Industrial America: Corporations and Conflicts??

The Rise of Big Business

1. Industrialization revolutionizes world economy  
   1. Period of lowering prices 
   2. Everyone is better off, but gap between rich and poor grows. 

How do I make profits when prices drop?

Profit=Revenue-Costs

MUST LOWER COSTS 

1. Cheaper Materials 
2. Cheaper Labor: 
   1. Immigrations, Deskilling 
3. Vertical Integration: own every part of the production process-Swift, Carnegie 
4. Horizontal Integration 
   1. By your competitors 
   2. Ex. Rockefeller 
5. Become more efficient-scientific management 

Increase Revenue 

1. Consumer Culture-marketing, catalogues, traveling salesmen 
2. Labor Gets Organized 
3. Two Routes to Better 
4. Situation: Elections, Employers
5. Will industrialization bring property or permanent poverty 

Changes in immigration 

• Where do emigrants come from, 1865-1919?
• Newcomers from Europe 
• Asian-Americans and Exclusion

• The changing workplace 
• Why organize? over what issues?
•  The emergence of the Labor movement 
•  Great Railroad Strike of 1877 
•  Rural Issues 
• National Grange (1867)

• Categories: Ideals: 
  • Membership Rules; 
  • Emphasis on Activism; 
  • Achievements 
• Knights of Labor 
• Farmer's Alliance 
•  American's Federation of Labor