Shea Washburn

Hist. Notes Ch 16
2/23/15

By 1900s US were industrial leaders in the world

o Raw materials
Oil
Coal
Copper
Lead
Timber
o Labor supply due to immigration
o Growing population and transportation industry
o Large market for industrial goods
o Capital was surplus, Europeans invested in US
o New inventions
440,000 new patents from 1860-1890
o Businesses benefited from new policies
Private Property was protected
Subsidized railroads with land grants and loans
Protective tariffs
Railroads
o Mileage increased more than fivefold in 35 year period
o Created a national market for goods
o Railroad time became standard
o Eastern Trunk Lines
High standard for efficiency
Connected big cities to smaller paths and those to eachother
New York Central Railroad 1867
o Western Railroads
Promoted settlement in the West
Govt saw this and provided railroads with many grants and loans
Gave over 170 million miles of land
Promoted hasty production and corruption
o Transcontinental
All over the country
Lead to settlement in all states
Employed war vets. And irish immigrants as workers

Laid track through whole country

Failed as businesses
o Competition
Overbuilt railroads
Mismanagement and fraud
Sold off assets and watered stock
Rebates and kickbacks to favored customers
1893 panic forced of all railroads into bankruptcy
By 1900, 7 systems controlled rails
o Before 1900, there were little-no laws regarding railroad regualation
Industrial Empires
o Growth of large scale industry, production of manufactured
goods/resources
o Steel Industry
Durable metal
In 1850s William Kelly and Henry Bessemer discovered method for
producing steel in large quantities
Andrew Carnegie
Scottish immigrant
Superintendent of a railroad
Salesmanship + technology
By 1900, vastly most successful steel business
20,000+ workers
US Corp.
Carnegie sold in 1900 for 400 million+ to JP Morgan
First billion dollar company
168,000 workers
3/5 + of the nations steel business
o Rockefeller & Oil
First oil drilled in 1859
Rockefeller created oil industry that beat all others
Used newest technology
Controlled all aspects of oil industry
o Antitrust
Trusts came under attack in 1880s
Federal law against monopolies was implemented
Applied only to commerce, not just manufacturing
o Laissez-faire
Free market capitalism

abstention by governments from interfering in the workings of the

free market
Business is business, government is separate
Social Darwinism
Take natural selection and apply it to society
Survival of the fittest applied to business
Gospel of Wealth
Many rich religious men
Put money towards libraries, universities, public institutions
Technology and Innovations
o Inventions
Typewriter
Telephone
Cash register
Calculating machine
Adding machine
Camera
Fountain pen
Razor
o Edison
Great inventor of era
Vote recording machine in 1869
Research lab
Impact of Industrialization
o Wealth Became Concentrated
o Middle Class Expanded
o More and more people worked for an actual wage
o Working class expanded
o More women began working, a very new thing
Women were paid less than men
o Labor Unions were Created
o Strikes
Homestead strike
Steel
Pullman Strike
Railroad workers
Tied up railroads
o Regional divide
North and south
Politically different liberal/conservative

East and West

Historically and architecturally