1. Big Business and Labor
Chapter 14
Section 3 Notes

2. Andrew Carnegie’s Innovations
Leaves Pennsylvania RR and goes into steel business (1873)
By 1899 manufacturing more steel than Great Britain
Why so successful?
better products cheaper
new machines and techniques
encourage competition w/in business & offer stock in co.
Vertical integration (bought out suppliers) control raw materials & trans.
Horizontal integration- buy out co. w/ similar products

3. Andrew Carnegie

4. Social Darwinism and Business
Principles
Social Darwinism (biological evolution and “natural selection”)
Herbert Spencer “laissez faire”, market place not regulated
Success and failure governed by natural law
Definition of success- if poor it’s b/c lazy or inferior to rich people

5. Fewer Control More
Big mergers (horizontal integration)- one co. buys out the stock of another
Idea of monopoly emerges
Holding companies (create one co. just to buy out others) Carnegie
Trust agreements (companies turn stocks over to group of trustees) Rockefeller w/ Standard Oil Company, not legal
“Robber Barons”

7. -Rockefeller
low payments to employees
sell oil low so other companies go out of business
when all other companies gone, raise prices higher than ever
people upset with Rockefeller and Carnegie but both gave huge amounts of money to different organizations and foundations

8. John D. Rockefeller

9. Carnegie & Rockefeller Contributions

10. Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
Difficult to enforce
South still recovering from Civil War (mostly agricultural)
Farmers going into debt due to RR co.

11. Labor Unions Emerge Work seven days a week, 12 hour days
No vacation, sick leave, workers comp.
Poor working conditions in factories, many injuries
Everyone in family must work to survive (no schooling)
Ave. man $498 and woman $267 a year (Carnegie-$23 million, and he didn’t pay income tax!!!!!!)
National Labor Union (NLU) 1866
Convinced congress to legalize 8 hour work day

12. Union Movements Diverge
Craft Unions
Samuel Gompers (Cigar Makers’ Union) led way in joining craft unions together
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Work on negotiations between employer and employee
Used strikes as major tactic
Skilled & Unskilled workers unite in American Railway Union (ARU) under Eugene V. Debs
Debs and other leaders start to turn to socialism and create new union
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)- Wobblies

13. Strikes Turn Violent Great Strike of 1877 (B&O RR) Haymarket Affair
Week long
RR covering +50,000 mi. stopped
Pres. Hayes has to send troops to stop strike
Haymarket Affair
Chicago May 4, 1886
Protesting police brutality at strike the day before
Police try to break up crowd, but bomb is thrown into crowd
Violence breaks out, 7 police & 7 strikers die
Speakers charged all convicted –4 hung, 1 suicide

14. Great Strike of 1877

15. Haymarket Affair

16. Homestead Strike Pullman CO. Strike 1894 Carnegie Steel CO.
Strike begins on June 29, 1892
Battle between strikers, scabs, and guards
Plant stays closed till November
In end gave into company
Pullman CO. Strike 1894
Began in Pullman, IL
Workers go on strike after wages reduced
Involved 250,000 workers & 27 states
President Cleveland orders troops to end strike
Brings question if President has that authority

17. Homestead Strike

18. Pullman Strike

19. Women Organize Mary Harris Jones “Mother Jones”
Helped pass child labor laws
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire draws attention to working conditions
Workers couldn’t get out b/c doors locked, no sprinkler system, fire escape didn’t work
146 women die

20. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

21. Management doesn’t recognize unions, won’t allow workers to join
Avoid strikes by saying it hurts interstate trade, govt. would step in
Sherman anti-trust works against Unions