5-3.4 Summarize the impact of industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of big business, including the development of monopolies; long hours, low wages, and unsafe working conditions on men, women, and children laborers; and resulting reform movements.
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BIG BUSINESS
The growth of Big Business was both a cause and an effect of increased immigration. Big Business encouraged the United States government to continue an open immigration policy so that the workforce would be plentiful and cheap. Immigrants were attracted to jobs created by Big Business and enabled the businesses to grow bigger because they worked for low wages and therefore the businesses made greater profits. Big Business was also caused by the availability of natural resources (land), new inventions and technologies, capitol for investments, and the role of entrepreneurs. Men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller developed business practices that allowed them to create monopolies. Carnegie controlled the steel industry and Rockefeller controlled the oil industry. These monopolies kept wages low and kept labor unions from being effective.
Effect on Farmers
As industries grew, the United States shifted from an agrarian economy based on agriculture to an industrial economy based on manufacturing. Farmers were able to produce more crops because of mechanization. As a result, the prices they got for their crops fell (supply and demand). Unable to pay mortgages on land and equipment because of low profits, many farmers lost their farms to foreclosure and moved to the cities in search of jobs in industry. In the late 1800s, many African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers left the South for cities in the
Midwest and the Northeast in search of jobs in factories and to escape Jim Crow laws. By 1920, the majority of people in the United States lived in cities.
Midwest and the Northeast in search of jobs in factories and to escape Jim Crow laws. By 1920, the majority of people in the United States lived in cities.
Middle Class
As cities grew due to the increase in immigration and movement from the farm, middle class Americans were concerned about the living conditions and the corruption of city governments. Crowded conditions led to problems providing sanitation. Issues related to water and housing contributed to opportunities for corruption among city officials who were often supported by their ethnic constituents. Middle class Americans lived in the cities too and paid taxes for city government. Progressive reformers advocated the establishment of city parks, beautification projects, safer housing, and sanitation. They also promoted teaching immigrants to adapt to their new country by establishing settlement houses where immigrants were taught social skills.
Unsafe Conditions and Child Labor
Progressives were also very concerned about unsafe conditions in factories and about the long hours that workers, particularly women and children, were expected to work. They did not support labor unions’ actions such as collective bargaining and strikes to address these issues. Instead they advocated the passage of laws. Conditions in the factories were publicized by the increasingly popular newspapers and magazines, illustrated with photographs showing the unsafe working conditions. Writers of exposes about corporate power and unsafe working conditions were called muckrakers, a term first used by President Teddy Roosevelt, because they exposed the corruption of the system. Reformers advocated restricting child labor and passing laws requiring that children attend school. This was in direct opposition to the wishes of many working class families who needed the income provided by their working children. Workers sometimes resented the interference of reformers in their lives. Some compulsory school attendance laws were passed at the state level, but a federal child labor law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The federal government did not successfully enforce child labor laws or minimum wage and maximum hours laws for workers until the New Deal
reforms following the Great Depression.
reforms following the Great Depression.
Progressives and Theodore Roosevelt
Progressives were more successful at the federal level in addressing the problems associated with Big Business. Progressives feared that Big Business not only had too much control over the economy but also that trusts had too much influence over the American government. During thelate nineteenth century, Congress passed a law declaring monopolies, or trusts in restraint of trade, to be unlawful [Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890]. However, this law did not end monopolies because the Supreme Court limited its effectiveness. When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, there was an assertive progressive in the White House. The president was encouraged by muckraking writers such as Ida Tarbell, who exposed the oil trust, and Upton Sinclair, who exposed the meat-packing trust. Roosevelt began to use the old law to successfully
break up trusts and earned the name “trust-buster.” Roosevelt also protected the rights of the
consumer by pushing for the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug
Act and he promoted the regulation of railroads. Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow
Wilson continued this work and are known, along with Roosevelt, as the progressive presidents.
break up trusts and earned the name “trust-buster.” Roosevelt also protected the rights of the
consumer by pushing for the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug
Act and he promoted the regulation of railroads. Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow
Wilson continued this work and are known, along with Roosevelt, as the progressive presidents.
The 18th Amendment
Progressives were also concerned about improving society by controlling the moral behavior of all Americans and particularly of the immigrants. The movement to limit the consumption of alcohol [the temperance movement] had been going on since the time of the American Revolution and got a popular boost as a result of the influx of immigrants in the late nineteenth century. Some states passed prohibition laws and others passed blue laws to limit the sale of alcohol. When World War I started, propaganda against the Germans, who were known for their beer drinking and the voluntary rationing of grain, helped progressives push through Congress a national prohibition amendment that was then ratified by the states. The eighteenth amendment outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. However, it could not stop people from drinking thus promoting illegal activities such as bootlegging and speakeasies until repealed by the twenty-first amendment in the 1930s.
Video Analysis
- View the Discovery Education video “Child Labor and Poor Working Conditions” (1 min 38 sec) and complete the video analysis sheet. (DOK 2-3)
Photo Analysis
- Analyze the photograph “A Moments Glimpse of the Outer World” from Library of Congress Prints using the photo analysis sheet. (DOK 2-3)
Notebook Response
- Read closely the Compass Odyssey “Teddy Bear President” Activity (#6027). Answer the “Teddy Bear President” discussion questions using small group and/or whole group discussion and/or notebook responses. (DOK 1-3)
Video Analysis
- View the Discovery Education video clip “Progressivism.” Analyze the videos using the video analysis sheet. (DOK 2-3)
High Five and Gist Organizer
- Use the ABDO eBook World War I and Modern America to close read the text in groups (Chapter 2: pages 13-19). Use the High Five and Gist organizer to examine the progressive movement. (Who, what, when, where, and why). Note: This will also have information intertwined pertaining to the Spanish American War) (DOK 2-3)
Further Evidence (Compare and Contrast)
- Use the ABDO eBook World War I and Modern America to close read the text in groups (Chapter 1: pages 5-11). Then examine the website found on page 11 with the Link under “Further Evidence” . Complete the Further Evidence sheet to compare the information found in the eBook and the website. How are they presented differently, what can you learn, etc.? (DOK 3)