Title: The 1900s Business and the Economy: Overview | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: The 1900s Business and the Economy: Overview
The 1900s Business and the Economy: Overview
The 1900s Business and the Economy: Overview

Content: In 1900 more than 250,000 children under the age of fifteen worked in factories for minimal pay. Average union wages in 1900 were thirty-four cents per hour, compared to non-union, unskilled pay of fifteen cents per hour. The average workweek in the decade was fifty-three hours. Unskilled laborers especially faced many difficulties, since their income would not support a family of five even if they worked twelve hours a day every day of the year. The century began with businesses expanding by merging with similar companies (horizontal integration) and taking on additional functions in the production and sale of their products (vertical integration). The result was the elimination of competition. Many Americans became concerned about the continued rise of big business through trusts, trade associations, cartels, or pools. They feared that these business groups would destroy America's image as the land of opportunity where it was possible for an individual to succeed through his or her own business efforts. The 1900s witnessed the founding of numerous corporations that have since become fixtures in American life: Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (1900), United States Steel Company (1901), Quaker Oats Company (1901), J.C. Penney Company (1902), Pepsi-Cola Company (1902), Texaco (1903), Harley-Davidson (1907), Hershey (1908), and General Motors Corporation (1908).