3-1
Unit 3 – The Gilded Age (1877-1900)
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Does anyone know what “gilded” means? It was a thin coat of gold that was put on the outside of an iron object or something ugly
underneath. It made cheap things look very nice. Mark Twain (has anyone ever heard of him?) named this age because he thought
underneath the dazzling and shiny appearance of all the amazing things that were happening, there was a corrupt and ugly
underbelly.
During this time period, the United States goes from a country mostly of farms and small towns to a country dominated by factories and
big cities. This time period also sees major changes in the way people work and live, huge fortunes are created and huge numbers of
people live in the worst poverty, immigrants flock to the cities, workers start to organize for their rights, new technologies transform
people’s lives and America becomes a world power. The rights of African Americans, women and Native Americans are largely ignored,
but there are rumblings of new freedom movements on the horizon.
4 Major events that happened in 1876-1877 would give a glimpse into the issues to come in this time period:
The End of Reconstruction
The Centennial Celebration
The country basically gives up on giving
African Americans equal rights and turns
towards building the industrial economy.
The 100 year celebration of the U.S.
founding. The city of Philadelphia
showcases America’s growing industrial
and technological power and the
entrepreneurs who will build industrial
empires.
Jim Crow laws and segregation takes hold
in the South.
1877
The Great Uprising
Indian Wars
One of the largest labor uprisings in the
history of the country. Workers protest
their poor working conditions and the
growing power of owners over their lives
and the government.
The United States initiates the final series
of wars to destroy Native American
cultures and institute the reservation
system. At the end of the Gilded Age, the
West will officially be “won.”
3-2
Factors Needed for Industrialization
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Profits from the Civil War led to massive industrial growth. Between 1865-1873 industrial production rose 75%
By 1873, the United States had more factory workers than farmers
The government and big businesses became very closely tied – especially railroad companies
Market – demand for manufactured goods.
a.)
Fast growing population bought more goods.
 Increased health conditions, food, etc., immigration
b.)
Advertising promoted buying
 Rise of brand names. There were never kinds of products it
was just stuff. Salt was salt, it came in a big barrel and you
would just scoop some out. Suddenly we have Morton’s salt,
not just salt, and NABISCO crackers, not just crackers. Not
shoes, Nike shoes. The value is not the shoe itself almost, it
Capital – money needed to start production.

Where did this money come from? Stock market,
foreign investment, Civil War profits.
Entrepreneurs
 Does anyone know what an
entrepreneur is? They manage
Technology
Transportation
and take the risks of business.
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Telephone, electricity,

Why would railroads be
They put up their money to start
engines, etc. The number of
absolutely necessary for
a business and if it fails, they
patents per year in 1850 was
massive industrialization?
lose their money.
1,000. In 1890 it was 25,000
Do you think you could

They bring the factors of
per year. These aren’t all
transport tons of coal across
production together (land, labor,
necessarily good ideas, but
the country using a horse
capital, management) and
this just shows the massive
and buggy? Railroads
search for profits.
number of improvements
transported coal, oil, steel,
 People such as Carnegie (steel),
and new technologies being
food, people.
Rockefeller (oil), Morgan
developed.
The economic system used by the United States is called capitalism.
(banking, railroads), Edison
(electric), Swift (meat packing).
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You might think that you don’t know much about capitalism, but from having lived in the United States for a while now, I bet you
know quite a bit about it. Let’s try.
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Does anyone in here know someone that has been arrested for shoplifting or stealing from a store? I’m sure none of you have ever
been busted, but just if you know of someone.
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Why were they busted for taking the stuff without paying for it? What gives the store owner the right to have someone arrested
for taking food (that the person needs to live) from the store? Why does the store owner want to sell it for money and not just give
it to people who need it? So you have two of the big things about capitalism right there, private ownership and for-profit
production. Let’s take a look at the ideas that make up capitalism.
Capitalism – 4 basic ideas
1. Private Ownership of the Means of Production – individuals or companies own and therefore can make decisions about what to
do with their property.
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Owners can build more factories and employ more people or they can close factories or fire people as they choose. They can
pay whatever wages they feel like, of course people might not come work for them, but they have the right to do anything
they want with their property.
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We are dealing of course with an idealized version of capitalism, government does intervene in places.
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Any examples? Minimum wage, labor relations, safety rules, etc.
2. Production for Profit – goods and services are produced solely in order to make a profit, not based on need.
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People produce not because they need 10,000 cars for themselves or because they want to be generous. They produce so
they can sell and make a profit.

This has two important implications for us.
a. If you don’t have money, you cannot consume.
b. If owners don’t make a profit, they won’t continue to produce.
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3.
4.
Low-income housing or making things for the poor is a bad way to make profit. Therefore these things aren’t
produced.
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Medicines for diseases of poor people in Africa don’t get a whole lot of funding because there is no money to be
made in it, etc.
Wage-Labor – workers rent their labor to owners for money called wages.

This is the main difference between capitalism and slavery.
Competitive Behavior
a. Firms compete against each other for profit
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Toyota and GM and Ford all compete against each to gain the most profit.
b. Workers compete against each other for jobs, wages, benefits, etc.

Who’s willing to work for less? Race to the bottom?
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
1. By 1877, the US had a national rail system from coast to coast – 75,000 miles of track.
2. A few large companies owned most of the tracks and they had a lot of influence over state and national governments.
3. There had been a depression since 1873 and the Baltimore & Ohio line (B&O) and others cut wages repeatedly, the last time by
10% and there were many injuries on the job.
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The trains were dangerous to operate. There had been a number of wage cuts since 1873 and the workers had had enough of
it.
4. Workers in West Virginia said no trains would move until the 10% cut was repealed.
5. Federal and state troops were called in by President Hayes and the company to end the strike.
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Those troops that were being called in to break the strike are the troops that had been stationed in the South during
Reconstruction. When I say they ended Reconstruction to focus on business and making money, this is one of the things I’m
talking about.

Again, you see the connection between business and government being formed. They didn’t call out the troops to make sure
the workers got their 10% pay cut back, the troops were sent by the government to ensure that the railroad owners’ property
was protected.
6. Workers enraged by the use of troops spread the strike to Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Chicago, and St. Louis, where a
general strike was called.

Draw map of spread.
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A general strike is where everyone in the city who belongs to a union simply stops working to protest certain things. What
would happen if everyone who was a blue-collar worker in Philadelphia suddenly stopped working?
7. 100 people died, 1,000 in jail, 100,000 workers struck, ½ of the railroads were shut down.
8. Was a signal that there were major labor issues in the US.
Spread of Industry and Protest
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How could have the protest and strike spread so quickly to such far away places as Baltimore and Chicago and St. Louis?
1. The same technologies that allowed businesses to operate over the entire country (telegraph, railroad, etc.) also allow workers
to organize across the country.
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This is the same idea with the internet today. Businesses can operate around the globe, but it is also much easier for
workers and consumers around the world to communicate as well.
2. As industry and businesses get larger, it also organizes the workers in opposition.
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You would think that as businesses get larger, their ability to control things get larger as well. It does to a certain extent, but it
also organizes larger opposition. How does it do that?
3. Workers who had been separate and unconnected from each other now found themselves in the same boat with the same
concerns.
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If a company cuts wages at their factory in Chicago and they don’t own any factories in Milwaukee, what are the chances that
workers in Milwaukee are going to go on strike? Slim to none. Probably only the workers in Chicago will go on strike.
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Now let’s say that the company spreads and owns factories in Chicago, Milwaukee, Toledo, and Detroit. If they cut wages at
their factories, who is going to go on strike now? Same thing with the railroads, as they become national, so do the people
they affect.
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Now we have global corporations and we are starting to see global worker’s movements that try to deal with labor issues.
Because businesses are dealing in a number of countries, we now have workers in the US and in China who have the same
concerns and are affected by the same things, etc.
4. This realization led to the formation of national labor unions.

If we have national businesses, workers realized they needed national unions. We will talk about them more later.
Business During the Gilded Age
1. Brought new technologies and innovations to the world.

Telephone, electricity, new ways to produce things faster and cheaper.
2. Increased the wealth of the country many times over and increased living standards.
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3.
4.
The wealth created by these industries and businesses made possible the astounding levels of consumption possible in the US
today. Obviously the workers had something to do with this as well, but businesses did allow for massive increases in
standards of living, even though workers had to fight for it.
Created millions of jobs for people.
Formed corporations – businesses which were owned publically by their stockholders

Have all the rights of individual people

Buy property, borrow money, sue people.

The people who invest are not responsible for the debts of the corporation, they can only lose what they invested in the
company. So if I put in 10,000 into a company and that company wracks up 3 billion in debt, I’m not responsible for that,
only the 10,000. This is obviously an advantage to the stockholders.
Role of Competition in Capitalism (Read pages 169-170)
1. Laissez-Faire – the idea that the government should not be involved in the economy and should take a “hands-off” approach.

The basic idea here is who knows better what to do with your property? – the government or you? Most capitalists
would say they know best how to manage their property so the government should keep its nose out of their business.
2. Businesses compete with each other for profits.

What would happen if they didn’t get profits? If they don’t get profits, they die economically speaking.
3. Competition ensures that the best product is produced for the least amount of money.

How does competition ensure the best product for the best price?
4. Competition does this by offering choices to consumers.

If product X and product Y are of equal value, but X is cheaper than Y, which product will people buy? So either product Y has
to cut their cost or they will go out of business.

What if the cost the same, but one is of much higher quality? Again the same thing. So competition ensures that the best
product for the cheapest is always around. Of course this is theoretical, it doesn’t always happen this way, but it is generally
true.
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Advertising for instance may make a terrible product more desirable to buy even though it is more expensive or of lower
quality than a competitor.
5. Competition can sometimes be destructive for individual companies and can produce wasted effort and inefficiency.

What happens if a company can’t compete with the competition? They are destroyed economically speaking and those
workers lose their jobs as well. So competition is a cutthroat operation.

It also can be wasteful in some cases. How many people have seen a situation where there is a street corner and on each of
the 4 corners is a gas station with 4 pumps each and only one pump is being used at each station? One of those stations could
easily accommodate everyone’s needs for gas, but we have competition. So we have a lot of wasted capacity and effort, but
the theory goes we are better off that way than with no competition.

Do individual businesses like to have competition? No. It cuts into profits so businesses find any way they can to limit the amount of
competition they have to face.
Ways to Limit Competition
1. In order to dominate and make profits, companies seek to eliminate or reduce competition.
2. Monopoly – when one company or a few companies control an entire industry.

What is a monopoly? Not the board game, which was made around this time.
3. Trust – companies in the same industry get together and fix prices to keep them high or to limit competition among the
companies in the trust.

Basically every industry was doing something like this. You would get all of the sugar producers together and they would
agree not to compete against each other. They would be the Sugar Trust. You had the Steel Trust, the Oil Trust, etc.

Rockefeller was the great example of this. He would buy up all of the oil refineries to the point where his oil trust Standard Oil
controlled 90% of the production of oil in the U.S.

Has anyone ever heard of OPEC? Do you know what it stands for? (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) They got
together and formed a cartel to restrict the supply of oil to keep prices where they wanted them to make more profits.
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College town real-estate companies have a similar arrangement I think. Mrs. Hammon and I went to college together. Her
senior year she lived in a house with 5 other girls. The place had one bathroom and the garage was converted into a bedroom
for two people. Mrs. Hammon lived in the attic with another girl. They charged them 1,400 each a semester. That’s 2,800 per
year per girl. That’s a total rent of 16,800 per year. The house itself couldn’t have been worth more than 60,000 so it would
be paid off in about 5 years time and then straight profit. The problem was you couldn’t find anything cheaper because the
companies had you by the throat. If you were a college student and wanted to live in town you had to pay. I think they had a
deal to keep the prices high though.
Vertical Monopoly
1. Carnegie and steel
2. You control all the steps in the production of a good from the raw materials to the finished product

Iron ore mines, refineries, steel plants, railroads and shipping, retail.

This keeps prices down for the raw materials for the producer.
Horizontal Monopoly
1. Rockefeller and oil.
2. You control all the businesses in your industry – own all the oil refineries.

You let other people deal with the extraction of the oil, the shipping and the retail. You just control the refineries at one stage
of production and then use that advantage to make lots of money.
Ways to get a monopoly
1. Mergers – buy up all your competitors

This is the most common type right now. Banks are buying up banks. First Union was recently bought out by Wachovia which
was then bought by Wells Fargo.
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Media companies and the FCC.
2. Drive competitors out of business through lower pricing and rebates – then buy them.

These were the tactics of Rockefeller. Since he shipped so much oil, he would demand a fare cut, or a rebate, from railroad
companies to do business with them. Smaller companies couldn’t cut the same kind of deal and so Rockefeller could produce
cheaper oil than his competitors. This was eventually declared illegal, but it got him quite a bit of power.

Also pricing. Large companies can cut prices in a certain area to the point where smaller competitors can’t make a profit, but
the big companies with stores elsewhere can continue making profit even though they are selling so low. Once they drive out
or buy up the competition, the big company would just raise prices.

Wal-Mart sort of does this today. You will notice not too many Wal-Marts in big towns. Mostly rural. They run the mom and
pop stores out of business because they are so large, they can’t compete.
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Wal-Mart for a long time would only build stores in small towns. Why do you think they would do that? What kind of
competition would they face?

What started to happen in a lot of places is that Wal-Mart would put little mom and pop stores out of business because of
their tremendous size and price advantage.
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If Wal-Mart is selling hammers they can sell them for much less because they are buying them by the thousands and sending
them all over the country. They get a pretty serious discount. Little stores on the other hand can’t do that and it costs them
more to buy and sell the hammers.
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This happened in my home town. We had a bunch of little department stores and hardware stores and everything. Wal-Mart
came in and within a couple of months a lot of stores went out of business and we had all of these abandoned lots and
buildings on the main strip.
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Then they got tired of where they were located and moved into the main strip and left another major lot empty on the outside
of town that can’t be used for anything because it is so big. Now they have a super Wal-Mart with groceries and everything
and I can assure you that the local supermarkets like Bernicke’s and Chiefs are going to be feeling quite a bit of pressure in the
coming months.
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Scientific Management – “Taylorism”
1. Henry Ford used Taylor to establish assembly lines in his factories.
2. Time-Motion studies to find an ideal way to do the job.
As we saw yesterday, the idea was you took a job and watched and timed a reasonably efficient worker doing the job. You then broke
that job down into the smallest movements. So if I’m supposed to be shoveling coal into a furnace over there, he would break it down
to each little movement. Which is the best hand to put on top of the shovel, which way should I turn when I go to the furnace, should I
hold the shovel on the hip or hold it away from the body, should I toss the coal into the furnace or put the shovel in and then turn it
over, which way should I turn when I got back to the pile of coal?
He would time all of this and come up with his ideal way of doing something and then teach every worker to do the job the exact same
way every single time.
3. Take complex and skilled jobs and break them down into small simple steps that could be performed by anyone.

This had two effects – one, it made the assembly line much more efficient in terms of the amount of products that could
be produced.
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It also basically cut any power that workers had in a factory. If I’m a skilled craftsman and I can build a whole car by
myself, how easy is it to replace me?
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What if instead of skilled craftsman, we now have jobs to build a car that simply involved pushing a button or drilling 4
holes on a wheel and that’s it? How easy is it to replace me now?

So if you get out of line or want higher wages or get hurt, they just push you off to the side and bring in the next guy.
4. The basic idea is to control behavior through management and design instead of direct control by a human.

So if you can design the work process and make it so that the workers can only do the work one way through the design
of the machines or whatever, you don’t have to have a boss standing over them yelling at them or ordering them to do it
a certain way – all those orders and controls are built into the machine itself.

So whereas a worker used to have someone to focus their anger if their job sucked – the boss – all of a sudden the only
person they can yell at is the machine they are working at or the work manual that the management wrote to control the
work process. Not too many people are willing to yell at or get into a fight with the machine they are working on. They
usually lock those people away in a special hospital, but the control is stil the same.
5. Examples of Taylorism or “Control Through Design” today.
a.
Fast Food
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Workers are deliberately totally unskilled so they can be replaced easily. Turnover rate is enormous.
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b.
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c.
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d.
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e.
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Machines cook most of the foods with workers to push buttons and take things out when they are done.
Ever notice how uncomfortable the seats are in there? Just like hard plastic. They want you to eat and then get out as fast
as possible.
Malls
They put the big stores that people want to go to at the ends of the malls so that to go from one to the other requires you to
go past about 50 other stores.
They put the stuff they want to sell the most to the right of the store as you enter because that’s the place most people go.
They pump food smells into the halls from the food stores to get people to buy more.
Franklin Mills is designed intentionally confusing so you have to walk all over the place.
Public Spaces
Design benches with curves and bend or hand rails in the middle to prevent people from sleeping on them.
Put up spikes or bumps on rails or concrete ledges to prevent skateboarders so instead of having to have a cop there yelling
not to sleep or skateboard, you just build the control into the design.
Casinos
No clocks or windows
Confusing layout
Pump in extra oxygen so people don’t get tired
Lots of flashing lights
Teaching
They produce teacher resource kits that have everything in there that the teachers are supposed to do. They have lesson
plans, how to set up the room, how to get kids into groups, what questions to ask, what images to show, the activities,
everything. I heard one textbook company say that they try to make the books and kits teacher-proof. The idea being that no
matter how bad the teacher is, if they just follow the plan that is completely laid out for them in minute detail that the lessons
will still be good.
Industrial Alienation Simulation
1. Students take on the role of placemat makers. They are given 10 minutes to design and create a placemat any way they want.
They can work in groups or by themselves. They can make any design they want.
2. After 10 minutes, have some students talk about their placemats and why they put on the things they put on there.
3. Now explain that some placemat factories moved into town and drove you all out of business and now you work for a factory.
4. Explain that the factory owner’s research has indicated that this design is the most popular design for placemats and will sell the
most and make the most money. Also that instead of having one person make the whole placemat, it is faster if we divide up the
work and each person only creates a small part of the mat.
5.
6.
7.
Class is split up into factory lines of 5 people each. The first person in line puts the squiggles in the corners. The second puts the
box and lines in the middle. The thirds does the semi-circles around the outside. The fourth makes the squiggle circles in the
middle. The fifth is quality control and checks to make sure the placemat was done correctly. If not they throw it out. When they
accumulate 5 placemats, they bring them to the teacher, the factory owner.
The class produces this way for 10 minutes. For the first 5 minutes, the teacher blows a whistle every 12 seconds to indicate when
the product should move down the line. The last 5 minutes, it is every 8 seconds.
The workers must keep the pace of the whistle and absolutely no talking is allowed at any time. There are no breaks.
After the role-play students write for 5 minutes on how they felt about each style of production and why they felt that way. Discuss their
responses.
Discussion topics:
1. Which style did you like better?
2. Design of product – own design versus factory design?
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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How the work was done – groups versus solitary.
Pace, schedule of the work?
Feelings towards the owner.
Was the work meaningful? Does that matter? Did you care about what you were making?
Time – seemed long or short?
Where did your mind go?
Read Terkel alienation handout – What do you identify with that is said in the handout – keep track as they read.
Sauder’s experience on the line:
1. Take a piece of wood from pile, put it on a box 8,10, or 12 hours a day. Learned the job in about 30 minutes.
2. Don’t wear a watch or look at the clock.
3. Had to turn off brain – after 30 years what does that do to you? Makes you stupid and uninterested in anything.
4. Effect on mental health – bowling alley to drink every morning at 7am.
5. I would write things on the carts that the parts came on. Things like “Workplace Democracy,” or “Unionize,” or, “Who owns you?”
6. It never seemed to stop. Whenever I was not at work, it didn’t feel like I had any time off, I was just waiting for 16 hours until I
went back.
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Discuss the following statement: “Everyone gets what they deserve. The rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor.”
The Widening Wealth Gap
1. By 1890, 9% of the population held nearly 75% of all wealth.
2. Men like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, etc. preached the theory of Social Darwinism.
3. Social Darwinism was used to explain this large gap in the wealth distribution of the country.
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Does anyone know what Darwinism is? It is a theory of evolution and survival. Those species and individuals that are best suited to the
environment will thrive and reproduce and pass on superior genes to their offspring. Those not fit to the environment die off and their
“inferior” genes are not passed on.
Thus, nature “selects” those that are the strongest and the species as a whole becomes better suited to the environment.
If we were to keep sick or deformed animals alive that nature would have killed off and let them reproduce, we would be corrupting the
gene pool and the species as a whole would suffer.
What would we say about society and the wealth distribution if we were looking at it from the Darwinist position?
Social Darwinism
1. Competition should not be interfered with because those who are really deserving will succeed while those who are unworthy
will fail.
2. Helping those who have failed hurts society by rewarding failure and thus letting them pass on failure to their kids.
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Now this is a pretty bold statement about how society should operate. It makes a couple of assumptions that are unstated. Can
anybody think of one assumption that this theory makes that may or may not be true?
Like for instance, if I say ___________ had a blonde moment, the unstated assumption is that all blondes are dumb which is not
necessarily true.
What does success equal in this theory? Success=Money. Can someone be successful or even useful without being wealthy? Artists,
writers, social workers, etc.
Success and failure does not completely rely on our own efforts, but also things outside of our control.
Is society a natural thing or is it created by humans? It is created, cultures vary greatly across the world meaning that the rules of the
game can be different depending on where you live.
It assumes that the rules are fair and everyone is competing on a level playing field or starting from the same line.
Does this theory still hold true if the rules aren’t fair to everyone and some people get a head start in this competition?
Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth
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The Gospel of wealth was an attempt to figure out what should be done about this huge gap in wealth. Social Darwinism explained why
it happened, Gospel of Wealth was the solution.
1. People should be allowed to make as much money as they can. No amount is too much.
2. They should then give it away.
3. They should give it as philanthropy to help society, not as charity – ex. Libraries, not free meals.
4. The wealthy are only trustees of the society’s wealth – they use it not for personal gain, but to benefit society as a whole.
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Read “Wealth” selections.
Carnegie did what he preached. He gave away over $350 million before he died. Eventually sold his business to JP Morgan for
492,000,000.
Is it possible to tie the rich and poor in a harmonious relationship? Can they ever be at peace with each other?
Is anything in society “inevitable?”
Is poverty and wealth simply a matter of “industriousness” and “incompetence and laziness?”
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Should we have welfare at all? Is unemployment necessary to have rich people in capitalism? Profits are the lifeblood of capitalism. No
profits – the system breaks down because why produce? If no unemployment – labor scarce, wages go up, profits go down.
Unemployed keeps wages down and therefore profits up. Therefore, instead of looking down upon the unemployed and blaming them,
maybe we should be thanking them for making the sacrifice so that our economy can keep going. We must have unemployed poor
people to have rich people. What holes do you find in that theory?
Do the wealthy know what to do with money better than the common folks?
Let’s contrast Carnegie’s perspective with one of his workers and see what they thought should be done with the money.
Read “A Workingman’s Prayer.”
What are serfs, trusts, combines, paupers?
What is a rich man’s duty according to Carnegie? Why is it his duty? Rich can better decide what to do with the money than the poor
people would or could do.
What is the purpose of making the response a prayer?
What does this passage tell you about the conditions of the workers?
What does this worker think about the idea of the “Gospel of Wealth?” Where does he say the wealth comes from? Why should I look
up to Carnegie when my kids don’t have clothes and he lives in a mansion and travels to Europe?
What do you think the worker would want to advocate instead of what Carnegie is saying?
Does anyone find this humorous or witty?
Listen to Talking Union by Pete Seeger.
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Stool or stool pigeon
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Different labor victories
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Red-baiting
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Race-hatred.
Role of Labor Unions
1. Many workers saw unions as a way to gain control over the conditions of their labor.
2. Unions force owners to deal with large numbers of organized workers as opposed to an isolated individual – this is called
collective bargaining.

Unions fought for collective bargaining – you have to sign a contract with all of us or none of us.
3. If one worker asks for higher wages, he is easily fired and replaced. If 3,000 workers want a raise and don’t work until they get
one, it is much harder to replace them.

Why do owners and businesses hate unions so much? They put a tremendous amount of time and effort into union busting.
4. Unions are an attempt to equal out the power relations between workers and owners.
5. The fight for union recognition was long and bloody in the US.

Some historians refer to it as industrial war – Railroad Strike of 1877. Businesses always argued that they didn’t have to deal
with unions, that the contract was an individual thing.
Tactics used by employers to prevent unions
1. Private security agents to intimidate workers and break strikes. The most famous was the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

The most famous example are the Pinkertons. They would be called in to break strikes, beat up people on the picket line and
generally cause mayhem.
2. “Yellow Dog” contracts – had to agree not to join a union while you worked for the owner.
3. Black lists – union organizers were put on lists and then no one would hire them
4. Exploiting language, cultural and racial differences between workers to keep them fighting each other and not the bosses.

Pay Italians 5 cents more than Irish, bring in black workers to replace workers who want a raise, etc.

If I wanted to keep this class divided, I would start bringing in treats to students who got A’s. I would let the girls go for a
drink whenever they wanted, but make boys ask and never let them go. I could do about a million things to keep you all
fighting each other and not fighting me – the big boss man.
5. Hiring “scabs” to replace striking workers.

What is a scab?

Napoleon teacher strike story.

Read pages 180-181.
Knights of Labor
1. Formed in Philly in 1869.
2. Tried to organize many types of workers – included farmers, factory, white collar and African-American.
3. Fought for equal pay for equal work, 8-hour work day, ending child labor.
4. A number of failed strikes killed the Knights by the 1890’s.
American Federation of Labor
1. Started by Samuel Gompers in 1886.
2.
3.
4.


Sought to organize only skilled workers in specific crafts.

Instead of organizing all workers they would just get engineers or carpenters. People who were harder to replace. Anyone
can dig a ditch.
Excluded women and African Americans because they thought they drove wages down.

Much easier to replace unskilled workers. Strikes would not work, so they wanted people who were harder to replace.

Women increased the number of workers looking for jobs and therefore drove wages down.
Worked mostly for the right to collective bargaining and “bread and butter” issues like wages and hours. “An honest day’s pay
for an honest day’s work.”
Read IWW Preamble and discuss.
o Remember when Carnegie said the rich and poor could be tied together in harmonious relationship? What are these guys
saying?
o What did the workers want to get rid of? Wage slavery?
o How are they going to get rid of it?
Look at Capitalist System poster and discuss.

What do you think the creators want people to think or do after seeing this? Explain

Which class (upper, middle, lower) do you think the poster was made for? Explain.

Why do you think that they put a money bag at the top of the pyramid?

What types of people do you think would belong in the “We Rule You” category according to the cartoon? Explain.

What type of people is the “We Shoot at You” category supposed to represent? Explain.

What class (upper, middle, lower) do you think the “We Eat for You” category is supposed to be? Explain.

What point is the author trying to make by having the majority of the people at the bottom holding up the rest of them?
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblies”)
1. Was the most militant labor organization in U.S. history
2. Wanted the workers to organize into one big union and overthrow the system of capitalism
3. Many were called syndicalists because they wanted the workers to take over and control the factories they worked in.

The IWW has a very important difference from the AFL or Knights of Labor. They are Radical whereas the Knights and AFL were
reformist. Does anyone know the difference between the two?
Radicalism vs. Reformism
2. Reformism is the idea that the basic structure is ok, but the details need a little fixing to make it better.
3. Radicalism is the idea that the basic structure is fatally flawed and no amount of reform will fix it.

The Knights were saying, “We’re ok with wage labor, we just want higher wages. The IWW were saying we want to get rid of
wages all together.

Let’s apply this idea to schools and students. You know schools and factories are run in very similar ways:

Boss=teacher, worker=student, work=classes, pay=grades, Who controls what you do, when you do it, how you do, how
fast you do it, etc.

Some students would say that the idea that the teacher is in control of the classroom is all right, we just wish the teacher
assigned less homework, whereas the radical student is saying why should the teacher be allowed to assign homework at all,
or tell us what to do at all.

What do you think should be done with school - reformism or radicalism? Should we just tweak the system a little bit, or
should the whole structure come down and have kids in control of the schools?
Major Labor Actions:
1. Homestead – A strike at one of Carnegie’s steel plants. The Pinkertons were called in to break the strike. Eventually the
workers were beaten.
2. Pullman – The people of the company town Pullman went on strike to protest lower wages and high rents. Eugene Debs was
involved. Mass strike across most of the country. Federal troops were called in to break the strike.
3. Haymarket – A bomb was thrown at a mass rally for the 8 hour day and a number of police officers were killed. A number of
anarchist labor leaders were charged with the crime and some of them hanged. Many people thought they were innocent and
were executed for their support of the labor movement.

Now we have talked about the big men of business and the workers they employed. The question comes up: How are we to judge men
like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, etc.? What do you think of people like Bill Gates who has more money than the bottom half of the
US combined?

Historians typically take one of two views towards these people. Some see them as Captains of Industry. Implying they should be
viewed positively and their accomplishments should be admired and imitated. Others see them as Robber Barons and think they should
be condemned as immoral or ruthless.

What would people who consider them Captains focus on?
Captains of Industry
1. Were a positive force in society
2. Increased the wealth of the country by building factories, raising productivity with new inventions and techniques.
3.
4.
Created jobs which allowed workers to buy these new goods.
Established many museums and libraries, universities, etc. to increase education in the US

What about the Robbers?
Robber Barons
1. Became rich by stealing from the public
2. Drained natural resources and caused pollution.
3. Bribed and corrupted public officials to get favorable laws.
4. Ruthlessly drove out competition.
5. Forced workers to work under long hours, terrible conditions, and low wages.