Capital v. Labor
Complete the Industrialist Poster
Warm Up
 As
students at Woodstock North High
School what would be some things you
would change about the school, and your
freedoms?
 Talk
 How
with a partner and jot down 5 items.
would you get these demands that
you are seeking?
Laissez Faire Economics
 “Leave
 Gov’t
it alone”
should stay out of business
 Businesses
benefit = society benefits
Social Darwinism
(Herbert Spencer)

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution applied to
humans/society

“Only the strong survive”
Andrew Carnegie
*Entrepreneur
A person who starts a business

Steel
 “Gospel of wealth” – use wealth to help
society
"Millionaires are the
bees that make the
most honey and
contribute most to the
hive even after they
have gorged
themselves full.”
--Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (cont’d)

Vertical Consolidation = gain
control of all phases of product
development
John D. Rockefeller

Standard Oil Co.

Horizontal Consolidation = creation of
1 giant business from buying many
smaller ones
Monopolies, Cartels, and Trusts
 Monopoly
= the sole supplier of a product
with no substitute
 Cartel
= secret associations of businesses
making the same product
 Trust
= several businesses run by a board
of trustees
Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?
Captain of Industry
 Positive view
 Made U.S. great!
 Improvements helped
us all
 Philanthropist =
charitable person
Robber Baron
 Negative view
 Wealth ONLY concern
 Unfairly used power to
cut our competition
Socialism


Socialism
a theory or system of social organization that advocates
the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of
production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the
community as a whole.
-Webster’s dictionary

Founded by Karl Marx and German Philosopher

Why would people be interested in socialism, during this
time?
Early Labor Unions
 Initially
- to help members in bad times
 Soon -means to gain better working
conditions
bargaining – union negotiates
with employers
 Collective
 Yellow
dog contracts - signed by
employees, promise to never join a union
Knights of Labor
 1869
 Goal to organize ALL workers into 1 union
 Recruited women and Afr. Am.s
Concerns:
 Equal pay for equal work
 8 hour day
 End child labor
The American Federation of Labor (AFL)
 1886 – Samuel Gompers
 Goal - organize ONLY skilled workers
 In practice opposed women and Afr. Ams.
 Advocated “closed shop”
Concerns
 Wages/Hours
 Working conditions
The Great Strike of 1877
B
& O Railroad (July 1877)
 Shut down 50,000 miles of track
 Federal Government (Cleveland) sent in
federal troops to end the strike
Haymarket Riot

May 4, 1886
 3,000 strikers gathered in Haymarket Square in
Chicago
 Protesting police brutality from McCormick
Harvester plant




A bomb was thrown at the police
Police opened fire
7 police and several workers died
After the event the public turned against the
labor movement
Homestead (1892)

Carnegie Steel (U.S. Steel) Homestead, PA



Laborers



Laborers just settled a labor contract
Henry Frick cut wages shortly after
Created Unions
Began a strike against Frick
Frick’s reaction


Pinkertons – a specialized strikebreaking private
police force
Gunfire broke out, police and strikers were killed
Pullman (1894)
George Pullman – Railroad car producer
 Created a factory town just outside of Chicago to
house his workers
 1893 – Depression




25 - 40% unemployment in the town
wages bottom out.
Rent for housing remains the same.
Eugene V. Debs – Labor organizer during the
period
 Pullman workers created a union they strike

Result of Pullman Strike
 Pullman


Strike
Pullman went to the federal government and
sighted the interference in the mail delivery
Federal government ruled in favor of Pullman
and sent U.S. troops
Result – twelve strikers lay dead and
the strike was broken
 Final
Anarchy



Anarchy
a theory that regards the absence of all direct
or coercive government as a political ideal and
that proposes the cooperative and voluntary
association of individuals and groups as the
principal mode of organized society.
- Webster’s Dictionary
Why would people be in favor of anarchy,
during this time?