Big Business and Unions Notes

The Rise of Big Business

Big businesses exist because they can produce goods more cheaply and efficiently than small businesses

This forced many small companies out of business

Think Wal-Mart vs. a local store, what do you sacrifice in order to buy something for less money?

The Self Made Man

Andrew Carnegie › emigrated to the US

from Scotland in 1848 Worked his way from

bobbin boy in a textile factory making $1.20 a week to making $50,000 a year with a railroad company and creating his own business investing in the steel industry

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Buying all of the different businesses that the operation of a company depends upon

Example:› A clothing company would own the

trucks to distribute, the factory, the cotton farm, etc.

Buying several small businesses to create one large business

Example:› Independent oil companies combine to create the US

Oil Company When a single company controls an entire

market it becomes a monopoly Many Americans feared monopolies because

they could charge whatever price they wanted to

Working in the United States

Working conditions were not very regulated› Workers breathed in

toxic fumes, lint, and dust

› Average industrial worker in 1900 made 22 ¢ per hour and worked 59 hours per week ($12.98 per week, $51.92 per month)

Early Unions Many workers wanted to form unions

› What do unions ALWAYS want? Better working conditions (safety) Better pay Better hours

Company owners didn’t like unions because they thought they interfered with their property rights

Companies required workers to sign contracts against unions, hired detectives to identify union organizers, and blacklisted workers who tried to unionize› Companies would lock workers out of their property

and refuse to pay them until they broke up the union

Marxism Marxism (a set of ideas

of Karl Marx) started to scare people in the capitalist US› Believed that workers

could eventually revolt and seize control of factories

Many European immigrants had heard the ideas of Marx and when they came to the US nativism (anti-immigrant feelings) started to spread

The Struggle to Organize The recession that

started in 1873 continued into 1877› Railroad workers

across the country walked onto the tracks and refused to move

› After property had been destroyed and people killed, President Hayes sent the army out to stop the strike

The Haymarket Riot and the Pullman Strike

Haymarket Riot› Movement for 8 hour workday › Nationwide strike on May 1,

1886› Chicago: clash between

strikers and police left one striker dead.

› Next day a protest was organized in Haymarket Square

› Police entered the square and someone threw a bomb

› Police opened fire and workers shot back

› 8 German men were arrested› Evidence was weak but 4

were executed

Pullman Strike› Pullman (railroad cars) Factory

workers had been required to live in a company town Get paid, pay rent to company, buy

food from company, nothing left to save

› Went on strike because of slashed wages and the firing of 3 workers who complained

› Workers across the U.S. boycotted Pullman cars and refused to handle them, tying up railroads and threatening to paralyze the economy

› Railroad managers had US mail cars attached to Pullman cars so the workers would be interfering with the US mail (violation of federal law)

› President Cleveland sent in troops