Unit Two Responses to Industrialization
Industrialization Causes Effects Reactions What led to industrialization? What were the effects of industrialization? How did people react to the changes these effects caused?
Economic Growth Accessed on 8.25.15 at http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/america8/brief/ch/20/img01.jpg World industrial power Railroads Inventions Standard of living World industrial power - By 1900, the US produced 1/3 of the world s manufactured goods and was the leading industrial power in the world As a result, America went from being a non player on the world stage to being the key player on the world stage. This will be discussed in our units on World War I and II. Railroads - Railroad connections brought producers and consumers together and made it possible to sell goods over vast distances. 1860-30,000 miles of track 1890-180,00 miles of track 1869 - First Transcontinental rail line completed The rise of national markets - Producers could now sell their products potentially anywhere in the US. No longer were producers limited to the people who lived nearby the factory. Inventions - Industrialization was dependent on technological innovation. By between 1776 and 1910 the US government issued 1 million patents for new inventions. 900,000 of these were issued between 1870 and 1910. Innovation was important both in terms of how it created new more efficient means of production, but second in how it created created demand (markets) for things that previously did not exist.
Accessed on 8.25.15 at http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/america8/brief/ch/20/img01.jpg Accessed on 8.25.15 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/andrew_carnegie#/media/file:andrew_carnegie,_three-quarter_length_portrait,_seated,_facing_slightly_left,_1913.jpg Heavy Industry and Big Business Accessed on 8.25.15 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/john_d._rockefeller#/media/file:john_d._rockefeller_1885.jpg Heavy Industry Corporations Monopoly, merger and trusts Accessed on 8.25.15 at http://www.uni.edu/icss/timeline/7stdoil1.jpg Heavy Industry - After the Civil War, the American economy was increasingly dominated by heavy industries like steel, oil and coal production and Railroads. Corporations - A form of business organization in which money is raised by the company selling shares. This raises money that the company can use to invest in research and production. The company is managed, not by its owners (the shareholders) but by separate professional managers. Corporations have several advantages: A corporation can outlive its founders - it is a separate entity that is treated by the law a a person. If the owner dies the company continues on. General electric was founded by Thomas Edison, who is dead, but today is one of American s largest corporations. A corporation s shareholders are not personally liable for the companies losses Corporations can easily raise needed capitol by selling stock Important corporations to emerge during the Industrial revolution Include General Electric, Southern Pacific Railroad and Carnegie (later US) Steel Monopoly, merger and trusts - A monopoly is where one business gains almost total market share for a given product. They become, in effect, the only seller of that product. Other words that have essentially the same meaning include trusts and horizontal integration. Horizontal integration is good for businesses because they can increase prices with much greater freedom, since there is no competition to undercut them. Conversely, monopoly is bad for consumers because it tends to increase prices and leaves customers with no choices.
Social and economic consequences Urbanization Increased gap between the working class and the wealthy Corporations and political power Urbanization - America went from being a nation mostly of farmers who largely lived in the country to a nation of mostly industrial workers who lived primarily in cities By 1920 more people lived in cities than in the countryside This led to problems as cities were ill prepared to handle rapid growth: Housing was often sub standard. Often, people would live in crowded apartment buildings called tenements. Immigrant families would sometimes cram 3-4 families into one apartment. Crowding and poor sanitation led to the outbreak of diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever. Until the 20C most residents had no access to clean drinking water. Until sewer systems were developed around 1900, many city streets were filled with both horse and human excrement. Crowded conditions led to fire danger - Chicago 1871 (300 die); SF 1906 (1000 die) Police also had a hard time keeping up with rapid population growth Increased gap between the working class and the wealthy
Accessed on 8.25.15 at http://www.amazon.com/photo-political-cartoon-joseph-keppler/dp/b007wutxzo
The Union Movement Working Conditions in Industrial America Wages - While as a whole real wages increased during the period between 1870 and 1920, many American workers worked for virtually nothing. Studies done in NY in the first two decades of the twentieth century found that most families fell below the poverty level (Dubofsky 20). Hours - Most industrial workers worked incredibly long hours by modern standards, for example: Child Labor By 1920, the average unskilled worker worked 54 hours a week Steelworkers in 1920 worked on average 63 hours, including one 24 hour shift every two weeks Conditions and safety Working conditions in the early industrial period were quite dangerous. Workers faced a three part problem: The courts considered hazards at work to be voluntarily born by workers - thus they could not sue for damages resulting from negligence, There very few regulations on workplace safety, There was no social safety net - if you were injured on the job, it was your tough luck. Some representative statistics and the hazards of the early industrial workplace:
Unions and collective Bargaining You re Fired! Can I have a raise? Unions and collective bargaining Unions are organizations of workers that join together to work for better wages and working conditions - the basic idea is strength in numbers. Unions allow workers to negotiate with employers as a group, rather than as individuals. Collective bargaining is when workers negotiate for better wages and conditions and conditions as a group. As individuals workers are powerless. As a group, workers have power.
Unions and collective Bargaining Let s talk. Can we have a raise?
Tracy Teachers Contract Activity
Collective Bargaining and Contracts On your phones, go to the US history page of the website. Find and click on the TEA/TUSD Master Agreement, 2014-2017 link on the sidebar under unit 2. Take five minutes to scan this document, paying particular attention to the structure laid out in the table of contents on pages 2-5. 1. Based on your examination of this document, what is a contract? 2. Read the preamble on p. 7 What role does collective bargaining play in the creation of a contract? What is the benefit of collective over individual bargaining? 3. Using the ToC to point you to the proper page, list and explain three ways that this contract benefits teachers in Tracy. Each benefit should come from a different of the contract. 4. Which of the above benefits do you think Mr. Haydock would have been able to get from the district if he was negotiating as an individual? Explain. On the back answer the following two questions: 5. If you were a teacher, is there anything about the contract you would want to change? Explain. 6. If you were the principal (management) is there anything about the contract you would want to change? Benefit (in your own words) 1 Section/ page number Explanation of benefit 2 3
Unions improved conditions for many workers Between 1890 and 1915 the average weekly wage in unionized industries rose from $17.50 to $24, while the work week decreased from 54.5 to 49 hours (Danzer, 246).
Strikes A strike is where all of the workers in a business or an industry stop working. The goal is to make the employer lose money so that he will agree to workers demands
C. Major strikes and their outcomes (activity) Strike or labor unrest/ Year Reason for the strike Outcome - What did the workers gain/ lose? Did the government take sides? Whose side did they take? What roll did they play? Great Strike of 1877 Wage cuts The strike was ended unsuccessfully for the workers but it strengthened the union movement and made workers more politically active US Army called in to suppress the strike. Federal troops kill 20 strikers in Pennsylvania Haymarket Affair Wage cuts at the McCormick farm machinery plant Unions lose support. Knights of labor basically destroyed (because they were suspected of radicalism) Police sought to crush a union meeting, when someone through a bomb, the police opened fire killing 10. Several union leaders jailed. 4 anarchists were convicted and hanged despite a lack of evidence The Homestea d Strike Drastic wage cuts The steelworkers lost. Hours were lengthened and wages cut by 25%. Within a decade, every major steel company had broken free of the unions. Pennsylvania national guard sent in to restore order (fighting had broken out between the owners private army and the strikers) The Pullman Strike Drastic wage cuts without any decreases in the rents employees paid for their Pullman houses. Workers fired for making complaints The strike ended with the defeat of the workers. Debs (the union leader) was jailed. The Attorney General issued an injunction (a legal order) against the strike Federal troops were sent in to break the strike Increased production demands Coeur d Alene Wage cuts in Idaho s silver and lead mines Owners got the mines re-opened, but the strike energized the unionization movement. Leads to the formation of the Western Federation of miners (a very strong union) Mining district occupied by 1500 state and federal troops to allow strikebreakers to enter mines Strikers arrested
The government and Unionization + V. Until 1900, Government almost always sided with businesses when strikes occurred
Case Study - Garment workers in New York By 1900 New York City became the center of the American garment industry. Modern sewing machines, electrical power and high rise factories combined to transform clothes making in America. The industry was driven by consumer demand - American consumers wanted new stylish clothes and they wanted them cheap. This drove factory owners to cut costs wherever possible to remain competitive. The garment industry in NY doubled in size between 1900-1910 and the growing industry took advantage of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants entering New York at the same time. Immigrants, particularly women, offered a vast supply of cheap labor. Clothing factories became sweatshops where hundreds of workers would be packed together in dark, sweltering holes, filled with vile odors, hot beds of disease, rank and foul smelling...[and] crowded with perspiring workers (Agersinger 2). At first, immigrant women said nothing about the squalid conditions - they were trying just to get by, but as they adjusted to American life, they began to resent the harsh, dangerous conditions and low pay. In 1900 the ILGWU was formed in NYC. In 1909 20-30K workers went out on strike against New York s Garment factories. The women of the Triangle factory, which had been completed in 1901, were among those who went out on strike. The strike lasted 13 weeks and resulted in a contract establishing higher wages for 15K of the strikers. The Triangle factory, however, held firm and refused to recognize the unions. Union membership in the Triangle factory dwindled in the next few years, and the Triangle factory refused to accede to union demands for better conditions and reasonable wages.
Video is available for streaming at http://video.pbs.org/video/1817898383/
Ideologies of Industrialization Social Darwinism Accessed on 9.3.15 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/william_graham_sumner Certain ills belong to the hardships of human life. They are natural. They are part of the struggle with nature for existence. We cannot blame our fellow men for our share of these. My neighbor and I are both struggling to free ourselves from these ills. The fact that my neighbor has succeeded in this struggle better than I constitutes no grievance for me.... The aggregation of large fortunes is not at all a thing to be regretted. On the contrary, it is a necessary condition of many forms of social advance. If we should set a limit to the accumulation of wealth, we should say to our most valuable producers, We do not want you to do us the services which you best understand how to perform, beyond a certain point. It would be like killing off our generals in war. William Graham Sumner, What the Social Classes Owe Each Other, 1883 Accessed on 9.22.12 at http://mises.org/daily/2397/ and http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4998/ Social Darwinism This was a misapplication of Darwin s ideas to human society. It maintained that the human race evolves through natural selection. The fit would survive and the weak would perish. Advocates of this theory defined fitness and weakness in terms of wealth. Thus efforts to help the poor or limit the wealthy would result in societal stagnation. Social Darwinism was used to justify not helping the working poor, excluding immigrants from unwanted regions and resisting efforts to have the government play a more active role in creating a just society.
Laissez-Faire Accessed on 9.3.15 at Accessed on 9.3.15 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/william_graham_sumner Laissez-Faire From the French allow to do. Economic policy in which the government plays little or no role in the economy in terms of determining levels of production and prices or with regard to the regulation of business. Supported by big business. Based on the ideas of Adam Smith whose 1776 book The Wealth of Nations established the ideological basis for modern capitalism.
The Social Gospel The Social Gospel movement A social movement that taught that to achieve salvation Christians must help those less fortunate than themselves. This movement emphasized the ethical teachings of Jesus.
What Would Jesus Do? "I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night, 'All for Jesus, all for Jesus, All my being's ransomed powers, All my thoughts, and all my doings, All my days, and all my hours.' and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps? It seems to me sometimes as if the people in the big churches had good clothes and nice houses to live in, and money to spend for luxuries, and could go away on summer vacations and all that, while the people outside the churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in tenements, and walk the streets for jobs, and never have a piano or a picture in the house, and grow up in misery and drunkenness and sin." In 1896 Charles Sheldon wrote In his Steps: What Would Jesus Do? A novel which challenged Christians to adopt a more Christ like attitude toward the poor.
The settlement house movement Members of the social gospel movement established settlement houses which were community centers in poor neighborhoods designed to help poor immigrants by providing educational cultural and social services. For example: Establishment of Kindergartens English Classes Cooking classes Musical performances and poetry reading (aimed at cultural uplift) Closely linked to the Americanization movement Jane Addams founded one of the most Famous settlement Houses - Hull House - in Chicago in 1889. The movement would expand to 400 settlement houses nationwide by the early 20th century. (27) Settlement house workers also pushed for laws aimed at social reform, maintaining that poverty was at the root cause of much inner city suffering. These reforms included pushing for more parks and sewer systems as well as public health clinics.
Jane Addams and Hull House Jane Addams Founded one of the most Famous settlement Houses - Hull House - in Chicago in 1889. The movement would expand to 400 settlement houses nationwide by the early 20th century. Settlement house workers also pushed for laws aimed at social reform, maintaining that poverty was at the root cause of much inner city suffering. These reforms included pushing for more parks and sewer systems as well as public health clinics.
Political responses to industrialization
Early attempts to regulate big business: The Interstate Commerce Commission, 1887 The Interstate Commerce Commission, 1887 Law passed in 1887 by Congress to regulate the railroads. In theory it was supposed to allow government to set maximum rates, but in practice the law was largely ineffective.
Early attempts to regulate big business: The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890 Monopoly The Sherman Anti-trust Act, 1890 In 1890 Congress passed the Sherman Anti-trust act. This was an attempt to prevent the formation of monopolies that hurt competition. It was almost completely ineffective as the courts through out almost all cases brought before them Both laws were ineffective largely due to the influence of big business. The Sherman Act was used to prosecute union members whose strikes were labeled a restraint of trade.
The Progressive Movement What was the Progressive movement? The Progressive movement was an early 20th century middle class political reform movement made that sought to return control of government to the people, curb the power of big business and correct social injustices.
Motivating a Movement - the Muckrakers Accessed on 9.11.15 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/muckraker Muckrakers Investigative Journalists. People who often had wide middle class readerships in popular Magazines such as McClure s. People dedicated to exposing injustice and inequality in their writings.
Jacob Riis Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives (1890) - Called attention to the poverty and filth of industrial cities and living conditions for their immigrant residents.
Accessed on 9.11.15 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lewis_hine Lewis Hine Accessed on 9.11.15 ahttp://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/hine-driver.htm Accessed on 9.11.15 http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/hine-full.htm http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/hine-empty.htm Lewis Hine Photographer for the National Child Labor Committee between 1908-1918. He collected thousands of images of children working in many jobs throughout the country. Because businesses sought to conceal the extent of their use of child labor, Hine was often threatened or harassed by company official and even the police. He often gained access to workplaces by pretending to be a government inspector or an industrial photography taking pictures of equipment. His photos led to some of the first laws restricting the use of child labor.
Frank Norris Frank Norris The Octopus (1901) Novel that described the hold that the Southern Pacific Railroad had on California politics.
Ida Tarbell Ida Tarbel The History of the Standard Oil Company published in 1904 called attention to the power of monopolies had in both economic and political life. This led to political pressure to regulate big business in the interest of the public good.
Lincoln Steffens Lincoln Steffens The Shame of the Cities (1904) called attention to the corruption of political machines. This motivated state and local reforms to limit the power of corrupt political machines.
Upton Sinclair Upton Sinclair The Jungle (1906) Called attention both to the poor conditions of immigrant workers and also to the unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry. His book helped motivate food safety laws and work safety regulations.
There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public's breakfast.
Local Progressivism - Breaking the hold of political machines Local progressivism Sought to break the power of political machines, reduce the influence of immigrant voters 3 key reforms: Ward elections replaced by city-wide, at large elections which were more expensive and thus favored middle class political organizers Patronage jobs replaced by trained professional managers. The city manager model led to greater efficiency in urban government but less voice for immigrant communities. Public ownership of utilities (water, gas electricity)
State Progressivism - Breaking the influence of big business on politics Reforming Governors Hiram Johnson Robert La Follette State Progressivism Reforming governor s such as Hiram Johnson in California and Robert La Follette in Wisconsin sought to limit the influence of Big business in their states by professionalizing state government and implementing
Direct Democracy Reforms Direct democracy reforms that put legislative power in the hands of the people thus bypassing the political influence of big business: Initiative - a law proposed by reformers that was voted on directly by the people of a state instead of its state legislatures. Referendum - Allowed voters to approve or reject laws passed by the state legislature. Recall - Allowed the removal of public official from office before the end of their terms.
National Progressivism Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909 Woodrow Wilson, 1912-1921
Theodore Roosevelt s Progressive Agenda Environmental conservation Consumer Protection Regulation of big business
Environmental conservation TR s conservation policies Triple National forest reserves Established dozens of wildlife reserves Established Bureau of Reclamation
Regulation of big business Northern Securities Case (1902) Coal strike of 1902 Hepburn Act (1906) Regulation of big business (Accessed on 10.1.14 athttp://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/research/digital-library/record.aspx?libid=o278539) Regulating big business TR did not want to dismantle big business, but rather he believed the government had a responsibility to establish rules and regulations that business would follow. He also sought to make the government more neutral in the struggle between labor and capital. Northern Securities Case (1902) - First use of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up a monopoly ( in this case a railroad monopoly owned by financier JP Morgan). TR went on to file 44 more anti-trust suits to break up monopoly, including one against Standard Oil. Coal strike of 1902 - When a coal mine threatened the heating sources of many easterners, TR refused to send the army in to break the strike (as the mine owners wanted), but rather ordered both the union and owners to sit down and talk. The result was salary increases and reduced hours but no recognition of the union. TR believed it was the President s role to be a neutral mediator. Hepburn Act (1906) - Authorized the ICC to set maximum railroad rates. First successful regulation of private enterprise
Consumer Protection Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) Meat Inspection Act (1906) Both laws were motivated by the Jungle and both further extended government regulations on private enterprise
Progressive Laws passed during the Wilson Administration Clayton Anti-trust Act Federal Trade Commission Act Federal Reserve Act Keating Owen Act Amendment 16 Amendment 17 Wilson s Progressive Reforms: Regulation of business: Clayton Anti Trust Act (1914) - Strengthened enforcement of the Sherman anti-trust act and exempted unions from anti-trust suits Federal Trade Commission Act (1914) - Established the FTC which served as a federal watchdog to ensure federal regulations (and anti-trust laws) were followed. The Federal Reserve System (1913) - Established a national banking system that had the power to regulate member banks. Protecting Workers Keating Owen Act (1916) - The first national law restricting child labor 1916 Railroad strike (1916) - Wilson helped negotiate an end to the strike by pushing a law that established an 8 hour day for railroad workers. Miscellaneous reforms Amendment XVI (1913) - Progressive income tax Amendment XVII (1917) - Direct election of Senators