The Growth of the Railroad

1
The Growth of the Railroad

• Railroads were the airlines of the late 19th
  century.
• Government involvement allowed transportation to
  flourish.
• The growth of railroads allowed for the growth of
  business.
• The transportation of goods became faster,
  cheaper, and more efficient.

2
Westward Expansion and Settlement

• Although not great for agriculture, the
  grasslands of the West were perfect for cattle
  grazing
• The construction of railways as far west as
  Kansas opened a booming market for beef and the
  requisite processing centers
• The Homesteaders helped put an end to the long
  cattle drives that were significant to the cattle
  industry by using barbed-wire fences

3
The Transcontinental Railroad

• This was to be the first railroad to stretch
  across the whole of the US.
• The Central Pacific Railroad began laying track
  eastward out of Sacramento.
• The Union Pacific Railroad began work toward the
  west in Omaha.
• At Promontory Point, Utah on May 10, 1869, a
  golden spike was driven to officially connect the
  two railroads.

4
Ellis Island

• More than 70 of all immigrants during this time
  came through New York City.
• The Statue of Liberty is built on Liberty Island.
• The countries of origin for many of these
  immigrants had changed from northern Europe to
  eastern and southern Europe and the Middle East.

5
Immigrant Labor

• The Irish were used to build the Union Pacific
  line across the Great Plains.
• The Chinese were used to build the Central
  Pacific line across the Sierra Nevada.

6
Chinese Exclusion Act

• The Act was passed in 1882.
• It prevented Chinese laborers from entering the
  country.
• Congress created this law on behalf of the labor
  unions and racists along the west coast of the
  US.
• This act was not repealed until 1943.

7
Thomas Edison

• Electric power became widely available because of
  Thomas Edison.
• His work on the light bulb and alternating
  current changed daily life for all Americans.
• Edison also invented the phonograph and motion
  pictures.

8
Big Business!!!

• The large corporations used various tactics to
  keep control of their industries and make as much
  money as possible many of these tactics are
  illegal today
• Monopolies complete control of a product or
  service.
• Cartels loose association of business that make
  the same product.
• Trusts a group of separate companies that are
  placed under the control of a single managing
  board.

9
The Rise of Laissez-Faire

• Laissez Faire capitalism advocated for a hands
  off approach to regulating business
• Social Darwinism was thought to rule the world of
  business, those most able would rise to the top
• Another attempt to justify consolidation was the
  Gospel of Wealth. This said that wealth was the
  clearest sign of Gods favor for your hard work

10
Steel

• The Bessemer process allowed for the production
  of better steel.
• Andrew Carnegie was the man who controlled almost
  all of the steel made.
• Big business was able to use the rail system to
  quickly transport goods around the country and
  drive out competition.

11
The Standard Oil Trust

• In 1870 John D. Rockefeller and several
  associates formed the Standard Oil Company.
• In 1882 the owners of Standard Oil and companies
  allied with it agreed to combine their
  operations.
• They would turn over their assets to a board of
  nine trustees.
• In return, they were promised a share of the
  profits of the new organization.

12
The Sherman Antitrust Act

• This law outlawed any combination of companies
  that restrained interstate trade or commerce.
• The federal government rarely enforced it.
• The act was applied successfully against labor
  union.

13
The Muckrakers

• These forerunners to investigative journalists
  used the print media to spread news about the
  evils and ills of big business and corrupt
  government
• By 1910 the power of the muckrakers was in
  decline
• Banks that financed the magazines were telling
  them to tone down the criticism and also the
  sensationalism was getting tough to top
• Muckrakers included
• Ida Tarbell The history of Standard Oil Company
  (1902)
• Upton Sinclair The Jungle (1906)
• Lincoln Steffans Shame of the Cities (1904)
• Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives (1890)
• Frank Norris The Octopus and The Pit- Novels

14
Upton Sinclair

• He wrote The Jungle about the meatpacking
  industry.
• He was attempting to change the working
  conditions but instead changed the way that our
  country processed its meat.
• The government started to monitor the meatpacking
  industry after this point.

15
Jacob Riis

• Riis was a writer who documented the tenement
  conditions in his book, How the Other Half Lives.
• Due to the graphic nature of his writing and the
  pictures he had of the tenements, he was able to
  get New York State to pass the first laws to
  improve tenements.

16
Social Reforms

• Settlement House workers like Jane Addams and
  Florence Kelly worked to get laws passed for
  social justice
• They lobbied for womens suffrage, better
  schools, juvenile courts, more liberal divorce
  laws, safety regulations for workers and tenements

17
Hull House

• It was created by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates
  Starr to provide services to the community.
• They believed that for social workers to be able
  to help a neighborhood or community they had to
  live in the area with the people they were trying
  to help.

18
Tenements

• These were crowded apartment buildings with poor
  standards of sanitation, safety, and comfort.
• As numerous tenements were built in an area it
  would become a slum.
• Disease and fire were constant threats.

19
Political Reforms in the Cities and States

• Changes in Voter Participation
• Secret Ballot- by 1910 all states were holding
  secret ballots
• Direct Primaries- candidates are chosen by party
  members voting instead of by party bosses
• Direct election of U.S. Senators- the 17th
  Amendment required direct election of Senators
• Initiative, Referendum, Recall-
• Initiative- voters can force a bill to be
  considered
• Referendum- Voters directly decide on a proposed
  law
• Recall- Voters can remove corrupt or
  unsatisfactory politicians

20
Samuel Gompers

• He was the first leader of the American
  Federation of Labor (AFL).
• The AFL sought to organize only skilled workers
  in a network of smaller unions, each devoted to a
  specific craft.
• Few African Americans joined.
• Women were not allowed.
• The AFL used strikes and boycotts to get what
  they wanted from employers.

21
Pullman Strike, 1894

• Pullman laid off workers and cut wages by 25.
• The American Railway Union called for a boycott
  of Pullman cars throughout the country.
• The strike stopped the flow of mail and it became
  a federal issue.
• President Grover Cleveland sent in troops to
  break the strike.
• Factory owners used the courts to break strikes
  for years to come.

22
Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Dubois

• Created the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in
  1881.
• He urged his students to try and become skilled
  in a trade and to put aside the desires of
  political equality.
• In other words work hard and people will see
  your value as a worker. They will then respect
  you and see as a valuable and necessary part of
  society
• He felt that African Americans would gain
  acceptance through economics instead of politics.
• His message appealed to many African Americans
  and also calmed whites worries about educated
  African Americans trying to seek equality in
  society.

• Dubois argued that the brightest African
  Americans had to step forward to lead their
  people in their quest for political and social
  equality and civil rights.
• He wanted African Americans to get an advanced
  liberal arts education instead of getting a
  vocational education.
• He urged African Americans to take pride in both
  their African and American heritages.
• He worked closely with the National Association
  for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
• He became the best-known black leader of the
  early 20th century.

23
Attitudes toward African Americans

• Lynching increased across the country as whites
  worked to keep African Americans from exercising
  their rights.
• Between 1882 and 1892, an estimated 1200 African
  Americans were lynched.

• Plessy v. Ferguson
• The Supreme Court decision in 1896 that set up
  the idea of Separate-but-equal
• This decision created legal segregation of blacks
  and whites

24
The NAACP(National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People)

• The NAACP worked hard throughout the time to try
  and gain equality for African Americans
• It took many years but eventually the NAACP,
  along with Civil Rights leaders like MLK, helped
  to eventually make discrimination in our nation
  illegal

25
Railroads and Settlers

• As the railroads expanded westward, settler began
  to take land from Native Americans.
• Settlers believed they had a greater right to the
  land because they improved it by producing more
  food and wealth than did the Indians.
• Many Native American groups signed treaties to
  move their people to reservations

26
Sitting Bull and the Fall of the Sioux

• Sitting Bull was the leader of the Sioux in South
  Dakota.
• He led the Sioux attack against General George
  Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
• Custer and more than 200 American soldiers were
  killed.

27
The Massacre at Wounded Knee

• The massacre occurred in 1890.
• The Sioux were handing over their weapons in
  surrender to the US army.
• Someone fired a shot and the soldiers opened fire
  on the Sioux.
• The soldiers killed 200 unarmed Native Americans.
• Included in the 200 were nearly 70 women and
  children.