Chapter 5 Industrialization & The “Gilded Age”

Between 1869 & 1899 the U.S. Population nearly tripled and during this time

America emerged as an industrial and agricultural giant

The Rise of Big Business• The Industrial Revolution

created huge corporations that came to dominate the economy as well as political & social life during the late 19th century

• There were many things that launch this economic growth like natural resources including forests, mineral wealth, & rivers

Carnegie Plant at Homestead, PA

The Second Industrial Revolution was spurred by three developments:

• The 1st was the creation of interconnected national transportation & communication network

• The 2nd happened in the 1880s w/ electric power

• The 3rd was the systematic application of scientific research to industrial processes

Building the Transcontinental Railroads

• A transcontinental railroad was not built before the Civil War b/c North-South sectional differences prevented Congress from selecting a route

• The first transcontinental railroad was built in just sixteen months

The celebration after the completion of the first transcontinental railroad

Those Who Build the Railroad

• The Union Pacific work crews were made up of ex-soldiers, former slaves & Irish & German immigrants

• The Central Pacific crews were made-up mainly of Chinese workers that came to the U.S. to CA b/c of the Gold Rush & railroad jobs

Chinese workers building the transcontinental railroad

Financing The Railroads• Railroad executives were

called “robber barons” b/c they were dishonest

• Credit Mobilier was a construction company that overcharged the railroads

• Jay Gould was the most notorious of the railroad “robber baron”

• Another baron was Cornelius Vanderbilt whose business consolidation put the control of railroads in the hands of the few

Jay Gould

Inventions Spur Manufacturing

• During the 1890s the U.S. patent Office registered almost 235,000 inventions

• Some of these inventions were refrigerated railcar, barbed wire, air brakes, typewriter, telephone

• Thomas Alva Edison invented the first successful incandescent light bulb

Thomas Edison, 1878

Nikola Tesla’s Alternating-Current Motor made it possible:

• For water sources to locate away from waterfalls

• To transmit high voltage electricity

• For power sources to locate away from coal deposits

• For Westinghouse to defeat Edison

Nikola Tesla

Rockefeller & the Oil Trust• In 1870 Rockefeller started

the Standard Oil Company and decided to take over all other oil businesses

• Rockefeller perfected the idea of the holding company or a company that controlled other companies by holding a majority of their stock

• Rockefeller became a leading philanthropist

Carnegie & The Steel Industry

• Andrew Carnegie rose from poverty

• Carnegie made money in many areas, including oil railroads, iron and steel, and bridge building

• Carnegie wrote “The Gospel of Wealth” in 1889

J.P. Morgan, Financier

• Morgan was born wealthy and was an investment banker

• By the 1890s he controlled 1/6 of the nation’s railway system

• Morgan’s U.S. Steel Corporation a holding company for a variety of interests was the 1st billion dollar corporation

Sears & Roebuck

• After the Civil War w/ all the new inventions manufacturers came up w/ many new products

• The question was: how to get these products to isolated farms & small towns?

• Sears, Roebuck & Company was a pioneer in selling goods by mail

Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalogue

Labor Conditions• By modern-day

standards working conditions were dreary and often dangerous

• By 1880 1 out of 6 children in the nation was working full time

• By 1881, only 7states had laws that children had to be at least 12 before they worked

Southern Cotton Mills

Disorganized Protest

• It was very difficult for workers to organize unions

• There were strikes in the Penn. coalfields by an Irish group called the Molly Maguires

• Many of the Mollies were hanged

The Railroad Strike of 1877

• This was a more widespread labor incident and the 1st major interstate strike in American History

• The RR strike started b/c of a cut to workers wages

• This strike ended when the workers, who lacked organized bargaining power, returned to work

The Sand-Lot Incident

• B/C of the 1870s depression there were anti-Chinese riots in San Francisco

• Denis Kearney started the Workingmen’s party of CA which was based on this anti-Chinese sentiment

• In 1882 Congress voted to prohibit Chinese immigration

Denis Kearney

Toward Permanent Unions• National Labor Union

started in 1866• Contract Labor Act• Knights of Labor started in

1869• Anarchism – many

European Anarchists emigrated to the U.S.

• The Haymarket affair was blamed, probably unfairly, on seven anarchist leaders

Gompers & the AFL

• Gompers served as president of the American Federation of Labor until 1924

• The AFL was concerned more with concrete economic gains that with social of political reforms

Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor

Mother Jones

• Lost her family in the 1867 yellow fever epidemic

• She worked for higher wages, shorter hours, safer workplaces, & restrictions on child labor

• She lost most of the strikes

Socialism & The Unions

• In 1877, followers of Karl Marx in America organized the Socialist Labor Party

• Daniel De Leon wrote that blue-collar violence and anarchy were the only paths to success

Daniel De Leon

The Stance of Government Toward Business

• During this period the stance of the Supreme Court on liberty of contract could best be described as favorable toward business

• Between 1887 & 1897, the efforts by state & territorial governments to protect workers were thwarted by pro-business conservative judges