chapter 16 Test

Name

Which of these significantly boosted nineteenth-century railroad construction in America?

• a. Land grants from federal and state governments
• b. Federal restrictions of rates and railroad company competition
• c. The transportation demands of homesteaders
• d. The deterioration of the National Road

All of the following factors contributed to explosive economic growth during the Gilded Age EXCEPT:

• a. availability of capital for investment.
• b. a growing supply of labor.
• c. abundant natural resources.
• d. low tariffs.
• e. federal land grants to railroads.

The second industrial revolution was marked by:

• a. a return to handmade goods.
• b. a more equalized distribution of wealth.
• c. the rapid expansion of industry across the South.
• d. the acceleration of factory production and increased activity in the mining and railroad industries.
• e. a decline in the growth of cities.

How did the expansion of railroads accelerate the second industrial revolution in America?

• a. The division of time into four zones allowed businesses to communicate by telegraph for the first time.
• b. Railroads created a true national market for U.S. goods.
• c. Large banks were now able to locate in western railroad towns.
• d. The adoption of a standard railroad gauge made private and federal land grants more available.

Why did new products like Ivory Soap and Quaker Oats symbolize the continuing integration of the economy in America’s Gilded Age?

• a. They were consumer products manufactured with new technologies.
• b. These products catered particularly to the appetites and desires of new immigrants.
• c. These products were exemplary for the way in which mass consumption raised everyone’s living standards.
• d. These products were national brands, sold everywhere across the United States thanks to the expanding railroad network.
• e. These products were examples of how Gilded Age technologies helped develop the sustainable use of materials.

Thomas Edison:

• a. invented the typewriter.
• b. was a governor of New Jersey.
• c. pioneered the use of the telephone.
• d. was a railroad owner.
• e. invented, among other things, a system for generating and distributing electricity.

Why did railroad companies and other businesses form “pools” during the American Gilded Age?

• a. They wanted to cut each other out from the market.
• b. They hoped to escape the chaos of market forces by fixing prices with their competitors.
• c. They hoped to gather enough capital in a pool in order to buy out their largest and most dangerous competitor.
• d. They wanted to share their assets in order to maintain liquidity in times of financial panic.
• e. They were sharing patents for new technologies in the railroad industry.

Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller:

• a. faced no criticism for their business practices.
• b. led the way in social reform.
• c. advocated government regulation of business.
• d. built up giant corporations that dominated their respective markets.
• e. were both immigrants.

What criticism did Henry Demarest Lloyd leverage against Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in Wealth against Commonwealth (1892)?

• a. Rockefeller’s oil corporation was excessively competitive.
• b. Standard Oil was overcharging end-consumers of their products.
• c. Standard Oil was employing more foreigners than Americans.
• d. Rockefeller’s corporation was violating regulations at the New York stock market.
• e. Standard Oil was undermining fair competition in the marketplace.