“It is in these things of iron and steel that the national genius most freely speaks.”
-Dean Howell
American industry grew quickly due to several important considerations.
· an abundance of natural resources (coal, iron, timber, oil, and waterpower)
· labor was abundant, both from farm families and the influx of immigrants.
· the growing population led to an expanded market for businesses, as America became consumer society.
· railroads connected people and cities all over the vast country and the telegraph and telephone provided increased communication.
· technological advances and inventions made businesses more efficient.
· private investors from America and Europe as well as government at all three levels eagerly provided the finances to back the growth.
In this atmosphere, entrepreneurs flourished, called “captains of industry” by their admirers and “robber barons” by their detractors. Industrial growth was concentrated in the Northeast, where by 1890 more than 85% of America’s manufactured goods originated.
The innovations in transportation such as railroads brought distinct advantages over previous transportation means such as roads, canals and rivers. They provided:
· more direct routes
· greater speed, safety and comfort
· more dependable schedules and year round service
· larger volume of traffic.
Railroads tied people together, brought in outside products, encouraged economic specialization and fostered greater interdependence. Chicago supplied meat to the nation, Minneapolis supplied grain and St. Louis supplied beer. The railroads created a national market and pointed towards a time of mass production and mass consumption.
After the Civil War, the industry went through a period of consolidation where large companies swallowed up the small. Standard schedules, signals and equipment, and finally a standard gauge were adopted. The early king of this consolidation movement was Cornelius Vanderbilt (the Commodore) and the New York Central Railroad, which ran from New York to Chicago. By the end of the 1800’s, J.P. Morgan had combined so many railroads that the term “Morganizing” became part of the counties vocabulary.
| The other innovation that drove the industrial revolution was in steel. The Bessemer process, developed in the 1850’s by Henry Bessemer in England and William Kelly in the U.S., made greater and better steel production possible. Great steel districts arose in Pennsylvania and Ohio around great coal deposits that fueled the huge furnaces. Lake Superior had the greatest iron ore deposits in the world, establishing the iron belt in the industrial cities around Lake Erie, Huron and Michigan such as Chicago. |
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| During the 1880’s and 1890’s, the steel industry grew larger and larger. Companies combined coal and iron mines, transportation companies, blast furnaces and rolling mills. Andrew Carnegie emerged as the undisputed master of the industry. Carnegie Steel alone produced more steel than Great Britain by 1900. Employing 20,000 people, Carnegie Steel was the largest industrial company in the world. In 1901, Carnegie sold it to J.P. Morgan, who combined it with over 200 other companies and formed U.S. Steel. |
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In class journal: Discus what you know about Bill Gates and Microsoft.
Homework Assignment # 21
1. Discuss the considerations that affected the growth of American industry.
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2. Discuss how railroads changed the way America did business.
3. How did the railroad business change after the Civil War?
4. Discuss the beginnings of the steel industry.
5. Discuss the formation of U.S. Steel.
| In 1859, Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Chemists soon developed many uses for the crude oil (lubricating oil, grease, paint, wax, etc.) and a world market was established. At the age of 24, John D. Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company (1863) and began to absorb all of his competitors. By 1879, he controlled 90% of the countries oil-refining capacity. Standard Oil owned wells, timberlands, barrel and chemical plants, refineries, warehouses, pipelines and fleets of tankers and oil cars. To manage the huge company he created the trust. (Standard Oil Trust) |
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Inventions continued to change the way the United States did business.
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| In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the incandescent lamp and revolutionized industry and cities. With the financial backing of J.P. Morgan (who else!) he organized the Edison Illuminating Company and lit a portion of New York by 1882. By 1900, there were 2774 power stations across the country. George Westinghouse figured out how to base his system on high-voltage alternating current rather than low-voltage direct current, allowing electricity to be transmitted over longer distances. The Westinghouse Electric Company was formed in 1886. The revolution was now complete as electricity could now power whole cities and outlying areas. Richmond (Va.) developed an electric streetcar system in 1887 and electric powered subway systems opened in Boston (1897) and New York (1904). |
 John Sloan - 6th Avenue at 3rd St. NY (1928) |
Have we got a sale for you!
There was a corresponding revolution in retail and sellers figured out more ways to get products to a growing consumer market. Department stores allowed people to browse and buy a variety of products, all under one roof. R.H. Macy in New York, John Wanamaker in Philadelphia and Marshal Field in Chicago developed the concept. The “chain store” spread across the country, with the same A&P grocery stores (begun in 1859, 67 by 1876) and Woolworth’s Five and Ten Cent Stores (begun in 1880, 59 by 1900) bringing consistency to retail. Montgomery Ward, a salesman for Marshall Field, developed the first mail-order business in Chicago in 1872. In the early 1880’s Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck moved to Chicago and entered mail order, distributing 6 million catalogs nationally by 1900.
Work in the factories was not only grueling but very dangerous. Safety standards were low and accidents were common. On the railroads, 1 in every 26 workers were injured, 1 in 399 killed each year. The breadwinner in a family might be a man, woman or child. By 1900, 20% of women were employed for a wage. The textiles industry was their largest single employer. Clerical work was also converted to female labor. Most working women were young and single. By 1900 one out of every ten girls and five boys held a job. Blacks labored on the fringes, usually in menial occupations. The last hired and the first fired, they earned less than other workers at all levels and occupations. The Chinese provided the same role on the West Coast.
In class journal. The following photograph by Louis Hine is part of a famous series called the Mill Girl. If you were writing a fiction novel about her, describe her life.
Homework Assignment # 22
1. Discuss the growth of Standard Oil.
2. Discuss how inventions changed the American workplace.
3. Discuss the development of electric power.
4. Discuss changes in the retail business.
5. Discuss the status of the worker in the factories.
§ The Knights of Labor, which was organized by Uriah Stevens and Terrence Powderly was the first labor union to flourish. The Knights were open to both skilled and unskilled labor and worked to empower workers. After a series of difficult strikes in 1885 and 1886, the union began to shrink.
§ In 1886, Samuel Gompers organized the American Federation of Labor (AFL), excluding industrial workers (unskilled) and concentrating on trades unions. Gompers took a different approach, accepting the basic concept of capitalism and concentrating on the bread and butter issues like wages and working conditions. Membership soared to over 1 million by 1901, almost 1/3 of the countries skilled workers. It must be remembered that most of the countries workers were not in unions.
The time period between 1880 and 1900 was one of great labor unrest. In that time there were over 23,000 strikes involving 6.6 million workers. Owners wanted a more docile labor force and used techniques such as firing union members, hiring scab workers and court injunctions to break strikes. Strikes such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1876, the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 and the Pullman Palace Car Strike of 1894 led to outbreaks of violence as owners and local police used force to break the strike. More often than not, the government used injunctions and troops to force the workers back.
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American Tragedy - Philip Everwood (Pullman Palace Car Strike of 1894) |
Weapons available in labor-management disputes.
Labor – Strikes, sit-down strikes, slowdowns, boycotts (of products by company), picketing (both to deny access to customers and replacement workers and to spread information), and collective bargaining (the right for the union to bargain as the sole representative of the workers.)
Management - Lockouts, Replacement workers (Scabs), Company Towns (company owned the housing, the stores, the utilities, etc.), violence (thugs hired to break picket lines), yellow-dog contracts (forbidding employees to join unions), and court injunctions (making it illegal to strike).
Homework Assignment # 23
1. Discuss the difference between the Knights of Labor and the AFL.
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b.
2. Discuss the late 1800’s and the labor movement.
3. Discuss 4 common weapons available to labor in disputes. (Define each term.)
a)
b)
c)
d)
4. Discuss 4 common weapons available to management in disputes. (Define)
a)
b)
c)
d)
