Apush Questions

9) How did the federal government both promote and regulate US Industry from 1865-1900?

The U.S Industry between 1865 and 1900 can be summoned up by one word, Railroads. The railroad was the single most important agent of economic growth during these years. Railroads were the largest consumers of coal, the largest carriers of goods and people, and the largest single employer of labor. It was a boom financed in part by the federal government, which gave millions of dollars for construction. And the federal government gave railway companies grants of land. Railroad companies were advertising, trying to attract settlers to lands that had been granted them in the West. Rail lines were extended westward to Dodge City, Kansas, in 1871. Longhorn cattle were being driven from Texas through Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to rail heads at Abilene Kansas and Dodge City - drives of from 1,200 to 1,500 miles, moving from ten to twenty miles per day. The peak year of the cattle drives was 1871 when some 600,000 were herded north. Indians in Oklahoma were not objecting, content at least that the paleface cowboys were merely passing through rather than settling down, and some Indians were receiving a small fee from grazing licenses issued to the cattlemen. But besides the cattle, the federal government mostly promoted the US industry by giving away cheap land to people and companies,(railroads mainly). On the other hand, the federal government did a few things to regulate trade and the companies. A good example is the Sherman Antitrust Act. The purpose of the act was opposition combinations of entities that could potentially harm competition, such as monopolies or cartels. The Sherman Act was not specifically intended to prevent the dominance of an industry by a specific company, the law attempts to prevent the artificial raising of prices by restriction of trade or supply. In other words, innocent monopoly, or monopoly achieved solely by merit, is perfectly legal, but acts