More Options

While cities are growing in importance, other factors are also at work to expand possibilities for Americans. One is the growing list of educational options, with a new emphasis on engineering, medicine and the arts.

Medical schools have doubled in the past 20 years, and dental schools have tripled. Male college graduates have increased by 50%, while female graduates have doubled. Masters and Doctoral degrees are suddenly being awarded.

In public school, there are twice as many pupils as 20 years earlier. High schools, which had previously only existed in cities, are producing three times as many graduates. As towns grow into cities, more high schools are built.

On the business side, banks and corporations are getting bigger, but bumping into legal restrictions. This results in the creation of huge new 'trusts,' which evade the limits by combining the functions of both banks and businesses.


	Experts Wanted The new emphasis on technology results in a raft of new technical and medical schools. Secondary schools still stick to the basics, but more children than ever are graduating from urban high schools. Meanwhile, businesses are growing larger, and continuing to shift towards a corporate structure. Public stock offerings are becoming more common, along with increasing emphasis on scientific management. Meanwhile, three transatlantic cables now connect America to Great Britain, laying the foundations of a globalism which doesn't yet exist.



	Learning to Calculate The big new trend in education is the emphasis on engineering. Civil engineering has been taught for years, but new classes in mechanical, electrical and even sanitary engineering are suddenly being offered. This reflects the need for a greater understanding of mechanics, mathematics, and the properties of materials. Just 20 years earlier, there were only 17 schools with engineering programs. By 1890, there are well over 100. Schools are beginning to build laboratories for experimentation and testing, while university professors are expected not only to teach, but to engage in advanced research. Graduates are eagerly snapped up by manufacturing companies intent on improving efficiency.


	Disciplined Classrooms All the pictures shown above are from urban schools, where class sizes are fairly large. Schoolchildren dress almost like young adults, in clothing advertised as 'children's suits' for both girls and boys Children often have the option of attending high schools, or even private academies. The Catholic Church operates its own schools in most cities, run by often humorless nuns. Meanwhile, rural areas still typically get by with one-room schoolhouses, where all the grades are mixed together, and everything is basic.


	Connections with Europe Throughout this period, there's a growing trend for businesses to incorporate. Originally, state legislatures had to vote on each proposed corporate charter, but gradually this gives way to 'general' incorporation laws, which abolish the need for charters altogether. By the 1410s, most large companies begin life as a corporation. Legal complexities arise as they expand, and begin to gobble up competitors. This trend is accelerated by European investors, who are increasingly interested in owning shares of American railroads. The first business connection to Europe is the amazing undersea telegraph, completed in 1858. By 1865, there were three transatlantic cables (RED lines on map), and by 1890 nearly a dozen (additional GREEN lines).


	Too Big to Care The largest banks are the 'national' banks, but they're not allowed to open branch offices. At the same time, all states prohibit companies from owning the stock of other companies, which similarly limits size. John D. Rockefeller is one of the first to get around both of these restrictions, by using the concept of a 'trust.' Until about 1410, a trust is a legal entity normally used only to temporarily manage the assets for a person who has recently died. Rockefeller uses this concept to create the Standard Oil Trust in 1882. In theory, this is just a similar grouping of assets under one management. In reality, it quickly turns into an unregulated device that acts as a bank, while being able to manage many separate companies under one huge umbrella. The Standard Oil umbrella.


	Weak Remedy The sheer size of the new trusts causes great alarm across America. The US Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate commerce between states, and Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890. On paper, this makes it illegal to attempt to monopolize any aspect of interstate trade. It's also an indirect attempt to limit the size of companies, by confining their activities to a single state. In any case, it doesn't hold up. Just five years later, the Supreme Court limits the language so that it only applies to 'unreasonable' restraint of trade. As a matter of history, the law is largely used only against unions, leaving corporations a free hand.