Industrialism is a system of
developing industries that make large production of manufactured goods. There
was usually manual labor in the industries. Industries were what helped America
move in a positive way economically. They gave jobs to the lesser fortunate,
helped produce goods faster and were great for making guns and weapons for the
war. Industries had some great positive affects as well as negative affects. A
couple positive effects were that they economically boosted the country by
brining in a lot of money and gave the unemployed a job so they wouldn’t be
living on the streets anymore. A negative effect for industries is that the
working conditions were awful. Many people died in the factories. The working
hours were long and hard for the laborers and the factories were very
dangerous. There were so many machines that people could easily get hurt on.
Also, the owners didn’t allow the people to leave during working hours so they
were locked in.
This lead to many dangerous situations such as fires and workers not being able to escape. Later on in American history, there were machine inventions that took the place of human labor. Instead of having humans in the factories doing the work, there were machines. These machines took the jobs of the lower class, leaving him or her back to where they started with no job or money. In the end, industrialism was a huge downfall for the lower class.
This lead to many dangerous situations such as fires and workers not being able to escape. Later on in American history, there were machine inventions that took the place of human labor. Instead of having humans in the factories doing the work, there were machines. These machines took the jobs of the lower class, leaving him or her back to where they started with no job or money. In the end, industrialism was a huge downfall for the lower class.
A man named Henry George
wrote source 1. His views on industrialism are that American had good ideas to
begin with. We thought that making factories and giving the poor a job would be
a great thing for the future of America. But George goes on to say that since
the working conditions were just so bad that it really didn’t make much of a
change. He says that even though the country may have looked like it was
striving in wealth and machinery production, if anyone was to look deeper into
the lower classes and how they were doing they would see that things aren’t as
great as they seem, “and the machinery of production and exchange most highly
developed- we find the deepest poverty…”.
David A. was the author of
source number 2. David’s view on industrialism is that when people are hired to
work in factories they are taught to do one simple task over and over and over
again. That’s all they do. It pretty much becomes second nature to these
people. They are taught not to say or do anything other than their one task. So
when the machines came in and took over the jobs of these people, they were
left useless. David shares, “and when there is no more of that kind of work to
do, they are in a measure helpless” to show that the workers didn’t know how to
do anything and were left without a job when the machines took over. He
believes that the people should have had variety in their work so when they
were ran out of their job they would have some other options of work choices,
not left helpless.
The author of source 3 is
Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie saw mostly all the positives in industrialism. He
noticed that the railroads helped transport goods and items across the country.
He saw that the inventions of farming machines helped lessen the workload for
farmers. Carnegie thought that all these inventions really benefited the
citizens of the United States. Andrew Carnegie states, “Markets for his produce
are easy of access and transportation swift and cheap” to show us that all the
industrializing helped farmers greatly by making it easier for them to sell
their goods.
The
life of an industrial worker would have been hard. They would work long hard
hours and not even get paid very much. Their life would revolve around their
jobs and they wouldn’t have much time for family. The jobs of these workers
would be very dangerous and life risking; their lives would be in their own
hands. Workers were treated very poorly with their long working hours and hard
labor. I feel as though these workers should have been treated better because
they are humans as well. They were treated less for their social class and that
is just not right. Everyone should be treated equally. No exception.
