Pennsylvania: The Rise of Industry and the Labor Movement

With the close of the war came the rapid emergence of the state as a mighty industrial commonwealth. Supported by high protective tariffs, the industries found favorable markets and a constant supply of immigrant labor. The first oil well was dug at Titusville in 1859, and a number of fortunes, particularly that of the Rockefeller family, was founded on petroleum. But it was steel that became the basic industry, using iron ore from the Lehigh valley and the Bethlehem area and the native Pennsylvania coal. Later the iron ore was transported in massive amounts across the Great Lakes. Under the manipulation of such men as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Frick, Charles Schwab, and J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913; see under Morgan, family) numerous interests were merged into vast combines with state and national influence.

In the face of this increasing concentration of power, labor struggled to achieve safer working conditions, higher wages, and shorter hours. The campaign brought bloodshed during the fight between mine owners and the radical Molly Maguires and reached a climax in the strike at Homestead (see Homestead strike) in 1892. The miners, under the leadership of John Mitchell and aided by the intervention of Theodore Roosevelt, achieved a qualified victory in the anthracite strike of 1902, but the great steel strike of 1919 was broken. During the 1930s the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) successfully promoted unionization in many new areas and somewhat weakened the strength of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). By 1941 the CIO had succeeded in organizing the steel industry, while the United Mine Workers had acquired increasing strength among the workers in the coal fields.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Government Reform and Economic Restructuring
• The Rise of Industry and the Labor Movement
• From the Whiskey Rebellion to the Civil War
• The American Revolution and a New Nation
• Western Settlement and Native American Resistance
• Penn's Colony
• Exploration and Early Settlement
• Government and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures

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