INDUSTRIALISM OUTLINE

Industrialism

You are walking to your car after a shopping trip, but the store was so full that you had to park around the back, near a large dumpster. As you unload your groceries, you notice an elderly woman going through the trash. She is obviously destitute and homeless. She does not ask you for help, but as you are loading the Twinkies, Cornflakes, Cheetoes, and apples into your car, a thought crosses your mind: should I do something?

1. What do you do? (be honest)



2. What value made you decide to do what you did? In other words, how do you justify your actions?



I. Why was there such vast growth so rapidly in the U.S.?

1. War: Why would war encourage industrial growth?

Example #1: Morrill Act (1862)

Example #2: Railroads:
1860: 30,000 miles of r.r.
1864: Congress grants 131 million acres
1910: 240,000 miles of railway

2. Resources: land, raw materials, people,
ideas=booooooom!

1864: 872,000 tons of iron and steel
1919: more than 24 million tons

1860: 20 million tons of coal
1910: 500 million tons of coal

1860: 500,000 barrels of petroleum
1910: 209 million barrels of petroleum


3. Integration:

a. Horizontal Integration:
--monopolize one part of the productive process

Example: meatpacking plants


b. Vertical Integration:
--monopolize all elements of productive process

Example: Andrew Carnegie: mining iron ore, own blast furnaces(factories), own shops, own ships, own railroad and rail lines


4. Mindset:

a. Small Government is Best:
Laissez faire: “let it do”

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)

b. Aggressive Business Mentality:
The Robber Barons

Andrew Carnegie
J.P. Morgan
Jay Gould: “Mephistopheles of Wall Street”
Cornelius Van Derbilt:


Gentlemen:
You have undertaken to cheat me. I will not sue you, for law takes too long. I will ruin you.
Sincerely,
CVD


c. Justifying the New World:
How do you justify the world when fabulous wealth and wretched poverty exist so closely together?