%530.  Uses of Electricity.%—­Till Brush invented his arc light and dynamo, the sole practical use made of electricity was in the field of telegraphy.  But now in rapid succession came the many forms of electric lights and electric motors; the electric railway, the search light; photography by electric light; the welding of metals by electricity; the phonograph and the telephone.  In the decade between 1876 and 1886 came also the hydraulic dredger, the gas engine, the enameling of sheet-iron ware for kitchen use, the bicycle, and the passenger elevator, which has transformed city life and dotted our great cities with buildings fifteen and twenty stories high.

The decade 1886-1896 gave us the graphophone, the kinetoscope, the horseless carriage, the vestibuled train, the cash register, the perfected typewriter; the modern bicycle, which has deeply affected the life of the people; and a great development in photography.

%531.  Rise of Great Corporations.%—­That mechanical progress so astonishing should powerfully affect the business and industrial world was inevitable.  Trades, occupations, industries of all sorts, began to concentrate and combine, and corporations took the place of individuals and small companies.  In place of the forty little telegraph companies of 1856, there was the great Western Union Company.  In place of many petty railroads, there were a few trunk lines.  In place of a hundred producers and refiners of petroleum, there was the one Standard Oil Company.  These are but a few of many; for the rapid growth of corporations was a characteristic of the period.

%532.  Millionaires and “Captains of Industry."%—­As old lines of industry were expanded and new ones were created, the opportunities for money-getting were vastly increased.  Men now began to amass immense fortunes in gold and silver mining; by dealing in coal, in grain, in cattle, in oil; by speculation in stocks; in iron and steel making; in railroading,—­millionaires and multi-millionaires became numerous, and were often called “captains of industry,” as an indication of the power they held in the industrial world.

%533.  Condition of Labor.%—­Meanwhile, the conditions of the workingman were also changing rapidly:  1.  The chief employers of labor were corporations and great capitalists. 2.  The short voyage and low fare from Europe, the efforts made by steamship companies to secure passengers, the immense business activity in the country from 1867 to 1872, and the opportunities afforded by the rapidly growing West, brought over each year hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Europe to swell the ranks of labor.  Between 1867 and 1873 the number was 2,500,000. 3.  Bad management on the part of some corporations; “watering” or unnecessarily increasing their stock on the part of others, combined with sharp competition, began, especially after the panic of 1873, to cut down dividends.  This was followed by reduction of wages, or by an increase in the duties of employees, and sometimes by both.