1. Industrialization and Corporate Consolidation

2. Industrial Growth in America - Reasons  Natural Resources – coal, oil, iron  Immigration – steady flow both Asia and Europe  Capitalist mentality supported by laissez faire government  Ingenuity – 440,000 patents in 1800s – inventions – Edison’s invention factory

3. The Telephone

4. The Light Bulb

5. Steel Beam Girders

6. The Electric Trolley

7. The Typewriter

13. Railroads  1865 – 35,000 Miles  1900 – 200,000 miles  Land claiming – railroad companies given land claims – size of Texas  Success of town based on railroad stop – no railroad = “ghost town”  Transcontinental – Leland Stanford Union Pacific meets Central Pacific

14. The Golden Spike Ceremony: Utah, May 10,1869

15. Corruption  money from government not used appropriately – Credit Mobilier  Abuse of Chinese and other immigrant labor  Faulty tracks just to make a dime  Improvements – steel – safer/stronger – standardized size – standardized time  “Stock watering” – make stock in railroads look better than it is – bribed judges

16. Steel  Andrew Carnegie – monopolized then gave away $450 million by death  America producing 1/3 of world’s steel thanks to Bessemer Process  Carnegie - $1.4 billion more than US worth in 1800  “Vertical” Consolidation

17. Oil  Rockefeller – kerosene first pushed – then automobile  Vertical Consolidation – own supply and distribution  Horizontal Consolidation - 95% of oil refineries  Rockefeller – uses illegal rebates and spies to control industry

19. Laissez Faire Conservatism  government policy in late 19th century  industry controls gov’t  Gospel of Wealth – Lord gave money to wealthy class – must be morally responsible  Social Darwinism – wealthy deserve it – inherently better  Poor by own shortcomings –poor deserve it

20. Effects on worker  Business becomes depersonalized – feel like merely a cog in a machine – hurts creativity  Free enterprise/farming replaced by corporation  Factory controls life – whistle and artificial discipline – become subservient  Gibson Girl – advertising campaign encourages women to work in offices  2/3 dependent on wage – unemployment not based on effort, but larger economic issues

21. Picketing for the 8 Hour Work Day

22. The Gibson Girl

25. Union Movement  Manual laborers vulnerable – employers can always bring in cheaper immigrant labor  Machines displace workers  Corporations make labor organization impossible Control legal process – best lawyers, politicians corrupt employs “scabs”/strike breakers – “I can hire one half to kill the other half Force workers to take ironclad oath – won’t join a union Create company town – employees in debt to company stores

26. Labor Unions  Knights of Labor – replaced National Labor Union – began as a secret society Open to everyone – regardless of gender/race Overzealous – talked about social reform/changing society – goals too unrealistic Haymarket Square – Chicago – dynamite injures cops – anarchists linked to unions Leads to massive riot – destroys reputation of Knights of Labor  American Federation of Labor – Samuel Gompers – “bread and butter” unionism More realistic – wages, hours, working conditions Used walkout and boycott to get way by 1900 view of labor starts to change – not seen as chaos starters

27. Industrialization Judgment  Were capitalists “Captains of Industry” or “Robber Barons?”  Class tension never as big a deal in America as in Europe  Creates belief in upward mobility  But…destroyed traditional farmer’s values/spiritual lives for capitalism  Two classes resulted – owners of labor class and the labor class

28. Questions to Consider  What were the costs and benefits of the industrial transformation of the post-Civil War era?  Should industrialists like Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Rockefeller be viewed as robber barons or captains of industry?  Was the growing class division of the time a threat to American democracy? Why or why not?  Why did American workers have such trouble responding to the new industrial conditions of labor? Why were business and the middle-class public generally hostile to allowing workers to organize as industry did? Why did the AF of L survive while the Knights of Labor failed?  Does the government regulation of the economy disprove the belief that capitalism is a morally superior economic theory? Why or why not?