The Age of Railroads Chapter 6 Section 2

The Age of Railroads Chapter 6, Section 2

Transcontinental Railroad • Meet in Promentory Point, Utah in 1869 • Chinese & Irish work railroads • Paid less, given dangerous jobs • Thousands die of disease and accidents

Railroad Time • Before railroads, cities determine own time – Maine to CA over 20 time changes • 1870: Earth divided into 24 time zones • November 18, 1883 Railroads synchronized watches.

Railroads bring new opportunities • Iron, coal, steel, lumber, glass all in demand for railroads • New cities spring up • George Pullman built railroad sleeper cars. Started factory towns • Factory towns are cities controlled by factory & owner: they make all the rules.

A Tarnished Grant Administration • Railroad industrialist scheme to swindle money. I’m so • The Credit Mobilier, a dummy embarrassed! company, let industrialists skim millions of dollars. • Congressional investigations, pushed by the press, implicate corruption in government. • Vice President, speaker of House, and many congressmen seen as corrupt.

The Grange vs. the Railroads • Farmers upset with railroads for high prices and land issues. • Grange pushes for legal controls on prices • Munn vs. Illinois: States win right to regulate railroads in order to help farmers. • Supreme court said that states could not set limits on interstate-commerce. • 1887: Interstate Commerce Act says federal government can regulate railroads.

Panicof of 1893 Panic • People rushed to change paper money into gold • Businesses failed, and companies start to consolidate (lump together) • Big firms bought up railroads. • The age of big business had begun.