Owners Workers Philanthropy Workers Wages Strikes 1877 1900

Owners & Workers — Philanthropy, Workers Wages, Strikes 1877 -1900

Evaluating the Entrepreneurs of the Gilded Age Pro Argument: “Captains of Industry” Con Argument: “Robber Barons” • Increased the availability of goods by building factories and increasing productivity • Lowered the cost of oil, steel & most other goods • Enabled Americans to buy new goods • Created jobs • Philanthropy: Founded & funded many of the nation’s great museums, libraries and universities • Built massive individual fortunes • Formed monopolies • Low wages and unsafe conditions for their workers • Prevented growth of unions • Used ruthless tactics=ruined competitors • Corrupted and bribed public officials to interpret laws in their favor

Horizontal vs Vertical Integration � (Carnagie) � Buy companies that supply your business, make your products more cheaply � No more middle man! � You get all the profits!

Horizontal vs Vertical Integration Horizontal Integration (Rockafeller) • Buy companies that compete with your business so that you control the market • Control Prices • Monopoly

John D. Rockefeller (1839 – 1937) • American industrialist and philanthropist. • Revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. • In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and ran it until he retired in the late 1890 s. • He kept his stock and as gasoline grew in importance, his wealth soared and he became the world's richest man and first U. S. dollar billionaire, and is often regarded as the richest person in history. • Philanthropy: He spent the last 40 years of his life in retirement using philanthropy in areas of medicine, education, and scientific research.

John D. Rockefeller (1839 – 1937) Rockefeller Center • Complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48 th and 51 st streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue.

Andrew Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth (1889) • Topic: Responsibility of philanthropy by the new lower class of self-made rich. • Problem: the danger of allowing large sums of money to be passed into the hands of persons or organizations ill-equipped mentally or emotionally to cope with them. • Solution: The wealthy entrepreneur must assume the responsibility of distributing his fortune in a way that it will be put to good use, and not wasted on frivolous expenditure. • Goal: The very existence of poverty in a capitalistic society could be negated by wealthy philanthropic businessmen and women.

Andrew Carnegie (1835 – 1919) A Carnegie library, Macomb, Illinois

Labor Unions Emerge Long Hours and Danger � � Exploitation, unsafe conditions unite workers across regions Most workers have 12 hour days, 6 day workweeks o Perform repetitive, mind-dulling tasks o No vacation, sick leave, injury compensation � � To survive, families need all member to work, including children Sweatshops, tenement workshops often only jobs for women, children o Require few skills; pay lowest wages

KNIGHTS of LABOR (1869) • Aimed to unite skilled & unskilled labor into 1 national union � Open to women, blacks, and unskilled workers o Knights support 8 -hour day, equal pay, arbitration • Under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, membership reached 700, 000 by 1886. • Declined after the failure of the strike against the Texas & Pacific Railroad and the blame attached to the Knights for the bombing at the Haymarket Riot.

Haymarket Riot (1886) The first flier calling for a rally in the Haymarket on May 4. The revised flier for the rally. The words Workingmen Arm Yourselves and Appear in Full Force! have been removed.

Haymarket Riot (1886) This 1886 engraving was the most widely reproduced image of the Haymarket affair. It inaccurately shows Fielden speaking, the bomb exploding, and the rioting beginning simultaneously.

American Federation of Labor (1886) � � � Samuel Gompers president 1886 -1895 and 1896 -1924 Collective Bargaining Included only skilled workers from different industries Demands: “meat & potatoes” � higher wages � better working conditions � shorter work week � 8 -8 -8

AFL: Samuel Gompers � Founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) � President of the AFL for all but one year from 1886 until his death in 1924. Promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL, and opposed industrial unionism. Focused on higher wages and job security Politically conservative, he fought against both socialism and the Socialist Party � � � History of Us: Gompers (4: 27)

Gompers’s Quote: � 1883: “[I]f you wish to improve the condition of the people, you must improve their habits and customs. The reduction of the hours of labor reaches the very root of society. It gives the workingman better conditions and better opportunities and makes of him what has been too long neglected -- a consumer instead of a mere producer. . A man who goes to his work before the dawn of day requires no clean shirt to go to work in, but is content to go in any old overall. . . but a man who goes to work at 8 o'clock in the morning wants a clean shirt; he is afraid his friends will see him, so he does not want to be dirty. He also requires a newspaper; while a man who goes to work early in the morning and stays late at night does not need a newspaper, for he has no time to read it, requiring all the time he has to recuperate his strength sufficiently to get ready for his

Talking does not always work…. � Strikes get violent � The Great Strike of 1877 � Haymarket affair � Homestead strike � Pullman strike