Business and Labor in the Gilded Age
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Transcript of Business and Labor in the Gilded Age
Business and Labor in the Gilded Age
Innovation, Profits, and
Workers’ Rights
Major Issues
Forms of business innovation in late 19th-c. New technologies and processes Social class in America The Labor Question Labor-Business conflicts Forms of labor organization Politics & trade unions American Radicalism
Industrial Capitalism: Different Perspectives on Success
Business/Managers Workers
Pittsburgh & Steel in the Gilded Age
Pushing Coke from
By-product Oven,
by Aaron Henry Gorson,
( n.d.) .
Gorson, River Embankment
Gorson, The Burn Off
Gorson, At the Riverhead
Gorson, Pittsburgh Steel Mill at Night
Steel Images: Attitudes Towards Industry?
Late 19th-Century Business Innovations Capitalism = dynamic system, always changing Capitalists always trying to find new ways to
achieve profits and control Use of new technologies and methods of
production New ways of getting the most value out of
employees Cutting costs for labor, supplies, transport,
processing
J.M.W. Turner, “Rain, Steam, Speed, The Great Western Railway,” 1844
J.M.W. Turner, “Rain, Steam, Speed, The Great Western Railway,” 1844
Freedom & Power for some; exploitation and powerlessness for others
New ways of thinking about individual, society, one’s place in the world
Exciting & Troubling at the same time
Capitalism = new ways of thinking about time, space, speed, self, and society
Role of Railroads
Capital-intensive industry = needed a lot
of $ to pay for machinery and rails Answer: Corporations and stocks New transportation routes = new markets, a
national market for goods A far-flung business = new management
structures = departments & white collar jobs Railroad managers move on to other
industries – Carnegie and others Great market for steel
Rise of Big Business Modeled on railroads Looked to increase profits by cutting costs,
increasing output of goods, cutting down on competition
Get Bigger - Vertical integration – swallow up suppliers and sellers – Swift meatpacking
Monopoly – Rockefeller Oil – sweetheart deals with railroads (also vertical int.)
Better marketing – advertising advantages Crush competitors by lowering prices or
buying them out (horizontal integration)
Rise of the Corporation
Link to clips from documentary The Corporation
What is the corporation? Benefits? Problems?
New Industries = New Social Classes in America Myth: America is class-less society (no classes) Gilded Age saw creation of new classes and new
class conflicts Nouveau-riche (New rich) elite – non-inherited
wealth, entrepreneurs, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt
Middle-class – white collar managers, engineers, office workers
Changes in working-class: growth of unskilled manufacturing workforce
Different classes had different ideas of how economy should work, who it should benefit most, who should have power
Different Perspectives on Social Class in America
The American Elite Elite Ideology – the elite’s perspective on the world Way they viewed:
Themselves The society The economy The government’s role, politics Work – who does what and why? Wealth – who should get it and why? Who should have power, who shouldn’t? Gender roles (in family, society, politics, work, etc.) Who should make decisions, who shouldn’t? Was capitalism a good thing and for whom?
John D. RockefellerPainted by John Singer Sargent
Impressions of painting
Upper Class View of the World
William Graham Sumner & Social Darwinism: Survival of the fittest Fittest?: lifestyle, superior, heredity, race,
intelligence Inequality is natural, normal, good Process = progress Charity? Or govt. action?
Impressions of Painting
John Singer SargentVideo
J.S.S. Video #2
Abbott Thayer, “Winged Figure,” 1889
Abbott Thayer, “The Virgin”
Abbott Thayer, “Angel,”1889
Thomas Dewing, “Summer,” 1890
Upper Class Gender Roles:Victorian Separate Spheres
Men Women
Problems with Victorian Separate Spheres?:
Definition of Social Class
How does class work in this time period?
American Labor: Traditions & Challenges
Labor Songs of Gilded Age
Mining Songs
The Labor Question End of Reconstruction, ignoring plight of southern
blacks; “end of frontier” – nation turned to growing labor conflict and economic concerns
Labor Question: What share of the wealth, power, and rights would workers have in the new modern industrial economy?
What models of worker power were most effective in opposing Capital/Big Business?
What forms of organization were most inclusive or exclusive of all American workers?
What strategies did capital use to fight and control workers?
What role did the government play in the Labor Question?
Different Labor Visions: The Change from Traditional Male
Labor to New Industrial Labor
Thomas Anschutz, Ironworkers – Noontime
Interpretation of Painting
Impressions?
Traditional Labor Relations Related to Free Labor Ideology Craft workers and skilled trades –
apprenticeships and training = dignity of work Independence vs. “wage slavery” Manly brotherhood and fraternity Exclusivity = training (no women or minorities) Control over workplace and work pace/output Bargaining power with owners, some became
owners themselves Basis for trade unions
The Veteran in a New Field, 1865Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910)Oil on canvas
Traditional Labor Hierarchy Under Threat
Artisanal/Farm Household Economy
Power =Taken The Time and Effort To Achieve a Leadership Role.
Male breadwinner,Farmer or skilled worker
/\Dependents:
Apprentices
Women
Children
Big Business - Unskilled or semi-skilled industrial work
Power =
Owners/stockholders
/\
Managers
White Collar workers
/\
Men—women—immigrants
(Low pay, little power)
Different Steps and Workers in Iron-making process Iron Charger - Placed the iron ore into the smelting
furnace Iron Founder - Founds or casts iron Iron Moulder - Made molds for casting iron Iron Puddler - Made wrought iron using the puddling
process Iron Roller - Worked a machine that rolled iron to form
and shape it Iron Turner - Used a lathe to turn items from iron Ironmaster - Foundry owner / manager Ironsmith - Blacksmith Laborers - unskilled workers who moved materials
Big Business = Threat to Labor Why would changes in manufacturing be a threat to workers? Carnegie and the Homestead Strike, 1892
Broke power of trade unions Replaced skilled workers with unskilled Steel industry non-union until 1930s
Frederick W. Taylor Scientific management –
What does Taylor think about Schmidt?
Homestead Strike, 1892:Burning Barges
Westinghouse Corporation Films, 1904
Skilled Male Work & Skilled Furnace Work Less-Skilled Work Women’s Work 1 & Women’s Work 2 The Time-Clock
Major Issues in Films?
The New Working Class “New immigrants” from southern and eastern
Europe Traditional gender divisions, but rising # of women
in industry Black workers used for dirtiest lowest-paid jobs In south, 19th c. textile industry often reserved for
white families Child labor All of these groups formerly excluded from
manufacturing, but could now take unskilled or semi-skilled jobs – threat to male domain
Options Available for the Worker?
?
Responses: Unions and Politics
Trade Unions (Sam Gompers & AFL)– protect traditional crafts and trades (mostly white males), power in workplace, force employers to bargain – “More” of the pie
Knights of Labor -- organize all “producers”, create new society with respect for producers, education
Ind. Workers of the World (IWW) – organize all workers into One Big Union, fight as a class, unions will run economy and society (syndicalism)
American Railway Union (Debs) – all rail workers in one union (model for other industries too)
Socialist Party (Debs) – along with unions, fight for political power to change system
Knights of Labor: Beliefs & Goals Stop child labor Proper share of the wealth Arbitration, rather than strikes Equal pay for equal work, women’s rights Appeal to #s, larger pool of workers who could join organization Dealing with reality of changing workforce Getting govt. involved on the side of workers – banking, land issues 8-hour day Shifting power to workers Weekly pay Right to organize a union
Knights of Labor: Beliefs & Goals Value knowledge, rather than wealth Government involvement on the side of labor Equal pay for equal work Abolish child labor 8-hour day Shifting power to workers National money paid to workers Reform justice system Fair land distribution Reform banking Organize all workers, inclusive
Major Labor Conflicts and Issues, 1877-1892
1877 Great Railroad Strike
Railworkers fought cuts in wagesduring Panic of 1873
Shut down rail lines across country
After attacked, burned rail facilities in Pittsburgh
Federal troops broke strike
Photos of Pittsburgh
destruction
•Eight-hour Movement – the fight for the eight-hour day
•Protests, strikes, and political action
•Led to Haymarket Massacre in 1886
Lead-up to Haymarket
Massacre:
A call for revenge against police
after strikers were shot at
McCormick Reaper Works
in Chicago on May 3rd, 1886
•Anarchists protested slaying of strikers
•Police intervened and bomb was thrown, killing police
•Eight anarchist leaders arrested, unfair trial, four executed
•Effects: national hysteria; crackdown on anarchists, radicals, and unions; May Day became international day of pro-worker and radical protest
Haymarket Square,
May 4th, 1886:
Aftermath of Haymarket
Immigrants = Anarchists:
Go back to Europe (choice on left) or Receive American Justice (on right)
Lasting Effects of Haymarket
Crackdown on unions, radicals, anarchists Employers, police, and govt. united Trade union idea won greatest support = the
most conservative option, protecting skilled male white workers, left the rest out
Red Scare, red-baiting – can defeat most protest movements by calling them anarchist or communist
Connections – Continuing Issues
Industrialization = new international markets, international engagement, imperialism
Industrialism mass production/mass consumption economy (Fordism)
Rising standard of living, but inequality, bad working conditions, pollution
Immigration issues Labor Question remained important Boom and bust economy depressions