White Makes 5 Claims, as follows: 1. "Corporations used the federal government to punish rival corporations while gaining advantages for themselves. They made politics a realm of private competition." 2. Railroads reshaped how people thought of time and space, but it was often arbitrary because it was dictated by the railroad and not necessarily real proximity or logical sense. 3. White claims that, though Wiebe and Chandler say otherwise, the railroads did not bring “order, rationality, and effective large-scale organization.” 4. Antimonopolism was the reaction against corporations, not the state, because they saw them as the new form of social inequality. 5. White doesn't just want to make this about robber barons, but these tycoons' …show more content…
From chapter 1 to the conclusion, he consistently shows this: “corruptions scandals were, however, the frosting rather than the cake in the government-railroad relationship” (p. 6). He reaffirms, “the western railroads need the state and needed it badly…congress helped picked winners and losers every time it acted” (p. 512). I wonder if his fifth claim, which is actually a preemptive defense, is the least well supported because he comes back to explicitly stating it. He can only defend motive, but not necessarily his selection. I think he is trying to give the view that he got from descending into “the bowels” of their correspondence, writings, etc., but he does them no favors either. (For example, he calls Huntington and Villard and others “portly male …show more content…
He affirms that Chandler has made great contributions to the field, even saying that Chandler was “brilliant.” White agrees with Chandler (and Wiebe) that the new managerial class did try to create order (but disagrees that they succeeded). The major premise that White disagrees with Chandler about is that the railroads brought order from chaos. Throughout the book, White does a good job of illustrating that the railroads were, indeed, “dysfunctional.” In Chapter 6, where he debunks the idea of the octopus, he vividly supports this point and sums it up saying, "the actual octopus was a sadly conflicted monster…a group of divided, quarrelsome, petulant, arrogant, and often astonishingly inept men…usually less fearful than funny and
Introduction In January of 2010, the United States Supreme Court, in the spirit of free speech absolutism, issued its landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, marking a radical shift in campaign finance law. This ruling—or what some rightfully deem a display of judicial activism on the part of the Roberts Court and what President Obama warned would “open the floodgates for special interests—including foreign corporations—to spend without limit in.elections” —effectively and surreptitiously overturned Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and portions of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, struck down the corporate spending limits imposed by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, and extended free speech rights to corporations. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief historical overview of campaign finance law in the United States, outline the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, and to examine the post-Citizens United political landscape. Campaign Finance in the United States During the Gilded Age—a period that began in the 1870s wherein the United States experienced tremendous economic growth—affluent industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew W. Mellon, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie exercised, owing in large part to their wealth, enormous influence over the direction of American politics. Though left unaddressed during the Gilded Age, the issue of corporate involvement in political affairs was eventually identified as a corrosive problem in President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1904 State of the Union address.
To urban middle-class Americans of the late 19th century, nothing symbolized the progress of the American civilization quite as much as the railroad. Not only had the great surge in railroad construction after the Civil War helped to create a modern market economy, but the iron horse itself seemed to embody the energy, force, and technology of the new order. In fact, the fanning out of railroads from urban centers was an integral part of the modernizing process, tying the natural and human resources of rural areas to the industrializing core.
Two railway companies competed in this venture: The Central Pacific company laid track eastward from Sacramento, California and at the same time The Union Pacific company began laying track westward from Omaha, Nebraska and when the two lines met, the transcontinental railway would be complete. Each company wanted to cover more ground than the other – not just out of pride and competitiveness, but ...
The railroads were the first to have a corporate organization, labor relations, and government regulation. The necessary structure of the railroad business brought order to the untamed west. Before the railroad, both time and space were estimated. The position of the sun produced an approximate time. For example, “The difference in time between Idaho City and New York is about two hours and forty minutes; between San Francisco and this place about thirty-five minutes” (Schwantes 3). Since trains shared a single track, timekeeping became critical to prevent train collisions. To keep a standard time, the railroad introduced time zones on November 18, 1883 (Schwantes 3). The distance was also estimated before land surveyors, paid by the railroad, came through to measure and draw maps. Keeping a standard width to within an inch between tracks was also important to keep the train from de-railing. However, the railroads began to collude to keep prices high. To combat this collusion, the government formed the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887, which was America’s first regulatory agency (Binding
In Henry George’s article, What the Railroad Will Bring Us, it discusses the main social, political, and economic transformations that the trans-continental railroad would bring to the state of California. More importantly, he discusses not only the benefits, but also discusses the major drawbacks with the arrival of the railroad. Henry George stated the railroad would be the “greatest work of the age” (297). With a railroad stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, multiple benefits would be brought to the state of California. First, the railroad will not only create a new means of transportation across the United States, it additionally would also become “one of the greatest material prosperity” of its time (298). This means more people, more houses,
Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes. Changes that were a product of the influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase in exported goods, the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads.
Taylor, George Rogers, and Irene D. Neu. The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1956. Print.
The growth of large corporations had impacted American politics by causing governmental corruption because of the power some industries had in society. Since the government had used laissez faire in the late 1800s for the big businesses to...
3. Beard, Charles A. "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States". American Politics. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, MA. 1999. (Pages 27 -- 33).
Although not a natural resource, railroads were considered one of the key factors in almost every widespread industry. It allowed companies to quickly send products across the entire nation without using expensive and time-consuming caravans or wagons. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a prominent leader in the railroad industry at this time. He was already in his later years by the time the Gilded Age rolled around and didn't even get to see the uprising of some of the greatest leaders of the time. The railroad companies took advantage of their necessity by constantly overcharging customers, especially farmers. This led to one of the first labor unio...
Railroads first appeared around the 1830’s, and helped the ideas of Manifest Destiny and Westward expansion; however, these were weak and didn’t connect as far as people needed, thus causing them to be forced to take more dangerous routes. On January 17th, 1848, a proposal was sent to Congress by Asa Whitney to approve and provide federal funding...
Seavoy, Ronald E. "Railroads." An Economic History of the United States: From 1607 to the Present. New York: Routledge, 2006. 188-200. Print.
...nments, corporations and public institutions for the common good. [Which]… required a broadly framed policy” (229).
Sequentially, they used their power to prevent controls by state legislatures. These circumstances effect the way one characterizes the capitalists who shaped post-Civil War industrial America and it is valid that they would be properly distinguished as corrupt “robber barons”.
Supporters of the “narrow” view claim that corporations naturally have a main purpose to produce a profit. ...