FREE ESSAY ON MICHIGAN

MICHIGAN

During the industrial revolution in the United States, tremendous economic prosperity
resulted in social and political unrest. It seemed the rich were getting richer while the
poor remained poor. The middle class was forged out of the industrial revolution but
would be challenged at this time. Large influxes of immigrants would also create tensions
among the social classes. Furthermore, textile, steel, railroad, and automobile
industries were growing exponentially, employing thousands. The class struggles was a
direct result of the division between labor and capital. People's social lives are a
reflection of their work lives. The success of one's career is directly correlated with
their social welfare. The industrial revolution created conflicts between labor and
capital in the work process, differing socially constructed views between the classes in
regards to family and community life, and government's role in the capitalist economy..
During the 1800s, the United States was engrossed in the first half of the industrial
revolution. The textile factories, such as those discussed in Rockdale, were booming in
northern states due to both technological improvements, such as water and steam powered
machinery, and the success of agriculture in southern states. The railroad industry, one
of America's first interstate big businesses, was speeded up with the introduction of the
Bessemer process of forging steel. Fueled by technological improvements in the steel
industry, the transcontinental railroad was completed, joining Union Pacific and Central
Pacific lines at Promontory Point, Utah. Railroads and factories started to dominated the
American landscape. Railroads were connecting cities allowing commerce to flow more
freely. Furthermore, railroads linked remote regions of the country, such as the Idaho
mines mentioned in Big Trouble. Factories were growing in numbers while also growing in
size. Economies and industries would grow in the 1800s, making the United States a world
power.
As a result, the United States experienced "growing pains" in the 1800s. The economy was
booming and unemployment was fairly low. Unfortunately, all jobs were not glamorous,
safe, or fair. Throughout the 1800s, labor movements and unions were formed to try and
fight these inequalities. Workers wanted fair wages, an eight hour workday, and the
overall health conditions at work to improve. For example, successful strikes in Rockdale
resulted in a ten hour workday, child labor was reduced, and education was increased.
Consequently, labor and social reform were products of each other and usually went hand
in hand. Furthermore, reform did not come cheap or easy. If reform did not come from
politicking, workers used strikes which often ended in violence, with people paying with
their lives.
After the Civil War, the railroad was big business in the United State's economy. The
railroad industry had spin-off industries, like mining, iron, and steel, that also became
big. These industries practiced economies of scale which involved large investments of
capital and labor. While the costs of production decreased, the production and profits
increased until the point of diminishing returns was achieved. For example, Andrew
Carnegie employed these tactics and Carnegie Steel help to literally build the United
States into a world power. As a result of these business practices and large number of
immigrants, labor was seen as an expendable commodity. Frederick Winslow Taylor applied
scientific management techniques to the way labor was performed. In turn, factory owners
and foremen used "taylorism" to determine the most efficient way to perform a task in a
factory. Thus, creating a quota system for workers. At Carnegie Steel, savvy managers
would use this quota system to create competition between furnaces at the mill. The
winner of the competition would get a silver shovel hung on their furnace, but no extra
pay. The issue of pay, work hours, and conditions would come to a pinnacle in the late
1800s and again in the early 1900s.
From the 1870s to the turn of the century, the United States economy was a roller coaster
ride. Wages decreased which resulted in the standard of living decreasing. Furthermore,
many workers did not have the leverage to complain because their employer owned the town
and house in which they lived. In 1869, the Knights of Labor was formed and they pushed
for regulating the railroads, known as the Granger movement. However, the Knights of
Labor will enjoy most of it's success in the 1880s. In 1877, the Great Upheaval occurs
which impacts most of the country. During this time, the country was in a depression
which resulted in the wages of railroad workers being lowered. Therefore, employees went
on strike without a union and community members also joined. The strike had a domino
effect and paralyzed the railroads and the economy. The strike eventually ended with
bloodshed and class warfare.
The Knights of Labor grew in the 1880s, taking any worker into their union. However, the
union would eventually dissolve because of different laborers with different ideas.
Furthermore, the Haymarket Square riot in 1886 would ruin their reputation as an
organized group with means to obtain their goals. The American Federation of Labor,
founded by Samuel Gompers, would emerge from the Haymarket Square Riot. The AFL, known as
a business union, was organized by trade but excluded blacks and women. Industrial
Unions, like the Western Federation of Miners, were also forming at this time to include
lumber and shipping industries. However, workers and their unions were their own worst
enemy because they were not organized enough to use the political process to bring about
change.
During this time, the social fabric of the country was being stretched to the breaking
point. In Rockdale, the nuclear family was an economic partnership which created strains
on social lives. The "Dominant culture," the WASP middle class, was being challenged in
their religious, family, and community lives. This class of people used taylorism to
society, imposing their ethnocentric belief that the American way is the best and only
way. All immigrants were discriminated against and considered a lower class of people
because they lived by each other and did not assimilate. The company towns, monopolies,
and trusts of the time were creating class conflicts by limiting mobility for the middle
and lower classes. The aristocracy maintained these monopolies of industry and the access
to information in order to maintain the status quo. 
Big businesses in the 1800s were running the country just as much as the federal
government. Billionaire banker J.P. Morgan even bailed out the United State Treasury.
Through lobbies and greasing the right politicians palms, big businesses were able to
maintain their monopolies and power in the country. Business leaders were controlling the
quality of lives of the majority of people in the country with little government
intervention.
With all the social and labor unrest in the late 1800s, big business turned to the
federal government for help. Rationalization in the Progressive Era was a movement by
businesses which had three goals to help the American economy. First, big business wanted
stability, no more erratic changes in the market. Second, the Bureau of Corporations was
established in 1903 to predict future plans and problems facing businesses. Finally, big
business wanted stability in the labor force by eliminating upheavals and organized labor
unions. In response, the federal government, realizing the importance of overseeing a
free market, capitalist economy, established the Federal Trade Commission in 1913 which
enhanced the Bureau of Corporation and was designed to outlaw unfair competition in the
marketplace. In addition, Congress passed the Clayton Act which toughened antitrust
standards first established Sherman Antitrust Act. However, the Clayton Act was also
being used to break up labor organizations. Furthermore, due to public reaction from
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the federal government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and
the Meat Inspection Act in an attempt to regulate and govern the food industry. 
Turning from the first industrial revolution in the 1800s, the second industrial
revolution in the early 1900s involved industries like construction, petroleum,
telephone, and most importantly, the automobile industry. The automobile industry was an
excellent example of how competition can improve the industry as whole. Furthermore, the
success of the automobile industry was due to the fact that large amounts of capital was
not needed to get companies started. Also, the automobile industry prospered, in large
part, to those who succeeded, Ransom E. Olds, Henry Ford, and William C. Durant. These
men possessed a distinctive combination of qualities: technical skill, business acumen,
faith that the automobile really had a future and, above all, an unshakable determination
to build cars. 
Between 1900 and 1940, changes in the structure of business enterprise and the strategy
of industrial and market relations drastically transformed economic life in general and
the urban economy in particular. Business firms extended their existing lines of goods to
a greater number of customers at home, sought new markets overseas, and created new
markets by developing new products for different kinds of customers. The expansion and
diversification of markets occurred though the combination and consolidation of firms
into single multidivisional corporations. Decisions and information flowed through a
hierarchy consisting of a general office, divisional offices, departmental headquarters,
and field units. Changes in business structure altered the quality of industrial work
experience. A new class of professional and managerial workers was distributed among the
various ranks in corporations. Instructions and information allowed for the work process
to be directly supervised. The work process itself was "taylorized" and synchronized with
innovations like the automated assembly line. As the work process intensified, the length
of the work day was shortened and wage rates increased. In 1926, Henry Ford institutes
the five dollar, eight hour workday. The reorganization of factory work served the dual
purpose of rationalizing and increasing production, which jumped 250 percent between 1914
and 1925, and of investing workers with the financial capacity and the opportunity to
consume the goods which they produced. By 1929, there was one car for every five people.

Like the first, the second industrial revolution affected professional and social lives
of the time. First of all, welfare capitalism took off at this time which was a series of
programs to provide better working conditions and programs for workers. Big business was
viewed positively at this time which gave way to the open shop drive. The open shop
drive, or the American plan, was the owner's attempt to get rid of organized labor
unions. Secondly, the automobile extended the horizon of the community and introduced a
territorial division of labor among local institutions and neighboring cities. A suburban
boom, which began after World War I, peaked during the 1920s and was facilitated by the
automobile. Furthermore, suburban sprawl resulted in a construction boom that employed
thousands of carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, and plumbers. In both urban and rural
areas, automobile use was shaped by social and economic considerations which lay behind
class status: control over income level, workplace location, work hours, job tenure,
choice of residence, consumption of household goods, and participation in leisure
activities. 
With the invention of the automobile, many of the goods and services, such as food,
clothing, education, health care, and entertainment, that were formerly produced at home
by women, had now been bought in village centers or suburban retail outlets. The shift
from the direct production of goods to the purchase of them in metropolitan markets
changed people's habits of consumption. In the 1920s, urban growth began to change
household activity and consumption habits by drawing women out of the household and into
the marketplace. Robert and Helen Lynd observed in their study of Middletown: "The great
bulk of the things consumed by American families is no longer made in the home and the
efforts of family members are focused instead on buying a living." Use of the automobile
did not lessen women's household work. Rather, it helped to change it into many consumer
duties. 
The working class saw the automobile as a symbol of advancement and stood for a large
share in the 'American dream.' In Middletown, material possessions, such as cars and
clothes, were seen as status symbols for the entire family. In contrast, the business
class viewed the car as a luxury item in which only they deserved to own. Henry Ford mass
produced cars that became affordable for most everyone. This concerned the business class
because widespread car ownership threatened their privileged status within the community.
Furthermore, economic mobility allowed for the consumption of technology based items like
cars, radios, and leisure activities like movies and family car rides. This created
problems for family and religion in Middletown, America because these advancements were
perceived as tearing the family apart. By the end of the 1920s, economic collapse in the
United States would also challenge the social lives of Americans at the time.
On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, ushering in the Great Depression.
Unprecedented industrial growth, over-extension, volatility, and a flood of excess money
being reinvested in the stock market led to it's demise. Unemployment reached the highest
point in United States' history. As a result, the quality of lives greatly depreciated.
Employment, money, and even food was scarce at this time. Many people, like those in
Middletown, thought the social and economic plight was a result of a loss in morals and
ethics. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President in 1932 and brought in the New Deal
era. He created temporary work projects like the Civilian Conservation Corps and the
Federal Emergency Relief Agency. Also, the Roosevelt administration passed regulatory
acts to protect the United States economy. Then, the National Industrial Recovery Act was
instituted stabilized the future of the American economy and most importantly, section 7A
stated that labor had a right to unionize. Furthermore, a permanent safety net was
established for everyone. The Wagner Act, National Labor Relations Board, Social Security
Act, and Fair Labor Standards Act were all formed and resulted in a boom of labor unions.
The New Deal created a positive relationship between the government and economy. The
country realized that capitalism cannot go unregulated. Also, government would step up
efforts to take care of those who fell through the cracks of society. The economy was now
not only reflected on Wall Street but also in Washington.
The most dramatic change during the industrial revolution was the process of work and the
quality of life. First of all, technology, natural resources, and available labor made it
possible for the industrial revolution to take off. The federal government regulated big
business by the 1940s which improved workers lives in many ways. The biggest change in
social lives was the role of women and children. During this time, women were liberated
from strictly home based work and achieved the right to vote in 1919. Children's lives
changed by them going to school instead of work. One aspect that did not change during
the industrial revolution was the very existence of conflicts between labor and
management, and the business and working classes. The quality of life did improve at this
time. For example, poverty decreased and education increased. Material possessions were
obtained more easily by the end of the industrial revolution. However, the idea of the
family unit as the top priority in people's lives was in jeopardy. Social and economic
status was determining the way people lived their lives. Ironically, the family unit,
which is at the core of American success and progress, has ever so slightly declined due
to the industrial revolution and the materialistic society that is obsessed with money
and material possessions.
HST 323 - Final Paper