APUSH: Industry & Big Business – Flashcards

192,556 miles of railroad by 1900 Started after south seceded 2 companies: Union Pacific Railroad: Started in Omaha For each mile of track, company got land grants Irish "paddies" workers Central Pacific Railroad: California to east "Big Four" chief financial bankers- Leland Stanford, Collis P Huntington Made millions but didn't bribe congressmen Chinese laborers "Wedding of they rails" near Ogden, Utah in 1869 Union Pacific- 1,086 miles Central Pacific- 689 miles

Employed more people than any business 20% of investment $ Opened country up to western resources -integrated national market -Farmers export raw materials to east, import manufactured goods from east Led to creation of time zones on Nov 18, 1883 Made millionaires Corruption: Jay Gould busted stocks of railroad companies "Stock watering"- inflated claims and profitability and sold stocks way higher than their actual value Bribed judges and legislature Indian attacks on expendable workers

2+ companies combine Fix prices Divide sales territory Limit production

Individual states have no power to regulate interstate commerce States were trying to regulate the huge railroad monopoly

Prohibited rebates and required railroads to publicly publish their rates Forbade discrimination against shippers Outlawed charging more for a short haul than for a long haul on the same line Set up Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to enforce the law

Natural resources: Iron ore, coal, oil Capital: Rich people's extra money used for investment in factories Inventions: Thomas Edison -Light bulbs, record player, movies Armour & Swift -Refrigerated train cars Elisha Otis -Elevator Alexander Graham Bell -Telephone Labor Supply: 1880-1900: 13 million immigrants -Southern & Eastern Europe (Poles, Jews, Russians, Slavs, Italians) Favorable government policies: Tariffs- import tax encourages manufacturing Railroads, land grants, loans Tax breaks

Scottish Worked for PA railroads- telegrapher Impressed Thomas Scott- supervisor Made $60,000 a year Invested in oil wells, Pullman cars 1873- puts all his money towards mass producing steel -Bessemer process -vertical integration: combine all steps into his 1 company 1901- sells company to JP Morgan for $400 million Gave away $350 million towards libraries and professors

Abstemious, baptist, lived to be 98 Cashier in Buffalo, NY First billionaire: 1870- Standard Oil Company 1/37 refineries in Cleveland 20% secret rebate from railroads -Allows him to lower oil price bc he's saving money on transportation Low prices drive competitors out of business -Once everyone is out of business, drives his prices way up Controls 90-95% of oil Becomes philanthropist: Donates $530 million to hospitals, schools, libraries, teacher's pensions

Interlocking directories: -Put his workers on rival companies board First billion dollar corporation -bought out Carnegie

1859- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin published Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner -Some people are superior just like Darwin said some plants are superior RICH = SUPERIOR Worst thing gov can do is pass laws to help poor/weak people

Forbade trusts or combinations in business First congressional attempt to regulate big business Loopholes big businesses could get through Stopped labor unions that were deemed to be restraining trade More trusts formed in the 1890s under President McKinley Revised in 1914

Sharecroppers and tenants: 1880s- boost in agriculture and tobacco production due to new machine-made cigarettes -James Buchanan Duke mass produced these "coffin nails" 1890- absorbed competitors into the American Tobacco Company "New South" -Henry Grady, editor of the Atlanta Constitution -Wanted to out-do the north industrially Obstacles: Northern controlled railroads discriminated against southern raw materials Textile mills: Northerners established cotton mills in the south for cheap labor Paid 1/2 of what northerners were paid

Widened gap between rich and poor: Top 10% of people have 90% of country's wealth Maldistribution of of income Work becoming impersonal- bosses don't know all workers or care about them Life moved faster- lived according to factory schedules Women: Before industrial revolution- domestic service New jobs- secretaries, typists, clerical, switchboard workers "feminized" Working class: Farmers becoming factory workers Urbanization of cities

Pool Trust (monopoly) Rebates Scabs- strikebreakers (anyone who crosses picket line) Yellow dog contract- contract making people promise never to join a union Blacklist- list of workers that won't be hired anywhere Injunction- court order that ends strike (courts always side with big businesses)

600,000 workers Skilled and unskilled Wanted 8 hour work day Collapsed during panic of 1873

Secret society until 1881 Included all workers 700,000 Women & blacks Grand master workman Terrence Powderly Won some strikes 1886- Haymarket Square Chicago- home to 80,000 Knights May Day rally turned violent when a bomb was thrown into the crowd by an anarchist, killing several dozen people including police 8 arrested 4 executed, 1 committed suicide, 3 pardoned by governor John Altgeld

Samuel Gompers (Jewish cigar maker born in London) Father of American labor Skilled workers ONLY** Not against capitalism ("slice of capitalist pie") Fought for higher wages, shorter work days, better working conditions Closed shop: allowing only unionized employees to work for a particular company 1955- merged with CIO: now AFL-CIO Only 3% of workers in a union by 1900 (?)