Railroads
SOCIAL STATION
POLITICAL STATION
ECONOMIC STATION
Railroads Expand!
• In 1870, there was 400
miles of railroad track in
Texas…
• By 1890, there was 8,000
miles of track!
• How big is that?
Economic Station
• Railroads expand cotton farming in Texas.
• Talk at your table about why this happened.
– How does cotton make it from farm to factory?
– What was the major means of transportation?
• The easiest way to transport cotton was to use
steamboats.
• Now railroads can be built where there are no
rivers, and more farms can produce cotton more
cheaply by saving on shipping costs.
• What other product can be more easily shipped
because of the expansion of the railroads?
Social Station
• Expansion of the railroads in Texas continues
to open western Texas.
– More land leads to more farms.
– More farms lead to more cotton.
– More cotton leads to higher supply.
– Higher supply leads to lower prices.
– Lower prices lead to poorer farmers.
– Poorer farmers lead to a political movement 
the Farmers’ Alliance
Political Station
• James Steven Hogg
is elected the Governor of Texas in
1891 as a Democrat.
• The Farmers’ Alliance supported
Hogg because he promised farmers
to regulate railroads.
• Hogg establishes the Texas Railroad Commission to
regulate and oversee railroad rates and fees.
• The Railroad Commission has limited success, and the
Farmers’ Alliance dissolves, only to come back a few years
later as the Populist Party.
• The Populist Party is a political party which stands for the
common man/farmer.