1. Chapter 14: Industrialization

2. What was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania?  Black gold, or oil, was discovered.  It was refined into kerosene.  Later, gasoline was used to fuel transportation systems as well as to provide fuel for the rapid industrialization sweeping the nation after the Civil War.

3. How was steel produced?  The Bessemer steel process produced steel out of iron by removing the impurities.  Railroads were constructed with steel, along with skyscrapers, bridges, and barbed wire.

4. What were some of Edison’s contributions?  Thomas Edison developed a research laboratory at Menlo Park, NJ.  He created a system for distributing electrical power as well as perfected the incandescent light bulb.  Electricity contributed to industrialization, allowing factories to operate longer hours and away from power sources, like rivers.

5. What were some significant inventions at the turn of the century?  Christopher Sholes invented the typewriter.  Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.  Both of these inventions opened up jobs for women in the workplace.

6. What occurred in Promontory, Utah in 1869?  The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific met to form the first transcontinental railroad.  Railroads began laying track at a rapid pace throughout the nation.  The government assisted the railroads by giving them land grants.

7. What were some major groups that built the railroads?  Chinese and Irish immigrants were encouraged to migrate to the US to construct the railroads.  Civil War veterans also took part.

8. Who manufactured sleeping cars for railroad companies?  George Pullman built a factory to manufacture sleepers.  He also created a town around the factory that workers had to live in.  However, workers couldn’t loiter or drink alcohol, even on their own time.

9. How did the government try to protect consumers against corporate abuses?  In Munn v. Illinois, the Granger laws were upheld. These reinforced the right of the states to regulate railroads on behalf of farmers and consumers.  Congress then passed the Interstate Commerce Act, which stated that the federal government could regulate the railroads through the ICCommission.  In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed. This made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with trade.  These laws would remain largely dormant for decades.

10. What was the economic situation at the end of the 1890s?  Due to overbuilding, corporate scandals, like Credit Mobilier, and mismanagement, the Panic of 1893 arose.  People lost their jobs, businesses closed, and some industries were in jeopardy.  After reorganization of the railroad industry under JP Morgan investment firm, only a few companies dominated the whole industry.

11. Who dominated the steel industry?  Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant, created Carnegie Steel, which after being sold to United States Steel, became the largest steel company in the world.  He used tactics such as vertical and horizontal integration to control all aspects of steel production as well as to eliminate his competition.

12. What theory justified the huge disparity between the rich and the poor?  Social Darwinism stated that there were naturally inferior and superior people.  The rich and whites were superior. Their money was a sign that they were favored by God.  Poor people were inferior and deserved their lot in life. Nothing should be done to help them in order to weed them out of society.  Carnegie wrote The Gospel of Wealth, which is a defense of Social Darwinism. But, other books, such as those written by Horatio Alger, glorified riches.

13. Who dominated the oil industry?  John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, controlled about 90% of the country’s oil.  He formed illegal mergers, called trusts, in order to control the market. He also engaged in price gouging to wipe out his competition.

14. What nickname did industrialists receive at the turn of the century?  Robber barons were wealthy industrialists who manipulated the system to their advantage and accumulated excesses of money that the world had never seen.  However, they were also innovators who donated incredible sums to libraries, universities, and for medical research.

15. How did workers begin to fight for rights?  Workers began to form unions in order to fight for fair wages, safe working conditions, and limits on the work week.

16. What were some of the major labor unions at the turn of the century and who led them?  Uriah Stevens formed the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor; membership was open to all and advocated for equal pay for equal work and the eight hour workday.  Samuel Gompers led the American Federation of Labor, which used strikes as a major bargaining tactic.  Eugene Debs led the American Railway Union and eventually turned to socialism, which involves government regulation of business.  William ‘Big Bill’ Haywood led the Industrial Workers of the World, or the Wobblies. They also turned to socialism to check unregulated capitalism.

17. What happened in the Great Strike of 1877?  When workers for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad went on strike, President Rutherford B. Hayes called out federal troops to end it.

18. What happened in the Homestead Strike?  When workers at Carnegie Steel’s Homestead plant went on strike, President Frick hired scabs to replace them.  Violence broke out when the privately-hired Pinkerton agents intervened.  Public opinion initially supported the workers, but then, after Frick’s assassination attempt, turned against them.  Once Carnegie and Frick destroyed the union, they slashed wages 50% and the town surrounding the company was reduced to squalor after one year.

19. What happened at the Pullman Company strike?  When Pullman slashed wages, but not the monthly rent to live in the town, workers went on strike.  President Grover Cleveland called out federal troops to suppress the strike.  Overall, despite some setbacks, union membership grew into the 20 th century.

20. Who organized on behalf of child laborers?  Mother Jones worked to end child labor.  She organized a children’s march on Washington to fight for legislation.

21. What event prompted calls for changes in the garment industry?  The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory killed 146 women because the exits had been locked.  Due to the fact that most garment workers were women and they worked in unsafe conditions, Pauline Newman led the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union to fight for safety regulations.