Industry Comes of Age Ch 24 Review lecture

Why weren’t the best men in politics???

THE RAILROADS After the Civil War the U.S. begins to industrialize railroads given land grants Gain a monopoly on land not letting anyone settle or build on it until they made their choice selections Grover Cleveland ended the practice by opening settlement to the land grant areas in 1887

Promontory Point, UT (May 10, 1869)

Why did the gov. give railroads land???? Land had no value until railroad developed it with tracks Gave gov. deals on postal service and military traffic Why did communities fight over railroads??/

Evolution of the Iron Horse Cornelius Vanderbilt developed steel tracks Steel was safer and more economical Standard gage made for all track widths Westinghouse airbreak “gorgeous traveling hotels” or “wheeled tortured chambers”???

Corruption Jay Gould- “stock watering” Would inflate railroad prices and sell stocks and bonds in excess of the railroads actual value (based on $$ for cattle) Railroad managers were then forced to charge high rates Railroads bribed judges and legislature

“Law! What do I care about the law” Railroad “kings” formed monopolies “pool” an agreement to divide the business of a given area and share profits

Taming the Wild Horse American people slow to economic corruption Belief in limited gov. involvement in business Depression of 1870 = Grange movement = early regulation of railroads

Interstate Commerce Act 1887- 1st attempt of the gov Interstate Commerce Act 1887- 1st attempt of the gov. to try and regulate business * railroads had to publish rates * prohibited rebates and pools * outlawed unfair shipping prices Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890 _ bigness not badness was targeted _ curbed labor unions

John D. Rockefeller 1859 oil found in Pennsylvania “Drakes Folly” horizontal integration (monopolizing) Oil industry dominated by Rockefeller- controlled 95% of oil in the USA in 1877

Alexander Graham Bell “number please” & Telephone Boys

Thomas Edison “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” Electric light bulb Changed work day/ night for people

Andrew Carnegie Scottish immigrant Disliked monopolies “King of steel” Vertical Integration (mining to marketing) Spend life donating $$ to public works J.P. Morgan bought for $400 million & turned the steel company into the 1st billion dollar corporation by 1901

America: Industrial Powerhouse Nation had a abundance of natural resources Entrepreneurs Large labor force Stage is set for America to become a powerful industrial nation

Differences in South Railroad rates “coffin nails” Rural white southerns worked in mills “hillbillies”/ “lintheads” Paid ½ as those in the northern states

Impact of Industrial America Increased standard of living Time revolutionized to the factory whistle Changed women's roll in society