An American History

610 ★ CHAPTER 16 America’s Gilded Age

and rose to dominate the oil industry. He drove out rival firms through cutthroat
competition, arranging secret deals with railroad companies, and fixing prices
and production quotas. Rockefeller began with horizontal expansion— buying
out competing oil refineries. But like Carnegie, he soon established a vertically
integrated monopoly, which controlled the drilling, refining, storage, and dis-
tribution of oil. By the 1880s, his Standard Oil Company controlled 90 percent
of the nation’s oil industry. Like Carnegie, Rockefeller gave much of his fortune
away, establishing foundations to promote education and medical research.
And like Carnegie, he bitterly fought his employees’ efforts to organize unions.
These and other industrial leaders inspired among ordinary Americans a
combination of awe, admiration, and hostility. Depending on one’s point of view,

(see insetCleveland)

Pittsburgh(see inset)

WISCONSIN

ILLINOIS

INDIANA

MICHIGAN

IOWA

MINNESOTA

MISSOURI

KENTUCKY

TENNESSEE

ARKANSAS

LOUISIANA

MISSISSIPPI

ALABAMA GEORGIA

FLORIDA

CARSOUTHOLINA

NORTH CAROLINA

VIRGINIA

VIRWESTGINIA

OHIO

PENNSYLVANIA

NEW YORK

JERSENEWY

DELAWARE

MARYLAND

VERMONT

HAMPSHIRENEW

MASSACHUSETTS

CONNECTICUT

RHODEISLAND

MAINE

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Gulf of
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Atlantic
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Lake Erie
Cleveland
Pittsburgh Monroeville
McKeesport
New Kensington
0
0
100
100
200 miles
200 kilometers
Firms Incorporated into U.S. Steel:
Type of plant: Blast furnace
Rolling mill, steel work
BCompanies:ridge-building plant
The Carnegie Co.
F National Steel Coederal Steel Co..
National Tube Co.
A American Tin Plate Comerican Steel Hoop Co..
American Sheet Steel Co.
A Lake Superior Iron Minesmerican Bridge Co.
A Comerican Steel and Wire. of New Jersey
U.S. STEEL: A VERTICALLY INTEGRATED CORPORATION