The Rise of Big Business and Labor
1865-1900
Warm Up: Example/Non-Example
Examples
• President Hayes
• President Cleveland
• Pinkerton Detective
Agency
• Strikebreakers (or
“scabs”)
Non-Examples
• Samuel Gompers
• Eugene Debs
• Knights of Labor
• American Railway
Union (ARU)
Which of these are examples?
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Henry Clay Frick
New Immigrants
Molly Maguires
AF of L
Haymarket Square
National Guard
Socialist Party
Collective bargaining
Child labor laws
The Industrial Boom
• The United States went from being
largely an agricultural nation in 1865
to becoming the world’s leading
industrial power by 1900.
• This was due to several factors:
1. Republican administrations (tariff)
2. Immigration (cheap labor)
3. Technological advancements
4. Growth of corporations
The Robber Barons/ Titans of Industry
Key Terms for Big Business
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Social Darwinism
Laissez-faire
Vertical integration
Horizontal integration
Monopoly
Holding company
Gospel of Wealth
philanthropy
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Horatio Alger
The Gospel of Wealth, 1889
• This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth:
To set an example of modest, unostentatious living,
shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately
for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him;
and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues
which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is
called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter
of duty to administer in the manner which, in his
judgment, is best calculated to produce the most
beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth
thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer
brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom,
experience, and ability to administer, doing for them
better than they would or could do for themselves.
Andrew Carnegie
The Labor Movement—Unions
• National Labor Union
(NLU), 1866
• Founders/Membership
William Sylvis; refused
blacks—which led to the
creation of CNLU’s;
640,000 members
• Platform: persuaded
Congress to legalize an
8-hour workday for
government workers
(1868)
• Impact: first large-scale
national organization of
laborers
The Labor Movement—Unions
• Knights of Labor, 1869
• Founders/Membership
Uriah Stephens & Terrence
Powderly; open to all workers
regardless of race, gender, or
skill; 700,000 members
• Platform: supported 8-hour
workday; “equal pay for
equal work”; advocated
arbitration; strikes used as
a last resort
• Impact: went in decline
after failed strikes; planted
seeds for progressive
reforms—early calls for an
end to child labor and a
progressive income tax
The Labor Movement—Unions
• American Federation of
Labor (AF of L); 1886
• Founders/Membership:
Samuel Gompers; craft
unionism (skilled workers);
excluded blacks; halfhearted support for women;
2 million members at height
• Platform: collective
bargaining; used strikes as
a major tactic; supported
Chinese Exclusion Act; in
opposition to radicals
• Impact: won higher wages
and shorter workweeks for
its members; supported
federal govt. during WWI
The Labor Movement—Unions
• International Workers of
the World (IWW) or
“Wobblies”; 1905
• Founders/Membership:
“Big Bill” Haywood; miners;
lumberers; dockworkers;
welcomed AfricanAmericans; less than
100,000 members
• Platform: organized by
radical unionists & socialists;
sought to achieve better
conditions for workers
• Impact: gave dignity and a
sense of solidarity to
unskilled workers
Strikes and Riots
at the Turn of the Century
Great Strike of 1877
• Causes: workers for
the B&O Railroad
protested their 2nd
wage cut in 2 months
• Analysis of Events:
work stoppage spread
to other lines; most
freight stopped for
more than a week
• Results: President
Hayes intervenes—uses
federal troops to end
strike (1st); significant
nationwide strike (1st)
Haymarket Square Riot (1886)
• Causes: 3,000 people
gathered in Chicago to
protest police brutality
from an earlier strike
• Analysis of Events:
protesters began to
disperse when police
arrived; an anarchist
threw a bomb into the
police line; police fired on
the workers
• Results: eight (8) men
convicted; charged with
inciting a riot; public
began to turn against the
labor movement
Homestead Strike (1892)
• Causes: steelworkers
protest company
president’s plan to cut
wages
• Analysis of Events:
armed guards hired to
protect plant; “scabs” hired
to keep plant running;
workers won a pitched
battle to close the plant
• Results: National Guard
called in to reopen plant;
strike continues for 4
months; union lost much of
support—ended effective
union presence in the steel
industry for the next 45
years
Pullman Strike (1894)
• Causes: Panic of 1893;
Pullman laid off 3,000
employees and cut wages
without cutting the cost of
employee housing
• Analysis of Events: ARU
leader Eugene V. Debs
requested arbitration;
Pullman refuses; ARU
boycotted Pullman trains;
Pullman hired scabs
• Results: President
Cleveland issued a federal
injunction to end strike
(re: mail); Debs jailed;
many workers blacklisted
Meade High School Strike!
• Group Writing Exercise:
• Break into your previous group form
the first activity.
• You will have a few minutes to pick an
issue or a policy here at Meade HS that
you want to protest against.
• As a group, you will present your
protest idea to the class, if time
permits!