Big business in the Gilded Age: steel, oil, railroads and inventors

Grade 11 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Wealth, steel and the law, 1889 to 1911 (cards A to H and two tables). Card C, how big was Standard Oil? Two estimates (Summary in our words, not a quotation): The Rockefeller Archive Center estimates Standard Oil's share of the nation's petroleum business in the 1890s at 75 percent. A Yale University history teaching unit puts the Trust's share of refined oil at around 90 percent. The two figures measure different things and come from different sources.

2. 1.

   Card C gives 75 percent and about 90 percent for Standard Oil. How can both come from careful sources, Pia asks?

   • One must be wrong, because careful sources give the same figure for a company's share of a market
   • Both measure the Trust's share of refined oil, but in different years of the 1890s
   • They measure different things (the petroleum business and refined oil) from different sources
   • The Yale figure is right because the Trust was the larger source, so 75 percent is out of date

3. Raw steel by process

   Columns Year | All raw steel (1,000 short tons) | Bessemer (1,000 short tons) | Open hearth (1,000 short tons). Row 1: 1900 | 11,227 | 7,481 | 3,638. Row 2: 1905 | 21,880 | 12,231 | 9,537. Row 3: 1910 | 28,330 | 10,478 | 17,672. Two small kinds of steel, crucible and electric, are not shown, so the columns add to a little less than the total. Data: US Census Bureau, Historical Statistics of the United States (1975 edition), series P 265-267, p. 693 (figures of the American Iron and Steel Institute).

4. 2.

   Ren's classmate says Bessemer steel had disappeared by 1910. What does the table let Ren reply?

   • The classmate is wrong, because Bessemer's share rose in each period from 1900 to 1910
   • Bessemer still made 10,478 thousand tons in 1910, about 37 percent, down from its 1905 level but not gone
   • The classmate is right, because Bessemer output fell after 1900 and open hearth took over completely by 1910
   • The classmate is wrong, because Bessemer led in 1910 with about 62 percent of the steel

5. Railroads, locomotives and steel

   Year	Miles of road operated	Locomotives (1,000)	Raw steel (1,000 short tons)
   1880	93,262	17.9	1,397
   1890	166,703	31.8	4,779

   Locomotives are rounded to the nearest hundred. Data: US Census Bureau, Historical Statistics of the United States (1975 edition), series Q 321 and Q 324, p. 731, and series P 265, pp. 693-694.

6. 3.

   Tala's classmate says locomotives grew faster than track from 1880 to 1890, so each mile of track got busier. What does the table let Tala reply?

   • The classmate is wrong, because the table shows each locomotive hauled the same load in both years
   • The classmate is right, because the 1890 row has more locomotives than the 1880 row
   • Locomotives and track both grew about 78 to 79 percent, so miles per engine stayed near 5.2
   • The classmate is right, because locomotives rose by 13.9 thousand and track by just 73,441 miles
7. 4.

   Compare the 1895 ruling with the 1904 and 1911 rulings in card E. What does Ari find?

   • The government lost the three cases, because the Act did not reach combinations of companies
   • The Court backed breaking up combinations in 1895 but ruled for big business in 1904 and 1911
   • The Court's change came because President Roosevelt appointed new judges between the years 1895 and 1904
   • The Court read the Act narrowly in 1895 but backed suits to break up combinations in 1904 and 1911

8. Use this

   Wealth, steel and the law, 1889 to 1911 (cards A to H and two tables). Card A, Andrew Carnegie, a steel maker, in a magazine essay, June 1889: "This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious [not showy] living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate [fair] wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren …" Card B, what Carnegie did after 1901 (Summary in our words, not a quotation, from the National Park Service): After he sold his share of Carnegie Steel in 1901, Andrew Carnegie gave more money to communities for library buildings. He also set up charitable trusts, each with a task of its own.

9. 5.

   Card A says the wealthy should treat surplus as trust funds for the community. Card B reports gifts after 1901. What do the cards show together, Bo asks?

   • The gifts fit his stated duty, but the cards cannot show whether he met it or how he treated workers
   • The essay was public relations, so the gifts tell nothing about whether he meant what he wrote
   • Carnegie lived by his own rule, since the library gifts show that he gave away his whole surplus wealth to communities
   • The essay caused the gifts, since the gifts began after the essay was published in 1889

10. Use this

    Wealth, steel and the law, 1889 to 1911 (cards A to H and two tables). Card D, two judgments of big business leaders (Summary in our words, not a quotation): In the late 1800s Americans argued about the great business leaders. Henry Demarest Lloyd saw them as monopolists and profiteers who blocked rivals. Edward Atkinson held that they made Americans better off through new ways of managing, financing and producing. Two labels are used: "robber barons," which many people took from medieval lords who made boats pay tolls, and "captains of industry," a term for the leaders of big business. Which label fits is a question historians have argued over, and this sheet does not choose.

11. 6.

    Card D gives two judgments of big business leaders. What would a historian need to choose between 'robber barons' and 'captains of industry', Esme asks?

    • A vote of historians, because the label with more supporters would be the correct label
    • Nothing more, because the two labels are opinions, and opinions cannot be tested with evidence that anyone could gather
    • The leaders' own letters, because they knew which label fits their conduct and their motives
    • Evidence on prices, wages and new methods under these leaders, since the labels describe the same people

12. Use this

    Wealth, steel and the law, 1889 to 1911 (cards A to H and two tables). Card F, Andrew Carnegie, in a magazine essay, June 1889: "We accept and welcome, therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment [surroundings], the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of a few, and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential for the future progress of the race." Card G, the Sherman Antitrust Act, section 2 (a federal law, July 2, 1890): "Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor …"

13. 7.

    Carnegie welcomed 'concentration of business … in the hands of a few' and competition among them. Section 2 bans attempts to monopolize. Do they conflict, Kira asks?

    • Yes, because any concentration of business in a few hands is a monopoly under section 2 of the Act
    • Not directly: a few competing firms are not a monopoly, though they conflict if the few combine to monopolize
    • No, because section 2 bans competition while Carnegie wanted business to stay concentrated in a few hands for good
    • No, because section 2 covers just individual people and Carnegie wrote about corporations

14. Use this

    Wealth, steel and the law, 1889 to 1911 (cards A to H and two tables). Card C, how big was Standard Oil? Two estimates (Summary in our words, not a quotation): The Rockefeller Archive Center estimates Standard Oil's share of the nation's petroleum business in the 1890s at 75 percent. A Yale University history teaching unit puts the Trust's share of refined oil at around 90 percent. The two figures measure different things and come from different sources. Card D, two judgments of big business leaders (Summary in our words, not a quotation): In the late 1800s Americans argued about the great business leaders. Henry Demarest Lloyd saw them as monopolists and profiteers who blocked rivals. Edward Atkinson held that they made Americans better off through new ways of managing, financing and producing. Two labels are used: "robber barons," which many people took from medieval lords who made boats pay tolls, and "captains of industry," a term for the leaders of big business. Which label fits is a question historians have argued over, and this sheet does not choose.

15. 8.

    Lloyd (card D) says Standard Oil blocked rivals; Atkinson says such leaders made Americans better off. Which evidence would best test their disagreement about buyers, Luz asks?

    • The share of the market, 75 or 90 percent, since a larger share means higher prices for consumers
    • Lloyd's description of the Trust in the 1880s, since a critic knew its business in great detail and from close study
    • Prices consumers paid for refined oil before and after consolidation, set against the Trust's costs
    • The Trust's $70 million in capital, since a large sum shows that prices must have been high

16. Use this

    Wealth, steel and the law, 1889 to 1911 (cards A to H and two tables). Card A, Andrew Carnegie, a steel maker, in a magazine essay, June 1889: "This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious [not showy] living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate [fair] wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren …" Card B, what Carnegie did after 1901 (Summary in our words, not a quotation, from the National Park Service): After he sold his share of Carnegie Steel in 1901, Andrew Carnegie gave more money to communities for library buildings. He also set up charitable trusts, each with a task of its own.

17. 9.

    A note says 'Carnegie began giving money away in 1901 because his 1889 essay told rich men to.' Which edit do cards A and B support best, Milo asks?

    • He gave nothing before 1901, because card B names no earlier gift, and the essay led to the gifts
    • He sold his share of Carnegie Steel in 1901 to pay for the library buildings his essay urged
    • He gave more after 1901 and the essay urged giving, but the cards do not show when he began
    • He gave less after 1901, because he set up trusts instead of making gifts to towns
18. 10.

    The United States sued the Standard Oil combination in 1906, and the Supreme Court ruled in 1911 (card E). What does Noah learn about enforcing the Act?

    • A suit took about five years to reach a final ruling, so the Act's effect depended on court action
    • The ruling came before the suit, since the Court gave the company six months to respond
    • The suit took five years because the Trust fought it with delays and appeals
    • A suit took about one year to reach a final ruling, so the Act worked quickly in practice for the courts