1. The Age of Railroads
Chapter 6, Section 2

2. Transcontinental Railroad
Meet in Promentory Point, Utah in 1869
Chinese & Irish work railroads
Paid less, given dangerous jobs
Thousands die of disease and accidents

3. Railroad Time Before railroads, cities determine own time
Maine to CA over 20 time changes
1870: Earth divided into 24 time zones
November 18, Railroads synchronized watches.
Towns had set time by the sun’s position. New York 7 Boston were off by 11 minutes and 45 seconds. Each railroad line had its own time. Could make catching a train difficult.
Chicago Newspaper compared setting to a standard time to Joshua making the sun stand still.

4. Railroads bring new opportunities
Iron, coal, steel, lumber, glass all in demand for railroads
New cities spring up
George Pullman built railroad sleeper cars. Started factory towns
Factory towns are cities controlled by factory & owner: they make all the rules.
By 1880s ¾ of all US Steel goes to the railroads
Railroads create new management techniques:
Now have to manage business over vast areas
Now have to manage money over vast areas
In 1850 the countries largest industry was a Maine textile mill which had 800 employees
In 1880 the Pennsylvania Railroad had over 50,000 employees
A new class of bureaucrat emerged: accountants and middle managers
The creation of accounting departments and Chief Financial Officers occurred thanks to the railroads.

5. A Tarnished Grant Administration
Railroad industrialist scheme to swindle money.
The Credit Mobilier, a dummy company, let industrialists skim millions of dollars.
Congressional investigations, pushed by the press, implicate corruption in government.
Vice President, speaker of House, and many congressmen seen as corrupt.
I’m so embarrassed!
Ask the students if they have ever gotten into trouble because of something their friends did
Grants loyalty to his friends got him in trouble
His relatives were implicated in a scheme to corner the gold market
His private secretary escaped conviction for stealing federal whiskey revenues only after Grant intervened personally
His Secretary of War had to resign before he was impeached for selling Indian Trading Post Contracts.

6. The Grange vs. the Railroads
Farmers upset with railroads for high prices and land issues.
Grange pushes for legal controls on prices
Munn vs. Illinois: States win right to regulate railroads in order to help farmers.
Supreme court said that states could not set limits on interstate-commerce.
1887: Interstate Commerce Act says federal government can regulate railroads.

7. Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
People rushed to change paper money into gold
Businesses failed, and companies start to consolidate (lump together)
Big firms bought up railroads.
The age of big business had begun.