Name:______Per. ______S.S. 8 GROWTH OF RAILROADS: Positive and Negative Changes
Statement of Inquiry:
Growth of industry and innovation caused positive and negative changes in society. NETWORK OF RAILROAD LINES ACROSS THE U.S.
Railroads promoted big industrial growth in the United States by the late 1800s. They carried people and goods to the West and raw materials to eastern factories more efficiently. This was made possible because of networks, a system of connected railroad lines that made travel from one destination to another much easier. Networks were made possible by the use of standard gauges (widths) of tracks, allowing people to travel longer distances without having to change trains. Also, standard time zones were added across the country in 1883 to simplify train schedules. By the early 1900s, the United States had one third of all railroad tracks in the entire world! Companies also improved the safety and comfort of the railroad service by adding sleeping and dining cars. This made it more attractive for passengers to use the railroads.
Earth Science Connection: TIME ZONES
Before railroads, every town and city had its own time, based on the position of the sun. The position of the sun in the sky depends on longitude (how far east or west you are located), meaning that travelling even short distances east or west would mean the time changing by a few minutes. It could be 8:03 in Commack, 8:00 in New York City, and 8:08 in Montauk. When travel was very slow and not on a strict schedule, these small differences didn’t matter much, but it created major problems with the growth of railroads. At first, to avoid schedule confusion and prevent crashes, railroad How do time zones affect our lives today? companies began setting their own times, making it the same time everywhere along the railroad line ______but slightly different from each town’s local time. ______As railroads expanded, this became more and more inefficient and confusing. In 1883 the federal ______government stepped in and created four standard ______time zones in the country. Everywhere within a zone, the time is the same regardless of how far ______east or west it is. When traveling to a new time ______zone, the time changes by one full hour, making things much easier than having times change by a ______matter of minutes over short distances.
Cornelius Vanderbilt began his career in the steamboat business in and around New York City. In the mid-1800s, he turned his attention to railroads and bought the Hudson River Railroad, connecting New York City to Albany. After the Civil War, he wanted to expand his business and buy other railroad companies connecting to western New York State and the Great Lakes. When Vanderbilt wanted to buy New York Central Railroad, the owners wouldn’t sell to him. Vanderbilt responded by announcing that New York Central customers could not have access to his railroad. This posed a problem for passengers because Vanderbilt’s railroad was needed to access New York City, the most important port in the country. With their customers cut off from New York City, New York Central’s profits fell and their stock became very cheap. Vanderbilt took advantage of this, buying up New York Central’s stock and gaining control of the company. This gave him what he wanted in the first place, allowing him to consolidate, or combine, his Hudson River Company with New York Central. Vanderbilt would later buy even more railroad companies, eventually owning about 40 percent of the nation’s rail lines.
As railroad owners gained more wealth and power through consolidation, they often gave secret rebates, or discounts, to their “better” (usually wealthier) customers in an attempt to keep them in business with the railroad. A railroad company, for example, would make a deal with an oil company allowing cheaper shipping rates in exchange for the oil company promising to only ship oil on that company’s trains. This helped the railroad owner shut out other smaller companies, giving him even more wealth and power. Poorer customers, such as farmers, did not get the rebates because they shipped less on the trains. Also, as railroad companies consolidated, there was less competition and less choice for customers, allowing owners to raise their prices on less wealthy customers. Farmers in the West and South were especially hurt by this, and they wanted government step in and regulate (control) railroad companies. Until the early 1900s, the federal government took a mostly laissez-faire (hands off) view on this issue, allowing companies to continue these practices. Politicians often took campaign contributions from big business owners in exchange for laws not being passed or enforced. This would not change much until the Progressive Era in the early 1900s.
Based on the reading, how did the growth of the railroad industry cause positive and negative changes in society? Positive Negative
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