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46 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
American Railroad System (1865-1900)
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Went from 35,000 miles of track in 1865 to 192,556 miles of track in 1900.
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Land Grants
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The private railroad companies got massive land grants from gov't:
for every 2 miles of track 20 miles of land. Untile Clevland outlawed in in 1887, RR companies chose what to do with it. |
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Ghost Towns
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Towns that didn't have a railroad pass through which were deserted for towns built up around a railroad.
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Union Pacific Railroad
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RR going from Omaha, Nebraska to California and got $16,000-$48,000 in gov't loans for every 2 miles of track
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Paddies
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Irishmen who fought in the Civil War and then went on to work on the RR
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Problems with laying railroads
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-Native Americans would attack
-Living quarters sucked (their camps were known as "hell on wheels") |
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Central Pacific Railroad
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RR company working from the other end to connect with the Union Pacific Railroad. Headed by Stanford and 3 other men. Used a lot of chinese workers.
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1869
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Union Pacific and Central Pacific RR met to finish the trans continental rr in Ogden, Utah.
*Connected the West to the Union |
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James J. Hill
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Creator of the Great Norther RR, and a brilliant rail road man himself. Had a sense of civic duty, and realized his success depended on the community around him
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Cornelius Vanderbilt
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Man behind welding together and expanding Easter and Western RR companies. Also popularized the steel rail as oppose to the iron one.
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Westinghouse air brake
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Improvement on brake: Safer, more efficient, trains could go faster, and helped to create luxury cars.
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Pullman Cars
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First luxury cars, advertised as a hotel on wheels, although they were full of safety hazards (swinging kerosene lamps)
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Time Zones
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Before 1880s they were dictated by the sun, but now that trains were moving faster for far distances, there needed to be definite times
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Jay Gould
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Adept and fraudulent millionaire. Took advantage rr business, manipulating the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific
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Stock Watering
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Inflating stock right before selling it, so one pays more for something that a stock that is in reality worth less.
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Railroad abuse of American Law
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RR tycoons like Vanderbilt didn't really care about the law. They bribed their way out of it.
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Pool
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Many RR companies realized it was more expensive to compete than to work together, so they formed pools and set prices. form of MONOPOLY
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Grange
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Depression of 1870 led to farmer forming agrarian groups called granges which initially were just to get together, but eventually formed into a primitive sort of labor union against rr companies
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Interstate Commerce Act
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First major act by congress against RR companies. Passed under Clevland, even though he didn't like it, it forbade pools and special shipping rates for certain customers
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Interstate Commerce Commission
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Set up to enforce the Interstate Commerce Act, but it was not too effective. It did promote competition though.
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Millionaire
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With the America as the top manufacturing nation, many people were becoming more wealthy and the term "millionaire" was coined.
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Mesabi Range
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In the Minnesota Lake Superior region tons of Iron ore was found contributing to the vast steel empire of the 1890s
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New Machines for business operation
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cash register, type writer, refrigerated rr cars, sky scrapers were all products of american ingenuity and all contributed to the 2nd Indus. Rev.
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A.G. Bell
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Invented the telephone in 1876. Huge invention and created a lot of jobs for women.
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T.A. Edison
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nearly deaf inventor from NJ. Invented the dictaphone, moving picture, and perfected the electric light bulb.
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John D. Rockefeller
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Head of Standard Oil. Created the idea of "horizontal integration", and created the "trust" which was like a more organized and official type of "pool".
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J.P. Morgan
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Banker, insurer, and entrepreneur, he came up with the idea of "interlocking directorates" which means putting allies on board of directors of other companies to ensure everyone is on the same page, and eliminate competition
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Standard Oil Company
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Run by Rockefeller, it utilized Trusts to become the dominant oil company in america
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Steel
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The new american steel industry was booming because of the demand from RR companies, and for skyscrapers, By 1900 US was producing as much as GB and Germ.
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Bessemer Process
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A process of cheaply taking the impurities out of iron and making it into steel.
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Andrew Carnegie
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A steel master grown up from humble beginnings who started a steel business in Pittsburg that eventually produced 1/4 of the world's bessemer steel.
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Morgan and his Influence
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He was a man of integrity on wall street. He reorganized railroad, insurance companies, and banks.
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US Steel
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Morgan took the company he was sold from Carnegie and made it into America's first billion dollar company
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Drake's Folly
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America's first oil-well. This sparked the creation of a new industry in the US, the oil industry. It was kerosene that was found, and it was better than whale oil for a lot of reasons.
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Rockefeller 95%
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By 1877 Rockefeller owned 95% of the oil industries in America
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The Meat Industry
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Gustavus Swift and Philip Armour used a meat "trust" and made huge profits off of the meat industry
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Gospel of Wealths
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Many of the gods of Industry believed that they were given the wealth by god for a reason and they had a responsibility to give some back to the community
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Social Darwinism
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Survival of the Fittest applied to capitalistic economics by Herbert Spencer
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Sherman Anti-Trust Act
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One of the first moves by the people against monopolies. It disallowed "trusts" but had few consequences when passed in 1890 and wasn't followed until 1914
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Southern Industry
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Post-Civil War it had far less industry and was far less prosperous than the North
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James B. Duke
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Took advantage of the new cigarette rolling machine and made a huge profit from his tobacco company. donated tons of money to trinity college which was renamed Duke University
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Southern Textiles
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Southerners had long resented the North taking their cotton and making it into fabric. So they did it themselves in southern textile factories cutting out the middle man. Mixed bag b/c owners of these textiles payed workers far less than they would in the north.
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Gibson Girl
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The new image of the american woman, as an athletic employed girl. Independent woman.
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Complaints of the working class
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-1/10 of the countries population owned 9/10 of the countries wealth.
-Working conditions, especially for children, were horrible. -Too much dependency on wages |
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Ironclad Oaths/Yellowdog contract
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would starve employees on strike until they were forced to work. it was away for big CEOs to keep workers at bay without changing policy or increasing wages.
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Black List
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Another way companies would avoid striking workers was the black list. Anyone on strike would be put on the black list and would have a horrible time getting a job anywhere.
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