An Industrial Society, 1890-1920 © 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Chapter 20.

An Industrial Society, 1890-1920

© 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.

Chapter 20Chapter 20

Sources of Economic Growth

• Innovations and Breakthroughs– Technology combined with new corporate

structures and pioneering management techniques

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Technology

• Electrical industries– Thomas Edison– George Westinghouse– Nikola Tesla

• Henry Ford– Model T (1909)


Corporate Growth

• Demand for mass-production allowed for growth in sophisticated, organized corporations

• Employment numbers in corporations grew– Chicago International Harvester

– DuPont Corp.

– Ford Motor Company

• Nationwide transportation and communication created huge national market



Change in Distribution of American Workforce, 1870-1920

Mass Production and Distribution

• Mass production techniques resulted in– Increased speed in production– Lower unit costs– Replace skilled workers

• James Buchanan Duke– Innovations in mass distribution

• Advertising• Regional sales offices


Corporate Consolidation

• Corporate expansion wanted to avoid market instability

• “Pools,” “cartels,” “trusts”• American Tobacco Company

• James B. Duke

• U.S. Steel Corporation (1901)• Andrew Carnegie• J.P. Morgan


Revolution in Management

• Senior managers take over long term planning from owners

• Middle managers do day to day operations • Scientific management and university

trained managers• Research departments


Scientific Management on the Factory Floor

• Frederick Winslow Taylor– Scientific management– The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)

• Henry Ford– Highland Park– Assembly line

• Led to mental stupor and physical exhaustion• Ford’s solution

– $5 day– Sociology department


Model T Prices and Sales, 1909-1923


“Robber Barons” No More

• Upper class scared into moderating its image– Alexander Berkman’s attempted assassination of Henry

Clay Frick

– Controversy over Bradley Martin ball

• Andrew Carnegie– “Gospel of wealth"

• John D. Rockefeller– Rockefeller Foundation


Obsession with Physical and Racial Fitness

• Theodore Roosevelt: “the strenuous life”• Fitness craze

– Bicycle riding

– Healthier eating

– Sport competitions in American universities

– Reflected dissatisfaction with regimentation of industrial society

• Native-born, often wealthy, Americans and their quest for racial fitness


Social Darwinism

• Charles Darwin: “survival of the fittest”– Social Darwinism: Darwin’s principles used to

describe a struggle among races

• 19th C. Social Sciences took shape:– Economics, psychology, sociology, political

science and anthropology

• Increasingly global economy heightens awareness of differences in civilizations


Immigration

• High rates of immigration between 1880-1920– In many northern cities more than half of the population

were immigrants or 1st generation Americans

• Few immigrants from Latin America before 1810• “Old immigrants”

– Northwestern Europe (Britain, Scandinavia, Germany)– Racially fit, culturally sophisticated, politically mature

• “new immigrants”– From Eastern and Southern Europe– Seen as racially inferior, culturally impoverished,

incapable of assimilating American values and traditions



Immigrants and Their Children as a Percentage of the Population of Selected Cities, 1920

Sources of Immigration


Causes of Immigration

• Religious or political persecution• Main reason: economic hardship

– European population expanded faster than lands there could support their people

• Rural ways of life in Europe were threatened by industrialization and urbanization

• European village artisans unable to compete with mass-produced goods

• Commercial agriculture and competition from American grain exports force peasants off land


Patterns of Immigration

• Need for a contact in America (family member, former neighbor)

• Temporary residency was sought by many immigrants

• Many Jews came as families, intending to stay in the U.S., rather than return to religious persecution

• Immigration moved in tandem with U.S. business cycles


Chinese and Japanese Immigrants

• Chinese and Japanese immigrants contributed greatly to 2 important western economic sectors: railroads and agriculture

• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)• Japanese immigration banned in 1907• 1790 Naturalization Act interpreted to preclude

citizenship for East Asian immigrants• Motive for immigration similar to European• Angel Island San Francisco

Immigrant Labor

• Immigrants did arduous work in most major industries

• Triangle Shirtwaist Company (1911)• Problems for workers

– Chronic fatigue and malnourishment– 60 work week average– Average yearly income $400-500

• Immigrants most vulnerable during Depression• Robert Hunter

– Poverty (1904)


Living Conditions

• Many families lived in crowded, dilapidated 2 or 3 room apartments

• Tenements– Lower East Side of NYC– Crowded– Lack of windows, ventilation– Poor sanitary conditions

• High rates of deadly infectious diseases (Typhoid, Diptheria, Pneumonia)

• By 1900 some cities make improvements– Housing inspections– Sewer systems


Building Ethnic Communities

• Immigrants:– Resourceful– Self-helping– Mutual aid


A Network of Institutions

• Many groups reestablished institutions of homeland

• Clan Na Gael

• Turnevereins

• Foreign language newspapers

• Fraternal Societies


The Emergence of an Ethnic Middle Class

• Small retail businesses and peddlers• “Sweatshops"• Padroni• Amadeo P. Giannini

– Bank of America

• Japanese fruit and vegetable farms• Led way for future generations to

Americanize and assimilate


Political Machines and Organized Crime

• Corruption and organized crime• Bosses and Graft

– “King Richard” Croker, N.Y.

– James Michael Curley, Boston

– Vice protection

– Kickbacks

– Vote fraud

• Kennedy Family• Underworld of Urban Life

– Mafia, Gangsters, and Tongs


African American Labor and Community

• Many Blacks remained predominantly rural and Southern– Sharecroppers and tenant farmers

• Some blacks migrated to industrial areas for better opportunities

• Black were still treated worse than newest immigrants in labor force

• Jim Crow laws • Blacks used as strikebreakers• Intensifying racial discrimination


Workers and Unions

• Middle-class success still eluded most immigrants and black in pre-WWI era

• A better life for many factory workers meant improving their working conditions


Samuel F. Gompers and the AFL

• Legal environment hostile to unions– Government often crushed strikes– Strikes seen as violation of Sherman Anti-Trust Act– Injunctions often prohibited strikes

• American Federation of Labor (AFL)– “bread and butter” issues– Many local prohibited Blacks from joining

• Lochner v. New York (1905)• National Civic Federation• United Mine Workers (UMW)• International Ladies Garment Workers Union

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“Big Bill” Haywood and the IWW

• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)– Accepted immigrants– Big Bill Haywood– Anti-Capitalist

• "Ludlow massacre" (1913)


The Joys of the City

• “Nickelodeons”

• Early movies


The New Sexuality and the New Woman

• Vamps vs. Victorianism– “Separate spheres”

• “New women”– Educated, middle class women– Young, single, working class women

• Dance Halls• More premarital sex


The Rise of Feminism

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman• Margaret Sanger and birth control• Emma Goldman and “free love”• Alice Paul and militant women’s suffrage• Greenwich Village

– Crystal Eastman and Heterodoxy

– Max Eastman and The Masses

• Cultural Conservatism– Vice Commissions

– Mann Act(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Conclusion

• 1890-1920:– Corporate power, innovations and demand for

manufactured products stimulate urban growth– Millions of immigrants came to America– Many thrived, many remained impoverished

• African American status

– Working-class Americans make gains through political machines and unions

– Growing gap between Rich and Poor


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An Industrial Society, 1890-1920 © 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Chapter 20.

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