43. Railroads
• Transcontinental RR: opened May 10, 1869
via Union Pacific and Central Pacific. Creates
national market for goods and provided many
jobs.
48. Other Inventions of the Time
• Thomas Edison - light bulb (1880)
• Christopher Sholes – typewriter (1867)
• Alexander Graham Bell – telephone (1876)
• G.M. Pullman - sleeper cars for passenger
trains (1880)
• George Eastman - Kodak camera (1888)
• King Gillette – disposable razor (1895)
49. The City Changes
1900: ~40% of Americans in cities = urbanization
African Americans from Southern farms to
Northern cities = Great Migration
Upper and middle classes moved to suburbs as
cities grew and became dirtier
Streetcars: replaced horse-drawn carriages and
pedestrians for commuters
Skyscrapers: 10 stories of steel structure; first in
Chicago
51. Immigration
• “Old” Immigrants: northern and western Europe;
mostly Protestant and Catholic
• “New” Immigrants: eastern and southern Europe
(Italy, Greece, Russia, and Austria-Hungary);
Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish)
• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• Angel Island, CA
• Ellis Island, NY/NJ
• Statue of Liberty
52.
53.
54. Gilded Age Business
Laissez-faire = unregulated free market
capitalism
Social Darwinism = survival of the fittest
Horatio Alger novels = rags-to-riches
American Dream
55. Gospel of Wealth
$ Andrew Carnegie
$ Wealth viewed as sign
of God’s approval;
Christian duty to
accumulate wealth.
$ Should not help the
poor directly; instead
philanthropy
Andrew Carnegie
64. Management vs. Labor
Union
“Tools” of
Management
“Tools” of
Labor
Pinkertons
Lockout
Blacklisting
Yellow-dog contracts
“scabs”
P. R. campaign
Boycotts
Strikes
65. Great Railroad Strike of
1877
RR workers struck one
week over 50,000 miles of
track; Pres. Hayes used
military to end strike
66. Knights of Labor
Terence Powderly (1869) - 700K members by 1886-
87, Haymarket Riot damaged reputation
67. Goals of the Knights of
Labor
8 hr workday
Worker-owned factories
Abolition of child and prison
labor
Equal pay for men and women
Workplace safety codes
68. Haymarket
Riot (1886)
Chicago, IL - protest
following killing of six
strikers at McCormick
Harvester plant;
7 police dead;
four protesters
executed, one
suicide, others rec’d
life in prison; bomber
never found;
devastated K of L
membership
69. American Federation
of Labor (AFL)
Samuel Gompers
(1886); craft union,
sought small goals;
membership at 1 m. by
1900
70. Homestead Steel Strike (1892)
The Amalgamated
Association of
Iron & Steel Workers
Homestead Steel
Works
near Pittsburg, PA; strike
against Carnegie US
Steel; battle against
Pinkertons; strike
unsuccessful; breaks
labor movement
72. Pullman Strike of 1894
Panic of 1893: wages and cut jobs but not rent on
company housing; American Railway Union (ARU)
striked. Federal troops sent in.
74. President Grover Cleveland
If it takes the entire army and navy to
deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card
will be delivered!
75. International Workers of
the World (“Wobblies”)
Mary “Mother” Jones and
William “Big Bill”
Haywood (1905) –global
socialist working class
revolution
