SECTION 1: RAILROADS AND BIG BUSINESS

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Railroads Gird the Nation 1870 – almost 52,000 miles of track cover

America (more track than Europe and Russia by 1900)

1 week to cross country on railroad (took a month before railroad line)

railroads receive more than 131 million acres of land grants from Congress & 49 million from states

first transcontinental railroad completed May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah

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Standard Time & Standard Gauge

problem – each town set clocks to own personal time (time different everywhere!)

solution – railroad time or standard time – 4 time zones created (eastern, central, mountain, pacific)

gauge – distance between the 2 rails – railroad companies use at least 11 different gauges (no national standard)

1886 – nation switches to standard track

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Businesses Compete John D. Rockefeller – made fortune in oil

business and found ways to limit competition → pools (companies agreed not to compete and keep prices the same)

trust – companies join together and operate as one company, controlling production and price to reduce competition and increase profit (by 1890 Congress passes antitrust laws)

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J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie

J. Pierpont Morgan – ruthless with money and business and a great organizer – many call him a pirate! – made his money in banking

Andrew Carnegie – immigrant from Scotland, made fortune in steel industry – built Carnegie Steel Co. - one of the richest men in America (over $25 million in one year!) Carnegie donates large amounts of money and is responsible for spread of public libraries

by 1890 the U.S. is the greatest industrial nation in the world

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SECTION 2: ROCK OIL LIGHTS UP THE WORLD

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Drilling for Oil 1880’s oil used for medicine, lubricant,

and fuel for lamps George H. Bissell – forms the

Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company and pays Yale chemistry professor Benjamin Silliman to find new uses for oil – Silliman finds oil is good for lamps and greasing gears and wheels to prevent wear

Edwin L. Drake – comes up with idea to drill for oil rather than just collecting it from the surface

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John D. Rockefeller Set Up the Standard Oil Company

John D. Rockefeller – Go-Getter, great organizer, never went to college – gave one-tenth of his earnings to church and charities

set-up his oil business in strategic city of Cleveland

was able to bargain with railroad companies and received “rebates” (refunds on each barrel of oil hauled)

tried to buy oil companies to eliminate competition → dominate the industry

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SECTION 3: CITY GOODS FOR COUNTRY COMPANIES

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Montgomery Ward before mail-ordering, goods were

bought at the general store A. Montgomery Ward – creates the

mail-order system – now farmers order goods from a catalog

customers have wider selection of goods at a cheaper price, and could return damaged goods to be replaced or refunded at no shipping cost

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Sears and His Catalog Richard Sears – sold jewelry by mail

with help from a watch maker, Alvah Curtis Roebuck, who also ran a print shop and could make the catalogs they needed for their business – eventually develops his own catalog and mail-order business

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SECTION 4: BUYERS’ PALACES

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Stewart’s New Store department stores – huge stores that

had a vast variety of goods – a change from the single product stores of the time

A.T. Stewart – created the department store

James Bogardus – developed the first cast-iron buildings - hired by Stewart to build his eight story cast-iron building, the department store, the biggest in the world!

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SECTION 5: THINGS BY THE MILLION

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Machine Tools July 4th, 1876 – Centennial Exposition

held at Philadelphia – showcases countries technological advances like Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone or the Corliss steam engine (largest ever made producing over 2000 horsepower!), bicycle, typewriter, elevator, linoleum flooring, and more!

Eli Terry – manufactures clocks so cheaply people buy new clocks rather than repair old ones

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Machine Tools machine tools are parent machines –

the machines for making the sewing machines, guns, clocks, and more!

William Sellers – famous machine tool maker – invented machine that could measure and cut metal at the same time – he also wrote System of Screw Threads and Nuts (1864) that standardizes nuts and bolts, a system the U.S. government adopts in 1868

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Efficiency Experts Frederick W. Taylor – efficiency pioneer

and father of “Scientific Management” – wanted to liberate people from waste or extra work! ex. – experimented until he found the right size shovel for the right size and weight of different coals for the Bethlehem Iron Company

Thomas A. Edison – nicknamed the “Wizard” – creates an “invention factory” where people work on inventing machines – invents the light bulb in 1879 and the phonograph (1877) and “kinetoscope” – showed moving pictures inside a box

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SECTION 6: LABOR BEGINS TO ORGANIZE

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The Rise of Trade Unions

1790’s – skilled workers like shoemakers, printers, and carpenters organized to protect their interests

unions illegal until Massachusetts Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) declares they are as legal as any other club organized to help members

difficult to attract the American worker to unions – highest wages in the world – not worth their trouble

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Labor Life people want shorter hours and better

wages – more and more willing to strike to improve their lives

100,000 New York builders and mechanics strike in 1872 refusing to work longer than 8 hours a day – they win

Haymarket Massacre (1886) - bomb kills 7 Chicago policemen and wounded 70 more in a strike

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Knights of Labor organized by Philadelphia garment

cutters in 1869 to unite all workers in one big union – they wanted fair share of wealth, more time off, more benefits, opposed child labor, and demanded an eight hour work day

membership booms, falls, and finally collapses when people begin lumping them with anarchists and Communists after the Chicago strikes at the time of the Haymarket Massacre

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Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor

Samuel Gompers – great union organizer – charged high dues to build up cash for strikes – only allowed strikes after he had enough money to support workers long enough to succeed – “bread and butter” unionism, aimed at higher wages, shorter hours, and safer working conditions

as the “father” of national unions, Gompers works his way up and becomes the first president of the American Federation of Labor (1886), by 1904 it had over 1.75 million members

overall, unions remain small players until the New Deal and WWII

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