Chapter 6
A New Industrial Age
The Expansion of Industry
Section 1
New Inventions
Inventor and Year
Inventions (Describe
How it Works)
Inventor and Year
Inventions (Describe
How it Works)
Edwin L. Drake
1859
Used a steam engine to drill
for oil
Henry Bessemer and William
Kelly
1850
Bessemer Process – injects air
into molten iron to remove
the carbon and other
impurities
Christopher Sholes
1867
Typewriter
Alexander Graham Bell and
Thomas Watson
1876
Telephone
Thomas Alva Edison
1880
Incandescent Light Bulb
Research laboratory used for
creating safer and inexpensive
innovations in electricity
Effects of the Invention
Section Review – Question 5
Which inventon or development in the section
had the greatest impact on society?
 Justify your choice with at least TWO
facts/reasons.
 Think About:

 The
applications of these inventions
 The impact of inventions on people’s daily lives
 The effect of inventions on the work place
The Age of the Railroads
Section 2
Problems with the Railroads

Corruption schemes formed




Credit Mobilier: _____________
_________________________
Union Pacific Railroad officers
had made over $23 million in
stocks
Vice-President Colfax and
Congressman Garfield
implicated
No penalty, just loss of
reputation for the Republican
party.
The Grange and the Railroads

Farmer upset with railroads




State legislators passed The Granger Laws


Fixed pricing
Various rates
Misuse of grants
“to establish a maximum freight and passenger rates and
prohibit discrimination”
Munn v. Illinois: railroads fought the constitutionality of the
Granger Laws

Supreme court upheld
Interstate Commerce Act


Supreme court ruled that a state could not set rates on
interstate commerce.
Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act





Interstate commerce commission established
Difficulty regulating due to fight from R.R.s
Could not set maximum rates
Panic of 1893 caused many R.R.s to go bankrupt
2/3 will be controlled by seven powerful companies

J.P. Morgan and Co.
Big Business and Labor
Section 3
Business Strategies

Vertical Integration: a company buys out their suppliers

Horizontal Integration: a company buys out, or merges
with, its competitors
Business Strategies

Monopoly: a complete control over an industry’s
production quality, price, and wages

Merger: the combination of two or more companies

Holding Company: a company that does nothing but
buy out the stock of other companies

Trusts: a large corporation made up of many
companies the receive dividends on profits earned by
all companies combined
Social Darwinism

Developed from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution
(On the Origin of Species)




Survival of the fittest
Species evolve and adapt to their surroundings
Natural selection weeds out the weaker species
Applied to society



Used to justify laissez faire economics (gov. should leave
society alone to work out its own problems)
Success and failure in business are governed by natural law
(gov. shouldn’t interfere)
Riches were a sign of God’s grace and the poor must be lazy
or inferior
Business Titans
J.P. Morgan
Andrew Carnegie
John D. Rockefeller
Compare and Contrast

Answer the following questions about your assigned
industrialist.



What company did they own?
What industry was it in?
Which business strategies did they use and how?





Trusts
Horizontal integration
Vertical integration
Holding companies
How did he spend his money?
Carnegie
Morgan
Rockefeller
Philanthropy

The industrialists managed to give millions away to charity.
Working Conditions






Long work weeks and
days
No benefits
Dirty, poor ventilation
Accidents and injuries
common
Repetitive work
Low wages

Everyone had to work in
lower income families
Workers in a Birmingham button factory circa 1909
The Rise of Unions



What message do the
images and slogans
included in the poster
convey to you?
What do you find most
persuasive about this
poster? Why?
Why do you think IWW
posters were often called
“silent agitators”?
The Rise of Unions


Small, local unions since late 1700s
First large scale was the National Labor Union (NLU) in
1866


Problems



Lead to legalization of an 8-hour work day
Short work day for gov. workers
Segregation
Knights of Labor


Strikes as last resort
Equality
The Rise of Unions
Craft Unions



Industrial Unions
Skilled workers from
trades
Began by Samuel Gompers
American Federation of
Labor formed

Used collective bargaining
to negotiate hours,
conditions, and wages
Strikes gained higher wages
and shorter work weeks.





All skilled laborers
Eugene V. Debs – began an
industrial union (ARU)
Used strike to gain higher
wages
Failure of future strikes
Socialism

Socialism – an economic and political system based on
government control of business and property and equal
distribution of wealth



Would result in the overthrow of capitalism
Extreme form = communism (Karl Marx)
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)



Radical unionists and socialists
Open to African-Americans
One major strike victory
Strikes

Many of the strikes turned violent
Strike
Great Strike of 1877
The Haymarket Affair
The Homestead Strike
Pullman Company Strike
Goals of the Strike
Results of the Strike
Study/Test Tips
Review: In developing your answers to extended
responses, be sure to keep these general definitions in
mind:
a) discuss means “to make observations about something
using facts, reasoning, and arguments; to present in some
detail”
b) describe means “to illustrate something in words or tell
about it”
c) evaluate means “to examine and judge the significance,
worth, or condition of; to determine the value of”
d) show means “to point out; to set forth clearly a position
or idea by stating it an giving data which support it”