By the 1920s, the U.S. had become the leading
industrial power in the world. This boom was due to
several factors:
A. a wealth of natural resources
B. government support for business
C. a growing urban population for cheap
labor and markets for new products.
1. 1859,Edwin L. Drake
successfully used a steam engine
to drill for oil.
2. Oil Boom!
3. After the automobile became
popular, gasoline became the most
important form of oil.
1. The Bessemer process, developed by Henry
Bessemer around 1850
2. involved injecting air into molten iron to
remove the carbon and other impurities.
3. It produces a lighter, more flexible, and rustresistant metal called STEEL.
1. The railroads, became the biggest customers for steel
2. Farm machines helped transform The Plains into the food
producer of the nation.
3. The Brooklyn Bridge. Completed in 1883.
4. Steel became the new material to build skyscrapers.
Create this diagram and draw 4
pictures for the uses of steel that
helped to transform America.
1. Thomas Alva Edison perfected the light
bulb in 1880- distribution of electric power
2. By 1890, allowed factories to be located
away from rivers and to produce through
the night.
3. Time saving appliances
4. Electric streetcars expanded cities
1. Christopher Sholes invented the
typewriter in 1867
2. Invention of the telephone, by Alexander
Graham Bell 1876
7.“The Connection”: Transcontinental Railroad
1. In 1869 the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads
met at Utah. Golden Spike marked connection.
2. Workers included:
o Chinese immigrants
o Irish immigrants
o Out-of-work Civil War Veterans
1. Professor C. F. Dowd divided the earth's surface
into 24 time zones, one for each hour of the day.
2. 4 zones:
– The Eastern
– Central
– Mountain
– Pacific
1. George M. Pullman built a nearby town for his
employees which included: housing, doctors’ offices,
shops, etc.
a. Problem:
– Employee disliked Pullman’s tightly controlled
environment.
– However, Pullman's refusal to lower rents after cutting
his employees' pay led to a violent strike in 1894.
Crédit Mobilier- Construction Co.
1. The stockholders gave their company a
contract to lay track at two to three times the
actual cost–and pocketed the profits.
2. They donated shares of stock to about 20
representatives in Congress in 1867. –
BRIBING CONGRESSMEN- OH NO !!!
The Interstate Commerce Act in 1887:
1. This act established the right of the
federal government to supervise railroad
activities.
2. Established a five-member Interstate
Commerce Commission (ICC)
Andrew Carnegie
1. entered the steel business in 1873.
2. By 1899, the Carnegie Steel Company manufactured
90% of our nation’s steel.
3. Carnegie attempted to control as much of the steel
industry as he could by:
• vertical integration, a process in which he bought out
his suppliers
• horizontal integration, companies producing
similar products merge.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Create a fictional company. Put your company name in the small green rectangle.
List all of your suppliers in the blue ovals.
List all of your competitors in the green triangles.
You just bought out all of your suppliers and competitors! Congratulations! You
monopolized your industry. Put the name of your new industry in the yellow
rectangle at the top.
Horizontal
Integration
Vertical
Integration
Horizontal
Integration
Vertical
Integration
1. Darwin’s Philosophy: "natural selection" (“Survival
of the Fittest”)
Applied to Business: success and failure in business
were governed by natural law and that no one had
the right to intervene.
2. Laissez-Faire- the French term meaning “allow to
do”- in other words, let the strongest businesses
survive, no government intervention.
1) A firm that bought out all its competitors could achieve a
MONOPOLY, or complete control over its industry's
production, wages, and prices.
2) Holding Companies: a corporation that did nothing but
buy out the stock of other companies.
• Banker, J. P. Morgan, created United States Steel - one of the
most successful holding companies by buying out Carnegie
Steel
•
• TRUSTS: in a trust companies turned their stock
over to a group of trustees–people who ran the
separate companies as one large corporation.
• Rockefeller used a trust to gain total control of the
oil industry in America.
This 1900 cartoon, captioned "What a
funny little government!" is a
commentary on the power of the
Standard Oil empire. John D. Rockefeller
holds the White House in his hand.
1. Sherman Antitrust Act made it illegal to
form a trust that interfered with free trade
between states or with other countries.
Prosecuting companies was not easy,
because it didn't clearly define terms such
as trust.
The Rockefeller Standard
Oil monopoly octopus of
total domination
systematically infiltrating
every sphere of human
activity
What’s the Big Idea???
• What would you TITLE this political
cartoon?
1. Laborers–skilled and unskilled, female and
male, black and white–joined together in
UNIONS to try to improve their working
conditions.
Wages were so low that
most families could not
survive unless everyone held
a job.
Employees were not entitled
to vacation, sick leave, or
reimbursement for injuries
suffered on the job.
In 1882, an average of 675
laborers were killed in workrelated accidents each week.
1. CRAFT UNIONISM: included skilled
workers from one or more trades. The
American Federation of Labor (AFL)Samuel Gompers, President
2. INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM: include all
laborers–skilled and unskilled–in a specific
industry. (Example: American Railway
Union- Eugene Debs, President)
1. Employers began to fear powerful labor unions
2. Yellow Dog Contracts: employers made employees
sign contract promising they won’t join the union
3. Using the Sherman Anti-Trust Act: All a company
had to do was say that a strike, picket line, or boycott
would hurt interstate trade. Government would issue
an injunction against the strike.
Positive
What’s the Big Idea???
Labor Unions
Negative