US History 1: Unit 7 Industrialization, Urbanization, Immigration, and the Era of Reform

Industrial Revolution

• Industrialization was the process by which everyday goods changed from being crafted by the hands of artisans to being mass-produced in factories by machines

• Late 1850’s-Early 1900’s: Era of economic growth, due to new technologies and new methods of business

• Steam to power things

Mass Production

Methods used to produce goods and retrieve raw materials changed

• Improved methods of removing raw materials

• Mass production of steel cheaper, Bessemer process (easier to make large amounts of steel), old buildings made of wood

• Companies division of labor to organize workers

• Assembly lines to make mass production quicker, become specialized in one part of production

• Replaced steam-powered machines with gas-powered machines

  • Later, electricity-powered machines became popular

• All of this reduced costs

Factors of Production

• Factors of Production (US had all of them)

  • Land

    • factories/natural resources

  • Labor

    • Large workforce

  • Capital

    • Money/investors

Vertical vs Horizontal Integration

• Vertical integration

  • One company controls all stages in the production of one product

    • For instance, one automobile company could control making of parts for the vehicle, the assembly and the selling (Henry Ford), don’t have to pay anyone else to do anything

• Horizontal integration

  • Combine businesses from the same industry into angle entities

    • For example, a large oil company might own all the oil refineries in a single region, forcing all oil for the region to be refined at one of its refineries

    • This strategy drove out competition and allowed the integrated company to set prices

Corporation

Fog: Take business and it has different owners there are investors and when the company makes money they make money

it’s own entity

Robber Baron - 1

made fortunes by monopolizing huge industries through the formation of trusts, engaging in unethical business practices, exploiting workers

Union and strike

Gray highlighted portion of notes

scab

People who don’t strike when strike is happening called a scab, very disliked

Collective Bargaining

negotiation between representatives of labor and management, to reach written agreements on wages, hours, and working conditions

also in gray

Yellow Dog Contract

Forced employees to sign “yellow dog” contracts, swearing to not join a union

Bosses Respond

• The more powerful unions became, the more feared they became by management

• Actions taken by management

  • Forbade unions meetings

  • Fired union members

  • Forced employees to sign “yellow dog” contracts, swearing to not join a union

  • Blacklisted employees

  • People who don’t strike when strike is happening called a scab, very disliked

Pullman Strike

• Pullman company strike

  • Company laid off many workers and cut the wages of the rest by 25-50%

  • Strike turned violent, and President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops

in gray/textbook:

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 economy improved and 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 railroad jobs.

Homestead Strike   

Homestead Strike - workers continued to strike despite rising public anger, it would take 45 years for steelworkers to mobilize once again after this strike

in gray/textbook:

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 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

Urbanization

• the increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities

  • that is where the jobs and factories are

Urban

relating to or concerned with a city or densely populated area

Rural

the countryside rather than the town

Tenement

• Cities expanded in the late 1800’s due to industrialization

• Developing during this time: New York, Chicago, Detroit (cars)

• Tenements in slums, or poor-run-down neighborhoods

  • Small, dark rooms

  • Families of 8 lived together in one room

  • Dirty and poor ventilation

  • Several families shared a COLD water tap and toilet

• Social and economic inequality can be seen in the living conditions

• Photojournalism exposed to living conditions

  • Jacob Riss made “How the Other Half Lives”

Gilded Age

nickname everything looks nice but underneath not nice, if something is gilded it is covered with gold but underneath it is not gold

Jacob Riis

• wrote “How the Other Half Lives” exposing the tenement conditions

• wealthy people did not know how the poor lived

• stimulated the first significant New York legislation to curb poor conditions in tenement housing

Lewis Hine

• muckraker photographer

• cotton mill girl, Sadie Pfeifer, ionic representative of child labor, raised conscious, doesn’t say America

• exposed atrocities of child labor

• children would lie about their ages

• injuries and death common among children

  • Lewis influenced legislation greatly, one of the most important photographers

• some needed income of children so parents were advocates of child labor and children just thought that this was how life is

• Lewis promoted himself as a bible salesman

Nativism

How did Americans respond to Immigration?

• Nativism: the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants, gave rise to anti-immigrant groups and led to a demand for immigration restrictions

Next six flashcards related to this idea

Melting Pot vs Salad Bowl, Immigration Act of 1917, Quota Act of 1921, Assimilate, Enclave

Melting Pot vs Salad Bowl

"melting together" to create a common American culture vs different parts make up a salad

A salad is still a salad without tomatoes, but it is better with the tomatoes

when there is more variety in the salad it makes it better

different parts make up the whole

When a tomato is put in the salad it does not change—it is still a tomato, maintain the identity of individuals with different cultures

Chinese Exclusion Act

1882

• Chinese workers prohibited from entering the US for 10 yrs.

• Extended from 1892 to 1902

• Still don’t like from the Gold Rush

  • blamed declining wages and economic ills on Chinese workers

  • pretty much Americans got jealous of the Chinese people because they were becoming successful and in turn, took jobs and opportunities away from American citizens

• After WWI when coming to US would go through Angel Island and be mistreated

Immigration Act of 1917

• Literacy test required to enter the US

• restrict amount of immigrants entering US

Quota Act of 1921

• Established national immigration quotas

• Based on the number of foreign-born residents of each nationality who were living in the United States

• Know nothing party around the Civil War

Assimilate

• take in and resemble

• Give up culture when come to America or assimilate and create a new culture

• A place where a variety of races, cultures, or individuals assimilate into a whole

Enclave

• immigrants group together with people who speak the same language and have similar culture as them

• feel safer

• China Town in NY

Progressive Movement

Progress: moving forward, improving with growth

Reform: to make over for the better

What areas of our society are in need of reform today?

The Progressive Era

• Progressive Movement

  • Initiated to correct political, social, economic injustices in American life after a period of industrialization urbanization, and immigration

• Goals of the Progressive Movement

  • Protect social welfare

  • Promote moral improvement

  • Create economic reform

• Government has not before made social programs to improve lives of people

Social Welfare

• Settlement houses

  • YMCA

  • Salvation Army

• Improving the lives of women and children

• Organizations still exist today

Moral Improvement

• Improve unethical behavior and poor values

• Prohibition: the banning of alcohol

  • Headed by Women’s Christian Temperance Movement

  • Between 1900-1917 voters in nearly half the states prohibited the sale, production, and use of alcohol (dry)

  • Anti-Saloon League conflicted with immigrants

    • In Europe, alcohol was part of diet

Economic Corruption

• Economic panic in 1893 had Americans questioning capitalism and embracing socialism

• Big business and government worked together to advance themselves

• Uneven balance of wealth in America

• Problem was there was zero competition against big businesses

Economic Reform (cont.)

REVIEW: Big business and government worked together to advance themselves

• President Teddy Roosevelt felt trusts harmed the general welfare

  • Wanted to prove federal government had authority over big business

  • “Trustbuster”

    • Acted against and broke up a number of trusts

    • Examples: Standard Oil

Economic Reform

• Progressive Laws passed

  • Sherman Anti-trust Act: law to control trusts and monopolies to prohibit lack of competition

  • Interstate Commerce Act: law to regulate railroads to charge “reasonable and just rates”

• Roosevelt’s Square Deal

  • Fari and equal treatment for all 

  • Called for considerable amount of government regulation of business

• Taft and the 16th amendment: tax incomes to generate revenue

  • Higher incomes taxed at higher rates

• Effect of muckrakers

• Not everyone agreed with progressives

Economic and Political Reform

• Roosevelt ran against Taft in 1912

  • Broke from Republican party and formed the Progressive Party aka “The Bull Moose Party”

  • Splitting the party caused Woodrow Wilson a Democrat to win

    • Federal Reserve Act (regulates banking)

    • Federal Trade Commission (investigates corporations for unfair trade practices)

• All effects of exposing business practices

Muckrakers - 2

• Media growing and fueling the progressive movement

• Muckraker: journalist who investigated and wrote about business corruption

  • Upton Sinclair- “The Jungle”

  • Ida B. Tarbell- “The history of Standard Oil Trust”

Pure Food & Drug Act

• The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

  • Inspection of meat products and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food products

  • The Act arose due to public education and exposure from Muckrakers

  • Paved the way for the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

• Because of people exposing industries that is when things get fixed and legislation passed

• why you can buy food from the store today and it won’t poison you

Political Machine - 3

muckraking or investigative journalism is still needed today

• Government and Big Business were taking advantage of the American people, not serving them

• The Political Machine

  • A powerful organization linked to politicians who controlled local government

    • Tammany Hall (NYC’s Democratic Political Machine)

• Run by a political boss, a representative from the machine who controls jobs and services

• Control every political activity in the city, use to gain personal wealth

Political  Corruption

• Bosses gain votes by doing favors for people

  • Bribes for overlooking violations

  • Received campaign contributions from contractors looking for work

  • Accepted kickbacks, a percentage of money given to bosses

• Boss Tweed: head a Tammany Hall

  • His ring controlled the police, the courts, and some newspapers

• Tweed does improve New York greatly

• Gives out warrants to build but highers cost and pockets extra money

• Most supports are immigrants and can’t read

• Political cartoonists important because many people can’t read

Political Reform

• Fighting the spoils system/patronage

  • Rewarding political supporters with jobs and favors

• Problems with patronage?

• 1883 Pendleton Act: creates the Civil Service Commission, competitive exams for federal jobs

• Start of political reforms, up until 1920s that puts government back in the hands of people

• Reforms

  • Direct primary election (voters choose candidates) bosses chose candidates

  • Initiatives (put issues on the ballot)

  • Referendums (accept or reject measures), (marijuana, abortion today)

  • Recalls (remove unsatisfactory officials) another vote to keep job

  • 1912, 17th Amendment: direct election of senators by the American people, people only elect House of Representatives, now people directly pick senators

Seneca Falls Convention

• As women joined the ranks of the social reformers, working for the benefit of others, they began to see the need for reform and equality for themselves as well

• The fight for women’s rights began mainly with the abolitionist movement

• 1848, Lucretia Mott came together with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to organize the first-ever national women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York

• These were the original women starting the movement

The Declaration of Sentiments

• Drew up a document that would form the basis of their grievances and lay the framework for the fight for women’s rights

  • “Declaration of Sentiments,” was modeled after the Declaration of Independence

  • Frederick Douglass supported the movement

  • “All men and women are created equal”

  • Named 15 major social injustices that women faced

  • Produced a list of demands including the right to earn wage equal to men’s and suffrage or the right to vote

• Three years after Seneca Falls, in 1851, Elizabeth Cady Staton joined forces with Susan B Anthony

  • The two also put out a weekly newspaper called Revolution and founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869

16^th Amendment

• Congress can collect taxes on incomes

• Taft

• Higher incomes taxed at higher rates

17^th Amendment

people directly elect senators

18^th Amendment

Prohibition

19th amendment

• Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified giving women the right to vote

  • On November 2 of that year, more than 8 million women across the US voted in an election for the first time

• “wearing suffragette white is a respectful message of solidarity with women across the country and a declaration that we will not go back on our hard-earned rights”

• South did not ratify the amendment, they only needed one more state to ratify

  • State where they had a chance was Tennessee

• Harry T. Burn was going to vote no but changed his mind when his mother wrote him a letter telling him to “be a good boy” and vote for the amendment and get it ratified in Tennessee

Growth of Business

New Technologies and American Innovation

Transportation Agriculture Communication

• Impact on environment

• Industries in cities, people moved from rural areas to urban areas, population in cities went up

• Formation of a large middle class, but it also led to many unemployed people who lived in poverty

Inventions

• Telegraph, Sewing machine, Typewriter, Lightbulb - extend the day

• Make standard of living higher

New inventions help:

• Unify different regions

• Promote economic growth

• Show class distinctions

Growth of Railroad, Steel, and Oil industries and Robber Barons

Railroads

• Transcontinental Railroad completed in 1869

  • Spread people, products and information across the nation

  • As the RR expanded, centers of industry shifted around the country

• The RR became the nation’s largest industry

  • #1 buyer of steel, coal, and iron

  • #1 employer of Americans

• Cornelius and William Vanderbilt

  • Powerful giants in RR industry

  • Aggressive, competitive

    • Did whatever it took to make money

• Monopoly on east coast railroads 

• Steam boat in long island, made his prices the lowest and drive out all competitors then once all gone he raised his prices

• University
  

Oil

• John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil Company

  • His corporation produced and used all its own equipment, tanks, pipelines, barrels

  • Owned 90% of the oil business in the US

  • How: paid workers low wages, lowered prices to drive out competition then rose prices when he controlled the oil market

• Exporting countries, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela

• Create university of Chicago

• Rockefeller foundation

• Rockefeller center
  

Steel

• 1856 Bessemer process

  • Made steel more affordable by producing it in mass quantities

• Andrew Carnegie

  • Manufacturer of steel

  • Bought mines to provide the resources and bought RR and ships to deliver the finished product

  • By 1900, Carnegie Steel produced more steel than anyone

• Owned processing and distribution

• All have no one competing against them, no one to make company better or prices cheaper

• Give over 350 million dollars to charity, promoted philanthropy

Investing

• Morgan bought Caregie’s steel company in 1901

• Founded of the the world’s leading financial companies

  • Made his money by investing in the railroads and the steel industry

• Became a member of the boards of directors of several railroad companies, gaining influence over their business decisions

  • By 1902, he was once of the world’s most powerful railroad tycoons, owing about 5,000 miles of US railroad lines

• Donated his art collection and it became Metropolitan Museum of Art

Working Conditions in Factories & Child Labor

Working Conditions in the Industrial Era

• In 1900, the average US worker earned $438 a year

• Women and children also worked to support their families but were paid less to preform the same or similar suits as adult men

• Urban industrial laborers worked six days a week with no vacations, holidays, or pay for sick days

• There were no health plans, retirement plans, or benefits of any kind

• The working conditions in mines, factories, and sweatshops were difficult and dangerous

  • Workday could last anywhere from 10 to 12 hours, and the pace of work was fast

  • Machinery posed physical dangers, such as loss of fingers and limbs

  • Young girls face the danger of getting their hair caught in spinning machines

  • Threat of cave-ins

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

• Locked door so couldn’t take breaks or take anything

• Women burned or jumped to death

• Productivity was number one and no incentive to care for workers, can easily be replaced, and no laws protecting workers

Child Labor

• Poor children worked to support their families

• Factory companies hired children to work in unskilled jobs because their small hands could easily handle miniature tools and parts, and the companies could pay them lower wages than adult

• The children who did not work in factories sold newspapers or shined shoes on street corners, worked as messengers or steel peddlers

• 1890-1910, the number of working children went from 1.5 to 2 million

Overall Purpose of Unions