1. Industrialization and Trusts

2. Unit Objectives
To learn the impact of the Industrial Revolution in America
To learn the impact of the Titans of Industry on America
To learn the impact of the trusts and railroads on America
To assess the positives and negative of industry, trusts, and railroads

3. Mass Production:
PRODUCING LARGE QUANTITIES OF SAME PRODUCT
Assembly Line:
PRODUCT MOVES ALONG A PRODUCTION LINE AS DIFFERENT WORKERS DID THE SAME TASK OVER AND OVER

4. Important figures of the Industrial Revolution
Eli Whitney: Cotton Gin; Helped bring ideas of
the assembly line and mass production to
America
Samuel Colt: Guns; Worked with Whitney to
bring the ideas of the assembly line and mass
production to America
Samuel Slater: Brought the idea of the factory
to America
Henry Bessemer: Discovered cheaper, better way
to make steel
Edwin Drake: Drilled first oil well in
Pennsylvania (led to cheaper kerosene for
lanterns and lubrication for machinery)

5. The Industrial Revolution led to a new way to purchase products
Old Way: Go downtown to a small specialty shop, order the product if it wasn’t in stock, pick it up in a couple of weeks

6. New Way: Mail order (ordering products through the mail)
-Montgomery Ward (“Iron-clad” Guarantee):
STARTED MAIL ORDER; IF PRODUCT NOT
SATISFACTORY, GOT MONEY BACK—HAD TO
EARN TRUST

8. -Richard Sears:
IMPROVED MAIL ORDER WITH COLOR, QUICK
DRY INK, THINNER PAGES; MAIL ORDER
CATLOGUES BECAME TRENDY

10. Department stores (A.T. Stewart):
OPENED SHOPPING TO ANYONE (SMALL SPECIALTY STORES HAD CATERED TO WEALTHY); LOW PRICES, BETTER SELECTION, NO WAIT OR SHIPPING COSTS, CREATED NEED FOR LARGE CAST-IRON BUILDINGS (LED TO SKYSCRAPERS)

11. Trusts (THIS IS AN ID):
MONOPOLIES OF SEVERAL COMPANIES TO POOL RESOURCES AND INCREASE PROFITS
Number one goal of a trust:
ELIMINATE COMPETITION (BOUGHT THEM OUT OR DROVE THEM OUT OF BUSINESS WITH LOW PRICES)

12. Important trust-builders
-Andrew Carnegie: STEEL
-John Rockefeller: OIL
-J.P. Morgan: BANKING

15. Government’s role with trusts
At first the government left trusts alone because it saw them as good for the economy (Laissez Faire)—that led to prosperity for businesses with almost no regulation which led to corruption
Later people realized trusts put smaller businesses out of business and were bad for the consumer and the government started to regulate them; Eventually the government banned them as illegal

16. Railroads:
Expanded west rapidly as a result of the discovery of gold and the increased settlement of the frontier
Robberbarons:
WEALTHY RR AND OTHER BUSINESS OWNERS WHO HAD THE IMAGE OF BEING GREEDY AND CORRUPT

17. Government supported the expansion of the railroad by selling railroad companies frontier land very cheap
Impact of the railroad:
TIME TO CROSS COUNTRY REDUCED FROM A MONTH TO A WEEK
FRONTIER TRAVEL BECAME MUCH SAFER
LED TO STANDARD TIME ZONES AND TRACK GAUGES

18. Overall Impact
Overall social impact of industrialization and trusts—they did lead to economic growth for America’s big businesses, but at what cost?
America changed from a rural, agricultural nation to an urban, industrial nation within one generation
Early industry created jobs with low wages, poor and unsafe working conditions, long hours, child labor
Cities grew much quicker than urban planners could prepare for resulting in ghettoes (poor ethnic neighborhoods) and tenement housing (overcrowded unsafe apartments for the poor)—many rural people who had trouble making a living on their farms came to the cities looking for work
Immigrants flooded America’s biggest cities and became competition for jobs