Review Materials for Unit Two: Getting Down to Business: The Growth of Big Business in America

1. Farmers replaced laborers with machines like reapers, tractors. Mechanization reduced the need for farm hands. New inventions like the tractor and mechanical reaper replaced farmers. New jobs in industry developed in Northerner cities. Urbanization began.

2. Urban areas attracted workers in new industries. Railroads Meatpacking Textile Mills Ironworks & Steel Oil Refineries Construction Electrical Appliances Industrial development in cities created increased labor needs. Electrification, the use of assembly lines, and the efficiency of new factory methods made new industries thrive!

3. Railroads led the way to an industrialized America. They moved the products of Western mining towns (iron, lead, copper, silver, and gold) to the factories – and banks! They connected factories with the resources they needed – for example, coal, coke, and iron to Pittsburgh – to make steel. Transporting finished products and agricultural goods to national markets – cattle, wheat, and all the agricultural goods in California.

4. Mail order catalogues stimulated business – better transportation allowed this! The Sears Catalog was once the most efficient way to order products from afar. You would select goods from the mail order catalog, and they would be sent to you – shipped by train and the US Mail.

5. New England is known as the center of the Textile Industry.

6. Detroit was the center of the automobile industry in America.

7. Pittsburgh was the center of the steel industry in America.

8. Chicago was the center of the meatpacking industry.

9. John D. Rockefeller dominated the oil industry during the 19th Century. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company was the leading refiner of petroleum in the United States. Kerosene was originally what Rockefeller originally produced. After the invention of the light bulb, he changed the business to refine petroleum into motor oil.

10. Andrew Carnegie was the leader of the steel industry in 19th Century America. Andrew Carnegie was the leader of the US Steel Corporation, and established a virtual monopoly over the industry. His company provided the steel for railroads, skyscrapers, and even the Brooklyn Bridge!

11. Cornelius Vanderbilt dominated the railroad industry east of the Mississippi. Cornelius Vanderbilt was the leading railroad baron of his lifetime, and eventually controlled almost all of the railroads in the United States east of the Mississippi River. He also founded Vanderbilt University in Tennessee!

12. Reasons for Industrialization. Natural Resources: The United States is blessed with access to raw materials (iron ore, timber, land and water) and energy (oil, coal, natural gas.) Cheap Labor: Low costs associated with labor – because many immigrants were looking for work. Inventions and Innovations: Edison, Bell, Ford, the Wright Brothers, the list goes on and on Financial resources: capitalist investors like James Pierpont Morgan helped the banking industry.

13. Factors that helped business grow. National markets created by transportation advances – railroads, canals, and highways. Advertising – through catalogs and posters originally, but later via the radio. Lower-cost production – assembly lines, for example. The photograph above is from Michigan. Note the train in the front and the steamship – carrying US Mail – in the background. Low shipping costs allowed companies to expand their markets from local communities to the entire nation. Business profited and grew rapidly.

14. The Negative Effects of Industrialization Businesses hoping to save money on labor costs often engaged in: CHILD LABOR – denying an education to children and paying them virtually nothing. LOW WAGES for employees. LONG HOURS – 14 to 16 hours a day was not uncommon. UNSAFE WORKING CONDITIONS which resulted in injuries and death.

15. The American Federation of Labor and other Unions formed. The most important labor union of the late 19th Century and the 20th Century was the American Federation of Labor. Samuel Gompers was its leader. The group wanted higher pay, an eight hour work day, improved safety conditions, and the right to collective bargaining.

16. Workers fought back against wage cuts at the Homestead Strike in Pennsylvania. When Andrew Carnegie’s company slashed workers wages in 1892, his workers went on strike. When the company tried to bring in strikebreakers – or scabs – to take their jobs, they fought back violently. The Homestead Strike left dozens dead. Carnegie, however, got his way. The striking workers were fired and replaced with the help of the Pennsylvania State Militia.