Railroads

• Gov’t loaned $ to RR companies

• Land grants

Railroads

• Union Pacific RR

• Omaha, Neb. West

• Irish

• Central Pacific RR

• Sacramento, CA East

• Chinese

• Wedding of the Rails

• Ogden, Utah

• 1869

Other Railroads

• Northern Pacific

• Atchison

• Southern Pacific

• Great Northern

Railroads

• Cornelius Vanderbilt

• Steel rail

• Standard gauge

• Investors RR

• Steel

• Mining

• Agriculture

• People

• Farm supplies

• Farm products

• Immigration

• Railroad Standard Time

• Schedules and wrecks

Railroad Problems

• Jay Gould

• Stock watering – lie about a line’s assets and profitability and sell stocks @ high value

• Bribed judges and legislatures

• Lobbyists

• Free passes to journalists and politicians

• Lassize faire – govt is hands off

• Wanted free trade

Gov’t Gets Involved• Grange – farmers didn’t like big

RR business

• Wabash case – states had no power to regulate interstate commerce (Federal gov’t would have to do it)

• Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

• Cleveland

• Prohibited rebates and pools

• Published rates

• Forbade discrimination

• Can’t charge more for a short haul than a long one

• ***1st large scale attempt by Washington to regulate business

• Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) – enforce Interstate Commerce Act

Industrial World Leader

-by 1880, U.S. is world’s leading producer of goods

-Why????

unlimited labor force

abundant coal supply

iron mining

discovery of oil in US– Drake

railroad development

The United States, nearing the turn of the century in the

1880s and 1890s, teemed with immigration from many European nations, as well as many Chinese immigrants.

These immigrants provided a steady work force, as well as

a cheap work force, as employers could get away with paying them less per

hour.

Edwin Drake’s discovery of oil led many to drill for the “black gold.” At first, the unrefined petroleum brought

in money for its producers and refiners. Entrepreneurs began

petroleum-refining industries to transform the oil into kerosene for lamps, and they got rid of the by-products, like gasoline. It was not until the production of the car and other mechanized items, that oil

refining became big business.

PUBLIC SUPPORT

• laissez-faire

• government allows business to do whatever it wants

• unlimited immigration

• supplied labor

• high tariffs

• protected American business

• public financing of railroads

• shipping goods

ENTREPRENUERS AND INNOVATIONS

Communication

• Telegraph

• Samuel B. Morse

• Telephone

• Alexander Graham Bell

• Typewriter

• Christopher Sholes

• new jobs for women

Factories

• Light bulb

• Thomas Edison

• Elevator

• Elisha Otis

Urban life

Trolleys = suburbs = upper and middle classes move from inner city

Urban Life

•Work by the clock = more leisure time = •more saloons•dance halls•Cabarets•amusement parks•vaudeville shows•moving pictures •spectator sports (boxing, baseball, horse racing)•city parks (Central Park/ Fredrick Olmstead – landscape architect)