Week of October 3rd - October 7th - Blogs

Monday-

Describe who the Populists were and what they believed in
- Populist Movement - Omaha Platform - 1890's
  - Help farmers out of debt
    - 1930s farmers were helped tremendously by the deal
  - Give people a greater voice in government
    - Give people more say
    - NO MORE White, rich males that will pass laws that benefits white, rich males
    - Women right to vote just 20 years later
  - Increase money supply in circulation - Silverites
    - Farmers wanted more money in circulation - Bimetallism - more inflation (NEVER HAPPENED)
    - Gold Standard (money backed by gold) - less money in circulation - wanted deflation
    - William Jennings Bryan
      - Democrat - Populist
      - Cross of Gold (speech) - big businesses crucify smaller businesses
    - Gold standard defeated Bimetallism
    - Wizard of Oz
  - Graduated income tax
    - The more you make -> the higher tax you pay
    - Beneficial for lower class people
      - inflation
      - more funding for government to help them
    - Eventually did happen
    - 16th Ammendment to Constitution
  - Direct election of Senators
    - 17th Amendment to Constitution
    - Elected directly by the people of the state (No electoral college)
    - Used to be selected by State Senators
  - Single terms for President/Vice President
    - Can only be in office for a maximum of 10 years (now)
    - Don't want a king-like government
    - Sort of.. we have two terms
  - Secret ballot
    - When you go vote, nobody will know who you vote for
    - Did happen
  - 8 hour work day
    - Used to 14 hours a day for 6-7 days
    - 1886 - 7 union members in Wisconsin died fighting for the 5-day work week and the 8-hour work day
    - 8-hours would allow rest and family time - come back to work more refreshed
    - Did happen
  - Restrictions on immigration
    - Limit amount of immigrants that come to our country
    - Racism involved
    - Afraid take our jobs
    - Did happen (Law that severely restricted immigration in 1920 - due to a lot of racism/communism)

Tuesday-

Continued notes on Chapter 5 (up above)

Next test will be an individual-group test over 5 and 6.

Every question worth 5 points
You will be asked a question individually

Chapter 6 - Industrial Revolution

What caused the Industrial Revolution to really take off in the late 1800s?
- Tons of natural resources
  - Coal
  - Copper
  - Lead
  - Molybdenum
  - Phosphates
  - Rare Earth elements
  - Uranium
  - Petroleum
  - Natural gas
  - Bauxite
  - Gold
  - Iron
  - Mercury
  - Nickel
  - Potash
  - Silver
  - Tungsten
  - Zinc
  - Timber
  - Arable land
    - Countries with a lot of resources tend to be more democratic
    - Countries with few resources or one major resource tend to have either a dictatorship or under the rule of one leader
- Government helped business
  - Laissez-Faire
    - Hands off - governments let businesses do what they pleased
    - This type of system would hurt the factory workers
    - Beneficial for large businesses - let employees work 15 hours and business expand and more mass production
- Cities were growing
  - NYC tripled in 40 years
  - Chicago grew 10 times larger in 40 years
  - Almost every major city doubled or tripled or more over a span of 40 years
  - Immigration caused growth in countries
  - Farmers moved to city
  - African-Americans moved to the cities after the Civil War
  - Cities offered more jobs/opportunities
  - Cities offered more entertainment/culture
  - Whites didn't want African-Americans in the cities (North was against slavery, but still didn't necessarily like African-Americans)
- Immigrants provided cheap labor
- Growing population provided markets for manufactured goods
- Oil boom
  - Provided homes and businesses
  - Rockefeller
  - Revolution fueled by oil
- Bessemer Process - cheap way to make steel
  - Henry Bessemer from Great Britain
  - Faster and cheaper way to make steel
  - Blow air into melted iron and gets rid of impurities and leaves steel behind
  - Revolution built by steal
What were some new inventions in the late 1800s and what affect did they have on people's lives?
- Various inventions
  - Electricity-light bulb (filament that would last hundreds of hours)- Thomas Alva Edison
  - Christopher Sholes - Typewriter
  - Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell
  - Golden Age of inventions
- Railroads
  - Transcontinental RR's
    - Central Pacific Raiload
      - Harder to build (mountains)
    - Union Pacific Railroad
      - Easier (no mountains)
  - Chinese immigrants came to work on railroad
  - Willing to do hardest jobs (many deaths)
  - Railroad companies wanted to build this road because Federal government paid them for how many miles of track you lay and granted them land on both sides
  - Railroads met on May 10, 1869
  - Responsible for time zones
    - Scientists put together zones
  - Being on time was important
    - Pushed for standard time (can't base on sun because it's going to be different depending on where you live'

Wednesday-

Work day for decades project.

Thursday-

Continued notes for chapter 6 (up above under Tuesday)

Chapter 6.3 Key Questions

What are monopolies and why are they bad for consumers?
- Monopolies - businesses that buy out the smaller businesses - survival of the fittest - when a company in a specific field tries to get rid of all their competition and control as close to 100% of the industry as possible
- Bad for consumers
  - Charge any price they want
  - Innovation is limited
  - Lead to poorer products due to lack of competition
  - Less choice for consumer
  - Can drive smaller businesses out of business leading to unemployment
Describe Andrew Carnegie's life.
- Captains of industry - leaders of businesses
- Carnegie Steel - changed to US Steel
- Scottish immigrant - very poor
- Get a low paying job - railroads
- Boss really liked him and he worked his way up to 2nd from the top
- Eventually got into steel
- Carnegie gave away millions for libraries, music halls, etc.
  - but he payed his employees next to nothing
Describe John D. Rockefeller's life.
- Captains of industry - leaders of businesses
- Standard Oil Company
- Octopus -> tentacles are grabbing things - controlling people, government, etc.
- Used pipe lines to transport oil
- Standard Oil controlled gas stations
- Sherman Anti-Trust Act - 1890 (trusts=monopolies)
  - Government tries to help smaller businesses
  - Made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states
  - Designed to break up monopolies
  - Roosevelt fought against monopolies sucessfully
    - Hercules
- 1911 - Standard Oil split into several different oil companies
  - Eventually led to 4 main oil companies
    - ExxonMobil
    - Chevron
    - bp
    - Marathon
- If Rockefeller were alive today, his estimated wealth would be $660 billion in today's money
  - 6-7 times that of Warren Buffet (72.7 billion) and Bill Gates ($79.2 billion), currently the two richest men in the world
Describe Cornelius Vanderbilt's life.
- Captains of industry - leaders of businesses
- Made a fortune in shipping
- Retired from the shipping business at age 64
- Then created a railroad empire
- Was richest person in the US when he dided in 1877
- Would be second richest person in US History - would be worth $200 billion
- Designed Grand Central Station (NYC)
- Famous Relatives
  - Anderson Cooper
Describe J.P. Morgan's life.
- Captains of industry - leaders of businesses
- The most powerful banker in NYC at the time
- Financed railroads and helped organize U.S. Steel, General Electric and other major corporations
- In 1895, their firm was reorganized as J.P. Morgan & Company
- Helped government when stock market crashed
- Today his firm is known has JP Morgan Chase
- Rich Uncle Pennybags AKA Mr. Monopoly
  - Otto Hermann Kahn (some people think he was Mr. Monopoly)
Explain how companies formed monopolies (vertical/horizontal integration, trusts).
- Vertical and Horizontal Integration
  - Horizontal - you are buying out the competitors in your field
  - Vertical - not relying on any business
How did the government try to regulate business?
What are labor unions and what is their purpose?
- Power in numbers
- More workers - more people
- United we stand
- work together to get better wages
Were labor unions successful in achieving their goals? Explain.

Friday-

Continued notes on Chapter 6.3 (under Thursday)

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