A PERSONAL VOICE ANDREW CARNEGIE “ One morning a white envelope was lying upon my desk, addressed in a big John Hancock hand, to ‘Andrew Carnegie, Esquire.’... All it contained was a check for ten dollars upon the Gold Exchange Bank of New York. I shall remember that check as long as I live.... It gave me the first penny of revenue from capital—something that I had not worked for with the sweat of my brow. ‘Eureka!’ I cried. ‘Here’s the goose that lays the golden eggs.’” —Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie was an energetic industrialist, monopolist, and philanthropist.

Carnegie’s Innovations

Charles Darwin had a big effect on this era. His 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, showed that life forms had gradually evolved over millions of years. Philosopher Herbert Spencer carried the concept into the world of business to argue against any government intervention in business. This was called Laissez-Faire. Here is the idea: big businessmen like Andrew Carnegie (steel), John D. Rockefeller (oil), or J.P. Morgan (banking) were at the top of the evolutionary heap, and if you were more evolved you would figure out a way to buy them out. Since you can’t do that you are less evolved than these people, so they deserve all their wealth! Comments? DarwinCarnegieRockefeller Morgan

In this time period people like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan grew fabulously wealthy while their workers toiled for a pittance and struggled to feed their families. Companies combined through mergers to become even larger, and soon the country was awash in monopolies. After amassing huge fortunes these “Robber Barons” engaged in philanthropy. Carnegie endowed libraries all over the country and Rockefeller started a foundation still around today. Demands for change led to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, but enforcement did not really occur until more than a decade later with the Roosevelt administration.

Jacob Riis Photos A PERSONAL VOICE JACOB RIIS “ The bulk of the sweater’s work is done in the tenements, which the law that regulates factory labor does not reach.... In [them] the child works unchallenged from the day he is old enough to pull a thread. There is no such thing as a dinner hour; men and women eat while they work, and the ‘day’ is lengthened at both ends far into the night.” —How the Other Half Lives

Workers toiled and the Robber Barons became wealthy. Some of the problems for workers were: 1.Dangerous conditions on the job. Injury or death was always the fault of the worker. 2.Long hours. 12 hour workdays were common, and most workers put in six, sometimes seven, days per week. 3.Low wages. Business owners could always depend on a nearly unlimited supply of immigrant labor so wages were kept low. Any complaint about conditions, hours, or wages would be met with termination. 4.Child labor. Keeping children out of school was the worst thing. Solution: Organize. Early efforts were made by groups like the National Labor Union (NLU), the Colored National Labor Union (CNLU), and the Knights of Labor, which advocated an 8 hour workday. These early attempts were not very successful in battling the Robber Barons

Samuel GompersEugene Debs 1894: Pullman Strike Labor leaders had differing ideas about how to accomplish the ends of better hours, wages, and conditions for their members. American Federation of Labor (AFL) president Samuel Gompers used negotiation as a means to achieve that end but was not afraid to call a strike when negotiations failed. American Railway Union (ARU) leader Eugene Debs was frustrated after the failure of the Pullman Strike. He and some (not all) other labor leaders began to adopt the ideas of Karl Marx and Socialism. The most radical of these groups were the “Wobblies,” officially known as the International Workers of the World (IWW). Big business felt threatened the most by this group.

1877: B&O Railroad Strike 1886: Haymarket Blast 1892: Homestead Strike 1894: Pullman Strike

On March 25, 1911 a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City. Women garment workers on the upper floors were trapped; the owners had locked the fire escape doors to keep them from taking breaks. Some women suffocated or burned to death while others jumped to their deaths in front of horrified onlookers. This event changed the attitude of many Americans about the need for labor unions. Victims