Industrial Supremacy

Reasons for Industrial Growth in United States

• Abundant natural resources, including raw materials essential to industrialization – coal, iron ore, copper, lead, timber, oil

• Abundant labor supply

• Growing population

• Advanced transportation network

Reasons for Industrial Growth in United States

• Capital plentiful

• Development of new, laborsaving technologies increased productivity

• Businesses benefited from friendly government policies

• Talented entrepreneurs emerged during this era

Industrial Supremacy

Technology and Innovations

Causes of Rapid IndustrializationCauses of Rapid Industrialization

Technological innovations. Bessemer and open hearth

process -> steel Refrigerated cars Edison

o “Wizard of Menlo Park”o light bulb, phonograph,

motion pictures.

Technological innovations. Bessemer and open hearth

process -> steel Refrigerated cars Edison

o “Wizard of Menlo Park”o light bulb, phonograph,

motion pictures.

Thomas Alva EdisonThomas Alva Edison

“Wizard of Menlo Park” “Wizard of Menlo Park”

The Light BulbThe Light Bulb

The Phonograph (1877)

The Phonograph (1877)

The Ediphone or Dictaphone

The Ediphone or Dictaphone

The Motion Picture Camera

The Motion Picture Camera

Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell

Telephone (1876)Telephone (1876)

Alternate CurrentAlternate Current

George WestinghouseGeorge Westinghouse

The AirplaneThe Airplane

Wilbur Wright Orville Wright Wilbur Wright Orville Wright

Kitty Hawk, NC – December 7, 1903 Kitty Hawk, NC – December 7, 1903

Model T AutomobileModel T Automobile

Henry FordI want to pay my workers so that they

can afford my product!

Henry FordI want to pay my workers so that they

can afford my product!

Industrial Supremacy

The Business of Railroads

Railroads

• Development of a nationwide railroad network had the greatest impact on American economic life

• Promoted growth of coal and steel industries

• Faster transportation prompted US government to divide country into four standard time zones

US Time Zones

Western Railroads

• Promoted settlement of the Great Plains

• Linked the West with the East and thereby created one great national market

• 1870’s-1880’s -> railroads overbuilt

• Speculators like Jay Gould & J.P. Morgan quickly moved in to take control of bankrupt railroads and consolidate them

Industrial Supremacy

Industrial Empires

The Steel Industry

• Bessemer Process – In 1850’s, Henry Bessemer learned that blasting air though molten iron produced high quality steel

• Great Lakes region, with abundant coal reserves and access to iron ore made region leading steel producer

Andrew Carnegie

• Started manufacturing steel in Pittsburgh in the 1870’s

• Used a business strategy known as vertical integration – a company controls every stage of the industrial process, from mining raw materials to transporting the finished product

• By 1900, Carnegie Steel employed 20,000 workers and produced more steel than all mills in Great Britain

John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust

• By 1881, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust controlled 90% of the oil refinery business

• Used a business strategy known as horizontal integration – One company buys out all of its’ competitors under one single corporate umbrella (a trust)

• By controlling the supply and prices of oil products, Standard Oil and Rockefeller’s fortunes soared

The Protectors of Our Industries

The Protectors of Our Industries

The ‘Bosses’ of the Senate

The ‘Bosses’ of the Senate

The ‘Robber Barons’ of the Past

The ‘Robber Barons’ of the Past

Modern ‘Robber Barons’??

Modern ‘Robber Barons’??

Regulating the Trusts

Regulating the Trusts

1877 Munn. v. IL

1886 Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. IL

1890 Sherman Antitrust Act in “restraint of trade” “rule of reason” loophole

1895 US v. E. C. Knight Co.

1877 Munn. v. IL

1886 Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. IL

1890 Sherman Antitrust Act in “restraint of trade” “rule of reason” loophole

1895 US v. E. C. Knight Co.

Industrial Supremacy

Laissez-Faire Capitalism

New Business CultureNew Business Culture1. Laissez Faire the ideology of the

Industrial Age.1. Laissez Faire the ideology of the

Industrial Age.

Individual as a moral and economic ideal.

Individuals should compete freely in the marketplace.

The market was not man-made or invented.

No room for government in the market!

Individual as a moral and economic ideal.

Individuals should compete freely in the marketplace.

The market was not man-made or invented.

No room for government in the market!

Social DarwinismSocial Darwinism British economist. Advocate of

laissez-faire. Adapted Darwin’s

ideas from the “Origin of Species” to humans.

Notion of “Survival of the Fittest.”

British economist. Advocate of

laissez-faire. Adapted Darwin’s

ideas from the “Origin of Species” to humans.

Notion of “Survival of the Fittest.”

Herbert SpencerHerbert Spencer

Social Darwinism in America

Social Darwinism in America

William Graham SumnerFolkways (1906)

William Graham SumnerFolkways (1906)

$ Individuals must have absolute freedom to struggle, succeed or fail.

$ Therefore, state intervention to reward society and the economy is futile!

$ Individuals must have absolute freedom to struggle, succeed or fail.

$ Therefore, state intervention to reward society and the economy is futile!

The Gospel of Wealth:

Religion in the Era of Industrialization

The Gospel of Wealth:

Religion in the Era of Industrialization

Russell H. ConwellRussell H. Conwell

$ Wealth no longer looked upon as bad.

$ Viewed as a sign of God’s approval.

$ Christian duty to accumulate wealth.

$ Should not help the poor.

$ Wealth no longer looked upon as bad.

$ Viewed as a sign of God’s approval.

$ Christian duty to accumulate wealth.

$ Should not help the poor.

“On Wealth”“On Wealth”

Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie

$ The Anglo-Saxon race is superior.

$ “Gospel of Wealth” (1901).

$ Inequality is inevitable and good.

$ Wealthy should act as “trustees” for their “poorer brethren.”

$ The Anglo-Saxon race is superior.

$ “Gospel of Wealth” (1901).

$ Inequality is inevitable and good.

$ Wealthy should act as “trustees” for their “poorer brethren.”

The Reorganization of Work

The Reorganization of Work

Frederick W. TaylorThe Principles of Scientific Management (1911)

Frederick W. TaylorThe Principles of Scientific Management (1911)

The Reorganization of Work

The Reorganization of Work

The Assembly LineThe Assembly Line

New Business Culture:“The American Dream?”

New Business Culture:“The American Dream?”

3. Protestant (Puritan) “Work Ethic” Horatio Alger [100+ novels]

3. Protestant (Puritan) “Work Ethic” Horatio Alger [100+ novels]

Is the idea of the “self-made man” a MYTH??Is the idea of the “self-made man” a MYTH??

Industrial Supremacy

The Struggle of Organized Labor

The Changing American

Labor Force

The Changing American

Labor Force

Child LaborChild Labor

Labor Unrest: 1870-1900

Labor Unrest: 1870-1900

Industrial Warfare

• With surplus of cheap labor, management held most of the power in its struggle with organized

• Strikers could easily be replaced by bringing in strikebreakers, or scabs – unemployed persons desperate for jobs

A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

A Striker Confronts a SCAB!

Industrial Warfare

Employers used all of the following tactics for defeating unions:

• The lockout: closing the factory to break a labor movement before it could get organized

• Blacklists: names of prounion workers circulated among employers

• Yellow-dog contracts: workers being told that they must sign an agreement not to join a union

• Calling in private guards and state militia to put down strikes

• Obtaining court injunctions against strikes

Management vs. Labor

Management vs. Labor

““Tools” of Tools” of ManagementManagement

““Tools” of Tools” of LaborLabor

““scabs”scabs”

P. R. campaignP. R. campaign

PinkertonsPinkertons

lockoutlockout

blacklistingblacklisting

yellow-dog yellow-dog contractscontracts

court injunctionscourt injunctions

open shopopen shop

boycottsboycotts

sympathy sympathy demonstrationsdemonstrations

informational informational picketingpicketing

closed shopsclosed shops

organized organized strikesstrikes

““wildcat” strikeswildcat” strikes

National Labor Union

• Founded in 1866

• The first attempt to organize all workers in all states – both skilled and unskilled, agricultural and industrial

• Championed goals of 8 hour workday and higher wages

• Equal rights for women and blacks

• Lost support after the strikes of 1877

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

• One of the worst outbreaks of labor violence in the 19th century

• During economic depression, railroad companies cut wages to reduce costs

• Strike on Baltimore & Ohio Railroad shut down 2/3 of country’s railroads

• Railroad workers joined by an estimated 500,000 workers from other industries

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Knights of Labor

• Founded in 1881 -> opened its membership to all workers, including African Americans and women

• Worker cooperatives

• Abolition of child labor

• Abolition of trusts and monopolies

• Declined after the violence of the Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886

Knights of LaborKnights of Labor

Terence V. PowderlyTerence V. Powderly

An injury to one is the concern of An injury to one is the concern of all!all!

Haymarket bombing (1886)

• Chicago, 1886 -> site of the first May Day labor movement, calling for a general strike to achieve 8 hour workday

• Police attempted to break up meeting -> an anarchist threw a bomb

• Result – Americans concluded that the union movement was radical and violent

• Knights of Labor lost popularity and membership

Haymarket Riot (1886)

Haymarket Riot (1886)

McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Concentrated on attaining practical economic goals

• Led by Samuel Gompers• Went after basics of higher wages and improved

working conditions• Used tactic of collective bargaining -> process

through which employers negotiate as a united group rather than individuals

• Pressed for closed shop workplaces

Homestead Strike (1892)

• Henry Clay Frick, manager of Carnegie’s Homestead Steel plant, forced a strike when he cut wages by nearly 20 percent

• Frick used the lockout, Pinkerton Guards (private security guards), and strikebreakers to defeat the walkout

• Failure of strike set the union movement in steel industry back until New Deal of 1930’s

The Corporate “Bully-Boys”:

PinkertonAgents

The Corporate “Bully-Boys”:

PinkertonAgents

A “Compa

nyTown”:

Pullman, IL

A “Compa

nyTown”:

Pullman, IL

Pullman Strike (1894)

• George Pullman’s company town (Pullman, Illinois) manufactured famous railroad sleeping cars

• Announced general cut in wages and fired workers that came to bargain with him

• Workers appealed to the American Railroad Union whose leader, Eugene V. Debs, directed railroad workers not to handle any trains with Pullman cars

• Tied up rail transportation across the country

Results of Pullman Strike

• Pullman linked his railroad cars to mail trains

• Pullman appealed to President Grover Cleveland to use the army to keep mail trains running – he agreed

• In re Debs (1895) -> Supreme Court approved the use of court injunctions against strikes, giving employers a weapon to break unions

Pullman CarsPullman Cars

A Pullman A Pullman porterporter

International Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)

International Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)

“Big Bill” Haywood of the

IWW

“Big Bill” Haywood of the

IWW

Violence was justified to Violence was justified to overthrow capitalism.overthrow capitalism.

The Hand That Will Rule the World One

Big Union

The Hand That Will Rule the World One

Big Union

Mother Jones: “The Miner’s Angel”

Mother Jones: “The Miner’s Angel”

Mary Harris.Mary Harris.

Organizer for theOrganizer for theUnited MineUnited MineWorkers.Workers.

Founded the Founded the SocialSocialDemocratic Party Democratic Party in 1898.in 1898.

One of the One of the founding founding members of the I. members of the I. W. W. in 1905.W. W. in 1905.

Labor Union MembershipLabor Union Membership

Workers Benefits Today

Workers Benefits Today