I’m Better Than You Are Reality in Room 824… …Life as a Robber Baron… …and Laborers Response Chapter 24 Notes

We Just Keep Growing… Hey Laborers, Figure It Out… When Lincoln was elected to office in 1860, what do you think the U.S. ranked in manufacturing? Right (at least I hope you get this right), it’s 4th By 1894, what do you think the U.S. ranked in manufacturing? Of course it’s 1st…why else would I be asking all you unintelligent, replaceable workers?… How did it happen? Natural resources were fully exploited, with coal, oil, and iron acquired from the land to make stuff Massive immigration also allowed the industrialists to hire low-cost labor, often working in two 12-hour shifts, 7 days a week For you laborers out there, that means the factory was always open—and we’re always making products & money

We Want it All… Mass production methods also allowed factories to produce goods more efficiently Ingenuity also reigned supreme, as 440,000 patents were issued between 1860 and 1890 Inventions included the cash register, stock ticker, typewriter, refrigerator car, electric dynamo, electric railway, and the telephone Women especially worked the typewriter and telephone in newly created employment Edison is likely the most famous inventor and his light bulb transformed society in and out of the mill, as humans slept about 2 hours less each night on average

If You Don’t Like Us… …We Don’t Care. We’re Still Rich... Andrew Carnegie = U.S. Steel John D. Rockefeller = Standard Oil J.P. Morgan = Banking and General Electric The goal of these Robber Barons was to eliminate competition and grow profits This is great! We make more money! So what if the worker makes less money, and struggles to feed their family; it’s not like they know what Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are…

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Carnegie is Movin’ On Up…and Slidin’ Over… Carnegie was not concerned with the laborers though He pioneered the idea of Vertical Integration This combines all phases of manufacturing into one organization, from mining to marketing Carnegie’s goal was to improve efficiency by: making supplies more reliable controlling the quality of the product at all stages of production eliminating middlemen’s fees Carnegie also used Horizontal Integration This meant bringing competitors together to monopolize a given market He perfected the strategy of controlling rivals through a trust

In Rockefeller, We “Trust”… Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company was formed in 1870 Other smaller oil companies assigned their stock to the Board of Directors of Standard Oil By 1877, Standard Oil 95% of the world petroleum market—how’d this happen? Then Rockefeller consolidated the operations of those companies into Standard Oil, using horizontal integration first, and as successfully than anyone else Weaker companies not in the trust couldn’t compete By 1882, the nucleus of the great trust had been formed This led to “trusts” being referred to as any large-scale business combination JP Morgan also consolidated banking competition, especially after the depression of 1890s Economic downturns meant smaller businesses struggled to survive; this allowed robber barons to gain a greater percentage of the market

How did Carnegie Get Rich? He “Steeled” It… Steel was king, hence Carnegie was in power During Lincoln’s days, steel was an expensive, scarce commodity reserved for cutlery and similar products However, by 1900 America was producing as much steel as Britain and Germany combined, and one-third of the world’s supply This was due to the Bessemer process—injecting air into molten iron to blow out carbon and other impurities Also, coal was abundant, yielding much fuel The fuel and many sources of labor allowed steel factories to thrive Make sure you know some biographical info on Carnegie and Morgan and understand how their industrial empires grew, but I’ve talked about them enough

Gospel of Wealth vs. Labor Think of yesterday’s pseudo-debate… Read the text… Any questions? We’ll address other things within the chapter on Monday Current Events are tomorrow