U. S. History I
Chapter 4: Triumph of Industry
1865-1914
IN STD: USH.2.1-2.4, 9.3-9.4
Causes of the Industrialization
1. Natural Resources
– Edwin Drake: Drilled first oil well in U.S. History in
Titusville, Pennsylvania
– Oil: Before: used to boil whale blubber/After:
Kerosene and gasoline (after automobile)
2. Large Workforce
- Immigration increased (Asia and Europe)
3. Capitalism and Entrepreneurs
- Entrepreneur: One who risks (invests) money in order
to make money
- Horatio Alger: Wrote: “Rags to Riches” novels about
“entrepreneurial spirit”
4. Government Policy
-Laissez-Faire: “Free Enterprise” Government took
“hand’s-off” approach to business (Supply/Demand)
with little regulation (rules)
-Protective Tariffs: Taxes on imports aimed at protecting
local business
“Rags to Riches” Novels: Horatio
Alger
Innovation Drives the Nation
• Patent: Exclusive
permission to develop
and sell an Invention for a
certain period of time
• Thomas Edison:
Inventor who set up
Menlo Park Research
Laboratory in New
Jersey: Invented Light
Bulb (1880)
• Alexander Graham Bell:
1876: Patented
Telephone
• Gugliemo Marconi:
Wireless Telegraph:
“Father of Radio”
STEEL
• Bessemer Process:
Henry Bessemer:
Purifying Iron by
“Blasting” it with
intense heat
• Suspension
Bridges: Roadway
suspended in air w/
steel cables.
• -Brooklyn Bridge:
1883: First of its kind
• Skyscraper: Used
steel frames for
height: Home
Insurance Building:
Chicago: First
Skyscraper ever built
Technology and Transportation
• Railroads
• George Westinghouse: 1869: Invented
Air Brakes
• Granville Woods: 1887: Train Telegraph
• Gustavus Swift: Refrigerated Rail Car
• BIG Problem: Times were set
independently (Usually using sun)
Scheduling Became Impossible
• SOLUTION: 1884: 27 Countries created
24 “Time-Zones”
• Airplane: 1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright:
Kitty Hawk, N.C. First Successful Flight
•
FYI
DID YOU KNOW: The
Wright brothers (top)
used an airplane
design created by a
Dr. Chanute (bottom)
of Chicago. Chanute
developed his design
by flying his “glider”
at the Indiana Sand
Dunes! (Miller
Beach)… so you
could say that the
Airplane was invented
in Indiana!!!
Spiral of Growth
• Railroads stimulated
(Sped up/helped)
innovation and
industrialization
• -Brought Natural
Resources from
Western U.S.
• Mass Production:
Factories turned out
large numbers of
product in short
amount of time.
Impact of Industrialization
• 1. Linked World Markets:
Food…etc.
• 2. Changed American
Society: Growth of Cities
• 3. Environmental
Problems: Pollution
• -National Park Service:
1872: Formed to protect
environment against
abuses of business.
• *Yellowstone National
Park: 1872: First National
Park in U.S. History
• *Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore: 1966
U.S. History I
Chapter 4 Section 2
“The Rise of Big Business”
Clockwise from top left:
Standard Oil, Vanderbilt Mansion, Monopoly Board
Game, J.P. Morgan Chase Building
The Corporation
• Corporation: Many people “share” ownership of
ONE company
• Monopoly: Complete control of a product or
service
• Cartel: Businesses agree to make same product
and limit supply to drive up prices. (OPEC-oil,
De Beers-diamonds)
• J.D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil/ Controlled
Railroads to “corner” oil market
• J.P. Morgan: Developed research labs
• Cornelius Vanderbilt: Railroad tycoon: N.Y. to
Chicago direct rail line.
Vertical/Horizontal Integration
• Horizontal Integration:
Consolidate many firms
into one business (Super
Company)
** Was Illegal
Trust: Companies assign
stock to board of
TRUSTEES who get paid
with stock profits (Made
Horizontal Integration
Legal)
Vertical Integration:
Control ALL businesses
involved in product
development (Monopoly:
Own the Board)
Andrew Carnegie: U.S.
Steel/Pittsburgh, PA
The Big Business Debate
• Support: “Captains of
Industry”
• 1. Efficient
• 2. Lower Prices
• 3. Provided Jobs
• 4. Made U.S.
Powerful
• 5. Philanthropists:
Helped fellow man
• Against: “Robber
Barons”
• 1. Unfair Advantages
• 2. Drove Small
businesses out
• 3. No Competition
• 4. Monopolies would
RAISE prices
• 5. “Swindle” Poor
Big Business Debate
Social Darwinism
•
-
Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species
Animals evolved through Natural Selection
“Survival of the fittest”
Social Darwinism: Wealth was a measure of
one’s value and those who had it were “fit”
Those who do not should “adapt”
- * Many used theory as a way to discriminate
against minorities and other “poverty-stricken”
Americans and Immigrants because of their
“unfitness”
Government Regulations
• Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC): Could monitor railroads that cross
state lines. Then refer records to Congress
to address “unfairness”
• Sherman Anti-trust Act: Outlawed
Trusts/Monopolies that limited trade
among several states
• Read Wealth: Page 113: Andrew
Carnegie
U.S. History I
Organized Labor Movement
Chapter 4 Section 3
2.1, 2.4, 9.3
Worker Hardships
• Immigrants and poor
exploited by big business:
(Low Wages)
• Long Days: (12 Hour/ 6
Days per week)
• Unsafe conditions:
Sweatshops: Small, hot,
dark, and dirty: Triangle
Shirt waste Co. NYC (Top)
• Children exploited (20% 1016 Employed 1890’s)
• Company Towns: Pullman
Town-Chicago (Bottom)
Isolated communities
owned by company
• Company Stores: Workers
forced to shop at company
owned stores that
overcharged them
• http://www.ernieford.com/Si
xteenTons.htm
Labor Unions Form
• Collective Bargaining:
negotiating with employer
as a group: Strikes used to
force negotiation (Top Left)
• Socialism: Favors
PUBLIC control of
property/ Opposite of
Capitalism (Private
Ownership) (Karl Marx:
Communist Manifesto)
• Knights of Labor:
Industrial Union: Uriah
Stephens
• 1881: Terence Powderly :
Became president
(Bottom)
• American Federation of
Labor: Samuel Gompers:
“Skilled worker” Union
(Top)
Strikes Rock the Nation
• Railroad Strike of 1877:
First major strike in U.S.
History (Wages):
Government sided w/
Business and Violence
Erupted
• Haymarket Riot: 1886:
Chicago: Knights of Labor
(Fair Wages/ 8 HR Work
Day)
• Anarchists: Antigovernment: Joined
protest: Bomb Exploded:
Dozens Killed/ Including
Police
Strikes Rock the Nation
• Homestead Strike:
Pennsylvania: U.S. Steel
(protest wage cuts during
depression)
• Pinkerton: Private
“Strike Breaking”
Police Force (intimidate
workers)
*Anarchist tried to
assassinate Henry Frick:
(Carnegie’s Partner)
*Government Sided w/
Business
Strikes Rock the Nation
• Pullman Strike: 1893:
Pullman Palace Car
Company: Chicago
• Eugene Debs:
American Railway
Union President
*Workers blocked trains
from running during
strike.
*Pullman attached MAIL
CARS to his
*Grover Cleveland sent
troops to end strike
*Eugene Debs arrested
for “federal offense”
Effects on Labor Movement
• Trend: general course
of events
• Government trend
was to side with
business
• Socialism spread
through U.S.
• Eugene Debs: Ran
for President in 1900
• *Radical ideas
continued to spread
because of Industrial
worker’s “perception”
of unfairness
DID YOU KNOW?
• During a coal miner’s
strike in 1921, miners in
West Virginia (Battle of
Blair Mountain) wore red
handkerchiefs around
their necks to show unity.
• They were nicknamed
“rednecks”!
• …Oh yeah… and the
color red is usually
associated with
Communism (Marxism),
too!