Chapter 18: Rise of Industrial America

Important Figures

Collis P. Huntington--Traveled to California during gold rush of 1849--Partnered with Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker to incorporate the Central Pacific Railroad--Lobbied for the railroad out east--Became president of the Southern Pacific-Central Pacific rail system in 1890

Jay Gould --Became director of the Erie Railroad--Issued fraudulent stock in order to try to keep the railroad out of Vanderbilt’s domain --He worked with Boss Tweed and Jim Fisk --His actions contributed significantly to the panic of 1869 and the value of paper money plummeted

James J. Hill--1882 Became president of Minnesota and Manitoba Railroad Company --One of best railroad managers; switched from wood to coal fuel, replaced iron rails with steel --Despite critics who called his plan “Hill’s folly,” he expanded his railway across the Rockies without a tunnel by using the Marias Pass

Shelby M .Cullom--Elected as a Republican in Illinois--Served in Senate --Served as Governor of Illinois --Gave a detailed study of devious railroad practices, persuading Congress to pas the Interstate Commerce Act (ICC) in 1887

J. Pierpont Morgan--Educated in Boston as an accountant --Reorganized firm he worked for as J. P. Morgan and Company, one of the most powerful banking houses--Reorganized railroads including the Southern Railroad, Erie Railroad, and Northern Pacific--Consolidated the United States Steel, General Electric, and International Harvester corporations--By 1906, he controlled 2/3 of the nation’s rail mileage

Andrew Carnegie--Came to America from Scotland and worked in a cotton factory as a bobbin boy --Worked way up to superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad --He quit the railroad and instead focused on other industries --He invested and supported the Bessemer process and vertical integration--He said that he actually supported the rights of workers to unionize, however, he hired Pinkerton thugs during the Homestead Strike of 1892--J. P. Morgan bought his steel company for $480 million, making him “the richest man in the world”

Gustavus Swift--Opened a butcher shop in Massachusetts --Hired engineer to design refrigerated car to ship cattle from Chicago to the East--Used every part of animals; hides into leather, bones into fertilizer, hooves into gelatin

Edwin L. Drake--In Titusville, Pennsylvania, Drake reads a Yale chemistry professor’s report that “rock oil” could be refined and used for illumination--”Crazy Drake” eventually found a reliable driller and they struck oil 70 feet down a shaft --This set off an oil rush and real estate values skyrocketed--Unfortunately, Drake was fired, lost money on Wall Street, and never patented his drilling process

John D. Rockefeller--While working as a bookkeeper, he would never write a false bill and always collected overdue payments --Headed the Standard Oil Company --Purchased his own tanker cars and formed his own pipeline network to increase efficiency --Created the Standard Oil Trust oligarchy

John Sherman--Republican (previously Whig) senator of Ohio--Recommended Hinton R. Helper’s Impending Crisis of the South to the House, making him unpopular --Stark supporter of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Isaac Singer--At the age of 19 he patented a rock-drilling machine --While asked to make a repair in a Boston machine shop, Singer ended up designing an improved sewing machine which he sold through I.M. Singer and Company

Thomas Edison--His 1st major invention was stock-quotation printer --Set up his invention factory in Newark, New Jersey and moved it to Menlo Park --Created a carbon filament for incandescent light bulbs --His greatest achievement was his Menlo Park laboratory which was a model for Kodak, General Electric, and Du Pont -- “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

George Eastman--Dropped out of school at age 14 to work to support his family--Developed paper-based photographic film in the 1880s--Democratized cameras by producing and selling the Kodak

William H. Sylvis--He was apprenticed as an iron molder at a young age while his family lived in Pennsylvania--He supported cooperatives, like the foundry in Troy, NY, to elevate the status of workers to the same status as the capitalist--He founded the National Labor Union, the first nationwide trade union

Terrence V. Powderly--He was elected as mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania while running as a Greenback-Labor candidate--Lead Noble and Holy Order of Knights of Labor after Uriah Stephens --Under his leadership, the Union welcomed many women members--He advocated for immigration restrictions, especially for the Chinese--He fervently opposed strikes and instead supported producer and consumer cooperatives

Samuel Gompers--He was born into a Jewish family and worked by making cigars--He was president of the Cigar Makers’ International Union --He was elected as the first president of the American Federation of Labor --He believed higher wages was not the end goal; rather, he believed the true goal was enabling working-class families to be able to live decently with dignity and respect

Eugene V. Debs --He organized the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen --Became president of the American Railway Union --He was sentenced six months in jail due to his role in leading the Chicago Pullman Palace Car Company strike --He ran as a socialist party candidate(He received over 900,000 votes while he was in prison for criticizing the government for prosecuting violators of the Espionage Act of 1917)

Adam Smith--He studied moral philosophy at Glasgow University --He published his economic philosophy in Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, in which he supports the “invisible hand” in the marketplace --He died of illness while working as commissioner of customs in Scotland

William Graham Sumner--Yale teacher who supported laissez-faire economics and the natural inequalities among mankind--He wrote Folkways, in which he details the irrationality of folk customs and morals --He wrote What Social Classes Owe Each Other, in which he asserts that natural laws control the social order --He believed interference only produces the survival of the unfittest

Henry George--He traveled to Canada to partake in the gold rush…however, he was too late and left for California --He worked for newspapers and the Democratic party, allowing him to publish Progress and Poverty, in which he describes a single tax on speculators --He wanted socialism’s benefits without stifling individual initiative

Edward Bellamy--He originally studied law in Germany but switched to become a journalist --He composed Looking Backward, in which he described the United States organized under an ideal socialist system without conflict and where everyone works for the common welfare --He supported the establishment of Nationalist clubs

Karl Marx--Radical German philosopher who composed Das Kapital--He believed that the labor needed to create a commodity was the only real measure of the value of that commodity --He believed there was class warfare between the bourgeoisie and the proletariats --Along with Friedrich Engels, he founded socialist parties in Europe --His Socialist Labor Party attracted only few Americans in the late nineteenth century

Alexander Berkman--Born in Russia to merchant parents with associations with nihilists, he was a fantastic student at St. Petersburg --He was eventually expelled for publishing an essay titled “There is No God” --He unsuccessfully attempted to murder Henry Frick, the Homestead Steel plant general manager --Once outside of prison, he helped to form the Ferrer school--After founding the No-Conscription League, the United States deported Berkman to Russia; he would never return to the US