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14.2 The Age of Railroad

OBJECTIVE: Understand the influence of Railroads on the

expansion of industry

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The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail

• Railroads were paid for through land grants and government subsidies. Why?– What problems does this raise?

• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War. How?

• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins during Civil War

• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869

1869- Completion of Transcontinental Railroadhttp://thewest.harpweek.com/

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What were some of the sacrifices caused by creating the railroads? (p. 416-417)

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What are the effects of the finalization of the transcontinental railroad?

• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster• Spurs industrialization• Tie the country together/decline in sectionalism• Decline in Native American societies• Corruption/Speculation• Population shift• Time zones created • Millionaire class created (i.e. Vanderbilt)

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Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890

Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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PULLMAN RAILROAD CAR

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King DebsThis famous cartoon about the Pullman strike, originally published July 14, 1894, in Harper's Weekly, shows Eugene Debs, head of the American Railway Union, sitting atop a railway bridge that has been turned to cut off all rail traffic. The railroad cars behind him are labeled "fresh vegetables," "beef," and "fruit," to emphasize the perishable nature of the products that could not be delivered, and others are identified as "U.S. Mail." In the background, factories have "closed" signs on them. This cartoon, and others like it, helped to mobilize opinion against the strikers. (Library of Congress)

King Debs

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Crédit Mobilier Scandal• Basically a “front company” formed by the

financiers/builders of the Transcontinental Railroad

• Insiders of the Union Pacific Railroad hired and paid themselves as much as $50,000 a mile for construction that cost $30,000.

• Stock was sold to influential Congressmen to keep them quiet.

• New York Sun unearthed the scandal and kept attention on the “Trial of Innocents” = public figures in the Grant Administration and Congress that were involved. Only 2 Congressmen formally censured.

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Railroads and Corruption

SCANDALSCredit MobilierStock wateringBribery of officeholdersCreation of “pools”Secret “rebates”

REFORM EFFORTSGranger Laws (briefly supported by Munnv.

Illinois (1877), later reversed by Wabash caseInterstate Commerce Act of 1887

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Interstate Commerce Act -1887

Sec. 5. That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act to enter into any contract, agreement, or combination with any other common carrier or carriers for the pooling of freights of different and competing railroads, or to divide between them the aggregate or net proceeds of the earnings of such railroads, or any portion thereof; and in any case of an agreement for the pooling of freights as aforesaid, each day of its continuance shall be deemed a separate offense.

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PANIC OF 1893

PANIC OF 1893: 4 year depression hits country.

Incomes and wages fall. 20% of US unemployed by 1894.

Makes Farm Crisis WORSE!!!

DEPRESSION INCREASE POPULISM