Chapter 24 Study Guide

Front 1

American Railroad System (1865-1900)

Back 1

Went from 35,000 miles of track in 1865 to 192,556 miles of track in 1900.

Front 2

Land Grants

Back 2

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.

Front 3

Ghost Towns

Back 3

Towns that didn't have a railroad pass through which were deserted for towns built up around a railroad.

Front 4

Union Pacific Railroad

Back 4

RR going from Omaha, Nebraska to California and got $16,000-$48,000 in gov't loans for every 2 miles of track

Front 5

Paddies

Back 5

Irishmen who fought in the Civil War and then went on to work on the RR

Front 6

Problems with laying railroads

Back 6

-Native Americans would attack
-Living quarters sucked (their camps were known as "hell on wheels")

Front 7

Central Pacific Railroad

Back 7

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.

Front 8

1869

Back 8

Union Pacific and Central Pacific RR met to finish the trans continental rr in Ogden, Utah.
*Connected the West to the Union

Front 9

James J. Hill

Back 9

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

Front 10

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Back 10

Man behind welding together and expanding Easter and Western RR companies. Also popularized the steel rail as oppose to the iron one.

Front 11

Westinghouse air brake

Back 11

Improvement on brake: Safer, more efficient, trains could go faster, and helped to create luxury cars.

Front 12

Pullman Cars

Back 12

First luxury cars, advertised as a hotel on wheels, although they were full of safety hazards (swinging kerosene lamps)

Front 13

Time Zones

Back 13

Before 1880s they were dictated by the sun, but now that trains were moving faster for far distances, there needed to be definite times

Front 14

Jay Gould

Back 14

Adept and fraudulent millionaire. Took advantage rr business, manipulating the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific

Front 15

Stock Watering

Back 15

Inflating stock right before selling it, so one pays more for something that a stock that is in reality worth less.

Front 16

Railroad abuse of American Law

Back 16

RR tycoons like Vanderbilt didn't really care about the law. They bribed their way out of it.

Front 17

Pool

Back 17

Many RR companies realized it was more expensive to compete than to work together, so they formed pools and set prices. form of MONOPOLY

Front 18

Grange

Back 18

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

Front 19

Interstate Commerce Act

Back 19

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

Front 20

Interstate Commerce Commission

Back 20

Set up to enforce the Interstate Commerce Act, but it was not too effective. It did promote competition though.

Front 21

Millionaire

Back 21

With the America as the top manufacturing nation, many people were becoming more wealthy and the term "millionaire" was coined.

Front 22

Mesabi Range

Back 22

In the Minnesota Lake Superior region tons of Iron ore was found contributing to the vast steel empire of the 1890s

Front 23

New Machines for business operation

Back 23

cash register, type writer, refrigerated rr cars, sky scrapers were all products of american ingenuity and all contributed to the 2nd Indus. Rev.

Front 24

A.G. Bell

Back 24

Invented the telephone in 1876. Huge invention and created a lot of jobs for women.

Front 25

T.A. Edison

Back 25

nearly deaf inventor from NJ. Invented the dictaphone, moving picture, and perfected the electric light bulb.

Front 26

John D. Rockefeller

Back 26

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".

Front 27

J.P. Morgan

Back 27

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

Front 28

Standard Oil Company

Back 28

Run by Rockefeller, it utilized Trusts to become the dominant oil company in america

Front 29

Steel

Back 29

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.

Front 30

Bessemer Process

Back 30

A process of cheaply taking the impurities out of iron and making it into steel.

Front 31

Andrew Carnegie

Back 31

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.

Front 32

Morgan and his Influence

Back 32

He was a man of integrity on wall street. He reorganized railroad, insurance companies, and banks.

Front 33

US Steel

Back 33

Morgan took the company he was sold from Carnegie and made it into America's first billion dollar company

Front 34

Drake's Folly

Back 34

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.

Front 35

Rockefeller 95%

Back 35

By 1877 Rockefeller owned 95% of the oil industries in America

Front 36

The Meat Industry

Back 36

Gustavus Swift and Philip Armour used a meat "trust" and made huge profits off of the meat industry

Front 37

Gospel of Wealths

Back 37

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

Front 38

Social Darwinism

Back 38

Survival of the Fittest applied to capitalistic economics by Herbert Spencer

Front 39

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Back 39

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

Front 40

Southern Industry

Back 40

Post-Civil War it had far less industry and was far less prosperous than the North

Front 41

James B. Duke

Back 41

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

Front 42

Southern Textiles

Back 42

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.

Front 43

Gibson Girl

Back 43

The new image of the american woman, as an athletic employed girl. Independent woman.

Front 44

Complaints of the working class

Back 44

-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

Front 45

Ironclad Oaths/Yellowdog contract

Back 45

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.

Front 46

Black List

Back 46

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.