ABSTRACT
Improvements in transportation and communication connected a far-flung set of territories and created a large national market. The refinery business was typical of many of the new industries born to the technological innovations of early industrialization. Originally founded as a social and educational organization, Grangers soon focused their energies upon challenging the growing practice of railroad rebates. social regulations and welfare at the federal level: Still, even with the system of checks and balances, one might have expected the development of greater administrative capacity that could have supported some regulations at the federal level by the time of the rise of big business in the 1870s and 1880s. The antistatism of business was now joined by the antistatism of labor, and the philosophy of 'voluntarism' was born. The swirling economic and social changes of the last quarter of the nineteenth century accelerated growth in both large corporations and in social problems ranging from unemployment to labor unrest.
