Industrialization in the late 19th century led to rapid population growth in cities which overwhelmed infrastructure and living conditions. New inventions fueled increased factory production, providing many jobs but with long hours, low pay, and unsafe conditions. Workers organized unions to demand better treatment, using strikes that sometimes turned violent as companies hired replacements. Both unions and the government took steps to improve conditions, such as pushing for an eight hour work day.

1. Effects of Industrialization on the United States:
Turn of the 20th century age of expansion and
progressivism

2. • All of the following increased during the period
after the Civil War:
– Natural resources
– Inventions
– Population in cities
• This leads to advances in technology
• Such increases brought about huge social issues
never before experienced in the United States:
– The demand for newly invented products led to an
increase in production which in turn led to an increase in
factory production and therefore, an increase in city
populations
– Structurally and logistically, cities were not prepared to accommodate so
many people
– Sanitation and garbage removal became a major issue
– Crime increased
– Factory work was long, tiring, dangerous, difficult, and it paid low wages

3. The age of inventions explodes during the
late 1800s:
• 1876- Edison invented the Light Bulb
– Then he began to create power plants to
make electricity
• 1890- electricity is used in many homes
• 1876- Alex. Graham Bell invented the
telephone
• These changes result in more jobs in
factories
– Working conditions in factories were very poor!

4. Workers are exploited and labor unions
emerge:
• Men, women, and children all faced long, hard
working conditions with low wages
• They formed Labor Unions to improve wages and
conditions
• National Labor Unions got government to adopt an 8
hour work day for government offices
• Knights of Labor fought for an 8 hour work day in
industry and equal pay for women

6. Union movements diverge and union
strikes turn Violent:
• Unions formed in the 1880s to help fight for worker’s rights
– AFL – American Federation of Labor – trade and craft
union led by Samuel Gompers
• Collective bargaining – group agreements between workers
and employers
– ARU – American Railway Union – led Eugene V. Debs
• Many unions believed problems were because of the
American economic system:
• Private ownership and free competition led to differences
in classes and poor working conditions
– IWW – Industrial Workers of the World – wanted
socialism

7. Unions Turn Violent continued…
• Many people believed in socialism - government control
of business and equal wealth for all
• Unions used strikes to improve their conditions – strikes
sometimes became violent
• Companies hired replacement workers (scabs) to
work…breaking the strike
The role of women and government
change:
• Most women were not allowed in unions but they still
helped to improve working conditions
• The government often forced workers back to work if the
strike hurt the economy