Critical Thinking 14-4!

The Federal government gave land and made loans to the railroad companies. Why was the government so eager to promote the growth of railroads?

The government was very eager to promote the growth of railroads because they had given a lot of money and land grants to the railroad companies and they wanted to insure that all that endorsement they had given would help unite the country and help it prosper.

The government wanted to see all the different parts of the country unite and become one strong nation and the railroads helped them try and accomplish that. First of all the railroads offered a link between many different towns and cities all over the nation. This link helped have towns that were hundreds of miles away stay united with each other. Also the railroads helped unite the people because it brought around a unifying of time in America. With all the traveling between distant place there was a need to set time zones. Four time zones were created for four different regions. Even though this way of telling time was not the real official way, in a very unifying gesture people across the country synchronized there watches on November 18, 1883(p. 443)

The government wanted to promote railroad growth because railroads really helped the nations iron, coal, steel, lumber, and gas industries grow and prosper at a rapid pace(p. 443). Many companies that supplied these materials had to work extremely hard to try and keep up with the demand that they were receiving from the railroads to produce them. Also railroads helped open new markets and opened up many new possibilitys for people looking to make there way and find new work opportunities and find business success in America.

Railroads were also important to our government because they helped the growth of many small isolated towns into big influences on the trading market(p. 444). Towns could even grow to have there own specialty product or industry for instance Chicago had a stockyard specialty. The railroad line not only gave new life to smaller towns but it also created many new cities. There cities started to appear near the line of tracks and greatly prospered in trade due to the fact of there close existence to the railroads.

The government saw the success that railroads were having in increasing the countries economy and trading market and was eager to promote the growth of something that was opening up new worlds of business and economic opportunities.