Big Business and Labor PDF

Big Business and Labor MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names The expansion of industry Many of the strategies used Andrew Carnegie Samuel Gompers resulted in the growth of big today in industry and in the vertical and American business and prompted labor movement, such as horizontal Federation of laborers to form unions to consolidation and the strike, integration Labor (AFL) better their lives. have their origins in the late Social Darwinism Eugene V. Debs 19th century. John D. Industrial Workers Rockefeller of the World Sherman (IWW) Antitrust Act Mary Harris Jones One American's Story Born in Scotland to penniless parents, Andrew Carnegie came to this country in 1848, at age 12. Six years later, he worked his way up to become private secretary to the local superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad. One morning, Carnegie single-handedly relayed messages that unsnarled a tangle of freight and passenger trains. His boss, Thomas A. Scott, rewarded Carnegie by giving him a chance to buy stock. Carnegie’s mother mortgaged the family home to make the purchase possible. Soon Carnegie received his ﬁrst dividend. A PERSONAL VOICE ANDREW CARNEGIE “ One morning a white envelope was lying upon my desk, addressed in ▼ a big John Hancock hand, to ‘Andrew Carnegie, Esquire.’... All it contained Nineteenth- was a check for ten dollars upon the Gold Exchange Bank of New York. I shall century remember that check as long as I live.... It gave me the ﬁrst penny of revenue industrialist Andrew Carnegie from capital—something that I had not worked for with the sweat of my brow. gave money to ‘Eureka!’ I cried. ‘Here’s the goose that lays the golden eggs.’” build public —Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie libraries, hoping to help others Andrew Carnegie was one of the ﬁrst industrial moguls to make his own for- write their own tune. His rise from rags to riches, along with his passion for supporting charities, rags-to-riches made him a model of the American success story. story. Carnegie’s Innovations By 1865, Carnegie was so busy managing the money he had earned in dividends that he happily left his job at the Pennsylvania Railroad. He entered the steel busi- ness in 1873 after touring a British steel mill and witnessing the awesome spectacle of the Bessemer process in action. By 1899, the Carnegie Steel Company A New Industrial Age 241 manufactured more steel than Vertical and Horizontal Integration all the factories in Great Britain. VERTICAL NEW BUSINESS STRATEGIES RESOURCES Carnegie’s success was due in Raw materials, part to management practices fields, forests, that he initiated and that soon and farms became widespread. First, he continually searched for ways to HORIZONTAL HORIZONTAL MANUFACTURING make better products more Production and cheaply. He incorporated new processing machinery and techniques, DISTRIBUTION such as accounting systems that Shipping and enabled him to track precise transportation, costs. Second, he attracted tal- delivery to ented people by offering them customers stock in the company, and he VERTICAL encouraged competition among his assistants. In addition to improving his own manufacturing operation, Carnegie attempted to control as much of the steel industry as he could. He did this main- ly by vertical integration, a process in which he bought out his suppliers— coal ﬁelds and iron mines, ore freighters, and railroad lines—in order to control the raw materials and transportation systems. Carnegie also attempted to buy out MAIN IDEA competing steel producers. In this process, known as horizontal integration, Summarizing companies producing similar products merge. Having gained control over his A What were Andrew Carnegie’s suppliers and having limited his competition, Carnegie controlled almost the management and entire steel industry. By the time he sold his business in 1901, Carnegie’s compa- business nies produced by far the largest portion of the nation’s steel. A strategies? Social Darwinism and Business Popular literature promoted the Andrew Carnegie explained his extraordinary success by pointing to his hard possibility of rags- work, shrewd investments, and innovative business practices. Late-19th-century to-riches success social philosophers offered a different explanation for Carnegie’s success. They for anyone who was virtuous and said it could be explained scientiﬁcally by a new theory—Social Darwinism. hard-working. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL DARWINISM The philosophy called Social ▼ Darwinism grew out of the English naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution. In his book On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, Darwin described his observations that some individuals of a species ﬂourish and pass their traits along to the next generation, while others do not. He explained that a process of “natural selection” weeded out less-suited indi- viduals and enabled the best-adapted to survive. The English philosopher Herbert Spencer used Darwin’s biological theories to explain the evolution of human society. Soon, economists found in Social Darwinism a way to justify the doctrine of laissez faire (a French term mean- ing “allow to do”). According to this doctrine, the marketplace should not be regulated. William G. Sumner, a political science professor at Yale University, promoted the theory that success and failure in business were governed by natural law and that no one had the right to intervene. A NEW DEFINITION OF SUCCESS The premise of the survival and success of the most capable naturally made sense to the 4,000 millionaires who had emerged since the Civil War. Because the theory supported the notion of individ- ual responsibility and blame, it also appealed to the Protestant work ethic of 242 CHAPTER 6 many Americans. According to Social Darwinism, riches were a sign of God’s favor, and therefore the poor must be lazy or inferior people who deserved their lot in life. KEY PLAYER Fewer Control More Although some business owners endorsed the “natural law” in theory, in practice most entrepreneurs did everything they could to control the competition that threatened the growth of their business empires. GROWTH AND CONSOLIDATION Many industrialists took the approach “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” They often pursued horizontal integration in the form of merg- JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER ers. A merger usually occurred when one corporation 1839–1937 Background bought out the stock of another. A ﬁrm that bought out all At the height of John Davison See monopoly on its competitors could achieve a monopoly, or complete con- Rockefeller’s power, an associate page R43 in the noted that he “always sees a little trol over its industry’s production, wages, and prices. Economics farther than the rest of us—and One way to create a monopoly was to set up a holding then he sees around the corner.” Handbook. company, a corporation that did nothing but buy out the Rockefeller’s father was a stock of other companies. Headed by banker J. P. Morgan, ﬂashy peddler of phony cancer United States Steel was one of the most successful holding cures with a unique approach to raising children. “I cheat my boys companies. In 1901, when it bought the largest manufactur- every chance I get.... I want to er, Carnegie Steel, it became the world’s largest business. make ’em sharp,” he boasted. Corporations such as the Standard Oil Company, estab- It seems that this approach lished by John D. Rockefeller, took a different approach succeeded with the oldest son, to mergers: they joined with competing companies in trust John D., who was sharp enough agreements. Participants in a trust turned their stock over to to land a job as an assistant bookkeeper at the age of 16. a group of trustees—people who ran the separate companies Rockefeller was very proud of his as one large corporation. In return, the companies were own son, who succeeded him in MAIN IDEA entitled to dividends on proﬁts earned by the trust. Trusts the family business. At the end of Summarizing were not legal mergers, however. Rockefeller used a trust to his life, Rockefeller referred not B What gain total control of the oil industry in America. B to his millions but to John D., Jr., strategies enabled as “my greatest fortune.” big businesses to ROCKEFELLER AND THE “ROBBER BARONS” In 1870, eliminate Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company of Ohio processed two competition? or three percent of the country’s crude oil. Within a decade, it controlled 90 percent of the reﬁning This 1900 cartoon, captioned “What a funny little government!” business. Rockefeller reaped huge proﬁts is a commentary on the power of the Standard Oil empire. John D. by paying his employees extremely low Rockefeller holds the White House in his hand. wages and driving his competitors out of ▼ business by selling his oil at a lower price than it cost to produce it. Then, when he controlled the market, he hiked prices far above original levels. Alarmed at the tactics of industrial- ists, critics began to call them robber barons. But industrialists were also phil- anthropists. Although Rockefeller kept most of his assets, he still gave away over $500 million, establishing the Rockefeller Foundation, providing funds to found the University of Chicago, and creating a medical institute that helped ﬁnd a cure for yellow fever. A New Industrial Age 243 Andrew Carnegie donated about 90 percent of the wealth he accumulated during his lifetime; his fortune still supports the arts and learning today. “It will be a great mistake for the community to shoot the millionaires,” he said, “for MAIN IDEA they are the bees that make the most honey, and contribute most to the hive even Evaluating after they have gorged themselves full.” C C Do you agree with Carnegie’s SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT Despite Carnegie’s defense of millionaires, the defense of government was concerned that expanding corporations would stiﬂe free com- millionaires? Why petition. In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act made it illegal to form a trust or why not? that interfered with free trade between states or with other countries. Prosecuting companies under the Sherman act was not easy, however, because the act didn’t clearly deﬁne terms such as trust. In addition, if ﬁrms such as Standard Oil felt pressure from the government, they simply reorganized into sin- gle corporations. The Supreme Court threw out seven of the eight cases the feder- al government brought against trusts. Eventually, the government stopped trying to enforce the Sherman act, and the consolidation of businesses continued. BUSINESS BOOM BYPASSES THE SOUTH Industrial growth concentrated in the North, where natural and urban resources were plentiful. The South was still trying to recover from the Civil War, hindered by a lack of capital—money for investment. After the war, people were unwilling to invest in risky ventures. Northern businesses already owned 90 percent of the stock in the most proﬁtable Southern enterprise, the railroads, thereby keeping the South in a stranglehold. The South remained mostly agricultural, with farmers at the mercy of railroad MAIN IDEA In this photograph, rates. Entrepreneurs suffered not only from excessive transportation costs, but Synthesizing also from high tariffs on raw materials and imported goods, and from a lack of D How did taken by Lewis skilled workers. The post-Reconstruction South seemed to have no way out of economic Hine in 1912, a factors limit young sweatshop economic stagnation. However, growth in forestry and mining, and in the tobac- industrialization laborer in New co, furniture, and textile industries, offered hope. D in the South? York City carries piecework home. ▼ Labor Unions Emerge As business leaders merged and consolidated their forces, it seemed necessary for workers to do the same. Although Northern wages were generally higher than Southern wages, exploitation and unsafe working con- ditions drew workers together across regions in a nationwide labor movement. Laborers—skilled and unskilled, female and male, black and white—joined together in unions to try to improve their lot. LONG HOURS AND DANGER One of the largest employers, the steel mills, often demanded a seven-day workweek. Seamstresses, like factory workers in most industries, worked 12 or more hours a day, six days a week. Employees were not entitled to vacation, sick leave, unemployment compensation, or reimburse- ment for injuries suffered on the job. Yet injuries were common. In dirty, poorly venti- lated factories, workers had to perform repetitive, mind- dulling tasks, sometimes with dangerous or faulty equipment. In 1882, an average of 675 laborers were killed in work-related accidents each week. In addition, wages were so low that most families could not survive unless everyone held a job. Between 1890 and 1910, for example, the number of women working for wages 244 CHAPTER 6 doubled, from 4 million to more than 8 million. Twenty percent of the boys and 10 percent of the girls under age 15—some as young as ﬁve years old—also held full-time jobs. With little time or energy left for school, child laborers forfeited their futures to help their families make ends meet. In sweatshops, or workshops in tenements rather than in factories, workers had little choice but to put up with the conditions. Sweatshop employment, which was tedious and required few skills, was often the only avenue open to women and children. Jacob Riis described the conditions faced by “sweaters.” A PERSONAL VOICE JACOB RIIS “ The bulk of the sweater’s work is done in the tenements, which the law that regulates factory labor does not reach.... In [them] the child works unchal- lenged from the day he is old enough to pull a thread. There is no such thing as a dinner hour; men and women eat while they work, and the ‘day’ is lengthened at both ends far into the night.” —How the Other Half Lives Not surprisingly, sweatshop jobs paid the lowest wages—often as little as 27 cents for a child’s 14-hour day. In 1899, women earned an average of $267 a year, nearly half of men’s average pay of $498. The very next year Andrew Carnegie made $23 million—with no income tax. EARLY LABOR ORGANIZING Skilled workers had formed small, local unions since the late 1700s. The ﬁrst large-scale national organization of laborers, the National Labor Union HISTORICAL (NLU), was formed in 1866 by ironworker William H. Sylvis. The refusal of some NLU local chapters to admit S P O TLIG H T MAIN IDEA African Americans led to the creation of the Colored National Labor Union (CNLU). Nevertheless, NLU member- AFRICAN AMERICANS AND Analyzing Issues ship grew to 640,000. In 1868, the NLU persuaded Congress THE LABOR MOVEMENT E How did to legalize an eight-hour day for government workers. E Angered by their exclusion from industrial working NLU organizers concentrated on linking existing local the NLU, African American labor- conditions ers formed the Colored National unions. In 1869, Uriah Stephens focused his attention on contribute to the Labor Union (CNLU) in 1869. Led growth of the labor individual workers and organized the Noble Order of the by Isaac Meyers, a caulker from movement? Knights of Labor. Its motto was “An injury to one is the Baltimore, the CNLU emphasized concern of all.” Membership in the Knights of Labor was cooperation between manage- ofﬁcially open to all workers, regardless of race, gender, or ment and labor and the impor- tance of political reform. degree of skill. Like the NLU, the Knights supported an The CNLU disbanded in the eight-hour workday and advocated “equal pay for equal early 1870s, but many African- Vocabulary work” by men and women. They saw strikes, or refusals to American laborers found a home arbitration: a work, as a last resort and instead advocated arbitration. At in the Knights of Labor, the ﬁrst method of settling its height in 1886, the Knights of Labor had about 700,000 union to welcome blacks and disputes in which whites alike. The Great Strike of members. Although the Knights declined after the failure of both sides submit 1877 brought whites and African their differences a series of strikes, other unions continued to organize. Americans together, but the labor to a mutually movement remained largely divid- approved judge ed along racial lines. Union Movements Diverge Management often hired African Americans as strikebreakers, As labor activism spread, it diversiﬁed. Two major types of which intensiﬁed white unions’ unions made great gains under forceful leaders. resistance to accepting blacks. African Americans continued to CRAFT UNIONISM One approach to the organization of organize on their own, but dis- labor was craft unionism, which included skilled workers crimination and their small num- from one or more trades. Samuel Gompers led the Cigar bers relative to white unions hurt Makers’ International Union to join with other craft unions black unions’ effectiveness. in 1886. The American Federation of Labor (AFL), A New Industrial Age 245 ▼ In New York City’s with Gompers as its president, focused on collective bargaining, or negotiation Union Square in between representatives of labor and management, to reach written agreements 1914, IWW on wages, hours, and working conditions. Unlike the Knights of Labor, the AFL members protest used strikes as a major tactic. Successful strikes helped the AFL win higher wages violence against and shorter workweeks. Between 1890 and 1915, the average weekly wages in striking coal miners in unionized industries rose from $17.50 to $24, and the average workweek fell from Colorado. almost 54.5 hours to just under 49 hours. INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM Some labor leaders felt that unions should include all laborers—skilled and unskilled—in a speciﬁc industry. This concept captured the imagination of Eugene V. Debs, who attempted to form such an industrial union—the American Railway Union (ARU). Most of the new union’s members were unskilled and semiskilled laborers, but skilled engineers and ﬁremen “ The strike is the joined too. In 1894, the new union won a strike for higher wages. Within weapon of the two months, its membership climbed to 150,000, dwarﬁng the 90,000 oppressed. ” enrolled in the four skilled railroad brotherhoods. Though the ARU, like MAIN IDEA EUGENE V. DEBS the Knights of Labor, never recovered after the failure of a major strike, it Contrasting added to the momentum of union organizing. F F How did craft unions and SOCIALISM AND THE IWW In an attempt to solve the problems faced by work- industrial unions ers, Eugene Debs and some other labor activists eventually turned to socialism, an differ? economic and political system based on government control of business and Background property and equal distribution of wealth. Socialism, carried to its extreme form— See socialism on communism, as advocated by the German philosopher Karl Marx—would result page R44 in the Economics in the overthrow of the capitalist system. Most socialists in late-19th-century Handbook. America drew back from this goal, however, and worked within the labor move- ment to achieve better conditions for workers. In 1905, a group of radical union- ists and socialists in Chicago organized the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or the Wobblies. Headed by William “Big Bill” Haywood, the Wobblies included miners, lumberers, and cannery and dock workers. Unlike the ARU, the IWW welcomed African Americans, but membership never topped 100,000. Its only major strike victory occurred in 1912. Yet the Wobblies, like other industrial unions, gave dignity and a sense of solidarity to unskilled workers. OTHER LABOR ACTIVISM IN THE WEST In April 1903, about 1,000 Japanese and Mexican workers organized a successful strike in the sugar-beet ﬁelds of Ventura County, California. They formed the Sugar Beet and Farm Laborers’ Union of Oxnard. In Wyoming, the State Federation of Labor supported a union of Chinese and Japanese miners who sought the same wages and treatment as other union miners. These small, independent unions increased both the overall strength of the labor movement and the tension between labor and management. 246 CHAPTER 6 Strikes Turn Violent Industry and government responded forcefully to union activity, which they saw as a threat to the entire capitalist system. THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1877 In July 1877, workers for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) struck to protest their second wage cut in two months. The work stoppage spread to other lines. Most freight and even some passenger traf- ﬁc, covering over 50,000 miles, was stopped for more than a week. After several state governors asked President Rutherford B. Hayes to intervene, saying that the strikers were impeding interstate commerce, federal troops ended the strike. THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR Encouraged by the impact of the 1877 strike, labor leaders continued to press for change. On the evening of May 4, 1886, 3,000 people gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest police brutality—a striker had been killed and several had been wounded at the McCormick Harvester plant the day before. Rain began to fall at about 10 o’clock, and the crowd was dis- persing when police arrived. Then someone tossed a bomb into the police line. Police ﬁred on the workers; seven police ofﬁcers and several workers died in the MAIN IDEA chaos that followed. No one ever learned who threw the bomb, but the three speak- Analyzing ers at the demonstration and ﬁve other radicals were charged with inciting a riot. Causes All eight were convicted; four were hanged and one committed suicide in prison. G How did the After Haymarket, the public began to turn against the labor movement. G 1877 strike and Haymarket cause THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE Despite the violence and rising public anger, work- the public to ers continued to strike. The writer Hamlin Garland described conditions at the resent the labor Carnegie Steel Company’s Homestead plant in Pennsylvania. movement? A PERSONAL VOICE HAMLIN GARLAND “ Everywhere... groups of pale, lean men slouched in faded garments, grimy with the soot and grease of the mills.... A roar as of a hundred lions, a thunder as of cannons,... jarring clang of falling iron... !” —quoted in McClure’s Magazine The steelworkers ﬁnally called a strike on June 29, 1892, after the company president, Henry Clay Frick, announced his plan to cut wages. Frick hired armed The Growth of Union Membership, 1878–1904 1500 Total Nationwide Union Membership 1300 American Federation of Labor Knights of Labor 1100 American Railway Union SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Graphs Members in Thousands 900 1. Which union’s membership Haymarket Riot increased in 700 1889–1890? 2. What effect(s) did 500 Wabash Railroad the Haymarket Riot Strike have on union 300 membership? Pullman Strike 100 0 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 A New Industrial Age 247 guards from the Pinkerton Detective Agency to protect the plant so that he could hire scabs, or strikebreakers, to keep it operating. In a pitched battle that left at least three detectives and nine workers dead, the steelworkers forced out the Pinkertons and kept the plant closed until the Pennsylvania National Guard arrived on July 12. The strike continued until November, but by then the union had lost much of its support and gave in to the company. It would take 45 years for steelworkers to mobilize once again. THE PULLMAN COMPANY STRIKE Strikes continued in other industries, how- ever. During the panic of 1893 and the economic depression that followed, the Pullman company laid off more than 3,000 of its 5,800 employees and cut the wages of the rest by 25 to 50 percent, without cutting the cost of its employee housing. After paying their rent, many workers took home less than $6 a week. A strike was called in the spring of 1894, when the Pullman company failed to restore wages or decrease rents. Eugene Debs asked for arbitration, but Pullman refused to negotiate with the strikers. So the ARU began boycotting Pullman trains. After Pullman hired strikebreakers, the strike turned violent, and President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops. In the bitter aftermath, Debs was jailed. Pullman ﬁred most of the strikers, and the railroads blacklisted many others, so they could never again get rail- road jobs. KEY PLAYERS WOMEN ORGANIZE Although women were barred from many unions, they united behind powerful leaders to demand bet- ter working conditions, equal pay for equal work, and an end to child labor. Perhaps the most prominent organizer in the women’s labor movement was Mary Harris Jones. Jones sup- ported the Great Strike of 1877 and later organized for the EUGENE V. DEBS MOTHER JONES United Mine Workers of America 1855–1926 1830–1930 (UMW). She endured death Born in Indiana, Eugene V. Mary Harris “Mother” Jones threats and jail with the coal Debs left home at the age of was a native of Ireland who 14 to work for the railroads. immigrated to North America miners, who gave her the nick- In 1875 he helped organize as a child. She became name Mother Jones. In 1903, to a local lodge of the Brother- involved in the American labor expose the cruelties of child hood of Locomotive Firemen, movement after receiving labor, she led 80 mill children— and after attempts to unite the assistance from the Knights many with hideous injuries—on local railroad brotherhoods of Labor. According to a a march to the home of failed, Debs organized the reporter who followed “the American Railway Union. mother of the laboring class” President Theodore Roosevelt. While in prison following the on her children’s march in Their crusade inﬂuenced the pas- Pullman strike in 1894, Debs 1903, “She ﬁghts their sage of child labor laws. read the works of Karl Marx battles with a Mother’s Love.” Other organizers also and became increasingly disil- Jones continued ﬁghting until achieved signiﬁcant gains for lusioned with capitalism. He her death at age 100. became a spokesperson for Jones was deﬁnitely not the women. In 1909, Pauline New- the Socialist Party of America kind of woman admired by man, just 16 years old, became and was its candidate for presi- industrialists. “God almighty the ﬁrst female organizer of the dent ﬁve times. In 1912, he made women,” she declared, International Ladies’ Garment won about 900,000 votes—an “and the Rockefeller gang of Workers’ Union (ILGWU). A gar- amazing 6 percent of the total. thieves made ladies.” ment worker from the age of eight, Newman also supported 248 CHAPTER 6 the “Uprising of the 20,000,” a 1909 seamstresses’ strike that won labor agree- ments and improved working conditions for some strikers. The public could no longer ignore conditions in garment factories after a ﬁre broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City on March 25, 1911. The ﬁre spread swiftly through the oil-soaked machines and piles of cloth, engulﬁng the eighth, ninth, and tenth ﬂoors. As workers attempted to ﬂee, they discovered that the company had locked all but one of the exit doors to prevent theft. The unlocked door was blocked by ﬁre. The factory had no sprinkler system, and the single ﬁre escape collapsed almost immediately. In all, 146 women died; some were found huddled with their faces raised to a small window. Public outrage ﬂared after a MAIN IDEA jury acquitted the factory owners of manslaughter. In response, the Summarizing state of New York set up a task force to study factory working H What factors conditions. H made the Triangle Shirtwaist ﬁre so MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNMENT PRESSURE UNIONS lethal? The more powerful the unions became, the more employers came to fear them. Management refused to recognize unions as representatives of the workers. Many employers forbade union meetings, fired union members, and forced new employees to sign “yellow-dog contracts,” swearing that they would not join a union. Finally, industrial leaders, with the help of the courts, turned the Sherman Antitrust Act against labor. All a compa- ny had to do was say that a strike, picket line, or boycott would hurt interstate trade, and the state or federal govern- ment would issue an injunction against the labor action. Legal limitations made it more and more difﬁcult for unions to be effective. Despite these pressures, workers—especially those in skilled jobs—continued to view unions as a powerful tool. By 1904, the AFL had about 1,700,000 members in its afﬁliated ▼ unions; by the eve of World War I, AFL membership would The ﬁre department’s ladders reached only climb to over 2 million. to the sixth ﬂoor, two ﬂoors below the burning Triangle Shirtwaist Company. 1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance. Andrew Carnegie John D. Rockefeller American Federation of Industrial Workers of the vertical and horizontal Sherman Antitrust Act Labor (AFL) World (IWW) integration Samuel Gompers Eugene V. Debs Mary Harris Jones Social Darwinism MAIN IDEA CRITICAL THINKING 2. TAKING NOTES 3. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP 4. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS Make a time line of the notable Do you think that the tycoons of the Does the life of Andrew Carnegie achievements and setbacks of the late 19th century are best described support or counter the philosophy labor movement between 1876 and as ruthless robber barons or as of Social Darwinism? Explain. 1911. effective captains of industry? 5. HYPOTHESIZING Think About: If the government had supported event two event four their management tactics and unions instead of management in business strategies the late 19th century, how might event one event three their contributions to the economy the lives of workers have been In what ways did strikes threaten their attitude toward competition different? industry? A New Industrial Age 249 CHAPTER ASSESSMENT TERMS & NAMES For each term or name below, write a sentence explaining its VISUAL SUMMARY connection to the industrialization of the late 19th century. 1. Thomas Alva Edison 6. Andrew Carnegie A NEW INDUSTRIAL AGE 2. 3. Alexander Graham Bell George M. Pullman 7. 8. Sherman Antitrust Act Samuel Gompers 4. transcontinental 9. American Federation of railroad Labor (AFL) LONG-TERM CAUSES 5. Interstate Commerce Act 10. Mary Harris Jones abundant natural resources harnessing of early power sources MAIN IDEAS such as water and coal Use your notes and the information in the chapter to answer invention of the steam engine the following questions. construction of roads, canals, and railroads in early 1800s The Expansion of Industry (pages 230–233) 1. How did the growth of the steel industry inﬂuence the development of other industries? IMMEDIATE CAUSES 2. How did inventions and developments in the late 19th century change the way people worked? expansion of railroads in late 1800s The Age of the Railroads (pages 236–240) cheap labor supply provided by 3. Why did people, particularly farmers, demand regulation of increasing immigration the railroads in the late 19th century? burst of technological innovation 4. Why were attempts at railroad regulation often unsuccessful? new management techniques and Big Business and Labor (pages 241–249) business strategies 5. Why were business leaders such as John D. Rockefeller investment capital called robber barons? 6. Why did the South industrialize more slowly than the North did? 7. Why did workers form unions in the late 19th century? 8. What factors limited the success of unions? BIG BUSINESS BOOMS CRITICAL THINKING 1880–1914 1. USING YOUR NOTES In a chart like the one shown, list what you see as the overall costs and beneﬁts of industrialization. INDUSTRIALIZATION Costs Beneﬁts IMMEDIATE EFFECTS growth of large corporations new and plentiful manufactured goods poor working conditions in factories 2. RECOGNIZING BIAS In 1902 George Baer, head of the and sweatshops Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, said, “The rights and interests of the labor man will be protected and cared for increased labor activism not by the labor agitators but by the Christian men to whom God in his inﬁnite wisdom has given the control of the property LONG-TERM EFFECTS interests of the country.” What bias does this statement reveal? How does Baer’s view reﬂect Social Darwinism? regional economies are linked labor movement wins shorter workweek 3. IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS Consider the problems that late- 19th-century workers faced and the problems that workers face today. How important do you think unions are for present- day workers? Support your answer. 250 CHAPTER 6 Standardized Test Practice Use the quotation below and your knowledge of U.S. 3. How did the railroads both beneﬁt from and history to answer question 1. contribute to the industrialization of the United States? “ No man, however benevolent, liberal, and wise, A The railroads needed government protection, can use a large fortune so that it will do half as and their development helped government grow. much good in the world as it would if it were divided B The railroads used new inventions and brought into moderate sums and in the hands of workmen people to see the inventions. who had earned it by industry and frugality.” C The railroads used steel and coal and delivered both to new markets. —Rutherford B. Hayes, from The Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes D The railroads needed passengers, and passengers needed to get to new industries. 1. Which of the following people could best be 4. In the 19th century, government attempts to described by Rutherford B. Hayes’s words regulate industry in the United States included benevolent, liberal, and a large fortune? the Interstate Commerce Act (1887) and the A Thomas Edison Sherman Antitrust Act (1890). What posed the B Eugene V. Debs biggest obstacle to enforcement of these laws? C Charles Darwin F the business tactics of industrialists D Andrew Carnegie G the use of vertical integration H the rulings of the Supreme Court 2. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) differed J the theory of Social Darwinism from the Knights of Labor in that the Knights of Labor focused on — F collective bargaining and aggressive use of strikes. G organizing only unskilled workers. ADDITIONAL TEST PRACTICE, pages S1–S33. H arbitration and use of strikes as a last resort. J winning a shorter workweek. ITEST PRACTICE CLASSZONE.COM ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT 1. INTERACT Recall your answer to the 2. LEARNING FROM MEDIA View the W I T H H IST O RY question on page 229: American Stories video, “Gusher! Pattillo Higgins and the Great Texas Oil Boom.” What are the pros and cons of Discuss the following questions with a small group; then do the activity. railroad expansion? What were the effects of the discovery of oil at Consider how your answer might be different Spindletop? based on what you now know about the effects of railroad expansion and business consolidation. Then What lessons can people learn from Pattillo write a newspaper editorial about the Great Strike of Higgins? 1877 (see page 247), supporting the position of Cooperative Learning Activity Make a poster either the railroad owners or the striking workers. describing Pattillo Higgins’s personal qualities and how they helped him to achieve his dream. What present-day ﬁgures share Higgins’s traits? Add images of these people, with captions, to the poster and display it in your classroom. A New Industrial Age 251

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