Growth of Industrialism
U.S. History/Gonzalez
Standards and Objectives
• Standard
• Objective: Students will be able to describe
the factors contributing to and the impact of
the rapid industrialization between 1865 and
1910.
2.2A Seamstresses working in a textile
factory around the turn of the century
2.2A Seamstresses working a textile
factory
• Rise of Industrialism: a change of production
from hand craftsmanship to machine
manufacturing
• Key factors in industrial growth
– Natural resources for fueling factories
• Oil, coal and iron
– Improved transportation
• 150,000 mi. or train tracks
– Population moved from rural areas to urban centers
– Government laissez-faire policy on business (no
restrictions)
Skyscraper
built in New
York City in
1901
2.2 B Invention and innovation
• Many new inventions: Between 1860 and 1900,
U.S. Patent office granted 676,000 patents to
inventors of machines, techniques and tools.
• Bessemer Process: the process of turning iron
into steel was made easy and cost-effective.
• Electricity: Samuel F.B Morse telegraph and
Alexander G. Bell telephone transmitted speech
over electrical wires.
• Machines increase production: sewing machines
and assembly lines
John D.
Rockefeller,
founder of
Standard Oil
Company
2.2C Industrial Leaders
• Industrial Giants: Owners of companies that
became very prosperous became known in the
United States.
• John D. Rockefeller and Oil: controlled 90% of the
oil industry. He argued that monopolizing the oil
industry brought economic stability and high
quality goods.
• Andrew Carnegie and Steel: “rags to riches story”
immigrated from Scotland and made his money
using the Bessemer process to produce steel
Cartoon from “Bosses of the Senate”
from Puck magazine
2.2D Trusts and Government
Corruption
• Rise of Industrial Trusts: businesses combined
competing companies into monstrous firms
called trusts. In 1904, 319 industrial trust
swallowed 5,300 independent manufactures.
• Trusts Influence Government Affairs: owners of
trust began to run for government offices. Trusts
wanted little intervention from government in
their businesses.
• City corruption: Political machines gave gifts to
families to gain political favors.
Andrew Carnegie and a group of
business leaders
2.2E Criticism and Defense of Big
Business
• People began to criticize big business because
they controlled so much of the industry. Unequal
distribution of wealth (material worth of 1% of
population was greater than 99% combined)
• Andrew Carnegie argued in the “Gospel of
Wealth” that wealth was a sign of divine approval
but that they needed to donate money to causes
they believed in. Carnegie gave $350 million
Steel workers in Andrew Carnegie’s
steel mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania
2.2F: The Impact of Industrialism
• Industrialization benefited the middle class
– National wealth and income grew significantly
during this time.
– People were able to benefit from technological
advances such as the telephone, automobiles,
fresh produce and buy ready made clothes.
– Dept. Stores created many jobs for people, clerical
and sales.
– People had jobs and were making money
2.2 F: The Impact of Industrialism
• Life for Average Americans:
– The majority of people during this time still used
candle to light their homes.
– Had no indoor plumbing or heating
– ¼ of population owned property
– 7% of people had high school diploma
2.2 F: The Impact of Industrialism
• Industrial working conditions:
– Men and women regularly worked 10 to 12 hour
days.
– Hot and unhealthy working conditions.
• Hundreds of men killed while working next to molten
steel
• Thousands of women suffered permanent back injuries
working in cramped conditions
• Dehumanizing and demoralizing for assembly line
workers who “became a hand—not a brain–not a
soul—deadened into a part of a machine”
Modern Times
Coal miners, most of whom are boys,
in Pennsylvania
2.2G: Change and Discrimination in the
Work Force
• Industrialism and Women:
– Women’s role shifted significantly. Young women
became secretaries and sales people in
department stores.
– Women got paid less about 50% less compared to
a man.
• Child Labor
– 1.75 million child laborers (10-15 yrs)
– Asthma from dust clouds, back deformities from
hunching over all day.
2.2H: Organized Labor
2.2H: Organized Labor
• Labor Unions Emerge:
– Working conditions worsened and income disparity
increased, laborers began organizing in unions with
the hope that collectively they could influence big
business.
– Laborers wanted to secure an 8-hour workday,
elimination of child labor and equal pay for men and
women.
• Business Response to Labor:
– Business accused labor groups of “plotting a social
revolution and the subversion of the American
Republic”
2.2H Organized Labor
• Union Victories:
– Most industries set a maximum work hours and
provided workers’ compensation for injuries.
– 1912 child labor laws in 38 states had set
minimum-age restrictions and health standards
for industrial workplaces.
2.2I: Food Contamination and
Muckrakers
• The Meatpacking Industry
– Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, described how industries,
in Chicago, resorted to extremely unsanitary practices
in order to keep up with production.
– Examples:
• spoiled and diseased pork was often dressed, packaged and
sold as fresh meat.
• Bologna sausage came from diseased cows with sawdust,
dirt potato flour and spices.
– As a result of publication, President Theodore
Roosevelt pressed Congress to pass meat-inspection
laws mainly because soldiers died from eating tainted
meat.
2.2I: Food Contamination and
Muckrakers
• Muckrakers were group of writers that
exposed ills in society like political corruption,
suppresion of racial minorities, slum
conditions and dishonest business practices.
• There writings would bring future changes in
how everything was done. (More government
involvement)
2.2J: Toll on the Environment
2.2J: Toll on the Environment
• Techniques used by businesses were
devastating to the environment.
– Hydraulic mining: using water to expose iron ore
near the surface.
– Clear-cutting: clearing whole sections of land at a
time.