Chapter 24
Industry Comes
of Age, 1865–1900
Chapter
Themes
Theme: America
accomplished heavy industrialization in the post–Civil War era. Spurred by the
transcontinental rail network, business grew and consolidated into giant
corporate trusts, as epitomized by the oil and steel industries.
Theme: Industrialization
radically transformed the practices of labor and the condition of American
working people. But despite frequent industrial strife and the efforts of
various reformers and unions, workers failed to develop effective labor
organizations to match the corporate forms of business.
Theme: With the
concentration of capital in the hands of a few, new moralities arose to advance
justifications for this social and economic phenomenon. A “survival of the fittest” theory emerged,
a popular theory based on the thought of Herbert Spencer and William Graham
Sumner, which argued that millionaires were products of natural selection. Another theory known as the “Gospel of
Wealth” argued that societies well-to-do had to prove themselves
morally responsible.
chapter summary
Aided by government subsidies and loans, the first
transcontinental rail line was completed in 1869, soon followed by others. This
rail network opened vast new markets and prompted industrial growth. The power
and corruption of the railroads led to public demands for regulation, which was
only minimally begun.
New technology and forms of business organization led to the
growth of huge corporate trusts. Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller led
the way in the steel and oil industries. Initially, the oil industry supplied
kerosene for lamps; it eventually expanded by providing gasoline to fuel
automobiles. Cheap steel transformed industries from construction to rail
building, and the powerful railroads dominated the economy and reshaped
American society.
The benefits of industrialization were unevenly distributed.
The South remained in underdeveloped dependence, while the industrial working
class struggled at the bottom of the growing class divisions of American
society. Increasingly transformed from independent producers and farmers to
dependent wage earners, America’s
workers became vulnerable to illness, industrial accidents, and unemployment.
Workers’ attempts at labor organization were generally
ineffective. The Knights of Labor disappeared after the Haymarket bombing. Gompers founded the AF of L to organize skilled craft
laborers but ignored most industrial workers, women, and blacks.
Note Cards: Analyze the
following terms; include historical context, chronology, drawing conclusions,
and cause/effect where appropriate. Each note card you complete is worth one
extra credit point; pick the terms you need the most help with to understand.
Chapter 24 Study Guide
Thought Questions: While you are reading
the chapter for the first time, write down a couple questions or observations
that come to mind for class discussion. These
thoughts could be about ideas you do not understand or ideas you find curious
or interesting.
1.
2.
The Iron Colt Becomes an Iron Horse
3. What were the advantages and
disadvantages of government subsidies for the railroads?
Spanning the Continent with Rails
4. Describe how the first transcontinental
railroad was built.
Binding the Country with Railroad Ties
5. Explain how the railroads could help or
hurt Americans.
Railroad Consolidation and Mechanization
6. What technological improvements helped railroads?
Revolution by Railways
7. What effects did the railroads have on America as a whole?
Wrongdoing in Railroading
8. What wrongdoing were railroads guilty of?
Government Bridles the Iron Horse
9. Was the
Interstate Commerce Act an important piece of legislation?
Miracles of Mechanization
10. What factors made industrial expansion
possible?
The Trust Titan Emerges
11. How did businesses
organize to try to maximize profits?
The Supremacy of Steel
12. Why was steel so important for industrialization?
Carnegie and Other Sultans of Steel
13. Briefly describe the careers of Andrew Carnegie and J.P.
Morgan.
Rockefeller Grows an American Beauty Rose
14. How was John D. Rockefeller able to become so wealthy?
The Gospel of Wealth
15. How did the wealthy justify their wealth?
Government Tackles the Trust Evil
16. What two methods were tried by those who opposed the trusts?
The South in the Age of Industry
17. How successful were Southerners at industrializing?
The Impact of the New Industrial Revolution on America
18. Describe the positive and negative
effects of the industrial revolution on working Americans.
In Unions There is Strength
19. What conditions existed in America that led Jay Gould to say,
"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half"?
Labor Limps Along
20. Explain the similarities and differences between the National
Labor Union and the Knights of Labor.
Unhorsing the Knights of Labor
21. What factors led to the decline of the Knights of Labor?
The AF of L to the Fore
22. How
was the AFL different from previous unions?
Makers of America: The Knights of Labor
23. Were the Knights conservative or
revolutionary in their ideas?
Varying
Viewpoints: Industrialization: Boon or Blight
24. To what degree is it possible for common
people to improve their status in industrial America?
expanding the “varying
viewpoints”
·
Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons: The Great American
Capitalists, 1861–1901 (1934).
A view of industrialization focused on business:
“The members of this new ruling class were generally, and
quite aptly, called ‘barons,’ ‘kings,’ ‘empire-builders,’ and even ‘emperors.’
They were aggressive men, as were the first feudal barons; sometimes they were
lawless; in important crises, nearly all of them tended to act without those
established moral principles which fixed more or less the conduct of the common
people of the community. At the same time . . .
many of them showed volcanic energy and qualities of courage which, under
another economic clime, might have fitted them for immensely useful social
constructions, and rendered them glorious rather than hateful to their people.”
·
Herbert Gutman, Work, Culture, and Society in
Industrializing America (1976).
A view of industrialization focused on labor and society:
“In the half-century after 1843 industrial development
radically transformed the earlier American social structure, and during this
Middle Period…a profound tension existed between the older American preindustrial social structure and the modernizing
institutions that accompanied the development of industrial capitalism.…In each
of these distinctive stages of American society, a recurrent tension also
existed between native and immigrant men and women fresh to the factory and the
demands imposed upon them by the regularities and disciplines of factory
labor.”
questions about the “varying
viewpoints”
25. What
does each of these historians see as the most crucial feature of the new
industrialization?
26. How
does each of them see the relationship between industrial capitalism and the
moral and cultural values of society?
27. How
would each of them likely interpret the labor conflicts and strikes of the
period—for example, the Haymarket affair and the decline of the Knights of
Labor?
Analysis Questions
“The first step is an
intuition—and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise.… ‘Bugs,’ as such
little faults and difficulties are called—show themselves, and months of
anxious watching, study, and labor are requisite.…I have the right principle
and am on the right track, but time, hard work, and some good luck are
necessary, too.…” Thomas Edison (1847–1931) (Letter, 1878)
“Thirty-three, and an income
of $50,000 per annum.…Beyond this never earn—make no effort to increase
fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes.…” Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) (Memo to
himself, 1868)
“In speaking of the real
beginnings of the Standard Oil Company, it should be remembered that it was not
so much the consolidation of the firms in which we had a personal interest, but
the coming together of the men who had the combined brainpower to do the
work.…It is not merely capital and plans and the strictly material things that
make up a business, but the character of the men behind these things.…” John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) (1909)
“The trusts are our
employers, and the employer who is fair to us, whether an individual or a
collection of individuals in the form of a corporation or a trust, matters
little to us as long as we obtain fair wages.” Samuel Gompers (1850–1924) (1912)
1. What
were the costs and benefits of the industrial transformation of the post–Civil
War era?
2. Should
industrialists like Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Rockefeller be viewed as “robber
barons” or “captains of industry”?
3. Was
the growing class division of the time a threat to American democracy? Why or
why not?
4. Why
did American workers have such trouble responding to the new industrial
conditions of labor? Why were business and the middle-class public generally
hostile to allowing workers to organize as industry did? Why did the AF of L
survive while the Knights of Labor failed?
5. Does
the government regulation of the economy disprove the belief that capitalism is
a morally superior economic theory? Why
or why not?
HISTORIC NOTES
·
A catalyst for postwar industrial and economic
expansion is the railway industry, which not only facilitates trade, commerce,
and transportation but also makes locomotive production a major industry. The government plays a major role in the
industry’s development and importance by providing the companies with millions
of acres of free land.
·
By the turn of the twentieth century, important
industries necessary to the health and prosperity of the nation and its
citizens are controlled by economically and politically powerful trusts and
other types of business combinations, which undermine the foundation of
capitalism: competition.
·
The Gilded Age is dominated by key
industrialists and financiers. So
enormous is their own wealth, control of business capital, and political
influence that many refer to them as Robber Barons.
·
Justifications for enormous disparity in wealth
were expressed in philosophy, literature, and the social and behavioral
sciences. One novelist, Horatio Alger,
established a format for his works of fiction that repeatedly expressed the
same theme: industry, self-discipline, sacrifice, and hard work ultimately lead
to financial success regardless of obstacles.
·
Industrial development was uneven, especially in
the South. Some industries, such as
textile production, flourished while others, such as the steel industry, lagged
behind those of the North.
·
Industrial development had a human toll as many
laborers, including women and children, worked long hours under oppressive
conditions for very low wages. Not
surprisingly, many workers attempted to unionize in order to engage in
collective bargaining. Most capitalists
refused to recognize the legitimacy of the unions and balked at even the
thought of negotiating. Often-intense
and costly strikes such as the Railroad Strike of 1877 shaped the period. It is important to note that President Hayes
called out the army to suppress the Railroad Strike, a harbinger of what was to
come as business interests and the federal and state governments allied in
their opposition to organized labor.
Advanced
Placement United States History Topic Outline
15. Industrial America in the
Late Nineteenth Century
A. Corporate consolidation of industry
B. Effects of technological
development on the worker and workplace
C. Labor and unions
D. National politics and influence of
corporate power
E. Migration and immigration: the
changing face of the nation
F. Proponents and opponents of the new
order, e.g., Social Darwinism and Social Gospel
16. Urban Society
in the Late Nineteenth Century
A. Urbanization and the lure of the
city
B. City problems and machine politics
C. Intellectual and cultural movements
and popular entertainment
17. Populism and
Progressivism
A. Agrarian discontent and political
issues of the late nineteenth century
B. Origins of Progressive reform:
municipal, state, and national
C. Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson as
Progressive presidents
D. Women's roles: family, workplace,
education, politics, and reform
E. Black America: urban
migration and civil rights initiatives