BUSINESS there were many factors why we the people of time magazine chose 1900- 1910 as decade of the year for 2015.This decade brought us many achievements but it was also due to the fact it was at the height and middle of the progressive era. During these years america was transitioning between many great changes. Now let's take a little step further back in american history to reconstruction. As the civil war came to a close new ambitions for the future of the nation were targeted either socially, economically, and politically wise. America was being reformed after both its physical and ‘mental’ damage. It is known this whole reconstruction plan did not succeed in some notable areas but economically it prospered, leading to a new main …show more content…
But all this could not have been achieved without, what is considered the epitome of industrialization : railroads. With railroads we were able to trade and reach out to the monster that is our country. Not to mention the formation of many cities and towns laid heavily on railroads. The population of the country went from 76,212,168 at the beginning of the century (1900) to 76,212,168 in 1910. In addition to that leap by 1900 america covered 270,000 miles of railroad track differing greatly from the 30,000 miles only a decade ago. This was just the beginning of our continuous road to success. “By 1900 the United States had one half the world’s manufacturing capacity. At the end of the century, it had overtaken Great Britain both in iron and steel production and in coal production.” (White, “Rise of industrial America”) Large industries began to take over and for the first time ever in american history there were more wage earners than the self-employed. Most of these belonged to titan railroad, textile, and mining corporations. Now as we know railroads impacted a lot of our rapid growing such as reckoning 90% of our steel production and being a major consumer of lumber and coal, they also also nearly hauled our economy