U.S. HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
CHAPTER 3
Second Industrial Revolution: occurs after Civil
War
Gross National Product (GNP): total value of
goods & services that a country produces in a
year
Factors that spurred massive growth:
Natural Resources – timber, iron, coal, copper, &
petroleum (kerosene first then gasoline) – SEE MAP
PG. 93
Government support for business
Urban population
Markets for new products
air is injected into molten iron to remove the
carbon & other impurities produces steel
Henry Bessemer, English
Engineer and
Inventor, 19th century
Electricity: Thomas Alva Edison.
Communication: telegraph cable across Atlantic
by Cyrus Field. Telephone by Alexander Graham
bell 1876
Typewriter: Christopher Sholes 1867
Alternating Current (AC), air-brake system for
railroads, hydroelectric power: George
Westinghouse
Ice Machine: Thaddeus Lowe – refrigeration
Bell speaking
into a prototype
model of the
telephone
Laissez-faire: government should not interfere
in the economy other than to protect rights &
maintain peace. Supply & demand would
regulate wages & prices, competition will
promote efficiency & wealth
Free Enterprise: little or no government
regulation
Entrepreneurs: risk capital to create, organize, &
run businesses – SEE POLITICAL CARTOONS PG.
94
SEE MAP ON PGS. 90-91 & 98
Pacific Railway Act 1862: Union Pacific & Central
Pacific were given permission & land to build 1st
transcontinental railroad
Offered Americans a NEW life
Promontory Summit,
Utah - May 10, 1869
TIME management
Iron, coal, steel, lumber,
& glass industries
benefited from railroads’
demands
George Pullman: created
a town to build sleeper
cars & other types of
railroad cars
George Pullman &
his Pullman Town
A construction company that would get
contracts to lay track & charge 2x to 3x the
actual cost, pocketing profits. Sold stock well
below market value to members of Congress to
get more grants/contracts – SEE POLITICAL
CARTOON PG. 99
Domination of the economy through huge
factories & distribution facilities
SEE CHART PG. 101
Corporations
Economies of scale
Fixed costs
Operating costs
Andrew Carnegie: largest steel
company in the world –
Carnegie Steel
Vertical integration &
Horizontal integration – SEE
CHART PG. 102
Social Darwinism: how Carnegie explained his
success: hard work, shrewd investments, &
innovative business tactics. Considered “natural
law” – best adapted individuals survive
"Forty-Millionaire Carnegie in his Great Double Role. As the
tight-fisted employer he reduces wages that he may play
philanthropist and give away libraries, etc."
John D. Rockefeller:
largest oil company –
Standard Oil
Used trusts to “join” all
other oil companies
together (horizontal
integration)
Rockefeller at one point
will have a monopoly on
the oil industry as he
owned 90%
Trusts
Holding Companies
Investment Banking
Advertisement – N.W. Ayer & Son, 1st company,
used large illustrative ads
Shopping centers – Cleveland 1890
Public transportation
Departments stores & chain stores – Marshall
Field, F.W. Woolworth
Catalogs & free rural delivery – Montgomery
Ward, Sears both which turned into stores as
well
Marshall Field
F.W. Woolworth
Used to assist workers in bargaining for higher
wages & better working conditions
Two basic types of workers: craft workers
(skilled) & common laborers
National Labor Union & Knights of Labor –
earliest unions formed
SEE CHART PG. 106
Employers felt that they were conspiracies
Methods used to stop unions:
Yellow-dog contracts
Blacklist
Lockouts
Strikebreakers
Marxism: Karl Marx. Basis for communism.
Anarchism is the belief that government was
not needed. Led to assassinations & revolts
across Europe & eventually in U.S.
B & O Railroad workers walked off the job
protesting their 3rd wage cut. Eventually 80k
workers across the country would strike causing
disruptions in over 2/3 of the nation’s railways
& $10 million damage to railroad property.
Governors sent out militias & President
Rutherford B. Hayes sent federal troops. Took 12
days to restore order.
May 4, 1886
Laborers wanted an 8-hour workday,
nationwide strike called for May 1.
May 3 – Chicago police intervened in a fight on
a picket line at McCormick Harvester Plant by
opening fire on the strikers killing 4.
May 4 – 3k people gathered at Haymarket
Square to protest the police brutality. As crowd
dispersed due to weather a bomb was thrown
into the police line. Police fired. 3 speakers & 5
others were arrested & convicted.
Carnegie Steel Plant – Homestead, PA
Henry Frick (CEO) was cutting wages. Workers
strike. Frick hires Pinkerton Detective agency to
protect “scabs” (strikebreakers) to keep plant
operating. Battle ensues as they arrived killing 3
detectives & 9 workers. PA National Guard
restores orders. 4 months later strike collapsed.
During the Homestead Strike of 1892, the
Pinkertons killed 11 people while enforcing
strikebreaking measures. Illustration in
Harper's Weekly.
Pullman lays of 3k workers & cuts wages of
remaining workers. Eugene Debs of the
American Railway Union asked for arbitration
when economy improved, Pullman said no.
Boycott of Pullman trains & cars followed.
Pullman hires strikebreakers only to be met with
violence as the strikers will now burn the
Pullman cars. President Grover Cleveland sends
in federal troops to keep mail running. Federal
court issues an injunction to halt the boycott.
Founded by Samuel
Gompers. Encompasses
laborers from specific
craft unions together.
Used collective bargaining
to reach WRITTEN
agreements.
Three main goals: convince companies to
recognize unions, push for closed shops, &
promote an 8-hour workday
Becomes the biggest union with over 500k
members. Still exists today but is combined with
the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in
1955.
“Wooblies”. Headed by William
Haywood.
Used the ideals of socialism to
govern the union.
Members never topped 100k but
included miners, lumberers,
cannery, & dock workers, & African
Americans.
1912: only successful strike for 25k
textile workers in Lawrence, MA
18% of workforce. Mostly in: domestic servants,
teachers, nurses, sales clerks, clerical workers, garment
industry, & food processing plants. Would organize their
movements.
International Ladies Garment Workers Union founded
by Pauline Newman: 1909 won better wages & benefits
for employees with a strike of 30k workers
Women’s Trade Union League founded by Mary Kenney
O’Sullivan & Leonora O’Reilly