A New Spirit of Reform
The Gilded Age The American worker hidden under the powerful few Reform, or change needed – were the industries corrupt?
Railroad Credit Scandal Union Pacific buys credit company Gives contracts from government to Union Pacific Overpaid 50 million – stocks look good? Led to investigation
President Grant Corruption Railroad credit scandal Cheated American Indians Illegal payments from whiskey companies to avoid paying taxes. People were making millions off the government
Political Corruption ….. Helped immigrates for votes Boss Tweed – newspaper bribe
Election of 1884-Cleveland wins Interstate Commerce Act Forced Railroad crossing state lines to charge customers the same fees for the same service. C. Vanderbilt made a Fortune from building railroads. Great Northern Railroad System – James Hill- “The Empire builder
Reform was also needed with American workers Labor Unions established: Strikers – stop working to get better pay or conditions Two groups formed AFL Nobel Order of Knights
Two Different Unions: AFL : American Federation of Labor -Skilled workers -peaceful bargaining (talks) Knights of Labor Open to all workers Improve pay and work conditions Strikes and boycotts Ends with a bomb
Texas Longhorns; 400 ranches -Ranching big business -Cattle trails and railroads developed. Meatpacking developed by Armour and Swift
Andrew Carnegie poor, from Scotland came over at 12 worked on railroads Started and invested in Carnegie Steel Co Became a steel tycoon; railroads, bridges, buildings Sold in 1901 to J P Morgan for 480 million; libraries, schools, medical research
Tech Boom– “Menlo Park wizard” Thomas Edison – perfects light bulb, brings electricity to New York, invents many things….like the phonograph Alexander Gram Bell – invents telephone
Other inventions: George Eastman – The Kodak camera! Elisha Otis – the elevator! Edwin Drake – strikes oil in Titusville! Ford – gas engine and creates the assembly line!
Vocabulary: Selling stock – way for a corporation to make money Entrepreneur – person who starts and organizes a business Monopoly – a corporation that has little competition
Corporations Stockholders – are those who buy shares in a company. The company is led by Board of Directors Trusts – formed to gain dominance with several companies hence creating monopoly To control the markets, business bought out their competition – horizontal combination
John D Rockefeller - started Standard Oil -vertical integration -owned 90% of pipelines refined 84% of the oil
Vertical Integration Control all industries required for production from raw material to the final delivery. Raw Material Factory production Railroad for delivery
Manufacturing replaces agriculture Suspension bridges ----Brooklyn bridge Refineries for crude oil---Rockefeller Railroads---Cornelius Vanderbilt Meat packing-----Amour and Gustavo Swift Steel for sky scrappers US has tremendous natural resources- coal, iron, petroleum Downside—factories caused pollution.