Hector Irizarry  

Date: 6-1-16 

Period: 6 

Ms.Tollefson 

Was Industrialization Progress? 

In America’s history many changes and improvements have been made to the country but one
really big improvement was the Gilded Age or also known as the Industrialization age. Industrialization
was in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s when the U.S. started turning into a manufacturing of goods and
service society from an agricultural one. In this stage of America it resulted in tons of controversy. Most
of it was caused by laborers and how they were treated very unfairly. The reason laborers were treated so
unfairly is because of robber barons which are bosses of popular companies and manufacturers who pay
their employees extremely low wages with horrible working conditions and lots of working hours. Two
very known robber barons are John D. Rockefeller who owned the Standard Oil company and Andrew
Carnegie who owned the Carnegie Steel company. John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie both used
trusts to become very wealthy which is a monopoly that knocks competing companies from taking all the
business from them. Then due to the unfair treatment of laborers people developed labor unions. Which
are groups of workers who try to improve wages, working conditions, and working hours. Some notable
labor unions are Knights of labor and American Federation of Labor. The Knights of Labor is a Union
open to unskilled and skilled laborers, women, African-Americans, immigrants; the motto was, "An
injury to one is the concern of all." The American Federation of Labor is a Union 1886; founded by
Samuel Gompers; sought better wages, shorter workdays, cleaner and safer working conditions; only open
to skilled, white workers. Then when bosses of companies did not wanna give the laborers what they
wanted the laborers would go on strikes. Which was an organized work stoppage intended to force an
employer to address union demands. Then finally towards the end of the Industrialization era was when
the government started passing laws on limiting immigrants and trusts for robber barons. These laws are
when America started showing a drop in progress when they started becoming greedy with money and
jobs and singled out races for it. The industrial age for America was not progress because of wealth,
labor, and strikes. 

 
 The first reason that industrialization was not progress is due to wealth. One piece of evidence is
“ It is true that wealth has been greatly increased, and that the average comfort, leisure, and refinement
have been raised, but these gains are not general. In them the lowest class do not share… There is a vague
but general feeling of disappointment; and increases bitterness among the working classes’ a widespread
feeling of unrest and brooding revolution (Doc 2).” The reason this shows wealth was a factor in
industrialization not being progress because it is basically explaining how the money or economy has
improved but it is not for everyone since it’s saying it’s not general and then refers to the working class
being bitter and disappointment you can clearly see there’s more poverty than wealth.The second piece of
evidence is “I am going to fight… If it takes all summer and all winter…, I will fight this to the bitter end.
I will never recognize the union, never, never. HC Frick, President, Carnegie Steel, 1892 (Doc 4).”
Wealth did not show progress for industrialization is because this was said by Andrew Carnegie one of
the most known people during industrialization because his wealth he made so quick and basically he’s
saying he’s gonna fight whatever the workers are fighting for against him like better pay, working
conditions, and working hours which clearly shows he’s nothing but greedy since he’s treating workers
unfairly. The last piece of evidence is “I am one of many victims of Rockefeller’s colossal [trusts]’, said
Mr. [George] Rice, and my my story is not essentially different from the rest. . . . I established what was
known as the Ohio Oil Works. . . . but I soon found that the Standard OIl Company was offering the
same quality of oil at much lower prices than I could do.... I sought for the reason [that the standard Oil
was able to price so low] and found that the railroads were in league with the Standard Oil Company at
every point, giving it [positively] discriminating rates and privileges of all kinds (Doc 12).” The reason
this evidence shows wealth did not help make progress for industrialization is because Rockefeller was so
wealthy that he could price his oil so low that it would increase his profit since it’s so cheap making
people stop buying from competing companies and going to his company since they save more money
making the other companies lose business. The reason these evidence of Andrew Carnegie and John D.
Rockefeller is important because actions like this explains why the Sherman Anti-Trust act was taken into
action because it was the first United States law to limit trusts and big business. It stated that any trust that
was purposefully restraining trade between states was illegal.  

Secondly, industrialization was not progress is because of labor. Evidence to support this is “All
the year in New York and in other cities you may watch children coming and going from pitiful
sweatshops. Nearly any hour on the East side of New York you can see them-- pale boy and bone-thin
girl--their faces always dull. Their backs are bent under a heavy load of garments piled on head and
shoulders, their muscles straining. The boy always has bowlegs and walks with feet wide apart and
wobbling. Once at work in the shop, the little worker sits close to an inadequate window and sews,
struggling with the snarls of thread or shoving the needle through the unwieldy cloth. Even if by happy
chance the small worker goes to school, the sewing which he or she puts down at the last moment in the
morning awaits his or her return...For all this, a child may add to the family purse from 50 cents to $1.50 a
week (Doc 9).” The reason this shows labor wasn’t progress for industrialization is because families are
so poor that kids either have to drop school and work for countless hours and kids that are working look
very sick and unhealthy and are getting hard labor in bad working conditions and low pay for their hard
work since their wages are 50 cents to $1.50 a week. The second piece of evidence is “Girl wanted--In
small private family--a young girl, 14 or 15 years old, either American or German, to take care of a young
child. She must have good references. Wages $3 a month.(Doc 17).” The reason this evidence shows why
labor was not a factor in progress for industrialization is because people were asking for help for any job
they needed done but they were unfair with the wage like no one in present pays a nanny $3 a month for
helping kids out since it is unfair because the nanny’s job is to care for the kids like their her own and
that’s nothing but disrespect to give her $3 a month for the work and responsibility she has to do. The
third piece of evidence is in document 7 where it has a tenement house plan and how some rooms are 6
feet by 9 feet and 11 feet by 14 feet and it also says “ Sometimes a whole family was crowded into a
single room.” The reason this piece of evidence supports why labor is not progress is because tenement
housing was where many factory workers were forced to live in Tenements which one-room apartments
(often crowded by an entire family) and the conditions were very unsanitary which means that the bosses
treated their workers terribly.  

The final reason industrialization was not progress was because of strikes. The first piece of
evidence is in document 6 and it is a chart with 12 different states that strikes occurred in and how many
people got killed, injured, and arrested. “In California 6 were killed, 34 injured, and 31 arrested. Colorado
had 42 killed, 112 injured, and 1,345 arrested. Illinois had 35 killed, 447 injured, and 1,353 killed.
Louisiana had 1 killed , 38 injured, and 79 arrested. Massachusetts had none killed, 3 injured, and 19
arrested. Mississippi had none killed or injured but 1 person was arrested. Missouri had 8 killed, 40
injured, and 69 arrested. New Jersey had 3 killed, 76 injured, and 125 arrested. New York had 4 killed,
123 injured, and 1,010 arrested. Pennsylvania had 35 killed, 486 injured, and 678 arrested. Utah had 0
killed, 41 injured, and 223 arrested. West Virginia had 13 killed, 19 injured, and 192 arrested.” The
reason this shows strikes are not progress for industrialization is because every state a strike happened in
violence occurred maybe not all states had reported deaths but there still physical and aggressive contact
during the strikes making them unsuccessful since many people were hurt or arrested for striking to
aggressively. Some common strikes of the Industrial age is Pullman strike 1894, Hay Market in 1886, and
Railroad Strike of 1877. All three of these strikes fought for better pay, working conditions, and working
hours. Another piece of evidence is “The railroad president is a railroad king, whose whim is law He
collects tithes by reducing wages as remorselessly... He can discharge (banish) any employee without
cause. … He can without their lawful wages. He can delay trial on a suit at law and postpone judgement
indefinitely. He can control legislative bodies, dictate legislation, subsidize the press, and corrupt the
moral sense of the community. He can fix the freights, and thus command the food and fuel-supplies of
the nation. In his right hand he holds the government, in his left hand, the people (Doc 14).” The reason
this document shows how the strikes were not progress in industrialization is because people like this
railroad owner have so much power from money that any strikes that occur they can overcome it and
withstand it whether if they have power in legislation or power of the people there are just people too
strong to fight against and that is why strikes were mostly violent because of such powerful bosses of the
people and government.  

Some critics may still feel industrialization was progress because of immigrants and new
inventions. One piece of evidence to support the other side is in document 8 and it says in 1876 the
telephone was made by Alexander Graham Bell. In 1876 the phonograph was invented by Thomas A.
Edison. In 1879 the efficient light bulb was invented by Thomas A. Edison. In 1888 George Eastman
invented the Kodak Camera. In 1893 Charles and Frank Duryea invented the first Gas Powered
Automobile. In 1894 Motion Pictures were invented by Thomas A. Edison. In 1899 John Thurman
invented Motorized Vacuum cleaner. In 1903 the airplane was invented by Orville and Wilbur Wright
(Doc 8). The reason this shows progress because with these inventions they open tons of more jobs over
time and most of these happened in 5-9 years or less from each other so new jobs were pretty available
quite often showing real progress in Industrialization. The other document 15 is in document which is a
chart of immigrant populations that grew in the U.S. from 1861 to to 1920 and how in 1861 the U.S. had
5 million immigrants and in 1920 had about 14.5 million immigrants. The reason this shows progress
because the U.S.’s industrialization period was making so much progress that it attracted so many
different immigrants because of how rapid jobs were and how much money the U.S. was making from
industrialization. The reason critics are still wrong to believe that industrialization was progress is because
in document 16 it states “ The treatment of Chinese in this country is all wrong… There is no reason for
the prejudice against the Chinese. The cheap labor cry was always a falsehood. Their labor was never
cheap, and it is not cheap now. It has always commanded the highest market price. But the trouble is that
the Chinese are such excellent and faithful workers that bosses will have no others when they can get
them. If you look at men working on the street you will find a supervisor for every four or five of them.
That watching is not necessary for the Chinese. They work as well when left to themselves as they do
when someone is looking at them.” The reason this shows industrialization was not progress is because it
shows how discriminative the U.S. was towards the Chinese because they were better workers than them
while the Chinese did not do anything wrong to the American workers but just that they work a lot better
than them and that the Americans are afraid that the Chinese will take all their jobs from them and the
Americans just could not compete for the obs instead they treated the chinese unfairly. This piece of
evidence explains why the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed since it denied any Chinese
laborers to enter the country and American workers felt threatened by the job competition. The other
document that supports why industrialization showed no progress is in document 19 it shows the Robber
Barons or bosses of big companies really big symbolizing they have a lot power and money compared to
the people working in the desks really tiny compared to them symbolizing they have no power compared
to the robber barons since it says “Robber Barons bosses of the Senate” I’m assuming they mean the
Robber Barons rule the government too since they are the reason the country is running so good because
of huge amount of money coming from and keeping the country at a good economy which is wrong
because no owners of big companies should have any say in government just because they are rich does
not mean anything since poorer class is just as equal in power of government as the wealthier class and
that all men created equal and no one but the government should run the government. 

Now people understand why Industrialization was not progress due to greediness of bosses of rich
and popular companies, labor unions and laborers being treated unfairly due to the wealth of robber
barons, and how strikes were unsuccessful for laborers and labor unions because of the violence that
occurred during strikes and because owners of companies and businesses had too much power for laborers
and labor unions to overcome so most of them resulted unsuccessfully. Now from this experience people
can understand how America evolved from Industrialization and how power and people became more
equal from past to present day.