1 / 34

The Iron Colt Becomes An Iron Horse

The Iron Colt Becomes An Iron Horse. RR building exploded after the Civil War. US government subsidized the first two transcontinental RR How land-grants worked Why subsidies were necessary. In all RR got over 200 Mill acres from Feds and states—area larger than the state of Texas.

von
Download Presentation

The Iron Colt Becomes An Iron Horse

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Iron Colt Becomes An Iron Horse • RR building exploded after the Civil War. • US government subsidized the first two transcontinental RR • How land-grants worked • Why subsidies were necessary. • In all RR got over 200 Mill acres from Feds and states—area larger than the state of Texas.

  2. Benefits of Subsidies • US benefited from giving land to RR. How? • RRs promoted immigration • promoted of westward migration. • RR gave the government a break on mail and military transport. • Free land a cheap way to subsidize. • Why?

  3. Spanning The Continent With Rails • After secession, Congress Commissioned a transcontinental RR. • Union Pacific and Central Pacific.. • Building began in earnest in 1865 after the Civil War. • Credit Mobiler scandal

  4. INDUSTRY COMES OF AGE, 1865-1900 Chapter 24

  5. Building the Railroads • On both lines mostly poor immigrants did the work. • Irish were predominant on the UP line • Chinese on the Central Pacific line. Often beset by Indians. • Moving tent cities • Hundreds of labors died. • Significance of transcontinental RR

  6. Binding The Country With Railroads • Four other Transcontinental lines were built. None received cash grants, but three received land grants. • Many other RR went bankrupt and fleeced investors. • Towns competed with bribes to RR promoters to get the RR to come to their town. Many of these RR took the money and ran.

  7. Federal Land Grants to Railroads

  8. Cornelius Vanderbilt • Cornelius Vanderbilt welded together and expanding older eastern Network. • Had made a huge fortune in steamboats and used this wealth to fund RRs. • He was coarse, ill educated, ungrammatical and ruthless, but knew how to make money.

  9. Railroad Improvements • Significant Improvements to RR facilitated growth of railroads: • Steel rail • Standard gauge track: • Westinghouse brake • Pullman sleeping cars: made travel more comfortable for passengers—1860s. • Trains still dangerous.

  10. Revolution By Railways • Transcontinental RR caused many changes: • Stimulated American economy • Stimulated manufacturing and industrialization • Westward expansion of agriculture • Stimulated immigration • Bigger cities • Settlement of the unsettled areas • Time zones • Created Millionaires • Changed Western ecology

  11. Wrongdoing in Railroading • The railroads were rife with corruption • Jay Gould • Stock Watering • Bribery • Trusts and Pooling Agreements • Rebates

  12. Government Bridles The Iron Horse • Farmers resented the RR • Why? • Generally, the country was slow to respond to abuses of RR. • Laissez faire • Depression of 1870 spurred the government into action. • Grange put pressure on many Midwestern legislatures to regulate the RR monopoly. • State laws held unconstitutional in the famous Wabash case. Why?

  13. Interstate Commerce Act • Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. • Prohibited rebates and pools • Required RR to publish their rates openly • Outlawed discrimination against shippers • outlawed charging more for short hauls than for long ones • Set up the Interstate Commerce Commission to administer and enforce • Was not a revolutionary victory; simply modest regulation • Did provide an orderly forum. • water-shed in establishing the power of government to regulate business

  14. Miracles of Mechanization • 1865-1895 saw a huge industrial boom. • Reasons: • Much more liquid capital • natural resources started to be exploited • Massive immigration provided cheap unskilled labor • American inventions made businesses and factories more efficient. • telegraph, mass production, cash register, stock ticker . • Telephone (1876) and expanded telegraph; communications revolution. • Edison and Electric Light

  15. Thomas Alva Edison “Wizard of Menlo Park”

  16. The Trust Titan Emerges • Businesses, left alone, hate competition. • Ways to avoid competition. • Vertical Integration--Andrew Carnegie’s Steel operations. • Horizontal Integration—Rockefeller and Standard Oil • Trusts—Rockefeller • Interlocking Directorates—J.P. Morgan

  17. The Supremacy Of Steel • Steel became King after the Civil War. • Foundation for much of the industrial expansion • Bessemer process. • America biggest Steel producer by 1900. Produced 1/3 of the world’s steel. • Why America dominant.

  18. Carnegie And Other Sultans Of Steel • Andrew Carnegie—US Steel • King of American Steel • Produced ¼ • Carnegie cleared 25 Mil. a year. Huge fortune • Sold out to J.P. Morgan for 400 Million. • Spent the rest of his life giving money away

  19. Rockefeller and Standard Oil • Oil industry emerges after the Civil War. • Rockefeller and Standard Oil. • ruthless. • Big believer in commercial Darwinism. • By 1877 controlled 95% of all the old refineries in the country. • Benefits.

  20. Standard Oil—The Octopus

  21. The Gospel of Wealth • Social obligations of new super-rich? • Charles Graham Sumner • Get richer; none to poor • Social Darwinism • Rich deserve to be rich; poor deserve to be poor • Contempt for poor who had “earned” their own poverty • Russell Conwell • Charles Graham Sumner

  22. Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth • Inequality is inevitable and good. • Wealthy should act as “trustees” for their “poorer brethren.” • Wealthy had to prove they deserved their wealth. • Give back to the community as a whole, not to individuals • Carnegie gave away millions

  23. Government Tackles The Trust Evil • Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890. • Forbids combinations in restraint of trade. • Did not prove very effective because went after bigness and not badness. • Not very effective because penalties weak and loopholes • Biggest effect was unintended--Was used against unions. • Importance of the law was not its immediate effect but the shift in thinking that it represented.

  24. The South In The Age Of Industry • South did not benefit much • Produced smaller % of Manufacturing goods than pre-Civil War • James Duke—Cigarettes • Barriers to Southern development • Railroad rate discrimination • Textile Mills • Pros and Cons

  25. The Impact Of Industrialization • Increased wealth of nation • Standard of living rose sharply • Workers enjoyed many more physical comforts • Urban centers mushroomed • Jeffersonian Ideal of nation of small farmers died • Concept of time changed. • Many more women in the workforce • Delayed marriages and smaller families • New class system • Workers becoming more dependent and more vulnerable.

  26. Plight Of The Unskilled Worker • Surplus of unskilled labor. • Individual workers were powerless to bargain • Early Unions had little power, as well. • strike-breakers, lawyers and thugs (“Oh my!”) • Courts issued injunctions against strikes based on Anti-Trust laws. • Yellow-dog contracts • Black-lists • Company stores • Middle-class was largely unsympathetic.

  27. Labor Limps Along • Unions strengthened after the Civil War. • National Labor Union organized in 1866 and did well, • 600,000 members, both skilled and unskilled • Did not recruit women or blacks • Goals: arbitration of industrial disputes, 8-hour day • damaged by the depression in the 1870s.

  28. Knights of Labor • Knights of Labor took over where the National Labor Union had left off. • Sought to include all labor in one big Union. • They stayed out of politics, but campaigned hard for economic and social reform. • Their biggest issue was the 8-hour work day. • Won that fight from a number of industries and their ranks swelled. Terence V. Powderly An injury to one is the concern of all!

  29. Unhorsing The Knights Of Labor • Knights of Labor riding for a fall • Problems: • The Haymarket Square incident in Chicago in 1886 • Fusion of both skilled and unskilled labor. • Skilled workers abandoned the Knights for the American Federation of Labor. • This dealt the Knights a death blow, and the union slowly withered.

  30. Haymarket Riot (1886) McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.

  31. The AF Of L To The Fore • AF of L --1886 • Brain child of Samuel Gompers. • President of the union every year for 38 years but one. • Confederation of self-governing independent unions for skilled laborers. • Gompers political strategy. • Major goal was closed shop. • Weapons were walk-outs and boycotts.

  32. The AF Of L To The Fore • Let unskilled workers, blacks and woman fend for themselves. • 500,000 members by 1900. • 1881-1900 over 23,000 strikes • By 1900, increased but fragile support • 1894—Labor Day holiday. • Most employers still fought labor aggressively.

  33. Management vs. Labor “Tools” of Management “Tools” of Labor • “scabs” • P. R. campaign • Pinkertons • lockout • blacklisting • yellow-dog contracts • court injunctions • open shop • boycotts • sympathy demonstrations • informational picketing • closed shops • organized strikes • “wildcat” strikes

More Related