Technology, Robber Barons and immigrants, OH MY!

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Technology, Robber Barons and immigrants, OH MY!
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Review

• Pacific Railway Act
• Morrill Land-Grant Act
• Homestead Act 1862
• Exodusters
• Sand Creek 1864
• Red Cloud Wars
• Battle of the Little Big Horn
• Ghost Dance
• Battle of Wounded Knee
• Assimilation
• Dawes Act

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The Master of Invention!

• Thomas Edison
• Light Bulb
• Phonograph
• Motion Picture
• 1093 patents

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• Edison's Lab

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Advances in communications

• Telegraph-
• Perfected the telegraph
• Morse Code
• Western Union (1870)
• 1900- 900,000 miles of wire 63 million messages

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Advances in technology

• Telephone
• Alexander Graham Bell (Scottish immigrant)
• Earliest line only connected two
  lines Created switchboards
• 1900 1.5 million telephones in use

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Transcontinental Railroad

• At first, no standard rail gauge, short lines, no
  signals, costly delays
• Expanded after Civil War
• Transcontinental Railroad started in 1862 funded
  by government grants. (Central Pacific and Union
  Pacific)

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• Most workers were immigrants
• Two lines met in in Utah on
  May10,1869 (Promontory Summit)
• Drive the golden spike
• Dirty, noisy but continued to expanded and
  develop
• Developed schedules and standard time

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Impact of the Rails

• Faster and more practical transportation
• Lower costs of production
• Creation of a nation market
• Model for big business
• Stimulation of other industries

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The Haves

• Robber Barons/Captains of Industry

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Robber Baron

• Robber baron - term revived in the 19th century
  as a reference to businessmen and bankers who
  dominated their industries and amassed huge
  personal fortunes, by pursuing various
  anti-competitive or unfair business practices.

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Captains of Industry

• Captains of Industry- Term originally used in the
  U.S. during the Industrial Revolution describing
  a business leader whose means of amassing a
  personal fortune contributes positively to the
  country in some way.

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Why is this Era so important?

• Changed from a society based on agriculture to a
  society based on industry

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Captains of Industry vs Robber Baron

• J.P. Morgan
• Andrew Carnegie
• John D. Rockefeller

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J.P. Morgan (April 17, 1837 March 31, 1913)

• John Pierpont Morgan
• financier, banker, philanthropist, and art
  collector
• Dominated corporate finance
• Arranged merger to form General Electric.
• Financed the creation of the Federal Steel
  Company he merged several other steel and iron
  businesses to form the United States Steel
  Corporation
• By 1901, he was one of the wealthiest men in the
  world

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Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 August 11,
1919)

• Widely respected philanthropist, and the founder
  of the Carnegie Steel Company which later became
  U.S. Steel.
• Built one of the most powerful corporations in
  United States history
• Gave away most of his riches to build libraries,
  schools, and universities and worldwide

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John Rockefeller, Sr. (July 8, 1839 May 23,
1937)

• American industrialist and philanthropist.
• Revolutionized the oil industry
• Believed his purpose in life was to make as much
  money as possible, and then use it wisely to
  improve the lot of mankind.
• Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil
• He became the world's richest man and first
  billionaire.
• Standard Oil was convicted in the Federal Court
  of monopolistic practices and broken up in 1911.

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• The Box Scores
• Year Newspaper Carnegie
  Rockefeller
• 1904 The Times of London 21 M
  10 M
• 1910 The New York American 179 M 134
  M
• 1913 The New York Herald 332 M
  175 M

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Sherman Anti-trust Act

• Was the first United States federal government
  action to limit monopolies, and is the oldest of
  all U.S. antitrust laws

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The have-nots

• Immigration/labor

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Immigration

• Came to the US in steamships, often in steerage
• 10 million between 1865-1890
• German, Irish, British
• 10 Million between 1890 1920
• Italians, Greeks, Slavs

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Immigration

• 70 came through NYC- Ellis Island

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• Had to pass physical exams
• Could be quarantined (TB)
• Literacy exams

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Immigrants

• Chinese Exclusion Act- Chinese labor used to
  build rail but Act prevented entry to establish
  residence in US
• Nativism- favoring native born Americans over
  immigrants

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Child Labor

• As young as six years old worked up to 19 hours a
  day, with a one-hour total break.
• Horrible conditions. Large, heavy, and dangerous
  equipment was very common for children to be
  using
• Children were paid only a fraction of what an
  adult
• Orphans were the ones subject to this slave-like
  labor.

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Reformers

• Reformers built Settlement Houses (Hull house
  Jane Adams)
• Reporters/Photographers- wrote books like The
  Jungle which exposed the meat industry and
  published photos
• Social reformers- preached temperance, staying
  away from vice

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• Tenements low cost housing built to hold
  as many people as possible
• Turned area into slums

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