Age of Growth and Disorder, 1877-1910s Naming Robber Barons, Gilded Age Industrialism Triumphant Examine from several POV: G & D What 2 nd Industrial Revolution Increase in production 2 nd Wave of Immigration Increase in SE European / Catholics, Jews Increase in poverty, crime, violence Historical significance / change Anglo-Am. ask Who is White? American? Can democracy co-exist with unregulated capitalism?
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Harmony of Labor & Capital Agrarian Republic (Thomas Jefferson) No permanent wage/working class Go West! Homestead Act 1862 2 nd Industrial Revolution Growth of capital goods Growth of mergers Solidified permanent working class Open immigration Low wages How will labor and capital respond?
Production of capital goods doubles every decade, 1870-1910
Numbers in the thousands: 1870 12,925 = 12,925,000 workers. 1870 to 1910 U.S. changed from primarily an agricultural nation to non-agricultural Workforce (laborers) more than doubled: 12,925,000 to 37,480,000. Immigration
Second Wave of Immigration: 1870-1914 First Wave: 1840s Irish potato famine Second Wave of Immigrants SE Europe Dark skin Catholic Jewish
What does increased immigration with low wages and monopolized wealth look like? Options to viewing the following slides in class: Slide show before class begins Or view these websites for homework Summer Cottages and homes: photos and building details http://www.newportmansions.org/page7016.cfm http://discover-net.net/~dchs/history/exwp.html Conditions in the cities: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/davis/photography/slidesh ows/slideshows.html, click on Jacob Riis photographs and view the slide show. Note the photo titles.
Workplace Conditions: Disorder Sweatshops ca.1900 Immigrant women
Homework / Evening Work
Pennsylvania Coal sorters Child labor No Health Care Black Lung
Meat packing / Dangerous, Unsanitary
Lower Manhattan Privatized city services Not part of urban machine, ward politics Jane Addams: dug out several feet of compacted garbage Note open-air food vendors on the sidewalks
Women s Lodging Room Jacob Riis, Police photographer, Tenement Reformer
5 cent lodging / Housing Shortage
American Aristocracy?
Big Themes to Think About Can industrial capitalism fairly distribute wealth among workers? Can industrial capitalism co-exist with democracy? Why did some American-born workers take up ideas of socialism? Why did English iron workers have a longer life-expectancy than American iron workers?
1877, The Great Strike Workers Solutions to G & D National / use of police, militia, federal troops Private property vs. democracy in workplace 1886, Haymarket Bombing Knights of Labor / Christian community / 8 hr day Free speech vs. death for political beliefs (anarchists) 1892, Homestead Strike Union contract / private property Self-defense vs. private army (Pinkertons) 1894, Pullman Strike (RR unions/military) Company town / Long Depression / Wage cuts Federal power vs. workers rights (socialism) 1909 Uprising of 20,000 (ILGWU) Working women & middle-class suffragettes vs. men 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Describe what you see.
The Great Strike, 1877: Feed them a diet of lead Is this America?
Document#1 1878 Wendell Phillips Document#2 1877 Letter to Scott Document#3 1877 News Editorial Blame foreigners, especially Germans & Bohemians What would you do as a business owner? Take a look at what Scott did! What s a Gatling gun? Describe.
Reread Document #2 Gatling Gun
Haymarket Bombing, 1886 Knights of Labor, AFL, Anarchists
Who s to blame for the bomb? Those shot? Following days, 8 anarchists arrested Only 1 had been at Haymarket All found guilty 4 killed, 1 suicide 3 pardoned (but got life in prison) No evidence to convict them Convicted for their political beliefs Test of democracy
Homestead, 1892 Unionized Pinkertons: Private Armies
Homestead Strike, 1892 Andrew Carnegie, steel & AAISW 1889 contract: wages relative to price of steel 1892 depression Business is no business of the workers To Frick: I approve of whatever you do Henry Clay Frick, manager Cut wages (Carnegie vacated to castle) Fort Frick 3 mile fence, rifle holes, barbed wire Barge of Pinkertons / private army Battle 3 Pinkertons and 9 workers dead Gov calls in state militia
Alexander Berkman What do you see? Do you know her?
Pullman, 1894 Model Town : Democracy?
Pullman Strike, 1894 Pullman Co. sole profitable RR
Workers POV? Middle-class POV? 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act Stop Rockefeller s secret monopoly Acquired 90% of oil production Horizontal and vertical integration 1905 Lochner v. NY State 10 hour work day unconstitutional Interferes with workers freedom How do workers and middle-class view government & big business?
Leon Czolchoz Assassinated President McKinley, 1901 Who is he? Document #4 1903 Immigration Act Who gets blamed?
On whose side will middle-class fall?
1909 Uprising of 20,000 ILGWU Women s Trade Union Suffragists join workers 52 hr/week No bathroom break Jewish and Italian women Ok to beat them until they understand
March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Company Note policemen looking up at falling bodies. Men and women, boys and girls were of the dead that littered the street; that is actually the condition -- the streets were littered."
30minutes for fires to consume 8 th,9 th,10 th floors 146 women and girls dead
Doors locked Keep women and girls at their machines Keep them from stealing Fire escapes too few and blocked with material 30 minutes, 8-10 th floors consumed 146 dead, many littering the sidewalks Company agrees to ILGWU; laws
Next: The Progressive Era Scientific Management or the Age of Corporate Reform Time study, collect statistics, create a uniform model, hire a manger to enforce it Standardize! Regulate mergers, RR, workplace Regulate elections, civil service, gov t Regulate housing, public services, education, immigrants But don t forget...
Land of Opportunity Birds of Passage 40% leave U.S. 10% worker mortality rate Underestimated U.S. Iron workers life expectancy: 37 In England: 51 We are descendants of survivors More died or returned to Europe than survived in the U.S.
Relevance to present day? Global economy Average wage for managers in China: 50 /hr Child labor Illegal sweatshops in U.S. Modern day slavery