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U.S . History – A El lsworth Week 2

American Industrial Revolution

Chapter 6, Section 1

Chapter 6, Section 2

Chapter 12 , Section 3

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

One American's Story

•Edwin L. Drake•Bessemerprocess

•Thomas AlvaEdison

•ChristopherSholes

•AlexanderGraham Bell

At the end of the 19thcentury, natural resources,creative ideas, and growingmarkets fueled an industrialboom.

Technological developments ofthe late 19th century paved theway for the continued growth ofAmerican industry.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

The Expansion of Industry

230 CHAPTER 6

One day, Pattillo Higgins noticed bubbles in the springs aroundSpindletop, a hill near Beaumont in southeastern Texas. This andother signs convinced him that oil was underground. If Higginsfound oil, it could serve as a fuel source around which a vibrantindustrial city would develop.

Higgins, who had been a mechanic and a lumber mer-chant, couldn’t convince geologists or investors that oil waspresent, but he didn’t give up. A magazine ad seekinginvestors got one response—from Captain Anthony F. Lucas,an experienced prospector who also believed that there was oilat Spindletop. When other investors were slow to send money,Higgins kept his faith, not only in Spindletop, but in Lucas.

A PERSONAL VOICE PATTILLO HIGGINS

“ Captain Lucas, . . . these experts come and tell you this or thatcan’t happen because it has never happened before. You believethere is oil here, . . . and I think you are right. I know there is oilhere in greater quantities than man has ever found before.”

—quoted in Spindletop

In 1900, the two men found investors, and they began to drill thatautumn. After months of difficult, frustrating work, on the morning ofJanuary 10, 1901, oil gushed from their well. The Texas oil boom had begun.

Natural Resources Fuel IndustrializationAfter the Civil War, the United States was still largely an agricultural nation. Bythe 1920s—a mere 60 years later—it had become the leading industrial power inthe world. This immense industrial boom was due to several factors, including: awealth of natural resources, government support for business, and a growingurban population that provided both cheap labor and markets for new products.

GUSHER!Pattillo Higginsand the GreatTexas Oil Boom

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BLACK GOLD Though eastern Native American tribes had made fuel and medi-cine from crude oil long before Europeans arrived on the continent, earlyAmerican settlers had little use for oil. In the 1840s, Americans began usingkerosene to light lamps after the Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner discoveredhow to distill the fuel from oil or coal.

It wasn’t until 1859, however, when Edwin L. Drake successfully used asteam engine to drill for oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania, that removing oil frombeneath the earth’s surface became practical. This breakthrough started an oilboom that spread to Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and, later, Texas.Petroleum-refining industries arose in Cleveland and Pittsburgh as entrepreneursrushed to transform the oil into kerosene. Gasoline, a byproduct of the refiningprocess, originally was thrown away. But after the automobile became popular,gasoline became the most important form of oil.

BESSEMER STEEL PROCESS Oil was not the only natural resource that wasplentiful in the United States. There were also abundant deposits of coal and iron.In 1887, prospectors discovered iron ore deposits more than 100 miles long andup to 3 miles wide in the Mesabi Range of Minnesota. At the same time, coal pro-duction skyrocketed—from 33 million tons in 1870 to more than 250 milliontons in 1900.

Iron is a dense metal, but it is soft and tends to break and rust. It also usuallycontains other elements, such as carbon. Removing the carbon from iron pro-duces a lighter, more flexible, and rust-resistant metal—steel. The raw materialsneeded to make steel were readily available; all that was needed was a cheap andefficient manufacturing process. The Bessemer process, developed indepen-dently by the British manufacturer Henry Bessemer and American ironmakerWilliam Kelly around 1850, soon became widely used. This technique involvedinjecting air into molten iron to remove the carbon and other impurities. By1880, American manufacturers were using the new method to produce more than90 percent of the nation’s steel. In this age of rapid change and innovation, even

Mississippi R.

Ohio

R.A P PA L AC H

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L. Superior

L. Huron

L. Ontario

L. Erie

ATLANTICOCEAN

Chicago

Indianapolis

Cleveland

Cincinnati

Atlanta

New Orleans

BaltimorePittsburgh

Wilkes-Barre

Titusville

Buffalo

PhiladelphiaNew York

Boston

Milwaukee

Minneapolis

Detroit

St. Louis

Omaha

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Major industrial city

Other cities

Coal mining

Iron ore mining

Oil

Steel production

0 150 300 kilometers

0 150 300 miles

City

Lim

its City

Lim

itsOhio River

Monongahela R.

Allegheny River

Pittsburgh

Steel mills, 1886

Steel mills, 1906

Pittsburgh

Natural Resources and the Birth of a Steel Town, 1886–1906

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Region Which state had the most steel-producing areas?2. Human-Environment Interaction What connection can you

draw between natural resources (including water) and steelproduction in Pittsburgh?

Vocabularyentrepreneur:a person whoorganizes,operates, andassumes the riskfor a businessventure

231

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Pennsylvania2. An abun-dance of coaland iron ore,plus access to amajor river, con-tributed toPittsburgh’s highlevels of steelproduction.

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A

the successful Bessemer process was bettered by the 1860s. Itwas eventually replaced by the open-hearth process,enabling manufacturers to produce quality steel from scrapmetal as well as from raw materials.

NEW USES FOR STEEL The railroads, with thousands ofmiles of track, became the biggest customers for steel, butinventors soon found additional uses for it. JosephGlidden’s barbed wire and McCormick’s and Deere’s farmmachines helped transform the plains into the food pro-ducer of the nation.

Steel changed the face of the nation as well, as it madeinnovative construction possible. One of the most remark-able structures was the Brooklyn Bridge. Completed in1883, it spanned 1,595 feet of the East River in New YorkCity. Its steel cables were supported by towers higher thanany man-made and weight-bearing structure except thepyramids of Egypt. Like those ancient marvels, the com-pleted bridge was called a wonder of the world.

Around this time, setting the stage for a new era ofexpansion upward as well as outward, William Le BaronJenney designed the first skyscraper with a steel frame—theHome Insurance Building in Chicago. Before Jenney had hispioneering idea, the weight of large buildings was support-ed entirely by their walls or by iron frames, which limitedthe buildings’ height. With a steel frame to support theweight, however, architects could build as high as theywanted. As structures soared into the air, not even the skyseemed to limit what Americans could achieve.

Inventions Promote ChangeBy capitalizing on natural resources and their own ingenuity,inventors changed more than the landscape. Their inven-tions affected the very way people lived and worked.

THE POWER OF ELECTRICITY In 1876, Thomas Alva Edison became a pio-neer on the new industrial frontier when he established the world’s first researchlaboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. There Edison perfected the incandescentlight bulb—patented in 1880—and later invented an entire system for producingand distributing electrical power. Another inventor, George Westinghouse, alongwith Edison, added innovations that made electricity safer and less expensive.

The harnessing of electricity completely changed the nature of business inAmerica. By 1890, electric power ran numerous machines, from fans to printingpresses. This inexpensive, convenient source of energy soon became available inhomes and spurred the invention of time-saving appliances. Electric streetcars madeurban travel cheap and efficient and also promoted the outward spread of cities.

More important, electricity allowed manufacturers to locate their plants

232 CHAPTER 6

RadioLight BulbPhonograph

TelephoneMotion PicturesX-Ray

Airplane

Electric Motor

TypewriterDynamite

Internal-Combustion

Engine

1860184618371831 1867 18731879

18771876 1895

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●

●

●

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● ●

●

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1826 1903

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

ASummarizing

What naturalresources weremost important forindustrialization?

Vocabularyincandescent:giving off visiblelight as a result ofbeing heated

A. Answeroil, coal, ironore, water

The Technological Explosion, 1826–1903

ILLUMINATING THE LIGHT BULB

Shortly after moving into a longwooden shed at Menlo Park,Thomas Alva Edison and hisassociates set to work to developthe perfect incandescent bulb.Arc lamps already lit some citystreets and shops, using an elec-tric current passing between twosticks of carbon, but they wereglaring and inefficient.

Edison hoped to create a long-lasting lamp with a soft glow, andbegan searching for a filamentthat would burn slowly and staylit. Edison tried wires, sticks,blades of grass, and even hairsfrom his assistants’ beards.Finally, a piece of carbonizedbamboo from Japan did the trick.Edison’s company used bamboofilaments until 1911, when itbegan using tungsten filaments,which are still used today.

SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHTHISTORICALHISTORICAL

Photography●

●

● Telegraph ●Sewing MachineReaper

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wherever they wanted—not just near sources of power, such as rivers. Thisenabled industry to grow as never before. Huge operations, such as the Armourand Swift meatpacking plants, and the efficient processes that they used becamethe models for new consumer industries.

INVENTIONS CHANGE LIFESTYLES Edison’slight bulb was only one of several revolutionaryinventions. Christopher Sholes invented thetypewriter in 1867 and changed the world ofwork. Next to the light bulb, however, perhapsthe most dramatic invention was the telephone,unveiled by Alexander Graham Bell andThomas Watson in 1876. It opened the way fora worldwide communications network.

The typewriter and the telephone particu-larly affected office work and created new jobsfor women. Although women made up lessthan 5 percent of all office workers in 1870, by1910 they accounted for nearly 40 percent ofthe clerical work force. New inventions also hada tremendous impact on factory work, as well ason jobs that traditionally had been done athome. For example, women had previouslysewn clothing by hand for their families. Withindustrialization, clothing could be mass-pro-duced in factories, creating a need for garmentworkers, many of whom were women.

Industrialization freed some factory work-ers from backbreaking labor and helpedimprove workers’ standard of living. By 1890, the average workweek had beenreduced by about ten hours. However, many laborers felt that the mechanizationof so many tasks reduced human workers’ worth. As consumers, though, workersregained some of their lost power in the marketplace. The country’s expandingurban population provided a vast potential market for the new inventions andproducts of the late 1800s.

A New Industrial Age 233

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

In a chart like the one below, listresources, ideas, and markets thataffected the industrial boom of the19th century. In the second column,note how each item contributed toindustrialization.

CRITICAL THINKING3. MAKING INFERENCES

Do you think that consumers gainedpower as industry expanded in thelate 19th century? Why or why not?

4. HYPOTHESIZINGIf the U.S. had been poor in natural resources, how wouldindustrialization have been affected?

5. ANALYZING EFFECTSWhich invention or developmentdescribed in this section had thegreatest impact on society? Justifyyour choice. Think About:

• the applications of inventions• the impact of inventions on

people’s daily lives• the effect of inventions on

the workplace

▼

The typewritershown here datesfrom around1890.

Resources, ImpactIdeas, Markets

B

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingEffects

How didelectricity changeAmerican life?

B. AnswerIt changed thenature of busi-ness, made pos-sible the inven-tion of newappliances, andhelped citiesand industriesgrow.

• Edwin L. Drake• Bessemer process

• Thomas Alva Edison• Christopher Sholes

• Alexander Graham Bell1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

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In October 1884, the economist Richard Ely visited thetown of Pullman, Illinois, to write about it for Harper’s mag-azine. At first, Ely was impressed with the atmosphere oforder, planning, and well-being in the town George M.Pullman had designed for the employees of his railroad-car factory. But after talking at length with a dissatisfiedcompany officer, Ely concluded the town had a fatal flaw:it too greatly restricted its residents. Pullman employeeswere compelled to obey rules in which they had no say. Elyconcluded that “the idea of Pullman is un-American.”

A PERSONAL VOICE RICHARD T. ELY

“ It is benevolent, well-wishing feudalism [a medieval social system], whichdesires the happiness of the people, but in such way as shall please the authori-ties. . . . If free American institutions are to be preserved, we want no race of menreared as underlings.”

—“Pullman: A Social Study”

As the railroads grew, they came to influence many facets of American life,including, as in the town of Pullman, the personal lives of the country’s citizens.They caused the standard time and time zones to be set and influenced thegrowth of towns and communities. However, the unchecked power of railroadcompanies led to widespread abuses that spurred citizens to demand federal reg-ulation of the industry.

Railroads Span Time and SpaceRails made local transit reliable and westward expansion possible for business aswell as for people. Realizing how important railroads were for settling the Westand developing the country, the government made huge land grants and loans tothe railroad companies.


•transcontinentalrailroad

•George M.Pullman

•Crédit Mobilier•Munn v. Illinois•InterstateCommerce Act

The growth and consolidationof railroads benefited thenation but also led tocorruption and requiredgovernment regulation.

Railroads made possible theexpansion of industry acrossthe United States.


236 CHAPTER 6

▼

The town ofPullman wascarefully laid outand strictlycontrolled.

The Age of theRailroads

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A NATIONAL NETWORK By 1856, the railroads extendedwest to the Mississippi River, and three years later, theycrossed the Missouri. Just over a decade later, crowds acrossthe United States cheered as the Central Pacific and UnionPacific Railroads met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.A golden spike marked the spanning of the nation by the firsttranscontinental railroad. Other transcontinental linesfollowed, and regional lines multiplied as well. At the start ofthe Civil War, the nation had had about 30,000 miles oftrack. By 1890, that figure was nearly six times greater.

ROMANCE AND REALITY The railroads brought thedreams of available land, adventure, and a fresh start withinthe grasp of many Americans. This romance was made possi-ble, however, only by the harsh lives of railroad workers.

The Central Pacific Railroad employed thousands ofChinese immigrants. The Union Pacific hired Irish immi-grants and desperate, out-of-work Civil War veterans to laytrack across treacherous terrain while enduring attacks byNative Americans. Accidents and diseases disabled and killedthousands of men each year. In 1888, when the first railroadstatistics were published, the casualties totaled more than2,000 employees killed and 20,000 injured.

RAILROAD TIME In spite of these difficult working condi-tions, the railroad laborers helped to transform the diverseregions of the country into a united nation. Though linkedin space, each community still operated on its own time,with noon when the sun was directly overhead. Noon inBoston, for example, was almost 12 minutes later thannoon in New York. Travelers riding from Maine toCalifornia might reset their watches 20 times.

In 1869, to remedy this problem, Professor C. F. Dowdproposed that the earth’s surface be divided into 24 timezones, one for each hour of the day. Under his plan, theUnited States would contain four zones: the Eastern,Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones. The railroadcompanies endorsed Dowd’s plan enthusiastically, andmany towns followed suit.

Finally, on November 18, 1883, railroad crews andtowns across the country synchronized their watches. In1884, an international conference set worldwide timezones that incorporated railroad time. The U.S. Congress,however, didn’t officially adopt railroad time as the stan-dard for the nation until 1918. As strong a unifying forceas the railroads were, however, they also opened the wayfor abuses that led to social and economic unrest.

Opportunities and OpportunistsThe growth of the railroads influenced the industries and businesses in whichAmericans worked. Iron, coal, steel, lumber, and glass industries grew rapidly asthey tried to keep pace with the railroads’ demand for materials and parts. Therapid spread of railroad lines also fostered the growth of towns, helped establishnew markets, and offered rich opportunities for both visionaries and profiteers.


SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHTHISTORICALHISTORICAL

CHINESE IMMIGRANTS ANDTHE RAILROADS

Although the railroads paid alltheir employees poorly, Asiansusually earned less than whites.The average pay for whites work-ing a ten-hour day was $40 to$60 a month plus free meals.Chinese immigrants hired by theCentral Pacific performed similartasks from dawn to dusk forabout $35 a month—and theyhad to supply their own food.

The immigrants’ working condi-tions were miserable, as depictedby artist Jake Lee below. In1866, for example, the railroadhired them to dig a tunnelthrough a granite mountain. Forfive months of that year, theChinese lived and worked incamps surrounded by banks ofsnow. The total snowfall reachedover 40 feet. Hundreds of themen were buried in avalanches orlater found frozen, still clutchingtheir shovels or picks.

A

A. AnswerThe growth ofindustries thatcould ship to newmarkets; haz-ardous jobs forrailroad workers;an increase ofimmigration andmigration to theWest.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingEffects

What were theeffects of railroadexpansion?

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B

NEW TOWNS AND MARKETS By linking previously iso-lated cities, towns, and settlements, the railroads promotedtrade and interdependence. As part of a nationwide networkof suppliers and markets, individual towns began to special-ize in particular products. Chicago soon became known forits stockyards and Minneapolis for its grain industries. Thesecities prospered by selling large quantities of their productsto the entire country. New towns and communities alsogrew up along the railroad lines. Cities as diverse as Abilene,Kansas; Flagstaff, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; and Seattle,Washington, owed their prosperity, if not their very exis-tence, to the railroads.

PULLMAN The railroads helped cities not only grow up butbranch out. In 1880, for example, George M. Pullman builta factory for manufacturing sleepers and other railroad cars onthe Illinois prairie. The nearby town that Pullman built for hisemployees followed in part the models of earlier industrialexperiments in Europe. Whereas New England textile manu-facturers had traditionally provided housing for their workers,the town of Pullman provided for almost all of workers’ basicneeds. Pullman residents lived in clean, well-constructed brickhouses and apartment buildings with at least one window inevery room—a luxury for city dwellers. In addition, the town

offered services and facilities such as doctors’ offices, shops, and an athletic field.As Richard Ely observed, however, the town of Pullman remained firmly

under company control. Residents were not allowed to loiter on their front stepsor to drink alcohol. Pullman hoped that his tightly controlled environmentwould ensure a stable work force. However, Pullman’s refusal to lower rents aftercutting his employees’ pay led to a violent strike in 1894.

CRÉDIT MOBILIER Pullman created his company town out of the desire forcontrol and profit. In some other railroad magnates, or powerful and influentialindustrialists, these desires turned into self-serving corruption. In one of the mostinfamous schemes, stockholders in the Union Pacific Railroad formed, in 1864, aconstruction company called Crédit Mobilier (krDdPGt mI-bClPyEr). The stock-

holders gave this company a contract to lay track at two tothree times the actual cost—and pocketed the profits. Theydonated shares of stock to about 20 representatives inCongress in 1867.

A congressional investigation of the company, spurred byreports in the New York Sun, eventually found that the officersof the Union Pacific had taken up to $23 million in stocks,bonds, and cash. Testimony implicated such well-known andrespected federal officials as Vice-President Schuyler Colfaxand Congressman James Garfield, who later became president.Although these public figures kept their profits and receivedlittle more than a slap on the wrist, the reputation of theRepublican Party was tarnished.

The Grange and the RailroadsFarmers were especially affected by corruption in the railroads.The Grangers—members of the Grange, a farmers’ organiza-tion founded in 1867—began demanding governmental con-trol over the railroad industry.

ANOTHER

PERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEON THE WRONG TRACK

While the railroads captured theimagination of most 19th-centuryAmericans, there were those whodidn’t get on the bandwagon. Thewriter Herman Melville ragedagainst the smoke-belching ironhorse and the waves of change itset in motion as vehemently ashis character Captain Ahab ragedagainst the white whale and thesea in Moby-Dick. “Hark! herecomes that old dragon again—that gigantic gadfly . . . snort!puff! scream! Great improve-ments of the age,” Melvillefumed. “Who wants to travel sofast? My grandfather did not, andhe was no fool.”

238 CHAPTER 6

C

B. AnswerRailroads led toa growth ofcities in theNortheast andthe Midwestand led to thedevelopment ofnew cities in theWest.

C. AnswerBy charging toomuch for rail-road construc-tion and payingoff governmentofficials.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

BSummarizing

How did therailroads affectcities?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CSummarizing

How didrailroad ownersuse Crédit Mobilierto make huge,undeservedprofits?

Pullman carsbrought luxury tothe rails, as shownin thisadvertisementfrom around 1890.▼

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80°W110°W

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L. Huron

L. Ontario

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Great SaltLake

AT L A N T I CO C E A N

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Chicago

Indianapolis

Cleveland

Louisville

Atlanta

Savannah

Wilmington

Norfolk

New Orleans

BaltimoreWashington, DC

Pittsburgh

Buffalo Albany

PhiladelphiaNew York

BostonMinneapolis

Detroit

St. Louis

OmahaSan FranciscoSacramento

Portland

Seattle

Butte

Los Angeles

Salt Lake City

Albuquerque

El Paso

Denver

Fort Worth

Topeka

Memphis Nashville

St. PaulFargo

RichmondKansasCity

Tucson

TEXAS AND PACIFIC

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ON, TOPEKA, & SANTA FE

SOUTHERN

P ACIFIC RAILWA Y

CENTRA L

PACIFICUNION PACIFIC

NORTHERN PACIFIC

GREAT NORTHERN

PENNSYLVANIA

NEW YORK CENTRAL

ILLINOIS CENTRAL

ILLINOIS

CEN

TRAL

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Eastern time

Central time

Mountain time

Pacific time

Railroads by 1870

Railroads by 1890


0 150 300 miles

RAILROAD ABUSES Farmers were angry with railroad companies for a host ofreasons. They were upset by misuse of government land grants, which the rail-roads sold to other businesses rather than to settlers, as the government intend-ed. The railroads also entered into formal agreements to fix prices, which helpedkeep farmers in their debt. In addition, they charged different customers differentrates, often demanding more for short hauls—for which there was no alternativecarrier—than they did for long hauls.

GRANGER LAWS In response to these abuses by the railroads, the Grangerstook political action. They sponsored state and local political candidates, electedlegislators, and successfully pressed for laws to protect their interests. In 1871Illinois authorized a commission “to establish maximum freight and passengerrates and prohibit discrimination.” Grangers throughout the West, Midwest, andSoutheast convinced state legislators to pass similar laws, called Granger laws.

The railroads fought back, challenging the constitutionality of the regulatorylaws. In 1877, however, in the case of Munn v. Illinois, the Supreme Courtupheld the Granger laws by a vote of seven to two. The states thus won the rightto regulate the railroads for the benefit of farmers and consumers. The Grangersalso helped establish an important principle—the federal government’s right toregulate private industry to serve the public interest.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE ACT The Grangers’ triumph was short-lived, how-ever. In 1886, the Supreme Court ruled that a state could not set rates on inter-state commerce—railroad traffic that either came from or was going to anotherstate. In response to public outrage, Congress passed the Interstate CommerceAct in 1887. This act reestablished the right of the federal government to super-vise railroad activities and established a five-member Interstate CommerceCommission (ICC) for that purpose. The ICC had difficulty regulating railroadrates because of a long legal process and resistance from the railroads. The final

Major Railroad Lines, 1870–1890

D

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Their locationas railroad hubs. 2. In 1869, thetranscontinentalrailroad wascomplete, whichspurred theneed for new,smaller rail linesacross theWest.

D. AnswerThe farmerstook politicalaction in oneunited front.They pressedlegislators topass laws toprotect them.

BackgroundPrice fixing occurswhen companieswithin an industryall agree to chargethe same price fora given service,rather thancompeting to offerthe lowest price.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingIssues

How did theGrangers, whowere largely poorfarmers, do battlewith the giantrailroadcompanies?

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Human-Environment Interaction What factor led

to rapid growth in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Denver?2. Movement Why was rail construction concentrated in

the East before 1870 and in the West after 1870?

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240 CHAPTER 6


In a chart like the one below, fill in effects of the rapid growth ofrailroads.

How did the growth of railroadsaffect people’s everyday lives? How did it affect farmers?

CRITICAL THINKING3. MAKING INFERENCES

Do you think the government andprivate citizens could have donemore to curb the corruption andpower of the railroads? Giveexamples to support your opinion.Think About:

• why the railroads had power• the rights of railroad customers

and workers• the scope of government

regulations

4. SYNTHESIZINGThe federal government gave landand made loans to the railroadcompanies. Why was thegovernment so eager to promote thegrowth of railroads?

5. ANALYZING MOTIVESReread “Another Perspective” onrailroads (page 238). Why do youthink that some Americans dislikedthis new means of transportation?

blow to the commission came in 1897, when the SupremeCourt ruled that it could not set maximum railroad rates.Not until 1906, under President Theodore Roosevelt, didthe ICC gain the power it needed to be effective.

PANIC AND CONSOLIDATION Although the ICC presented few problems for therailroads, corporate abuses, mismanagement, overbuilding, and competitionpushed many railroads to the brink of bankruptcy. Their financial problemsplayed a major role in a nationwide economic collapse. The panic of 1893 was theworst depression up to that time: by the end of 1893, around 600 banks and15,000 businesses had failed, and by 1895, 4 million people had lost their jobs.By the middle of 1894, a quarter of the nation’s railroads had been taken over byfinancial companies. Large investment firms such as J. P. Morgan & Companyreorganized the railroads. As the 20th century dawned, seven powerful companiesheld sway over two-thirds of the nation’s railroad tracks.

Rapid Growthof Railroads

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Criticism. TheColossus ofRhodes protect-ed the harbor;the magnatescontrolled therailroads fortheir own gain.2. Controllingthe tracks andthe stationimplies thatVanderbilt hastotal control ofthe whole oper-ation.

• transcontinental railroad• George M. Pullman

• Crédit Mobilier • Munn v. Illinois

• Interstate Commerce Act1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

AnalyzingAnalyzing

“THE MODERN COLOSSUS OF (RAIL) ROADS”Joseph Keppler drew this cartoon in 1879, featuring the railroad “giants”William Vanderbilt (top), Jay Gould (bottom right), and Cyrus W. Fields (bottomleft). The three magnates formed a railroad trust out of their Union Pacific,New York Central, and Lake Shore & Dependence lines.

SKILLBUILDER Analyzing Political Cartoons1. The title of this cartoon is a pun on the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue

erected in 282 B.C. on an island near Greece. According to legend, the100-foot-tall statue straddled Rhodes’s harbor entrance. Do you think theartist means the comparison as a compliment or a criticism? Why?

2. The reins held by the railroad magnates attach not only to the trains butalso to the tracks and the railroad station. What does this convey about the magnates’ control of the railroads?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

Vocabularyconsolidation: theact of uniting orcombining

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422 CHAPTER 12



•Calvin Coolidge•urban sprawl

•installment planConsumer goods fueled thebusiness boom of the 1920sas America’s standard ofliving soared.

Business, technological, andsocial developments of the1920s launched the era ofmodern consumerism.


In 1927, the last Model T Ford—number 15,077,033—rolled offthe assembly line. On December 2, some 1 million New Yorkersmobbed show rooms to view the new Model A. One striking dif-

ference between the two models was that customers couldorder the Model A in such colors as “Arabian Sand” and“Niagara Blue”; the old Model T had come only in black. AFord spokesman explained some additional advantages of the

new automobile.

A PERSONAL VOICE“ Good-looking as that car is, its performance is better than its appearance. Wedon’t brag about it, but it has done seventy-one miles an hour. It will ride along a railroad track without bouncing. . . . It’s the smoothest thing you ever rode in.”

—a Ford salesman quoted in Flappers, Bootleggers, “Typhoid Mary,” and the Bomb

The automobile became the backbone of the American economy in the 1920s(and remained such until the 1970s). It profoundly altered the American landscapeand American society, but it was only one of several factors in the country’s busi-ness boom of the 1920s.

American Industries Flourish The new president, Calvin Coolidge, fit into the pro-business spirit of the 1920svery well. It was he who said, “the chief business of the American people is busi-ness. . . . The man who builds a factory builds a temple—the man who worksthere worships there.” Both Coolidge and his Republican successor, HerbertHoover, favored government policies that would keep taxes down and businessprofits up, and give businesses more available credit in order to expand. Their goalwas to keep government interference in business to a minimum and to allow pri-vate enterprise to flourish. For most of the 1920s, this approach seemed to work.Coolidge’s administration continued to place high tariffs on foreign imports,

▼

The Model A wasa more luxuriouscar than theModel T. It wasintroduced at$495. Model T’swere selling for$290.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. PossibleAnswers: With aSouthwesternroute, engineersdid not have tobuild a roadacross theRockyMountains.Also, Route 66would help openup the sparselypopulatedSouthwest tothe rest of thecountry andthus spur popu-lation growthand economicdevelopment.2. Cities alongthe route grewas trafficbrought morebusiness to thearea.

The Businessof America

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Mississippi River

ColoradoRiver

Arkansas River

Red River

Missouri

River

MO

UN

TA

IN

SR

OC

KY

MOJAVEDESERT

PAINTEDDESERT

40°N

30°N

120°W

Lake

Michigan

Lake Huron

L. Superior

PACIFICOCEAN

Chicago

Los Angeles

St. Louis

Springfield

ClaremoreTulsa

Galena

Springfield

Albuquerque

SantaRosa

Tucumcari

Amarillo

Barstow

WinslowHolbrook

ILLINOISINDIANA

MISSOURI

IOWA

WISCONSIN

MINNESOTA

ARKANSAS

OHIO

MICHIGAN

KENTUCKY

TENNESSEE

WASHINGTON

MONTANA

NEBRASKA

KANSAS

COLORADO

UTAH

CALIFORNIA

ARIZONA

NEW MEXICOTEXAS

OKLAHOMA

WYOMING

N

S

EW

0


100 200 miles

which helped American manufacturers. Reducing income taxes meant that peo-ple had more money in their pockets. Wages were rising because of new technol-ogy and so was productivity.

THE IMPACT OF THE AUTOMOBILE The automobile literally changed theAmerican landscape. Its most visible effect was the construction of paved roadssuitable for driving in all weather. One such road was the legendary Route 66,which provided a route for people trekking west from Chicago to California.Many, however, settled in towns along the route. In addition to the changinglandscape, architectural styles also changed, as new houses typically cameequipped with a garage or carport and a driveway—and a smaller lawn as a result.The automobile also launched the rapid construction of gasoline stations, repairshops, public garages, motels, tourist camps, and shopping centers. The firstautomatic traffic signals began blinking in Detroit in the early 1920s. TheHolland Tunnel, the first underwater tunnel designed specifically for motorvehicles, opened in 1927 to connect New York City and Jersey City, NewJersey. The Woodbridge Cloverleaf, the first cloverleaf intersection, was builtin New Jersey in 1929.

The automobile liberated the isolated rural family, who could now travel tothe city for shopping and entertainment. It also gave families the opportunity tovacation in new and faraway places. It allowed both women and young people tobecome more independent through increased mobility. It allowed workers to live

Politics of the Roaring Twenties 423

Roadside stands offering food, drink, and other itemsappeared in increasing numbers.

Routing of highway through392 miles of Oklahomagave the state more miles,more jobs, and moreincome than other stateson Route 66.

The “Auto Camp”developed as towns-people roped offspaces alongsidethe road where travelers could sleep at night.

Route 66

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Place What do you think were some of

the reasons government officials decidedto build Route 66 through the Southwestrather than straight west from Chicago?

2. Movement How do you think theincrease in traffic affected the citiesalong this route?

Gas for cars was cheap andplentiful. Gasstations sprungup on Route 66charging 25¢ per gallon.

▼

Commissioned on the cusp of the Depression, Route 66 symbol-ized the road to opportunity. Also known as “the Mother Road,” itbecame the subject of countless songs, films, books, and legends.1916 Federal-Aid Road Act sets up highway program with the

federal government paying half the cost of states’ highway construction.

1921 Highway construction in 11 western states begins underadministration of Bureau of Public Roads.

1926 U.S. Highway 66, which would run 2,448 miles fromChicago to Los Angeles, California, is established.

Route 66 linked hundreds of ruralcommunities in Illinois, Missouri,and Kansas to Chicago, enablingfarmers to transport produce.

A. PossibleAnswers Roadswere paved, andshopping cen-ters and otherservices forcars were built;people commut-ed to work, andurban sprawldeveloped;regional differ-ences dimin-ished.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingEffects

What was the impact of the automobile?

A

422-427-Chapter 12 10/21/02 5:19 PM Page 423

miles from their jobs, resulting in urban sprawl as citiesspread in all directions. The automobile industry also pro-vided an economic base for such cities as Akron in Ohio,and Detroit, Dearborn, Flint, and Pontiac in Michigan. Theindustry drew people to such oil-producing states asCalifornia and Texas. The automobile even became a statussymbol—both for individual families and to the rest of theworld. In their work Middletown, the social scientists Robertand Helen Lynd noted one woman’s comment: “I’ll gowithout food before I’ll see us give up the car.”

The auto industry symbolized the success of the freeenterprise system and the Coolidge era. Nowhere else in theworld could people with little money own their own auto-mobile. By the late 1920s, around 80 percent of all regis-tered motor vehicles in the world were in the UnitedStates—about one automobile for every five people. Thehumorist Will Rogers remarked to Henry Ford, “It will takea hundred years to tell whether you helped us or hurt us,but you certainly didn’t leave us where you found us.”

THE YOUNG AIRPLANE INDUSTRY Automobiles weren’tthe only form of transportation taking off. The airplaneindustry began as a mail carrying service for the U.S. PostOffice. Although the first flight in 1918 was a disaster, anumber of successful flights soon established the airplaneas a peacetime means of transportation. With the develop-ment of weather forecasting, planes began carrying radiosand navigational instruments. Henry Ford made a trimotorairplane in 1926. Transatlantic flights by Charles Lindberghand Amelia Earhart helped to promote cargo and commer-cial airlines. In 1927, the Lockheed Company produced asingle-engine plane, the Vega. It was one of the most popu-lar transport airplanes of the late 1920s. Founded in 1927,Pan American Airways inaugurated the first transatlanticpassenger flights.

424 CHAPTER 12

B

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

Flight attendants trainfor an early UnitedAirlines flight. Whencommercial airlineflights began, all flightattendants were femaleand white. ▼

CALVIN COOLIDGE1872–1933

Stepping into office in 1923, thetightlipped Vermonter was respect-ed for his solemnity and wisdom.Coolidge supported American busi-ness and favored what he called“a constructive economy.”

Known for his strength of charac-ter, Coolidge forced the resigna-tion of Attorney General Daughertyand other high officials who hadcreated scandal in office.

Shortly after Coolidge was elect-ed, his son died of blood poison-ing. Coolidge later wrote, “Thepower and the glory of the presi-dency went with him.” When hedecided not to seek reelection in1928, Coolidge stumped thenation. Keeping in character, hesaid, “Goodby, I have had a veryenjoyable time in Washington.”

B. PossibleAnswers Itencouragedconsumers toconsider manymore itemsnecessitiesrather than luxu-ries. TheCoolidge admin-istration and bigbusiness gotalong very welltogether.

Vocabularystatus symbol: a possessionbelieved toenhance theowner’s socialstanding

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingEffects

How did thewidespread use of the automobileaffect theenvironment andthe lives ofAmericans?

422-427-Chapter 12 10/21/02 5:19 PM Page 424

C


America’s Standard of Living SoarsThe years from 1920 to 1929 were prosperous ones for the United States.Americans owned around 40 percent of the world’s wealth, and that wealthchanged the way most Americans lived. The average annual income rose morethan 35 percent during the period—from $522 to $705. Peoplefound it easy to spend all that extra income and then some.

ELECTRICAL CONVENIENCES Gasoline powered much ofthe economic boom of the 1920s, but the use of electricity alsotransformed the nation. American factories used electricity torun their machines. Also, the development of an alternatingelectrical current made it possible to distribute electric powerefficiently over longer distances. Now electricity was no longerrestricted to central cities but could be transmitted to suburbs.The number of electrified households grew, although mostfarms still lacked power.

By the end of the 1920s, more and more homes had electricirons, while well-to-do families used electric refrigerators, cookingranges, and toasters. Eunice Fuller Barnard listed prices for electri-cal appliances in a 1928 magazine article:

These electrical appliances made the lives of housewives easier, freed them forother community and leisure activities, and coincided with a growing trend ofwomen working outside the home.

THE DAWN OF MODERN ADVERTISING With new goods flooding the market,advertising agencies no longer just informed the public about products andprices. Now they hired psychologists to study how to appeal to people’s desire foryouthfulness, beauty, health, and wealth. Results were impressive. The slogan“Say it with flowers” doubled florists’ business between 1912 and 1924. “Reachfor a Lucky instead of a sweet” lured weight-conscious Americans to cigarettes andaway from candy. Brand names became familiar from coast to coast, and luxuryitems now seemed like necessities.

One of those “necessities” was mouthwash. A 1923 Listerine advertisementaimed to convince readers that without Listerine a person ran the risk of havinghalitosis—bad breath—and that the results could be a disaster.

A PERSONAL VOICE“ She was a beautiful girl and talented too. She had the advantages of educationand better clothes than most girls of her set. She possessed that culture andpoise that travel brings. Yet in the one pursuit that stands foremost in the mind ofevery girl and woman—marriage—she was a failure.”

—Listerine Advertisement

Businesspeople applied the power of advertising to other areas of Americanlife. Across the land, they met for lunch with fellow members of such serviceorganizations as Rotary, Kiwanis, and the Lions. As one observer noted, they sang

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

FormingGeneralizations

How did theuse of electricityaffect Americans’lifestyle?

Goods and Prices, 1900 and 1928

1900 1928

wringer and washboard $ 5brushes and brooms $ 5sewing machine (mechanical) $25

washing machine $150vacuum cleaner $ 50sewing machine (electric) $ 60

▼

American consumersin the 1920s couldpurchase the latesthousehold electricalappliances, such as arefrigerator, for aslittle as a dollar downand a dollar a week.

Image not available foruse on this CD-ROM.Please refer to the imagein the textbook.

426 CHAPTER 12

songs, raised money for charities, and boosted the image ofthe businessman “as a builder, a doer of great things, yes,and a dreamer whose imagination was ever seeking out newways of serving humanity.” Many Americans idolized busi-ness during these prosperous times.

A Superficial ProsperityDuring the 1920s, most Americans believed prosperitywould go on forever—the average factory worker was pro-ducing 50 percent more at the end of the decade than at itsstart. Hadn’t national income grown from $64 billion in1921 to $87 billion in 1929? Weren’t most major corpora-tions making fortunes? Wasn’t the stock market reachingnew heights?

PRODUCING GREAT QUANTITIES OF GOODS As pro-ductivity increased, businesses expanded. There werenumerous mergers of companies that manufactured auto-mobiles, steel, and electrical equipment, as well as mergersof companies that provided public utilities. Chain storessprouted, selling groceries, drugs, shoes, and clothes. Five-and-dime stores like Woolworth’s also spread rapidly.Congress passed a law that allowed national banks tobranch within cities of their main office. But as the numberof businesses grew, so did the income gap between workersand managers. There were a number of other clouds in theblue sky of prosperity. The iron and railroad industries,among others, weren’t very prosperous, and farms nation-

wide suffered losses—with new machinery, they were producing more food thanwas needed and this drove down food prices.

BUYING GOODS ON CREDIT In addition to advertising, industry providedanother solution to the problem of luring consumers to purchase the mountainof goods produced each year: easy credit, or “a dollar down and a dollar forever.”The installment plan, as it was then called, enabled people to buy goods over

ANOTHER

PERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVETHE NEEDY

While income rose for manyAmericans in the 1920s, it didnot rise for everyone. Industriessuch as textile and steel manu-facturing made very little profit.Mining and farming actually suf-fered losses. Farmers weredeeply in debt because they hadborrowed money to buy land andmachinery so that they could pro-duce more crops during WorldWar I. When European agriculturebounced back after the war, thedemand for U.S. crops fell, as didprices. Before long there wereU.S. farm surpluses.

Many American farmers couldnot make their loan and mort-gage payments. They lost theirpurchasing power, their equip-ment, and their farms. As oneSouth Dakota state senatorremarked, “There’s a saying:‘Depressions are farm led andfarm fed.’”

AnalyzingAnalyzing

BackgroundSee productivityon page R44 inthe EconomicsHandbook.

“YES, SIR, HE’S MY BABY”This cartoon depicts Calvin Coolidge playing a saxophonelabeled “Praise” while a woman representing “Big Business”dances up a storm.

SKILLBUILDER Analyzing Political Cartoons1. The dancing woman is a 1920s “flapper”—independent,

confident, and assertive. In what ways was big businessin the 1920s comparable to the flappers?

2. What do you think the cartoonist suggests aboutCoolidge’s relationship with big business?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

422-427-Chapter 12 10/21/02 5:19 PM Page 426

E

D


Re-create the web below on yourpaper and fill it in with events thatillustrate the central idea.

Choose one event from the web andexplain its significance in the 1920s.

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING

Do you agree with PresidentCoolidge’s statement “The manwho builds a factory builds atemple—the man who works thereworships there”? Explain youranswer. Think About:

• the goals of business and of religion

• the American idolization of business

• the difference between workersand management

4. INTERPRETING GRAPHSWhat trend does the graph showbetween 1920 and 1930? Whatwere some of the reasons for thistrend?


an extended period, without having to put down much money at the time of pur-chase. Banks provided the money at low interest rates. Advertisers pushed the“installment plan” idea with such slogans as “You furnish the girl, we’ll furnishthe home” and “Enjoy while you pay.”

Some economists and business owners worried that installment buying mightbe getting out of hand and that it was really a sign of fundamental weaknesses ofa superficial economic prosperity. One business owner even wrote to PresidentCoolidge and related a conversation he had overheard on a train.

A PERSONAL VOICE“Have you an automobile yet?”“No, I talked it over with John and he felt we could not afford one.”“Mr. Budge who lives in your town has one and they are not as well off as you are.”“Yes, I know. Their second installment came due, and they had no money to pay it.” “What did they do? Lose the car?”“No, they got the money and paid the installment.”“How did they get the money?”“They sold the cook-stove.”“How could they get along without a cook-stove?”“They didn’t. They bought another on the installment plan.”

—a business owner quoted in In The Time of Silent Cal

Still, most Americans focused their attention on the present, with little con-cern for the future. What could possibly go wrong with the nation’s economy?The decade of the 1920s had brought about many technological and economicchanges. And yet the Coolidge era was built on paradox—the president stood foreconomy and a frugal way of life, but he was favored by a public who had thrownall care to the wind. Life definitely seemed easier and more enjoyable for hun-dreds of thousands of Americans. From the look of things, there was little warn-ing of what was to come.

•Calvin Coolidge •urban sprawl •installment plan

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining itssignificance.

Technology &Business Changes

of the 1920s

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingIssues

What were themain advantageand disadvantageof buying oncredit?

D. AnswerAdvantage:People couldbuy goods theycould not other-wise afford.Disadvantage:People could go far into debt withoutrealizing it.

E. PossibleAnswerThe economymay falter whenconsumers areunable to meettheir credit obli-gations.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

PredictingEffects

How do youthink the changesin spending willaffect theeconomy?

Automobile Registration1910–1930

Regi

stra

tion

(mill

ions

)

25

20

15

10

5

1910 1915 1920 1925 1930Source: Historical Statistics of the United States.

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