By 1880, the United States had become the world's leading producer of goods due to an unlimited labor force from immigration, abundant coal supplies, iron mining, and the discovery of oil. New technologies like the telephone, light bulb, electric power, and Bessemer steel process drove innovation, while railroads connected markets and fueled industrial growth. Major industrialists like Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan built vast fortunes in oil, steel, and finance. The railroad industry grew rapidly but also faced scandals and calls for regulation of rates and practices.

1. Industrial Development

2.  By1880, U.S. is world’s leading producer
of goods
• Reasons why?
 Unlimited labor force
 Abundant coal supply
 Iron mining
 Discovery of oil
 Railroad development

3.  Laissez-faire government policies
• Government was hands off in the market place
 Unlimited immigration supplied labor
• Nativist fears
• No competition for labor – decrease pay
 High tariff protected American business
• But farmers suffered
 Public financing of railroads
• Regulating prices

4.  Late 1800s saw and explosion of innovation
 Telephone – Graham Bell
 Light Bulb – Edison
 Electric Power – Edison (made it work long
distances)
 Bessemer Process – made possible the mass
production of steel
 Typewriter –Sholes
 Modern Media made possible because of
electricity, telephone and the typewriter

5.  Photography – Wolcott
 Phonograph – Edison
 Motion Picture – Lemiere
 Radio – Tesla (Marconi)
 Retail Stores – Middle class, brought
catalogs and window shopping
 Canned Food – Appert

6.  Rockefeller – Oil
 Carnegie – Steel
 Morgan – Financial
 Vanderbuilt – Railroads and Shipping
 Dupont – corporation
 Duke – Tobacco
 Westinghouse – air brake and switch
tracks for Railroads

7.  “ironhorse” – slow initially but with new
technological advances became more
efficient
 Leading consumer or goods
• The main transit choice for all farmers and
producers
 Trancontinental, 1869
• Promotory Point
 Standardization of time
• 1884 created 24 time zones to standardize train
schedules

8.  Growth of urban areas
 Development of Company Towns
• people worked and lived in the same town/factory
(make money and spent money from same person)
• Pullman Illinois makes Railroad cars
• Cut salary and wouldn’t cut rates
• Clean towns
 Railroad scandals
• Credit Moblier – Pacific Railroad
• Gov’t land grants

9.  Railroad Abuses
• Long haul vs. short haul
• Rebates and Drawbacks
 Granger Laws
• Enacted to set maximum rates for shipping and
storage
 Supreme Court Rulings
• Wabash and Munn
 Interstate Commerce Act, 1887
• Attempt to regulate business
• Created the Interstate Commerce Commission