Chapter 24 Flashcards
(34 cards)
gov and railroads
Gov gave land to railroad companies
Cleveland thought it was wrong and ended it
Union Pacific Railroad
From Omaha, Nebraska to California
For efforts they got pay, free land, and loans
Irish workers did most of the labor
Central Pacific Railroad
Starts in California pushes eastward
Headed up by Leland Stanford
Chinese Labors did most of the work
4 other transcontinental lines
Northern pacific railroad (lake superior to Puget sound)
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa De (Kansas to Cali)
Southern Pacific (NOLA to SF)
Great Northern (MN to Seattle)
Railroad consolidation and mechanization
Consolidating made fares cheaper
Vanderbilt began to use steel rails, instead of iron
Steel was stronger, lasted longer, and didn’t rust
Standard gauge made things uniform
Westinghouse air brake was invented
Pullman palace cars were built
Effect of railroads
Eastern and western markets linked
Investors could pour money into new markets
Cities boomed out west, Chicago especially
Midwestern plains became cornfields and great herds of buffalo began to die off
Times zones were created
Wabash case
Supreme Court says states cannot regulate interstate trade only congress can
Interstate Commerce Act
1889
Outlawed rebates and pools
Required rates to be openly punished and banned charging low rates for the long haul and higher rates for the short haul
Law intended to help the commoner but the rich found a way around it
Inventions
Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell
Light bulb: Thomas Edison
Eli Whitney started mass production and interchangeable parts
Cash register, stock ticker, typewriter, refrigerator car
Andrew Carnegie
US steel corporation
Used vertical integration: bought out buisneses that he used in the production process
John D. Rockefeller
Standard Oil Company
Used horizontal integration: force a competitor out of buisness or buy them out to grow even larger
Used Interlocking directorates, where his own men would be placed on the board of directors for competitors
JP Morgan
Financier
Used interlocking directorates
Morgan bought Carnegies steel empire for 400 mil
Bessemer Process
Cool air is blown over red hot iron to burn off impurities and produce stronger and cheaper steel
Drake’s Folly
Started the oil boom with a gusher in Pennsylvania
Kerosene replaced by electricity
Gospel of Wealth
Rockefeller felt their wealth came from God
Carnegie thought the rich should spread the wealth
Social Darwinism
Sherman Anti Trust Act
1890
Enacted in attempt to outlaw trusts or monopolies
Law forbade combinations of pools or cartels, interlocking directorates, holding companies
Not effective
Cotton mills
Emerged in the south
Meant many jobs but cheap labor
Impact of New Industrial rev
Standard of living improved
Women gained more roles
Employed wage earners
Market flooded
Scabs, Oaths, Black list
Scabs: part -time replacement workers
Ironclad oaths and yellow dog contracts: workers could not join unions
Black list made by buisneses: no other employer would hire that person in that company
National Labor Union
1866
Skilled and unskilled members
Goal: 8 hour workday
1873 ruined the national labor union
Knights of Labor
Unskilled, skilled, women and blacks
People banned: liquor dealers, professional gamblers, lawyers, bankers
Sought 8 hour workday
Led by Terence Powderly
Haymarket Square Incident
Chicago, 1886
Anarchists riot
A bomb went off
Public blamed the knights of labor union
American Federation of Labor
Started by Samuel Gompers in1886
Made up of small independent unions
Sought: better wages, shorter hourse, better working conditions
Skilled craftsmen
Unskilled workers would be easily replaceable
Labor Day 1894
Unhappy farmers
Faced drought, heat, prairie fires, floods, locust swarms
Gov. Taxed farmers
Relied on railroads but were expensive
