Welcome to the Big Leagues #2

To continue on with my research of Labor vs. Big Business in history we looked into primary sources relating to each of our topics. The primary source for Labor vs Big Business is http://ftp.learner.org/courses/amerhistory/interactives/sources/E5/e1/event.php. This website gave several different articles from old newspapers talking about the Homestead revolt and how both the strikers and the government responded to each other and the results of each conflict. Among these articles were poems and songs explaining the feelings and attitude.

Key Terms:

Andrew Carnegie: embraced the concept "money could make money". Had an eye for recognizing a good investment.
America: Pathways to the Present, 467


Robber barons: used to describe the powerful industrialists who established large businesses in the late 1800's.
America: Pathways to the Present, 468


Rockefeller: Formed the standard oil company in 1870
America: Pathways to the Present, 468

Social Darwinism: wealthy were most valuable group in society. Argued that Society should interfere with competition as little as possible. Argued that society would benefit from the success of the fit and weeding out.
America: Pathways to the Present, 469

Larger pools of capital: entrepreneurs had to invest huge amounts of money and barrow money from investors
America: Pathways to the Present, 469

Oligopoly: industries run by only a few large, profitable firms.
America: Pathways to the Present, 470

Monopoly: complete control of a product or service.
America: Pathways to the Present, 470

Cartel: loose association of business that make the same product.
America: Pathways to the Present, 470

Consolidation: gaining control of the many different businesses that make up all the phases of a products development.
America: Pathways to the Present, 471

Horizontal Consolidation: involves bringing together many firms in the same business.
America: Pathways to the Present, 471

Sherman Antitrust Act: outlawed any combination of companies that restrained interstate trade or commerce.
America: Pathways to the Present, 471

Piecework: workers received a fixed amount for each finished piece they produced. Forced workers to work fast and efficient.
America: Pathways to the Present, 474

Sweatshop: the place where most piecework occurred. Where workers worked long hours at low wages.
America: Pathways to the Present, 474

Frederick Winslow Taylor: set out to improve worker efficiency in steel plants and therefore increase profits.
America: Pathways to the Present, 474

Division of Labor: factory workers performed one small task over and over to improve efficiency.
factory workers were ruled by the clock, discipline in the factories was strict. Often fined and fired workers for being late or talking.
America: Pathways to the Present, 474

Socialism: an idea that some were drawn too in this time, system that favors public instead of private control of the means of production. Wealthy saw it as a threat to their fortunes.
America: Pathways to the Present, 477

Labor Unions: organizing among workers in certain trades, helped members in bad times. Called for shorter workdays, higher wages and better working conditions.
America: Pathways to the Present, 478

Collective Bargaining: a prices that some Labor Unions used, process where workers negotiated as a group with employers. Workers acting as a group had more power than a single worker acting alone.
America: Pathways to the Present, 478

Pinkerton:  Pinkerton is a provider of risk management services and solutions for organizations throughout the world. Pinkerton was payed to protect the Homestead Mills. 
Primary Sources

 Henry Clay Frick: a man known for his enmity to labour. Frick was also the owner of extensive coke-fields, where unions were prohibited and the workers were ruled with an iron hand.

Enduring Understanding
If you were unable to combine companies with another person it would be very hard to succeed.

•  Carnegie trust was able to vertically consolidate and charge less for the product because they did not have to pay for any of the phases of production.
•  Carnegie was able to buy the other phases of production with the large capital they have. 
•  This allowed them to lower the prices of their product making it impossible for a smaller company to compete. The big start up cost also allowed for very few who entered the business  to make a profit. If a company didn't combine with another company  it would have trouble making a profit because it has such a small capital. 

Enduring Understanding 2
Big business men often betrayed the public if it meant more money.

• Robber Barons drained the country of its natural resources and bribed public officials and also drove competitors out of town.  
•  Big businessmen often had a Monopoly, which is complete control of a product or service.
•  Or formed a Cartel which is loose association of business that make the same product, so they could keep the prices high.  
•  Sweatshops are  where most piecework occurred. Where workers worked long hours at low wages.
• In fact, he would not recognize the union at all. He would not treat with the employees collectively, as before. He would close the mills, and the men might consider themselves discharged. Thereafter they would have to apply for work individually, and the pay would be arranged with every worker separately. Frick curtly refused the peace advances of the workers' organization, declaring that there was "nothing to arbitrate." Presently the mills were closed. "Not a strike, but a lockout," Frick announced. It was an open declaration of war.

-Emma Goldman

Enduring Understanding 3

In order to fight the cruel men of the industry, or robber barons if you will workers went on strike in hopes of getting what they deserved. In the Homstead Strike's case it would be to save their jobs. This source showed how import the job was. 

• "At 12 o'clock last night every department of the immense Carnegie steel works at Homestead was shut down, throwing about 3,800 men out of employment...It has been the custom of the Carnegies, and all other mills, to discharge their men on the night of the expiration of the yearly contract. The men had declared positively that they would strike at the date of the expiration of the yearly contract. "

-Pittsburgh Post

• 
  

-G.A. Davis, from a sketch by C. Upham.

Description:

This illustration graphically depicts the rage and frustration vented upon the defeated Pinkerton Detectives. The image focuses the viewers attention on the young boy in the front preparing to shoot the unarmed man. It shows how much the job meant to them and how much they needed it. To have Carnegie put them out on the streets like that made the workers furious.

Reflection:

To experience the "Homstead Troubles" from the point of the workers would be very emotional and nerve racking. Being in this position would be emotional for many reasons. One reason it would be emotional is because, without this job I would be left out on the streets. 3800 other people and I would be out looking for jobs. Being in this position would also be very pressing matter. It would be a pressing matter because not only do you know your going to be fighting Pinkerton detectives, but also many of the workers, possibly me would have to have the money to put food on the tables for their/my family. To be in such a position would be nerve racking for many reasons. One reason it would be nerve racking would be because although there are many of us, we were going up against several trained detectives. All in all being in the position of the workers would be a very stressful, and emotional time.