A New Industrial Age

Chapter 6

Forgettable Presidents

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877, R)

Corrupt administration; Whiskey Ring; gold standard

Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881, R)

Ended Reconstruction

James Garfield (1881, R) - assassinated

Chester Arthur (1881-1885, R)
Civil service reform

Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, D)

Small govt; laissez-faire

Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893, R)

High tariffs

Grover Cleveland (1893-1897, D)

Section 1: Expansion of Industry

A. Causes of 2nd Ind. Rev

1. more natural resources
2. immigration (New Immigrants)
3. more capital to invest
4. new inventions

B. Industries & Inventions

1. Edwin Drake

a. 1859 steam engine used to drill for oil in PA

2. Thomas Edison
a. Dynamo produces & distributes electricity
b. lightbulb
c. phonograph

 3. Telephone (1876) Alexander G. Bell

4. Bessemer Process (1850)
a. turns iron into steel
b. led to growth of big business, skyscrapers,
bridges, and RRs

Section 2: Age of the Railroads

A. Expansion of RRs

1.
2.
3.
4.

made possible by govt subsidies

most important use of steel
growth of cities
creation of time zones

B. Railroad Tycoons
1. Corruption
a. rebates
b. RR pools
c. Credit Mobilier RR sold land
given to them

2. Cornelius Vanderbilt

a. consolidated pre-Civil War RRs

in NE

3. George Pullman
a. Palace Car Company (sleeping
hotels)
b. company town to regulate
laborers

C. Regulation
1. Munn v. Illinois (1877) = Supreme Court
agreed that states could regulate RRs for
the benefit of consumers (farmers)
2. Wabash case (1886): states could not
regulate interstate RRs
3. Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

a. govt. supervises railroad activities

What the Railroads Will Bring, Henry George, 1868.

The natural resources of this country are so great and varied,

the inducements which it offers to capital and labor are so
superior to those offered anywhere else, that when it is
opened by railroads immigration will flow into it like pent-up
waters and States will be peopled and cities built with a
rapidity never before known. The truth is, that the
completion of the railroad and the consequent great increase
of business and population, will not be a benefit to all of us,
but only to a portion. Those who have it will make wealthier;
for those who have not, it will make it more difficult to get.
Those who have lands, mines, established businesses, special
abilities of certain kinds, will become richer for it and find
increased opportunities; those who have only their own labor
will become poorer, and find it harder to get ahead-first,
because as competition reduces the wages of labor, this
capital will be harder for them to obtain.

Section 3: Big Business and Labor

A. Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Steel

1. Scottish immigrant to Pittsburgh, PA
2. used Bessemer process
3. vertical integration own all phases
of manufacturing

B. John D. Rockefeller & Standard Oil

1. horizontal integration buy up
competing industries
a. trust
b. owned 95% of oil in US

C. J.Pierpont Morgan & Banking

1. interlocking directorates
2. bought out Carnegie Steel (U.S. Steel)

D. Regulation of Robber Barons

1. At first, laissez-faire (no govt intervention)
2. Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

a. mostly ineffective; used to break up labor unions

Robber Barons of the Gilded Age

E. Gilded Age
1. term coined by Mark Twain to describe
gap b/n rich and poor
2. Social Darwinism millionaires are a
product of natural selection

 3. Gospel of Wealth
(Carnegie)
a. the man who dies rich dies
disgraced
b. free public libraries
c. $ to universities, the arts

Source: Andrew Carnegie, Gospel of Wealth, 1889.

This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth:
First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living,
shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately
for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him;
and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which
come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called
upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of
duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment,
is best calculated to produce the most beneficial result
for the community-the man of wealth thus becoming the
sole agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing
to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and
ability to administer-doing for them better than they
would or could do for themselves.

F. Effects of Industrialization
1. Exploitation of Laborers

a. low wages:

Child = $0.27 per day

Women = $267 per year
Men = $498 per year
Carnegie = $23 million in 1900

b. 12-14 hour work days

c. no benefits
d. no safety regulations

Photos by Lewis Hine

 2. more economic opportunities for women

Elias Howe sewing machine
Christopher Sholes typewriter

3. BIG BUSINESS
4. need for new markets (imperialism!!!)
5. labor unions

G. Labor Unions
1. Knights of Labor
a. open to all types of workers
b. fell apart after Haymarket Square riot
(Chicago, 1896)

2. American Federation of Labor (AF of L)

a. Samuel Gompers
b. union of unions
c. only open to skilled workers

 3. American Railway Union

a. Eugene V. Debs (socialist)
b. skilled and unskilled workers

4. Mary Harris Mother Jones

a. womens labor advocate

5. Union Tactics
a. strikes, boycotts, walkouts
b. collective bargaining union spoke on behalf
of all members

H. Labor Unrest

1. Great RR Strike (1877)

2. Homestead Strike (1892) Carnegie Steel
3. Pullman Strike (1893)
4. Haymarket riot (1896)
5. most Americans opposed labor unions b/c
of violence

Business vs. Labor