The Industrial Revolution in the United States The Rise of Big Business

Effects on Transportation and Labor Oil Steel Wildcatters went looking for oil –found in Spindletop, TX Kicked off 20 year oil boom in TX Learn to refine crude oil for gasoline Helps with transportation and industry Allows production of railways 1st transcontinental railroad connects at Promontory Summit, UT Railways create time zones Effects on Transportation and Labor

Economics and Business Entrepreneurs- risk takers who started new ventures (businesses) Capitalism – businesses are privately owned Economics and Business

Economic Philosophies Laissez-fair – “allow to do” or “leave alone” – no government interference Social Darwinism – Stronger businesses would prosper, weaker ones would fail Economic Philosophies

CORPORATIONS a business with the legal status of an individual Owned by people who buy stocks in the company Board of directors make decisions Advantages: can expand by selling stock; stockholders only lose money they have invested, can exist after founders leave CORPORATIONS

BIG BUSINESSMEN of INDUSTRIALIZATION

John D. Rockefeller Standard Oil Company Used vertical integration – acquiring companies that supplied the oil business Uses Horizontal integration – bought other oil refineries John D. Rockefeller

Andrew Carnegie Born a Poor Immigrant Worked for Penn RR and invested money Founded Carnegie Steel Company Devoted time to building public libraries and financing Education Andrew Carnegie

Cornelius Vanderbilt Invested in RR Became very wealthy and his holdings stretched from Michigan and Canada Gave money to Education Cornelius Vanderbilt

Designed and built sleeper cars that made long distance travel possible George Pullman

The Government tries to intervene

Put in place to try to lessen the power of corporations Illegal to form trust that interfere with free trade Government did not enforce Sherman Antitrust Act

THIS CREATED MONOPOLIES! WHAT IS A MONOPOLY??????

Monopoly: A situation in which a single company or individual owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service Monopolies

THE FORMATION OF LABOR UNIONS What is a LABOR UNION and WHY DID THEY FORM?????????

Why did they start? Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire New York City, 1911 146 people dead Some jumped & Fell to their deaths Victims were mostly 16-23 year old women, the youngest was 14 The managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits – a common practice at the time to prevent theft– many of the workers who could not escape the burning building jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors to the streets below. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers. Why did they start?

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Labor Unions European immigrants worked industry African Americans worked as laborers or household help 1900: 1 in 6 children between the ages of 10-15 held a job outside the home Laborers start to organize to pressure companies for safer workplaces and better pay Labor Unions

KNIGHTS OF LABOR Leader – Terrence V. Powderly Accepted unskilled workers, women, African Americans, and employers Asked for 8 hour work day, end of child labor, and equal pay for equal work Boycotts and strikes were the main tactics KNIGHTS OF LABOR

STRIKES

BOYCOTTS

Strikes gone BAD! Great RR Strike Haymarket Riot 1877 – protested for cut wages 2 workers for 2 RR blocked movement of trains Strikes spread Stopped freight for over a week Resulted in mobs and death 1886 – over 1500 strikes over wage cuts Chicago – Haymarket Square crowds protested police action Bomb was thrown – panic stricken – 11 dead by end Blamed foreign unionist Strikes gone BAD!

Great RR Strike and Haymarket Riot

HOW DID BIG BUSINESS RESPOND TO UNIONS????? Employers forced employees to sign documents stating they wouldn’t join unions Blacklisted trouble makers to keep them from getting hired at new jobs HOW DID BIG BUSINESS RESPOND TO UNIONS?????

American Federation of Labor Led by Samuel Gompers Won wage increases and shorter workweeks Setbacks occurred for unions from Homestead strike and Pullman strike American Federation of Labor

Urban (City) Life Creates a NEED for Transportation URBANIZATION

People needed ways to move about locally Created Streetcars, subways, automobiles

Orville and Wilbur Wright make first flight in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, NC From Dayton, OH AIRPLANES

COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION and other Technology

Wires were strung along RR and used Morse Code to communicate TELEGRAPH

TELEPHONE Patented by Alexander Graham Bell By 1900 more than a million telephones in offices and households TELEPHONE

Typewriter Christopher Latham Sholes Designed the 1st practical typewriter and keyboard (still used today) – opened jobs for women as typists Typewriter

Thomas Alva Edison Responsible for over 1000 U. S. Patents First phonograph and telephone transmitter 1st safe electric light bulb, brought electricity network to NY City Invented motion picture camera and projector Known as the Wizard of Menlo Park Thomas Alva Edison

The Morrill Tariff enabled the government to hand out large pieces of land out west for only a fraction of the price. Morrill Tariff