The Rise of Industrial America, 1865
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Transcript The Rise of Industrial America, 1865
The Rise of Big
Business
1900 – U.S. is leading
industrial power
Exceeds Great
Britain, France, and
Germany
4% growth per year
Reasons:
Natural resources
Massive labor supply
Growing population
Capital - $$$$
Labor-saving
technologies
Friendly govt. policies
Talented
entrepreneurs
The Business of
Railroads
BIGGEST business
1865 – 35,000 miles of
track
1900 – 190,000 miles
1883 – split U.S. into four
time zones
Created market for
commercial goods
Eastern Trunk Lines:
1830-1860 – Huge
growth
Different gauge tracks
After Civil War – RRs
consolidated
Cornelius Vanderbilt – 1867
– New York Central
4,500 miles of track
NYC to Chicago
Western Railroads:
Played a role in settling
West
Promoted settlements on
Great Plains
Linking East to West
creating one market
Federal land grants
80 rail companies
Problems:
Hasty and poor construction
Led to widespread
corruption
Transcontinental RR
Pre-Civil War land grants
Link CA to Union
Union Pacific – started at
Omaha, NE
Central Pacific –
Sacramento to ???
Constructed by Chinese
and Irish
Met at Promontory Point,
UT – May 10, 1869
Panic of 1893
¼ of all RRs went
bankrupt
J. Pierpont Morgan
Consolidated RRs
Eliminated competition
Controlled 7 companies by
1900
Industrial Empire
Major shift in output
Antebellum
Textiles
Clothing
Lumber
Leather products
Postbellum
Heavy industry
Steel
Petroleum
Electrical power
Steel Industry
1850s – Henry Bessemer
and William Kelly
Bessemer Process
Great Lakes region
becomes hotbed for steel
Minnesota’s Mesabi
Range
Andrew Carnegie
1848 – Scottish
immigrant
Superintendant of RRs
1870s – Pittsburgh, PA
Technology
Salesmanship
Horizontal and Vertical
Integration
Carnegie Steel Corp.
20,000 employees
Produced more steel than
ALL of Great Britain
U.S. Steel
Carnegie retires
Sold company in 1900 for
$400 million to J.P.
Morgan
Control 3/5 of all steel
168,000 employees
Petroleum Industry
1859 – Edwin Drake –
Titusville, PA
1863 – John D.
Rockefeller – Standard
Oil Company
By 1891 – controlled 90%
of oil industry
Established “trusts” –
conglomerates of businesses
$900 million fortune
Laissez-Faire
Capitalism
Adam Smith (1776)
Wealth of Nations
Social Darwinism
“Survival of the Fittest”
Gospel of Wealth
Carnegie
Anti-Trust Movement
Trusts came under harsh
scrutiny
Middle class believed
trusts controlled
everything
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
(1890)
Prohibited creation of trusts
Tried to make trade honest
Marketing Consumer
Goods
Increased demand for
goods
Increased output
Decreased price
R.H. Macy
Frank Woolworth
Sears Roebuck and
Montgomery Ward
Inventions and Inventors
Between 1860 – 19,591
patents
By 1900 – over 400,000
patents
Changed the way we did
everything!!!
American Workforce
Workers were poor
Top 10% of wealthiest
owned 90% of income
“New Money”
Working conditions were
horrible
Living conditions were
unsanitary
Horatio Alger Myth
“Rags to Respectability”
Organized Labor
National Labor Union
1860s
First union to try to
unionize all workers
Higher wages
8-hour day
Equal rights
Lost members during
Panic of 1873
Knights of Labor
1869 – secret society
Wanted members from
ALL work forces
Demands:
Worker cooperatives
Abolish child labor
Abolish trusts and
monopolies
Settled disputes legally
Haymarket Bombing – May
4, 1886
American Federation
of Labor
Samuel Gompers – 1886
Economic-minded
Method:
Collective bargaining
1901 – 1 million members
Immigration
1850 – 23.2 million
1900 – 76.2 million
1850-1900 – 16.2 million
immigrants entered U.S.
Pushes
Poverty
Overcrowding
Religious persecution
Pulls:
Tolerance
Jobs!!!
“Streets were paved with
gold”
Old vs. New
Old immigrants:
England
Germany
Scandinavia
New immigrants:
Russia
Italy
Greece
Croatia
Poland
Incoming Terminals
Ellis Island, New York
Europeans
Angel Island, California
Asians
Urbanization
By 1900 – 40% of
Americans lived in cities
Tenements
Lousy conditions
Ethnic neighborhoods
Safe havens
Political Machines
Tammany Hall – NYC
Boss Tweed
1860s – 1871
Backed and protected
immigrants
New York County
Courthouse (1870)
Thomas Nast
Harper’s Weekly
Mugwumps – wanted to end
reform
Awakening of Reform:
Problems in cities were
brought to attention
Books of social criticism
How the Other Half Lives
A History of Standard Oil
Company
The Jungle
Settlement House
Movement
Educated reformers
Moved into ghettos
Hull House – Chicago
Jane Addams (1889)
Taught immigrants English
Childhood education
Industrial arts education
By 1900 – 400 settlement
houses
Women’s Movements
Women’s Christian
Temperance Movement
(1874)
Frances Willard
Anti-Saloon League
(1893)
Cary Nation