In 1776, the colonies declared their independence from Great Britain.  In 1787, the
 Constitution was created and brought about our Nation.  We are still a relatively young
 country, at 209, and so every year in our history has been, and is important.  The
 Industrial Age, especially, played a key role in the formation and modernization of the
 United States.  "America" may just have been born out of this period. The most crucial
 element in the growth of our country was the railroad.  Railroads first became important in
 the 1830s, and were nearly everywhere by the 1850s.  There was a great demand for them
 because of the westward push.  They were necessary for the speedy delivery of supplies to
 farmers and merchants, and to ship produce to the markets.  Railroads also aided in the
 national distribution of mail, and made travel abroad possible.  Thus railroads directly
 touched peoples lives and bettered them. The Industrial Age was a time of true social
 Darwinism.  Only the strong would survive, and so the competition for business was fierce. 
 The men of the business world were creative and devised many ways to maximize profits. 
 John D. Rockefeller organized pools among oil companies.  A pool was when companies selling
 the same product agreed to sell at the same price and limit competition.  But these pools
 were only loose agreements, and so they never lasted long.  These 
pools also hurt the consumer because competition means lower prices, due to the battle
between companies to win business. 	After pools were declared illegal by conspiracy, trusts
were formed to get around the law.  Trusts were merely the legal combination of companies,
and so competition could be regulated from within the company in order to maximize earnings.
 These trusts were extremely powerful, so they had a tight grip--a monopoly--on the
consuming world.
 Because of mass-production, prices were more affordable for the common people, and more
 people were buying, meaning more had to be produced.  The factories required many workers,
 so most positions were filled by recent immigrants.  They came from Ireland, Germany,
 Russia, Poland, Italy, China, and from almost everywhere else with visions of a paradise. 
 They did receive work, but they were forced to live and work in squalid conditions.  They
 were taken advantage of by big businesses in order to make the most amount of money
 possible. The immigrant workers were paid very little and were forced to work from sun-up
 to sun-down six or seven days of the week.  For them to make ends meet, often the children
 too had to work.  What they got after all this was not much. Many immigrants lived in
 tenement houses.  These were made possible, along with department stores and other high
 rises, by the production of cast-iron.  Tenement houses were tall and narrow, but could fit
 many apartments into the small space.  More than two dozen people would sometimes be packed
 into these two room apartments.  Also, because the workers were paid so little, it was not
 uncommon for a family to sublet its apartment, and share with another family.  These types
 of wretched living standards led to disease and crime.  In the tenement houses there was
 very little ventilation because the buildings were often pressed against each other.  So,
 if someone were to get sick in the building, it was likely that many other people would as
 well. Since the poor had very little, some resorted to crime.  If they needed something
 they could not afford with their meager wages, or if they did not want to work in the
 horrid factories or warehouses, they could steal.  It is no wonder the immigrant became an
 important figure in politics. Immigrants helped to elect the political bosses because the
 bosses were the only ones who showed them any interest.  Though the bosses were really only
 looking out for themselves, they did do favors for the immigrants like holding community
 functions and giving hand-outs. The rich and powerful then blamed the immigrant for the
 nations problems.  They said that immigrants were vulgar people with low expectations in
 life.  How could they blame the immigrant when they themselves had put these newcomers
 where they were? Even today this goes on.  Illegal aliens are blamed for many problems that
 plague our society.  Some blame the immigrants for our money problems, citing the Welfare
 and Medicaid programs as areas where they bleed America.  But very few people complain
 about the inhuman working conditions of the migrant workers who pick our grapes, and
 oranges, and strawberries that we put on our kitchen tables in the morning.  It is this
 silent minority that symbolize our country's work ethic, and what we should be about, and
 also the unethical work practices of their employers. The workers began to fight back for
 what they believed in.  Unions were formed, and though originally declared illegal, the
 Supreme Court decision Commonwealth v. Hunt allowed them.  These Unions helped workers to
 gain fair wages, a decent work day, and other benefits.  When the Union demands were not
 met, sometimes the workers would strike.  Some strikes ended in disaster.  Several men were
 killed at the Homestead  Strike, and federal troops were called in to stop a strike on the
 B & O Railroad. Today we can still clearly see the effects of what happened over one
 hundred years ago.  Many of yesterday's events have led to laws organizations that exist
 now.  Railroads and trade are regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission.  The Sherman
 Anti-Trust Law has made all trusts, except for Major League Baseball, illegal.  Unions are
 still around, and are as powerful as ever.  The U. S. has strict 
immigration and naturalization policies.  We have child labor laws.  And department stores
are still around, and keep growing in their enormity, even as we enter the next stage of
shopping by computer, via the Internet.
 The Industrial Age gave the United States of America a makeover.  The U. S. became a true
 power in the world, and every person who lived in the country from that point on was deeply
 affected by the affairs and results of the Industrial Age.
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