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Titans of Industry [Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Labor Unions]

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    Hi, everybody, and welcome
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    back to Heimler's History.
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    In the last few lectures,
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    we've been talking about the Gilded Age.
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    And when I think of the Gilded Age,
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    I think of a golden-covered turd.
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    And here's what I mean.
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    There was a lot of prosperity to be had
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    during this time,
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    but under that thin layer of prosperity,
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    there was the larger reality of,
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    you know, the turd.
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    And in order to understand this age,
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    we've got to talk about
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    both the gold and the turd.
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    Okay, this is getting out of hand.
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    I've said turd three times.
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    That's four.
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    Oh.
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    Let's get started.
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    (It's time to kick it old school).
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    [MUSIC]
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    Okay, let's begin with the gold.
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    Near the end of the 19th century,
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    people began asking, "Why are
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    the best men not in politics?"
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    And do you know why?
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    It's because all of those industrious men
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    were off making metric
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    buttloads of hoo-hoo.
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    [MUSIC]
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    All right, let me introduce you to two
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    of these guys: Andrew Carnegie and John D.
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    Rockefeller.
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    Carnegie was a charming pint-sized
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    Scotsman, and he was the king
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    of the steel industry.
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    He was an industrial genius,
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    and he pioneered a very profitable
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    entrepreneurial tactic
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    called vertical integration.
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    It meant that every part
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    of the steel-making process passed
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    through his company's hands.
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    From mining the ore,
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    to shipping it to the factory,
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    to the smelting process,
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    every hand that touched Carnegie Steel
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    was employed by Carnegie.
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    And what does that mean?
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    More money.
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    [MUSIC]
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    But while Carnegie loved making money,
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    and he was very good at it,
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    he wasn't the cutthroat like John D.
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    Rockefeller was.
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    In fact, Carnegie believed that all
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    the money that he had earned was something
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    like a public trust, and that he was
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    to use that money for the public good.
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    This idea is what Carnegie called
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    the "Gospel of Wealth,"
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    and basically he scurried around to try
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    to find as many public places that he
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    could invest his money into as he could,
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    places like libraries and concert halls.
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    And all told, he found a home
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    for about 350 million of his dollars.
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    Now, I'm not saying there was no turd under
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    the hood here, but Carnegie's was
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    about the cleanest gold around.
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    So, then let's talk about turds.
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    Say hello to John D.
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    Rockefeller.
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    Now I'm not saying old
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    Rockefeller himself was a turd.
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    Everything he did was quite legal.
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    But you did have to watch where you
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    stepped when you were around him because
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    you never knew what might end
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    up on the bottom of your shoe.
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    So, Rockefeller was the king of the oil
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    industry, and he wasn't at all concerned
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    about the bite of his
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    scruples like Carnegie was.
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    Whereas Carnegie mastered vertical
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    integration, which could at least be
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    justified on the grounds of controlling
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    the quality of the product from the mining
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    to construction,
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    Rockefeller mastered what was called
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    "horizontal integration,"
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    which essentially meant that Rockefeller
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    threw his corporate weight around until he
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    gobbled up all his competitors and was
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    essentially the only one selling oil.
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    Now, the technical term for this is
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    a monopoly, or more to the point, a trust.
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    And in America we don't like this kind
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    of thing because in a market economy,
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    competition is essential to keep prices
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    low and serve the customers well.
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    And one of Rockefeller's favorite
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    sayings was, "Let us prey."
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    That's prey with an 'E,' not with an 'A.'
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    And he reasoned that if all the other oil
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    companies were weak enough to be eaten
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    by him, then they deserved to be eaten.
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    Later this became known as
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    a phenomenon called "Social Darwinism."
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    Essentially Charles Darwin said,
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    when it comes to species,
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    that the strong eat the weak,
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    and only the fittest survive.
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    And as the clamor rose against Rockefeller
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    and his business practices,
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    he responded essentially by saying, "Look,
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    my wealth and my power
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    prove that I am the fittest.
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    I am the strongest.
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    And if other people have to live
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    in poverty and squalor, well,
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    that just proves that they are
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    the weakest and deserve to be eaten."
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    And by the way, as far as it goes,
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    that's a pretty good argument.
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    If the laws of nature are read in tooth
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    and claw, then why shouldn't the laws of
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    everything else be read in tooth and claw?
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    To me, given the truth of the premise,
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    I would accept the conclusion.
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    Now, I don't accept the truth
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    of the premise, but I think
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    Rockefeller had a good point.
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    If Darwinian thought is the way the world
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    works, then why not apply
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    those principles to business?
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    Now, in the age in which we live, where we
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    just accept government intervention
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    on business practices,
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    it's hard for us to imagine just how
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    hands-off the government was
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    towards businesses back then.
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    It was like laissez-faire gone wild.
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    Now the conditions of the workers
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    whom Rockefeller sacrificed in order
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    to get to the top were pretty awful.
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    Consider that these folks were working
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    a minimum of 10-hour shifts, six days
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    a week, and a sizeable portion worked 12
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    to 14-hour shifts, which is to say
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    many workers ate breakfast, lunch,
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    and dinner at the factory
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    and returned home only to sleep.
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    But the reward of such long hours was
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    extremely low wages and constant danger
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    from unsafe machines
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    and squalid working conditions.
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    So, you know, worth it.
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    Now, as it happened,
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    those millions and millions of workers
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    who, by their poverty,
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    proved that they were only fit to be
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    trampled upon by people like Rockefeller
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    suddenly woke up and started organizing
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    and demanding their
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    rights and their dignity.
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    And the way they fought back
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    was by creating labor unions.
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    You see, an individual laborer couldn't do
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    anything about his lot in life,
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    but when you join that one to another,
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    and then thousands of others,
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    all of a sudden they have a voice.
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    One of the most significant labor unions
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    was known as the "Knights of Labor,"
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    and probably one of their most significant
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    achievements was to agitate through
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    a series of strikes for an eight-hour
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    workday, and in many cases, they won.
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    But as it turns out,
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    the Knights of Labor were dealt a death
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    blow in an affair that came to be
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    known as the Haymarket Square Riot.
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    So, in May of 1886,
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    the Knights had scheduled a public protest
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    in Chicago. And long story short,
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    a radical anarchist threw a bomb
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    into the midst of the gathering and killed
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    or injured a dozen people,
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    including police officers.
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    Now as far as we know,
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    the Knights had nothing to do with this
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    bomb, but that didn't stop a lot
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    of the newspapers from blaming it on them.
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    And at that point,
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    the Knights of Labor quickly faded.
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    And in place of the Knights of Labor,
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    other labor unions grew up,
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    like the American Federation of Labor,
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    and in many cases, they took up the same
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    causes that the Knights had taken up.
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    All told, by 1900 there were upwards
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    of 23,000 labor strikes across America.
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    The strikers won about half of their
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    contests and lost about half,
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    but it was serious progress in their eyes.
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    The eight-hour workday was established,
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    wages increased, and safety regulations
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    for factories were slowly implemented.
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    And as a sign that things were changing,
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    in 1894 Congress established Labor Day,
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    which was a symbol of the
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    workers' right to rest.
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    Now, a lot of people want to argue about
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    the practices of business owners
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    like Rockefeller and Carnegie.
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    Some people want to call them captains
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    of industry because they worked very hard,
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    rose from nothing, established businesses,
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    and became a symbol of the American dream
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    in which anyone could get anywhere they
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    wanted to provided they
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    worked hard enough.
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    Other people want to call them robber
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    barons because they only cared about
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    amassing wealth and they cared nothing
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    about the people whose backs they
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    trampled upon in order to get that wealth.
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    But whichever way you see it,
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    you have to understand
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    that the coming-of-age of American
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    industry was one of the most
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    convulsive changes in American history.
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    This nation began just like
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    Thomas Jefferson dreamed,
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    as a nation of farmers,
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    but during the Gilded Age we became
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    a nation of capitalists and city-dwellers
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    and factory workers, and it was just going
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    to take us a few years to figure
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    out how to stand on these new legs.
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    So, that's all for now.
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    I'll see you next time.
Title:
Titans of Industry [Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Labor Unions]
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
BYU Continuing Education
Project:
APHIST-062(BYUIS)
Duration:
07:27

English subtitles

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