The Industrial Revolution

Student Activity

• Read Chapter 6 Section 1 – 15 minutes

• Create a visual chart demonstrating the innovation, person responsible for that innovation and how it encouraged industrialism.

• On the back of the chart predict how industrialism might affect the American economy, large cities and Americans in general.

1900 SpindletopLocated on a hill near

Beaumont.

Patillo Higgins persuaded Capt. Anthony Lucas to work

with him.

They found investors and began to drill.

1/10/-1901 – they struck oil!

The Texas oil boom had begun!

The Expansion of Industry

• After 1865, the U.S. was still largely an agricultural nation.

• By 1920, the U.S. was the leading industrial power in the world

• This enormous growth was due to three factors:

• 1) Natural Resources

• 2) Governmental support for businesses.

• 3) Urbanization

Black Gold

• 1859 – Edwin Drake– Used a steam engine to drill

for oil.– This started the oil boom in

the Midwest and later Texas.

– 1st process turned oil into kerosene and gasoline, the by-product was thrown away.

– Later, when cars became popular, gas becomes the most important part.

Bessemer Steel Process

• Invented by Henry Bessemer and William Kelly

• Manufacturing process of removing carbon and other impurities from steel.

New Uses For Steel

• The railroads, with thousands of miles of track, were the biggest customers for steel

Other uses emerged: barbed wire

farm equipment bridge construction

(Brooklyn Bridge- 1883)the first skyscrapers

First SkyscraperHome Insurance Building in Chicago

The Power of Electricity•Thomas Alva Edison

•Established the world’s first research laboratory•Perfected the incandescent light bulb•Invented the system for producing and distributing electrical power.•By 1890, electricity powered numerous machines

Thomas Alva Edison

The Typewriter• Christopher Sholes• invented the typewriter in

1867• His invention forever

affected office work and paperwork

• It also opened many new jobs for women

• 1870: Women made up less than 5% of workforce 1910

Alexander Graham Bell/Thomas Watson

• Invented the telephone

• Created new jobs for women

Student Activity

• Make a chart/poster about how industry changed the environment.

• Give 3 examples

• 10 minutes

The Age of Railroads

• A National Network –– By 1869 they were transcontinental– They brought Americans dreams of available land,

adventure, and a fresh start.– Made possible only by harsh lives of rr workers

- 2000 killed and 20,000 injured while laying track.

Railroad Time

• Each community still operated on its own time and travelers might have to reset their watches 20 times from California to Maine.

• Professor C. F. Dowd proposed that the earth’s surface be divided into 24 time zones. – One for each hour of the day.

• Under his plan, the US would have 4 zones:– Eastern– Central– Mountain– Pacific

• Railroads endorsed the plan and many towns followed suit.

• 1884 – international conference set world wide time zones that incorporated railroad time.

• 1918 – the US Congress adopted the time zone as a standard for the nation.

THE WORLD IS DIVIDED INTO 24 TIME ZONES

THE UNITED STATES IS DIVIDED INTO 4 TIME ZONES

Opportunities and Opportunists

• Growth of railroads influenced industries and businesses. – Iron, coal, steel, lumber, and glass

• Fostered growth of towns• Established new markets• Offered rich opportunities for visionaries and

profiteers.

New Towns and Markets

• Individual towns began to specialize in products– Chicago – stockyards– Minneapolis – grain industries

Abilene, KansasFlagstaff, ArizonaDenver, ColoradoSeattle, WashingtonOwed their existence to railroads

Pullman

• George M. Pullman– Built a factory for manufacturing sleepers and

other railroad cars on the Illinois prairie.• Built a nearby town for his employees that supplied

almost all of the worker’s needs.• Drawback – town was under company control• He cut employee’s pay eventually and would not lower

rent prices.• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILI4a2JpdWQ• This led to a violent strike in 1894

George Pullman

Pullman, Illinois

Pullman Car 1859

Credit Mobilier

• Pullman wanted control and profit• Stockholders of the Union Pacific formed a

construction company called the Credit Mobilier.– They gave the company contracts to lay track at 2-

3 times the actual cost and pocketed the profits.• They donated some of their profits to representatives

in Congress in 1867

• Congressional investigation of the company found that the officers had taken up to $23 million in stocks, bonds, and cash.– Testimony implicated VP Colfax, Congressman

James Garfield.– Public figures were allowed to keep their profits

and were not really punished.– Republican party was tarnished.

The Grange and the Railroads

• Farmers were disturbed by railroad corruption

• The Grangers demanded government control over the railroad industry

Railroad Abuses

• Farmers were angry because of:– Misuse of govt. land grants• The railroads were selling land to other businesses

instead of settlers.

– Railroads were fixing prices keeping farmers in debt.

– Charged different customers different rates

Granger Laws

• Grangers sponsored state and local political candidates, elected legislators, and pressed for laws to protect their interests.

• 1871 – Illinois authorized a commission to establish rates and prohibit discrimination.

• Similar laws were passed in other states. These laws were called Granger laws.

Railroads Fought Back

– They challenged the constitutionality of the regulatory laws.

– 1877 – Case of Munn v. Illinois, the Supreme Court upheld the Granger Laws.• The states won the rights to regulate railroads for the

benefit of farmers and consumers.

– The Grangers helped to establish and important principle – the govt.’s rights to regulate private industry to serve the public interest.

Interstate Commerce Act

• 1886 – Supreme Court ruled that a state could not set rates on interstate commerce.

• Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 – established the right of the federal government to supervise railroad activities and established a five-member Interstate Commerce Commission for that purpose.

• ICC – had difficulty regulating railroad rates because of the legal process and resistance from the railroads.

• 1897 – final blow came when the Supreme Court ruled that it could not set maximum railroad rates.

Panic and Consolidation

• Bankruptcy caused by:– Corporate abuses– Mismanagement– Overbuilding– Competition

• Their financial problems influenced the nationwide economic collapse.

• 1894 – ¼ of the nation’s railroads had been taken over by financial institutions.

• Large investment firms reorganized the railroads.

• 7 powerful companies held power over 2/3 of the nation’s tracks.

Andrew Carnegie

• Born penniless in Scotland• Came to US at age 12 and worked his way up• Made his own fortune through investments• Supported charities• Model of the American success story

Carnegie’s Innovations

• 1865 left his job at Pennsylvania Railroad• 1873 entered the steel business• 1899 – Carnegie Steel Company manufactured

more steel than all the factories in Great Britain.

New Business Strategies

• 1. Looked for ways to make better products more cheaply.– incorporated machinery and techniques to help

him track costs.

2. Attracted talented people by offering them stock in the company and encouraged competition among his assistants.

• Attempted to control the steel market.

– Vertical integration – he bought out his suppliers.

– Horizontal integration – he attempted to buy out his competitors.

Merger

Social Darwinism and Business

• Principles of Social Darwinism –– Herbert Spencer – English philosopher, used

Darwin’s theory to explain the evolution of society.• This theory supports the idea that the marketplace

should not be regulated.

A New Definition of Success

• According to Social Darwinism-– Riches were a sign of God’s favor, and the poor

must be lazy or inferior people who deserved their lot in life.

»Herbert Spencer

BUSINESS GROWTH & CONSOLIDATION

• Mergers could result in a monopoly (Trust)

• A monopoly is complete control over an industry

• An example of consolidation: In 1870, Rockefeller Standard Oil Company owned 2% of the country’s crude oil

• By 1880 – it controlled 90% of U.S. crude oil CHICAGO’S STANDARD OIL BUILDING IS ONE

OF THE WORLD’S TALLEST

Fewer Control More

• Holding company – bought out stock of other companies.

• J.P. Morgan – banker– Head of holding company United States Steel– Bought Carnegie Steel in 1901 to become one of

the world’s largest businesses.

Standard Oil Company

• Owned by John D. Rockerfeller• Joined with competing companies in trust

agreements.• Participants in a trust turned their stock over

to trustees.• Companies were entitled to dividends on

profits earned by the trust.• NOT LEGAL MERGERS

Rockerfeller

• Paid employees low wages.

• Drove his competition out of business by selling

his oil at a lower price than it cost to produce it.

• When he controlled the market, he hiked prices far above original levels.

ROBBER BARONS

• Alarmed at the cut-throat tactics of industrialists, critics began to call them “Robber Barons”

• Famous “Robber Barons” included Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Stanford, and J.P. Morgan

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st3_8LEQvck&feature=related

J.P MORGAN IN PHOTO AND CARTOON

Philanthropistshttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philanthropist

Rockerfeller kept most of his profits, but he gave away $500 million.Established the Rockerfeller FoundationProviding funds to found the University of ChicagoCreated a medical institute that helped find a cure for yellow fever.

Andrew Carnegie

Donated 90% of the wealth he accumulated during his

lifetime.

His fortune still supports the arts today.

“It will be a great mistake for the community to shoot the millionaires, for they are the

bees that make the most honey, and contribute most to the hive even after they have

gorged themselves full.”

Sherman’s Antitrust Act

• Made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states or with other countries.

• Difficult to prosecute• 7/8 cases were thrown

out of court.

Business Bypasses the South

• After the war, the North continued to grow financially, but the South was still struggling.

• South – mostly farmers– At will of RR rates– High tariffs– Unskilled workers

• Hope for South –– Forestry– Mining– Tobacco– Furniture– Textile industry

WORKERS HAD POOR CONDITIONS

• Worked 6 – 7 days a week.

• 12 + hour days• No

– vacation, sick pay,– Unemployment– Worker’s compensation

• Injuries were common – In 1882, an average of 675 workers were killed PER WEEK on the job

• Wages were so low that a family could not survive unless everyone had a job.

• Women and children Worked in sweatshops

and were forced to accept their working conditions.

Wages

• Child – 14 hour day– .27

• Women $267.00 year

• Men - $498.00/year

LABOR UNIONS EMERGE

• As conditions for laborers worsened, workers realized they needed to organize

• The first large-scale national organization of workers was the National Labor Union in 1866

• The Colored National Labor Union followed

• NLU – persuaded Congress to legalize an 8 hour work day for govt. workers.

• Uriah Stephens – Noble Order of the Knights of Labor.– Open to all – Supported 8 hour

day– Equal pay equal

work

CRAFT UNIONS

• Craft Unions were unions of workers in a skilled trade

• Samuel Gompers led the Cigar Makers’ International Union to join with other craft unions in 1886

• Gompers became president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• He focused on collective bargaining to improve conditions, wages and hours

INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM• Some unions were

formed with workers within a specific industry

• Eugene Debs attempted this type of industrial union with the railway workers forming the ARU.

• In 1894, the new union won a strike for higher wages and at its peak had 150,000 members EUGENE DEBS

SOCIALISM AND THE IWW

• Some unionists (including Debs) turned to a socialism– an economic and political

system based on government control of business and property and an equal distribution of wealth among all citizens

• The International Workers of the World (IWW) or Wobblies, was one such socialist union

PROMOTIONAL POSTER FOR THE IWW

STRIKES TURN VIOLENT

• Several strikes turned deadly in the late 19th century as workers and owners clashed

• The Great Strike of 1877: Workers for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad struck to protest wage cuts

• Other rail workers across the country struck in sympathy

• Federal troops were called in to end the strike

Great Strike 1877

THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR• Labor leaders continued to push for

change.

• May 4, 1886 - 3,000 people gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest police treatment of striking workers.

• A bomb exploded near the police line – killing 7 cops and several workers.

• Radicals were rounded up.

• 8 convicted – 4 hanged and 1 committed suicide in prison

THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE

• June 29, 1892 – Steel workers called a strike after the president of the company announced wage cuts.

• Frick hired Pinkerton Detectives to guard the plant and allow scabs to work and keep the company operating.

• Detectives and strikers clashed – 3 detectives and 9 strikers died

• Steelworkers forced out the Pinkertons and kept the plant closed untilthe National guard restored order

workers returned to work in November

• 1893 - Pullman Company

laid off 3000 – 5800 workers

• Cut wages 25-50%

• Rent remained the same

• workers went on strike in

the spring of 1894

• Eugene Debs (American

Railroad Union) tried to

settle dispute but Pullman

refused to negotiate.

THE PULLMAN STRIKE

• ARU began boycotting Pullman trains

• Pullman hired strikebreakers and the strike turned violent.

• Pres. Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops.

• Eugene Debs was jailed.

• Pullman fired most of the railroad workers and they were blacklisted and could never get railroad jobs again.

WOMEN ORGANIZE

• Although women were barred from most unions, they did organize behind powerful leaders such as Mary Harris Jones

• She organized the United Mine Workers of America

• Mine workers gave her the nickname, “Mother Jones”

What Women Wanted

• Women wanted:– Better working conditions

– Equal pay for equal work

– End to child labor

Pauline Newman

• Garment worker since 8 yrs of age.

• 1st female organizer of the International Ladies Garment Worker’s Union.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owk_LE1GcKY&feature=related

• March 5, 1911• Fire spread through the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors.• Company had locked all but one exit door to

prevent theft.• The unlocked door was blocked by fire.• Single fire escape collapsed.

• 146 women died

• Public outrage flared when a jury acquitted the factory owners of manslaughter.

WEAVE ROOM BLUES

Working in a weave-room, fighting for my lifeTrying to make a living for my kiddies and my wife

Some are needing clothing and some are needing shoesBut I'm getting nothing for them but the weave-room blues

I got the blues, I got the bluesI got them awful weave-room blues

I got the blues, the weave-room blues

With your looms a-slamming, shuttles bouncing on the floorAnd when you flag your fixer, you can see that he is sore

I'm trying to make a living, but I think that I will loseCause I'm getting nothing but those weave-room blues

The harness eyes are breaking and the doubles coming throughThe devil's in your alley and he's coming after you

Our hearts are aching, let us take a little snoozeFor we're simply dying with them weave-room blues

Slam outs, break outs, knot ups by the scoreCloth all rolled back and piled up on the floor

The bats are running ends, the strings are hanging to your shoesWe're simply dying with them weave-room blues

EMPLOYERS FIGHT UNIONS

• The more powerful the unions became, the more employers came to fear them

• Employers often forbade union meetings and refused to recognize unions

• Employers forced new workers to sign “Yellow Dog Contracts,” swearing that they would never join a union

• Despite those efforts, the AFL had over 2 million members by 1914