Readiness standards comprise 65% of the U. S. History Test

3 (B)

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

The Student is expected to:(B) Analyze economic issues such as

industrialization, the growth of railroads, the growth of labor unions, farm issues, the cattle

industry boom, the rise of entrepreneurship, free enterprise, & the pros & cons of big business

Mark Twain (1835-1910) coined the term implying that what looked

beautiful and valuable on the surface--growing industry and accumulation of fortunes by the privileged few--was but

a cover for the less valuable (“brass-like”) or destructive features of the

period--poverty, child labor, widespread political corruption, trusts

and monopolies, etc.

“Under the cruel impact of the depression, ideas changed in many areas including politics. A realignment of the American

political system. . . finally reached its fruition in the 1890s, establishing new patterns that gave rise to the Progressive

Era and lasted well into the twentieth century.”

THE GILDED AGE

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

(B) 1 Industrialization

The Growth of Industrial

Society in the Unites States of America

The Raw Materials

Of National

Greatness

Rise of American Industry

COAL

TIMBER

IRON

Mesabi iron ore range in Minnesota

PETROLEUM

WATER

Manpower / LaborMassive immigration in the late-19th century helped create a large supply of labor to staff burgeoning U.S.

The U.S. had ALL the resources necessary for

national greatness

Tariffs, Trusts, and the Regulation of Business

• Trusts

There were New Laws Regulating:

Trusts

• Prohibited monopolies • Made deliberate destruction of

competition a crime• The terms of the Act were vague leaving a

wide area for interpretation by the courts • United States v. E. C. Knight Company,

1895

Sherman Antitrust Act—1890—First federal effort to control trusts, regulate

big business

United States v. E. C. Knight Company, 1895

Blow against the Sherman Antitrust Act—drew false line of distinction between

“trade or commerce” and manufacturing.” Allowed Knight Co.—a business that controlled 98% of American

sugar refining—to continue operations that were only in “one state.”

McKinley Tariff Act—1890

Passed during the Harrison

administration (right), the Act popularly bore

the name of Ohio Congressman William

McKinley (left)

McKinley Tariff Act—1890

• Raised tariff duties about 4%• Included novel reciprocity provision allowing

president to lower duties if other countries did the same

• Promoted certain new industries, e.g., canned foods

• Upshot was development of holding companies through which one company could control others through purchase of the stock in those companies

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

(B) 2 Growth of railroads

Development of InfrastructureThe map to the left shows

U.S. railroad mileage in the 1850s. The two maps on the next frame show the rapid growth of the

American rail system from the year 1850 to 1860.

Most construction was in the industrial Northeast and the recently settled

Midwest.

U.S. rail mileage by 1925

The Transcontinental Railroad

Completed May 10, 1869 The Railroads worked the largest

changes of all from the mid-19th century forward

Standardization of the Rail System

• Standard gauge (distance between rails) in 1866

• Adoption of standard schedules, signals, and equipment

• Creation of Time Zones

Difficulties and Problems with the Railroads

• Consolidation forced many companies into heavy debt

• Unfair Business Practices Implemented Rate wars—necessary to operate at a loss since capital was already paid for

• Illegal Practices

Illegal Practices • Rebate—discount on normal shipping

charge (if not offered equally to all customers, was illegal)

• Pooling—agreement by managers of several companies to share in carrying certain %age of freight so all could remain in business

• Bribery & promises not to cut rates = other illegal acts

Tariffs, Trusts, and the Regulation of Business

• Railroads Trusts

Trust Buster Teddy

Roosevelt

Railroad magnate

Jay Gould

Railroads

• Banned rebates and pooling

• Required railroads to set “reasonable and just” rates

• Required end of overcharging short haul customers

• Created Interstate Commerce Commission

Interstate Commerce Act—1887—Interstate commerce = trade that crosses state lines

The ICC Charged with investigating and overseeing railroad activities and became prototype of federal commissions today

that regulate various sectors of the economy

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

(B) 3 Growth of labor unions

Samuel Gompers

The Working Class In spite of some positive

developments—a rise in real wages, improved working

conditions, and an increase in the working man’s influence in

national affairs—work conditions, a grueling and

impersonal routine, and poor safety standards in the work

place prompted the growth of unions to improve conditions.

Who Worked: Mostly White Males (vs. Women and Blacks)

• Discrimination—policy or attitude denying certain rights to a certain group

• Often resulted in receiving less desirable jobs, less pay for same work

Immigrant Work Force

• Slavs—steel mills in Gary, Indiana

• Jews—New York City’s garment industry

• 13.5 million emigrants came to U. S. between 1865-1900--they sped the pace of industrialization

By 1870, about a third of America’s factory work force were foreign-born. Coming out of low

standard of living in Europe, they were willing to take low paying jobs.

Rise of Unions

• Formed 1869 as secret brotherhood • Skilled workers only • Main aims were 8 hour work day and

equal pay for men and women • Elected Terence V. Powderly as

leader in 1879

Knights of Labor

Terence V. Powderly (1849-1924)

Powderly’s Contributions

Lifted veil of secrecy Opened ranks to women, Blacks,

immigrants, unskilled laborers—goal = unify ALL workers

Opposed strikes (work stoppage) as tool Wanted 8 hour work day Wanted safety in factories Wanted compensation for on-the-job injury

Strike of 1885 against Jay Gould (1836-1892)

This rail strike occurred when Gould

(dominating caricature to left) cut railroad workers salary— strikers won back

salary and membership in union rose to 700,000

by mid-1886

Haymarket Riot and Decline of Knights of Labor

• 80,000 Chicago workers struck for 8-hour day in 1886

• Police killed several strikers near McCormick Harvester Works

• Anarchists (who opposed all forms of government)

staged rally for May 4

• 100,000 met in Haymarket Square to hear anarchist speakers denounce police and industrialists (below right)

• Police moved in • Someone threw a bomb

killing 1 policeman (above right)

• Riot ensued with 7 police and 4 civilians dying

Spies (lower right) was convicted of murder and

executed for his role in the Haymarket Square riot. At his trial, he uttered the following

indictment against society: “Let the world know that in A.D. 1886, in the state of Illinois, eight men were sentenced to

death because they believed in a better future; because they had

not lost their faith in the ultimate victory of liberty and

justice!” Anarchist

August Spies

The riot turned public against labor organizations since Knights were lumped together with anarchists; membership dropped to 100,000 by 1890.

American Federation of Labor

• Founded 1881 with Samuel Gompers as 1st president

• Membership open to skilled workers only

• Members joined through local craft unions and then the local union associated with the AFL

Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) RQ 14

AFL’s limited goals:

• 8 hour workday• Right to collective

bargaining (right of unions to represent workers as a group)

• Did not seek to reorganize society

• Considered strikes a legitimate tool

AFL Membership Figures

• 1886— 150,000

• 1900— 500,000

• 1904—1 million

Management vs. LaborSuspicion and Distrust Existed on

Both Sides• Management’s position—Unions interfered

with management’s right to bargain with individuals

Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Plant Strike

Smoke rising from the

Homestead Steel Plant

Above left, plant manager Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) and above to the right, plant

owner Andrew Carnegie

Armed Suppression of the Strike:• Workers angered by

unexpected wage cut• Strike threatened• Henry Clay Frick,

plant manager, closed plant

• Frick hired 300 armed Pinkerton guards

•Angry union workers attacked

•Seven Pinkerton men and 9 workers killed

Was a stunning defeat for the

union

Pullman Strike of May-July 1894—the First National Strike in U.S.

History

George Pullman,

1831-1897

President Grover

Cleveland, 1837-1908

Closure of the Pullman

Plant

• Eugene Debs’ American Railway Union boycotted the rolling stock of the Pullman Palace Car Company

• The boycott was in protest of the company’s wage cuts and victimization of union representatives

• The company obtained a federal injunction and used federal troops to break the strike

Eugene Debs, 1855-1926—the strike brought Debs to

national attention

The outcome was a major setback for the American labor movement

Opposition to Unions—Supreme Court Decisions

• In re Debs, 1895—The Supreme Court upheld the injunction that helped to break the Pullman Strike of 1894

• Holden v. Hardy, 1898—The Court upheld a law that limited working hours for miners on the grounds that work in the mines was dangerous and long hours might increase the risk of on-the-job injury

• Lochner v. New York, 1905—The Court struck down a law limiting bakery workers to a sixty-hour workweek and a ten-hour day

Opposition Continued• Press usually sided with employers—

publishers depending on advertising revenue from local businesses, and were employers themselves

• Public generally opposed unions—People considered them radical organizations

• Collective bargaining was foreign to American traditions of individualism

The Socialist View• Government should make decisions

representing society as a whole

• Profits gained from making products, providing services should be distributed evenly among workers

• 1877—Socialist Labor Party founded— was small with limited influence

Eugene Debs stirred railway

workers to strike against the Pullman Company in

1894

For his trouble—specifically his refusal to honor the injunction issued against striking workers—Debs went to jail. Not only did these events put Debs in the national spotlight; his experiences

moved him further to the political left and eventually to support American socialism. Debs would later run as the 1912 and 1920

Socialist Party presidential candidate

Socialist campaign poster

Who Won?• Nobody wins: workers lose wages and

employers lose profits

• Was “unfortunate byproduct of competitive pressures in the new Industrial Age”

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

(B) 4 Farm issues

DISCUSSED ABOVE UNDER

(3) (A) Beginnings of

Populism

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

(B) 5 The cattle industry boom

Cowboys and Cattle Trails—the Financial possibilities of the open

range• Joseph G. McCoy—the man who

conceived the idea of taking cattle to the railhead in Kansas to the market in Chicago

• Made possible transporting cattle from the Great Plains to the

•Population centers of the East•Texas price = $3-5 per cow vs. Railhead price = $30-50

Cattle Trails

•Western Trail•Goonight-Loving Trail•Chisolm Trail•Sedalia and Baxter Springs Trail

Cattle “Bust”• Overgrazing of the plains

(note competition for grazing land between cattle & sheep)

• Conflicts, quarrels over land & water rights

• Theft of cows from open herds—led to barbed wire fencing around 1874

• Weather—winters of 1885-1886 & 1886-1887 brought blizzards & sub-zero temperatures

Cattle ranching becomes “Big Business”

• Fenced land & barbed wire

• Wells to protect against dry weather

• Hay in tough winter months

By the spring of 1887, 80-90% of the cattle had died—the last roundup on the

northern range took place in 1905

Closing of the American Frontier• The Superintendent of

Census, in 1890, declared that there is hardly a “frontier line” any longer Frederick Jackson Turner—recommended that, with the “closing of the American frontier,” the U. S. turn to trade

In Turner’s view, the settlement process had shaped U.S. “customs and character; gave rise to independence, self-confidence, and individualism; and fostered invention and adaptation.”

Later historians challenged Turner’s thesis, arguing that

family and community were also important in development of the

frontier.

Omission of Contributions • Native Americans Chinese

miners and laborers• Mexican herdsmen

The vaqueros developed techniques

such as branding,

roundups, and roping

The West—America’s First Empire

It would give place to an entirely new & different kind of empire

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

(B) 6 The rise of entrepreneurship

Cornelius Vanderbilt

American Invention and Entrepreneurship

Thomas Alva Edison, 1847-1931

Edison’s incandescent light bulb—1879

Late-1800s: A time of incredible explosion of inventiveness. America becamethe home of invention

Refrigeration

Philip Armour (1832-1901)—used refrigeration in

meatpacking industry; Chicago converted into

railway hub between Great Plains farms and big Eastern cities. Beef slaughtered in Chicago

and stored in refrigerated warehouses, shipped in

refrigerated cars to East

Armour’s innovation affected Texas—Ft. Worth became major meatpacking center; Ft. Worth

stockyards opened in 1890

Chicago meatpacker Gustavus Swift (1839-1903) gave an additional boost to the meat

industry

Swift implemented the idea of distributing meat nationwide by use of refrigerated railcars

• Meatpacking goes from $65 million/year business in 1870 to

$500 million by 1890s. Refrigeration changed eating

habits of nation—it gave wider variety of meat to American public AND provided thousands of jobs

Air Brake for Railroad Cars

• George Westinghouse (left, 1846-1914)–enabled engineer to stop all cars himself instead of a brakeman on each car; made for

Passenger safety and comfort

• Longer, faster trains

Electrical InventionsElectricity was a far more flexible

source of power than water or wind. It allowed change in high-voltage

current traveling long distances on power lines into low-level current for use in homes, offices. People

initially feared electricity because they didn’t understand how it

worked

From Franklin. . .

Electricity—more flexible and effective than water or wind

. . . To Edison

Typewriter Christopher Sholes (1819-1890) introduced it in 1867

This marvelous innovation eliminated handwritten business letters and created an new opportunity for women in the workplace

Telephone (a.k.a., the “Speaking Telegraph”)

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell (left, 1847-1922) spoke the first sentence—“Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.”—over the telephone that he invented.

PhotographyIn 1879, George Eastman

(right, 1854-1932), developed a process

that laid the foundation for producing both celluloid film and moving pictures.

By1888, Eastman was marketing the Kodak

camera.

Cyrus Field (1819-1892) and the Trans-Atlantic Cable

• Field laid in the first cable in 1858 but it broke. He succeeded in 1876.

• Field’s accomplishment linked European and American telegraph networks.

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

(B) 8 The pros & cons of big business

Does the industrial process create good or evil?

Post-Civil War America witnessed perhaps the

greatest industrial expansion in the

history of recorded events. It transformed

the United States of America into the most

powerful nation on earth.

Robber Barons or Industrial Statesmen / Captains of Industry?

• Robber Barons—focus on the acquisitive

• Sought own advantage

• Lost sight of public interest

• Drove smaller competitors out of business undermining healthy competition

• Took advantage of workers; created extra poverty and hardship

Materialism and the Origins of Our Consumer Society

Mail Order Catalogs. . .

brought modern products to customers far and wide

Industrial Statesmen—focus on the creative

• Developed new, effective business methods

• Helped American economy to grow

Bottom Line: by 1900, Americans had highest

standard of living in world

Emergence of the Steel Industry

In the 1850s, Sir Henry Bessemer (English, 1813-1898—right) and William Kelly (US, 1811-1888) independently discovered blasting cold air through iron heated in large furnace caused impurities to burn (“air boiling”). ** 17AThe first Bessemer steel was produced in 1864.

The Bessemer Process Made Steel

• More cheaply (only needed 1 ton of coal where 7 were used to make 1 ton of steel)

• Stronger and more durable

• Less likely to rust

• The Bessemer process (left) increased production from 2,000 tons in 1864 to 7 millions tons by end of 19th century.

• Iron ore came in abundant supply in the American Midwest (see map to right). The Great Lakes proved to be an auspiciously located for the transportation of iron ore to the steel mills that would refine the ore into marketable products.

Brooklyn Bridge connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan Island used steel

The BackgroundColonel Edwin L. Drake, a former railroad conductor, became the

first man to drill on oil well (see “Drake #1,” above). His discovery came in Titusville, Pennsylvania on August 28, 1859. Drake’s auspicious find proved to fuel the growth of one of the

most important industries in American history.

Spindletop—Beaumont, Texas, 1901

Uses for Petroleum Included

• Lubricating oil • Grease • Paint• Wax• Varnish• Naphtha• Paraffin

The Rotary Press and the Rise of Advertising

Rise of Department Stores

R. H. Macy in New York

Marshall Field in Chicago

They enabled 19th century Americans the relatively new opportunity to leisurely browse and buy while they shopped

Chain Stores

A&P Grocery Store . . .

. . . & one of its descendants

F. W. Woolworth and the “Five and Dime Store”

Department Stores

Richard W. Sears Alvah C.

Roebuck

Chicago’s Sears Tower today

The mail-order option brought modern products to unseen

customers far and wide, both in urban and rural settings. In the department stores themselves, people could leisurely browse

and/or buy.

. . . & this is today’s lineal ancestor

Readiness Standard (3)The student understands the political,

economic, & social changes in the U. S. from 1877 to 1898.

(B) 7 Free enterprise

Business Organization Caricaturists of the day represented the overbearing power

of industry—and, as the U.S. Capitol in

the background suggests, its influence on

Congressmen and other policy-makers

—as both overwhelming and

malevolent.

Business intrusions into politics there well may have been . . . tut no

system of business organization employed so far has bested the

results of the free enterprise system

Vertical Integration—New form of Organization

Carnegie realized fortunes of his steel plant depended on forces outside his own control, e.g., mining companies, ships and rail lines for transport, so he bought these entities.

Andrew Carnegie and Steel Industry(1835-1919)

He insured control of process from securing raw material through turning it into the finished product.He believed in value of competition, free enterprise--he opposed trusts since they violated laws of competition

“Andrew Carnegie emerged as the undisputed master of the [steel] industry.”

Horizontal Integration—New form of Organization

John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) and Standard Oil Trust

Rockefeller believed competition was wasteful—he ruthlessly eliminated the competition through price cutting to capture competitor’s business (he thereafter raised prices). By 1879, he controlled 90% of U. S. refining capacity.Below—Standard Oil Company stock certificate signed by Rockefeller

The “Trust”The “Trust”—stockholders of independent companies exchange shares of stock for trust certificates issued by large firms like Standard Oil.

“Dividends”—%ages of company’s profits issued to holders of trust certificates; to receive, holder gave up right to help manage the firm

Rockefeller took control of entire refining industry (necessary to turn raw petroleum into saleable product). In time, Standard Oil used vertical integration as well to form a monopoly (complete control over every aspect of an industry).

Ida Tarbell’s History of Standard Oil, 1904

Tarbell exposed his cut-throat tactics, ruthlessness. Rockefeller had driven Tarbell’s father out of the refinery business.Tarbell (1857-1944) is pictured on a commemorative stamp show to the left.

Fini