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Section 3: Big Business and Labor 1
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Carnegie’s Innovations 1899 Carnegie Steel Company Management practices New machinery Better quality products/cheaper Accounting Encouraged competition Hired talented people -> offered them stock 2
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Andrew Carnegie’s _______________ strategies made him successful because _______________. I agree with his strategies because ____________________. I disagree with his strategies because ___________________. 4
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Social Darwinism “Natural selection” = species that are best- adapted to their environment survive -> pass their traits to the next generation Economy –> laissez faire (“allow to do”) – success or failure in business were governed by natural law Industrialization = good No govt. regulation 5
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Success Individual responsibility Protestant work ethic (hard work) Accumulation of wealth = sign of God’s support Poor = lazy and inferior 6
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Do you agree with this definition of success? Why? 7
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“Wealth and Its Uses” by Andrew Carnegie Paragraph 1. Is it good for society for one man to accumulate a lot of wealth? Why? Paragraph 2. Should rich people leave all of their money to their children? Why? Paragraph 3. What is the second way millionaires can use their wealth? Paragraph 4. What should millionaires do before they die? How should they distribute their money? Sordid = selfish Bequeath = to hand down Efficacious = desired effect/powerful Furnish = to supply Injurious = harmful Testator = person with a will 8
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Fewer Control More Mergers – one corporation buys out the stock of another Monopoly = buy out all competitors/control wages and prices Holding company – buy out stocks of other companies J.P. Morgan bought Carnegie Steel John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company Trust agreements = competing companies join -> form one large corporation but all members earn money from their stocks 90% of the oil industry (1880) Pay low wages, reduce competition by selling oil at a low price, then he increased the price of oil “Robber baron” Gave away $500 million 9
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Fewer Control More Sherman-Antitrust Act Illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade Hard to enforce The South Northern businesses owned railroad companies in South Natural and urban resources in North 10
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Questions 1. What is your opinion of Social Darwinism and the government staying out of business? 2. What do you think about the business methods of Carnegie and Rockefeller? 3. What is your opinion of how they managed their wealth? 11
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Labor Unions Emerge 7 day work week, 14-hour day No vacation, sick leave 1882 – 675 laborers killed a week in factories Wages were low -> everyone in family worked Sweatshops = run-down apartment, lower wages than factories $498 to $23 million 12
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Labor Unions Emerge National Labor Union (1866) 8 hour day for govt. workers Craft Unionism Samuel Gompers -> Pres. of American Federation of Labor (AFL) Collective bargaining = negotiating between workers + management to win worker’s rights Strikes = higher wages + shorter work weeks 13
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Labor Unions Emerge Socialism = economic + political system where govt. controls business and property and equal distribution of wealth Eugene v. Debs Unionists and socialists form Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) 14
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Strikes Turn Violent Haymarket Affair 1886 3,000 protest police brutality in Chicago Striker had been killed Bomb – 7 cops die, several workers Public turns against labor movement 15
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Strikes Turn Violent 1892 – steelworkers strike over wages at Carnegie Steel Company’s Homestead plant in Penn. National Guard ends it 16
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Strikes Turn Violent Mary Harris Jones – leads coal mining strikes Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC 1911 Fire Only one exit door unlocked No sprinkler system 146 women die Changes in local labor laws for women and children 17
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Management and Govt. Pressure Unions Did not allow union meetings “Yellow-dog contracts” Industrial leaders use Sherman Anti-Trust Act – say a strike hurt interstate trade AFL membership climbs to 2 million by 1915 18
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Laborers formed _______________ as big businesses expanded because ___________________. One specific example would be __________________. 19
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Assignment Read pp. 254-259 Answer 1, 3, 4, 5, in complete sentences 20
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Assignment Imagine you worker (factory, mines, etc.) and write a journal entry describing the conditions of your work. What are they like? Is it dangerous? Are you in a union? Would you join one? Why did workers form unions in the late 19 th century? What factors limited success of unions? At least one page for full credit 21
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