Ali San

01-21-14
Per. 4 Mr. Landau
Chp.23- #1
A lot of corruption occurred due to the seeking of Grants favor. Grant had a
very easy-going attitude. This attitude however would ultimately lead to his
downfall. A credit scandal occurred with the Union Pacific Railroad Company. The
UPR formed the Union Mobilier Construction Company and then hired themselves at
inflated prices to build the new railroad. This scandal led to the censure of
two congressmen and the revelation that the Vice President had accepted payments
from Credit Mobilier. The Whiskey Ring also robbed the Treasury of millions in
excise-tax revenues. Grants private secretary was even found guilty of being
involved in such crimes. The Force Acts and the Pendleton Act were passed during
the Age of Reconstruction and was a sign of corruption leading to unsuccessful
efforts in the Age of Reconstruction.
#2
The bad economic situation of the 1870s was led by the panic of 1873, a
terrible economic downturn that led to bankruptcy for more than 15,000
businesses. It was caused by a downturn in the business cycle accompanied by too
many bad (risky) loans and specific sectors (factories and railroads) of the economy
over expanding, thus creating oversupply which leads to lower prices and lost
wages and/or jobs. Soft-money advocates are people who are in debt and would
benefit from inflation because it reduces the value of money paid back in the future,
and makes borrowing cheaper because it lowers interest rates. Hard money
advocates won out due to the experience with Civil War currency that had
depreciated badly due to its being handled improperly during the war. Debtors then
demanded that the government relieves the burden by issuing more silver coins.
#3
Congressmen promoted the idea and dealt with the people that went against
their reconstruction. However, as reconstruction ended, racial conflicts soon
pursued since Congress was no longer promoting equal status for the blacks The
southerners wanted to alienate the blacks and imposed the Jim Crow laws which
segregated the white community black from the community. Basically, it made the
blacks create a new society separate from the whites. This meant they had to use
separate schools, bathrooms, and other public buildings. The laws technically did
not violate the constitution since it's just separated facilities, but the
blacks facilities were much more inferior to those that belonged to the white
southerners; thus promoting racism. Furthermore, blacks were assaulted and
punished severely if they tried to go against their social codes.
#4
During the late 1800s, farmers in the United States tended to feel that richer
Americans were exploiting them. In particular, they felt that banks and railroads
exploited them. The farmers needed the banks to give them loans to allow them to
plant their crops. They needed the railroads to transport their crops to market.
Both industries, they felt, took advantage of their power and charged the farmers
excessively high prices. Because of this, the farmers, and groups like the Grange that
represented them, fought back against the upper classes through things like the
creation of the Populist
Chp. 24- #1
The transcontinental railroad did this in two major ways. First, it helped to
stimulate the steel industry. The demand for all those rails needed to build the
railroad and for the cars that ran on those rails helped cause the steel industry to
boom. Second, the transcontinental railroad created a huge market that allowed
industry to expand. It allowed factories to get raw materials from anywhere in the
US and sell their products to anywhere in the U.S. It aloud movement to the western
states and supplied and growth to occur. Therefore, the transcontinental railroad
allowed the U.S. to become an industrial power.
#2
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many people felt that the railroads abused
their power. They felt, for example, that the railroads overcharged people who
relied on them to get goods to and from market. Because of this, there came to be a
great deal of pressure on the federal government to regulate the industry. This led,
among other things, to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission. This
entity was supposed to be able to regulate the railroads and force them to charge
rates that were fair and were not discriminatory. This was one of the first major
moves by the federal government to regulate industry.
#3
The trusts became dominant in American industry because of the then
practice of laissez faire capitalism: the belief that government should not involve
itself in business. The result was a number of shady business practices and
opportunistic gambles on business. Andrew Carnegie knew nothing of the steel
business, but accumulated enough cash to purchase a steel company and then
bought out his competitors one by one when business was bad. John D. Rockefeller
actually ran competitors out of business. He formed a marketing company and
dictated to the railroads the amount he would pay to ship his oil, and also spied on
his competitors. In six weeks he managed to squeeze 90 per cent of his competitors
out of business by selling oil below cost which they could not afford to do. When
they finally collapsed, he bought them out at his own price--normally substantially
below market price--and soon controlled over 90% of the U.S. oil refining business.
None of this would have happened in the present because of government scrutiny
and anti-trust legislation.
#4
The South fell into a 3rd World Economy as the destruction of slavery meant
that the entire Southern economy had to be rebuilt. The region relied on agriculture
and slave labor for their economy. This turned out to be a monumental task; far
larger than anyone at the time imagined. Also the growth of an urbanized market
society in the North produced more than just a legislative program of political
economy that Southerners resisted. While the North rapidly manufactured and
industrialized, they didnt rely on anything else. The South did little to nothing to
industrialize very well.
#5
Prior to the Industrial Revolution and factories, mills, etc., people
in Britain for instance were much more attached to the land, agrarian, etc. But
moving into major urbanized cities to work in the mills and factories created poor
living conditions for the working class. Not everybody was entirely happy with this
situation--in fact there were many uprisings like the Luddites who tried to smash
machines in factories and mills because it put skilled workers out of jobs. Farmers
tried to smash threshing machines because they could do the work of many men and
took relatively little skill. Further, this era introduced child labor, which was quite
horrific--children working in mills, factories, and in coal mines where the conditions
were dangerous and life expectancy was unbelievably short.
#6
The Knights of Labor failed largely because they were too radical while the
American Federation of Labor had some amount of success mostly because they
were much more moderate. The Knights of Labor were quite radical. They wanted
to abolish the capitalist system. In addition, they represented both skilled and
unskilled workers. These things made the general public dislike them and gave
them less leverage when bargaining with employers.
The AFL was more moderate, wanting only better working conditions and wages
within the system. They represented only skilled workers. These things made them
more acceptable to the general public and gave them more leverage over employers.