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 Profit Efficiency Time-management Expansion Low turnover Control over workplace,

workforce Stockholder equity Productivity Bright future for business

Workers

Quality of life Good working conditions Higher wages Advancement opportunities Benefits Job stability/security Profit-sharing Bigger piece of the pie Gratitude/ acknowledgment

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: Individual liberty = individual wealth Inequality of wealth is natural Survival of the fittest Poor – it’s their fault, lazy, vice, uneducated Laissez-faire argument – limited govt. Inequality is good – eliminates the weak Idea of social improvement - evolution

Rauschenberg

Social Gospel There is a problem – greed, inequality A social problem Religious message – Christianity of love, golden

rule Stewardship idea Government involvement

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 =

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