Willmore 1

David Willmore
AP US - Pd. 5
3 January 2011
Industrial Supremacy
Chapter 17
Chapter Summary:
Although some economists place the industrial "take-off" of America in the years before the Civil
War, it was in the three decades following that great conflict that the United States became the
world's leading industrial power. A fortunate combination of sufficient raw materials, adequate
labor, enviable technological accomplishments, effective business leadership, nationwide
markets, and supportive state and national governments boosted America past its international
rivals. The industrial transformation had a profound impact on the lives of the millions of
workers who made the production revolution possible. Some who were distrustful of industrial
power turned toward socialism; others tried to organize workers into powerful unions. But, in
these early years of industrial conflict, the forces of business usually triumphed.

Points for Discussion:

1. How did the half-dozen main factors combine to produce America's impressive rise to
industrial supremacy?
2. Which inventions of the late nineteenth century had the greatest impact on industry and
urban life?
3. Both the success-oriented novels of Horatio Alger and the utopian works of Edward Bellamy
were best-sellers in late-nineteenth-century America. What might explain this paradox of
Americans' wanting to read about both how great their country was and how greatly it
needed to improve?
4. Describe the evolution of the modern corporation in this era and its role in promoting
industrial expansion.
5. The so-called robber barons both praised unfettered free enterprise and tried to eliminate
competition. How can these apparently conflicting positions be reconciled?
6. What philosophies of the late nineteenth century allowed industrial tycoons to rationalize
their methods and powers?
7. Analyze the criticisms made of "laissez-faire" capitalism by some Americans of the late
nineteenth century. Of the alternative visions suggested for America's economic future,
which was the "best" and why?
8. In what ways was the experience of industrialization a mixed blessing for the American
worker? Describe the changes of the late nineteenth century in the nature of the workforce
and conditions of the workplace.
9. Describe the various attempts made during the late nineteenth century to create a national
labor organization. Analyze the successes and failures of these individual organizations, as
well as the overall weaknesses of the American labor movement at this time.
10. Explain how the railroad became a symbol of progress in America.

Main Themes:
1. How various factors (raw materials, labor supply, technology, business organization,
growing markets, and friendly governments) combined to thrust the United States into
worldwide industrial leadership.
2. How this explosion of industrial capitalism was both extolled for its accomplishments and
attacked for its excesses.
3. How American workers, who on the average benefited, reacted to the physical and
psychological realities of the new economic order.

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Key Concepts & Terms:

1. Capitalism 16. Knights of Labor
2. Bessemer process 17. American Federation of Labor
3. Corporation 18. Women’s Trade Union League
4. Limited liability 19. Molly Maguires
5. Trust 20. Socialist Labor Party
6. Consolidation 21. Standard Oil
7. Monopoly 22. Great Railroad Strike
8. Horizontal integration 23. Haymarket Riot
9. Vertical integration 24. Homestead Strike
10. Gospel of Wealth 25. Pullman Strike
11. Social Darwinism 26. Chinese Exclusion Act
12. Taylorism 27. Child labor Laws
13. Laissez-faire 28. “Anarchism”
14. Pool Arrangements
15. National Labor Union

Important People:
1. Cyrus W. Field 11. Horatio Alger
2. Alexander Graham Bell 12. Edward Bellamy
3. Thomas Edison 13. Eugene V. Debs
4. Adam Smith 14. Terence Powderly
5. Henry Ford 15. Samuel Gompers
6. Cornelius Vanderbilt 16. Lester Frank Ward
7. Andrew Carnegie 17. Henry George
8. J. P. Morgan 18. Russell Conwell
9. John D. Rockefeller
10. Herbert Spencer

Internet Resources:
For Brinkley, American History - Survey internet quizzes, resources, references to additional
books and films, and more, consult the text's Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/
brinkley11.

For short videos and primary source documents go to www.icue.com

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Sectional Outline - Industrial Supremacy
I. Industrial Workers in the New Economy
A. The Struggle to Unionize
1. Labor
a) Fight back against poor conditions
b) Same tactics as employers
(1) Large combinations
(a) Unions
(2) Little success
2. Craft unions
a) Small groups - skilled workers
b) Before Civil War
c) Little influence
(1) Leaders
(a) Combine organizations
d) National Labor Union
(1) 1866
(2) William H Sylvis
(3) Polyglot association; 640,000 members
(4) Disintegrated - Panic of 1873
3. Women’s rights
a) Excluded form unions
b) Male argument:
(1) Women used to drive down wages
(2) Invoked ideal of domesticity
c) Female argument:
(1) Conditions impossible for men to support families
4. Molly Maguires
a) Recession years of 1870 = difficulties
(1) Widespread unemployment
(2) Middle-class hostility toward unions
(a) Disputes w/ employers - bitter, violent
(b) Public blamed workers
b) Militant labor organization
(1) Anthracite coal region - Pennsylvania
(2) Ancient Order of Hibernians - Irish fraternal society
c) Terrorist tactics, intimidation
(1) Violence, murder
(2) + perception – labor activism = dangerous radicals
(3) Much performed by informers, agents
(a) Employed by mine owners
(b) Pretext of ruthless measures
i) Suppress unionization
B. The Great Railroad Strike
1. Railroad strike - 1877
a) Near hysteria
b) Eastern railroad
(1) 10% wage cut
c) Class war
d) Disrupted rail service
(1) Baltimore – St. Louis
e) Destroyed equipment
f) Rioted (Pittsburgh, et. al.)
2. State militias called

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 3. Federal troops - July
a) President Hayes
b) Suppress disorders - West VA
c) Baltimore
(1) 11 dead; 40 wounded
d) Philadelphia
(1) Militia opened fire
(a) Workers, families
(b) 20 killed
e) 100+ people dead
4. First major labor conflict
a) Disputes - no longer localized
b) Illustrated resentment against employers
5. Failure
a) Weakened railroad unions
b) Damaged reputation of labor organizations
C. The Knights of Labor
1. “Noble Order of the Knights of Labor”
a) 1st major effort
(1) Genuinely nat’l labor union
2. Leadership: Uriah S. Stephens
3. Membership
a) “All who toiled”
b) Workers, professional people
c) Not: lawyers, bankers, gamblers
d) Welcomed women
(1) Factory workers, domestic servants, etc.
(2) Woman’s Bureau of the Knights
(a) Leonora Barry
(3) 50,000 women members (black + white)
(4) 100+ locals
4. Loosely organized
a) Local “assemblies”
b) National “general assembly
5. Support
a) 8 hour work day
b) Abolition of child labor
c) Long term reform
d) Wages system -> “cooperative system”
6. Expansion
a) Secret fraternity -> open organization
b) 1886 - 700,000 person membership
(1) Militant elements - could not control
7. Dissolution
a) 1880s - series of strikes
(1) Defiance of leadership
b) 1885 - railroad workers (Missouri Pacific)
(1) Restore wage cuts
(2) Recognize union
c) 1886 - Texas and Pacific
(1) Strike crushed
(2) Discredited organization
d) 1890 - membership shrunk
D. The AFL

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1. Rival organization
a) Different organization concept
b) Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions of the United States and
Canada
(1) Later: American Federation of Labor (AFL)
c) Most important, enduring labor group
d) Autonomous craft unions
(1) Mainly skilled workers
2. Opposition to female employment
a) Contradictory policy
(1) Male leaders
(a) Hostile to women workers
(b) “women drove down wages”
(2) Sought equal pay for women
(a) Less attractive to employers
(b) Drove women out of work force
3. Agenda
a) Accepted basic premise of capitalism
b) Rejected fundamental economic reform
c) Hostile to gov’t efforts
(1) Protect labor; improve conditions
d) Supported objective of workers
(1) Better wages, hours, conditions
4. Haymarket Square
a) Goal = 8 hour day
b) Not achieved -> general strike
(1) May 1, 1886
c) Chicago
(1) McCormick Harvester Co.
(2) Police harassing strikers, leaders
(a) Bomb - killed 6, injured 67
(b) Police - killed 4
(c) Blamed on “anarchists”
d) Symbol of social chaos, radicalism
(1) Obstacle of goals of AFL
(2) Unions vulnerable to accusations of anarchism