Next Morgan decided to merge his railroads with steel companies into a single large corporation. Only Andrew Carnegie stood in his way. Instead of challenging Carnegie, the wily Morgan offered to buy him out. The idea appeared to Carnegie who was now 66 years old. He sent Morgan a scrap of paper with his paper with his price on it: $480 million. Morgan agreed on the spot.
In 1901 Morgan formed the United States Steel Corporation. The largest corporation in the world at that time, it made three-fifths of the nation’s steel.
John D. Rockefeller was a person that started his work in the unknown field of business – oil.
In 1855 a scientist reported that oil was a good lubricant for machinery. Refined oil also made an excellent source of light and heat.
In 1859 the nation’s first oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania, spurring a frantic rush for “black gold.” Soon oil wells were pumping in Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and West Virginia. By the early 1900s huge new oil fields had been discovered in Texas, California, and Oklahoma.
One of the early visitors to Pennsylvania’s oil fields was John D. Rockefeller. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, he had started a business to sell farm produce when he was 20 years old. Instead of fighting in the Civil War, he paid for a substitute and expended his business. In 1862 Rockefeller established an oil-refinering business in Cleveland. Eight years later he reorganized the business as a corporation, Standard Oil of Ohio. Faced with intense competition and falling prices, Rockefeller set out to gain control of the oil-refinering industry. He made deals with railroads to give rebates to Standard Oil .He could then lower his prices and force rival refineries out of business. In a depression that began in 1873, he bought the bankrupt companies.
Henry Ford was another person who began to restore American economy. One of the greatest business successes of the 1920s – the “Automobile Boom” is closely connected with the name of Henry Ford. Automobile had been produced since 1890s but only the wealthy could afford them.
By the 1920s, however, automobile factories were using a less expensive production method. Developed by Henry Ford in 1913, the assembly line (conveyor belt) is a system which is used in different kinds of production all over the world even now. This system made the production of automobiles much cheaper and faster, so almost every American had an opportunity to buy a model of Ford’s production. The popularity of automobiles helped fuel the economic boom. Industries essential to auto manufacturing, such as steel, glass, rubber, oil refining, and road construction, experienced rapid growth and created thousands of new jobs. Gas stations and tourist courts (motels) – unknown in horse-and-buggy days – lined the roadsides. So, Henry Ford made his contribution into economic development and changing of the US.
Chapter 2
The wave of immigration
1. The role of the immigrants and their life in the cities.
One of the characteristic features of the immediate post-Civil War years was the tidal wave of immigration washing across the United States. Between 1860 and 1900 the United States received more than 13 million immigrants. Those were people from all corners of the world who hoped to find a better life in America. They were landless peasants from Italy, unemployed craftsmen from Germany, starving farmers from Ireland…Besides, Americans themselves also moved to the West after America had obtained new lands there and the transcontinental railroad had been built. Americans flocked to the cities from farms and small towns in huge numbers seeking better jobs and betters lives. The growth of cities was phenomenal.
The immigrants that were arriving from overseas were, for the most part, the landless, the unskilled, the poor. Part of their problem was that without money and job skills most of them were trapped in the great eastern sea cities that simply couldn’t handle them.
So, most of the people who came to the United States didn’t have happy and rich life in America. They lived in small poor houses, and they joined the army of the workless and poor people. Many immigrants worked at small dirty factories and were endangered by many different diseases. They were not protected enough, so this problem needed to be solved fast.
Many families were able to survive in America only because their children could earn some money.
Despite this, millions of immigrants helped build America. Some of them became rather rich and wealthy. But most of them still were poor, and lived in poor conditions.
2. The great new inventions change life of American citizens.
The great technical advances in American industry owed much to American inventors. After the American Revolution there were no machines to make people’s life easier. There were no cars, telephones, or electric lights. The new inventions that were made in the 19th century helped to transform America from an agricultural country to a highly developed industrial nation.
Alexander Graham Bell was an immigrant from Scotland. Alexander Bell was a teacher of the deaf children. He taught them how to speak. But we know him as the inventor of the telephone. He was the first person to get a patent for this invention. In 1876 he made the first telephone.. In a few years there were telephones completely in every house of American cities and people who were far apart could communicate with each other.
Thomas Alva Edison was the greatest inventor in the world’s history. He made more than 3000 different inventions: the “ballot machine”, quadruples, he upgraded the Bell’s telephone, he made the phonograph, and many other inventions. One of the most useful inventions was the electric bulb that made houses and streets of the United States full with light.
Jan Matzeliger was an African American who simplified the process of making shoes. He invented a special machine that could make shoes of many different sizes easily. Today most of the factories work using the same technology.
In this respect, special attention should be paid to Henry Ford. He was not only a great businessman, but he was also an inventor. For many years people in America had to ride horses but in 1896 Ford made one of the first cars in America.
He started a factory, the “Ford Motor Company” that made cars. He wanted his cars to be cheap and available for every American. .He used a conveyor belt in his factory. Thank to it, the cars were put together quickly, in less than two hours, and were not expensive. With the help of the conveyor line, it was also much easier and quicker to make different products. Conveyor lines are still used in many factories of America and other countries of the world.
All these inventions changed American way of life greatly. People began to live better with the help of different machines. The inventions like the electric bulb, the traffic light (made by Garrett Morgan in 1923), the telephone, the car and the conveyor belt changed the way Americans lived..
3. Immigrants are restrained in rights.
The beginning of the XX century was marked with the beginning of the company of social minorities for their rights. Immigrants, workers, women and children were those people who felt bad in the beginning of the XX century As it has been mentioned in one of the previous chapters, the living conditions of immigrants were very poor. They often knew English badly, they lived in small crowded houses, and many of them had to work at factories, being endangered by different diseases. Sometimes immigrants had to make their children work at factories to feed their families. Taking into consideration these problems, Government accepted a program about building many free schools where children of immigrants could study and some night schools where their parents joined. After few years the child labor was prohibited in the United States. Then the law was approved, which told that if an immigrant had been living in the United States for five years already he could be a citizen of the United States and exercise the right to vote. After changing their life many immigrants helped America greatly. Some of them became teachers or doctors, workers or diplomats. Their life was becoming better from year to year, though they still had a lot of problems.
Immigrants played an important role in the history of the United States. They made their contribution into building railroads, making new inventions, that helped America to become a more developed industrialized country, they took a active part in the working movement for a better life and civil rights.
4. Women fight for their rights.
Four women were founding ways to make life of the simple Americans better.
Jane Addams helped people in a neighborhood of immigrants in Chicago. In 1889 she bought a large old house called Hull House. She bought Hull House with her own and with money of some other people. Hull House helped people from the neighborhood in many ways. Hull House workers took care of small children while their parents were at work. Immigrants learned to speak English at Hull House. Addams helped them to become American citizens. Addams started clubs at summer camp for children. She started the first playground in Chicago. She also worked to get new laws that would help the immigrants.
Janie Porter Barrett became the colleague of the Jane Addams. She was one who has followed the lead of Jane Addams. In 1890 she started the Locust Street Social Settlement House in Virginia. At this house Barrett helped African American women learn better ways to care for their homes and children.
Lillian Wald was one more woman that wanted other people to be happy. She was a nurse. Her parents were Jewish immigrant. In 1895 Wald started the Henry Street Settlement House. This house had a kindergarten, clubs, English classes, and a library. Lillian Wald also helped sick people. So she started a visiting nurse program in the New York City. Also she started school nurse program.
Alice Hamilton was a doctor who lived first worked at Hull House. She took care of sick children here. She understood that workers were working at terrible conditions. She understood that workers that worked at paint factories became poisoned because of lead that is in the paint. After the poisoned workers became weak . She showed how to work not to have such poisoning. Alice Hamilton worked also worked to get mew laws for factory workers.
Jane Addams, Janie Porter Barrett, Lillian Wald, Alice Hamilton, and other women proved that women could make important changes in America.
But soon, after World War I, women began to protest against their discrimination. They helped the country, working as doctors, workers at factories, but they still had no right to vote. They couldn’t vote for their country’s leaders. Many years before that time Susan B. Anthony and later Elizabeth Cady Stanton wanted women to have such a right. They traveled through all over America and told men and women that the Constitution needed such an amendment. Anthony and Stanton worked together for many years. Elisabeth Cady Stanton died in 1902 and Susan B. Anthony died in 1906. When they died the Constitution still didn’t allow women to vote.
Other women were working for an amendment to the Constitution. And in 1920 their efforts were a success. Congress accepted the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution which has guaranteed the right of voting to the American women. Nowadays women work not only in Congress, they accept such jobs that used to be considered men’s ones. Now rights of women are written in the Constitution. Now there are many women who are successful n different spheres of economy of the USA.
