Ch.24 Industry Flashcards
What improvements did he make to his railroad that greatly increased ridership on his NY central line because of safety (Cornelius Vanderbilt)
Steel rail-safer and could bear a heavier load
Standard gauge of track width-made the building of RR cheaper
How did the federal govt support transcontinental railroad building in the late 19th century?
Sold land to railroads for cheap rates and held onto land until railroads knew exactly what acres to take; generous federal loans to RR companies
George Westinghouse
Westinghouse airbrakes
No longer had brakemen which was a very dangerous job
What three railroad inventions made traveling safer and more convenient
Telegraph-communication between different railroad lines
Double tracking
Block signal
Analyze the impact of the railroad industry in the industrialization of the United States
Created a huge national market for goods Increased the steel industry Stimulated mining and agriculture Helped cities Increased immigration
Stock watering
Used by railroad monopolies
Selling stocks for more then they’re worth
Cattle watering
Pooling
Share business in a certain area and divide the profits
Other methods used by railroad monopolies
Bought people in public life
Bribed judges
Changed prices based on competition on certain rail lines
Three railroad tycoons
Cornelius Vanderbilt
George Westinghouse
George Pullman
Who were the Grangers
Organized agrarian groups of Midwestern farmers who wanted to stop becoming bankrupt by railroad
Wasbash case
1886
States couldn’t regulate interstate trade
Interstate commerce act
1887
- prohibited rebutes and pools
- required railroads to publish rates openly
- forbade unfair discrimination against shippers
- created the ICC
- stabilized the railroads
- 1st large scale attempt by Washington to regulate a business
Sherman antitrust act
1890
- Forbade combinations in “restraint of trade”
- Crime was bigness of trusts not badness
- The law had no power to be enforced and there were legal loopholes
- The law became more useful beginning in 1914
Vertical integration
Carnegie and steel
Owned all the steps in the steel making process
Horizontal integration
Rockefeller and oil
Allied with competitors to monopolize a given market
Interlocking directorates
JP Morgan -banking
Would consolidate rival businesses and place his directors on their various boards of directors
Consolidation leads to efficiency
If one business owns lots of the market they can have cheaper prices because they are so massive
Gospel of wealth
Carnegie
Stated that the wealthy were entrusted with riches and had to be morally responsible
Survival of the fittest
Herbert Specer and William Graham
“Social Darwinism”
How did industrialists use the 14th amendment to stop litigation against their companies while at the same time using the Sherman Anti-trust act to stop labor strikes
Set corporations as people and that because of that they couldn’t get their property taken away
Other than sharecropping and some tobacco production, characterize a typical “textile mill” town
Textile mills introduced industry into the south; cheap labor by “hillbillies”
Blacks had the most menial jobs
List the ways that a company could keep its labor force in line working for cheap forces
More workers than jobs Workers=dispensable Could import strikebreakers Employ thugs to break up labor organizers Could use federal courts Could bring in troops "Lockout" rebellious workers
National labor union
1866
600,000 members
Skilled, unskilled, and farmers (no women, Chinese, or blacks)
8 hour workday
Knights of Labor
1869 90,000 members included all people Wanted codes for safety and health, 8hr day, Terrence V Powderly Successful strike against Jay Gould
