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Union Pacific Railroad
in 1862, congress commissioned this railroad to begin westward from Omaha, Nebraska, to gold rich California
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Credit Mobilier
corruption plagued the railroads as the insiders of these people reaped $23 million in profits
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Hard ship of railroad contruction
sometimes indians would attack to try to save their lives and many Irish (who layed the tracks) and indians would die
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Central Pacific Railroad
Over in California this railroad was in charge of extending the railroad eastward, and it was backed by the Big Four
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Northern Pacific Railroad
stretched from Lake Superior to the Puget Sound and was finished in 1883
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Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
stretched through the southwest deserts and was completed the following year in 1884
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Southern Pacific
(completed in 1884) went from New Orleans to San Francisco
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Great Northern
Ran from Duluth to Seattle and was the creation of James J. Hill, probably the greatest railraod builder of all
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Advancements in railrooads
- steel rail- strongher then iron rail
- westinghouse airbrake- increased safety
- pullman palace car-luxurious passenger cars
- telegraphs double racking and block signals
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Time zones
Due to railroads the creation of this occured on Novemeber 18, 1883, instead of each city having its own times zone (which was confusing to operators
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Jay Gould
made millions embessling stocks from Erie, Kansas Pacific, The Union Pacific, and the Texas and Pacific railroad companies
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"stock watering"
a mehtod of cheap money making in which railroad companies grossly over-inflated the worth of their stock and sold them at huge profits
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Trusts
Pools aka "cartel" a group of supposed competitors who agree to work together, usually to set prices
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The Grange
formed by farmers to combat railroad corruption
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Walsh Case
this ruled that states could not regular interstate commerce such as trains
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Interstate Commerce Act
passed in 1887, banned rebates and pools and required the railroads to publish their rates openly, and also forbade unfair discrimination against shippers and banned charging more for a short faul than for a long one
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Interstate Commerce commission (ICC)
set up to enforce the Act
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Why was AMerica one of the largest manufacturers in the world
- fully exploited natural resources
- massive immigration/cheap labor
- american ingenuity played a vital role, with inventions like mass production
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Alexander Graham Bell
invented the telephone and a new age was launched
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Thomas Edison
the "wizard of Menlo Park" was the most versatile inventor, bets known for his electric light bulb
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Vertical Intergration
Andrew Carnegie used this method which meant that he bought out and controlled all aspects of an industry
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Horizontal Integration
Jogn D. Rockefeller master of this method simply allied with or bought out competitors to monoplize a given market
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Interlocking Directorates
J. P. Morgan used this process when he plaved his own men on the boards of directors of other rical competitors to gain influence there and reduce competition
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Bessemer Process
- Discovered by William Kelly made steel-making cheaper
- Cold air blown on red hot iron burned carbon deposits and purified it
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United States Steel Corporation
In 1901, a company that be came the worlds first billion dollar corporation
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John D. Rockefeller
- ruthless and merciless, organized the Standard Oil Company of Ohio in 1882
- Crushed weaker competitors, but his company did produce supieror oil and low prices
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Other trusts, which also generally made better products at cheaper prices
the meat industry of Gustavus F. Swift and Philip Armour
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Gospel of Wealth
Many of the newly rich had worked from poverty to wealth and thus felt that some people in the world were destined to become rich and then help society with thier money
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Social Darwinism
applied Charles Darwins survival-of-the-fittest theories to business. It said the reason a Carnegie was at the top of the steel industry was that he was most fit to run such a business
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Reverend Russell Conwell of Philadelphia
became rich by delivering his lecture, "Acres of Diamonds" in which he preached that poor people made themselves poor and rich people made themselves rich
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Pluocracy
the wealth rule
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Sherman Anti Trust Act
in 1890 this act was signed to law, it forbade combinations (trusts, pools.....) in restrain of trade without any distinction between "good" and "bad" trusts
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James Buchanan Duke
developed a huge cigarette industry in the for of the American Tobacco Company
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"Gibson Girl"
- created by Charles Dana Gibson beacame the romantic ideal of the age
- she was young attractive and outdoorsy (not the stay-at-home mom type)
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National Labor Union
- formed in 1866 represented a giant boot stride by workers and attracted an impressice total of 60000 members, but it only lasted six years
- it worked for the arbitration of industrial disputes and the eight hour workday and won the latter for government workers
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Knights of Labor
- begun in 1869 and continued secretly until 1881
- only barred liquor dealers , professional gamblers, lawyers, bakers, and stockbrokers and they compaighned for economic and social reform
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John P. Altgeld
in 1892 a german born Democrat was elected governor of Illinois and pardoned the three surcicors after studying the case extensively
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Haymarket square bombing
eight anarchist threw a bomb killing and injurying many people at a knights of labor protest
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Samuel Gompers
- in 1886 founded the American Federation of Labor
- He simply wanted more and sought better wages hours and working conditions
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AF of L
- composed of skilled laborers
- "the Labor Trust"
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Labor Day
in 1894 was made a legal holiday
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