MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
%529. Mechanical Progress.%--The mechanical progress made by our
countrymen since the war surpasses that of any previous period. In 1866
another cable was laid across the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, and worked
successfully. Before 1876 the Gatling gun, dynamite, and the barbed-wire
fence were introduced; the compressed-air rock drill, the typewriter,
the Westinghouse air brake, the Janney car coupler, the cable-car
system, the self-binding reaper and harvester, the cash carrier for
stores, water gas, and the tin-can-making machine were invented, and
Brush gave the world the first successful electric light.
%530. Uses of Electricity.%--Till Brush invented his arc light and
dynamo, the sole practical use made of electricity was in the field of
telegraphy. But now in rapid succession came the many forms of electric
lights and electric motors; the electric railway, the search light;
photography by electric light; the welding of metals by electricity; the
phonograph and the telephone. In the decade between 1876 and 1886 came
also the hydraulic dredger, the gas engine, the enameling of sheet-iron
ware for kitchen use, the bicycle, and the passenger elevator, which has
transformed city life and dotted our great cities with buildings fifteen
and twenty stories high.
The decade 1886-1896 gave us the graphophone, the kinetoscope, the
horseless carriage, the vestibuled train, the cash register, the
perfected typewriter; the modern bicycle, which has deeply affected the
life of the people; and a great development in photography.
%531. Rise of Great Corporations.%--That mechanical progress so
astonishing should powerfully affect the business and industrial world
was inevitable. Trades, occupations, industries of all sorts, began to
concentrate and combine, and corporations took the place of individuals
and small companies. In place of the forty little telegraph companies of
1856, there was the great Western Union Company. In place of many petty
railroads, there were a few trunk lines. In place of a hundred producers
and refiners of petroleum, there was the one Standard Oil Company. These
are but a few of many; for the rapid growth of corporations was a
characteristic of the period.
%532. Millionaires and "Captains of Industry."%--As old lines of
industry were expanded and new ones were created, the opportunities for
money-getting were vastly increased. Men now began to amass immense
fortunes in gold and silver mining; by dealing in coal, in grain, in
cattle, in oil; by speculation in stocks; in iron and steel making; in
railroading,--millionaires and multi-millionaires became numerous, and
were often called "captains of industry," as an indication of the power
they held in the industrial world.
%533. Condition of Labor.%--Meanwhile, the conditions of the
workingman were also changing rapidly: 1. The chief employers of labor
were corporations and great capitalists. 2. The short voyage and low
fare from Europe, the efforts made by steamship companies to secure
passengers, the immense business activity in the country from 1867 to
1872, and the opportunities afforded by the rapidly growing West,
brought over each year hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Europe
to swell the ranks of labor. Between 1867 and 1873 the number was
2,500,000. 3. Bad management on the part of some corporations;
"watering" or unnecessarily increasing their stock on the part of
others, combined with sharp competition, began, especially after the
panic of 1873, to cut down dividends. This was followed by reduction of
wages, or by an increase in the duties of employees, and sometimes
by both.
%534. Labor Organizations; the Knights of Labor.%--Trades unions
existed in our country before the Constitution; but it was at the time
of the great industrial development during and after the war, that the
era of unions opened. At first that of each trade had no connection
with that of any other. But in 1869 an effort was made to unite all
workingmen on the broad basis of labor, and "The Noble Order of Knights
of Labor" was founded. For a while it was a secret order; but in 1878 a
declaration of principles was made, which began with the statement that
the alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and
corporations, unless checked, "would degrade the toiling masses," and
announced that the only way to check this evil was to unite "all
laborers into one great body." The knights were in favor of
1. The creation of bureaus of labor for the collection and spread of
information.
2. Arbitration between employers and employed.
3. Government ownership of telegraphs, telephones, railroads.
4. The reduction of the working day to eight hours.
They were opposed
1. To the hiring out of convict labor.
2. To the importation of foreign labor under contract.
3. To interest-bearing government bonds, and in favor of a national
currency issued directly to the people without the intervention
of banks.
%535. The Workingman in Politics%.--As these ends could be secured
only by legislation, they very quickly became political issues and
brought up a new set of economic questions for settlement. From 1865 to
1870 the matters of public concern were the reconstruction measures and
the public debt. From 1870 to 1878 they were currency questions, civil
service reform, and land grants to railroads. From 1878 to 1888 almost
every one of them was in some way directly connected with labor.
SUMMARY
1. Great inventions founded and developed new industries.
2. These in turn expanded the ranks of labor, and led to the rise of
corporations and labor organizations, and a demand for a long series
of reforms.