Industry comes of age 1865-1900 APUSH Chapter 24

The Iron Colt Becomes an Iron Horse By 1900 there were 192,556 miles of railways in the US (more than all of Europe combined) Companies were rewarded with western lands to build a transcontinental railroad Villages the railroads were built through became flourishing cities Others withered up and died becoming ghost towns

Spanning the Continent with Rails The Union Pacific Railroad was commissioned in 1862 to move westward from Omaha, Nebraska Many Irish “Paddies” worked to help build the railroad Insiders of the Credit Mobilier Scandal pocketed 73 million dollars for 50 million dollars worth of construction At the California end, the Central Pacific Railroad pushed eastward from Sacramento Some 10,000 Chinese laborers provided the bulk of the labor (Hundreds lost their lives due to explosions) Transcontinental railroad was completed when the two companies met in Utah in 1869.

Railroad Consolidation & Mechanization “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt made his million in steamboats, turned to railroads in his 60’s Contributed 1 million to the founding of Vanderbilt University Helped popularize the steel rail (safer& more economical) Standard gauge of track width Air brake “Traveling Hotels” – Pullman Palace Cars Telegraph

Revolution by Railways United the country physically Created an enormous market for American raw materials and manufactured goods Spurred the industrialization of the Post- Civil War years Boosted steel industry through use of steel rails Stimulated mining and agriculture in the West Encouraged growth of cities Stimulated immigration November 18,1888– time zones created– “railroad standard time” The maker of millionaires

Government Bridles the Iron Horse Depression of the 1870’s goaded farmers into protesting corruption and control of the economy by a few The Grange (Patrons of Husbandry) & other agrarian groups pressured the government to regulate the railroad monopoly Wabash case– states could not regulate interstate commerce Interstate Commerce Act in 1887- prohibited rebates & pools & required the railroads to publish their rates publicly Forbade unfair discrimination Set up the Interstate Commerce Commission to administer and enforce the new legislation The first large scale attempt by Washington to regulate business in the interest of society at large

Miracles of Mechanization By 1894, the US was the leading manufacturing nation in the world In the 1840’s, the word millionaire had not been coined– during this era immense fortunes were created making the word necessary Amazing natural resources were there to be exploited Massive immigration (primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe) made labor cheap and plentiful Ingenuity was inspiring thousands of new patents Urbanization was speeded by the refrigerator car and the electric railway The telephone by Alexander Graham Bell built a gigantic communication network Thomas Alva Edison was the most versatile inventor of the era– Menlo Park, NJ was his “factory” where he invented – the phonograph, mimeograph, the Dictaphone, and the moving picture, as well as perfecting the electric light bulb

The Trust Titan Emerges Andrew Carnegie– Steel John D. Rockefeller- Oil J. Pierpoint Morgan– Banking Carnegie pioneered vertical integration – goal to improve efficiency and eliminate middlemen’s fees Rockefeller – master of horizontal integration so he controlled all his rivals in a trust run by a board of directors

John D. Rockefeller Andrew Carnegie

The Supremacy of Steel Typified the dominance of “heavy industry” as compared to “consumer goods” By 1900, American was producing as much steel as Britain and Germany combined Why? The Bessemer process– method of making steel cheaply and the relatively close location of fuel, iron ore, and other essential ingredients

Carnegie and other Sultans of Steel Scottish born industrialist By 1900, he was producing ¼ of the nation’s steel and making $25 million a year (his partners were splitting another 15 mill) Pre income tax – so actual take home pay! Morgan bought out Carnegie for over $400 million Carnegie spent the rest of his life giving away money for public libraries, pensions for professors and other philanthropic causes– giving away around 350 million Morgan opened the United States Steel Corporation which was the first billion dollar corporation

Rockefeller Grows an American Beauty Rose 1859– first oil well in Pennsylvania By 1900, approximately 15 million electric light bulbs were in use which rendered kerosene oil obsolete Oil industry would have died out if not for invention of the automobile John D. Rockefeller came to dominate the industry 1870– organized Standard Oil Company By 1877, controlled 95% of the oil refineries in the country

The Gospel of Wealth Idea that the wealthy had to be morally responsible Many argued that the extreme wealth was survival of the fittest – as promoted by Charles Darwin Contempt for the poor– many who were wealthy had worked hard to get that way and assumed that the poor were lazy and lacking in enterprise

Government Tackles the Trust Evil Eventually, people began to mobilize against monopoly Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was finally signed into law Forbade combinations in restraint of trade Proved ineffective Used to curb labor unions or labor combinations More new trusts formed in the 1890’s than any other time Eventually, private greed must be subordinated to public need

The South in the Age of Industry As late as 1900, the South still produced less manufacturing than it had before the Civil War Sharecroppers dominated southern society 1880s machine made cigarettes replaced the roll your own James Buchannan Duke formed the American Tobacco Co. and gave so much money to Trinity College that it was changed to Duke University Manufacturing cotton textiles fared biter than steel industry in the south Beginning about 1880, northern capital began to erect cotton mills in the South Slowly wove an industrial thread into southern life, creating mill towns where mill employees lived and worked Was the first chance many had known for steady wages, despite they were paid half the rate of northern counterparts

The Impact of the New Industrial Revolution on America Standard of living rose sharply Urban centers grew Older ways of life were withering Time centered around factory whistle Women moved into the workforce Delayed marriages Smaller families Class divisions became accentuated In 1900, 1/10 of the people owned 9/10 of the nation’s wealth American products radiated all over the world

In Unions There is Strength In the age of big business, wage earners did not share proportionally with their employers in the benefits Manual workers hit hard when machines replaced employees (in long run more jobs created than destroyed) Employees had little ammunition to fight back Corporations had strike breakers, lockouts, and federal courts on their side American wages were perhaps the highest in the world Strikes were seen as socialistic and unpatriotic Labor Unions received a boost by the Civil War National Labor Union 1866 argued for eight hour workday and arbitration for disputes Knights of Labor sought to include all workers in one big union campaigned for economic and social reform and codes for safety and health

American Federation of Labor Formed in 1886 by Samuel Gompers President every year except one from 1886 to 1924 An association of self governing national unions A major goal was the trade agreement authorizing the closed shop– all union labor Chief weapons were walkouts and boycotts Willing to let unskilled workers fend for themselves – it was composed of skilled workers Labor disorders continued with over 23,000 strikes between 1881 and 1900 Labor Day made a legal holiday in 1894