Chapter 20 Responses

1. There were various sources of economic growth such as technology, corporate growth, new ideas of managments, mass production and distribution. Of the many invention the most inventions for economic growth were the harnessing of light and gasoline powered internat combustion engine. Whith the discovery of electricity industries switched from steam power which was expensive and high in pollution to more efficient and cleaner electrial power. As the demand for electrical generators rose, jobs in metalworking and machine-tool industries grew. TO control the market instability corporations formed. As the number of corporation grew a form of management was organized. Status and duties of the corporation were divided among individual managers ina heirachal system. The senior manager took over the responsibilities of the owner and created long-term plans. Below the senior manager is the middle manager who oversees the various departments and manages the staff of the departments. The main goal of the manager was to efficiently increase factory productivity with the fewest human or mechanical interruptions. The best way they saw to achieve this goal was to introduce scientific practices into the factory floor. The " time-and-motion studies" of Fredrick Winslow Taylor was the first step in achieving the manager's goals. Taylor observed each single movement a woker had to make in the prodution process in order to identify where wasted human energy can be eliminated. His principals and ideas were called Taylorism. The first to use Taylorism was Henry Ford in his assembly line. In the assembly each worker only performed one simple task as the car was carried on a conveyor belt to various work stations, so this saved time which was perviously wasted in transporting car parts to the different work stations and limited the time the worker had to perform the task.

2. The social and economic turmoil of the 20th century had a major impact on corporation and the lives of the workers. The economic instability led corporations to seek consolidation. The Railrods were the first to begin the process. The railroads formed pools where various coroporation came together and established standardized rate, and distributed discrete portions of freight business. These pools or trusts were intended to end the rate wars but many failed to follow by the rules because of their temtation to lower freight rates and exceed one's market share. The next method that corporations saw to end the economic instability was through mergers. Through mergers competition was eliminated thus there were decreased the rate wars. One of the biggest merger was when Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan formed the U.S. Steel Corporation. The workers tried to attacke the economic and social turmoil through union and strikes.

3. From 1880 to 1914 there was a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants coming to America. Among the immigrants were Italians, Russians, Jewish, Hungarians and Slavs. These immigrants were called the "new immigrants" and were beneath the "old immigrants", who came from northern and Western Europe. The old immigrants were now socially accepted because they assimilated to American values, traditions and culture. Many new immigrants came to American to escape religious or political persecution or economic hardships. Many immigrants during this time were single men, who came to America for the high wages and planned to go back to their birth country. When they had enough money to buy a farm in their birth country. Immigrants made up 96% of the workforce in the U.S. industries. Much of the work immigrants did was back-breaking menial labor. Many immigrants worked on railroads and in coal mines. There were also "lighter" jobs such as jobs in garment manufacturing shops. These jobs were mostly held by immigrant women and children.

4. The ethnic communities created by the immigrants were a reproduction of the institutions that they had in their old country. In addition to the old institutions the immigrants also developed new institutions such as fraternal societies. These fraternal societies brought immigrants of common craft and nationality together. These societies provided members with death benefits, mortgage payments and a place to socialize. Within these ethnic groups were a small group of people who used their craft towards economic gain and formed the ethnic middle class. This rising middle class established businesses and provided its community with basic goods and services. Different ethnic groups chose a different route to enter the middle class. Many Jewish immigrants used their talent as tailors to opened up small manufactures in their apartments. Italian immigrants established construction companies and became contractors. Japanese immigrants embraced their agriculture talent and found their route to the middle class. At first they worked as agricultural laborers and then bought their own land.

5. Union were a big part of the early 20th century. It was very hard for the Immigrant workers and African Americans to enter the middle class. The only way to the middle class for these groups of people was through improving their working conditions and the only way to achieve this was thorugh a labor union.

6. In the 19th there was an ideal of separate sphere between the sexes. The male sphere consisted of outside and interacting with the public through work politics and public events. The woman's sphere consisted of doing house work, nurturing children and teach the morals of a good American. During this time it was forbidden to let the two sphere mix. After the Civil War, when more and more women were joining the workforce the two sphere did blend. During the early 20th century, as more women started to work in the factories and were receiving higher education education, women started to challenge the idea of sparate spheres. During the early 20th century a "New Women" developed. the new women was an ideal women that was tall, slender, athletic and wore practical clothes fashioned after men's clothing. women also started also started to interact with the opposite sex which an earlier-middle-class wouldn't have done. Women started to go out to dances and other public events. Women were also challenging their political rights such as their right to suffrage.