1. The Gilded Age “What is the chief end of man? To get rich.
In what way?
Dishonestly if we can;
honestly if we must."
Mark Twain (1871)

3. Industrialization & The West
“Upon material progress is founded all other progress”-railroad president, 1888

4. Pacific Railway Act (1862) charters two transcontinental RR lines
Union Pacific
Central Pacific
provided for federal subsidies… public land
immigrant labor

6. Credit Mobilier
Holding company created by the executives of Union Pacific
Given the contract by Union Pacific (read: themselves) to build 667 miles of rail
Credit Mobilier charged $23 million more than needed, which came from the Union Pacific (publicly funded)
In essence, the executives of the Union Pacific paid themselves to build the railroad with government (tax) money
Union Pacific went bankrupt, stock was worthless, and all investors but those in Credit Mobilier lost millions
The ability to sell land-grants also proved to be a boon to railroad executives

8. Labor Central Pacific crews consisted primarily of Chinese workers
White workers usually earned $40-60 per month for ten hour days, plus meals
Chinese workers earned $35 per month for dawn to dusk hours, provided own food
Snow was frequently so deep (up to 40 feet), they would tunnel into it to live and work
Union Pacific workers were primarily Civil War vets and Irishmen
Hell on Wheels

9. Promontory Point Utah, May 10, 1869

10. Conquest of the Western Indians
“The white children have surrounded me and have left me nothing but an island” -Sioux Chief Red Cloud, 1870
-”permanent Indian country”?