Continuing the blog disscussion on Chapter Six...
Chapter 6 Section 2.
Age of the Railroads.
More cities were being made with all the new railroads. many of the popular cites we have now are because of the railroads. trading amoung the cities that were greater distances became so much easier.
George Pullman was an opertunist. Founded a sleeper rail car business in 1858. The rail cars were luxurious and clean. At one point he sold 2,000 sleeper rail cars.
Credit Mobilier - was a construction company that was made by the railroad company to build the Union Pacific Railroad. the workers who worked on building the railroads charged the railraod company way more than they needed. there had been $72 million worth the contracts made to the credit mobilier for a railroads that was really only worth $53 million.
Thea Grange Movement 6-2
Transporting things: farmers had to pay high prices to move the goods they produced. There wasn't a set price for farmers. Railroads had the monopoly. Farmers wanted regulations set. They wanted set prices. The Grange Movement went legal. Oliver Hudson Kelley was the founder of the Patrons of Husbandry. Farms became unprofitable- he gained a job surveying land. The result of this was farmers got more respect. They got more educaton. And prices were set fairly.
The Granger Law. Grange = Farmers. The railroads were taking great advantage of the farmers. After these laws were set, the railroads couldn't charge anymore than 2 dollars. The railroads didn't think this was fair, they thought that it's a free country, they can do what ever they want. The Interstate Commerce Act regulated railroads rates. They allowed the US government to supervise railroads. Set up Intersate Commerce Act to carry out law. Failed to help farmers.
ICC went around looking at railroads and making sure the railroads were fair to the farmers. The ICC were only five people.
Ch. 6.3:
-Tell me about Andrew Carnegie.
-Tell me about John D. Rockefeller.
-What was Social Darwinism and how did it apply to business?
-Explain how companies formed monopolies(vertical/horizontal integration, trusts).
-How did the government try to regulate business?
-What are labor unions and what is their purpose?
Were labor unions successful in achieving their goals? Explain/Give examples.
Chapter Six Sec. 3
Andrew Carnegie- Scottish Immagrant.
His business was steel. He sold for a billion dollars his company to a banker in New York. Was poor immagrant. He later became one of the richest people in the world then. Founder of Carnegie Steel. He was a Phlanthropist- gives money away when they die.
John D. Rockefeller richest person in the world at the time. Very powerful. The oil was a huge business in the late 1800's. This is how he got famous. Within a month he took out 4-7 oil companies. Once he got rid of other businesses, and he took over, he raised his prices. And the people didn't like it.
The Sherman Anti Trust Act. They tried to break up monopoly. Made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states.
Horizontal Integration - Oil companies tying to buy out all the other oil companies.
Vertical Integration - Start to buy out supplies and railroad companies so you can buy out other people's business.
Charles Darwin - Wrote about the evoluion.
The strong survive, the weak die out. - Survival of the Fitess.
The big businesses would buy the other businesses and the other businesses said that it was really fair to do that so the big busniesses said it was survival of the fitess.
Labor Unions - workers coming together, organizing together, to get better wages.
- The people who brought weekends, overtime, child labor laws, minimum wages.. paid vacation, dental medical insurance. This is the reason we celebrate Labor Day. At first they weren't successful, everyone was against them. Workers thought they'd lose their job. If workers quit and were put on the 'black list' they couldn't get hired anywhere else. then they recooperated.
Craft Unions vs. Industrial Unions.
Craft unions - people would be in there own craft union, they'd have there own. Ex. teachers would have their own craft unions, bus drivers would have their own craft union and so on.
American Federation of Labor. Broken into ''craft unions'' Led by Samuel Gompers.
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