s to single members of the tribe, in those tribesbelieved ready to accept a new way of life as farmers. With thegrant of land, which could not be alienated by the Indians for 25years, they were to be granted U.S. citizenship. Reformers rejoicedthat they had finally given the Indians an opportunity to have adignified role in U.S. society, overlooking the possibility that theremight be values in Indian culture worthy of preservation. Meanwhile,the land promoters placed successive presidents under greatpressure to accelerate the application of the Dawes Act in order toopen more land for occupation or speculation.(See Dawes General Allotment Act.) Industrialization of the U.S. economyThe growth of industryBy 1878 the United States had reentered a period of prosperityafter the long depression of the mid-1870s. In the ensuing 20 yearsthe volume of industrial production, the number of workersemployed in industry, and the number of manufacturing plants allmore than doubled. A more accurate index to the scope of thisindustrial advance may be found in the aggregate annual value of allmanufactured goods, which increased from about $5,400,000,000in 1879 to perhaps $13,000,000,000 in 1899. The expansion of theiron and steel industry, always a key factor in any industrialeconomy, was even more impressive: from 1880 to 1900 the annualproduction of steel in the United States went from about 1,400,000to more than 11,000,000 tons. Before the end of the century, theUnited States surpassed Great Britain in the production of iron andsteel and was providing more than one-quarter of the world's supplyof pig iron. Many factors combined to produce this burst of industrial activity.The exploitation of Western resources, including mines and lumber,stimulated a demand for improved transportation, while the gold andsilver mines provided new sources of capital for investment in theEast. The construction of railroads, especially in the West andSouth, with the resulti...
