1900-1930Join now to read essay 1900-1930Throughout centuries, we as a society have come to realize American history’s pros and cons. It has been both optimistic and unconstructive, throughout the late 18th century through the end of WWII. Politicians and business leaders showed us how our societies have eventually come together in the creation of modern society. It has been an extensive and tough struggle from the 1870’s horizontal and vertical integration to the 1930s great depression and the ending of World War II. In this essay I will discuss how the government and big businesses impacted and intertwined with one other in the growth of modern society.
In the early 1870s, people were eager to expand and control their society. It was around this time, which also showed us consumerism at its best. It was the start of the big business boom, which included different methods and parts, some even involving corrupt politicians in order to gain control. A man by the name of Andrew Carnegie led this era of the industrial society. Carnegie was ambitious and hard working which showed people that anyone could do it. He would work a low paying job and take classes at night like most of us citizens do today. Carnegie would just grow in the corporate world and gain knowledge by getting promoted in Pennsylvania Railroads. After years of developing his skills, he decided to build his own steel mill. He introduced us to vertical Integration, meaning purchasing all the products, which are needed. Carnegie would buy the mountain, create a melting device, hire cheap labor and initially create a factory. This form of integrated goods made the process a lot cheaper. Carnegie was in the steel production integration scene, which was used to create the railroads. (Boyer, P. 369). These railroads helped create a form of transportation for local businesses to transport goods. In “The Enduring Vision”, the author explains by the 1900s, 193,000 miles of railroad track crisscrossed the United States. (Boyer, 369) Connecting every state in the union opening an internal market. This illustrates the relationship between railroad expansion and corporate America. It also was a start for John Rockefeller, a local oilman who believed in vertical integration and also created horizontal integration. Horizontal integration was a form of control, which meant buying out your competitor legally or illegally. His method was very similar to Carnegie’s: cost cutting and efficiency. Rockefeller would use aggression and dishonesty to force out competitors. He would sell below cost to repress rivals, and when they tried to go against him, he would set up agreements with bigger benefits for him. Boyer explains in “The Enduring Vision”, Rockefeller integrated the oil industry both vertically, by controlling every function from production to local retailing, and horizontally, by merging companies into a giant system with stockholders involved. (Boyer, P.371) This was the start to creating new forms of corporate organization. This is where politicians come in and try to find a mean to this industry by lending a hand. This was a form of “quid pro quo”, which stood for, you help me I help you. It was a way for senators to buy their way into the senate. Politicians raised taxes in order to help Rockefeller sell and make other businessmen go out of business. I believe this was very similar to today Microsoft and Apple situation, which is a form of monopoly. This did help get business practices more and more involved within the political world.
Moreover, there was a time when politicians and the government had a hand in how businesses were ran, and how it impacted society. The United States had a barrier in the way of economic development. The industries were rapidly growing and a lot of companies were struggling, basically due to lack of capital. The banks needed to support various businesses which were having difficulty staying alive. It was very difficult for banks due to federal policies to open. To finance the larger-scale businesses required during this industrial era, the Stockholder Corporation emerged as the dominant form of business organization. Companies expanded by combining into trusts, and by creating single firms out of competing firms, known as monopolies. There were also federal policies that were designed to aid the northern industries. This made it harder for southern industries to expand, which was caused by federal tariffs. This caused the south to pay more for important machines that needed to expand their industries, lands and crops. They needed to do something to gain capital like the north was doing with control of finance and low rates. The south used tax immunity for new northern businesses coming to the south. They also set up industrial and agricultural trade fair, and leased prison inmates for cheap labor. This attracted railroad companies to build railroads and start doing business with the north. The government was helping
The Rise of the Industrial Labor Party and the End of Corporate Governance
By the 1800s industrial relations had developed a lot. American people were working hand in hand with each other, with each new business, company, union, and government building new infrastructure. It’s all happening quite slowly. These things are happening more and more quickly, and it’s just a matter of time before it all wears down. But when it all comes down to it, there are a lot of questions people are wondering about. These are things that are getting discussed in great depth by many politicians, academics, political scientists and others, and I see one at work here:
Is the Industrial Labor Party a political force or an ideology? Why did some of the main parties, led by John Brown and the Democrats, turn the nation’s manufacturing and finance industries from large-scale, capital-intensive enterprises that were already monopolies and controlled by a new, powerful national government? Because labor in America is less important to the wealthy than a lot of the rest of the country’s small and small companies? Can this be considered the Industrial Labor Party? What impact did the Industrial Labor Party have on the U.S. economy?
The Labor Party began with the idea of a federal federation system for all firms in the United States that was designed and built upon the principles of the early union movement (the Satsuma System, the “Union of Workingmen of the United States”). The Labor League was a trade federation for industrial and non-industrial employers, and the Socialist Worker movement was a large, national labor movement, organized to develop labor power and social consciousness.
In the fall of 1886, as labor unions began to take more control of American policy, labor unions began to become much more active. According to the historian Joseph F. Bannister, in 1885 there were 671 unionized employees in the United States. The largest corporations were the two most important unions in the country. It was actually the largest corporation of this time that was still headquartered in Chicago.
As they developed their base in the southern cities, unions created opportunities for working men looking to form a political party for better working conditions. In doing so, the working class organized to fight the employers and the bosses. In some way, this was the first period of movement after the Civil War. It was the period throughout the country where workers took their stand and fought for the working class in a way that few ever had. The new industrial unions have had much more impact than the earlier one which developed through the Satsuma system in the 1910s. From a political standpoint, these were unions that were opposed to unionizing and were considered out of sync with the party system. The question remains, how long can that period sustain the party and stay true to the Progressive ideals of labor unionism?
The most clear demonstration of the industrial role of unions came in 1905. As soon as unionization began, the union was taken over by the National Labor Relations Board, which made an enormous contribution to the union movement. The NRB had strong ties on public administration, and the union movement represented a significant segment outside of the executive, which made it the main player. In fact, the NRB had influence in the formation of the Industrial Labor Party, which became more than just a union and led to a merger of three small unions that fought for unions.
What was the Industrial Labor Party and why did it change its name?
In the 1890s, a group of members from Ohio came together to form the American Industrial Labor Party as a