Bell Ringer:

• What is a monopoly? (Not the game)

Gallery Walk Discussion:

Rise of Big Business

Giants of Early U.S. Industrialization

Bessemer Process

• Henry Bessemer – new method for making steel known as the Bessemer Process
• Made production of steel quicker
• Faster expansion of railroads and construction of buildings

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Man of Steel

• Andrew Carnegie – dominated steel industry
• Vertical integration – business strategy in which one entity owns the final product as well as the other companies that supply the materials to make up the final product
• Monopoly – control over the supply of a particular product with no competition
• Carnegie give much of his wealth to public causes
• Gospel of Wealth (Wealth) – responsibility of the wealthy to make sure their money was put to good use helping others

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Carnegie even owned the railroads and ships that transported the needed coal and iron ore. Wrote essay known as Wealth.

OIL

• Edwin L. Drake found oil in PA
• John D. Rockefeller – became one of the richest and most powerful men in the nation
• Standard Oil was one the nation’s first trust
• Trust is a business arrangement under which a number of companies unite into one system
• Trusts serve to destroy competition and create monopolies

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Under the trust, Rockefeller could dictate prices, eliminate competition & control the US oil industry

• Cornelius Vanderbilt – great impact on the railroad industry
• New York central railroad was extended to Chicago, Illinois
• Made travel faster and easier

His son George built the famous Biltmore house in Ashville NC

• J.P. Morgan – was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time
• Exercised control over banks, insurance companies, and various stock-market organizations
• Bought out Carnegie and formed a new company US Steel
• Worth $22 Billion in 1913

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• George Westinghouse – Westinghouse Electric Company
• Invented transformer that enabled electricity to be transmitted as alternating currents to points far away.

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Lit the Columbian Exposition

Chicago 1893

First to use hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls to power lights in Buffalo 22 miles away

• Robber barons – people who loot an industry and give nothing back (Jay Gould)
• The terms "mogul", "tycoon" and "baron" were often attributed to late 19th and early 20th century North American business magnates in extractive industries such as mining, logging and petroleum, transportation fields such as shipping and railroads, and manufacturing: this includes steelmaking, banking, and newspaper publishing.
• This era was known as the Second Industrial Revolution or the Gilded Age.

Gilded Age 1877-early 1900s

• The name refers to the process of gilding an object with a superficial layer of gold and is meant to make fun of ostentatious display while playing on the term "golden age."
• Mark Twain referred to the era as a time in which it appeared that a thin layer of prosperity was covering the poverty and corruption that existed in much of society.

• Horatio Alger – wrote Ragged Dick and Mark, The Match Boy
• Alger’s characters went from poverty to wealth through hard work and diligence, rather than because of an inherited social status.

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Andrew Carnegie

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John D. Rockefeller

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Cornelius Vanderbilt

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J.P. Morgan

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George Westinghouse

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STEEL

OIL

RAILROAD

Banking, Stocks and Bonds

Electricity

Bell Ringer:

• At what age should children be able to work? (Explain)

Questions:

• What do you see in the image?
• What effect of industrialization is shown?
• What is the message or meaning of the poster?

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Workers and Labor Unions

Conditions of the Worker

• No sense of pride
• Long hours
• Low wages ($2.00 per week) mid 1800s
• Very dangerous factory conditions
• Child labor very common (5 yr old)

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The Unions

• Organization of workers formed to protect the interests of its members
• Craft unions – skilled workers
• Trade unions – less skilled workers

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Labor Unions

• Knights of Labor – labor organization that help workers spirit (didn’t last long)
• American Federation of Labor (AFL) - Led by Samuel Gompers 1886
• Focused on wages, working hours, and working conditions
• Focused on strikes and boycotts
• Believed in collective bargaining and mediation
• “closed shops” factories could only hire union members

Eugene Debs

• Most influential union leaders
• Organized American Railway Union 1893
• Led Pullman Strike of 1894
• Ran for president under American Socialist Party

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Response to Unions

• Employers hated unions
• Forced employees to sign yellow-dog contracts which forbade workers from joining unions
• Blacklists – list of workers who employers would refuse to hire
• Lockouts – would not allow workers to return to work
• During strikes, employers would hire scabs or replacement workers
• Injunctions – court orders that forbade strikes because they violated the law or threatened public interests
• Some employers used violence and intimidation to deal with labor unrest

Panic of 1873

• Of the country's 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt. A total of 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875.
• Unemployment reached 14% by 1876. Construction work halted, wages were cut, real estate values fell and corporate profits vanished.

Strikes and Confrontations

• “Great Strike” President Rutherford B. Hayes sent federal troops to put down two separate protests over railroad industry
• Protest in Chicago Haymarket Square led a radical group to explode a bomb that killed seven police officers. A riot broke out and gunfire killed police and striking workers
• Haymarket Riot turned public opinion against unions and led to the demise of the Knights of Labor

Haymarket Riot

Homestead Strike 1892

• Broke out among steel workers at Carnegie Steel plant
• Private police force (Pinkertons) called to put down strike
• Shoot out left several dead or wounded
• Union had to call off strike

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Carnegie was in Europe during the strike, his partner left in charge

Pullman Strike

• Involved railroad industry
• George Pullman fired 3 labor rep. who asked about the laying off of workers
• Eugene Debs led a boycott of Pullman cars nationwide
• 120,000 workers rallied to the strike
• Fed. govt. responded with a court injunction against the union
• Fed. troops sent to make sure it was enforced
• Established a precedent for factory owners appealing to the courts to end strikes

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