What are the effects of the finalization of the transcontinental railroad? • Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster – American Character Changed? • • • • • • • • • Spurs industrialization Tie.
Download ReportTranscript What are the effects of the finalization of the transcontinental railroad? • Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster – American Character Changed? • • • • • • • • • Spurs industrialization Tie.
Slide 1
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 2
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 3
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 4
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 5
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 6
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 7
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 8
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 9
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 10
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 11
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 12
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 13
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 14
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 15
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 16
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 17
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 2
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 3
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 4
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 5
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 6
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 7
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 8
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 9
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 10
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 11
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 12
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 13
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 14
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 15
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 16
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17
Slide 17
What are the effects of the finalization of the
transcontinental railroad?
• Closing of the “Wild West”-ecological disaster
– American Character Changed?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
1
the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Iron Horse – Age of the Iron Rail
• Railroads were paid for through land grants and
government subsidies.
– What problems does this raise?
• Construction of railroad helped by Civil War.
• Union Pacific (East to West) construction begins
during Civil War
• Central Pacific (West to East) begins after
• Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
2
Golden Spike driven in Ogden, Utah 1869
EFFECT: United East and West; opens trade
with Asia
3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/images/promontory-poi
RAILROADS OPEN THE WEST
• US govt. gives huge land grants to railroad
companies to encourage construction
• Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at
Promontory Rock, Utah on May 10, 1869.
• Railroads built with Irish, Chinese, Mexican
and African American labor.
• Homesteaders and immigrants flood west
on new railways.
Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized
American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either
side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such
sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Who wins the West?
• By 1900 over 400,000 families homestead
• Only 10% of the land actually goes to
homesteaders – speculators, railroads and
ranchers take advantage
– Pick up foreclosed properties after families fail
• Many find land too poor to use successfully
• Exodusters move to Kansas
• Oklahoma, 1889 = “Sooners,” last “land
grab” of “free land” (land that had been
Indian Territory)
New Towns and Markets
Examine the map on the next slide to
understand how the transcontinental
railroad changed the economy.
Map: Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
Mining and Cattle Frontiers, 1860-1890
The western mining and ranching bonanzas lured thousands of Americans hoping to get rich quick.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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. Even Vice President Colfax
escaped serious charges.
CLASS STRUGGLE?
• 1877: Decline in Sectional Struggle marks
opening of the class struggle
• Panic of 1873 hits country hard
• Railroad workers strike over 10% pay cuts
• Pres. Hayes crushes the strike by sending in
federal troops in 1877
• Strikers tear apart on ethnic lines
– Irish in West blame Chinese “Kearneyites”
– Wave of anti-Chinese sentiment
• Chinese Exclusion Act is passed
10
Railroad strike of 1877
Railroad strike of 1877
This engraving depicts striking railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as they stop a freight train on
July 17, 1877, in the opening days of the great railway strike of that year. Engravings such as this, which
show the strikers to be heavily armed, may or may not have been accurate depictions of events. But the
photography of that day could rarely capture live action, and the technology of the day could not reproduce
photographs in newspapers, so the public's understanding of events such as the 1877 strike was formed
through artists' depictions. (Library of Congress)
11
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
12
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/1797/h
The Baltimore
Railroad
Strike
& Riot of 1877
STRIKES
GREAT STRIKE
OF 1877
Railroad strike
Paralyzed rail
& commerce
Pres. Hayes
Sent US troops
to end it
CHINESE
EXCLUSION ACT
PULLMAN STRIKE
1894
Pullman Comp.
cuts wages
during Panic
of 1893
Does not raise
after ends
Workers strike
US troops end it
Debs arrested
Workers
Blacklisted
LABOR WEAK
13
Railroads and Corruption
SCANDALS
Credit Mobilier
Stock watering
Bribery of
officeholders
Creation of “pools”
Secret “rebates”
REFORM EFFORTS
Granger Laws
(reversed by Wabash
case)
Interstate Commerce
Act of 1887
Were these effective?
Why or Why Not?
14
Roots of POPULISM
• 1886: Supreme Court’s Wabash decision struck
down Granger laws, Grangers decline afterwards
• Grangers replaced by Greenback Labor Party, run
unsuccessfully for presidency in 1880. Then
decline.
• Succeeded by Farmers’ Alliance, led by Mary E.
Lease
• Eventually, gains momentum. At its height,
Farmers’ Alliance elects 4 governors and 40
congressmen.
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.
16
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)
1886 – Supreme Court’s Wabash decision!!!
Interstate Commerce Act-1887!!! the formation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission
17