6.24

Much of the investment funds that enabled America to industrialize in the late nineteenth century came from

• private foreign investors.
• the state governments.
• the sale of confiscated Confederate land and property.
• individual Americans' savings.

The national government helped to finance transcontinental railroad construction in the late nineteenth century by providing railroad corporations with

• land grants and loans.
• reduced prices for iron and steel.
• cash grants from higher tariffs.
• cash grants from new taxes.

The only transcontinental railroad built without government aid was the

• Northern Pacific.
• Great Northern.
• New York Central.
• Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe.

The greatest economic consequence of the transcontinental railroad network was that it

• developed a skilled industrial workforce.
• spread the U.S. population across the whole continent.
• enabled people from farms and small towns to visit the big cities.
• united the nation into a single, integrated national market.

The greatest single factor helping to spur the amazing industrialization of the post-Civil War years was

• the steel industry.
• mining.
• electric power.
• the railroad network.

Which of the following was not among the technological improvements that made the modern transcontinental railroad network possible?

• The block signal
• Steel rails
• The caboose
• Standard gauge tracks

The two industries that the transcontinental railroads most significantly expanded were

• electricity and telecommunications.
• shipping and fishing.
• mining and agriculture.
• banking and real estate.

Agreements between railroad corporations to divide the business in a given area and share the profits were called

• rebates.
• trusts.
• pools.
• holding companies.

Which of the following was not among the common forms of corruption practiced by the wealthy railroad barons?

• Receiving kickbacks from powerful shippers
• Providing free railroad passes to journalists and politicians
• Forcing their employees to buy railroad company stock
• Watering railroad stocks and bonds in order to sell them at inflated prices

In the case of Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court held that state legislatures could not regulate railroads because

• the U.S. Constitution did not permit the government to regulate private industry.
• railroad executives had committed no illegal acts in their business.
• the state legislatures were acting on behalf of a private interest, Illinois farmers.
• railroads were interstate businesses and could not be regulated by any single state.