Railroad Industry Effects Transportation Catalyst for other industries: steel and coal Demand for labor Time zones Robber barons Development of corporate organization and finance
Railroad Industry Important figures “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt Jay Gould JP Morgan Robber barons or captains of industry?
Steel Industry Andrew Carnegie Bessemer Process Vertically integrated Gospel of Wealth Sells out to Morgan: merger creates US Steel $1.4B market capitalization
Oil Industry Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company Titusville, PA 1859 Kerosene John D. Rockefeller and Henry M. FLAGLER Standard Oil Company/Trust Interlocking directorates Horizontally AND vertically integrated
Electricity Thomas Edison “Wizard of Menlo Park” Incandescent bulb “one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration” Incandescent bulb General Electric Company 1892 George Westinghouse “War of Currents” AC/DC? Nikola Tesla’s AC induction motor
Other innovations Business management Remington’s typewriter Burroughs’s adding machine Patterson’s cash register Telecommunications Western Union, 1855 Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, 1876 American Telephone & Telegraph, 1899 “Ma Bell”
Other trusts American Tobacco Company American Sugar Refining Company National Packing Company Beef Trust Swift and Armour
Ideologies of Industrialization Conservative/Pro-business Laissez-faire economics “leave it be” Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” Social Darwinism On the Origin of Species 1859 Herbert Spencer , Thomas Malthus Gospel of Wealth Carnegie 1889
Ideologies of Industrialization Conservative/Pro-business Horatio Alger Ragged Dick or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks, 1868 Rags to riches or rags to middle-class respectability?
Ideologies of Industrialization Reformist/Critical Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy Henry George, 1879 “single tax” Looking Backward Edward Bellamy, utopian socialism Wealth and Commonwealth Henry Demarest Lloyd, 1894
Government regulation Interstate Commerce Act 1887 Interstate Commerce Commission Five members, appointed by President, confirmed by Senate “Reasonable rates” Commerce Clause(Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) Enumerated power but no teeth
Government regulation Sherman Antitrust Act 1890 Bans “any combination in restraint of trade” First use: injunction against striking rail workers’ union United States v. E. C. Knight Co. 1895 restricts to commerce not manufacturing
US Labor Movement Causes/Grievances Mechanization and scientific management Miserable working conditions Public hostility to un-American behavior Overwhelming power of capital Internal divisions Skilled/craft vs. unskilled Native-born/”old stock” vs new immigrants
US Labor Movement Goals Higher wages Safer/better working conditions EIGHT HOUR WORKDAY Government regulation of railroads Arbitration of disputes with ownership Equal pay for women/blacks Restriction of child labor
US Labor Movement Organizations National Labor Union 1866 Colored National Labor Union 1869 Knights of Labor Uriah Stephens and Terence Powderly American Federation of Labor (AFL) Samuel Gompers “bread and butter unionism”
US Labor Movement Milestone events Molly Maguire trials Irish anthracite coal miners Schuylkill County, PA Great Railroad Strike 1877 Haymarket Affair/Bombing/Riot/Massacre Tuesday, May 4, 1886