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| 305042034 | Who were the "Go-Getters"? | They were Americans of all races who found new opportunities, saw new ways to making a living for themselves and helped others as well. They brought the entire nation together. | |
| 305042035 | What exploded in the 1880's? | Railways | |
| 305042036 | How did the railroads get the land to build the tracks on? | The government gave it to them- LAND GRANTS. | |
| 305042037 | What is "standard time"? | A system of time zones. | |
| 305042038 | Why was standard time started? | Because the railroads had difficulty keeping up with all of the time zones. It was confusing and dangerous because trains could collide if they didn't know when other trains were on their rail. | |
| 305042039 | What is "standard gauge"? | The distance between train tracks was eventually the same so all trains could go on all railways. Otherwise, freight had to be moved to different trains during its journey because the tracks were not all the same. | |
| 305042040 | Who invented standard gauge? | George Stephenson- an English railroad inventor. | |
| 305042041 | What distance is standard gauge? | 4 feet 8 1/2 inches- the same as the distance between the wheels on a wagon. | |
| 305042042 | Competition in what industries was fierce? | oil, steel, and railroads | |
| 305042043 | Who made a fortune in the oil business? | John D. Rockefeller | |
| 305042044 | What did Rockefeller do to improve profits made by companies? | He came up with ways to limit competition. "Pools" of companies agreed to keep their prices the same. | |
| 305042045 | Were "pooling" prices legal? | No, they were considered conspiracy. | |
| 305042046 | What did Rockefeller come up with to limit competition after the "pools" fell apart? | Trusts- companies handed over their stock to "trustees". The trustees controled the companies, but the owners got all the profits. | |
| 305042047 | What was Standard Oil and Trust? | Rockefeller's first and most famous trust. | |
| 305042048 | In 1890 Congress did what to stop trusts? | Passed anti-trust laws to eliminate illegal limits on competition. This did not stop all of them though. | |
| 305042049 | Who was J.P. Morgan? | From London and grew up wealthy and trained in his father's bank. People called him a pirate. | |
| 305042050 | What was the Corsair? | J.P. Morgan's yacht. | |
| 305042051 | What industry did J.P. Morgan save many times? | The railroad industry. He reorganized bankrupt ones multiple times and merged many small failing ones into large successful companies. | |
| 305042052 | What large company did Morgan take over to help reorganize the railways? | Carnegie Steel | |
| 305042053 | Who originally owned Carnegie Steel? | Andrew Carnegie- a poor man from Scotland, he built Carnegie Steel and became one of the richest men in America. In the year 1900 he made $25 million (no income tax, so he kept it all). | |
| 305042054 | What did Carnegie fund with much of his fortune? | Libraries- free public libraries. | |
| 305042055 | Carnegie Steel was bought by who? | J.P. Morgan- it was merged with several other steel companies and formed the Uniteds States Steel Corporation. Produced 60% of the nations steel. | |
| 305042056 | What other industry was J.P. Morgan involved in (and the company still is today). | Banking- J.P. Morgan Chase (mortgages, credit cards etc...) | |
| 305042057 | What did most people think about these large and powerful corporations? | They were very concerned because they were impersonal. They were also more powerful and richer than any state government. | |
| 305042058 | What good did the large corporations do for Americans? | They brought products to people and created jobs and salaries for them. | |
| 305042059 | How did the public benefit from railroad land grants? | Railroads were built all over the country. This quickly transported people and products. | |
| 305042060 | How did the public benefit from the switch to standard gauge tracks? | Goods were shipped more quickly because they didn't have to be moved from one train to another with the correct gauge for that train track. | |
| 305042061 | How did the railroads benefit from the land grants? | They did not have to buy the land on which they built the railroads. This meant that they could built a transportation empire with only the cost of building the tracks. | |
| 305042062 | How did the railroads benefit from the switch to standard time? | Everyone, everywhere knew what time it was. This made the train tracks much safer. There was also no question about what time a train would arrive. | |
| 305042063 | How did the railraods benefit from the change to standard gauge? | Goods were shipped faster because they could be loaded onto one train that could make the entire trip. | |
| 305042064 | Why would a group of 12 big sugar companies form a trust? | Because they could agree to keep their prices the same, which limits competition and keeps prices up. A trust lets "trustees" make the decisions for them, but allows the owners to keep all of the profits. Their hands don't get dirty... | |
| 305042065 | Why was rock oil so important? | There was no electricity, so people had to use oil lamps to have light. The oil was expensive, dangerous, dirty and smelly. People went to bed when it was dark because it was expensive to keep the lamps on. | |
| 305042066 | Who was George H. Bissell? | He formed the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company to buy lands where oil was floating in ponds. | |
| 305042067 | What was rock oil (our modern day oil) originally used for? | Medicine | |
| 305042068 | Who did George Bissell hire to find out what else rock oil could be used for? | Benjamin Silliman, Jr.- a famous Yale professor of chemistry. | |
| 305042069 | What other name was given to rock oil? | Petroleum | |
| 305042070 | What were Silliman Jr.'s new uses for rock oil? | Safer and cheaper lamp oil (new kerosene), lubrication for machines | |
| 305042071 | How did Bissell get the rock oil in large quantities? | He sent Edwin Drake to the oil fields to drill (or bore) for oil. | |
| 305042072 | Who helped Edwin Drake drill for oil? | "Uncle Billy" Smith- an old salt driller who was a skilled blacksmith and could make drilling tools. | |
| 305042073 | The newly drilled oil caused what? | Oil mania- towns sprung up everywhere because people were trying to get rich from drilling and finding oil. | |
| 305042074 | Who was know as an "organizer"? | Rockefeller | |
| 305042075 | What city was Rockefeller determined to make the center of the big oil business? | Cleveland | |
| 305042076 | How did he make Cleveland the center of oil business? | He bought up many oil refineries and oil wells in Pennsylvania. The railways needed Rockefeller's frieght business and he made them compete for it, causing them to lower their prices. | |
| 305042077 | What secret arrangement did Rockefeller have with the railroads? | He pretended to pay the regular rates, but then the railroads gave him back a "rebate," which was a refund on each barrel of oil they had hauled. They even gave him rebates on what opposing companies shipped. | |
| 305126994 | Eventually Rockefeller did what to all the smaller refineries? | Bought them or drove them out of business. | |
| 305126995 | Eventually the world used what American product as a result of Rockefeller's Go-Getting business? | Oil lamps | |
| 305126996 | What was Titusville? | The town closest to the biggest finds of oil. | |
| 305126997 | During the colonial years, how did American farm families get what they needed to live? | They made it for themselves. | |
| 305126998 | Eventually, things were mannufactured and sold where for the farm families? | General stores. | |
| 305126999 | What were the prices like at general stores? | High becuase the storekeeper could only buy a little bit before it went bad or was out of date. There was no wholesale pricing... It was also very expensive to get items to the general store because it had to be hauled by wagon. | |
| 305127000 | Who decided to change who people bought things? | Montgomery Ward | |
| 305127001 | How did Montgomery Ward want to sell things to people? | Mail order | |
| 305127002 | What was the advantage of mail order (for Ward)? | He could sell to millions of people. This meant that he could order large quantities from the manufacturer and get better pricing. | |
| 305127003 | Did mail order mean higher or lower prices for customers? | Lower, because the mail order company would make a lower profit on each person, but sell more items total. This = bigger profit for company and lower prices for customers. | |
| 305127004 | Montgomery Ward's big secret to success was what? | To be honest, give good value and always let the customer be the judge. 100% money back guarantee... | |
| 305127005 | What were the risks for Montgomery Ward? | Cashing customers' checks (were they good?), believing their complaints and replacing damaged goods without a lot of investigating. | |
| 305187214 | What other mail order store was started? | Sears | |
| 305187215 | Who started Sears? | Richard Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck | |
| 305187216 | What was Sears clever with in regards to advertising? | He developed a quick-dry ink that was printed on thinner paper (thus cheaper) and with color pictures. He found that 4 color pages of advertisements would sell as many goods as 12 pages of black and white ink pages. | |
| 305187217 | Mail order companies brought what to farm families? | big-city goods; new machines, new gadgets and new fashions | |
| 305187218 | What were buyers palaces? | department stores | |
| 305187219 | How were department stores in America different from the stores in England? | In London, only wealthy people could enter the shops. You had to be a "person of quality" to see "goods of quality". In America, the new department stores allowed anyone to enter and shop. | |
| 305187220 | What was one of first department stores called? | Stewart's Cast Iron Palace (built in New York City). | |
| 305187221 | Who built the Cast Iron Palace? | A.T. Stewart- a merchant from Ireland. He got James Bogardus, a famous inventor, to build a cast-iron building. | |
| 305187222 | What else was made a new way in the cast-iron buildings? | Windows- large glass sheets of glass were made. | |
| 305191923 | What was the Centennial Exposition? | The US' hundred year birthday celebration in Philadelphia. It showcased new products (bicycles, the telephone made by Alexander Graham Bell etc...) | |
| 305191924 | Visitors to the Centennial Exposition came from where? | From all over Europe. | |
| 305248305 | What did Europeans think about the Centennial Exposition? | They couldn't believe how Americans could make so many things and cheaply! | |
| 305248306 | What part of the Centennial Exposition drew the biggest crowds? | The Machinery Hall- it had the Corliss steam engine which was 40 feet high, weighed 700 tons and produced over 2000 horsepower. | |
| 305248307 | Europeans were convinced that Americans would now do what? | Change the world! | |
| 305248308 | With the new advances in machinery, what had to be invented? | Machine tools- mostly metal cutting tools. | |
| 305248309 | Who was William Sellers of Philadephia? | A famous machine-tool maker that standardized bolts and screws. |
