Rise of Industrial America



Rise of Industrial America

• America had wealth

o Technology

o Pro-business government

o Natural resources

o Talented entrepreneurs

• American was a strong industrial power at the time

o Country was not limited

• Railroads

▪ Railroad was the first big business

▪ 1865-1900, almost 200,000 miles of rail

▪ Everyone wanted the railroad to go through their city

• Networked the country

• Goods traveled back and forth

• Mass production, mass consumption

▪ Promoted steel and other industries

▪ Divided country into time zones in 1883

• Railroad time became standard time – spread to worldwide

• 4 time zones

▪ Corporations developed

• Complex business structures

• Boards, trustees

o Eastern Trunk Lines

▪ Developed unique track gauge

▪ Made trunk lines, major lines through major cities

▪ Branch lines connected big cities to smaller cities

▪ Cornelius Vanderbilt – railroad tycoon

▪ B & O, Penn Railroad

• Connected large cities and set standard for the industry

o Western: grants/transportation RR

▪ Promoted settlement on plains and link eastern and western markets

▪ This was done through grants

• Gave land in alternating square miles to railroad companies

• Wanted settlers to fill in the gaps

▪ Increased value of land, goods

▪ Method to transport mail and military

▪ Cost the government a lot of money and promoted hasty construction which led to bankruptcy

o Bad business/mergers

• Impact of Industrialism

o Concentration of Wealth

▪ 1890 – richest 10% controlled 90% of the wealth

• New class of millionaires; spent money lavishly

• Similar to the Victorian Era

• Grown-up society; based on social life

▪ At first, Americans ignored gap between rich and poor

▪ Typical wealthy businessperson:

• White Anglo-saxon Protestant

• Usually born into wealth

o Growing Middle Class

▪ Growth of corporations provided white-collar jobs for many people (clerks, accountants, salespeople)

▪ Average Man:

• 2/3 Americans worked for wages

• Worked 10 hour days

o More Wage Earners

▪ Iron Law of Wages

• David Ricardo

• Why should you arbitrarily give people more wages?

▪ Middle class families required many children and women to work

• 11-12 million families earned less than $380 a year

o Working Women

▪ 1/5 women worked

• Most were young and single

▪ 1/20 married women worked

▪ Men and women both believed that women’s duty was at home

• If they worked, their jobs were extensions of the home

o Food processing, textile industry

▪ Typing Pools

• Women typed documents for companies

▪ Women started moving into ‘male’ occupations

• Phone operators, bookkeepers, secretaries, etc.

• But pay went down because they became women’s jobs

o Labor Discontent

▪ Many bloody encounters between workers and police

▪ Bloodiest period of the century

• Labor Struggles

o Employer Tactics

▪ Surplus of cheap labor

▪ Strikers could be easily replaced by ‘scabs’

• Worked for companies when workers were on strike

▪ Tactics against workers:

• Lock-out

o If company felt like it needed lower wages or thought people were ready to strike, the company would shut its doors and wouldn’t allow workers to come and they wouldn’t get paid

o They would come back for less

• Black-list

o If someone was a troublesome worker, their name was put on a list and passed around companies so employers wouldn’t hire them

• Yellow-Dog Contract

o Pledged not to strike or join a union before being hired

• Private Guards/State Militias

• Court Injunctions

o Court order to stop an action

▪ Unions were divided amongst themselves

o Great Strike of 1877

▪ Great Railroad Strike, Great Upheaval

▪ Began as a railroad strike, but spread across country

▪ One of the worst outbreaks of violence

▪ Took place in panic of 1873

• To prevent bankruptcy, railroad companies cut wages

• Spread to 11 states and 2/3 of railroad miles were shut down

• Then, about 500,000 other industrial workers went on strike

▪ President Hayes made use of troops

• Violence ended, but over 100 people were killed

• Some bosses learned from this and improved working conditions. Others did the opposite and made conditions more strict

o NLU, Knights/Haymarket, AFL

▪ NLU (1867) was first attempt to organize all workers and all states

• Goals were 8 hour work day, equal rights for women and blacks, and money reform

• Chief victory was achieving 8 hour workdays for federal employs

• Lost motivation after panic

▪ Knights of Labor – 1869

• Began as a secret union

• Led by Tarence Powderly

o Wanted to end child labor, establish cooperations, and abolish monopolies

• Chose to arbitrate

o Preferred not to strike

• Because they were loosely organize, they couldn’t prevent locals from striking

• Grew rapidly in 1880s

o Membership – 700,000

• Declined Very fast

o Blamed for Haymarket Affair

▪ There were 80,000 knights living in Chicago

▪ Were going to have the Mayday movement

▪ Called for a general strike to achieve 8 hour workday

• At McCormick Plant, violence broke out

▪ Decided to meet at Haymarket square

• Police tried to break it up

• Someone threw a bomb and seven officers were killed

• 8 anarchist leaders were tried and 7 sentenced to death

o Public now associated labor unions with violence

▪ AFL – American Federation of Labor

• Was successful, only allowed skilled workers to become members

o At first, membership was all skilled and all white males

o Had more respect with public – seen as more of a practical program

o Just wanted to improve what was already in society rather than radically changing everything

• Led by Samuel Gompers

• Wanted collective bargaining

o Union leadership sits down with company to work out wages and benefits

• Had over 1 million members

• Is still working today

•

o Homestead (1892) and Pullman (1894) Strikes

▪ Homestead Steel Plant

• Henry Frick announced 20% pay cuts

• Strike continued for 5 months

• The single strike set the labor movement back decades

▪ Pullman Car Company

• Workers lived in company town

• People were upset because company announced wage cuts

• Whenever labor union leaders tried to negotiate, they were fired

• Strikers appealed to the American Railroad Union

o Led by Eugene Debbs

o He ordered railroad workers that handled Pullman cars to walk away from their jobs

• Owners of railroad companies would attach mail cars to Pullman cars

o This interfered with the mail, a federal offense

• Federal courts issues injunction on strikers

o Leaders ignored the court order and were jailed; ended stroke

• In Re Debs

o Served 6 months in jail

o Became a socialist and led socialist party

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