“Upon the
sacredness of property,
civilization
itself depends.”
Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, 1889
Between two great wars — the Civil of the country; it dramatized in a
War and the First World War — the stroke the changes that had begun to
United States of America came of take place during the preceding 20
age . In a period of less than 50 years or 30 years . . .” War needs had enorit was transformed from a rural re- mously stimulated manufacturing,
public to an urban nation . The fron- speeding an economic process based
tier vanished . Great factories and on the exploitation of iron, steam,
steel mills, transcontinental railroad and electric power, as well as the forlines, flourishing cities, and vast ward march of science and inven-
agricultural holdings marked the tion . In the years before 1860, 36,000
land . With this economic growth patents were granted; in the next 30
and affluence came corresponding years, 440,000 patents were issued,
problems . Nationwide, a few busi- and in the first quarter of the 20th
nesses came to dominate whole in- century, the number reached nearly
dustries, either independently or in a million .
combination with others . Work-
As early as 1844, Samuel F .B .
ing conditions were often poor . Morse had perfected electrical te-
Cities grew so quickly they could legraphy; soon afterward distant
not properly house or govern their parts of the continent were linked
growing populations .
by a network of poles and wires . In
1876 Alexander Graham Bell exhib-
TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGE
ited a telephone instrument; within
“T
half a century, 16 million telephones
he Civil War,” says one writer, would quicken the social and eco-
“cut a wide gash through the history nomic life of the nation . The growth
156
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
of business was hastened by the in- in a telegraph office, then to one on
vention of the typewriter in 1867, the Pennsylvania Railroad . Before
the adding machine in 1888, and he was 30 years old he had made
the cash register in 1897 . The lino- shrewd and farsighted investments,
type composing machine, invented which by 1865 were concentrated in
in 1886, and rotary press and paper- iron . Within a few years, he had or-
folding machinery made it possible ganized or had stock in companies
to print 240,000 eight-page newspa- making iron bridges, rails, and lo-
pers in an hour . Thomas Edison’s comotives . Ten years later, he built
incandescent lamp eventually lit the nation’s largest steel mill on the
millions of homes . The talking ma- Monongahela River in Pennsylvania .
chine, or phonograph, was perfected He acquired control not only of new
by Edison, who, in conjunction with mills, but also of coke and coal prop-
George Eastman, also helped devel- erties, iron ore from Lake Superior, a
op the motion picture . These and fleet of steamers on the Great Lakes,
many other applications of science a port town on Lake Erie, and a con-
and ingenuity resulted in a new level necting railroad . His business, allied of productivity in almost every field . with a dozen others, commanded
Concurrently, the nation’s basic favorable terms from railroads and
industry — iron and steel — forged shipping lines . Nothing comparable
ahead, protected by a high tariff . The in industrial growth had ever been
iron industry moved westward as ge- seen in America before .
ologists discovered new ore depos-
Though Carnegie long dominat-
its, notably the great Mesabi range ed the industry, he never achieved
at the head of Lake Superior, which a complete monopoly over the nat-
became one of the largest produc- ural resources, transportation, and
ers in the world . Easy and cheap to industrial plants involved in the
mine, remarkably free of chemical making of steel . In the 1890s, new
impurities, Mesabi ore could be pro- companies challenged his preemi-
cessed into steel of superior quality nence . He would be persuaded to
at about one-tenth the previously merge his holdings into a new cor-
prevailing cost .
poration that would embrace most of
the important iron and steel proper-
CARNEGIE AND THE
ties in the nation .
ERA OF STEEL
A
CORPORATIONS AND CITIES
ndrew Carnegie was largely re-
sponsible for the great advances in The United States Steel Corpora-
steel production . Carnegie, who tion, which resulted from this merg-
came to America from Scotland as er in 1901, illustrated a process under
a child of 12, progressed from bob- way for 30 years: the combination of
bin boy in a cotton factory to a job independent industrial enterprises
157