Chapter 18
Lecture Outline
Big Business and
Organized Labor
© 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Robber Barons
The Rise of Big Business
• The Second Industrial Revolution
– Rebuilding efforts propelled nation to become the
world’s greatest Industrial power
• Railroads
– 1st industries to represent “Big Business”
• Building the Transcontinentals
– Railroad
– Cross country trasportation
The Rise of Big Business
The Rise of Big Business
The Rise of Big Business
• Financing the Railroads
– Constructed by private companies/sold bonds to fund
• Inventions Spur Manufacturing
– Brought on by the American people
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•
•
•
Barbed wire
Refrigerated box cars
Airbrakes for trains
Telephone
The Rise of Big Business
Entrepreneurs
• Rockefeller and the Oil Trust
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–
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John Rockefeller began refining oil in PA
Standard Oil CO.
Bought out competitors
Controlled more than 90%of nation’s oil
Built CO into “Trust”
• Carnegie and the Steel Industry
– Used new process to made steel stronger
inexpensively
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs
• J. P. Morgan, Financier
– Investment banker
– Bought large amounts of stock in corporations
and then sold them for profit
– Bought rival firms that were in trouble, fixed
them, and resold
– 1890 controlled 1/6 of nation’s railroads
The Working Class
• Social Trends
– Dangerous working conditions
– Avg. week= 59 hrs., pay would amount to $3.50
• Child Labor
– Post-Civil War. Millions of children took jobs
– 1880- 1/6 of population worked full-time jobs
– 1881 only 7 states had anti- child labor laws requiring
workers to be at least 12 years of age to hire
The Working Class
• Disorganized Protest
– 1st forms of labor conditions protesting were
unorganized
– Most were immigrants or farmers not familiar
with idea of civilized protests
The Working Class
• The Railroad Strike of 1877
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1st interstate strike in American history
Resulted from Panic of 1873
Drastically cut wages
Erupted in violence, federal troops intervened
• The Sand-Lot Incident
– SF to show support of railroad workers
– Turned into attack on Chinese immigrants
– Perceived to steal American jobs
• Anti-Chinese Agitation
The Working Class
• Toward Permanent Unions
– 1866 National Labor Union (NLU) founded
– Before disbanded, NLU secured the Contract Labor
Act which encouraged employers to import workers
by paying passage
• The Knights of Labor
– Uriah Smith
– Secret organization designed to protect its members
from retaliation from employers
The Working Class
The Working Class
• Anarchism
– Belief that any form of govt. is abusive
– Controlled by rich to exploit poor
– Labor unions pushed for abolition of govts.
• The Haymarket Affair
– 1866 KofL rally in Chicago’s Haymarket square to
promote 8-hr workday
– Bomb thrown into crowd
– Membership of Knight of Labor declined
The Working Class
The Working Class
• Gompers and the AFL
– 1886: 25 skilled workers organizations joined/created
the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
– Led by Samuel Gompers
– Allowed only skilled workers as their members
– Grew to be the most successful and best US union
• The Homestead Strike
– 1892 the AAI and Steel Workers went on strike at
Carnegie’s Homestead Works
– Ended in bloodshed in attempt to stop
– State militias were brought in
The Working Class
• The Pullman Strike
– Impacted 27 states’ economies in 1894
– Members of the ARU working at Pullman
Palace Car Company went on strike
– President Cleveland ordered federal troops to
remove the cars from the tracks
The Working Class
• Socialism and the Unions
– Socialism: movement to abolish the government and
to turn the method of production over to the people
– Came to the US in the 1820s
– Gained a strong following in the 1870s when Karl
Marx moved his union headquarters to NY
– Socialist Party of America was created
• Led by Eugene Debs
• The Wobblies
– AKA Industrial Workers of the World
– Attempt to revive industrial unionism
The Working Class
The Working Class
• The Stresses of Success
– The Gilded Age industrial complex created a
system in which owners were largely
separated from their workers
– Wealth and working conditions primarily
– Set stage for government to step in and find a
balance
This concludes the lecture
PowerPoint Presentation for
Chapter 18
Big Business and Organized Labor
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