1. A New Industrial
Age
{ Unit 8.2

2. Part I -
The
Expansion of
Industry

3.  Before the 1860’s, the US was
mostly agricultural. By the 1920’s,
it was the most industrialized
nation on Earth.
How?

4.  This was due to several factors…
 a wealth of natural resources
 government support for business
 a growing urban population that
provided cheap labor and markets for
new products

6.  Early Americans had little
use for oil until they
wanted to use kerosene in
lanterns…
 Edwin Drake was the first
to successfully drill. He did
so near Titusville, PA in
1859, starting an oil boom
across the nation.
 Oil became even more
important with the
invention of the
automobile.
Black Gold

7. Compare Drake’s oil well
to today’s technology.

8.  Along with oil, coal and iron
are also plentiful across the US.
 Iron is soft and tends to rust
and break due to impurities.
Removing carbon produces
steel, which is really strong and
won’t rust.
 Henry Bessemer and William
Kelly invented the process
around 1850.
Bessemer
Steel
Process

9. Air is injected into molten iron, removing impurities
like carbon. iron – impurities = steel.

10. Workers making steel

11. New Uses for Steel
 Railroads were the biggest customers, with 1000’s of miles of
tracks.
 It made barbed wire and the steel plow possible.
 It changed building techniques. With steel to support the
weight of buildings, structures rose taller and taller.
 The Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, spanned 1,593 feet
and was the tallest structure on Earth other than the
pyramids in Egypt.

14.  Thomas Edison established the world’s first research laboratory
at Menlo Park, NJ in 1876. He invented and patented the light
bulb there in 1880.
 Edison, along with George Westinghouse, made electricity safe
to use in homes and businesses.
 Electricity allowed businesses to locate anywhere they
wanted… not just near moving water or sources of coal.
Inventions That
Promoted Change

18.  Christopher Sholes
invented the typewriter in
1867, giving way to a
change in the workplace.
 All documents had to be
created by hand before the
typewriter came along.
Inventions That Changed Lifestyles

19.  Next to the light bulb, the most
important invention of this era is
the telephone.
 Alexander Graham Bell invented it
in 1876
 It was of particular importance to
homes and offices and, along with
the typewriter, allowed women to
work in offices.
 In 1870, women made up only
5% of office workers. In 1910,
they made up 40%.

20. Bell

21. n e…
p ho
le
l te
gi na
o ri
The
The device consisted of a coil of wire, a magnetic arm and a taut
membrane. Any sound caused the membrane, and hence the magnetic
arm, to vibrate. The movement of the magnet induced a fluctuating
electric current in the coil. This electrical signal could be reconverted
into sound by an identical apparatus at the other end of the circuit.

22. "Watson, come here! I want to see you!"

23. Resources, Ideas, Markets
Resources, Ideas, Markets Impact
Impact
Oil Boom
Oil Boom Oil boom; wealth
Bessemer Process Bridge construction, more
Bridge construction, more
railroads
railroads
Steel Frame buildings
Electrical Power Artificial light widely
available
Faster communications
Telephone Faster communications
Summarizer

24. Part II –
The Age of Railroads

25.  The growth of railroads influenced the industries and
businesses in which Americans worked.
 The iron, coal, steel, lumber, and glass industries grew to
keep up with the growth of the railroads.
 The rapid spread of the railroads also fostered the
growth of towns, help establish new markets, and offered
many opportunities to people and businesses.
Opportunities and
Opportunists

26.  Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle,
Flagstaff, and Abilene, owed their
existence to the railroads

27. Pullman
 Using the old model of textile mills,
George Pullman built his own city for
workers who helped build sleepers and
railroad cars at his factory in Illinois.
 The town was considered luxurious
compared to most with workers having
their own homes and having access to
doctors, shops, and athletics.
 However, Pullman controlled every
aspect of his workers’ lives, which led
to resentment and eventually to a
violent labor strike in 1894 after cutting
pay, but not rent.

28.  Grangers took political action in
response to abuse from Railroads  Munn v. Illinois n. an 1877 case
 Sponsored state and local political in which the Supreme Court
candidates upheld states’ regulation of
 1871- Illinois authorized a railroads for the benefit of
commission to “est. maximum farmers and consumers, thus
freight and passenger rates and establishing the right of
prohibit discrimination”
government to regulate private
 Railroads fought back, industry to serve the public
challenging the constitutionality
interest.
of regulatory laws
Regulating the Railroads

29.  Answer: The farmers
 How did the Grangers,
took political action in
who were largely poor
one united front. They
farmers, do battle with
pressed legislators to
the giant railroad
pass laws to protect
companies?
them.
Review- Analyzing Issues 

30.  The Grange/Populist Party had tried to have
the government regulate the railroads to cap
costs.
 States tried to regulate the railroad companies,
but since trains cross state lines, the Supreme
Court ruled that states didn’t have the right.
 Interstate commerce can only be regulated by
the national government.
Interstate Commerce Act

31.  In response, the government passed the
Interstate Commerce Act in 1887.
 It created a 5 member Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) to regulate the railroads.
 It will not be effective, however, until Theodore
Roosevelt strengthens it in 1906.

32.  Corporate abuses, mismanagement, overbuilding,
and competition pushed many railroads to the brink
of bankruptcy.
 By the middle of 1894, a quarter of the nation’s
railroads had been taken over by financial
companies like J.P. Morgan & Company.
 By 1900, 7 powerful companies controlled over
2/3rds of the nation’s railroads.
Panic of 1893

33.  How did the growth of railroads affect people’s
everyday lives? How did it affect farmers?
Summarizer

34. Part III –
Big Business and Labor

35.  What personal traits do you qualities they
think a person would need to become a
billionaire in today’s world?
Warm Up- Focus & Motivate

36. Andrew
Carnegie

37.  Immigrated from Scotland at age 12
 Worked for railroads; became private secretary to the superintendent
of Pennsylvania Railroad
 As a reward, he was given a chance to buy stock. He started
investing his money and by 1865, he left the r.r. and started his own
steel mill.
Carnegie

38.  Carnegie’s success was due in part to
management practices that he put in place.
 1. He continually searched for ways to make
products cheaper. He perfected machines and
accounting systems.
 2. He attracted talented people by offering them
stock in the company and encouraged
competition among employees.
New Business Strategies

39.  He also attempted to control as much of the steel industry as he
could.
 He did this through vertical integration – buying out his
suppliers like coal fields, freighters, railroads, etc.
 And through horizontal integration – buying out the
competition.
 Through buying out his competition and his suppliers, he
controlled almost the entire steel industry.
 He sold his business in 1901 to J.P. Morgan for $480 million.

40. Social Darwinism
 Carnegie attributed his success to hard work, shrewd
investment, and innovative business practice.
 Others’ attributed it to a new theory – Social
Darwinism.
 This is how they explained why some were so wealthy,
while others remained poor.
 They believed “natural selection” weeded out less
capable people, therefore the rich were the most
adapted and capable.
 They saw riches as a sign of God’s favor and that the
poor must be inferior and deserved what they got in
life.

41.  Answer: Carnegie
used horizontal and
vertical integration,
 What were Andrew buying out
Carnegie’s competitors as well as
management and suppliers. He also
business strategies? strove to improve
machinery and
manufacturing
techniques.
Review- Summarizing 

43.  People like Horatio Alger promoted the possibility of rags-to-riches
success for people who were virtuous and hard-working.
Horatio Alger

44.  Many industrialists pursued horizontal
integration in the form of mergers.
 Mergers usually occurred when one company
bought out the stock of another.
 A firm that bought out all its competitors could
achieve a monopoly, or control over its
industry’s production, wages, and prices.
Consolidation

45.  One way to create a monopoly was to form a
holding company, a corporation that did
nothing but buy out the stock of other
companies.
 Banker J.P. Morgan created the world’s largest
corporation when United States Steel (a
holding company) bought out Carnegie Steel in
1901.

46. J.P. Morgan

47.  Others like John D. Rockefeller took a different approach to achieving
a monopoly: they joined with competing companies in trust
agreements.
 Participants in a trust turned their stock over to a group of trustees –
people who ran the separate companies as one large corporations.
They were not legal, but used anyway.
 Rockefeller used a trust to gain control of the oil industry in the US.
Standard Oil Company

48.  In 1870, Rockefeller’s company refined 3% of US oil. By 1880,
they refined 90%.
 How? Rockefeller paid his employees poorly, undersold his
competition, and when the competition went out of business, he
raised prices above the original levels.
 Tactics like these earned industrialists the nickname, “Robber
Barons.”

49.  a derogatory term applied to wealthy and powerful 19th century
American businessmen.
 By the late 1800's, the term was typically applied to businessmen
who used what were considered to be exploitative practices to
amass their wealth.
 These practices included exerting control over national resources,
accruing high levels of government influence, paying extremely low
wages, squashing competition by acquiring competitors in order to
create monopolies and eventually raise prices, and schemes to sell
stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors in a manner which
would eventually destroy the company
 for which the stock was issued and impoverish investors. The term
combines the sense of criminal ("robber") and illegitimate
aristocracy ("baron")
Robber Baron

50. John D.
Rockefeller

51.  Many industrialists like Carnegie and
Rockefeller were also philanthropists, or people
who give money away for the good of mankind.
 Carnegie's Philanthropy
 “It will be a great mistake for the community to
shoot the millionaires, for they are the bees that
make the most honey and contribute the most to
the hive even after they have gorged themselves
full.” - Andrew Carnegie

52.  The government was concerned that the growing power of
corporations would stop free trade, so they passed the Sherman
Antitrust Act in 1890.
 It made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade
between states or with other countries.
 It was poorly written and all 8 cases brought against corporations
were thrown out. The government eventually gave up trying.
Sherman Antitrust Act

55.  Answer: Big
businesses formed
partnerships to create
 What strategies monopolies. They
enabled big businesses merged small
to eliminate companies into large
competition? corporations. They
aimed for total control
of an industry, so that
they could fix prices
and wages to their
advantage.
Review- Summarizing 

56.  Which is a more accurate description of
industrial America: “Captains of Industry” or
“Robber Barons”?
Summarizer

57. Part IV – Labor
Unions

58. Bad Working Conditions
 7 day work weeks, 12 hr days, no vacation or sick
days were common for men in steel mills.
 Women faced similar conditions, but not as bad.
 In 1882, an average of 675 laborers were killed in
accidents each week.
 Wages were so low that every family member, even
children, had to work.
 25% of boys and 10% of girls ages 5-15 held jobs.
 In 1899, men made $498 a year, women $267, with
kids averaging around 27 cents for a 14 hour day.

59.  How did industrial  Answer: Poor working
working conditions conditions and low
contribute to the wages forced workers
growth of the labor to organize unions to
movement? demand fair treatment.
Review- Analyzing Issues 

60. Child Laborers

61. Early Labor Unions
 Small unions for skilled workers had existed
since the 1700s.
 The first nation wide union was the National
Labor Union (NLU).
 In 1869, Uriah Stephens organized the Knights of
Labor.
 It’s motto was, “An injury to one is a concern of
all.”
 It was open to all workers, man or woman. At its
height in 1886, it had over 700,000 members

62. Uriah Stephens

63.  In 1886, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) with Samuel
Gompers as president was formed. It was a craft union, which
consisted of workers from a specific craft.
 It focused on collective bargaining and used strikes as a way of
getting higher wages and shorter work weeks.
Craft Unions

64.  Eugene V. Debs was the first to combine all
workers, skilled and unskilled, from one
industry into a union.
 He organized the American Railway Union
(ARU), which grew to over 150,000 members.
Industrial Unions

65.  Answer: A craft union
included skilled
workers from many
 How did the craft
industries. An
unions and industrial
industrial union
unions differ?
included skills and
unskilled workers from
a specific industry.
Review- Contrasting 

66.  Debs eventually turned to socialism (an
economic system in which the government
controls business).
 The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
headed by “Big Bill” Haywood never topped
100,000 members.
Socialism and the IWW

68.  Industry and the government responded
forcefully to union activity, which they saw as
a threat to the entire capitalist system…
 The Great Strike of 1877: workers on the
Baltimore & Ohio R.R. went on strike for a
wage cut. President Hayes ordered it ended
using federal troops since it “interfered with
interstate commerce.”
Strikes Turn Violent

70.  The Haymarket Square Affair: workers
gathered to protest police brutality. As
protesters were leaving, someone threw a
bomb into the police. 7 police and several
workers were killed.
Haymarket Square Affair

71.  How did the 1877  Answer: The public
strike and Haymarket
began to associate labor
cause the public to
activities with violence
resent the labor
and danger.
movement?
Review- Analyzing
Causes 

73.  The Homestead Strike: Workers were
protesting a pay cut at the steel plant in PA.
Henry Frick hired police so he could hire
scabs (replacement workers). 3 police and 9
workers were killed. The PA national guard
was called in and the plant was closed down
for 5 months.
Homestead Strike

75.  Pullman Company Strike: Workers went on
strike over cut wages. Pullman refused to
negotiate with strikers, so the ARU boycotted
Pullman trains. Pullman hired strikebreakers
and it turned violent. Federal troops were
sent in to stop it.
Pullman Company Strike

76. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Fire
 People could no longer ignore conditions in factories after the
Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911.
 146 women died after the building caught fire. The doors were
locked to keep them from leaving and many jumped to their
death or died inside the building.
 This disaster led to some changes in local rules for women and
children in the workplace.

78.  Answer: The factory
had only one fire
 What factors made the
escape and no
Triangle Shirtwaist fire
sprinklers. The factory
so lethal?
was full of cloth and
oil.
Review- Summarizing 

79.  Employers feared unions as they grew more
powerful.
 They finally, with the courts’ help, turned the
Sherman Antitrust Act against labor.
 All they had to say was that a strike hurt
interstate trade and the government would
intervene.
 Despite all, labor unions continued to grow.
Employers Fight Back

80.  Do you think that the tycoons of the late 19th
century are best described as ruthless rober
barons or as effective captains of industry?
 Think About:
 Their management tactics and business
strategies
 Their contributions to the economy
 Their attitude toward competition
Summarizer