America's Industrial Revolution: Railroads, Steel, and Monopoly Power

1. Industry Comes Of Age Chapter 24 1865-1900

2. Railroads • 1865 – only 35,000 miles of rail, with most of the track lying east of the Mississippi River • 1900 – 192,556 miles of rail, with most of the track lying west of the Mississippi River • Congress began to advance loans to 2 companies to build a transcontinental railroad • Frontier villages became cities if a railroad was placed nearby

3. Union Pacific Railroad • Commissioned by Congress to push westward from Omaha, Nebraska

4. Central Pacific Railroad • Commissioned by Congress to push eastward from Sacramento, California • They had to push over the Sierra Nevada Mountains

5. Big Four • There were four chief financial brokers of the transcontinental railroad • Two included: • Leland Stanford of California – had huge political connections • Collis P. Huntington – an adept lobbyist • Railroads made a profit of $105 million

6. Chinese Workers • 10,000 Chinese workers poured into the Western United States • Cheap, efficient, and expendable • Hundreds died from explosions while trying to clear the path for the railroad

7. Promontory Point, Utah • In 1869, the 2 lines finally met up just outside of Ogden, UT • Union Pacific – laid 1,086 miles of track • Central Pacific – laid 689 miles of track

8. Steel • The need for this metal increased because it was safer for railroads to travel on steel tracks • It was more economical and steel could carry a heavier load • Bessemer Process – 1850s – making cheaper steel by blowing cold air on red-hot iron, making the metal white-hot igniting the carbon and eliminating impurities

9. RR Improvements • Standard gauge – universal width of railroad tracks came about after Civil War • Westinghouse air brake – 1870s more efficient and much safer • Pullman Palace Cars – advertised as “gorgeous traveling hotels”

10. Corruption • This is still the Gilded Age, and corruption lingers in all aspects of life. • If you can make money at it, it was probably corrupt • $ = corruption • Credit Mobilier & Jay Gould • Stock watering – RR stocks were grossly inflated, and then stocks were sold

11. Andrew Carnegie • Kingpin of steel makers • Scottish; hard-worker • Eliminated middle-men • Not a monopolist • 1900 – made $25 M in profit alone • No income tax, so he was a real millionaire

12. J. Pierpont Morgan • JP Morgan was a legendary Wall Street banker • RR, insurance companies, and banks

13. Morgan and Carnegie • By 1900, Carnegie was eager to sell his holdings in steel • Morgan invested into steel pipe production, and wanted to own more steel • Morgan agreed to buy Carnegie out for $400 million • Carnegie spent the rest of his life giving away money to libraries, universities, and philanthropies

14. JP Morgan • Controlled United States Steel Corporation • Capitalized at $1.4 Billion • US Steel was the United States’ first billion dollar corporation

15. John D. Rockefeller • Lanky, shrewd, ambitious, abstemious (didn’t drink, curse, or smoke) • Came to dominate the oil industry • 1870 Standard Oil Company of Ohio • Oil – kerosene and gasoline

16. Rockefeller and Standard Oil • Controlled 95% of all oil refineries in the United States • Eliminated middle-men, and created an oil monopoly • Became one of the richest “robber-barons” in US history

17. America Moves to the City Chapter 25 1865-1900

18. Population • 1870 – 40 million people in US • 1900 – 80 million people in US • The lure of industrial jobs brought people to the city • Rural people began to move to Urban areas in search of a better job, and better way of life

19. Urban Frontier • 1860 – no city with 1,000,000 people • 1890 – NYC, Chicago, and Philadelphia all had 1,000,000 people • 1900 – NYC had over 3.5 million people • NYC became the 2nd largest city in the world to London, England

20. The Skyscraper • Cities grow up and out • Louis Sullivan, a Chicago architect, built the 1st 10 floor building • “form follows function” • The electric elevator perfected the skyscraper

21. Commuting • Americans became commuter to and from work • Electric trolleys expanded the reach of the average citizen • Different districts for business, industry, and residences emerged • Residential districts were segregated by race and class

22. Technology • City lights, electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephones all added to the luxury of city life • 1900 – 1 million telephones in use

23. Waste • Country – very little waste • City – produced much more trash • Waste disposal – new issue to the urban age • Criminals flourished in the city • Impure water, uncollected garbage, unwashed bodies, droppings from animals, HORRIBLE STENCH • “the best and the worst combined”

24. SLUMS • Worst conditions were called slums • Foul, crowded, filthy, rat-infested • 1879 – dumbbell tenement – 7-8 stories, multiple families, shallow, sunless, ill-smelling, no ventilation, shared hallway toilets

25. Slums • Flophouse – poor could stay on poor mattresses for a few cents a night • The wealthy left the city altogether, and moved to the suburb

26. New Immigration • 1880s – over 5 million immigrants came to the US (avg. 2,100/day) • Before, most had been from British Isles, W. Europe, Germany, and Scandinavia • They were Anglo-Saxon, some Irish-Catholic, Catholic Germans • 1880s – immigrant stream changed

27. New Immigration • Immigrants began to come from S. and E. Europe • Italians, Croats, Slovaks, Greeks, Poles • With Orthodox churches, synagogues, • From countries with little or no democracy

28. Europe • Had no room for its people because: • Old World was growing vigorously • Fish and grain from New World helped Old World population • Potato changed Europe • Created an Army of unemployed in Europe

29. “America Fever” • USA was painted as a land of fabulous opportunity, freedom from conscription, and no religious persecution • Industry needed people to work for low wages • States needed people for #s • Steamships needed paying freight • 1880s – Russians turned violently on their Jews

30. Birds Of Passage • Many were migrant workers who came to the US to work for months for American $$$ and returned home to Europe with their earnings

31. Social Conscience • Clergy brings Christianity to the slums and factories • Washington Gladden – Congregationalist from OH that predicted socialism would be the logical outcome of Christianity

32. Jane Addams – Hull House • From a wealthy Illinois family • 1st generation of college educated women • 1889 opened Hull House in Chicago • Urban settlement house • Condemned war and poverty • Offered instruction in English, counseling, and child-care

33. Nativism • Viewed the Eastern and Southern Europeans as inferior • Blamed them for degradation of govt., working for low wages, importing socialism, communism, and anarchy • Anglo-Saxons worried they would be outbred and outvoted

34. American Protective Association (APA) • 1887 • 1 million members • Urged voting against Catholic candidates • Very anti-Catholic • Organized labor was nativist because of the language barrier

35. Chinese Exclusion Act - 1882 • 1st restrictive immigration laws keeping a race totally out of the US • This law barred all Chinese from entering the US for 10 years

36. Undesirables • People who were forbidden grew to include: the insane, polygamists, prostitutes, alcoholics, anarchists, and diseased people • 1886 – Statue of Liberty was given by France to celebrate America’s open arms to immigrants • Nativists hated the idea

37. Religion • Urban cities posed challenges for American churches • Protestants, in particular, had many doctrines and teachings that were irrelevant in urban cities • Church became a sacred diversion, or amusement for some

38. Religion • John D. Rockefeller – pillar of Baptist Church • J.P. Morgan – pillar of the Episcopal Church • Materialism prevailed – worshipped money as achievement • “God causes the righteous to prosper”

39. Dwight Lyman Moody • Chicago shoe salesman turned preacher, evangelist • Country boy preaching the gospel of kindness and forgiveness in the city • Spellbinding sermons • Moody Bible Institute - 1889

40. Religion • Roman Catholic and Jewish faith was growing in the city • Strength came from New Immigrants • 1900 – Catholics largest single denomination in the US

41. Cardinal Gibbons • Urban Catholic leader devoted to American unity • Immensely popular with Catholics and Protestants • Knew every president from Johnson to Harding • (like a Billy Graham)

42. Religion • 1890 – 150 different religious denominations • Salvation Army – soldiers without swords – est. in England in 1879

43. Charles Darwin • On The Origin of Species • 1859 • English naturalist • Theory that humans evolved slowly from lower forms of life • “the survival of the fittest” • Evolution cast doubt on the literal interpretation of the Bible

44. Evolution • Fundamentalists – believed in God’s creation of the earth in 6 days • Modernists – flatly refused to accept Bible as science or history • Teachers of biology who embraced evolution were removed from their post

45. Education • Tax supported elementary schools began b4 Civil War • Free government can’t exist in a country of ignorance • 1870 – most states mandated grade-school attendance

46. High Schools • High Schools began to spread in the 1880s and 1890s • Before the war, private academies were the only high schools • Tax supported high schools were rare • 1900 – 6,000 HS w/ free texts supported by tax $

47. Normal College • Teacher training expanded in the late 19th century • 1910 – 300 Normal Schools • Southwest Texas State started as a normal school

48. Education • Kindergartens – borrowed from Germany • Strength of Catholic parochial schools grew • 1870 – 20% of US was illiterate • 1900 – 10.7% of US was illiterate

49. African Americans • Suffered most because of lack of education opportunity • 44% of non-whites were illiterate in 1900

50. Booker T. Washington • Ex-slave who saved pennies to pay for his schooling • 1881 – became head of the black normal & industrial school @ Tuskegee, Alabama • Self-help advocate