Lecture History 1/16/08
*Go to HA 178 Friday
1. Horatio Alger's stories gave guides to people that would make them successful.
2. Question #1: New technologies and the volume of goods. Railroads became important for industries. Provided transportation, improved communication, more speed, and enhanced settlement of Great Plains. Also offered a testing ground for manufacturing techniques. Privately owned, but built with government assistance.
3. Also, natural recourses, and a lot of land, helped the pace of industrialization.
4. Slavery made it harder for lands to be open, free of slave?
5. Immigration brought workers and producers to America.
6. Agricultural crisis in Europe, surplus of craftsmen, political discontent, religious persecution, and high taxes, fear of military service, and rising land prices and low wages led to immigration to America. "Land of opportunity," and religious freedom also help.
7. Immigration provided a cheap labor system and made America diverse. However, native workers did not like to compete with new immigrants. Immigrants to contributed urban growth.
8. "Social Darwinism": Gospel of wealth; natural order should be used, which basically said the most fit will rise to the top naturally. Herbert Spencer is responsible for this. "Liberty meant the right to acquire property." "Equality meant everyone had the right to have financial gain." Another idea is that political figures are elected and not chosen by nature, which means business leaders were more successful.
9. Andrew Carnegie: Became the richest man in the World. He Founded the Carnegie Steel Company. He used vertical integration which means he owns the entire process of production.
10. John Rockefeller: Perfected horizontal integration, which meant he owned a whole process of production. He ran an Oil Company.
11. Horatio Alger said that everyone could "make it" in America.
12. No income tax or inheritance tax meant that trust owners could amass large amounts of money.
13. Government at first was not involved in regulating business. Sherman anti-trust act fought against horizontal trusts.