1. The Rise of Big Business “Survival of the Fittest”

2. Define Gilded
Millionaires
Industrial Growth
Poor Working Conditions
Child Labor
Low Wages
Unsanitary Cities
Corruption
Safety in the workplace
Lack of Social Mobility
Technology
$$$$$$$$$$
The Gilded Age = time between the Civil War and WWI; lots of wealth in in the US, but lots of corruption & mistreatment of workers & immigrants
American Prosperity

3. Capitalism: trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit
Laissez faire: gov’t keeps their “hands off” business

4. Technology and Industrial Growth
U.S. encourages industrial growth
Civil War = need more industry
Immigrants = more workers
Gov’t tariffs = imported goods too expensive!
Laissez faire: do what you want!

5. Innovation Drives the Nation
Thomas Edison
Lightbulb
Phonograph
Motion Pictures
Alexander Graham Bell
Telephone

6. Railroads is Chinese and Irish immigrants built railroads
Travel is quicker = prices of goods go down = sell to market faster = need to produce more
Mass production to provide more for growing population and dense city populations
Higher cost of living
City growth: Chicago, Pittsburg, Las Vegas, Atlanta
Need for time zones to standardize arrivals / departures is

7. Atlanta, Ga., ca A view on the Atlanta and West Point Railroad looking towards the railroad depot, roundhouse and machine shops in Atlanta, Georgia, shortly before their destruction by Sherman's troops during the Civil War.

8. Peachtree Street -- Atlanta, GA, ca. late 1800’s

9. Oil: John D. Rockefeller:
Standard Oil
Controlled 90% of oil industry
Legacy - $900 million** Richest man in the US
“Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.” John D. Rockefeller

10. Monopoly
PEARL OIL COMPANY

11. Trust PEARL OIL COMPANY ANOTHER OIL COMPANY BUZZ OIL COMPANY
SHS OIL COMPANY
OILY OIL COMPANY

12. Trusts: separate companies controlled by a single board
Monopoly: a trust that has exclusive control over an entire industry
Example: U.S. Steel, one company board controls many different steel companies

14. Captain of Industry: an innovative entrepreneur who positively influenced society
Robber Baron: person who became wealthy by unethical means

15. “Laissez faire capitalism, or pure competition, is the end of competition itself. It is the natural goal of any business to make as much profit as it can and to eliminate its competition. When a corporation eliminates its competition it becomes what is known as a "monopoly."

16. Cultural Effects of Big Business: Changing American Society
Better farming machinery = less farmers
Out of work farmers head where?
Work efficiency leads to leisure time activities
Environmental concerns/dust storms: create National Park Service 1872
Wall Street(New York City), ca  Albumen print photograph. 

17. What does the government say about these robber barons?
Interstate Commerce Commission
oversee RR operations
1st regulation of US businesses
Sherman Antitrust Act
Outlaws monopolist trusts
Wants to break up dominance of Standard Oil monopoly

19. What was life like in factories?
Everyone worked!!! (men, women, children)  Child Labor
Sweatshops = 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, few or NO breaks
Company towns
Owned by business and rented out to the workers; forced to buy goods from the company store, where have we seen this?

20. Factory Horrors!! Child Labor Triangle Shirt Waist Company Fire
Unsanitary food from the factories

21. Labor Unions form as a reaction to Big Business

22. Labor Unions = organizations formed to protect workers’ interests (AKA “collective bargaining”
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Founded by Samuel Gompers
Organized skilled laborers
Want to:
Increase wages
Better hours
Better conditions

23. Pullman Strike Background: Railroad car company
Workers required to live in company town
Cause:
Wages cut without a decrease in the cost of living in the company town
During:
Shut down rail traffic
Stops trade in Chicago

24. Pullman Strike Effect:
Government says labor unions are ILLEGAL because of the Sherman Anti- Trust Act because they are too controlling over an entire industry.
** Sherman Anti-Trust Act = no strikes = no unions **

25. Workers were treated like the pieces of meat that they produced
Workers were treated like the pieces of meat that they produced. This will lead to the demand for ….