Brinkley The Unfinished Nation Chapters Seventeen Industrial Supremacy
Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation Chapters Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n. Sources of Industrial Growth n. Capitalism & Its Critics n. The Ordeal of the Worker
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n Sources of Industrial Growth n Industrial & Communications Technologies n Telephones (1870’s - Alexander Graham Bell) n n 1900: 1. 3 million 1920: >13 million Radio (1890 s – Marconi) n Typewriter (1868 – C. Shoals) “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you!” - Alexander Graham Bell n 17 -2
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n Thomas Edison n Inventor: Light bulb n Phonograph n Moving pictures n n n Impact of Electric Power n n n 17 -3 Electric generators/utilities. Edison in his New Jersey lab Street cars Elevators Refrigeration
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n The Technology of Iron and Steel Production n Bessemer Process (1870 s) Converts iron to steel n More durable, versatile n n Steel Industry Iron ore & coal Pioneer Oil Run, 1865 n Western Pennsylvania & Ohio n Later: Minnesota, Michigan, Alabama n n Rise of the Petroleum Industry George Bissell, Edwin Drake (1859) n Pennsylvania, Ohio, W. Virginia n 17 -4
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n The Airplane and the Automobile n Automobile: n 1 st Americans: Duryea bros. n Henry Ford: Mass produced 1895: 4 autos n 1917: 5 million n n Airplane: n The Wright Brothers n Kitty Hawk – 1904 n Charles Lindbergh n 1 st Transatlantic flight (1927) 17 -5 Internet Link: charleslindbergh. com The Wright Brothers
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n Railroad Expansion and the Corporation n Importance of Government Subsidies n “Horizontal Integration” and “Vertical Integration” n U. S. Steel Created n Andrew Carnegie n Standard Oil n John D. Rockefeller n Trusts & Holding Cos. n JP Morgan 17 -6 Railroads, 1870 -1890 Interactive Map: n Purchased Carnegie Steel: USX Growth of Railroads,
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n Capitalism and Its Critics n n 1% corporations control 1/3 manufacturing Survival of the Fittest Ideology of Individualism n “Social Darwinism” n n n Corporate Wealth Legitimized Myth v. Reality – little “competition” allowed “The growth of a large business is merely the survival of the fittest. ” John D. Rockefeller 17 -7 John D. Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n The “Gospel of Wealth” n Andrew Carnegie n n n Horatio Alger n n Socialist Labor Party Henry George’s “Single Tax” The Problems of Monopoly n n 17 -8 Popular success stories Myth of “self-made man” Cornelius Vanderbilt, railroads Alternative Visions n n Excess wealth = public trust funds Great philanthropist Railroad rates Economic Concentration Challenged Andrew Carnegie, steel
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n The Ordeal of the Worker n The Immigrant Work Force Rapidly Expanding Working Class n 1865 -1915: 25 million n Eastern & Southern Europe n Inspection room at Ellis Island, NY Sources of Immigration From Europe, 1860 -1900 17 -9
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n n Working Conditions Wages and Working Conditions n n $4 -500/yr (>$600 needed) Harsh Child Labor 10% of girls <15 n 20% of boys n Child labor laws: n n n 17 -10 Minimum age: 12 years 10 -hour days Children at work in a textile plant
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n The Ordeal of the Worker n The Knights of Labor (1869) Women, blacks, “all who toil” n Excluded: Lawyers, bankers, gamblers n n The AFL (1881) Samuel Gompers n General strike: May 1, 1886 (8 -hr day) n “What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more 17 -11 beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright. ”
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n Haymarket Bombing n n n Chicago 1 bomb: 7 police killed Anarchists convicted, four executed “Anarchism” ~ terrorism Labor Discredited The Homestead Strike n n Pittsburgh, 1892 Henry C. Frick n n 17 -12 Failed assassination Public opinion turns > strike Haymarket Square Bombing, May 1, 1886
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n The Ordeal of the Worker n The Pullman Strike (1894) American Railway Union n Reduce wages 25% n Rent not reduced n n Strike: 27 states, 1000 s workers Railroads paralyzed n Dozens die n President orders troops – Debs jailed n Eugene V. Debs, leader American Railway Union 17 -13
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n 19 th Century: Labor Movement Weak n Few Gains for Labor n n n Sources of Labor Weakness n n 17 -14 8 -hr day for govt. employees Some compensation for work injuries High Immigration Strikebreaking by government
Chapter Seventeen: Industrial Supremacy n Questions for Chapter 17 Forum: n n n 17 -15 Andrew Carnegie and the “Gospel of Wealth”: Consider the history of strife between labor and management Think about the wealth concentrated in the hands of a few people like Carnegie, Rockefeller, JP Morgan, and others. To what extent did most wealthy capitalists share Carnegie’s view of their obligations to their “poorer brethren”? How well did Carnegie himself live up to this standard? Labor Unions Then and Now – Still Necessary? After reading about the troubled history of labor in this country, would you favor or oppose such a bill? Do unions still serve a useful purpose for America’s workers, or is it better for America if unions are weak and continue to lose members? What about public employees? Should they be denied the right to organize and bargain collectively, as the
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