Which do you agree with?
Discuss with a partner
• Sumner says about the business leaders that
“…their own wealth… and millions more…
scattered in the hands of thousands, would
not exist but for them.”
• Phillips says “…labor [is] the creator of all
wealth [and] is entitled to all it creates.”
Business and Labor
Era of Big Business
• Industrial Revolution
– Mechanization and innovation make large-scale
production possible
– Factory system introduced
• Machines perform much of the specialized tasks
• Workers don’t need as much skill
• Assembly line
– Owners have all the power
Government at the time
• Laissez-faire
– Means “let people do” - hands off”
– Government should not be involved in business
• No oversight, regulation, laws
• Individuals working toward their own best interest will
contribute most beneficially to society
Weak President, Strong Congress
• overshadowed by Congress… good politicians, but
uninspiring leaders
– generally accepted the role of the legislative branch
– even if he wanted to lead it would have been difficult:
• small executive staff
• none had their party in control of both houses of Congress
between 1865 and 1897
• too much corruption at all levels… even the cabinet
• Congress was very susceptible to bribery and influence
(lots of money floating around, and they were happy to
take it)
A common attitude
Law? What do I care
about the law?
Haven’t I got the
power?
-Cornelius Vanderbilt
The Trust System
• A consortium of independent organizations
formed to limit competition by controlling the
production and distribution of a product or
service
Bosses of the Senate (1889)
Robber Barons or Captains of
Industry?
•
•
•
•
John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil
Andrew Carnegie – Carnegie Steel
Henry Frick – Steel
Cornelius Vanderbilt – New York Central
Railroad
• J.P. Morgan – Financier / US Steel
Modern Colossus of (Rail) Roads
1879
A Potential Silver Lining
• Though amassing their fortunes at the
expense of their workers, a few of the robber
barons, most notably Andrew Carnegie,
practically invented the idea of philanthropy.
• Carnegie endowments built libraries, research
centers, a university, and many other
functions of the public good.
Rise of the Labor Union
• Knights of Labor (1869)
– First major labor organization
– Eight hour day, end to child labor were major focus
• American Federation of Labor (1886)
– Organized into trade unions (local unions based upon
skill)
– Trade unions of same skill would make up a larger
national union of all those who worked in the same
trade
– AFL would be the umbrella organization for all trade
unions
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• 1890 – meant to prevent trusts and
monopolies
– Full of loopholes
– Was actually used against labor
• “restraint of trade”
1892 – Homestead Strike
• Workers went on strike to protest wages
• Management hired scabs to keep factory
running
– Also hired Pinkertons (private army/police)
• 9 strikers killed
– Major setback for
unions, especially
in steel
1899 – Newsies Strike
• Newspaper boys in New York organize against
cost increase
• Small-scale, but representative of larger
movements
http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=ToScPiaR
sAE
Square Deal
• 1901 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes
president when McKinley is shot
• Implements series of domestic policies known
as the “Square Deal”
– 3 Cs
• Corporations
• Consumers
• Conservation
Square Deal
• "When I say I believe in a square deal I do not
mean . . . to give every man the best hand. If
the cards do not come to any man, or if they
do come, and he has not got the power to
play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that
there shall be no crookedness in the dealing."
(1905)
First C - Corporations
• Roosevelt attempted to break up trusts and
monopolies
– “Trust busting”
– However, he doesn’t think all trusts are bad
• Some make products affordable and efficient for
consumers
– 1903 (Elkins Act) and 1906 (Hepburn Act) passed
laws to limit power of railroads and regulate prices
National Women’s Trade Union League
• Supported working-class
women, reformers, and
upper-class women
– United by the bonds of
womanhood
• Provided support to women
who went on strike or
organized labor unions
• Jane Addams was elected VP
Muckrakers (1906)
• Upton Sinclair
– Exposed the horrors of the meatpacking industry
in Chicago in his book The Jungle
• Lewis Hine
– Exposed child labor practices through
photography
Muckrakers
“Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being of society…” Theodore Roosevelt, 1906
Second C - Consumers
• 1906
– Passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act
• outlawed food and drugs containing harmful
ingredients, and required that containers carry honest
ingredient labels.
– Passage of the Meat Inspection Act
• required federal government inspection of meat
shipped across state lines.
Third C - Conservation
• Resources are limited, so conservation is
imperative
• Roosevelt disagreed with John Muir, a staunch
preservationist
– Muir believed all land should be protected
– Roosevelt believed some should be protected,
while other should be developed for the common
good
• Things like dams, canals, irrigation, mining, etc.
Describe what you see. What can an historian learn from this picture?
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Reform in the wake of tragedy
• In June 1911, the New York state legislature
established the Factory Investigating Commission,
or FIC, to look into the safety of workplaces
across the state.
In 1912, the legislature passed eight labor bills
recommended by the FIC that addressed
sanitation, rest periods, child labor, work hours
for women and children, and injuries sustained
on the job. The legislature eventually passed 25
more bills recommended by the FIC.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)
• intended to supplement and strengthen
enforcement of antitrust laws.
• added new forms of prohibited conduct, such
as “mergers and acquisitions where the effect
may substantially lessen competition”
• also gave state attorneys general the ability to
enforce the federal antitrust laws
1919 – A Year of Tumult
• Seattle General Strike
– 65,000 workers in several unions
• Boston Police Strike
– First strike by public safety workers
• Great Steel Strike
– 350,000 workers in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and West Virginia
– Lasted 5 months