Chapter 16 Capital and Labor PDF

lOMoARcPSD|51855979 Chapter 16 Capital and Labor History Post Civil War (Santa Fe Community College) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])...

lOMoARcPSD|51855979 Chapter 16 Capital and Labor History Post Civil War (Santa Fe Community College) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 Chapter 16: Capital and Labor Introduction The Great Railroad Strike -1877 1873- rail lines slashed workers’ wages Workers from Baltimore to St. Louis many strikers destroyed rail property rather than allow state militia to reopen the rails Baltimore militia killed 11 and wounded more Thomas Andrew Scott- the head of the Pennsylvania Railroad suggested that workers were unhappy with their wages and should be given “a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread” State militia in Pennsylvania killed 20 strikers with bayonets and rifle fire Strikers set fire to the city Nearly 100 Americans died in “The Great Upheaval” Workers destroyed nearly $40 million worth of property The March of Capital skills mattered less in industrialization, mass-producing economy, and their strength as individuals managers grew wealth and influence long hours and dangerous work conditions Technological innovations and national investments slashed the costs of production and distribution Taylorism was embraced at the turn of the century Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 1 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 corporate leaders and wealthy industrialists embrace the new principles of scientific management Frederick Taylor Taylor said firms needed a scientific organization of production urged all manufacturers to increase efficiency by subdividing tasks Taylorism increased the scale and scope of manufacturing and allowed for the flowering of mass production Henry Ford assembly line Cyrus McCormick overseen the construction of mechanical reapers 1880- hired a production manager who had overseen the manufacturing of Colt Firearms to transform his system of production Chicago plant introduced new jigs, steel gauges, and pattern machines that could make precise duplicates of new, interchangeable parts produced 21,000 machines in 1880 1900- USA world’s leading manufacturing nation 1913- USA produced one-third of the world’s industrial output “visible hand” - operated between the worlds of workers and owners and ensures the efficient operation of an administration of mass production and mass distribution Market Revolution - early 19th century became a legal mechanism for nearly any enterprise to marshal vast amounts of capital while limiting the liability of shareholders washed their hands of legal and financial obligations while still retaining the right to profit massively 1895-1904 a wave of mergers rocked the American economy “The great merger movement” Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 2 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 in 9 years- 4,000 companies were folded into rival firms General Electric and DuPont dominated 1901 - financier J.P. Morgan oversaw the formation of the US Steel built from 8 leading steel companies the world’s first billion-dollar company The Rise of Inequality The Gilded Age drew from the title of an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Warner Industrial capitalism confronted with unprecedented inequalities “This association of poverty with progress is the great enigma of our times” - Henry George's 1979 bestseller “Progress and Poverty” Cornelius Vanderbilt, J.D. Rockerfeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan robber barons won fortunes that adjusted for inflation and are still among the highest in the nation in 1890 the wealthiest 1% of Americans owned 1/4 of the nation’s assets top 10% owned over 70% by 1900 the richest 10% controlled 90% of the nation’s wealth 1859- Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution through natural selection in “On the Origin of Species” became widespread in the 1870s Herbert Spencer applied Darwin’s theory to society and popularized the phrase “survival of the fittest” “There must be a complete surrender of the law of natural selection”- H.L. Mencken wrote in 1907 ‘All growth must occur at the top. The strong must grow stronger, and that they may do so, they must waste no strength in the vain task o trying to uplift the weak” Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 3 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 “Synthetic Philosophy” sold nearly 400,000 copies in the US by 1903 Spencer followed by Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and John D. Rockefeller William Graham Sumner “ Before the tribunal of nature a man has no more right to life than a rattlesnake; he has no more right to liberty than any wild beast; his right to the pursuit of happiness is nothing but a license to maintain the struggle of existence” The Republican Party rose as an antislavery faction committed to “free labor” but also supported American business Abraham Lincoln had been a corporate lawyer who defended railroads and took advantage of the wartime absence of southern Democrats o push through a pro-business agenda of the 16 presidential elections between the Civil War and the Great Depression, Republican candidates won all but four Republicans controlled the Senate 27/32 sessions The Labor Movement social Darwinism attracted little support among American industrial laborers industrial laborers could expect to be unemployed one month of the year labored 60 hours a week and income fell below the poverty line wives forced into the labor market to compensate the failure of The Great Railroad Strike convinced workers of the need to organize unions began The Knights of Labor enjoyed considerable success in the early 1880s welcomes all laborers including women barred lawyers, bankers, and liquor dealers by 1886 the Knights had over 700,000 members Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 4 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 Marshall, Texas- Spring 1886 - Jay Gould’s rl companies fired a Knights of Labor member for attending a union meeting the local union walked off the job many states (nearly 200,000 workers) struck against this hired strikebreakers and the Pinkerton Detective Agency to suppress the strikes Political leaders and state militia helped him workers destroyed property National strike on May 1, 1886, for the eight-hour day 300,000-500,000 Americans involved Police killed workers in Chicago and called for a protest at Haymarket Square a bomb killed 7 policemen Unionism is now associated with Radicalism 8 Chicago anarchists were arrested charged with conspiracy 4 hanged and one suicide the national movement for 8 hour day collapsed The American Federation of Labor (AFL) emerged as a conservative alternative to the vision of the Knights alliance of craft unions 1892- the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers struck one of Carnegie’s steel mills in Homestead, Pennsylvania workers shut down the plant Henry Clay Frick called in hundreds of Pinkerton detectives but surrendered The union destroyed in the aftermath of the state militia 1894- workers in George Pullman’s Pullman car factories struck when he cut wages by a quarter but kept rents and utilities in his company Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 5 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 The American Railway Union (ARU) led by Eugene Debs launched a sympathy strike the governor of Illinois sympathized with workers and refused to dispatch militia President Grover Cleveland dispatched thousands of soldiers to break the strike Debs was arrested and imprisoned The Populist Movement ‘Wall Street owns the country” - Mary Elizabeth Lease told dispossessed farmers around 1890 “It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street” Commercialization of agriculture pet farmers in the hands of bankers, railroads, and various economic intermediaries Farmers organized and launched their challenge first through the cooperatives of the Farmers’ Alliance and later through the politics of the People’s Party 1877 - Lampasas Texas Texas agrarian met and organized the first Farmers’ Alliance to restore some economic power to farmers as they dealt with Railroads, merchants, and bankers Farmers’ Alliance claimed 1,500,000 members meeting in 40,000 local sub- alliances farmers’ cooperatives enabled farmers to negotiate higher prices for their crops and lower prices for the goods they purchased spread across the South between 1886 and 1892 claimed more than a million members Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 6 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 Southern alliance-backed Democratic candidates won four governorships and 48 congressional seats in 1890 The People’s Party attracted supporters across the nation by appealing to those convinced that there were deep flaws in the political economy of Gilded Age America Edward Bellamy’s popular “Looking Backward” and the champions of Henry George’s farmer-friendly “single-tax” proposal joined alliance members in the new party The Populists nominated former Civil War general - James B. Weaver as their presidential candidate at the party’s first national convention in Omaha, Nebraska on July 4, 1892 adopted a platform that crystallized the alliance’s cooperative program into a coherent political vision Ignatius Donelly platform’s preamble “the fruits of the toil of millions had been boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few The Omaha Platform and the larger Populist Movement sought to counter the scale and power of monopolistic capitalism proposed unprecedented expansion of federal power Subtreasuries- establishment of a network of federally managed warehouses that would extend government loans to farmers who stored crops in the warehouses as they awaited higher market prices monetized silver 1892 -Populists’ first national election campaign Weaver received over 1 million votes The panic of 1893 sparked the worst economic depression the nation had ever yet seen The populist movement won further credibility Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 7 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 Mary Lease - Kansas Populist “raise less corn and more Hell” Southern orators James “Cyclone” Davis and Tom Watson stumped across the South decrying the abuses of northern capitalists and the Democratic Party W.H. Harvey's “Coin’s Financial School” and Henry D. Lloyd's “Wealth Against Commonwealth” provided populist answers to the age’s many perceived problems 1894 - Populists elected 6 senators and 7 representatives to Congress Southern Democrats responded with electoral fraud and racial demagoguery The Colored Farmers’ Alliance formed a segregated sister organization to the southern alliance and has as many as 250,000 members at its peak the rapid decline in 1891 when faced with violent white repression of the rule Marion Butler elected to the Senate “We are in favor of white supremacy, but we are not in favor of cheating and fraud to get it” Middle 1890s- Populism grew William Jennings Bryan and the Politics of Gold William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 -July 26, 1925) accomplished many different things in his life skilled orator Nebraskan congressman three-time presidential candidate U.S secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 8 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 A lawyer who supported prohibition and opposed Darwinism won national renown for his attack on the gold standard and promotion of free silver born in Salem, Illinois Attended Union Law College in Chicago and passed the bar shortly thereafter Economic depression struck in the Midwest in the late 1880s farmers faced low crop prices and found few politicians on their side Bryan worked from within the Democratic Party “Last night I found that I had power over the audience. I could move them as I chose. I have more than usual power as a speaker…God grant that I may use it wisely” won the election to the House of Representatives served two terms 1895-1896- Bryan launched a national speaking tour in which he promoted the free coinage of silver believed that bimetallism could alleviate the farmers’ debts Republicans championed the gold standard and a flat money supply July 1896, the Democratic Party’s national convention met to choose their presidential nominee for the upcoming election the gold standard was “not only un-American but anti-American” Bryan declared “ Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” received the 1896 Democratic presidential nomination Republicans ran William McKinley Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 9 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 an economic conservative who championed business interests and the gold standard McKinley won 1900- Congress passed the Gold Standard Act put the country on the gold standard The Socialists Carried on the Populists’ radical tradition by uniting farmers and workers in a sustained, decades-long political struggle to reorder American economic life Argued that wealth and power were consolidated in the hands of too few individuals, that monopolies and trusts controlled too much of the economy owners and investors grew rich while the workers who produced their wealth suffered Karl Marx described the new industrial economy as a worldwide class struggle between the wealthy bourgeoisie owned the means of production and the proletariat Eugene Debs's “the overthrow of the capitalist system and the emancipation of the working class from wage slavery” Oscar Amerigner “ownership of the trust by the government, the ownership of the government by the people” Helen Keller, Upton Sinclair, and Jack London William D. “Big Bill” Haywood labor leader united in 1905 to form the Industrial Workers of the World the “Wobblies’ - a radical and confrontational union that welcomed all workers The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was founded in 1901 Vitor Berge and Meyer London won congressional seats Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 10 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|51855979 Julius A. Wayland “Socialism is coming. It’s coming like a prairie fire and things can stop it… you can feel it in the air” By 1913 there were 150,000 members of the Socialist Party 1912, Eugene V. Debs received almost 1 million presidential votes Chapter 16: Capital and Labor 11 Downloaded by Amanda Comstock ([email protected])