The Growing U.S.
in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s
Industrial Revolution & the Gilded Age
Industrial Advantages of the U.S.
Growing labor supply (immigrants &
children)
2. An abundance of natural resources
(iron, oil, electricity)
3. Free enterprise – business that is free
from govt. involvement
1.
2nd Industrial Revolution
capitalism – little govt.
regulation of the economy
Entrepreneurs – people who organize
their own business
Labor was mostly immigrants (paid
cheap) or poor children
Because of this, the U.S. became the
industrial leader in the world during the
1890’s
Laissez-faire
Monopolies
Total control of a business or product (just like the
game)
consolidating corporations to control the market for a product
attempting to destroy the competition
controlling the majority of the production & distribution of a
product
robber barons – polarization of wealth; businessman
who dominated their respective industries
Andrew Carnegie – STEEL
John D. Rockefeller – OIL
Sherman Antitrust Act – outlawed
monopolies. But it was difficult to enforce
Andrew Carnegie
John D. Rockefeller
Economic Ideologies
*Capitalism – private business own & operate
most industries; competition determines cost
of goods as well as workers’ pay
Government favored business in most
disputes with its labor force
Social Darwinism – societies evolve over
time by adapting to their environment; govt.
regulation threatened the natural economic
order (survival of the fittest)
Growth of Cities
Increase in immigrants
Port of entry = Ellis Island, NY & Angel
Island, CA
Most were Roman Catholic
Led to racial & ethnic problems (ex. Wops,
Pollocks)
Movement from rural to urban life (more
people living in the city)
Jobs available in the cities
Led to overcrowding & lack of city services
– sanitation problems
Immigrants at Ellis Island
Settlement Houses
Neighborhood centers in poor areas staffed
by professionals and volunteers who offered
education, recreation, and social activities
Jane Addams – founded the most famous
settlement house, called Hull House in
Chicago.
Hull House focused on the needs of families
and immigrants. Teaching citizenship and
English.
Hull House
Jane Addams - activist
Discrimination & Civil Rights
Chinese Exclusion Act
U.S. fed. law restricting Chinese for 10 years & any
Chinese American could not obtain U.S.
citizenship; reaction to open immigration
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Plessy (1/18th black) was thrown off railway car &
arrested for violating Separate Car Act of Louisiana
U.S. Supreme Court case upholding racial
segregation; “separate but equal”
practiced until 1954
Fighting for Civil Rights
Booker T. Washington
1st Civil Rights leader (original MLK); author
believed in cooperation w/ whites instead of confrontation
his work greatly helped lay the foundation for the 1960’s
Civil Rights Movement
W.E.B. DuBois
publisher & author of equality writings; encouraged Harlem
Renaissance; director of NAACP
“blacks should challenge and question whites, seek higher
education, & assimilate into American culture”; they should
know when to act “white” and/or “black”
Marcus Garvey
founder of Universal Negro Improvement Association
(uniting all of Africa)
Africans redeem Africa from European foreigners & return
home
The New Workplace
Machines replaced skilled workers
mass production – large amounts of products
being made
Immigrants taking jobs
Labor Unions grew
They increase workers’ power (power in numbers)
Used as a bargaining tool against employer to get
what workers want (collective bargaining)
Taft-Hartley Act – fed. law passed that monitors
activities & powers of labor unions
Labor Unions
Knights of Labor
- Open to
everyone – men,
women, skilled &
unskilled workers;
one big union
•American
Federation of
Labor –they
Individualized
Unions
(ex. Mineworkers,
Steelworkers); open
to only skilled workers
Labor Union Rallies & Strikes
The Bisbee Deportation – in AZ; the Industrial
Workers of the World demanded change in the
copper mines, the Bisbee mining corp. refused;
violence erupted – 2 men were killed, others
beaten - the IWW members were deported to NM;
the Bisbee company was never found guilty for
their injustice
The Haymarket Riot – 1000s of union members
in Chicago went on strike; 2 strikers were killed by
police; workers protested; turned violent – 8
officers killed; officers killed several people;
another example of unfair labor laws
Labor Dispute & Strikes
Homestead Strike
Pennsylvania (1892); between Amalgamated Assoc. of
Iron & Steel Workers (AA) – the whole town & Carnegie
Steel Co.
AA wanted to prevent management from forcing workers
to agree not to become a member of a union… got
violent
Union VICTORY!!!
Pullman Strike
nationwide conflict between unions & RRs (1894);
violence erupted in Illinois with Pullman Palace Car
Company & American Railway Union
President Cleveland ordered fed. troops to Chicago to
end strike (he was not reelected); RRs won!
Populist Party (The People’s Party)
Supported free coinage of silver, labor reform,
immigration restrictions, & govt. ownership of
RR & the telegraph/telephone system
Most populists were farmers and industrial
workers (the common people) that were losing
jobs and $$$ to immigrants & big business
William Jennings Bryan – a democrat &
populist presidential candidate in 1896. He
lost. This election marked the end of the
populist movement.
Progressive Reforms
all laws were designed to give the people greater
control over their state legislatures &
state officials
Amendments:
16th – income tax
17th – direct election of senators
18th – prohibition
19th – women’s right to vote
Election reforms:
Recall – if enough voters sign a petition, the people can
remove the official
Initiative – voters’ ability to propose new laws by petition
Referendum – voters approve or disapprove laws already
being practiced
Corruption
Machine Bosses bought voter support with
jobs & favors
Tammany Hall, a.k.a Tweed Ring
reached out to immigrants by finding jobs attaining
citizenship, housing, etc. in return, expected their
vote
used illegal tactics to maintain control (bought
votes)
demanded bribes & pay offs for jobs
most notorious political machine
stole millions of tax dollars
Spoils System
muckrakers
Progressivism – reformers who wanted to address city
life & corruption in order to achieve order & stability
Journalists who practiced progressivism named,
“muckrakers” – bc they raked up the muck of society &
exposed corrution & illegal business practices
Ida Tarbell – wrote about unfair business practices of
the Standard Oil Co.; book: History of Standard Oil
Company
Jacob Riis – wrote about slum life & business
corruption; book: How the Other Half Lives
Upton Sinclair – wrote about unsanitary working
conditions; book: The Jungle
Frank Norris – discussed how railroads were a
monopoly
Lincoln Steffens – exposed corruption in city govt.
Theodore Roosevelt –
Progressive President
– broke
up trusts (a group of
companies under a
single board of director
that make a lot of $$$,
there’s no competition)
Land conservation –
doubled the number of
national and state parks
“Trustbuster”