1. Reforms of the Industrial Revolution
Subtitle

3. Robert Koehler’s, The Strike 1886

4. Contrasting Philosophies of Industrialization
Capitalism
Socialism
Individuals and businesses own property and the means of production.
Progress results when individuals follow their own self-interest
Businesses follow their own self-interest by competing for the consumer’s money. Each business tries to produce goods or services that are better and less expensive than those of competitors
Consumers compete to buy the best goods at the lowest prices. This competition shapes the market by affecting what businesses are able to sell
Government should not interfere in the economy because competition creates efficiency in business.
The community or the state should own property and the means of production
Progress results when a community of producers cooperate for the good of all
Socialists believe that capitalist employers take advantage of workers. The community or state must act to protect workers
Capitalism creates unequal distribution of wealth and material goods. A better system is to distribute goods according to each person’s need
An unequal distribution of wealth and material goods is unfair. A better system is to distribute goods according to each person’s need

5. Labor Unions Voluntary labor associations Members spoke for workers
Engaged in collective bargaining
Negotiations between workers and their employers
Workers would strike –refuse to work
Skilled workers led way b/c they had more bargaining power
Unions were slow to be accepted in Great Britain and US
Combination Act of 1800
Unions and strikes outlawed –jail
1824 the Act is repealed in Britain
By the 1880s, unions had won higher wages and shorter hours

6. Reform Laws Factory Act of 1833 in Great Britain
Illegal to hire children under 9 and limited older youth
“Be it enacted that no person under 18 years of age shall be allowed to work in the night or about any cotton, woolen, linen, or silk mill or factory, where steam, water, or any other mechanical power is used to work the machinery…no person under the age of 18 years shall be employed in any such mill or factory more than 12 hours in one day, nor more than 69 hours in any one week…his majesty (the king of England) shall appoint…inspectors of factories…where the labor of children under 18 years of age is employed.”
How did the Factory Act affect child labor?

7. US Child Labor Laws
1904 National Child Labor Committee formed to end child labor in US
1919 US Supreme Court objected to a federal child labor law
Interfered with the states rights to regulate it
During Great Depression 1938, FDR signed Fair Labor Standards Act to limit forms of child labor
Spinner in cotton mill, VT

8. Abolition of Slavery
William Wilberforce, member of Parliament, led the fight for abolition
1807 Parliament passed a bill to end slave trade in British West Indies
1833 Britain abolished it in the empire
1865 abolished in US
1873 ended in Puerto Rico
1886 ends in Cuba
1888 ends in Brazil

9. Women’s Rights Mixed blessing
Offer higher wages than at home but 1/3 of mens
Women abolitionist ask why their own rights are denied b/c of gender
Begins in US 1848
First organized expression of feminism: women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848
Resolutions to vote, attend public schools, enter prof. occupations, participate in public affairs
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Published a Women’s Bible eliminating parts she thought offensive
Built the movement in the US
Feminist movement was transatlantic from the beginning
By 1900
Small # in universities
Literacy rates growing
Jane Addams in US invented social work that became female-dominated
Florence Nightingale in Britain professionalized nursing