Chapter 10: The Industrial Revolution (1865–1898)

The age of invention and economic growth

Thomas A. Edison's Workshop

• Built in 1876 in Menlo Park, New Jersey

• Produced important inventions of the century

• Edison's greatest invention was the light bulb

• Pioneer work in power plant development was immensely important

Light Bulb and Power Plants

• Allowed for the extension of the workday (previously ended at sundown)

• Wider availability of electricity

• Created new uses for electricity for industry and home

Age of Invention

• Last quarter of 19th century known as Age of Invention

• Many technological advances made (e.g. Edison's)

• Advances generated greater opportunities for mass production

Economic Growth

• Economy grew at a tremendous rate

• People known as "captains of industry" (or "robber barons") became extremely rich and powerful

• Owned and controlled new manufacturing enterprises

Industrialization: introduction of faster machines in manufacturing leading to economies of scale and decreased cost per unit.

• Assembly line production: employees performing repetitive tasks leading to increased efficiency but also dangerous working conditions and long working hours.

• Corporate Consolidation: large businesses resulting from economies of scale and lack of government regulations, leading to monopolies and holding companies.

• Horizontal Integration: combining smaller companies within the same industry to form a larger company through legal buyouts or illegal practices.

• Vertical Integration: one company buys out all the factors of production from raw materials to finished product, still allowing competition in the marketplace.

• Problems with Consolidation: required large amounts of money leading to financial panics and bank failures, public resentment, and government response in the form of antitrust legislation.

• Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890: law forbidding "restraint of trade" combination, ambiguous wording leading to pro-business Supreme Court interpretation.

• U.S. v. E. C. Knight Co. 1895: Court ruled that E. C. Knight, controlling 98% of the sugar refining plants, did not violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.

• Gospel of Wealth: idea that wealth should be used for the betterment of society and not just for personal gain, advocated by Andrew Carnegie.

Factories and City Life

• Factories were established in cities in the 19th century to reduce labor costs and maximize profits

• Women and children were hired, as well as newly arrived immigrants in search of work

• As a result, the cities suffered from poverty, crime, disease, and a lack of livable housing

• Factories were dangerous, and there was no insurance or workmen's compensation

• Middle class moved away to nicer neighborhoods, leaving mostly immigrants and migrants in the city

• Majority of immigrants arrived from Southern and Eastern Europe starting from 1880

• Ethnic neighborhoods, tenements were common, and minorities faced prejudice and limited job opportunities

• Municipal governments were practically nonexistent, and services for the poor were provided by churches, private charities, and ethnic communities, or by corrupt political bosses

• Bosses helped the poor find homes, jobs, apply for citizenship, and voting rights but at a high cost of criminal means

• William "Boss" Tweed of Tammany Hall in New York City was a notorious political boss who embezzled millions of dollars through corruption

• Widespread misery in cities led to the formation of labor unions to improve treatment of workers

• Labor unions were considered radical and faced opposition from the government, businesses, and the courts

• Knights of Labor was one of the first national labor unions, founded in 1869

• Goals of the Knights of Labor included an 8-hour workday, equal pay for equal work, child labor laws, safety and sanitary codes, federal income tax, and more.

Knights of Labor

• Advocated arbitration over strikes

• Became increasingly violent in efforts to achieve goals

• Popularity declined due to violence and association with political radicalism

• Terrence Powderly, failed strikes, and Haymarket Square Riot contributed to decline

• Public saw unions as subversive and violent

Homestead Steel Strike

• Workers protested wage cut, refusal to form a union

• Factory manager Henry Clay Frick locked out workers, hired replacements, and called in Pinkerton Detective force

• Clash between Pinkertons and workers led to deaths and retreat of Pinkertons

• Pennsylvania state militia ended strike, Frick hired new workers

Pullman Palace Car Factory Strike

• Workers faced wage cut, increased housing costs

• American Railway Union joined the strike, 250,000 railway workers walked off job, shutting down rail travel in 27 states

• ARU president Eugene Debs refused to end strike despite court order

• Debs convicted and jailed, became leader of American Socialist Party after release

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Samuel Gompers, focused on bread and butter issues, higher wages and shorter workdays

• Excluded unskilled workers, confederation of trade unions

• Refused to accept immigrants, Black people, women among membership

Charitable Middle-Class Organizations

• Lobbied local governments for building safety codes, better sanitation, public schools

• Founded and lived in settlement houses in poor neighborhoods

• Community centers providing schooling, childcare, cultural activities

• Jane Addams, Hull House in Chicago, awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1931

Improvement of Life

• Wealthy and middle class improved while poor suffered

• Access to luxuries, leisure time, popular diversions like sports, theater, vaudeville, movies

• Growth of newspaper industry with Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst

• Sensational reporting, yellow journalism became popular.

Jim Crow Laws and Other Developments in the South

Advances in the Machine Age

• Primarily affected northern cities

South During Machine Age

• Agriculture continued as main form of labor

• Textile mills and tobacco processing plants emerged

• Majority of Southerners remained farmers

Postwar Economics in the South

• Many farmers forced to sell land

• Wealthy landowners bought and consolidated into larger farms

• Landless farmers (Black & white) forced into sharecropping

• Crop lien system designed to keep poor in debt

• Unscrupulous landlords kept poor in virtual slavery

Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech

• Outlined hope for drawing near to white race

• Pledge for patient, sympathetic help of Black race

• Call for higher good (blotting out of racial animosities)

• Desire for absolute justice and law obedience

Jim Crow Laws

• Federal government exerting less influence

• Numerous discriminatory laws passed by towns and cities

• Supreme Court ruled Fourteenth Amendment did not protect Blacks from private discrimination

• 1883 - Court reversed Civil Rights Act of 1875

• 1896 - Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal” facilities were legal

Integration and Equal Rights

• A far-off dream for most Black people

• Booker T. Washington: Born into slavery, no illusions of white society accepting Blacks as equals

• Promoted economic independence as means to improve Black lot

• Founded Tuskegee Institute for vocational and industrial training for Black people

• Accused of being an accommodationist

• Refused to press for immediate equal rights

• Reality of his time set his goals

Booker T. Washington vs. W. E. B. Du Bois

• Washington's Atlanta Exposition speech

• Washington viewed as submissive by Du Bois

• Du Bois referred to speech as "The Atlanta Compromise"

The Railroads and Developments in the West

• Ranchers and miners were growing industries in the western frontier

• Ranchers drove their herds across the western plains and deserts, disregarding property rights and Native American rights to the land

• Miners prospected for rich mines and sold their rights to mining companies when found

• Lincoln challenged America to have a Transcontinental Railroad connecting the country within a decade (1863-1869)

• Railroad construction was paid for by the public but the rail proprietors resisted government control of their industry

• Railroad companies organized massive buffalo hunts, which nearly led to extinction of the species and caused conflict with Native Americans

• Rails transformed depot towns into cities and facilitated faster travel, contact with ideas and technological advances from the East, and contributed to the Industrial Revolution

• Rails also brought standardization of time telling through "railroad time" and time zones

• Statehood of North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho was achieved by 1889

• The result of the 1890 census prompted Turner's Frontier Thesis, which argued that the frontier shaped the American character, spirit, democracy, and provided a safety valve for urban areas

• In the Great Plains, farming and ranching were the main forms of employment, aided by new farm machinery and mail-order retail

• The Homestead Act and Morrill Land-Grant Act were passed by the federal government to attract settlers and develop the West

• Agricultural science became a large industry in the US

• The Nez Perce tribe in Oregon was forced to migrate to a reservation in Idaho, leading to resistance by Chief Joseph

• With families and corporations heading West, government and conservation groups sought added protection of natural resources

• U.S. Fish Commission was established to protect fish species, which led to the creation of National Parks and Forest Services.

National Politics

Gilded Age of American Politics:

• Era between Reconstruction and 1900

• Dubbed by Mark Twain

• America appeared prosperous but wealth built on poverty of many

• Shiny exterior of politics hiding corruption and patronage

• Political machines, not municipal governments, ran cities

• Big business bought votes in Congress and fleeced consumers

• Workers had little protection from employer greed

• Presidents were generally not corrupt but weak

• Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur focused on civil service reform

• Grover Cleveland believed in minimal government intervention

• Benjamin Harrison and allies passed major legislation (meat inspection act, banning lotteries, battleships)

• Activism led to public discomfort and return of Cleveland to White House

Regulating Business and Government:

• First attempts at regulation in response to widespread corruption

• States imposed railroad regulations due to price gouging

• 1877 Supreme Court upheld state law regulating railroads in Munn v. Illinois

• Precedent for regulation in public interest established

• 1887 Congress passed first federal regulatory law (Interstate Commerce Act)

• Set up the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to regulate railroad activities

• ICC was active until deregulated by Reagan administration in 1980s

Women's Suffrage:

• Became an important political issue

• Led by Susan B. Anthony

• Bill introduced to Congress every year

• Fight began in earnest

• American Suffrage Association fought for state suffrage amendments

• Partial successes achieved in gaining the vote on school issues

• Women gained right to vote with 19th Amendment in 1920 (50 years after male suffrage)

The Silver Issue and the Populist Movement

Post-Civil War Era:

• Increased production in both industrial and agricultural fronts

• Drop in prices due to greater supply

• Farmers faced trouble due to fixed payments in long-term debts

• Farmers supported increased money supply for easier payments and inflation

• Banks opposed the plan, preferring gold-backed money supply

• Farmers' plan called for liberal use of silver coins (supported by western miners and midwestern/southern farmers)

• Issue had elements of regionalism and class strife

Grange Movement and Farmers' Alliances:

• Grange Movement founded in 1867, with over a million members by 1875

• Cooperatives for farmers to buy machinery and sell crops as a group

• Political endorsement and lobbying for legislation

• Replaced by Farmers' Alliances, allowing women's political activism

• Grew into political party People's Party (political arm of Populist movement)

• Other groups formed by minority farmers (e.g. Las Gorras Blancas, Colored Farmers' Alliance)

People's Party:

• 1892 convention, with platform called the Omaha Platform

• Call for silver coinage, government ownership of railroads and telegraphs, graduated income tax, direct election of senators, shorter workdays

• 1892 presidential candidate James Weaver received over 1 million votes

• Populist goals gained popularity during the financial crisis of 1893-1897

Granger Laws:

• Granger laws regulated the railroads in the 1870s and 1880s

Populist Movement:

• 1896 Populists backed Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan

• Bryan ran on platform of free silver, loosening control of northern banking interests

• Republicans allied with big businesses, McKinley received huge contributions from large companies

• Bryan lost election, Populist movement declined with improved economy

Foreign Policy: The Tariff and Imperialism

Before the Civil War

• Most Americans earned their living through farming

• No federal income tax until 16th Amendment in 1913

• Tariff was a huge controversy

Tariff of Abominations & Nullification Crisis

• Tariff of Abominations (1828) caused Nullification Crisis during Jackson's first administration

Tariff after Civil War

• Tariff dominated national politics

• Industrialists demanded high tariffs to protect domestic industries

• Farmers and laborers hurt by high tariffs

• Democrats supported lower tariffs

• Republicans advocated high protective tariffs

Tariff Laws

• McKinley Tariff (1890) raised duties on imported goods almost 50%

• Wilson-Gorman Tariff (1894) resembled McKinley Tariff

• Tariff issue dominated congressional debate and had impact on foreign relations

Spanish-American War

• Wilson-Gorman Tariff considered one of the causes of the Spanish-American War

Theodore Roosevelt

• Assistant Secretary of Navy in 1898 during Spanish-American War

• Ordered U.S. Pacific Fleet to Philippines, then led volunteer regiment in Cuba

Machine Age and American Production

• American production capacity grew rapidly

• America looked overseas for new markets due to increased nationalism and search for new markets

Expansionism & Imperialism

• William H. Seward set precedent for increased American participation in Western Hemisphere

• American businesses developed markets and production in Latin America, gained political power in region

• Expansionism (business in regions) supported by most Americans, imperialism (control of another country) more controversial

Influence of Sea Power

• Book by Captain Alfred T. Mahan, "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History" (1890) popularized idea of the New Navy

• Successful foreign trade relied on access to foreign ports, colonies, and strong navy

• After upgrading ships, U.S. turned attention to foreign acquisitions

U.S. Interest in Hawaii

• Search for port along trade route to Asia attracted U.S. to Hawaii

• American involvement began in 1870s with American sugar producers trading with Hawaiians

• Hawaii economy collapsed in 1890s due to U.S. tariffs and dependence on trade with U.S.

• White minority overthrew native government, U.S. annexed Hawaii, angering Japan (40% of Hawaii's residents were Japanese descent)

• Cuban natives revolted against Spanish control, instigated by U.S. tampering with the Cuban economy

• Cuban civil war followed and reported in detail by the Hearst newspaper

• The explosion of American warship Maine in Havana harbor led to war with Spain

• U.S. drove Spain out of Cuba and Philippines in the Spanish-American War

• Spain ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris

• U.S. claimed it wouldn't annex Cuba through Teller Amendment, but troops stayed and made Cuba include Platt Amendment in its new constitution

• Platt Amendment granted U.S. control over Cuba's foreign affairs, U.S. troops eventually left in 1934 during FDR's administration

• Control of the Philippines raised the question of annexation or independence

• Arguments for annexation: Europe would conquer Philippines, U.S. moral obligation to "Christianize and civilize" Filipinos

• Arguments against annexation: promote independence and democracy, U.S. no better than British tyrants they overthrew

• Senate voted to annex the Philippines by a close margin, but Filipino nationalists responded with a guerrilla war

• U.S. used brutal tactics to subdue the revolt and inflicted casualties on the civilian population

• The U.S. granted the Philippines independence in 1946

• The question arose as to the legal status of the native population in newly acquired territories, "Does the Constitution follow the flag?"

• Supreme Court ruled through Insular Cases that the Constitution didn't follow the flag and Congress could administer each overseas possession as it chose

• America hoped to gain entry into Asian markets through McKinley's Open Door Policy