1. 6.3 Big Business and Labor
How did the U.S. depend upon the development of new business and technology?

2. Carnegie and Social Darwinism
Andrew Carnegie attempted to control the entire steel industry
Through vertical integration he bought companies that supplied his raw materials such as iron and coal, and railroads needed to transport the steel
He used horizontal integration by buying out or merging with other steel companies

3. Continued His success helped polarize the theory of Social Darwinism
This theory, based on the ideas of biologist Charles Darwin, said that ‘natural selection’ enabled the best-suited people to survive and succeed
This idea supported the idea of competition, hard work, and responsibility

4. Entrepreneurs
The goals of business owners were to form monopolies by buying out competitors or driving them out of business
John D. Rockefeller used the Standard Oil trust to almost completely control the industry; people referred to him as a robber baron because of his ruthless business practices
In 1890, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act made it illegal to form a trust

5. Labor Unions
Workers responded to business consolidation by forming labor unions
Many workers worked long hours under dangerous conditions for low wages
Women, children, and workers in sweatshops worked under especially harsh conditions
The National Labor Union was an early labor union that persuaded Congress to legalize an eight-hour day for govt. workers in 1868

6. Labor Unions
The development of labor unions was a major turning point in the development of industry
Samuel Gompers formed the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886, which used strikes and collective bargaining, or negotiations, to win higher wages and shorter workweeks
Eugene V. Debs believed in industrial unionism, where single industries formed one union
The IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) formed with a radical, socialist concept; unions of all beliefs started developing

7. Strikes: Violence and Change
Unions used strikes to improve conditions
The Railroad Strike of 1877 forced President Hayes to bring in federal troops to end it
The Haymarket Affair in 1886 killed several people when a bomb exploded at a demonstration supporting striking workers; labor leaders were charged with inciting a riot and four were hanged, although no one knows who set off the bomb
Violent strikes in 1892 and 1894 involving steel workers and rail workers against the Pullman Company killed several
Despite pressures of government action, unions continued to grow