased rapidly during this time. A patent is a license that gives an inventor exclusive right to make, use, or sell an invention for a set period of time. Investors and businessmen began to invest heavily in new inventions.left114935000right314007500NATURAL RESOURCES FUEL GROWTH- Throughout the 1800’s iron was an important building material for railroads and the frames of large buildings, and the U.S had an abundant supply. However, iron is heavy, unpliable, expensive, and only moderately strong. In 1850s, Henry Bessemer (of England) developed a process for making steel. This method was called the Bessemer Process. Steel is created by melting and purifying iron. Bessemer’s method made it easier and cheaper to remove the impurities. Americans quickly adopted the Bessemer Process, and outpaced British steel manufacturers. Because steel is cheap, light, and flexible, it was easy to mass produce. This ushered in a new era of building. Skyscrapers, bridges, and even elevators were now being constructed. (The Brooklyn Bridge became the first suspension bridge, and at the time it was built, it was the longest bridge in the world. Picture shows some workmen shortly before completion) This was important to the rapidly growing cities, because it allowed people to expand upward instead of just outward. (Eventually you run out of room on the ground.)Another resource that was important to the U.S was oil. Oil was needed for light and fuel, and it was mainly obtained from whale blubber However, hunting whales was obviously very difficult, and whales were becoming scarce. A cheaper, easier alternative was discovered in 1859, when Edwin Drake drilled the very first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Drake proved that oil could be extracted from the ground This discovery excited John Rockefeller, who would later become a billionaire with his Standard Oil Company. left981075004191000336296000TRANSPORTATION- Before the Civil War, most railroads were short lines that connected neighboring cities, and most were in the east. There was no standard gauge, or track width, so passengers and luggage often had to be moved to different trains. This process was costly and SLOW. It could also be very dangerous, because there was not a system of standard signals, and train breaks were often unreliable. The construction of the transcontinental railroad changed the rail system forever. Thanks to government support in the form of land grants and loans, and thousands of immigrant workers, the railroad was completed in 7 years. (1869) Major improvements were made in the railroad industry over the next 20 years. Steel rails replaced iron, track gauges and signals became standardized, and railroad companies took many steps to improve safety. In 1869, George Westinghouse developed more effective airbrakes to safely stop trains. (More on him later) Another major improvement on the railroad scene was the creation of time zones. In the 1800’s, most towns set their clocks independently according to solar time. It was important for trains to be on time, but when time was different from town to town, chaos ensued. In 1883, the railroads adopted a national system of time zones to improve scheduling. This helped broad regions of the country show the same time. Railroads made it possible for passengers to travel across the country, and for businesses to ship goods anywhere they needed to go. As a result, shipping costs dropped enormously.The automobile was a game changer in the transportation industry. Bicycle makers Charles Duryea and Frank Duryea (brothers) were the first Americans to build a successful commercial automobile, and the first to incorporate an American business for the expressed purpose of building automobiles for sale to the public. This was the first American car which had copies—not additional prototypes or special orders but identical cars—in a series-produced automobile. There were thirteen in all. (Image depicts that car—The Runabout—as it appeared in 1896) The Henry Ford Museum owns the only surviving 1896 Duryea Runabout. Their invention was often called the “horseless carriage”right8763000In the early 1900’s, transportation was improved once again with the invention of the airplane. Wilbur and Orville Wright were American inventors and pioneers of aviation. In 1903 the Wright brothers achieved the first powered, sustained and controlled airplane flight; they surpassed their own milestone two years later when they built and flew the first fully practical MUNICATION- The Industrial Era brought many improvements in communication. In the late 1800’s, many people left their homes in Europe and the East to start new lives. One of the biggest hardships for these migrants was leaving behind love ones. By the early 1900’s, improvements in communication had virtually bridged that gap.left7620000In 1844, Samuel Morse perfected telegraph technology. Several other inventors had actually experimented with the idea of sending messages over wires, but Morse improved the process and took out a patent on telegraphy. Morse devised a code or electrical impulses to represent the letters of the alphabet. It allowed messages to be sent quickly over long distances. Using this system, he sent his first message in 1844. After the Civil War, several telegraph companies joined together to form the Western Union Telegraph Company. By 1900, the company had more than 900,000 miles of wire and was sending about 63 million telegraph messages a year. 53066953810000Christopher Sholes was an American inventor who invented the QWERTY keyboard, and has been credited as one of the inventors of the first typewriter in the United States. The typewriter was very important for businesses because it allowed for information to be recorded quickly and in a way that would be very legible to all people. Before the typewriter, everything had to be written by hand. Using the typewriter increased the speed at which messages could be written. A person could type words much faster than by writing them.-63545910500In 1871, Alexander Graham Bell immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, to teach people with hearing difficulties. After experimenting for several years with an electric current to transmit sounds, Bell patented the “talking telegraph” in 1876. (He was only 29 at the time!) in 1885, Bell and a group of partners set up the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, known now as AT&T, to build long-distance telephone lines. ELECTRICITY- The work of Thomas Edison, helped to make electricity available and affordable for everyone. Edison, a tinkering genius, was working for a New York company, when he made a series of improvements to their stock tickers that sent stock and gold prices from one office to the other. When his boss rewarded him with a $40,000 bonus, he immediately quit his job and set up his own “invention factory” in Menlo Park, New Jersey. In his research laboratory, he turned out several new inventions every month! Although he had very little formal training, he would go on to receive more than 1000 patents for his new inventions.left119062500Starting around 1879, Edison and his team began experimenting, with one goal in mind: to create affordable home lighting to replace oil lamps and gas lights. His team tried many different filaments with little success. They needed a material that would glow without quickly inside a sealed glass bulb, without burning up. They finally had a winner when they tried a bamboo fiber. Edison described it as, “the most beautiful light ever seen.” So, the lightbulb was born! The next challenge was to create central power stations to provide affordable lighting. In 1882, Edison built a power plant that lit dozens of buildings in New York City. This was extremely impressive, and dazzled all those who witnessed the site, especially investors who used his ideas to form General Electric (GE) HOWEVER, Edison used a form of electricity called direct current (DC). Early on, Edison recognized the limitations of DC power. It was expensive to generate, and could only travel a mile or two. So, Edison turned to a 28-year-old Serbian mathematician and engineer whom he’d recently hired at Edison Machine Works to help solve the problem.?Nikola Tesla?claimed that Edison even offered him significant compensation if he could design a more practical form of power transmission. Tesla accepted the challenge. With a background in mathematics that his boss did not have, he set out to redesign Edison’s DC generators. Tesla told Edison that the future was in alternating current—to keep this simple, I will 53435251059180just say that AC could be produced cheaper and could travel longer distances. Edison dismissed Tesla’s ideas as “splendid” but “utterly impractical.” Tesla was crushed and claimed that Edison not only refused to consider AC power, but also declined to pay him properly for his work. Tesla left Edison in 1885 and set out to raise money on his own for Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing, even digging ditches for the Edison Company to pay his bills. BUT THEN…industrialist George Westinghouse at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, a believer in AC power, bought some of Tesla’s patents and set about commercializing the system. His plan was to make electric lighting into something more than an urban luxury. While Tesla’s ideas and ambitions might have been brushed aside, Westinghouse had both ambition and capital, and Edison immediately recognized that he was a threat.Within a year, Westinghouse Electric began installing its own AC generators around the country, focusing mostly on the less populated areas that Edison’s system could not reach.? But Westinghouse would often, sell electricity at a loss in order to cut into Edison’s business. By 1887, after only a year in the business, Westinghouse had already more than half as many generating stations as Edison. General Electric vs. Westinghouse Electric- Winner is WESTINGHOUSE. INDUSTRIALISTS- SECTION 2The info about how industrialists became rich in the first place will be covered in section 3. In this section, we will cover what is an industrialist, and 5 industrialists that heavily influenced the U.S. 20002552387500 Some corporations tried to gain complete control of a product or service. We know this as a monopoly. For example. If there is only one gas station in Byram, the owner can pretty much charge whatever price he wants, but if a new station opens across the street, what would happen? Does he need to drop his prices? What if he doesn’t? Make sure they understand that competition leads to lower prices, while having a monopoly often made a person RICH! You can tell them that monopolies are illegal now, but we will cover that more later. The official definition of an industrialist is, “a person involved in the ownership and management of industry,” however, we will usually use this term to refer to those that achieved their wealth through the creation of a monopoly. People had mixed feelings about the industrialists. Some people saw their value, and believed that business leaders positively served the nation by providing jobs for an ever-growing labor force. They believed that efficient business practices, and the advancement of technology shaped the U.S into an international leader. These more positive thinkers gave industrialists the nickname “captains of industry,” which sounds a lot more positive than the nickname given by people who didn’t really care for industrialists. Industrialists who treated workers well and gave generously could sometimes move into the “captain of industry” column.On the other side of the fence were the people who felt like industrialists had an unfair financial advantage. Most of the small local mom and pop businesses were pushed out or bought out by these huge businesses. At the end of the day, they just could not compete. (I like to give them the example of what happens to a small town when a Wal-Mart Supercenter opens. Mention all the businesses that will be pushed out as a result.) Once a business had a monopoly on a product or service, they were free to charge crazy high prices. This harmed consumers, and led many to apply the negative nickname, “robber barons” to many industrialists. If an industrialist treated his workers poorly, and was not a generous giver with his money, he was more likely to fall under the category “robber baron”. Some industrialists were both robber barons AND captains of industry depending on their mood. Andrew Carnegie- SteelDespite differing lifestyles and ways of thinking, each of these men led amazing lives. None more so than Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant, came to America at age 13. He got a factory job making $1.20 a week as a bobbin boy, and within a year, he took a job as a telegraph messenger. Two years later, he advanced to the position of telegraph operator. Hoping to advance his career, he then took a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he served as an assistant to one of the railroad’s top officials. Through this experience, he learned all about the railroad industry and business in general. Within three years, he was promoted to superintendent. As soon as Carnegie started collecting a regular pay check from his railroad job, he began investing his money. He soon noticed that his investments had become very profitable, especially those related to the oil industry. Eventually, Carnegie had saved enough money to start his own company, Carnegie Steel. Carnegie Steel revolutionized the steel industry by using technology and methods that could produce steel faster, cheaper, and easier. His secret method to success was known as Horizontal Integration. This is covered in the next section, but basically, he bought up all the things that he would need for each stage of steel production. For example, the ships, the railroads, the raw materials, and even the coal fields themselves were owned by Carnegie! This “start to finish” strategy helped Carnegie become the undisputed leader in the steel industry, and he obviously became fabulously wealthy! right1270000Some people felt that the company's success came at the expense of its workers. Example- in 1892, when the company tried to lower wages at a Carnegie Steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, the employees objected. They refused to work, starting what has been called the Homestead Strike of 1892. The conflict between the workers and local managers turned violent after the managers called in guards to break up the union. (More later!) While Carnegie was away at the time of strike, many still held him accountable for his managers' actions. In 1901, Carnegie made a dramatic change in his life. He sold his business to the United States Steel Corporation, started by legendary financier J.P. Morgan. The sale earned him more than $200 million. At the age of 65, Carnegie decided to spend the rest of his days helping others. While he had begun his philanthropic work years earlier by building libraries and making donations, Carnegie expanded his efforts in the early 20th century. Carnegie also wrote books and articles. His 1889 article "Wealth" outlined his view that those with great wealth must be socially responsible and use their assets to help others. This was later published as the 1900 book?The Gospel of Wealth. He believed that if he did not work to give away much of the money that he had earned, then God would take it all away. I love this Carnegie quote, “He who dies rich, dies disgraced.” Makes sense! When he died at age 83 from pneumonia, he donated another $30 million to charities.Some of his other ideas were less feel-good. Workers often described Carnegie as “mean spirted” and “ruthless” Carnegie defended his business practices, and when asked about small businesses that he helped make bankrupt, he remarked, “While the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department.” We might call this Social Darwinism, which is the belief that the humans who were the most fit became the most successful. Whatever people had the necessary skills to prosper — perhaps talent, brains, or hard work — would be the ones who would rise to the top. Why were some people poor? To Social Darwinist, the answer was obvious. They simply did not have the required skills. 952501905000Although Carnegie gave away much of his money, he did keep enough to provide for his family and build two amazing homes. His main home on 5th Avenue in New York, and the one that was closer to his heart: Skibo, his amazing estate in his native Scotland. Carnegie, a man of humble beginnings, described the house he desired to build as, “most modest, plainest and roomiest house in New York.” Still, Carnegie constructed a 64-room mansion with all the trimmings! Some of the impressive features included: a water filter system, the first residential elevator, and a rather sophisticated ventilation system similar to an early form of central heating and cooling. I saved the best for last. The mansion also had an impressive system that adjusted the humidity level to the perfect setting!! John D. Rockefeller- Oil4429125635000John Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company made him one of the richest men in the world. Rockefeller was born in1839, in a modest wooden house in upstate New York. As a young boy, he made money raising turkeys, and doing odd jobs for neighbors. By the time Rockefeller was 12 he had saved $50, about $1,400 in today’s money. Following his mother’s advice, he loaned his $50 to a local farmer at 7% interest, payable after one year. His family later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended high school. Rockefeller’s father was pretty much a terrible person. People nicer than me would describe him as a “snake oil salesman” who attempted to sell herbal remedies and miracle elixirs. He was also a bigamist, who alternately fathered children with his wife and mistress, their housekeeper. By 1855, his father was posing as an eye and ear specialist, and he secretly married another woman. Not surprisingly, Bill Rockefeller (unsurprisingly nicknamed Devil Bill) also had strange parenting methods. “I do business deals with my sons and I always try to cheat them to make them sharp,” Bill once told his neighbors.Wow, hard to come back from that, but Rockefeller did! That same year, September 26th to be exact, Rockefeller got his first job at a Cleveland merchant company, after months of presenting a job plan to businesses on how his skills could save them money. Every year after that, he joyfully celebrated the day that he got his first job. He dubbed the celebration “job day.”. Once he became a working man, the frugal Rockefeller kept a journal of each and every one of his expenses, a habit he continued until his death. (Journal pictured) He tracked his money down to the last cent, and reviewed each bill for errors of even a few pennies, recording each detail in his ledger. Later in life, someone asked him about his first ledger, he remarked that he, “wouldn’t trade all his riches in the world,” if it meant giving up his ledger. (I see why I’m not rich…) Around this time, Rockefeller also began giving away 10% of his earnings to charity.At 18, after getting into an argument with his boss about his low pay, Rockefeller used two years of savings to open his own produce brokerage firm. The produce business took off immediately, making young John Rockefeller a popular Cleveland businessman at the age of 21. In 1859, when Rockefeller was only a few years into his first company, America drilled their first oil line nearby in Pennsylvania. In 1863, sensing an opportunity, Rockefeller and his business partner teamed up with a chemist to start a refinery. Unlike most men, Rockefeller felt that drilling for oil was too risky. He believed that refining the oil would bring the big money. A new Cleveland rail line soon linked Cleveland with the oil region, and Rockefeller built his refinery right beside it!left48641000After a year, Rockefeller and his partners had an argument about the future of the business, so they decided to part ways. Following a bidding war, 31-year-old Rockefeller paid $72,500 (over $1 million today) to purchase the refinery. Although successful, he had nowhere near the amount needed. The bank stressed the frugal businessmen, and he later said they he could barely sleep until the loan was paid off, because of fear that he might fail. Rockefeller DID eventually pay off the loan, and he named his business Standard Oil Company. 4057650762000To grow the business, Rockefeller took an approach similar to other?business leaders at the time: remove competitors at all costs. By?1872, only a few years into business, Rockefeller used a series of acquisitions to become the largest refinery in the world. When asked about why he was so driven to grow the company so fast, Rockefeller said:?“Having being endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it’s my duty to make money and to use the money I make for the good,” he said. Rockefeller was so focused on expanding his business, that he once bought up 24 refineries in 60 days! He reinvested the profits that he made, and begged banks for more money. Most would agree that Rockefeller was the first businessman to focus on aggressive growth by?buying smaller companies, a move that pioneered modern American capitalism. (This worked out great for him, but I prefer the small-town businesses any day!) By 1882, Standard Oil controlled 90% of America’s refineries. left73215500Rockefeller’s critics probably would have agreed with me. They felt that his business tactics, especially the way he worked to eliminate his competition was simply ruthless. IF THEY ONLY KNEW! At that time, high railroad shipping rates were one key reaason that oil companies had trouble expanding. SO..Rockefeller made secret deals with railroad companies to undercut his competitiors. (If there were still any out there!) He promised to provide massive bulk shipments in exchange for prices that drastically undercut his competitors and usually led to their failure. Of course, no contracts were drawn up, and no record of them was kept. Both parties knew that these shady dealings would have consequences if discovered. By 1865, Standard Oil was the largest and most profitable organization in the world. Carnegie’s empire included 20,000 domestic wells, 4,000 miles of pipeline, 5,000 tank cars, and over 100,000 employees. (Standard Oil Building on Wall Street- pictured)America’s largest newspaper began referring to Standard Oil as “the most cruel, impudent, pitiless, and grasping monopoly that ever fastened upon a country”. They regularly undersold kerosene to put local competitors out of business, similar to Walmart behaved in the 1990s.952544323000Although many people were financially ruined by Rockefeller, one woman decided to take matters into her own hands. Ida Tarbell was the daughter of an oil refiner from Ohio. Her father had, of course, gone out of business solely because of Standard Oil. Tarbell wrote a series of articles, that later became a book entitled, “The History of Standard Oil” In the book, Tarbell described Rockefeller’s deal with the railroads, and she worked to prove how arrogant and ruthless he was. However, the part of the book that hurt Rockefeller the most, was the revelations about his father, secrets that he had kept since childhood. Tarbell exposed “Devil Bill” as a snake oil salesman, bigamist, and an accused rapist. Her book actually set off a nationwide manhunt to locate his father. One newspaper offered an $8000 reward for information about himBy 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt vowed to destroy Standard Oil. The federal government filed a massive anti-trust suit against the company. (We will talk about the difference between a trust and a monopoly next section) During the suit, Rockefeller’s health grew worse, and he retreated to the outskirts of New York. There, he began to focus on giving away large sums of his money. Although he was only in his 50’s, he was world’s richest person by a large margin.Rockefeller gave to schools, starting the University of Chicago and Spelman College, a free university for young African-American?women. Spellman was named in honor of his wife, Laura, and her parents, Harvey Buel and Lucy Henry Spelman, who were longtime abolitionists. He is also recognized as having started the first ever research hospital, which resulted in eradicating hookworm and yellow fever. Cool! By 1912, Rockefeller had given away hundreds of millions of dollars (billions in today’s terms).?Rockefeller’s fortune peaked in 1912 at almost $900,000,000, but?his estate totaled only $26,410,837 when he died, making him the biggest philanthropist ever to live.In 1911, after a decade in court, the Supreme Court ordered Standard Oil to break up. (Sherman Anti-Trust Act) Surprisingly, this move only made Rockefeller richer! ?The monopoly was broken up into 34 separate entities that included companies that would later become ExxonMobil, Conoco, Chevron and Amoco.?The individual pieces of the company were worth more than the whole, and as shares of the individual companies doubled and tripled in value in their early years. Rockefeller, who still held a quarter of Standard Oil’s stock after his retirement, became FILTHY rich.4962525194691000 George Westinghouse- AC Power and Airbrakes-147320124968000George Westinghouse was the 8th of 10 children born to a toolmaker and his wife in Central Bridge, NY in 1846. His father owned an agricultural machine and small engine shop where a young Westinghouse constantly tinkered. After serving in the Union army during the Civil War, Westinghouse briefly attended college before returning to his father’s shop. At age 19, he invented and patented a rotary steam engine that was only somewhat successful. Two years later, he found commercial success with a device that would guide derailed railroad cars back on to the track. Railroads would continue to play a role in Westinghouse’s success. After witnessing a terrible accident where the drivers were unable to stop, he invented a braking system that worked off compressed air. Before the introduction of airbrakes, brakes had to be applied manually: Brakemen in each car would manually apply the brakes based on signals given by the engineer. However, the brakemen couldn't always hear the signals; they sometimes applied the brakes incorrectly, leading to accidents. Airbrakes, on the other hand, could be operated by the engineer.? The airbrake was patented in 1873, and Westinghouse formed the Westinghouse Airbrake Company to manufacture and sell them device. The air break dramatically cut down on the number of railroad accidents. He also worked to make all air-brake apparatus standardized and interchangeable and later developed a complete signal system for railroads. He formed the Union Switch and Signal Company in 1882. These are just a few examples, because Westinghouse held over 300 patents for inventions related to the railroad industry!left95504000The invention of the air break helped to make Westinghouse a millionaire. He bought a sprawling estate in Pittsburg, and immediately drilled four natural gas wells. He did this as much to learn the technology, as to extract natural gas. He soon invented a pressure-adjustment mechanism that allowed gas to be transmitted at great pressure over long distances, and then reduced to low pressure near distribution points. (I have no idea what I just wrote, but after some research, I learned that this means natural gas is now safe enough to use in your home. Thanks, GW! ) This led the way to Westinghouse's subsequent success with alternating current (AC) electricity. (Now recall section 1 where I first introduced the Edison v. Westinghouse era)In 1886 he formed Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company (now?CBS?and?Viacom) and soon licensed the related patents of?Nikola Tesla, the inventor of AC. Westinghouse developed AC while?Thomas Edison?developed and promoted the rival direct current (DC) system, and their competition became known as "the war of currents". Each had its strong and weak points, but DC was more well known before Westinghouse got into the business, and electricity was synonymous with DC. On the other hand, AC had a key advantage — its voltage could be transmitted at a low power, then amplified to a higher level, meaning that an AC infrastructure would require fewer and larger power plants, while DC would need more and smaller generating facilities, located closer to the customers' homes and factories. Umm... Okay.In Westinghouse's mind, AC was the system that made sense, but the battle between Westinghouse and Edison took more than a decade to play out. left114236500Westinghouse didn't stop innovating -- and neither did his company. The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company created products ranging from the electric locomotive to the electric kitchen stove. Westinghouse also owned the first commercial radio station and the first commercial radio broadcast. By the 1920s, the company was experimenting with?television?technology while also building massive motors to power industrial sites and maritime motors for ships. Unfortunately, George Westinghouse was not a part of this. During the Panic of 1907, he lost control of his companies. I have yet to find out what exactly went down, but it sounds like it was due to the financial climate and not him personally. I say this, because his reputation for integrity and wisdom was such that he was one of three trustees appointed to reorganize the HUGE Equitable Life Assurance Company after its collapse at the same time. Also impressive is the fact that Westinghouse treated his employees fairly well in an era where worker abuse was the IN thing to do. He offered employees a pension plan and relatively good wages, with sick leave and paid recuperation time after on-the-job accidents when neither was required by law.?Andrew Carnegie?once said that "Westinghouse could have made a lot more money during his lifetime if he hadn’t treated his workers so well". Thumbs up for that!Westinghouse officially retired in 1909, but continued working in the private laboratory on his estate, and remained a familiar presence at his numerous businesses until about 1911, when his health began to fail. He was confined to a wheelchair with a weakened heart for the last few years of his life, and died in 1914 with some 360 patents in his name. His Pittsburgh mansion and estate, dubbed "Solitude"(Pictured) Westinghouse and his wife, was left to their only son, who sold the property to the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania four years later. The group then demolished the house and created what is now Westinghouse Park, between Thomas Boulevard and the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. 543877517399000Cornelius Vanderbilt-RailroadsCornelius Vanderbilt spent little of his life fretting over his image. If Americans were not grateful for the many steamships he built, the major railroad lines he integrated, the stock market panics he soothed and the?Grand Central Terminal?he constructed with his own millions, that was their fault, not his. Vanderbilt was the richest man in 19th-century America; at his death in 1877, he possessed, one-ninth of all the American currency in circulation. But like other corporate giants, he saw no reason to apologize. “Vanderbilt was many things, not all of them admirable,” biographer T. J. Stiles wrote, “but he was never a phony. Hated, revered, resented, he always commanded respect, even from his enemies.” As a boy, he worked with his father on his ferry in the New York Harbor. At age 11, he dropped out of school to work with his dad. 5 years later, he persuaded his mother to pay him $100 for plowing a rocky, eight-acre field so that he could buy his own boat. This he accomplished by promising some friends that he would take them sailing if they helped him with the farm work. With one $100 boat, Vanderbilt started his own ferry service.?By the end of his first year in operation, he was able to repay his mother in full and give her an additional $1000. In fact, Vanderbilt’s business prospered so rapidly that by the age of 18 he was the owner of two vessels and captain of a third.2279651079500Around this time, Vanderbilt married Sophia Johnson, (they were first cousins on both sides, so they had quite the connection.4542790159829500Early in his career, Vanderbilt developed his strategy of offering bargain rates that either drove his rivals out of business or forced them to pay him to withdraw. This allowed him to expand his business, which eventually included not only commercial vessels but also luxury passenger liners. During the 1812 War, Vanderbilt’s business flourished. He delivered supplies to the soldiers and took the soldiers to and from the harbor. From his profits, Vanderbilt purchased more sailing ships. In 1817, ferry entrepreneur Thomas Gibbons requested Vanderbilt to captain his steamboat from New Jersey to New York. Soon, he was Gibbons business manager. Vanderbilt was extremely dedicated to his work, and the ferry service became very lucrative. Soon, Vanderbilt split with Gibbons and started his own boat fleet. ?It consisted of over 100 steamboats. His steamboats worked the Hudson River. his prices were so cutthroat that his competitors eventually fled the market. He expanded his service from New York to New England and Long Island. His boats and ships were famous for being highly dependable and safe. During the 1850s Vanderbilt sensed an opportunity in railroad business so he scaled back his interests in the waters and started buying stocks in railroad. By 1960s Vanderbilt was fully involved in the railroad business. After just five years in this business, he had earned $25 million. He served on the board of directors of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie Railway, Hartford and New Haven and New York and Harlem. He purchased many railroads in New York to build the Hudson River Railroad and New York Central. When Vanderbilt tried to gain control of the Erie Railroad, conflicts with other businessmen, including the secretive and shady?Jay Gould?and the flamboyant?Jim?Fisk, became known as the?Erie Railroad War. (I really wanted to go into detail about this, but it would just take WAY too long)?Vanderbilt, whose son William H. Vanderbilt was now working with him, eventually came to control much of the railroad business in the United States.43529251543050When Vanderbilt was about 70 years old, his wife Sofia died. He then remarried ANOTHER cousin named Francis. Francis encouraged him to donate his money to charitable organizations. Vanderbilt had never shown any interest in philanthropic causes. He had lived most of his life in relative modesty considering his staggering wealth. However, in 1873, his wife introduced him to the Reverend Holland Nimmons McTyeire, who asked Vanderbilt to help him fund a Methodist University in Tennessee. Discussions went on for several years and by the time of his death, Vanderbilt had promised a gift approaching $1 million for what would later become Vanderbilt University.In 1876, Cornelius Vanderbilt became ill and began an eight-month decline. In keeping with his personality, he was a horrible patient, raging at his doctors, calling them “old grannies” and at one point leaving his death bed to lecture reporters who were standing vigil outside his house. He died on January 4, 1877, presumably of exhaustion, brought on by complications associated with intestinal, stomach and heart disorders, which may have also been connected to syphilis. (Wait what?? Fun Fact time ahead... ?It was from one of his prostitutes that Vanderbilt acquired syphilis, which he spread to his wife. Keep in mind, this occurred before penicillin existed. The preferred treatment for syphilis at the time was mercury. Vanderbilt was so caught up in the world of prostitution, that it was actually his SON that arranged to bring his distant cousin, Francis to be his father’s wife, because he did not approve of the prostitutes. Her mother actually came and lived her for the first few years. William did not care which of the two women his dad would marry, but he wanted him to choose one. -26670049720500George Pullman-Luxury Railroad Cars George Pullman was an American industrial businessman who developed the railroad sleeping car and built a big business with it. He was one of the last industrialists to operate a company town.George Pullman?was born on March 3, 1831, in Brocton, New York. He dropped out of school at age 14, shortly after the death of his father. Pullman then went to work in a general store and became the main provider for his family. In 1848 Pullman joined his older brother in Albion, New York, where he worked as a cabinetmaker.left118618000In 1853 Pullman became a general contractor and helped move several buildings that stood in the way of a project to widen the?Erie Canal. (The Erie Canal is a key?waterway?in?Lake Erie?that connects the Great Lakes and opened the region to shipping.) Upon completion of that work in 1855 he moved to Chicago, where he entered the business of raising buildings onto higher foundations to avoid flooding—a problem caused by much of Chicago's land area being only a few feet above the level of Lake Michigan. Pullman became very successful and quite wealthy.While raising buildings, Pullman often traveled between Chicago and New York by rail. Pullman found the sleeping cars uncomfortable and crude he began to play with the idea of a new railroad car.? In 1864, he completed his work on a new, elaborate, comfortable sleeping car.? He still needed to find a way to market his invention, and in the wake of tragedy, he did.? He offered his luxury car to bring Abraham Lincoln's body back to Illinois from Washington DC. (Pictured) This gave him the popularity and income he needed to form The Pullman Palace Car Company in 1867.??The Pullman Palace Car Company made train cars that offered passengers an amazing comic degree of luxury. One early Pullman sleeper featured chandeliers, marble washbasins and a black walnut interior. Pullman’s dinning cars offered steak, oysters and a choice of wines. By the 1870s, a train equipped with a full complement of Pullman cars included a barber shop, multiple libraries, a smoking room and a fully functional organ for passengers who wanted to entertain themselves by playing music.Andrew Carnegie liked the young Pullman’s business sense, and quickly became an ally. In 1868, Carnegie helped Pullman obtain the sleeping car contract for the nearly completed Union Pacific-Central Pacific line to the West Coast. Two years later he helped Pullman obtain control, through a lease, of the Central Transportation Company. By 1876 the Pullman company was operating 700 sleeping cars over 30,000 miles of line. Pullman insisted that his sleeping cars be operated with high standards of safety, cleanliness, and comfort. He did not claim to have invented the sleeping car, but he did claim to have invented "railroad comfort." Pullman car conductors and porters worked by a rule book, and company "spotters" strictly enforced the rules. After each run every car had all movable objects removed, and charwomen used soap and disinfectant to scrub the interior. By 1880 Pullman cars were operating on about 60,000 miles of road, or nearly two-thirds of the nation's rail network.39909750As his empire grew, Pullman fixated on a quest to engineer the perfect workforce. This led to the creation of a town he built on 3,400 acres of land a short train ride from Chicago, a town where his workers could live together outside the factories where they built Pullman’s magnificent train cars. He named this town after himself?—?Pullman, Illinois.Pullman loathed saloons and alcoholism, not because he felt sorry for the ruined workers who dragged into his work after another night of drinking, but because these men were absent a lot, and were poor workers when they did show up. For this reason, the only bar in the town was in the grand hotel, where he would entertain leading businessmen and politicians. Instead of drinking, Pullman expected his workers to entertain themselves at a library stocked with hand-selected books, at a theater featuring pre-screened plays, or at the park and athletic field built for residents’ use. 4762565722500Pretty much, Pullman controlled life every aspect of his workers’ life through the town. Workers were not required to live in the town, but if they did not, they were not eligible for promotion, and they would be the first laid off. The factory town was hailed as an ideal alternative to the crowded tenements where industrial workers generally lived at the time his development opened. He hoped that the model city would result in a labor force less inclined to strikes and labor violence. He believed that paternalism might make his employees more loyal to the firm's interests. The design of the city, named Pullman, included brick row houses, single dwellings, parks, churches, schools, a shopping arcade, and a hotel. However, rent in the town was high enough for Pullman to make a nice profit.Construction of the new city was rushed, and by early 1882 more than 300 family units were occupied. By 1885 approximately 8,600 people were living in about 1,400 rental units. Most units were rented for $17 to $25 a month. Employees could only rent the houses, because Pullman refused to sell any of the units. That meant that employee who upset the boss, would find themselves homeless. The town of Pullman thrived until the Panic of 1893, when Pullman cut the wages of all his employees by 25 percent to 30 percent, but refused to reduce the rents in the town of Pullman. Many workers were dismissed, and the workforce by early 1894 had declined by nearly a third. (Pullman’s rents were as much as 25 percent higher those in other nearby towns. One woman claimed that, after her father’s death, the company charged her for his unpaid rent and docked her pay until these debts were paid. Another worker testified that he’d “seen men with families of eight or nine children to support crying” after receiving their paychecks because “they only got 3 or 4 cents after paying their rent.) He did all of this even as he INCREASED the stock dividends his company paid to himself and its other shareholders. Pullman also refused to deal with the union that represented his workers. (“the policy of the company” was to refuse to bargain with unions over wages, lest they “force us to pay any wages which they saw fit.”) At that time, there were no labor laws requiring management to come to the bargaining table with their workers, Pullman’s workers had no option other than a strike. And that strike would eventually escalate into a conflict that brought Chicago, and the entire nation, to a halt. 4010025143573500The strike began peacefully on May 11, 1894. The local union posted three hundred men to guard Pullman’s factories to ensure that they were not vandalized, and the town of Pullman itself even remained free of violence. Meanwhile, Pullman’s offices swelled with dignitaries begging him to agree to arbitration (working it out). A group of prominent businessmen throughout the city, twice urged Pullman to make peace with his workers. Detroit Mayor Hazel Pingree joined Chicago’s Mayor John Patrick in asking Pullman to arbitrate. The two men claimed to speak on behalf of fifty other large city mayors. However, Pullman, was unmoved. He was one of the wealthiest men in the country, and he didn’t seem to be hurting any! By June, the American Railway Union voted to get involved. The tactic they decided on was a boycott,?which called upon workers who were not employed by the Pullman Company to refuse to deal with it until Pullman agreed to bargain. Under the terms of the boycott, that the national union agreed to during its convention, ARU workers refused to handle Pullman cars or to assist in the passage of any train that contained a Pullman car. Eventually, they hoped, railroads would be forced to disconnect these cars from their trains, and George Pullman would discover that American commerce could continue just fine without him?—?unless, of course, he agreed to negotiate with his workers. This strategy, however, did not account for the General Managers’ Association. The Managers’ Association included all 24 of the railroads centering in or terminating at Chicago. The Association enabled the executives of each of these 24 companies to work together in implementing system-wide wage cuts to their workers. The association also insisted that each striking worker could be replaced by a scab. ( a worker who crosses a picket line) So pretty much, we have the workers and their union versus the managers and their association. If the union’s strategy was to take the Pullman Company off the nation’s railways, the Managers would ensure that the boycott was as disruptive as possible. The Managers intentionally manipulated their own schedules and let the blame fall upon the union. They purposefully attached Pullman cars to freight trains and to short distance lines, thus forcing the boycotters to stop those trains and take the blame for halting commerce. And they specifically targeted mail trains for this tactic, thus ensuring disruption of the federal government’s central function of delivering the mail. They ensured that Chicago’s railroad hub was at a standstill. The plan was to make the union look so disruptive that the government would need to step in and force them to stop. The managers are helping Pullman, because they feel like a win for his workers would eventually lead to a win for THEIR workers. Yet the farmers and businessmen who relied on Chicago’s railroads to bring their goods to market didn’t know or care about the Managers’ backroom tactics. What they saw were lots of unionized workers standing between them and the money they needed to feed their own families.?President Grover Cleveland looked to his advisors for advice. What he failed to realize, however, was that many members of his inner circle directly benefited from close relationships with the railroad bosses. Instead of a huge conflict of interest, the president felt that his advisors had extra insight. In July, Cleveland deployed 2500 federal troops to Chicago, against the protests of the Governor and those of the soldiers’ commander, General Nelson Miles, in order to break up the boycott. The troops ended the boycott, but not without a good bit of bloodshed. left698500The workers of Pullman had believed they were in a fight against one of the nation’s wealthiest men. They learned too late that they were matched against the combined might of Chicago’s railroad industry, the Justice Department, and the United States military. FOR THE STATE TEST- The test loves to ask about the Pullman strike, and what it showed about the government. The answer is usually something like, “When it comes down to supporting either the striking workers or big business, the government will support big business in order to keep government services running (in this case, mail) This is huge!Pullman and his business continued to thrive in the years following the strike. The labor movement (and most everyone else) continued to hate Pullman, and when he died of a heart attack in 1897, he was buried at night in a lead-lined coffin within an elaborately reinforced steel-and-concrete vault. Workers then poured several tons of cement over the vault to prevent his body from being exhumed and desecrated by labor activists. BUSINESS TERMS-SECTION 34987290635000 Until the mid-1800’s, most businesses were run by one person or a family. This meant that the businesses bought and sold locally, and growth was limited by the family’s ability to run it. Slowly industrialization changed all that. Railroads made raw materials accessible from further and further away, and also provided markets to ship goods. Many business leaders combined funds and resources in order to take advance of large profits. This is known as a corporation, where many people share the ownership of a business. If a corporation does not perform well, investors can lose no more money than what they originally invested in to the business. This was great for risky businesses like railroads or mining. Corporations led to the rise of big business. (Some of America’s largest corporations today-pictured)Some corporations tried to gain an advantage by forming a monopoly, or complete control of a product or service. To do this, a corporation either tried to drive its competitors out of business, or just bought them out. Once consumers had no other choice for a given product or service, the remaining company was free to set its own price.Some corporations worked to eliminate competition through the use of a?cartel. A cartel?is a grouping of producers that work together to protect their interests. Cartels?are created when a few large producers decide to co-operate?with respect to aspects of their market. They may agree not to sell below set price. Once formed,?cartels?can fix prices for members, so that competition on price is avoided. A cartel is a group of firms acting together to restrict competition. By acting together, the firms in a cartel can give themselves the same, or similar, pricing power to a?monopoly.Horizontal/Vertical Integrationleft11385550Businessmen continued to develop more effective ways to increase profits and decrease costs. One way was to create giant company with lower production costs. Consolidating many firms in the same business is called horizontal integration. Rockefeller was the master of HI. Remember back to how he bought up/forced out all the smaller oil refineries during his career. (HI is essentially a monopoly) Ohio law prevented one company from owning the stock of another, which would prevent Rockefeller from buying out his competitors. His lawyer had an idea to get around this, he called it a trust. In a trust, companies assign their stock to a board of trustees, who combine them into a new organization, paying themselves dividends on profits.Vertical Integration was also used by big business guys. Here’s how it works: Vertical integration is when a company controls buys up everything they need to make their product. An example may help. If Burger King owns a bakery, a cattle ranch, a potato farm, and a fleet of trucks to get all of that to the stores, they are practicing vertical integration. This allows companies to reduce costs and charge higher prices to competitors. Remember, Carnegie was the master of this. He bought up everything he needed to make, produce, and transport steel. Capitalism/Free EnterpriseCapitalism is an economic system where individuals and not the government owns most businesses. Capitalism rewards positive traits like hard work and ingenuity. Similarly, it punishes negative traits such as laziness and theft. ... Unlike socialism, which requires government interference,?capitalism?can develop naturally. A quick look back at our 5 industrialists proves that ANYONE can make money if they work hard enough/smart enough. Most of those men came from very little and rose to the VERY top, unlike class systems in some countries where you can never move out of the class you were born in. There are some critics of capitalism, who often state that this system helps the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer by promoting monopolies. Other critics insist that capitalism encourages imperialism, poor treatment of workers, and speculative behavior such as risky investing. I do not disagree with any of these ideas, but it has seemed to work pretty well for us so far. I do not see ANY evidence that other systems like socialism work any better, but the poster pictured offers up some other criticisms.FACTORY LABOR- SECTION 4The US was ripe for economic prosperity after the Civil War, but without the millions of workers who toiled away in the factories, it would not have been possible.right64643000Between 1860 and 1900, around 14 million people immigrated to the US. Around the same time, we also had a huge population shift, with around 8 or 9 million people moving from rural areas to cities. (Many of them fled poor conditions on the farms, such as drought, low prices, and foreign competition.) The lure of plentiful factory enticed both groups.Factory owners sought to maximize profits by employing people who would work for low wages at long hours. In many cases, employers paid workers not by the time they worked, but by what they produced. This is known as piecework. This system favors the younger and stronger workers, and it rewards speed over accuracy and safety.Factory workers worked long 12-16-hour days six days a week. They often worked in small, hot, poorly ventilated workhouses known as sweatshops. Workers usually did one job on a machine over and over again all-day long. This process, known as division of labor, proved to be very efficient, but it took much of the joy out of work. Before factories, craftworkers usually made a product from start to finish, and they actually got to see and appreciate their finished product.left12319000Working ConditionsFactory work was often very dangerous. Workspaces were often crowded, poorly lit. Because most factories produced textiles, lint floated through the air, and was commonly inhaled. There were no safety regulations in place, and it was common for workers to have missing fingers and even arms! Hair and clothes could also be sucked into machines. Workers seldom had proper training on the machines, and the equipment was often faulty. Discipline was strict. Managers might fine a worker for being late, talking, or other minor offenses. Workers only got a short break for lunch and supper. Work was often boring, and the noise of the machines was deafening. Worst of all, injured workers could not expect to be compensated or cared for, in fact, they were usually fired. For this reason, workers had to carefully conceal injuries. In 1882, the average number of workers killed on the job each week was 675-compared to about 120 today. Despite all of this, factory work was in high demand, as it paid higher wages than most anywhere else.Being a woman was especially difficult during the Industrial Era. Women had almost no chance to advance in factory work, and they were excluded from the skilled and highest-paying jobs. They could also expect to earn 1/3 to ? the salary of men. Finally, women were usually only allowed to operate simple machines. More complex machines were reserved for men.left213931500Factory wages were so low that children usually had to work to help support their families. Children often left school at the age of 12 or 13 to work. Girls often to factory jobs so that their brothers could stay in school. If an adult became ill or died, children as young as 6 or 7 had to work or go hungry. Children were equipped to handle factory life, and they often suffered physical and mental growth from the lack of exercise and sunlight. Orphans were especially vulnerable. Factory bosses could easily take advantage of their situation and work them nearly to death. They could justify their lack of payment by saying that they provided food, clothing, and shelter. Children who did get paid could expect only a fraction of what men received, and even less than women. (I easily found lots of primary sources about harsh treatment of children. I won’t include here, but we want to use some for sure.) Social reformer Jacob Riis tried to explain the impact of factory work on children in his book, Children of the Poor. (More on him in Progressive Era) STRIKES AND UNIONS- Section 5Unions- or “organzied labor” were organziations that worked to protect the rights of workers. Unions often demanded better pay, better workig conditions, and better hours. The state test usually asks why labor unions saw such a rise in membership. The answer will be something about what we described in tbhe last section about dangerous working conditions, low pay, poor treatment, etc. As workers grew more and more unhappy with their conditions, they began to see the advantages of negotiating together as a group, or collective bargaing, in order to achieve a change. One form of collective bargaining was the strike. A strike is the refusal to work until conditions change. A boycott is a similar method. It is the refusal to buy a good or service until conditions change.As labor unions grew, there became new terms to be familiar with. First, Closed Shop. Certain businesses are closed shop, meaning that to get a job there, you MUST be a member of a union. So they are agreeing to only hire union members. The opposite of that is Open Shop, meaning that a busniess is not required to hire union members. A yellow dog contract is an agreement between a worker and an employer in which the worker agrees not to join a union. Finally, a scab is a derogatory term for a strikebreaker. This person works despite an ongoing strike, which obviously ticks off the people who are on strike. This might be a good place to right000mention the recent vote at Nissan (Canton) on whether or not to join the United Auto Workers Union. Lots of my students’ parents work there. In 1877, worker frustration reached a head. The?Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the?Great Upheaval, began on July 14 after the B&O railroad cut wages for the third time in a year. This strike finally ended some 45 days later, after it was put down by local and state militias, and federal troops. Because of economic problems and pressure on wages by the railroads, workers in numerous other cities, also went out on strike. An estimated 100 people were killed in the unrest across the country. We will generally refer to the Great Upheaval as a time of labor unrest that leads to the rise labor unions.There were two major labor unions that formed nationally, the Knights of Labor, in 1889, and the American Federation of Labor in 1886. The American Federation of Labor was founded by Samuel Gompers. Gompers had worked his way up from being a poor immigrant, to the head of the local cigarmakers ’union. The AFL sought to organize only skilled laborer’s. The union was a loose organization of over 100 smaller unions, each devoted to a certain craft. So basically, the AFL would unite carpenters, painters, plasterers, cigar makers, etc under one union.The AFL did not welcome woman, because they felt that their presence reduced the wages of men. They did not technically exclude African-Americans, but they usually found ways of excluding them from membership.8572574485500Gompers focused mainly on issues of workers’ wages, hours, and working conditions. The AFL encouraged collective bargaining through the use of strikes and boycotts against employers. They also advocated for a “close shop” where only union members must be hired. The Knights of Labor was formed in Philadelphia, and was under the leadership of Terrance Powderly. Compared to the AFL, the Knights of Labor was easier to join. The Knights sought to organize African Americans, women, and skilled and unskilled workers all under the same union. This was hard to do because their interests were so diverse. It is hard to push for rights of women while also representing men- for example. As well as strikes and boycotts, the Knights also focused on political activity and education. They pursued reforms like equal pay for equal work, the 8 hour work day, and an end to child labor. (This pic was on the state test 2 years ago- Title is “The Hand that will Rule the World)There are two test questions that pop up a good bit about the Knights. One asks why the Knights had trouble setting their agenda, or something to that effect. The answer is that their membership is so broad, that it is hard to satisfy everyone. Another asks why the membership of the Knights dramatically declined in the 1880’s. The answer is that a series of failed strikes, some of which turned VIOLENT, public support waned. (So choose whatever answer mentions violence)STRIKES452437569659500As labor union membership grew rose, labor activists became more skilled in organizing large, disruptive demonstrations. Here is a small sampling of some of the more notable strikes.The Haymarket Riot- (Chicago)- May 1, 1886, groups of workers launched a national demonstration for an eight-hour workday. Their slogan was “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.” Strikes erupted in a number of cities. At Chicago’s McCormick reaper factory, police broke up a fight between strikers and scabs. The police interference resulted in the several casualties. To protest this, union leaders called for a rally at Haymarket Square in Chicago. The rally drew some 1,500 people, and it got pretty crazy when a group of anarchists joined in with the protesters. Anarchists are radicals who violently oppose all government. According to many accounts, the anarchists whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Suddenly, some unknown person threw a bomb into a group of policemen, killing 7 officers. In the chaos that followed, close to 100 people on both sides were killed when the police and the protesters exchanged gunfire. As a result of the Haymarket riot, employers became even more suspicious of unions, associating them with violence and radicalism. Most Americans agreed with that thought, and union membership (especially the Knights of Labor) began to wane. I might also add that fear of radicalism also began to grow.right1016000The Homestead Strike- (Homestead, Pennsylvania)- Refer back to the Carnegie notes. Carnegie usually spent his summers in Scotland at his summer estate, Skibo. He left his business partner Andrew Frick in charge while he was gone. After an 1889 strike, the steelworkers won a favorable three-year contract; but by 1892 Carnegie was determined to break the union. Plant manager, Henry Frick, stepped up production demands, and proposed a 22% wage cut. When the union refused to accept the new conditions, Frick began locking the workers out of the plant, which only further enraged them. Determined to remedy the situation himself, Frick hired over 300 Pinkerton guards. Pinkertons were a private police force known for their ability to break up strikes. When the Pinkertons arrived by barge under the cover of darkness, they were met by 10,000 strikers, many of them armed. When they attempted to land, a gun fight broke out, resulting in the deaths of 16 people, and the injury of dozens more. The Pinkertons were run out of town, and the governor appealed to the state militia for help. Under militia protection, the strikebreakers got the plant up and going again. (Carnegie Steel would remain nonunionized until the late 1930’s) This blow to the workers gained them sympathy and support from most Americans. HOWEVER, this support went out the window soon after. An anarchist who joined the protesters attempted to assassinate Frick. (Unsuccessfully) Although the union did not back his plan, the public once again associated the unions with violence. This resulted in the continual decline of unions. Andrew Carnegie, who had always claimed to support nonviolent unions, kept silent about the affair.451421521145500Pullman Strike- (Pullman, Illinois)- This was covered in the section on George Pullman, but quick recap. Pullman built a company town for his workers. After the Panic of 1893, he cut worker wages by 25%, but he kept rent and food prices at the same level in his town. After worker talks and union bargaining failed, Pullman closed the plant. The railway union called for a boycott on all Pullman cars throughout the country. A boycott would prevent union members from even touching those cars. Railroad owners then had a hot mess, because the trains were at a standstill. They appealed to the government for help. The 472440023812500government decided that the strike intervened with the delivery of the mail, and they forbid union activity that halted railroad traffic. The president sent in 2,500 troops to make sure strikers obeyed the order. This outcome started a pattern that would continue for the next 30 years. Factory owners regularly appealed for court orders against unions. The government regularly approved these appeals, denying unions recognition as legally protected organizations. In simpler terms, when we have a showdown of workers/unions versus big businesses the government always supports the big businesses in order to keep work moving smoothly. ................
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