History 102 Unit Two: Industrialization and Its Discontents 1865-1920 Chapters 18, 19, 20 and 21 KEY QUESTIONS: What are the 5 factors of industrialization that led to the rise of big business during this period? How did workers, farmers and the urban middle class respond to the transformation of the American economy into industrial capitalism from the 1860s to 1920?
I. Rise of Industrialization Compare 1865 and 1910 to see enormity of change 1865 Exports are mainly agricultural or raw materials Imports majority of manufactured goods from Europe, paid for with California gold Over 70% of population lives in rural areas, and are self-employed 1910 United States exports are mainly manufactured goods, not agricultural products Majority of the population lives in cities Majority of population works for someone else
A. Factors of Industrialization Factor #1: Technological Changes/Inventions Mass production of goods Deskilled labor force Examples Corliss engine Improvements in Power Looms Sewing Machine and Improvements Bessemer Air Process Electricity Assembly line
Factor #2 Development of Infrastructure Definition Connect nation together, both PHYSICALLY and SOCIALLY Examples 1. Canals, roads, railroads (move people and goods) 2. Telegraph, telephone (communication) 3. Urbanization (living together in large communities)
Transportation: Railroad Lines Railroad Lines, 1870
Red Lines Plus Blue Lines = 1890 Rails
Urbanization has
Factor #3: Business Innovations or New Ideas New Idea #1: The Corporation Definition A company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (legally a person) and recognized as such in law; a fictional person
New idea #1: The corporation described Charter Rules of corporation # shares issued cost of shares Board of Directors Elected by shareholders Run the company Hire management Management separate from shareholders guided by board of directors Shareholders Own stock in the company Voting rights based on investment Earn dividends based on investment May sell shares to others
Impact of the Corporation Industrialist has access to shareholder wealth - maintains control Access to capital = growth Stock market - liquidity of wealth By 1900s - boards of directors rule
New idea #2: Organizing the corporation for maximum profit Vertical Integration - Carnegie s Model Iron Ore in Michigan Coal from West Virginia Railroads to Get Materials to Steel Mills Shipping Lines to Move Steel to Customers
Horizontal Integration: Standard Oil Oil refinery + Oil refinery + Oil refinery Methods to achieve merger: Standardize the product Price wars Threats against competitors
New idea #3 - ideologies (ways of thinking) to justify wealth Social Darwinism biological basis for economic classes in society Survival of the fitter = wealthy are more fit than workers Carnegie and Gospel of Wealth Philanthropy
Factor #4: People These are the workers in the factories and consumers of goods
1. Immigrants are main labor force of industrialization What pattern of immigration do you see in this chart? Answer the following with a partner: 1. What group is the main source of immigration from 1870 to 1900? 2. What group represents the largest source of immigration? When do they arrive? 3. Why do you think they are coming?
2. American born go to the city (internal migration) Become middle class society Consumers of goods Advertising to the middle class
Factor #5 - Government s Role Act to support big business: 1. Taxpayer money to support growth of railroads 2. Corrupt government influenced by enormous wealth No regulation of safety conditions *Regulatory boards don t enforce the law 3. When workers protest, government protects business Homestead Strike Prosecution of Eugene Debs in 1894 Workers demonized by media
B. Responses To Industrialization, 1865-1920 i. Workers Respond a. what workers like about industrialization What do YOU think?
b. what workers do NOT like about industrialization 1. Living conditions in large urban areas Diagram of a Dumbbell Tenement, c. 1879
2. They didn t like: Working Conditions 10-14 hour workdays, 6-7 days a week Low wages and temporary work Lack of Safety Protections for Workers In 1900 there were 25,000-30,000 deaths and 1 million injuries on the job Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 1911
3. They were worried about: Child Labor Lewis Hines Photographs, early 1900s
#4
Homestead, Pennsylvania - the Carnegie Steel Mills
Garment Industry Sweatshops
c. Workers Solutions to These Problems 1. Union Movement Why unionize? Speak with one voice to the employer about the conditions of their work Struggle in late 1800s - HOW and WHO do we organize?
Back to the Past: Knights of Labor, 1867-1886 Overturn the Wage System Organize Everyone Co-Ops: Food, Factories Politics: 8 Hour Work Day 1880s - Work with Strikers: Wabash Railroad McCormick Factory Haymarket Bombing 1886 Knights get blame The Modern Union: American Federation of Labor, 1886 - present Improve Conditions of Work Focus on Skilled Craftsmen Bread and Butter Issues Organize In Workplace Few Successes: Carpenters Union: 8 Hour Day for 28,000 Radical Unions: IWW, early 1900s CIO, 1930s
2. Strikes of the Late 19th century 1877 - Great Uprising (45 days) Railroad Workers on B & O protest wage cuts with strike Government/Corporate Response Local police refuse to fire on workers State militia/national Guard used against workers and community Railroads hire mercenaries to attach crowds in Baltimore, MD Federal Troops quell the strike Result: Unions organize and strike: 100s of strikes in 1880s Carnegie Steel Strike at Homestead, 1892 Result of Strike - Pinkerton Agency, strikebreakers and state militia Pullman Strike, 1894 (American Railway Union) Strike due to severe wage cuts; Eugene V. Debs, leads ARU Result: Federal troops sent in to restore order Prosecution of Debs - interfering with the mail - union = monopoly
ii. Farmers and Rural Society Respond a. what farmers and rural society liked about industrialization b. what farmers & rural society did NOT like about industrialization 1. Inequities in acquiring credit (bankers) 2. Freight rates ( capitalists ) 3. Lack of federal government regulation of banks and big business
c. Farmers solutions to these problems 1. The Grange, 1867 and Granger Parties at State Level Granger Laws in Midwest (1870s) Munn v. Illinois (1877) - public use RRs and business resist - Supreme Court favors business Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois (1886) - only feds regulate Federal Regulations passed Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 Government and Business - limits scope of regulations American Railway Union strike of Pullman, 1894 Union = combination in restraint of trade
2. National Political Parties - The Populists, 1892-1896 Combination of Farmers and Workers Issues 1st attempt at national level to advocate for ordinary Americans Assessment: were farmers successful in achieving their goals?
iii. The Middle Class Responds: Progressivism, 1880s to 1920 Who ARE these middle class people? Urban Middle Class (bureaucrats, sales people, middle managers, technicians, academics) Protestant denominations - moral fervor and belief in special destiny of America - The Social Gospel Many come recently from rural America
a. So...what do these middle class people LIKE about industrialization? What do you think?
b. What do progressives DISLIKE about industrialization? Poverty Filth and diseases in urban areas Lack of safety for workers Exploitation of children and women workers Corruption in government to support big business Monopolies Immigration Behavior of people in urban society (alcohol use, prostitution)
1. Muckraking Journalism and progressivism - the way they figure out what they don t like!
Ida Tarbell, History of Standard Oil 19 installments from 1902-1904 Nellie Bly, NY World reporter sweatshops, insane asylums, corruption in politics Frank Norris The Octopus, 1901 Upton Sinclair The Jungle, 1906
c. The middle class s solutions to these problems: the Progressive Movement 1. Goals of the Progressive Movement FIX the problems created by industrial capitalism through CONTROL of it. CONTROL of people s individual behavior 2. Methods they use to achieve these goals are: Clean up government - make it honest, efficient and effective, then Use government as their TOOL to make change
3. Sources for Policy Ideas Used by Progressives a. Social Sciences - universities (studies and policies) b. Women s Reform Organizations (practical solutions) c. Social Gospel Movement (rejects social Darwinism)
4. Implementing Progressive Ideas (local, state & national reforms ) Local/Municipal Reforms Clean up corrupt government Improve people s lives - City Improvements City parks Street cars Sewage systems Safety net for women/children Triangle fire and safety Municipal Utilities Tenement and housing reforms
State Level Reforms 1. Experiments with direct democracy initiative referendum recall 2. Direct Election of Senators, 17th Amendment (1913) 3. The secret (or Australian) ballot
National Progressive Reform 1. Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1908 and the New Nationalism Control Corporations (trust busting) 1902-04 Northern Securities Co. 1906 Hepburn Act (ICC) 1902 United Mine Workers Strike Proposed: inheritance taxes, stock market regulation Consumer Legislation 1906 Food and Drug Act 1906 Meat Inspection Act
Conservation of Resources - Manage not Preserve 1902 - National Reclamation Act (BLM) 1905 Forest Service - Gifford Pinchot 150 million acres of forest reserves 80 million acres of minerals/petroleum Policies: Break up Indian Reservations Roosevelt s Opposition - Preservation (John Muir) 1916 National Park Service 46
2. Woodrow Wilson, 1912-1920 The New Freedom - regulate competition Money Issues 1913 - Lowered Tariff 1913 - Federal Reserve, 1913 1913 Sixteenth Amendment - income tax Trusts and Corporate Control 1914 Clayton Anti-Trust Act creates Federal Trade Commission - but 1916 Adamson Act -railroad workers 8 hour day 1916 Keating-Owens Act - child labor and protective legislation
3. Progressives and Social Control Issues 1. Women s Suffrage Women s vote = clean up government create morality 19th Amendment, 1919 2. Prohibition of Alcohol Alcohol is immoral Immigrants drink - control immigrants 18th amendment (1920 in effect)
3. Immigration Restrictions 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 Immigration Act 1906 Naturalization Act 1917/8 Restrictions on literacy 1921 Emergency Quota Act 3% - 1910 Census 1924 Johnson Reed Act 2% - 1890
Assessment: Were the progressives successful in achieving their goals?