CH 14

Industrialization

Section 1 – Rise of Industry

GNP – Total value of goods and services produced by a country U.S. GNP was 8X greater in the early

1900’s then it was before the Civil War.

Natural and Human Resources

Industry needed water, timber, coal, iron, copper

First oil well in Titusville, PA in 1859 Petroleum (Kerosene) Oil fields grew rapidly from

Pennsylvania to Texas Labor needs led to more immigration

China and Eastern Europe

Free Enterprise and the Government

Laissez-Faire Economics “Let Do” Low taxes, limited government debt

Entrepreneurs Tariffs and the issue of free trade

Contradictions to laissez-faire ideas Did American industry really need

protection from foreign competition

New Technology

Alexander Graham Bell (Telephone) AT&T

Thomas Edison Electricity

Refrigerated railroad car, automatic loom, sewing machines, telegraph, radios

Section 2 - Railroads

Many new inventions made settling the West easier

Nothing aided the settlement of the west more than the Transcontinental Railroad

Transcontinental Railroad

Two railroad companies worked on the first Transcontinental Railroad… The Union Pacific Company started in

Omaha, Nebraska The Central Pacific Company started in

Sacramento, California Final spike at Promontory Summit, UT

on May 10, 1869

Pioneers of the Railroad Industry

Grenville Dodge Union Pacific

“Big Four” Central Pacific

Cornelius Vanderbilt Grand Central Station

National Railway System

Time Zones Huge benefit to

the nation’s infrastructure

Travel was safer and more efficient

Land Grant System

Government gave railroads land that was sold to raise money for railroad construction

Robber Barons

Railroad owners that built their fortunes by swindling investors Jay Gould

Credit Mobilier Scandal James J. Hill

The anti-robber baron Great Northern Railroad

Only transcontinental railroad not eventually forced into bankruptcy

Sec 3 Big Business

Corporation – an organization owned by many people but treated by law as though it was a single person

The people who owned the corporation were Stockholders

The shares of ownership those people owned were called Stocks

Companies had two different kinds of costs

Fixed Costs – costs that companies pay whether they are running or not

Operating Costs – costs that occur when running a company

Consolidation of Industry

Vertical Integration A company owns all of the different

businesses on which it depends Horizontal Integration

Combining of firms engaged in the same type of business

Competition and Laissez-faire economics led to the control of a few very powerful men in industry

These men became the most powerful men in the U.S. during the time.

Andrew Carnegie – Steel industry John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil

Company Jay Gould – Financier, banker

Monopolies

When a single company controls an entire market

Trusts – legal concept that allows one person to manage another person’s property

Sec 4 Unions

From 1865 to 1897, the U.S. experienced a rise in the value of money called deflation

Workers became angry when companies tried to pay them less and they formed Unions to fight back.

2 types of Unions

Trade Union – a union made up of skilled workers such as “Teachers Union”

Industrial Union – a union that united all workers within a certain industry, like the “Pelham High School Union”

Workers who tried to organize a strike were fired and put on a blacklist

When workers formed a union companies would use a lockout to not allow them in the factory and refuse to pay them.

If the union called for a strike, the employer would hire replacement workers called strikebreakers

3 Major Strikes of the late 1800s

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The Haymarket Riot

The Pullman Strike

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The strike involved 80,000 railroad workers in 11 states

It also affected 2/3 of the nation’s railways

President Hayes ordered the army to reopen many of the rail lines but before it was over more than 100 people were dead and millions of dollars of equipment had been destroyed.

Haymarket Riot

In 1886, organizers called for a strike to fight for an 8 hour work day

In Chicago 3,000 people gathered for a rally

When the police entered someone threw a bomb in the middle of the officers

7 police officers and 4 workers were killed

The Knights of Labor were blamed for the bombing

Pullman Strike

Pullman cars were a type of rail car used by different train companies

In an effort to end the strike the government began to use the cars for the U.S mail

Grover Cleveland sent in troops to end the strike saying that he had to “keep the mail running”