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Political Cartoon

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A virtual museum exhibiting and cataloging the art of the labor movement and working people.

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Steel

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Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was an American industrialist who amassed a fortune in the steel industry then became a major philanthropist. Carnegie worked in a Pittsburgh cotton factory as a boy before rising to the position of division superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1859. While working for the railroad, he invested in various ventures, including iron and oil companies, and made his first fortune by the time he was in his early 30s. In the early 1870s, he entered the steel business, and over the next two decades became a dominant force in the industry. In 1901, he sold the Carnegie Steel Company to banker John Pierpont Morgan for $480 million. Carnegie then devoted himself to philanthropy, eventually giving away more than $350 million.

Andrew Carnegie: Early Life and Career

Andrew Carnegie, whose life became a rags-to-riches story, was born into modest circumstances on November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland, the second of two sons of Will, a handloom weaver, and Margaret, who did sewing work for local shoemakers. In 1848, the Carnegie family (who pronounced their name "carNEgie") moved to America in search of better economic opportunities and settled in Allegheny City (now part of Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie, whose formal education ended when he left Scotland, where he had no more than a few years' schooling, soon found employment as a bobbin boy at a cotton factory, earning $1.20 a week.

Ambitious and hard-working, he went on to hold a series of jobs, including messenger in a telegraph office and secretary and telegraph operator for the superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1859, Carnegie succeeded his boss as railroad division superintendent. While in this position, he made profitable investments in a variety of businesses, including coal, iron and oil companies and a manufacturer of railroad sleeping cars.

After leaving his post with the railroad in 1865, Carnegie continued his ascent in the business world. With the U.S. railroad industry then entering a period of rapid growth, he expanded his railroad-related investments and founded such ventures as an iron bridge building company and a telegraph firm, often using his connections to win insider contracts. By the time he was in his early 30s, Carnegie had become a very wealthy man.

Andrew Carnegie: Steel Magnate

In the early 1870s, Carnegie co-founded his first steel company, near Pittsburgh. Over the next few decades, he created a steel empire, maximizing profits and minimizing inefficiencies through ownership of factories, raw materials and transportation infrastructure involved in steel-making. In 1892, his primary holdings were consolidated to form Carnegie Steel Company.

The steel magnate considered himself a champion of the working man; however, his reputation was marred by a violent labor strike in 1892 at his Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel mill. After union workers protested wage cuts, Carnegie Steel general manager Henry Clay Frick (1848-1919), who was determined to break the union, locked the workers out of the plant. Andrew Carnegie was on vacation in Scotland during the strike, but put his support in Frick, who called in some 300 Pinkerton armed guards to protect the plant. A bloody battle broke out between the striking workers and the Pinkertons, leaving at least 10 men dead. The state militia then was brought in to take control of the town, union leaders were arrested and Frick hired replacement workers for the plant. After five months, the strike ended with the union's defeat. Additionally, the labor movement at Pittsburgh-area steel mills was crippled for the next four decades.

In 1901, banker John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) purchased Carnegie Steel for some $480 million, making Andrew Carnegie one of the world's richest men. That same year, Morgan merged Carnegie Steel with a group of other steel businesses to form U.S. Steel, the world's first billion-dollar corporation

Andrew Carnegie: Philanthropist

After Carnegie sold his steel company, the diminutive titan, who stood 5'3", retired from business and devoted himself full-time to philanthropy. In 1889, he had penned an essay, "The Gospel of Wealth," in which he stated that the rich have "a moral obligation to distribute [their money] in ways that promote the welfare and happiness of the common man." Carnegie also said that "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced."

Carnegie eventually gave away some $350 million (the equivalent of billions in today's dollars), which represented the bulk of his wealth. Among his philanthropic activities, he funded the establishment of more than 2,500 public libraries around the globe, donated more than 7,600 organs to churches worldwide and endowed organizations (many still in existence today) dedicated to research in science, education, world peace and other causes. Among his gifts was the $1.1 million required for the land and construction costs of Carnegie Hall, the legendary New York City concert venue that opened in 1891.

Andrew Carnegie: Family and Final Years

Carnegie's mother, who was a major influence in his life, lived with him until her death in 1886. The following year, the 51-year-old industrial baron married Louise Whitfield (1857-1946), who was two decades his junior and the daughter of a New York City merchant. The couple had one child, Margaret (1897-1990). The Carnegies lived in a Manhattan mansion and spent summers in Scotland, where they owned Skibo Castle, set on some 28,000 acres.

Carnegie died at age 83 on August 11, 1919, at Shadowbrook, his estate in Lenox, Massachusetts. He was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in North Tarrytown, New York.

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Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was an American industrialist who amassed a fortune in the steel industry then became a major philanthropist. Carnegie worked in a Pittsburgh cotton factory as a boy before rising to the position of division superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1859.

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Political Cartoon

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Photograph of Child Labor

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A Basket Factory, Evansville, Ind. Girls Making Melon Baskets. Location: Evansville, Indiana.

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Marshall Dilling

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Letter from Marshall Dilling Opposing Keating-Owen Child Labor Bill | DocsTeach

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DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper.

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Human Rights Watch

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160 million children, almost 1 in 10 worldwide, are engaged in child labor, with 80 million working in hazardous conditions in agriculture, mining, domestic labor, and other sectors. On tobacco farms, children work long hours in extreme heat, exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides that can make them sick.

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"Child Labor in the Canning Industries of Maryland" 

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"Child Labor in the Canning Industries of Maryland" 

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Lewis W.

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Library of Congress

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Children's Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century - Primary Source Set | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress

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Children's labor, education, and play around the year 1900. Includes images, films, and books. Especially suitable for early grades.

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"Industrial Revolution: A Boon to Industry, A Bane to Childhood"

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"Industrial Revolution: A Boon to Industry, A Bane to Childhood"

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The Industrial Revolution: A Boon to Industry, A Bane to Childhood

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The Revolution, Reaction, and Reform of Child Labor NHD 2011 - 2012 Revolution, Reaction, and Reform

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Not today's version of childhood!

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Background

"There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work."
-- Lewis Hine, 1908

After the Civil War, the availability of natural resources, new inventions, and a receptive market combined to fuel an industrial boom. The demand for labor grew, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries many children were drawn into the labor force. Factory wages were so low that children often had to work to help support their families. The number of children under the age of 15 who worked in industrial jobs for wages climbed from 1.5 million in 1890 to 2 million in 1910. Businesses liked to hire children because they worked in unskilled jobs for lower wages than adults, and their small hands made them more adept at handling small parts and tools. Children were seen as part of the family economy. Immigrants and rural migrants often sent their children to work, or worked alongside them. However, child laborers barely experienced their youth. Going to school to prepare for a better future was an opportunity these underage workers rarely enjoyed. As children worked in industrial settings, they began to develop serious health problems. Many child laborers were underweight. Some suffered from stunted growth and curvature of the spine. They developed diseases related to their work environment, such as tuberculosis and bronchitis for those who worked in coal mines or cotton mills. They faced high accident rates due to physical and mental fatigue caused by hard work and long hours.

By the early 1900s many Americans were calling child labor "child slavery" and were demanding an end to it. They argued that long hours of work deprived children of the opportunity of an education to prepare themselves for a better future. Instead, child labor condemmed them to a future of illiteracy, poverty, and continuing misery. In 1904 a group of progressive reformers founded the National Child Labor Committee, an organization whose goal was the abolition of child labor. The organization received a charter from Congress in 1907. It hired teams of investigators to gather evidence of children working in harsh conditions and then organized exhibitions with photographs and statistics to dramatize the plight of these children. These efforts resulted in the establishment in 1912 of the Children's Bureau as a federal information clearinghouse. In 1913 the Children's Bureau was transferred to the Department of Labor.

Lewis Hine, a New York City schoolteacher and photographer, believed that a picture could tell a powerful story. He felt so strongly about the abuse of children as workers that he quit his teaching job and became an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. Hine traveled around the country photographing the working conditions of children in all types of industries. He photographed children in coal mines, in meatpacking houses, in textile mills, and in canneries. He took pictures of children working in the streets as shoe shiners, newsboys, and hawkers. In many instances he tricked his way into factories to take the pictures that factory managers did not want the public to see. He was careful to document every photograph with precise facts and figures. To obtain captions for his pictures, he interviewed the children on some pretext and then scribbled his notes with his hand hidden inside his pocket. Because he used subterfuge to take his photographs, he believed that he had to be "double-sure that my photo data was 100% pure--no retouching or fakery of any kind." Hine defined a good photograph as "a reproduction of impressions made upon the photographer which he desires to repeat to others." Because he realized his photographs were subjective, he described his work as "photo-interpretation."

Hine believed that if people could see for themselves the abuses and injustice of child labor, they would demand laws to end those evils. By 1916, Congress passed the Keating-Owens Act that established the following child labor standards: a minimum age of 14 for workers in manufacturing and 16 for workers in mining; a maximum workday of 8 hours; prohibition of night work for workers under age 16; and a documentary proof of age. Unfortunately, this law was later ruled unconstitutional on the ground that congressional power to regulate interstate commerce did not extend to the conditions of labor. Effective action against child labor had to await the New Deal. Reformers, however, did succeed in forcing legislation at the state level banning child labor and setting maximum hours. By 1920 the number of child laborers was cut to nearly half of what it had been in 1910.

Lewis Hine died in poverty, neglected by all but a few. His reputation continued to grow, however, and now he is recognized as a master American photographer. His photographs remind us what it was like to be a child and to labor like an adult at a time when labor was harsher than it is now. Hine's images of working children stirred America's conscience and helped change the nation's labor laws. Through his exercise of free speech and freedom of the press, Lewis Hine made a difference in the lives of American workers and, most importantly, American children. Hundreds of his photographs are available online from the National Archives through the National Archives Catalog .

Resources

Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty, eds. The Reader's Companion to American History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.

Nash, Gary B., et al. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1990.

Tindall, George Brown, with David E. Shi. America: A Narrative History. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1992.

The Documents

Garment Workers, New York, NYNational Archives and Records Administration
January 25, 1908

Records of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Children's Bureau
Record Group 102
National Archives Identifier: 523065

Basket Seller, Cincinnati, OH National Archives and Records Administration
August 22, 1908

Records of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Children's Bureau
Record Group 102
National Archives Identifier: 523070

Young Boys Schucking Oysters, Apalachicola, FLNational Archives and Records Administration
January 25, 1909

Records of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Children's Bureau
Record Group 102
National Archives Identifier: 523162

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Teaching With Documents: Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor

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"There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work." -- Lewis Hine, 1908 After the Civil War, the availability of natural resources, new inventions, and a receptive market combined to fuel an industrial boom.

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Worksheet

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Inventors who changed everything

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Background

In 1876 Americans held a Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia to celebrate the nation's birth 100 years earlier. It was the first world's fair to be held in the United States, and it announced for all to see that the nation had come of age as an industrial power. Over 8 million Americans attended, many traveling the railways that now spanned the continent. Of all the exhibition buildings, Machinery Hall drew the most admiration and wonder. Its displays were powered by the world's largest steam engine. Inside, inventions by two of America's greatest inventors were on display. Alexander Graham Bell exhibited the first telephone, and Thomas Alva Edison presented the automatic telegraph, one of more than 1,000 inventions he would patent in his lifetime. Together their inventions changed American life in ways that still affect us today.

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was born in Scotland and moved to Boston in 1872 to open a school for teachers of the deaf. He became a U.S. citizen in 1882. His early experiments included ways to improve and use telegraphy. The telegraph conveyed messages through a system of electrical sounds that, when decoded, could be translated into words. It was dependent on skilled technicians and never became a home appliance. Rather, it required you to go to a telegraph office to send or receive a message, or perhaps a messenger did this for you. Bell sought something revolutionary: to transmit not only the sound of the human voice, but audible words. With the telephone, Bell wrote in 1878, "It is possible to connect every man's house, office or factory with a central station, so as to give him direct communication with his neighbors."

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was born in Ohio and grew up in Michigan. His formal education lasted at most four years, in part because his teachers complained that he asked too many questions. By age 12 he was a newsboy and candy seller on the railways. Working as a telegraph operator gave him some of his early lessons in the uses of electricity. Among Edison's many patents were ones for totally new inventions as well as those that dramatically improved the inventions of others. These included patents for the electric motor, motion picture projector, storage battery, Dictaphone, duplicating machine, typewriter, and phonograph ( his most original). But his most far-reaching achievement was his patent for improving the incandescent lightbulb.

Before the invention of the electric lightbulb, homes were lit by candle, kerosene-oil lamp, or gaslight. All flickered, were fire hazards, and emitted smoke and heat. Other inventors of the day were experimenting with a glass globe that, if emptied of air, could contain a light that would not burn out. But no one could find a suitable filament, or wire. The filament creates light when an electric current passes through it, but it must neither burn out quickly nor melt. Edison solved this problem by using carbonized cotton.

The Growth of the Corporation

A vision such as Bell's could not become a reality without enormous sources of capital (money) to mass-produce telephones, lay cables, and establish switchboards. Likewise the incandescent light was of little use until houses could be linked by electric wires to powerful generators.

Until the Industrial Revolution, a shop owner did not need to raise great sums of money to invest in expensive machinery. He probably made his goods by hand and sold them directly to the customer. He therefore did not need to advertise his goods far and wide. A business was usually the responsibility of one person, a proprietor, who hired others and accepted total financial responsibility if the venture went under. Partnerships were able to raise greater capital because two or more people pooled their money. But if their partnership failed, all the partners were personally liable; any assets they owned could be seized to pay their debts.

The Civil War gave impetus to many new industries on a scale never before seen in America. What was needed was a new way to fund them. The corporation solved the problem. Corporations are legal entities chartered by state governments. To establish a corporation, money is raised from many investors. Each investor then owns shares of the company, represented by the stock certificates the corporation issues to its shareholders. If the company earns a profit, the corporation will divide its profit with its investors and pay dividends. (The greater the number of shares you own, the greater your dividend.) The value of the corporation's stock will go up. But if the corporation fails, each investor will only lose what he or she invested.

When the U.S. government granted Edison and Bell their patents, it put them at a distinct advantage over their competitors. They and they alone were given the right to profit from their inventions for a specified time period (today it is 20 years). While both men were primarily inventors, not entrepreneurs, neither wasted time before either founding companies or granting their patent rights to others for manufacture. The Edison Electric Light Company was chartered in 1878 and led eventually to what we know as the General Electric Company. With his laboratory and many assistants at Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison pioneered the establishment of the large research centers of today. The Bell Telephone Company was founded in 1877. In 1899 American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) became the parent company of the Bell System.

Corporations were not without their ill effects. They further distanced management from the workers, who did not share in the companies' profits as did stockholders. Left unregulated, huge corporations often ate up their smaller competition. By 1900 Bell Telephone had situated 800,000 phones in America, far more than any competitor. Long after Bell's patent expired, it had the edge in developing long-distance services, and it monopolized them. The Interstate Commerce Act (1877) and Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) were passed to ensure that competition among companies could continue to thrive.

Resources

Mackay, James. Alexander Graham Bell: A Life. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997. An up-to-date and scholarly account.

Silverberg, Robert. Light for the World: Edison and the Power Industry. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1967. Especially good for the connection between invention and industry.

Twain, Mark. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. Edited by Charles Neider, New York: Harperperennial Library, 1959 (still in paper). See Chapter 45, which has a hilarious account of Twain's attempt to be an investor in new inventions, including the telephone.

Vries, Leonard de. Victorian Inventions. New York: American Heritage Press, 1971. A delightful pictorial account, including many fanciful ideas that were never marketed.

The Sound and the Silence. An excellent two-part video about the life of Alexander Graham Bell. Available from Turner Home Entertainment #6295.

The Documents

Article Citation

This article was written by Joan Brodsky Schur, a teacher at Village Community School, in New York, NY.

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In 1876 Americans held a Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia to celebrate the nation's birth 100 years earlier. It was the first world's fair to be held in the United States, and it announced for all to see that the nation had come of age as an industrial power.

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This law made it illegal to creat monopolies or trusts that restrained trade

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Congress passed the first antitrust law, the Sherman Act, in 1890 as a "comprehensive charter of economic liberty aimed at preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade." In 1914, Congress passed two additional antitrust laws: the Federal Trade Commission Act, which created the FTC, and the Clayton Act. With some revisions, these are the three core federal antitrust laws still in effect today.

The antitrust laws proscribe unlawful mergers and business practices in general terms, leaving courts to decide which ones are illegal based on the facts of each case. Courts have applied the antitrust laws to changing markets, from a time of horse and buggies to the present digital age. Yet for over 100 years, the antitrust laws have had the same basic objective: to protect the process of competition for the benefit of consumers, making sure there are strong incentives for businesses to operate efficiently, keep prices down, and keep quality up.

Here is an overview of the three core federal antitrust laws.

The Sherman Act outlaws "every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade," and any "monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize." Long ago, the Supreme Court decided that the Sherman Act does not prohibit every restraint of trade, only those that are unreasonable. For instance, in some sense, an agreement between two individuals to form a partnership restrains trade, but may not do so unreasonably, and thus may be lawful under the antitrust laws. On the other hand, certain acts are considered so harmful to competition that they are almost always illegal. These include plain arrangements among competing individuals or businesses to fix prices, divide markets, or rig bids. These acts are " per se" violations of the Sherman Act; in other words, no defense or justification is allowed.

The penalties for violating the Sherman Act can be severe. Although most enforcement actions are civil, the Sherman Act is also a criminal law, and individuals and businesses that violate it may be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Criminal prosecutions are typically limited to intentional and clear violations such as when competitors fix prices or rig bids. The Sherman Act imposes criminal penalties of up to $100 million for a corporation and $1 million for an individual, along with up to 10 years in prison. Under federal law, the maximum fine may be increased to twice the amount the conspirators gained from the illegal acts or twice the money lost by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is over $100 million.

The Federal Trade Commission Act bans "unfair methods of competition" and "unfair or deceptive acts or practices." The Supreme Court has said that all violations of the Sherman Act also violate the FTC Act. Thus, although the FTC does not technically enforce the Sherman Act, it can bring cases under the FTC Act against the same kinds of activities that violate the Sherman Act. The FTC Act also reaches other practices that harm competition, but that may not fit neatly into categories of conduct formally prohibited by the Sherman Act. Only the FTC brings cases under the FTC Act.

The Clayton Act addresses specific practices that the Sherman Act does not clearly prohibit, such as mergers and interlocking directorates (that is, the same person making business decisions for competing companies). Section 7 of the Clayton Act prohibits mergers and acquisitions where the effect "may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly." As amended by the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, the Clayton Act also bans certain discriminatory prices, services, and allowances in dealings between merchants. The Clayton Act was amended again in 1976 by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act to require companies planning large mergers or acquisitions to notify the government of their plans in advance. The Clayton Act also authorizes private parties to sue for triple damages when they have been harmed by conduct that violates either the Sherman or Clayton Act and to obtain a court order prohibiting the anticompetitive practice in the future.

In addition to these federal statutes, most states have antitrust laws that are enforced by state attorneys general or private plaintiffs. Many of these statutes are based on the federal antitrust laws.

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Congress passed the first antitrust law, the Sherman Act, in 1890 as a "comprehensive charter of economic liberty aimed at preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade." In 1914, Congress passed two additional antitrust laws: the Federal Trade Commission Act, which created the FTC, and the Clayton Act.

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Rapid Growth in U.S. manufacturing in the late 1800s.

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The Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, when agricultural societies became more industrialized and urban. The transcontinental railroad, the cotton gin, electricity and other inventions permanently changed society.

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Why do Americans and Canadians celebrate Labor Day? - Kenneth C. Davis

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In the United States and Canada, the first Monday of September is a federal holiday, Labor Day. Originally celebrated in New York City's Union Square in 1882, Labor Day was organized by unions as a rare day of rest for the overworked during the Industrial Revolution. Kenneth C.

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Maintains Labor Statistics

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Three Department of Labor (DOL) agencies have responsibility for the administration and enforcement of the laws enacted to protect the safety and health of workers in America.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

OSHA administers the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.

Safety and health conditions in most private industries are regulated by OSHA or OSHA-approved state plans.

Nearly every employee in the nation comes under OSHA's jurisdiction with some exceptions such as miners, some transportation workers, many public employees, and the self-employed.

Employers subject to the OSH Act also have a general duty to provide work and a workplace free from recognized, serious hazards.

Mine Safety and Health Administration

DOL's MSHA has responsibility for administration and enforcement of the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, which protects the safety and health of workers employed in the nation's mines.

The Act applies to all mining and mineral processing operations in the United States, regardless of size, number of employees, or method of extraction.

The Fair Labor Standards Act
FLSA contains rules concerning the employment of young workers, those under the age of 18, and is administered and enforced by DOL's Wage and Hour Division. Intended to protect the health and well-being of youth in America, the FLSA contains minimum age restrictions for employment, restrictions on the times of day youth may work, and the jobs they may perform.

Other resources

For help in determining which safety and health standards apply to particular employment situations, select from the subtopics lists. Also, see the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Web pages on safety and health in the workplace.

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Three Department of Labor (DOL) agencies have responsibility for the administration and enforcement of the laws enacted to protect the safety and health of workers in America. Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA administers the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act. Safety and health conditions in most private industries are regulated by OSHA or OSHA-approved state plans.