The Industrial System And The Captains Of Industry

Author : Burton J. Hendrick
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781494480295
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (82 download)

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Download or read book The Age of Big Business, a Chronicle of the Captains of Industry written by Burton J. Hendrick and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-12 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: VOLUME 39 IN THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES CONTENTS I. INDUSTRIAL AMERICA AT THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR II. THE FIRST GREAT AMERICAN TRUST III. THE EPIC OF STEEL IV. THE TELEPHONE: AMERICA'S MOST POETICAL ACHIEVEMENT V. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES VI. MAKING THE WORLD'S AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY VII. THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF THE AUTOMOBILE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Industrial America is a product of the decades succeeding the Civil War; yet even in 1865 we were a large manufacturing nation. The leading characteristic of our industries, as compared with present conditions, was that they were individualized. Nearly all had outgrown the household stage, the factory system had gained a foothold in nearly every line, even the corporation had made its appearance, yet small-scale production prevailed in practically every field. In the decade preceding the War, vans were still making regular trips through New England and the Middle States, leaving at farmhouses bundles of straw plait, which the members of the household fashioned into hats. The farmers' wives and daughters still supplemented the family income by working on goods for city dealers in ready-made clothing. We can still see in Massachusetts rural towns the little shoe shops in which the predecessors of the existing factory workers soled and heeled the shoes which shod our armies in the early days of the Civil War. Every city and town had its own slaughter house; New York had more than two hundred; what is now Fifth Avenue was frequently encumbered by large droves of cattle, and great stockyards occupied territory which is now used for beautiful clubs, railroad stations, hotels, and the highest class of retail establishments. In this period before the Civil War comparatively small single owners, or frequently copartnerships, controlled practically every industrial field. Individual proprietors, not uncommonly powerful families which were almost feudal in character, owned the great cotton and woolen mills of New England. Separate proprietors, likewise, controlled the iron and steel factories of New York State and Pennsylvania. Indeed it was not until the War that corporations entered the iron industry, now regarded as the field above all others adapted to this kind of organization. The manufacture of sewing machines, firearms, and agricultural implements started on a great scale in the Civil War; still, the prevailing unit was the private owner or the partnership.