Ch.17

Increase in Capital Goods Goods added to the nation’s productive capacity – Railroad equipment, machinery, construction materials – Bessemer Process allowed steel to replace wrought iron

Andrew Carnegie Carnegie Steel, began in Pittsburgh, PA Steel plants became to model for the nation

Constructing Railroads Free enterprise but government played a role in construction by offering financial aid, like buying RR bonds and land grants Corporations and limited liability Vanderbilt – Consolidation of RR’s and provided a unified service between NYC and Chicago

Gustavus Swift and Vertical Integration Created refrigerated railcars, placed slaughterhouses and packing plants next to stockyards, created by- product processing plants and fleets of delivery wagons – Vertical Integration: Controlling all the functions of an industry – Oligopoly: market dominated by the few Smaller businesses pushed out

Rockefeller and Standard Oil 1850s kerosene was extracted from petroleum By 1880 Rockefeller controlled 95% of nation’s refining Vertically integrated the oil industry – Refining, oil pipelines and tankers, stake in oil fields

Consumer Marketing Montgomery Ward and Sears and Roebuck pioneered mail-order enterprise Development of department stores by John Wanamaker Chain stores developed with A&P and Woolworth’s – Standardized, mass marketed goods – Developed modern system of advertising

Managerial Revolution Started with RR’s but led to other vertically integrated firms with top executives and departments covering specific areas of activity (“middle management”)

Labor Force Industrialization brought more people to cities – Rural Americans rejected factory work and lacked factory skills, but could work white collar jobs in the offices “New South” tried to catch up with North and mills had rock-bottom wages but were still higher than farm wages – Hired farm families Natural resource extraction industries recruited with little regard to race

Immigrants Great migration of immigrants started with the Irish in the 1840s, then other groups mostly from Western Europe – Ethnic origin and skills determined where they worked – Early 20 th century immigration groups change and most begin to come from Southern and Eastern Europe

Immigration Old immigrants (before 1890) – from North and West Europe New immigrants (after 1890) – from South and East Europe; Asia; Latin America

Women in the Workforce million women in the workforce Typical white female workers were single and under 24 yrs. old, others were divorced or widowed Domestic work, not “man’s work” or man’s pay In addition to women, many children also were in the workforce – 1 in every 5 kids under 16 worked in 1900

Autonomous Labor Laborers worked at own pace, with own tools Mass production and mechanization destroyed the need for skilled labor Scientific Management- Frederick W. Taylor – Eliminate brain work from manual labor – Eliminate any authority workers had exercised before – Manager’s timed laborers with stopwatch