Background Essay: Immigrants and Industry

Immigrants and Industry

In the headlong rush to industrial capitalism and its promised riches, several important historical trends converged in the last decades of the nineteenth century. An industrial revolution regained its momentum after the Civil War, improved transportation and communication technologies enabled larger numbers of people to consider emigrating (leaving their home countries) to come to the United States, and a variety of factors acted to increase the number of people who made that journey. Between 1880 and 1900, almost nine million immigrants entered the United States. Each of these immigrants had their own personal story of why they came and the challenges and opportunities they faced on arrival in the United States.

An earlier generation of immigrants had included the family of an impoverished handloom weaver from Scotland in 1848. Like so many others of the era, William and Margaret Carnegie and their two young sons sought to escape poverty by relocating and participating in the booming United States economy in the wake of relatives who had also moved to America. They settled in an immigrant neighborhood in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. The family struggled to make ends meet, and their older boy, 13-year-old Andrew, quickly found work at the same cotton mill where his father was hired. A diligent worker and fast learner, Andrew began as a bobbin boy and then became a telegraph messenger boy and soon an operator. Other jobs included secretary for a railroad firm, then superintendent of the railroad company. Early on, he began investing in stock of the railroads and associated businesses, such as iron works—he was among the first to see the coming demand for steel instead of iron. Within a decade of his arrival in America, Andrew Carnegie was well on his way to becoming a wealthy man. Though his beginnings in America were similar to the beginnings of millions of other immigrants, his trajectory and outcome made Andrew Carnegie an exceptional case.

Carnegie had no further formal education once his family arrived in the United States, but he was quick to learn the skills of his various jobs and he was a voracious reader. He frequently borrowed books from the extensive personal library of Colonel James Anderson. Anderson invited working boys to browse his library on Saturday evenings, and Carnegie later credited access to books for his success. “It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it, as the founding of a public library in a community. Whatever agencies for good may rise or fall in the future, it seems certain that the Free Library is destined to stand and become a never-ceasing foundation of good to all the inhabitants.” (Andrew Carnegie, An American Four-in-Hand in Britain, 1883)

Carnegie, who came to be called both a captain of industry and a robber baron, perceived his opportunities and made the most of them, eagerly implemented new technologies, undercut his competitors and bought them out. He went on to become one of the wealthiest men in history by leading development of the steel industry. Believing it was a responsibility of the wealthy to exercise generosity to help others succeed, Carnegie retired in 1901 at age 66, determined to spend the rest of his life in giving his money away. By the time of his death in 1919, he had given more than $350 million to various philanthropic causes such as libraries, colleges, hospitals, churches, concert halls, and world peace initiatives. His will provided for giving another $30 million to charities. Andrew Carnegie’s life was the ultimate rags-to-riches immigrant success story.

When the Carnegie family arrived in 1848, the immigration process was largely unregulated, and remained so until 1890 when the federal government formalized the method of vetting prospective immigrants. A processing center opened at Ellis Island near New York City in 1892, and another opened at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay in 1910. Push factors in southern and eastern Europe and Asia included economic depression or religious persecution, and pull factors in the United States included a rapidly expanding industrial economy and the availability of cheap, farmable land. The result was that places like the Pittsburgh area with its iron and steel industry, New York City with its bustling garment district, and California with its fertile farmland and railroad expansion drew many thousands of brave people desperate to work for a better life. They generally settled in cultural enclaves where language, foods, newspapers, religion, and community events offered them reminders of the life they left behind. The vast majority of them would never see their original homelands again, and many would write letters to friends and family encouraging them to seek out opportunity in America—if they dared.

In general, business leaders favored immigration because it helped fill the growing demand for low-skilled, labor-intensive, low-paying jobs, but by the 1880s and 1890s, economic downturns had caused many American-born workers to fear and resent immigrants, often finding their own jobs threatened by newcomers willing to work for lower wages. Nativism emerged in the United States as cities became crowded with people practicing languages and ways of life unfamiliar to these native-born white citizens. Immigrants came for the promise of escaping poverty and oppression. They did not always find a warm welcome and the transition was difficult, but for many people, immigration to America led to improved opportunity over time, either for themselves or for their children.