UNIT 2 GILDED AGE PART Industrialization, Great Entrepreneurs, Rise of Organized Labor, Urbanization and Immigration

RISE OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY

• American industrialization proceeded at a rapid pace in the decades after the Civil War

RISE OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY

• Contribution of Government

• Protection of property and contracts

• Passing of protective tariffs

• System of patents fostered new inventions

FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM

• Encourages entrepreneurs to develop new industries and expand them

• Individuals are free to produce and sell whatever they wish

• People go into business to make a profit

• Enables a massive supply of goods to be unleashed

FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM

• Prices are set by supply and demand

• Inefficient companies that are unable to compete go out of business

• Theory of Social Darwinism begins to develop

• What is Social Darwinism

EMERGENCE OF MODERN INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY IN THE U.S.

• Growth of Population, rise of corporate form of business, and skills of entrepreneurs allowed US economy to grow

• Development of the corporation as a business organization – company charted by a state and recognized in law as a separate “person”

• No longer just individuals but shareholders with “stocks”

EXPANSION OF RAILROADS

• Development of the Transcontinental Railroad and other new railroad lines:

- improved travel to the west

- Created a demand for steel

- Tied the country together

- Created a national market from coast to coast

TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS• Bessemer Process in steel

production

• Electricity gave birth to new industries and inventions:

-Sewing machine

-Typewriter

-Telegraph

-Telephone

• Oil industry replaced whale industry

• All contributed to America’s economic growth

AGE OF INVENTIONS

• Create a foldable “flip book” of the most important inventions of the Gilded Age

• Fold 8 sheets of paper in half (you may want to fold them at different intervals rather than exactly in half)

• On the top fold or flap write the name of each invention

• The first page should be labeled Age of Inventions

• The last page should be labeled Overall Impact on Daily Life

• On the inside write the inventor, year and impact

• Bessemer Process

• Telephone

• Light Bulb

• Sewing Machine

• Typewriter

• Airplane

GREAT ENTREPRENEURS

• Entrepreneurs – individuals or small groups who start a business in the hope of making a profit.

• The entrepreneurs utilized large-scale production to make goods that were cheaper and better quality

• Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller begin to shape and organize US business and industry all to increase production and gain wealth

• Because of the lavish lifestyle that came from increasing profits 1865 to 1900 was known as the “Gilded Age”

GREAT ENTREPRENEURS

• “Robber Barons or Captains of Industry”

• Robber Barons - businessmen who used ruthless tactics to destroy competition and to keep workers wages low

• Captains of Industry - businessmen who donated millions for the public good

ANDREW CARNEGIE

• Fostered the Gospel of Wealth

• Began with steel production in Pittsburgh

• Controlled all aspects of steel production (vertical consolidation)iron ore fields, coal mines, ships, steel mills)

• Kept workers wages low

• Philanthropist who gave money to build libraries

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER• Created Standard Oil company

• Controlled most of the oil refineries in US (horizontal consolidation)

• Used influence to obtain secret, beneficial rates from train companies, giving him competitive advantage

• Forced to dissolve company when it became a monopoly (complete control of the oil industry)

• Philanthropist who gave money to build universities

GOVERNMENTS ROLE• Government took Laissez-faire or “hands-off”

policy towards business

• Government promoted economic growth by:

• providing laws to protect property

• enforce contracts

• impose tariff duties on foreign goods

• regulate currency and interstate trade

• Interstate Commerce Act (1887)—prohibited unfair business practices, first time Congress stepped in to regulate business in America

• Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) - federal law designed to stop monopolies from engaging in unfair practices that prevented fair competition.

GOSPEL OF WEALTH

• Read the excerpt of the Gospel of Wealth on page 68 and respond to the two questions in complete sentences.

DAILY ASSIGNMENT (NOTES QUIZ GRADE)

• Briefly explain what demands you would ask for as a union member, organizer, or leader. Be sure to consider what you would identify as either a necessity or a “luxury/ideal work perk.”

• At the start of the next class we will briefly compare your lists and mine and then discuss the demands of the Industrial Revolution unions.

RISE OF ORGANIZED LABOR

PROBLEMS FACED BY WORKERS IN INDUSTRIAL AMERICA

-Most workers were unskilled

-Long hours and low wages

-Poor working conditions and repetitive tasks

-Unhealthy or hazardous working conditions

-Child labor

-Lack of job security

So what could workers do to fight back?

RISE OF LABOR UNIONS

• Workers tried to bargain collectively to improve conditions by forming Unions

RISE OF LABOR UNIONS• Unions used strikes (temporarily refusing to work) to bargain with businesses

TWO MAJOR UNIONS • Knights of Labor: Terrence

Powderly

-tried to unite all American workers, both skilled and unskilled, into one national labor union

-this was not successful

• American Federation of Labor: Samuel Gompers

-National federation of different craft unions of skilled workers

GOVERNMENT ATTITUDE TOWARDS UNIONS

• Government had anti-union bias

-Many in government saw unions as driving up the cost of goods

• Haymarket Affair of 1896—bomb explodes during Union demonstration

-America now begins to associate unions with violence and other radical ideas

LABOR UNREST FROM 1870--1900

ASSIGNMENT

• Summarize why industrialization was so important to the U.S. and why labor unions were important.

• Do you think that labor unions were a natural product of the U.S.’ industrialization?

URBANIZATION

URBANIZATION

• The mass movement of people from the countryside to cities

• Demography – study of population

• By 1900 40%

of Americans lived in

cities.

URBANIZATION

• Movement was caused by farming technology which meant fewer workers needed on farms while demand for labor in factories and cities expanded

PROBLEMS BROUGHT BY URBANIZATION

• Inability of cities to supply essential public services to growing populations:

-lack of hospitals, police, garbage collection, and schools

-streets were noisy, dirty, and congested

PROBLEMS BROUGHT BY URBANIZATION

• Overcrowded tenements: one room apartments for large families that lacked daylight & adequate plumbing

• Excessive pollution, sewage, and contamination of water supplies

• Social tension created by rich and poor living side by side leads to more crime

POLITICAL CORRUPTION

• “Political Machine”

-run by a political boss

-helped immigrants and poor with basic public services in exchange for votes

-used control of city governments to make personal fortunes through overpriced contracts

• Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall in New York City

How the Political Machine Works

Residents Vote for candidates supported by political machines.

Machines maintain power over city governments.

Political Machines work to control city politics

Run by powerful boss who had influence on city officials

Machines hand out jobs, contracts, and favors to the City Residents.

ASSIGNMENT

• Create your own political cartoon reflecting the impact of political machines.

• You can draw it, use photos, or computer graphics.

• Your cartoon must show that you know what political machines and political bosses are and that you recognized the role they played in the Gilded Age.

QUICK WRITE

• Using your previous knowledge (movies, 8th grade, stories, etc.) describe what it was like for immigrants traveling to the U.S. during the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

• Using the past weeks’ discussions as your base, explain what the living and working conditions were like for the immigrants?

IMMIGRATION

WHY IMMIGRANTS CAME TO USPUSH AND PULL FACTORS

• “Push” factors: oppression, poverty, wars, and ethnic persecution

• “Pull” factors: belief in American freedom, economic opportunity, and cultural ties

• All immigrants came to US seeking a better life

“NEW IMMIGRANTS”• New wave of immigrants to US from

Southern and Eastern Europe: Russia, Italy, Poland, Greece

• mostly Catholic and Jewish

• often little or no education, very poor

• spoke no English

“NEW IMMIGRANTS”

• Immigrants tended to settle in large Eastern Cities

• Lived in ethnic communities called ghettos where they could use native language and culture

AMERICANIZATION• The children of immigrants were often

“Americanized” in the public schools

• Some people opposed immigration known as Nativists

• America seen as “melting pot”, in which immigrants are melted down and reshaped

CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT

• Nativism leads to Chinese Exclusion Act

• This was the 1st federal law restricting immigration

• Prohibited immigration from China for 10 years

QUICK WRITE (PART TWO)

• Did the images and previous knowledge you had match up to what we discussed to day regarding the immigrant experiecne in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

IMAGES OF THE GILDED AGE

FORD’S ASSEMBLY LINE

• http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

HAYMARKET SQUARE RIOT

"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Ellis Island Arrival