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Period: to
The Gilded Age
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Pike's Peak
In 1858 an electrifying discovery sprouted Colorado. Gold was found at Pike's Peak, and the former forty-niners rushed to the rockies. Just as the California gold rush, many people traveled home "busted", but counteless people stayed on, some to strip away the silver deposits, others to extract nonmetallic wealth from the earth in the form of golden grain. -
Drake's Folly
The first oil well found in Pennsylvania, pouring out black gold. Quickly, an industry was created that earned more gold than all the gold in the gold rush combined. Kerosene, derived from petroleum, was the first major product of the infant oil industry. Kerosene produced a brighter flame than whale oil and became the fourth most valuable export. Whaling soon became a "sick" profession. -
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin posted his controversial book On the Origin of Species in 1859 on the eve of Civil War. It formed the sensational theory of evolution, which stated that humans had slowly evolved from lower forms of life—a theory that was soon summarized to mean “the survival of the fittest.’’ The book created doubt against the Bible, which relates how God created the heaven and the earth in six days. -
The State of Nevada
During the rush to Pike's Peak, many forty-niners had also poured into Nevada after the Comstock Lode was discovered. A large amount of gold and silver, worth more than $340 million, was mined. The sudden fluctuation in Nevada's population was shoved into the Union in 1864, partly to provide three electoral votes for President Lincoln. -
Spanning the Continent with Rails
The ultimate goal for the rails was a transcontinental railroad from coast to coast. With the South seceding from the nation, the North would get the railroad.Congress commissioned the Union Pacific Railroad to push westward from Nebraska to California. For their efforts, the Union Pacific got pay, free land, loans for more land or building.The Central Pacific Railroad started in California and pushed eastward.Leland Stanford headed up the railroad. -
The Morrill Act
America's rapid growth of higher education owed much to the Morrill Act of 1862. This lsw provided a generous grant of the public lands to the states for support of education. “Land grant
colleges,’’ in turn, began to provide certain services, such as military training. The Hatch Act of 1887, extending the Morrill Act, provided federal funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in connection with the land-grant colleges. -
The Homestead Act
Many western farmers were enlightened by the Homestead Act of 1862. The new law allowed a settler t acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for five years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about thirty dollars. The Homestead Act marked a drastic departure
from previous policy. Before the act, public land had been sold strictly to make revenue; now it was to be given away to encourage a rapid filling of empty land and to provide a stimulus to the family farm. -
Sand Creek Massacre
Western Indian Wars were often savage clashes. In 1864 at Sand Creek, Colorado, some four hundred Indians were massacred by Colonel J. M. Chivington’s militia. The Indians had supposedly been given immunity, but unfortunately that was not the case. Women were shot praying for mercy, children had their brains dashed out, and braves were tortured, scalped, and unspeakably mutilated. -
The National Labor Union
The National Labor Union represented a giant bootstride by workers. The union lasted six years and attracted the impressive total of 600,000 members, including the skilled, unskilled, and farmers, though, it excluded the Chinese and made only nominal efforts to include women and blacks. Black workers organized their own Colored National Labor Union, but their support for the Republican party and the persistent racism of white unionists prevented the two national unions from working together. -
Creation of the ASPCA
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in 1866. Its founder had witnessed brutality to horses in Russia and wished to save animals from this same experience. -
The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry
The Grange was founded in 1867 and headed by Oliver H. Kelley. Kelley’s first objective was to enhance the lives of isolated farmers through social, educational, and fraternal activities. Farming citizens, both men and women, found the Grange’s picnics, concerts, and lectures a gift from God. By 1875, the Grange claimed 800,000 members, chiefly in the Midwest and South. -
The Election of 1868
In 1868, the Republican Party offered General Ulyssess S. Grant as its presidential candidate. Grant had no prior experience in politics, but Republicans hope his Civil War hero status would win the election for him. Grant's tactic was to wave a bloody shirt among the crowds. This would symbolize his military record during the war. The Democratic Party offered Horatio Seymour as its candidate, who claimed he would not support redeeming greenback money. Grant won the election by a narrow margin. -
Women Gain Sufferage in Wyoming
Women's suffragists registered many gains as the new century opened, even though they were constantly discrimminated against. Women started to be permitted to vote in
local elections, which dealt with issues related to the
schools. The Wyoming Territory granted the first unrestricted suffrage to women in 1869 and many states followed Wyoming’s example. By 1890 most states had passed laws to permit wives to own or control their property after marriage. -
The Knights of Labor
Officially known as The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, it began as a secret society, with a private ritual, passwords, and a special handshake. Secrecy, which continued until 1881, would forestall possible reprisals by employers. It sought to include all workers in “one big union.” Their slogan was “An injury to one is the concern of all.” A welcome mat was rolled out for the skilled and unskilled, for men and women, for whites and underprivileged blacks, 90,000 who joined. -
Miracles of Mechanization
Between 1860 and 1984 the U.S. rose from the 4th largest manufacturing nation to the 1st. The reasons were. Liquid capital (money or a millionaire class) emerged to build new businesses.Natural resources had always been a great asset in America. Those resources were now being put to full use.For example, the Mesabi iron ore range of Minnesota was powering the national need for iron and steel. Immigration on a huge scale kept labor cheap. New technological advances were developed. -
The Liberal Republican Revolt of 1872/ The Election of 1872
The Liberal Republicans were tired of Grant turning a blind eye toward corruption, so they offered Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, as their presidential candidate. Greeley bashed the Democrats in his paper, but was soft on allowing the South to rejoin the union, which the Democrats liked. The campaign was tough. Greeley was called an atheist, communist, free-lover, vegitarian, brown-bread eater, and co-signer on Jefferson Davis' bail bond. Grant won by a landslide, 286 to 66. -
Industry's Leaders
Andrew Carnegie switched from railroading to become the master of the steel industry with the U.S. Steel Corporation. 1.Carnegie used vertical integration to grow his business. This meant he bought out businesses that he used in the production process. John D. Rockefeller nearly monopolized the oil industry. 1.Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company used horizontal integration to take over the industry.In vertical integration, Standard would either force a competitor out of business or buy them out. -
Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly
In 1872, Victoria Woodhull, a believer in free love, and her sister Tennesse Clafin published the Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly.The sisters shocked “respectable’’ society in 1872 when their journal struck a blow for the new morality by charging
that Henry Ward Beecher, the most famous preacher of his day, had for years been carrying on an adulterous affair. -
The Comstock Law
Pure-minded Americans sternly resisted affronts to their moral principles. Anthony Comstock was their foremost leader, as he made a lifelong war on the immoral. After the Comstock Law was passed in 1873 this self-appointed defender
of sexual purity boasted that he had confiscated no
fewer than 202,679 “obscene pictures and photos’’;
4,185 “boxes of pills, powders, etc., used by abortionists’’;
and 26 “obscene pictures, framed on walls
of saloons.’’ His proud claim was that he had driven
at least -
The Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was started by over-spending borrowed money in railroad factories. The main causes of the panic were over-spending and credit given to easily by banks. The panic initially started when banks began going bankrupt. Debtors were hit hard. They wanted greenback money to be reinstated to create inflation and make it easier to pay off debts. Cheap money advocates wanted more silver to be coined, which would also hike up inflation. -
Resumption Act- Panic of 1873
Bankers and the wealthy favored hard money policies, since they wanted to keep the amount of money stable. Grant vetoed the bill to print more greenbacks. The Resumption Act was then passed to lower the number of greenbacks and to redeem paper money at face value starting in 1879. Grant lead the nation into a period of contraction, meaning the amount of money in circulation decreased. This did not help the recession at all. The Greenback Labor Party was started to bring back cheap labor policies -
Chautauqua Movement
Public schools excluded millions of adults and only tended to the younger generations. This issue was partially solved by the Chautauqua Movement which was launched in1874. The organizers achieved gratifying success through nationwide public lectures, often held in tents and featuring well-known speakers, including the witty Mark Twain. There also were
extensive Chautauqua courses of home study, for which 100,000 people enrolled in 1892 alone. -
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
Militant women entered the alcoholic arena, notably when the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was organized in 1874. Its symbol was the white ribbon, standing for purity.The saintly Frances E. Willard was its leading spirit. Another leader was the muscular and mentally deranged “Kansas Cyclone,’’ Carrie A. Nation, whose first husband had died of alcoholism. Rum wwas now in danger. -
John Hopkins University
There was a sharp increase in professional and technical schools, where modern laboratories were replacing the solo experiments performed by instructors in front of their classes. One of the greatest of these school was Johns Hopkins University, opened in 1876, which maintained the nation’s first high-grade graduate school. Several American scholars had attended German universities, so with Johns Hopkins carrying on German traditions, scholars no longer had to go abroad. -
Invention of the Telephone
The telephone was inventied by Alexander Graham Bell. He was a teacher of the dead and was given a dead man's ear to experiment with. Through his invention, a giant communication network was created within the nation. -
The Hayes-Tilden Election of 1876
Grant considered running for a third ter, but the House quietly voted down his proposal. The Republicans nominated Rutherford Hayes, also known as the "Great Unknown". His greatest attribute was his birth state Ohio, an important state in winning the election. The Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden. His climb to fame was his capturing of Boss Tweed. Tilden obtained with 184 electoral votes, he needed 185. Twenty questionable votes were held in the balance, and the election was at a stalemate. -
Compromise of 1877
Congress passed the Electoral Count Act to solve the presidential stalemate. The commission was made of 15 men from the House, Senate, and Supreme Court, including 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats. Finally a deal was made in the Compromise of 1877. Rutherford Hayes, who was favored by the North, became president. The South recieve a pledge from Hayes that he would remove Southern military occupation, which ended Reconstruction. -
Labor Movement of 1877
Many clashes occured after Reconstrustion. Four railroads got together and decided to cut wages by ten percent. The workers went on strike and the railroads shut down, causing President Hayes to to call in federal troops who would settler the dispute. The failed strike showed the weakness in the labor movement. -
Edison's Light Bulb
Thomas Edison was a gifted tinkerer and a tireless worker, not a pure scientist. “Genius,” he said, “is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” He is probably best known for his perfection in 1879 of the electric light bulb, which he unveiled after experimenting with some six thousand different filaments.The electric light turned night into day and transformed ancient human habits as well. People origanlly slept nine hours, after the invention they only slept around seven. -
Christian Science
An important new faith was the Church of Christ, Christian Science, founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879, after she had suffered much ill health. Eddy preached that the true practice of Christianity healed sickness. She then set forth her views in
a book entitled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. A large field of converts was found among the urbanized civilization, to which Eddy held out the hope of relief from discords and diseases through prayer as taught by Christian Science. -
Dumbbell Tenement
Slums grew overcrowded and filthy when the Dumbbell tenement was perfected in 1879. The dumbbell was usually seven or eight stories high, with shallow, sunless, and ill-smelling air shafts providing minimal ventilation. Several families were forced onto each floor and shared one toilet in the hallway. In New York’s “Lung Block,’’ hundreds of unfortunate urbanites coughed away their lives. “Flophouses’’
abounded where the half-starved and unemployed might sleep for a few cents on verminous bed. -
The Salvation Army
The band-playing Salvation Army was a newcoming religion whose swordless soldiers invaded America from England in 1879 and established a beachhead on the street corners. Appealing frankly to the down-and-outers, the boldly named Salvation Army did much practical good, especially with
free soup for the poor. -
Progress and Poverty
Henry George, a journalist-author, was an original thinker who left an enduring mark. Poor in formal schooling, he was rich in idealism and in human kindness. After seeing poverty at
its worst in India and land-grabbing at its greediest in California, he took pen in hand. His classic treatise
Progress and Poverty, written in 1879. undertook to solve “the
great enigma of our times’’—“the association of
progress with poverty." -
The People's Party in 1880
In the presidential
election of 1880, the Greenbackers ran General
James B. Weaver was an old Granger who was favorited
by Civil War veterans and possessed a
remarkable voice and bearing. He spoke to half-million citizens in a hundred or so speeches, but polled only 3 percent of the total popular vote in the Election of 1880. -
Election of 1880
The Election of 1880 saw Republican James Garfield and running mate Chester Arthur against Democratic General Winfield Scott. James Garfield was a previously unknown candidate, but can fromt he critical state of Ohio. Winfield Scott was a Civil War hero. Garfield won the election, but found himself trapped between James Blaine's and Roscoe Conklings's fued. -
Booker T. Washington
Ex-slave Booker T. Washington, who had slept under a board sidewalk to save pennies for his schooling, was asked to head the Tuskegee institute in 1881.His new job began with forty students in a rundown shack. Still filled with inspiration, he taught his African American students useful trades that would help gain them self-respect and economic security.Washington avoided the issue of social equality, in return for the right to develop the economic and educational resources of the Urban Culture. -
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross was founded in 1881, with the dynamic and diminutive Clara Barton, an “angel’’ of Civil War battlefields, as its leader. The Red Cross has saved millions of lives since its founding. -
The Barnum and Bailey Circus
The world reknown Barnum and Bailey Circus was launched in 1881. Phineas T. Barnum, the master showman who had early discovered that “the public likes to be humbugged’’, united with James A. Bailey in 1881 to stage the “Greatest Show
on Earth.’’ This circus, now known as The RIngling Bros. and Barnum ans Bailey Circus, attracted many americans to see their bearded woman and shortest man on earth. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
Clashes came when the Chinese started competing for low-paying jobs, which the Irish usually occupied. Most were young, poor men who emigrated to California who normally recieved railroad jobs. After the railroad boom, most Chinese immigrant moved back to China and worked odd jobs. Irish gangs took the streets and dealt their vengeance on the Chinese. Congress then passed the Chinese Exclusion Act forbiding Chinese immigration to America. This was the first immigration restriction in America. -
The Brooklyn Bridge
Engineering marvels New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, a harplike suspension span dedicated in 1883, further added to the seductive glamour shining cities. Attractions like this brought tourism into action in the urbanized nation. -
Metropolitan Opera House
Music was gaining popularity in the new generation. New York's famed Metropolitan Opera House was created in 1883. In its “Diamond Horseshoe,’’ the newly rich, often under the
pretense of enjoying the imported singers, would flaunt their jewels, gowns, and furs. Symphonies and operas were devoted to bringing European music to elite American audiences. -
Mark Twain, a Classic Author
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who adapted the pen name Mark Twain, had leapt to fame with The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and The Innocents Abroad.With his formal schooling in frontier Missouri, Twain typified a new breed of American authors in disagreement with the elegant
refinements of the old New England school of writing. His book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn rank among american masterpeices and is now an american classic. -
Election of 1884
The Republicans nominated James G.Blaine while the Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland. The mudslinging reached its most intense point when the topic of Cleveland's affair and the child it produced eight years earlier arose. Democratic Cleveland won the election. He helped bridge the North-South gap by appointing two former Confederate to the cabinet. He was very concerned with doing the right thing and tried to award jobs based on merit rather than political support. -
Battle for a Lower Tariff
President Cleveland had trouble with the budget surplus. there were two ways to solve this problem: invent something to spend money on or take in less money by cutting taxes. The only problem was that the extra surplus money cam in from high tariffs. Cleveland asked Congress to lower the tariff. This caused a great debate because Democrats favored a reduced tariff while Republicans favored a high tariff. -
Wabash Case
The Supreme Court, in the famed Wabash case, decreed that individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce. If the mechanical monster were to be corralled, the federal government would have to do the job. President Cleveland did not look kindly on effective regulation. -
The Statue of Liberty
In 1886, the Statue of Liberty arose in New York harbor. It was a gift from the people of France. Emma Lazarus inscribed "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore." on the base of the statue.To many nativists, those noble words described new immigrants arriving to the shores. -
Haymarket Square
Tensions rapidly built up to the bloody Haymarket Square episode. Labor disorders had broken out, and on May 4, 1886, the Chicago police advanced on a meeting called to protest alleged brutalities by the authorities. Suddenly a dynamite bomb was thrown that killed or injured several dozen people, including police. Eight anarchists were rounded up, although nobody proved they were involved. The judge and jury held they had preached incendiary doctrines, they could be charged with conspiracy. -
The Interstate Commerce Act
Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 against the wishes of President Cleveland. It prohibited rebates and pools and required the railroads to publish their rates openly. It also forbade unfair discrimination against shippers and outlawed charging more for a short haul than for a long haul over the same line. Most important, it set up the Interstate Commerce Commission to administer and enforce the new legislation. -
American Protective Association
Antiforeign organizations, branches of the “Know-Nothings’’, were now revived in a different form. The American Protective Association, created in 1887, soon claimed a million members. The APA encourages voting against Roman Catholic candidates running for office and sponsored the publication of lustful fantasies about runaway nuns. -
Dawes Act
The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was a movement to reform Indian policy. The act dissolved many tribes as legal entities, wiped out tribal ownership of land, and set up individual Indian family heads with 160 free acres. If the Indians behaved themselves like good whites, they would get full title to the lsnd they are living on, as well as citizenship, in twenty-five years. Full citizenship was eventually granted to all Indians in 1924. -
Farmers’ Alliance
A striking manifestation of rural discontent came founded in the late 1870s when the Farmers' Alliance was launched. Farmers came together in the Alliance to socialize, but more
importantly to break the dependency on the railroads and manufacturers through cooperative buying and selling. The Alliance was weak in ignoring the plight of landless tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and farmworkers and even more was the Alliance’s exclusion of blacks. -
Eelction of 1888
President Cleveland was up for re-election while the Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison. During the election, the lower tariff debate was still up in the air. Harrison won the election. Cleveland lost partly because of the tariff issue, and Cleveland became the first person to be voted out of office since Martin Van Buren. -
The Billion Dollar Congress
The Republicna Party was eager to assert its power in the White House after the 1888 election. They found their leader in Thomas "Czar" Reed, Speaker of the House. Democrats planned to fight back by not answering roll call, therefore, not achieving quorum. Reed solved the quorum battle by counting Democrats as present if they were there, rather than if they answered roll call. With roll call attended too, Reed got down to business passing many bills. -
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act created a cycle. The government had to buy silver and print money to pay for it, the people could then turn in the paper money for gold. This act was debated for repeal. William Jennings Bryan became the formost spokesman for silver and cheap money, but regardless, the act was repealed. -
Railroad Corruption
Railroading had a large share of corruption.The worst case was the Crédit Mobilier scandal where railroad men subhired themselves to get paid twice and bought Congressmen to go along with it.A common technique was "stock watering" where railroads would artificially talk up the company so the stock would rise.Frequent bribes were given to government officials, the formation of "pools" where competitors agreed to cooperate as if they were one mega company,and rebates were given to large companies. -
The Standard Oil Company
John D. Rockefeller got a leg up on the competition with his Standard Oil Company, which eventually provided 95% of all oil sold in the U.S. Rockefeller was criticized for his business practices as being ruthless. He used horizontal integration to buy up competitors or he simply drove competitors out of business. His tactics were aided by "economies of scale" where large companies produce a cheaper product and thus put even more pressure on the "little guy." -
Battle of Wounded Knee
Humanitarians wanted to treat Indians kindly and persuade them to assimilate to white society. Hard-liners insisted on the current policy of forced containment and brutal punishment. No matter which way the Indians were to be treated neither side showed much respect for Native American culture. In 1884 white men joined with military men in persuading the federal government to outlaw the Sun Dance. When the Ghost Dance cult spread to the Dakota Sioux, the Battle of Wounded Knee occurred. -
The People's Party
With the Farmers' Alliance came a new political party named the People's Party. These farmers were frustrated and attacked Wall Street and the “money trust.” They called for nationalizing the railroads, telephones, and telegraph; they wished for the instituting a graduated income tax; and hoped for the and creating a new federal “subtreasury”. They also wanted the free and unlimited coinage of silver, as most debtors wanted this also. -
Wilson-Gorman Tariff
President Cleveland was sneaky with the donation from J.P. Morgan, but was embarrassed due to the Wilson-Gorman Tariff. Democrats had promised lower Tariffs, but the Wilson-Gorman Tariff barely changed the Tariff at all.It allowed two percent income tax on income over four thousand, and the Supreme Court struck it down. Republicans began to benefit from Cleveland's actions. -
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act
At long last the masses of the people began to mobilize
against monopoly. They first tried to control the trusts through state legislation, then they were forced to appeal to Congress. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was finally signed into law. It forbade combinations in restraint of trade, without any distinction between “good” trusts and “bad” trusts. Bigness, not badness, was the sin.The law proved ineffective because it contained legal loopholes corporation lawyers could wriggle through. -
Basketball
James Naismith, a YMCA instructor from Massachusettes, invented basketball in 1891. Designed as an active indoor sport that could be played during the winter months, it grew rapidly popular through the nation. -
The Populist Party
The Populist Party, or the People's Party, was made up of unhappy farmers and sprung out of the Farmers' Alliance. They demanded inflation through cheap money policies to make paying of debts easier, a graduated income, government regulation of railroads, the telegraph and telephone, direct elections of senators, initiative and referendum, and shorter working day, and immigration restrictions. This party reached out to Southern African Americans, which resulted in the creation of literacy tests. -
The Depression of 1893
Cleveland won the 1892 election after four years off, unfortunately he was faced with a budget deficit due to the Depression of 1893. It was the first recession or depresion during the industrial age. Approximately 8,000 businesses went out of businesses, railroads went under, and soup kitchens popped up to feed the poor. The nation's gold supply was quickly declining. Cleveland recieved a $65million donation from J.P. Morgan, restoring confidence of the nation. -
Anti-Saloon League
The potent Anti- Saloon League was formed in 1893, with its members singing “The Saloon Must Go’’ and “Vote for Cold Water, Boys.’’ Statewide prohibition, was sweeping new states into the “dry’’ column. The great triumph came in 1919, when the national prohibition amendment was attached to the Constitution. -
The Columbian Exposition
A revival of classical architectural forms—and a setback for realism—came with the great Columbian Exposition. It honored
the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s firstvoyage and was held in Chicago in 1893. This exposition did much to raise American artistic standards and promote city planning. -
Coxey’s Army
General Jacob S. Coxey, a famous marcher among unemployed armies, set out for Washington in 1894. His platform included the demand that the government relieve unemployment by an inflationary public works program. Coxey rode in a wagon with his wife and son, while his Commonweal Army marched behind. They finally straggled into the nation’s capital, but the invasion took on the aspects of a comic opera when they got arrested for walking on the grass. -
Creation of Jim Crow Laws
When the military was removed from the South, whites reinstated their power over African Americans. Most African Americans had no choice but to become sharecroppers, farming on land they did not own and paying a hefty fee to landlords at harvest time. Segregation became institutionalized through Jim Crow Laws. The Supreme Court claimed these laws to be Constitutional in the court case Plessy v. Feruson, stating that "seperate but legal" facilities for the races were legal. -
The Election of 1896
The Republican candidate for the presidency was former congressman William McKinley of Ohio, sponsor of the tariff bill of 1890. The Democratic candidate was thirty-six year old William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska because of his radiated honesty, sincerity, and energy. The People's Party split in support for each of these candidates. Mckinley won the presidency. -
The Library of Congres
Public libraries were making encouraging progress. In 1897, the Library of Congress opened its doors to the public and provided thirteen acres of floor space in the largest and costliest edifice of its kind in the world. Andrew Carnegie contributed $60 million for the construction of public libraries all
over the country. -
The Supremacy of Steel
Steel became king after the Civil War. Steel built the industrial revolution. Right after the Civil War steel was expensive and used sparingly, as for cutlery.The main advance was the Bessemer Process where cool air is blown over red hot iron to burn off the impurities and produce stronger and cheaper steel. A second reason for the growth of American steel was that the U.S. was blessed with loads of iron and coal, the two main ingredients for steel. -
The Gold Standard Act
As money issues which occured after the Civil War faded away, the Gold Standard Act of 1900 was passed, providing that the paper currency be redeemed freely in gold.Discoveries of new gold deposits in Canada’s Klondike, as well as in Alaska,South Africa, and Australia, brought huge
quantities of gold onto world markets, as did the perfecting of the cheap cyanide process for extracting gold from poor ore. Therefore, moderate inflation took care of the currency needs of the rapidly growing nation. -
Revolution by Railways
The railroad network had the effect of physically linking the nation and psychologically impacted the way people looked at the country.The greatest impact that railroads had was on business and industrialization.The land itself was also impacted by railroads.Before trains, cities and towns simply operated on their own local time. Since accurate timing was critical in safely running trains, time zones were created so that everyone would be coordinated. -
The United States Steel Corporation
J.P. Morgan moved rapidly to expand his industrial empire. In 1901 he launched the United States Steel Corporation. It was the first billion-dollar corporation in America and generated a larger sum than the total wealth of the nation. -
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois earned a Ph.D. at Harvard, the first of his race to do so. He demanded complete social and economic equality for blacks and, in 1910, helped to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He
demanded that the “talented tenth’’ of the black community be given full and immediate access to the mainstream of American life. -
The Indian Reorganization Act
The Dawes Act struck deeply at Indian tribes and tried to assimilate them into white culture. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 partially reversed the individualistic approach and belatedly tried to restore the tribal basis of Indian life and culture. Under these new laws, the Indian populataion began to slowly rise.
