Chapter 24, Industry Comes of Age

Iron Colt become and Iron Horse Railroads Iron Colt become and Iron Horse

Railroads in US 1865: 35,000 miles of track

Government Gave land and grants to railroad companies Railroad= Rr

Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 Union Pacific Company (Irish) Central Pacific Company (Chinese) Met in Promontory Point, Utah

More railroads, More problems… with Indians

Effects of more Rrds: Conflicts w/ Indians Trade (across America, Asia) Increased population in the West communication

Railroad consolidation Cornelius Vanderbilt

Railroad mechanization Improvements: Steel rail Standard track gauge Airbrake Pullman cars

Effects of railroads Transported raw materials (more industrialization) Time zones Bought lots of steel Mining/agriculture in the west Urbanization Immigration Environmental devastation Made millionaires

“Made millionaires”= corruption “stock watering” Insider trading

Government takes control (kind of) “American dream” Laissez-faire economics 1870s: midwestern states tried to regulate rrds Wabash vs. Illinois- states can’t regulate interstate trade

Interstate Commerce Act, 1887 Regulated rrds a little Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) Not perfect Set a precedent that government could regulate business

Increased mechanization in US 1860: 49th in world in manufacturing 1893: 1st

Why? 6 reasons

1. Foreign investments

2. Innovations in transportation rrds

3. mining US has (had) lots of natural resources: Coal Oil Iron Copper Zinc

4. Interchangeable parts

5. Incentive to invent machines Businesses want to replace expensive skilled labor with cheap unskilled workers and machines

6. Inventions Telephone- 1976 Thomas Edison Phonograph Mimeograph Dictaphone Moving picture Lightbulb

Nikola Tesla

Vocab

Vertical integration Andrew Carnegie, steel Combining all phases of manufacturing Ex. from “mining to marketing”

Horizontal Integration Rockefeller Allying with competitors to monopolize market “trust”

Bessemer process Method to get rid of impurities in steel Science Cheapish

Social Darwinism “Gospel of Wealth” “survival of the fittest” The best will rise to the top of society Therefore, poor people are lazy/stupid

Oil Industry 1859: “Drake’s Folly”, first oil well in PA 1870s: Kerosene 1880s: lightbulb

John D. Rockefeller Standard Oil (monopoly)

Government steps in Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890: No more trusts Not very successful (loopholes) Actually used to punish unions

Impact of Industrial Revolution on women Women go to work Telephone, typewriter, stenograph Economic necessity

Gibson girls

Impact on workers 2 out of 3 Americans depended on wages No job or wage protection No unemployment benefits

Photography Jacob Riis Lewis Hine

Unions Not successful initially: Businesses had all the power Immigrants looking for jobs “scabs” “iron-clad oaths” “yellow-dog contracts” “black lists”

National Labor Union 1866-1872 600,000 members Excluded Chinese Killed by the depression on 1873

Knights of Labor 700,000 members Welcomed everyone Campaigned for political and economic reform Died off in the 1890s

Haymarket Square Labor strikes in Chicago Bomb was thrown, killed about 12 people Anarchists were arrested

American Federation of Labor 1866 Samuel Gompers Skilled laborers A collection of individual unions who retained their own autonomy

Labor disorders 1881-1900 23,000 strikes 6.6 million workers $450 million lost