Industrialization

Edison

• Represented a spirit of invention and effective marketing of new products

• Generated electricity (Edison Electric Light Company, 1878) to transmit light, sound, images with a DC

Westinghouse

• Westinghouse Electric Company designed generators and transformers to send electricity long distances cheaply (AC)

• Wins contract for Chicago World’s Fair by using Tesla’s technology

Nikola Tesla

• Tesla coil

• Immigrated from Croatia 

• Worked with Edison first but sold several patents to Westinghouse

Henry Ford

• Made assembly lines with specialized workers/machines

• Doubled the pay of his workers (Five-Dollar Day Plan)

• Help workers become consumers

Tobacco Industry

• A Southern industry that traditionally hired African American workers

  • Duke’s American Tobacco Company popularized machine-rolled cigarettes

Textile Mills

• Move from North to South

• Electricity replaces water

Chemical industry

• Southern (ex. plastics)

  • Du Ponts

Frederick Taylor

•  focused on efficiency for more profit 

  • Change nature of work

Consequences of Technology

• Telephones and typewriters 

• Higher production at lower cost creates profits

• uneven distribution of wealth (due to industrialization)

Rise of Industry

• Mass production → divided manufacturing into smaller tasks

  • Workers repeated specific tasks 

  • Goal: fewer workers to produce more in less time 

• Standards of living increase → higher life expectancy + cost of living 

Temperance Movement

• Believed alcohol was the root of all evil 

  • Drinking leads to neglect of duty & morals

• Employers try to control workers at home and work

Women in the Workforce

• Employers cut labor costs by hiring women for menial jobs in textiles & food-processing 

• Pervasive sex discrimination (lower wages than men, fewer opportunities for promotion)

• Proportion of women in domestic service (nannies/housekeepers) drop 

  • Amount of women in workforce increase dramatically (typewriting)

Child Labor

• Employers (mostly shoe & textile industries) cut costs by hiring children at a fraction of adult wage 

  • Kids could fit through machines (VERY DANGEROUS)

• A few states passed laws to regulate child labor

  • Big companies evaded these laws 

• Some families needed their children to work for money 

Industrial Accidents/Freedom of Contract

• Many accidents pushed families into poverty 

  • Employers evaded responsibility

  • If someone did not show up to work, they were instantly replaced

• Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire (1911) kills 146 of 500 women

  • Many people jumped out but died in the process of escaping

  • Most were Jewish immigrants

Court Rulings on Labor Reform

•  Courts were on employers’ sides; denied workers right to organize + bargain collectively

  • Supreme Court voided most laws to regulate workplace/work hours

• Muller v. Oregon (1908) allowed regulation of female workers to safeguard health

Railroad Strike of 1877

• Some workers unionized to resist workplace changes

  • Wage cuts and increased workloads

  • Some turned violent

• Employers crushed protests with their state militias

• President Hayes sent in US troops = 1st significant use of army to subdue labor unrest

Knights of Labor

• 1st major broad-based labor union started in 1869

• Knights admitted unskilled workers, women, African Americans, and recent immigrants 

  • Goal: help them from unfair employers 

• Most early unions were “trade/craft” unions 

  • Restricted membership  to skilled workers in a particular craft

Haymarket Riot (1886)

• Chicago workers protested in support of 8-hour workday

  • Anarchists joined the riot 

• Violent police involvement to stop the riot 

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Alliance of craft unions → AFL became a major labor organization 

• Were not inclusive of immigrants and African-Americans 

  • Except for Knights & IWW

Homestead Steel Strike

Protested against pay cuts in 1892

Pullman Strike

Resist exploitation in 1894

Women Unions

• Most craft unions (AFL) excluded women 

• Reflected traditional views on gender + competition 

• Female Telephone Operators’ Strike: 1919

  • Telephone Operators: female-dominated union

• Women’s Trade Union League (1903): lobby for laws to help working women

Standards of Living

• Ready-made clothing, canned food, and home appliances change dress, diet, habits

• New industrial elite

• 1920: richest 5% earn 25% of earned income

• Income of middle class and wage workers increased

• cost of living increased faster than wages though

• many families could afford new good only by making women and children work

• more children went to school though, and there was a longer life-expectancy due to developments in health

Industrial Workers of the World

• formed by western workers

• very radical, socialist

  • advocated for violence/class conflict

• welcomed unskilled laborers like the Knights

• small membership, hurt by government persecution as they held protests throughout the US