Chapter 9-4
• Reforming the Industrial World
▫ The Philosophers of Industrialization
▫ Rise of Socialism
▫ Labor Unions and Reform Laws
▫ The Reform Movement Spreads
I) The Philosophers of Industrialization
• While industrialization opened a gap between rich and
poor, business leaders warned the government to stay out
of economic affairs while reformers felt the government
should play an active role in bettering conditions for the
poor.
• The term laissez faire comes from the French word “let
do” and refers to the economic policy of letting owners of
business set working conditions without interference (AKA
Hands OFF Policy).
• Adam Smith, a professor at the University of Glasgow in
Scotland, defended the idea of a free market economy in
his 1776 book “The Wealth of Nations” and claimed
economic liberty guaranteed economic progress.
I) The Philosophers of Industrialization
• Economists Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo
supported Smith’s basic ideas and believed that
natural laws govern economic life.
• This ideas formed the foundation for Capitalism
in which money is invested in business ventures
with the goal of making a profit.
• Laissez-faire thinkers such as Smith, Malthus, and
Ricardo opposed government efforts to help
workers with such things as minimum wage laws
or better working conditions, which they thought
would upset the free market system.
II) Rise of Socialism
• In contrast to the laissez faire philosophy to leave
business alone, others felt that the government
should intervene.
• An English philosopher came up with philosophy
of utilitarianism, that people should judge ideas,
institutions and actions on the basis of their utility
or usefulness.
• John Stuart Mills led the utilitarian movement in
the 1800’s, calling into question unregulated
capitalism.
II) Rise of Socialism
• Other reformers took an even more active approach,
like Robert Owen who founded a cooperative
community in New Harmony, Indiana in 1825 in
which people would live in perfect harmony or utopia.
• Still other reformers sought to offset the effects of
capitalism with a new kind of economic system called
socialism, where the factors of production are
controlled by the public for the welfare of all.
• Socialists argued that the government should actively
plan the economy, which would help the workers who
were at the mercy of greedy employers.
II) Rise of Socialism
• The writings of a German journalist named Karl
Marx introduced the world to a radical type of
socialism called Marxism.
• Marx and Fredrich Engels outlined their ideas in a
23 page pamphlet called the Communist Manifesto
where they argued that human societies had been
divided into warring classes, the middle class
“haves” (bourgeoisie) and the working class “have
nots” (proletariat)
• They predicted the workers would overthrow the
owners because they have nothing to lose except
their “chains”.
II) Rise of Socialism
• Marx believed that the capitalist system would
eventually destroy itself, when the large proletariat
revolts and seizes the factories and mills.
• Eventually there would be a period of cooperative
living and education where workers would share the
profits called communism, where private property
would cease to exist and all goods and services would
be shared equally.
• While Marxism did inspire communist revolutionaries
such as Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Min, and Fidel
Castro, many of the predictions have since proved
wrong because of new types of reforms.
III) Unionization and Legislative Reform
• Faced with long hours and dangerous working
conditions, working people became more active in
politics by putting together associations called
unions.
• Unions engaged in collective bargaining, where
they spoke for all the workings in a particular trade
and negotiated with their employers.
• If factory owners refused their demands they could
strike, or refuse to work.
III) Unionization and Legislative Reform
• The union movement underwent slow, painful
growth in both the United states and Britain,
where for years the government denied workers
the right to form unions.
• New reform laws corrected some of the worst
abuses of industrialization, for example Parliament
passed the factory Act of 1833 which outlawed
child labor for those under 10 years old and
restricted the hours for older children.
• The Ten Hours Act of 1847 limited the workday for
both children and women.
IV) Other Reform Movements
• The same impulse toward reform spread beyond
industrialism, helping to end slavery and promote
rights for women.
• William Wilberforce led the fight for abolition in
Britain, which finally abolished slavery in the empire
in 1833 for both moral and economic reasons.
• The movement to end slavery took longer in the new
world, America did not abolish it until after the Civil
War in 1865, and not until 1888 did Brazil’s huge
enslaved population win freedom.
IV) Other Reform Movements
• The Industrial revolution was a mixed bag for women; on one
hand factory worked offered higher wages than work done at
home, but women factory workers only made one-third the
amount of men.
• The Women’s rights movement began in the United States as
early as 1848, and women around the world formed an
International Council for Women in 1888.
• Public education and prison reform ranked high on the
reformers lists, and by 1850 many states in America and
nations of western Europe offered free public schooling, and
reformers took on the challenge of emphasizing the goal of
restoring prisoners to useful lives rather than just punishment.