THE GILDED AGE

MARK TWAIN

BROOKLYN BRIDGENEW YORK CITY

1883

Became of Symbol of America’s transition from an agricultural to an industrial society.

THE IMPACT OF THE INDUSTRIALGROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES

WAS UNEVEN IN TERMS OF:

• Geography – most industrywas in the North and

Midwestwith less in South.

• People – a few gained fortunes

but most worked long, dangerous

hours for little pay.

SOCIAL DARWINISM

• Darwin’s scientific theory of ‘survival of the fittest” was applied to society in general.

• The strongest people, businesses, and nations would survive and the weak would die out, and that was the natural order.

IRON AND STEEL

•Henry Bessemer invented a process to make a stronger yet less expensive steel.•Spurred technological advances such as

RAILROAD TRACKS

GIRDERS FOR SKYSCRAPERS,

CABLES FOR BRIDGES.

SKYSCRAPERS•Became symbol of unprecedented change

in cities.•Taller the skyscraper, more money made by developer.•Led to the invention of the elevator.

ANDREW CARNEGIESTEEL GIANT

SCOTS IMMIGRANT WHO MADE FORTUNE OFF STEEL INDUSTRY BY UTILIZING THE BESSEMER PROCESS.CARNEGIE STEEL.

USED VERTICAL INTEGRATION TO DOMINATE STEEL INDUSTRY

BELIEVED “THE WEALTHY HAD THE RIGHT TO MAKE MONEY BUT ALSO RESPONSIBILITY TO SPEND IT WISELY.”

BELIEVED “THE WEALTHY HAD THE RIGHT TO MAKE MONEY BUT ALSO RESPONSIBILITY TO SPEND IT WISELY.”

• Sold his company to J. P. Morgan for $400 million.

• Spent the rest of his life on philanthropy – charity.

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLEROIL GIANT

• Standard Oil Company

OIL REFINING BECAME BIG BUSINESS WITH INVENTION OF CARS, TRAINS AND TURBINE ENGINES.

Horizontal integration was one of his most successful business practices. (He bought or ran out of business all other refineries.)

• 1879 His company, Standard Oil, controlled 90% of oil industry.

HAD A MONOPOLY OF THE OIL INDUSTRY.

RAILROAD

INDUSTRY

• Transportation was the key to successful industrialization.• U.S. needed means to move freight and people quickly.• Needed tracks to criss-cross nation and connect cities.

CORNELIUS VANDERBILTRAILROAD GIANT

•Bought all railroad lines connecting New York to Chicago.• Replaced irons tracks with new steel tracks.• Laid 2 sets of tracks so trains could move in both directions at same time.• Developed 4 time zones.

INDUSTRIALISTS• Robber barons

who used ruthless business practices to run competitors out of business.

• Didn’t care about the his workers.

• Captains of Industry who invested millions in innovations to improve the infrastructure of the U.S.

• Created economic growth

• Donated millions to philanthropic causes.

INDUSTRIALISTS PAID FOR THE INVENTION AND PERFECTION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES WITH THE

TREMENDOUS PROFITS FROM THEIR MONOPOLIES.

EMPLOYEES

1.White males2.Few black males3.Some women (at

½ salary of males)

WORKING CONDITIONS

•Hard, manual labor•Dangerous working conditions• Low pay• Long hours

• Conditions were caused by owners trying to maximize profits and minimize costs.

• Example: Steel workers worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week, 16 cents an hour and hundreds were killed or injured on the job each year.

• Coal miners faced additional danger of cave-ins and explosions.

• Most families had to send kids to work in mines.

LABOR UNIONS

•Formed to protest poor working conditions.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AFL)

•Created in 1881 by Samuel Gompers•Open to white, male, skilled laborers•8 hour work day•Collective bargaining

LABOR STRIKES

•Violent confrontations between labor and management.• Both government and majority of Americans supported industry during the early labor movement because they believed unionists were communists and other radicals trying to destroy the United States

GOVERNMENT

• Laissez-faire capitalism – the government did not regulate big business because that was best for the economy.

UPRISING OF 20,000

• 1909-1910 Strike by female textile workers over wages, working conditions and living conditions.

• Strikers made some gains• Shorter work week• Higher wages

TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY

• Textile factory with over 500 workers.• One fire escape, locked doors open inward,

fire hoses and sprinklers not hooked up to water supply.

• March 25, 1911 Fire breaks out – 146 workers either burned or jumped to their deaths.

• Resulted in improved safety measures, regular inspections and higher sanitation standards.

URBANIZATION

• Millions of Americans moved to the cities for jobs in the factories.

• Millions of immigrant poured into the U.S. from across the world to find jobs in the factories in the cities.

LIFE IN THE CITIES

• Most factory workers lived in tenement buildings – run-down, crowded, unsanitary and wooden apartment buildings in the slums of the cities.

• Jacob Riis, in his book, How the Other Half Lives, publicized the lives of the urban poor.

REACTION TO INCREASED IMMIGRATION

• Big business welcomed the new immigrants because a labor supply was needed to fill factory jobs.

• American labor unions resented new immigrants because they would work for lower wages.

OLD VERSUS NEW

• “Old immigrants” had come from Northern and Western Europe (England, France, Germany. Etc.) and shared the same languages, ethnicity, religions, and culture.

• “New Immigrants” were coming from Southern or Eastern Europe or Asia.

• Different political ideas (communism and socialism)

• Looked, thought, spoke, and acted different.

NATIVISMTHE POLICY OF PROTECTING THE INTERESTS OF NATIVE INHABITANTS AGAINST

THOSE OF IMMIGRANTS.

SETTLEMENT HOUSES

• Women reformers established settlement houses – community centers in the slums that provided services for neighbors and sought to remedy poverty.

• The early social gospel movement emerged during the rapidly industrializing American society in an effort to apply Biblical teachings to the problems caused by industrialization.

POLITICAL MACHINES

• Political Machines were organizations that provided social services and jobs in exchange for votes.

• “These were big cities with big city problems and the government structures designed to cope with these problems grew. As the government grew it became the livelihood for many professional politicians. Some would argue that these politicians were corrupt, they would argue that they provided a needed service.”

• The machines were run by a boss who in turn had precinct captains, ward captains and district captains underneath him.

• All of them made sure that the poor has what they needed.

• They also made sure the poor voted... for them!

INCOME GAP

• There was a huge income gap during the Gilded Age

• 1% of the population (the industrialists and their families) controlled 90% of the income.

• The urban poor were at the bottom of the income ladder – working long hours in factory and mills jobs for little pay and no benefits.

MIDDLE CLASS

• In between, there developed a middle class – white collar workers who worked as professionals – lawyers, doctors, secretaries, educators, etc., and earned enough income to live in skyscraper apartments and to enjoy many of the new inventions and entertainments available in the cities.

• Electricity• Sports• Movies• Phonographs• Reading – the literacy rate

grew to almost 90% of the population after the invention of the electric light.