America’s HistorySeventh Edition

CHAPTER 17The Busy Hive: Industrial America

at Work, 1877-1911

Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

James A. HenrettaRebecca Edwards

Robert O. Self

I. Business Gets BiggerA. Rise of the Corporation

1. Vertical Integration• corporation controls everything needed to take raw materials and

create a packaged product (ex: Swift in Chicago)• “predatory pricing”: large firms undercut smaller businesses’ prices

until the smaller businesses fail.2. Standard Oil and the Rise of the Trusts

• John D. Rockefeller (oil) created leading refiner, Standard Oil• used vertical integration to control production and sales; alliances

with railroad executives• “horizontal integration”: invited rivals to merge (they had no

alternative financially)• “trust”: business owners charge a small group of trustees to hold

stock from several firms and manage them as one.

1. What made Chicago an ideal city for meatpacking?

2. Consider the work the men in this image are undertaking in 1882. What aspects of the meatpacking process depicted here might have drawn fire from progressives in the early twentieth century?

3. What other industries were critical to the success of a meatpacking company in this era?

I. Business Gets BiggerB. Consumer Culture

1. The Department Store• The Department Store – sold many different products in “departments”• begun by John Wanamaker in Philadelphia (1875)• window displays, Christmas decorations, advertisements all became part of

urban culture• at fairs and expositions stores sought to connect with rural customers• used catalogs to market goods to those outside proximity to stores• by 1900 there were 1,200 mail-order companies.

2. Modern Advertisingby 1900 magazine ads used artwork to attract consumers’ interest; at turn of the

century companies were spending more than $90m/year on ads in newspapers and magazines; 1903 Ladies’ Home Journal had more than one million subscribers; prices were declining making goods more accessible to consumers.

I. Business Gets BiggerB. Consumer Culture

2. Modern Advertising• by 1900 magazine ads used artwork to attract consumers’

interest• at turn of the century companies were spending more

than $90m/year on ads in newspapers and magazines• 1903 Ladies’ Home Journal had more than one million

subscribers• prices were declining making goods more accessible to

consumers.

I. Business Gets BiggerC. The Corporate Workplace

1. The Managerial Revolution• “white collar” professionals• 1850s-1880s emergence of managers on railway lines, each with

different functions and a line of communication between them• “middle managers” supervised departments such as accounting,

purchasing, auditing.

2. Women in the Corporate Workplace3. Company Salesmen

I. Business Gets BiggerC. The Corporate Workplace

2. Women in the Corporate Workplace• female office workers were beneath managers• by turn of the century 77% of stenographers and typists were

women• saleswomen worked with customers in department stores• prior to availability of daycare, women worked at home doing

“piecework” (sewing projects paid by item), taking in laundry, or caring for boarders

• in 1900 4 million women were working for wages: one-third in domestic service, one-third in industry, the rest in office work, teaching, nursing.

3. Company Salesmen

I. Business Gets BiggerC. The Corporate Workplace

3. Company Salesmen• 1870s “the drummer” or traveling salesmen emerged• created opportunity for nationwide distribution of

products• managers began to set quotas, reward salesmen for their

productivity.

1. Describe this man. What is his occupation?

2. Who is the audience for this advertisement?

3. What is this advertisement asking its audience to do? Why?

I. Business Gets BiggerD. On the Shop Floor

1. Skilled Workers• male skilled craft workers still provided their own tools, worked at their

own pace in many industries (ex: coal mining)• the “stint”: self-imposed limit on how much they would produce daily.

2. Mass Production• increases in technology led to a loss of independence among workers as

less skilled was required to complete tasks (“de-skilling of labor”)• Ford called mechanized manufacturing “mass production”• machines operated the tools once operated by human hands• allowed corporations to cut labor costs and required fewer skilled

workers.

3. Scientific Management

I. Business Gets BiggerD. On the Shop Floor

3. Scientific Management• Frederick W. Taylor argued for maximum output by 1)

eliminating the need for brain power in manual labor and 2) remove workers’ authority, decisions made by managers alone

• implementation was expensive as workers resisted; increasingly women and children were part of the unskilled labor force

• by 1900 one in five children under age 16 worked outside of the home

• African American workers at the bottom of the pay scale.

1. Describe these workers photographed by Lewis Hine.

2. Based on this image, what kind of conditions are present in this glass factory?.

3. Who is Hine’s audience for this photograph?.

4. In your opinion, does this image support or contradict a political cause from the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries?.

II. Immigrants, East and WestA. Newcomers from Europe

1. West• mass migration from Europe began in 1840s during famine in Ireland• voyage to U.S. lasted 10-20 days with people jammed below ship decks in steerage• 1892 onward European immigrants arrived through Ellis Island (NY)• some workers had skills, many more did not• “sojourners” planned to work, save, and return to Europe• approximately one in three immigrants to the U.S. in late 19th/early 20th centuries

returned to their homeland.

1. East – Eastern European Jews mostly of German descent; 1880-1920 more than 3 million Jews came from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe for work and to escape religious persecution.

2. East

II. Immigrants, East and WestA. Newcomers from Europe

2. East• Eastern European Jews mostly of German descent• 1880-1920 more than 3 million Jews came from Russia,

Ukraine, Poland, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe for work and to escape religious persecution.

II. Immigrants, East and WestB. Asian Americans and Exclusion

1. Immigrants• first Chinese came to U.S. in 1840s to participate in Gold Rush• initially worked in restaurants and laundries• discrimination against “Asiatics” intensified during economic depression of 1870s• calls for deportation.

1. Chinese Excluded – Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) barred workers from entering country; not repealed until 1943; Korean and Japanese immigrants began arriving at turn of the century; 1906 ruling stated that these new immigrants were not eligible for citizenship; Chinese were nation’s first “illegal immigrants.”

2. Chinese Excluded

II. Immigrants, East and WestB. Asian Americans and Exclusion

2. Chinese Excluded• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) barred workers from

entering country• not repealed until 1943• Korean and Japanese immigrants began arriving at turn of

the century• 1906 ruling stated that these new immigrants were not

eligible for citizenship• Chinese were nation’s first “illegal immigrants.”

1. Describe this cartoon.

2. Who are these two men?

3. What does this illustration tell us about 19th-century America?

III. Labor Gets OrganizedA. The Emergence of a Labor Movement

1. Trade Unions• workers organizations that sought to negotiate directly with employers for the benefit of

the workers• an alternative to seeking assistance from politicians in worker-labor disputes• striking workers faced being “blacklisted” (not hired) because of action against employers.

2. Agrarians• farmers’ advocates; argued against high tariffs because of their negative impact on rural

families• farmers criticized the railroads, large corporations, and eastern banks• National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (1867) focused on cooperation and mutual

aid among farmers (anti-corporate).

3. Greenback-Labor PartyB. The Knights of Labor

1. A Cooperative Commonwealth2. Haymarket Square

III. Labor Gets OrganizedA. The Emergence of a Labor Movement

3. Greenback-Labor Party• 1870s political organization of Grangers, labor advocates, and

workingmen’s parties• protested convict labor and the end of Reconstruction, advocated the

protection of the individual man’s vote• wanted an eight-hour workday and an increase of the amount of money

in circulation to stimulate the economy• advocates of “producerism”: critical of middle management and

advanced the cause of those who labored with their hands• radicalized thousands of farmers.

B. The Knights of Labor1. A Cooperative Commonwealth2. Haymarket Square

III. Labor Gets OrganizedB. The Knights of Labor

1. A Cooperative Commonwealth• founded in 1869 as a secret society in Philadelphia; led by Terrence Powderly• participated in Greenback Party movement; wanted factories run by employees• open membership• Temperance• included skilled craftsmen, domestic workers, textile workers• Leonora Barry, full-time organizer of working women.

Haymarket SquareHaymarket Square – Knights were successful with grassroots, spontaneous strikes; 1886 protest at McCormick reaper in Chicago led to violence; “anarchism”: revolutionary advocacy of a stateless society; May 4, 1886, strike at Haymarket Square became violent and damaged the public image of the labor movement; “yellow-dog contracts”: pledge by workers not to join a union.

III. Labor Gets OrganizedB. The Knights of LaborHaymarket Square• Knights were successful with grassroots, spontaneous

strikes• 1886 protest at McCormick reaper in Chicago led to

violence• “anarchism”: revolutionary advocacy of a stateless society• May 4, 1886, strike at Haymarket Square became violent

and damaged the public image of the labor movement• “yellow-dog contracts”: pledge by workers not to join a

union.

III. Labor Gets OrganizedC. Farmers and Workers: The Cooperative Alliance

1. Farmers’ Alliance• rural movement founded in Texas in 1870s• largest farm-based political movement in U.S. history; advocated

cooperative stores and exchanges to remove middlemen from sales• “subtreasury system”: federal government would hold crops in public

warehouse, issue loans on their value until they could be sold• cooperated with the Knights of Labor.

2. Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)• investigated interstate shipping, forced railroads to make their rates

public, could sue over unreasonable rates• compromise between farmer-labor advocates and those sympathetic to

big business• ICC’s power was eroded over time by Supreme Court rulings

1. In Viktor, Colorado, angry miners exploded the shaft house and boiler at the Strong Mine during a labor dispute in 1894. How might Americans living in industrial and agricultural communities have responded to this image in their newspapers?

2. In the late 19th century workers found themselves embroiled in conflicts with employers that often resulted in strikes. As in this case in Colorado, why did workers sometimes resort to violence?

III. Labor Gets OrganizedD. Another Path: The American Federation of Labor

1. Samuel Gompers• after Haymarket some K of L workers joined together to form

American Federation of Labor (AFL)• Gompers (Dutch-Jewish cigar maker) led until 1924• demanded that workers earn greater share of corporate profit.

2. “Pure and Simple Unionism”• Gompers’s doctrine: membership strictly limited to workers,

organized by craft and occupation, no reliance on outside advisers• only those goals that immediately benefited workers: better

wages, work hours, conditions• advocated collective bargaining• membership grew to more than 2 million by 1904• not inclusive of women or blacks.