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Learning English Broadcast, January 26, 2023

A new government report says half of the mass attacks in the United States over the past few years started as personal, family, or workplace disputes. The attackers, the report found, were mostly men. The attackers often had a history of mental health issues, money problems, or domestic violence. Their weapons of choice? Guns. The report was released Wednesday by the US Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center. The 70-page report studied 173 mass attacks carried out over a five-year period, from January 2016 to December 2020. The mass attacks happened in places such as businesses, schools, and religious centers. The attacks killed a total of 513 people and injured 1,234. It's just happening way too often, said Lina Alathari, the center's director. Alathari said that while the center did not study the two most recent shootings in California, there are themes seen over and over again when studying mass attacks. Officials said the suspects in both recent California shootings were older men. They both used semi-automatic guns. The report is the latest in a series undertaken by the center to examine mass attacks. Earlier reports examined the years of 2017, 2018, and 2019, but the new report noted that it examines several years of data, which offers more in-depth analysis of the thinking and behavior of mass attackers. The center defines a mass attack as one in which three or more people, not including the attacker, were harmed. The report noted that nearly two-thirds of attackers showed behaviors or communications that were so concerning they should have been met with an immediate response. It said these concerns were often shared with law enforcement, employers, school workers, or parents. But in 20% of the cases, the concerning behavior was not communicated to anyone who could do something about it. Ninety-six percent of the attackers were men. The attackers ranged in age from 14 to 87. The report called for greater attention toward violence at home. It noted that half of the attackers had a history of domestic violence or hatred toward women. About half the attacks in the study involved workplace violence related to co-workers, customers, or businesses. The report said workplaces should establish behavioral threat assessment programs to prevent possible violence, and it said businesses should work with law enforcement to deal with incidents involving a concern for violence. The report also found that firearms were used in 73% of incidents. Mass shootings happen often in the United States, but American lawmakers remain divided on how to deal with the gun violence. Democrats are calling for more gun control measures, while Republicans call, center on mental health and increased security. Last June, the US Supreme Court expanded the right to carry guns outside the home. The court struck down a state law in New York that required people to show a specific need to carry a firearm in public. American technology company Microsoft has announced a new multi-billion-dollar investment in artificial intelligence, AI, developer OpenAI. The deal marks the latest deepening of the ties between the two companies. Microsoft first invested in OpenAI in 2019 when it put $1 billion into the company. Microsoft officials did not name a number for the latest investment, but people with knowledge of talks between the two companies recently told Reuters news agency the amount was at least $10 billion. OpenAI is a research and development company centered on AI projects. The startup was launched in late 2015 by American billionaire Elon Musk and others. On its website, OpenAI declares that it exists to ensure that artificial general intelligence, AGI, benefits all of humanity. The company defines AGI as highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at economically valuable work. In late November, OpenAI launched a free writing tool called ChatGPT. The launch led to widespread media attention about the current possibilities involving new developments in AI. ChatGPT is part of a new generation of machine learning systems designed to produce many forms of human-like writing. The tool can autonomously produce complex documents in seconds. Technology experts have said such systems have the possibility to greatly change many different industries and professions. ChatGPT is so good at writing school reports that some officials in the United States have blocked the system on school devices and networks in an effort to prevent students from cheating. Another OpenAI product called DALI can produce realistic images and art from a simple description in natural language. Basic versions of the two OpenAI products are free to the public. As part of its partnership, Microsoft provides supercomputing systems to OpenAI to support the development of new AI products. ChatGPT and DALI require powerful computers to operate the machine learning models the systems use. OpenAI says the tools can produce human-like results because they have been trained on huge amounts of data. A range of materials, including digital books, online writings, and other media, are fed into ChatGPT and DALI to permit the tools to learn complex skills. In a statement announcing its new investment in OpenAI, Microsoft said it will continue to deploy OpenAI's models across many of its product lines. Specifically, Microsoft said its partnership with OpenAI will permit the company to expand offerings in its Azure OpenAI service. Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing service. Microsoft said Azure OpenAI service helps developers build new AI systems by making OpenAI's models available to its users. Microsoft said that since 2016, it's centered on efforts aimed at building Azure into an AI supercomputer for the world. Rowan Curran is an expert with the market research company Forrester. He told the Associated Press he thinks it currently makes good sense for OpenAI and Microsoft to expand their relationship. There's lots of ways that the models that OpenAI is building would be really appealing for Microsoft's set of offerings, Curran said. For example, OpenAI models could help produce writing and images for new business presentations or create smarter word processors. The technology could also help Microsoft's own search engine, Bing, compete more effectively with Google. AI could make Bing more user-friendly by providing search results that include more complete answers rather than just links. OpenAI noted in a statement that it will still be governed by its non-profit arm and that it remains a capped-profit company. OpenAI did not, however, identify what limits it sets on profits. Microsoft's investment came days after the company confirmed it was cutting 10,000 workers, representing about 5% of its total workforce. The company said the reductions were linked to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer needs. I'm Brian Lynn. Now, Brian Lynn joins me to talk more about this week's technology report. Hi, Brian. Thanks for being here. Of course, Ashley. Glad to be here. Your report looked at a new investment Microsoft has made in a major artificial intelligence developer, OpenAI. We learned that OpenAI has created a product that can produce complex, human-like writing in a matter of seconds. The product, ChatGPT, has recently received a lot of media attention for producing high-quality results. What are technology experts expecting this big new investment to give Microsoft? So this partnership between the two companies goes back to 2019 when Microsoft invested its first $1 billion. At the time, it was looking to expand into the AI space and has continued to do so. Right now, experts say Microsoft can use a lot of OpenAI's systems to support its own AI offerings. Microsoft already has an AI-specific product called Azure OpenAI, which brings improved AI tools to its Azure Cloud Computing System. The report also notes Microsoft's search engine, Bing, could be improved with OpenAI's technology. What are some possibilities there? Well, marketing experts have suggested Microsoft is likely to add some more user-friendly tools to its search engine. Among them are expected to be new tools to enable users to interact more naturally with the search engine. So, for example, a user could ask more specific questions and have the search engine provide more complete answers besides just giving internet links. So this probably means we can expect to see AI technology used a lot more with search engines generally. Yes, this is the case, and experts are also saying there's likely to be a lot of AI development in the area of customer service. So the goal is for companies to create interactive systems that are so natural that people will not know they're doing business with a machine. Okay. Well, thanks again, Brian, for joining us and for the additional explanations. You're welcome, Ashley. Thank you. Welcome to The Making of a Nation, American History in VOA Special English. America's 18th president, Ulysses Grant, was elected to his second term in 1872. Grant had led the Union Army of the North to victory over the Confederate Army of the South during the Civil War. He easily won the presidency in 1868 in the first election held after the war. Now he would spend four more years as president of the United States. Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell about Grant's second term in office. Grant's first administration was marked by dishonesty and shameful events. The situation grew much worse after he won a second term. Grant himself was not involved directly, but his administration suffered because of his ties to those who were involved. Soon after Grant's re-election, for example, there was a serious incident that involved many of his supporters in Congress. The Union Pacific Railroad Company had helped build a railroad across the American West to California. The cost of building the railroad was very high. The company got large amounts of aid from the government. Not all this aid came honestly. An investigation showed that leading members of Congress, and even the vice president, received shares of ownership in the company for free or at low cost. In exchange, they voted to use federal money to help build the railroad. A few months later, members of Congress voted a pay raise for themselves and the executive branch of government. The pay raise would be retroactive. This meant the extra money would be paid for the two years already passed. Newspapers and citizens raised a storm of protest. Some lawmakers were afraid they would not be reelected, so they refused to accept the pay raise. Within six months, another shameful incident was uncovered. This one involved Jay Cook, one of the richest bankers in the country. He also was a good friend of President Grant. In 1869, Cook began raising money to build another railroad across America's West. He planned to sell $100 million worth of railroad bonds. Many people invested all the money they had in Cook's railroad, but Cook was unable to sell as many bonds as he expected. Soon, his banks had no money left. They could return no money to the thousands of people who had bought railroad bonds. People hurried to other banks to withdraw their savings. Within hours, many of these other banks had to close. They, too, were out of money. Within a month, more than 5,000 banks across the country failed and closed their doors. This created an economic crisis. The New York Stock Exchange closed for 10 days. Factories closed. Thousands of people lost their jobs. Investigations showed that many of the banks that failed had violated banking laws. The laws often were not enforced because so many bankers had given money to the ruling Republican Party. Other incidents followed. One of the biggest was called the Whiskey Ring. It involved a group of whiskey producers and some high officials who were friends of President Grant. Together, they found a way not to pay taxes on their whiskey. One of Grant's close advisors was at the center of the incident. A grand jury found him not guilty of any crime. However, it charged several hundred whiskey producers and government officials with illegal activities. President Grant had done nothing illegal, but the Whiskey Ring incident increased public feeling that there was no honesty in the White House. The feeling grew that Grant was a failure. These incidents took place during a time of intense social and political change in the United States. The period after the Civil War was a time of industrial revolution and business growth. Most of this growth was taking place in the North. Before the Civil War, most businesses were small. Now there were many companies with large numbers of workers. The companies also had large numbers of owners. They sold shares of ownership to anyone with enough money to buy. A few men rose to positions of great power in business. In the steel industry, for example, there was Andrew Carnegie. He came to the United States as a boy from Scotland. He took a low-paying job in a factory that produced cotton cloth. He worked hard. In time, he earned enough money to take control of an iron factory. Carnegie soon built another factory. This one produced steel with a new technology. The system worked well. Soon he was earning more than one million dollars a year. He competed fiercely with other steel companies. He pressured railroads to transport his steel for lower prices than his competitors, and he cut his prices to force other steel makers out of the business. Before long, Andrew Carnegie was the unquestioned leader of America's steel industry. His position gave him great power over the economy of the whole country. What Carnegie did for the steel industry, John D. Rockefeller did for the oil industry. Oil became a useful product only in the middle of the 1800s. Rockefeller was part of a group of businessmen who built an oil processing center in Ohio. It was so successful that Rockefeller gave up his other business interests. He put all his money into oil production. He formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. John D. Rockefeller's new company used the same aggressive business methods as Andrew Carnegie. Rockefeller bought control of other oil processing companies. He started price wars that forced his competitors out of business. Most important, Rockefeller made a secret deal with the railroads. The deal greatly reduced his transportation costs. This permitted him to crush his competition. Before long, he controlled 95% of the oil processing industry in the United States. As with steel and oil, America's railroads were an extremely important business in the 1800s. In fact, they were the nation's biggest business. They were as important as automobiles and airplanes are to the American economy today. Before the Civil War, most railroads were east of the Mississippi River. Most were small lines. In the years after the war, four major railroads got control of almost all the lines in the east, and they began building new lines in the west. The first rail line to cross the nation was completed in 1869. It was built by two companies. One company started from the east and went west. The other went in the opposite direction. Finally, after six years of back-breaking labor, the two work teams met in northern Utah. They connected the rail lines with a golden spike. It was a great moment in the nation's history. Now, at last, the two coasts of the United States were united by a single line of metal rail. It was like the day a hundred years later when the first American walked on the moon. Like the steel and oil industries, the railroad industry also had its stories of intense business competition. In this case, the most influential man was Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt already was rich from the shipping industry. Now, he formed the New York Central Railroad. It was the largest railroad in the east. Cornelius Vanderbilt tried to take over the railroad industry. He was not as successful as Andrew Carnegie with steel or John D. Rockefeller with oil. A group of other rich railroad owners blocked his plans. But Vanderbilt did succeed in winning a great amount of power and influence. Vanderbilt and the other new leaders of industry were powerful, and they let others know it. They sometimes made statements about how they did not have to obey the law. Other powerful men thought the same way. Some were officials, elected or appointed to serve in the federal government. Political power blinded them to their responsibility to be honest and fair to the public. As a result, the Republican Party lost public support. The blame was placed on Ulysses Grant.

A new government report says half of the mass attacks in the United States over the past few years started as personal, family, or workplace disputes. В новом правительственном отчете говорится, что половина массовых нападений в США за последние несколько лет началась с личных, семейных или рабочих споров. The attackers, the report found, were mostly men. Gli aggressori, secondo il rapporto, erano per lo più uomini. The attackers often had a history of mental health issues, money problems, or domestic violence. Their weapons of choice? Guns. The report was released Wednesday by the US Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center. The 70-page report studied 173 mass attacks carried out over a five-year period, from January 2016 to December 2020. The mass attacks happened in places such as businesses, schools, and religious centers. 大规模袭击发生在企业、学校和宗教中心等场所。 The attacks killed a total of 513 people and injured 1,234. It's just happening way too often, said Lina Alathari, the center's director. Succede troppo spesso, ha detto Lina Alathari, direttrice del centro. Alathari said that while the center did not study the two most recent shootings in California, there are themes seen over and over again when studying mass attacks. Alathari ha affermato che mentre il centro non ha studiato le due sparatorie più recenti in California, ci sono temi visti più e più volte quando si studiano gli attacchi di massa. 阿拉塔里说，虽然该中心没有研究加州最近发生的两起枪击事件，但在研究大规模袭击时，有一些主题反复出现。 Officials said the suspects in both recent California shootings were older men. I funzionari hanno affermato che i sospetti in entrambe le recenti sparatorie in California erano uomini più anziani. 官员们表示，最近加州发生的两起枪击事件的嫌疑人都是年长男性。 They both used semi-automatic guns. Entrambi usavano pistole semiautomatiche. The report is the latest in a series undertaken by the center to examine mass attacks. Il rapporto è l'ultimo di una serie intrapresa dal centro per esaminare gli attacchi di massa. 该报告是该中心调查大规模袭击事件的系列报告中的最新一份。 Earlier reports examined the years of 2017, 2018, and 2019, but the new report noted that it examines several years of data, which offers more in-depth analysis of the thinking and behavior of mass attackers. I rapporti precedenti hanno esaminato gli anni 2017, 2018 e 2019, ma il nuovo rapporto ha rilevato che esamina diversi anni di dati, che offre un'analisi più approfondita del pensiero e del comportamento degli aggressori di massa. 此前的报告审查了 2017 年、2018 年和 2019 年，但新报告指出，它审查了几年的数据，这些数据对大规模攻击者的思维和行为提供了更深入的分析。 The center defines a mass attack as one in which three or more people, not including the attacker, were harmed. Il centro definisce un attacco di massa come quello in cui tre o più persone, escluso l'aggressore, sono state danneggiate. 该中心将大规模袭击定义为三人或三人以上（不包括袭击者）受伤的袭击。 The report noted that nearly two-thirds of attackers showed behaviors or communications that were so concerning they should have been met with an immediate response. Il rapporto ha rilevato che quasi i due terzi degli aggressori hanno mostrato comportamenti o comunicazioni così preoccupanti che avrebbero dovuto ricevere una risposta immediata. 该报告指出，近三分之二的攻击者表现出令人担忧的行为或通信，他们应该立即做出回应。 It said these concerns were often shared with law enforcement, employers, school workers, or parents. 报告称，执法部门、雇主、学校工作人员或家长经常表达这些担忧。 But in 20% of the cases, the concerning behavior was not communicated to anyone who could do something about it. 但在 20% 的案例中，相关行为并未传达给任何可以采取行动的人。 Ninety-six percent of the attackers were men. 百分之九十六的袭击者是男性。 The attackers ranged in age from 14 to 87. 袭击者的年龄从14岁到87岁不等。 The report called for greater attention toward violence at home. 该报告呼吁更多地关注家庭暴力。 It noted that half of the attackers had a history of domestic violence or hatred toward women. 报告指出，一半的袭击者有家庭暴力或仇视女性的历史。 About half the attacks in the study involved workplace violence related to co-workers, customers, or businesses. 研究中大约一半的攻击涉及与同事、客户或企业有关的工作场所暴力。 The report said workplaces should establish behavioral threat assessment programs to prevent possible violence, and it said businesses should work with law enforcement to deal with incidents involving a concern for violence. 该报告称，工作场所应建立行为威胁评估计划，以防止可能的暴力行为，并表示企业应与执法部门合作，处理涉及暴力的事件。 The report also found that firearms were used in 73% of incidents. 报告还发现，73%的事件都使用了枪支。 Mass shootings happen often in the United States, but American lawmakers remain divided on how to deal with the gun violence. 美国经常发生大规模枪击事件，但美国立法者在如何应对枪支暴力问题上仍存在分歧。 Democrats are calling for more gun control measures, while Republicans call, center on mental health and increased security. 民主党人呼吁采取更多枪支管制措施，而共和党人则呼吁以心理健康和加强安全为重点。 Last June, the US Supreme Court expanded the right to carry guns outside the home. 去年六月，美国最高法院扩大了携带枪支外出的权利。 The court struck down a state law in New York that required people to show a specific need to carry a firearm in public. 法院推翻了纽约州的一项州法律，该法律要求人们表现出在公共场合携带枪支的特定需要。 American technology company Microsoft has announced a new multi-billion-dollar investment in artificial intelligence, AI, developer OpenAI. The deal marks the latest deepening of the ties between the two companies. Anlaşma, iki şirket arasındaki bağların en son derinleşmesine işaret ediyor. 该交易标志着两家公司之间关系的最新深化。 Microsoft first invested in OpenAI in 2019 when it put $1 billion into the company. 微软于 2019 年首次投资 OpenAI，当时向该公司注资 10 亿美元。 Microsoft officials did not name a number for the latest investment, but people with knowledge of talks between the two companies recently told Reuters news agency the amount was at least $10 billion. 微软官员没有透露最新投资的具体数字，但了解两家公司谈判的人士最近告诉路透社，金额至少为 100 亿美元。 OpenAI is a research and development company centered on AI projects. The startup was launched in late 2015 by American billionaire Elon Musk and others. 这家初创公司由美国亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克等人于 2015 年底创立。 On its website, OpenAI declares that it exists to ensure that artificial general intelligence, AGI, benefits all of humanity. OpenAI 在其网站上宣称，它的存在是为了确保通用人工智能（AGI）造福全人类。 The company defines AGI as highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at economically valuable work. 该公司将 AGI 定义为高度自治的系统，在具有经济价值的工作中表现优于人类。 In late November, OpenAI launched a free writing tool called ChatGPT. 11月下旬，OpenAI推出了一款名为ChatGPT的免费写作工具。 The launch led to widespread media attention about the current possibilities involving new developments in AI. 此次发布引起了媒体对当前人工智能新发展的可能性的广泛关注。 ChatGPT is part of a new generation of machine learning systems designed to produce many forms of human-like writing. The tool can autonomously produce complex documents in seconds. Technology experts have said such systems have the possibility to greatly change many different industries and professions. ChatGPT is so good at writing school reports that some officials in the United States have blocked the system on school devices and networks in an effort to prevent students from cheating. Another OpenAI product called DALI can produce realistic images and art from a simple description in natural language. Basic versions of the two OpenAI products are free to the public. As part of its partnership, Microsoft provides supercomputing systems to OpenAI to support the development of new AI products. ChatGPT and DALI require powerful computers to operate the machine learning models the systems use. OpenAI says the tools can produce human-like results because they have been trained on huge amounts of data. A range of materials, including digital books, online writings, and other media, are fed into ChatGPT and DALI to permit the tools to learn complex skills. In a statement announcing its new investment in OpenAI, Microsoft said it will continue to deploy OpenAI's models across many of its product lines. Specifically, Microsoft said its partnership with OpenAI will permit the company to expand offerings in its Azure OpenAI service. Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing service. Microsoft said Azure OpenAI service helps developers build new AI systems by making OpenAI's models available to its users. Microsoft said that since 2016, it's centered on efforts aimed at building Azure into an AI supercomputer for the world. Rowan Curran is an expert with the market research company Forrester. He told the Associated Press he thinks it currently makes good sense for OpenAI and Microsoft to expand their relationship. There's lots of ways that the models that OpenAI is building would be really appealing for Microsoft's set of offerings, Curran said. For example, OpenAI models could help produce writing and images for new business presentations or create smarter word processors. The technology could also help Microsoft's own search engine, Bing, compete more effectively with Google. AI could make Bing more user-friendly by providing search results that include more complete answers rather than just links. OpenAI noted in a statement that it will still be governed by its non-profit arm and that it remains a capped-profit company. OpenAI did not, however, identify what limits it sets on profits. Microsoft's investment came days after the company confirmed it was cutting 10,000 workers, representing about 5% of its total workforce. The company said the reductions were linked to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer needs. I'm Brian Lynn. Now, Brian Lynn joins me to talk more about this week's technology report. Hi, Brian. Thanks for being here. Of course, Ashley. Glad to be here. Your report looked at a new investment Microsoft has made in a major artificial intelligence developer, OpenAI. We learned that OpenAI has created a product that can produce complex, human-like writing in a matter of seconds. The product, ChatGPT, has recently received a lot of media attention for producing high-quality results. What are technology experts expecting this big new investment to give Microsoft? So this partnership between the two companies goes back to 2019 when Microsoft invested its first $1 billion. At the time, it was looking to expand into the AI space and has continued to do so. Right now, experts say Microsoft can use a lot of OpenAI's systems to support its own AI offerings. Microsoft already has an AI-specific product called Azure OpenAI, which brings improved AI tools to its Azure Cloud Computing System. The report also notes Microsoft's search engine, Bing, could be improved with OpenAI's technology. What are some possibilities there? Well, marketing experts have suggested Microsoft is likely to add some more user-friendly tools to its search engine. Among them are expected to be new tools to enable users to interact more naturally with the search engine. So, for example, a user could ask more specific questions and have the search engine provide more complete answers besides just giving internet links. So this probably means we can expect to see AI technology used a lot more with search engines generally. Yes, this is the case, and experts are also saying there's likely to be a lot of AI development in the area of customer service. So the goal is for companies to create interactive systems that are so natural that people will not know they're doing business with a machine. Okay. Well, thanks again, Brian, for joining us and for the additional explanations. You're welcome, Ashley. Thank you. Welcome to The Making of a Nation, American History in VOA Special English. America's 18th president, Ulysses Grant, was elected to his second term in 1872. Grant had led the Union Army of the North to victory over the Confederate Army of the South during the Civil War. He easily won the presidency in 1868 in the first election held after the war. Now he would spend four more years as president of the United States. Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell about Grant's second term in office. Grant's first administration was marked by dishonesty and shameful events. The situation grew much worse after he won a second term. Grant himself was not involved directly, but his administration suffered because of his ties to those who were involved. Soon after Grant's re-election, for example, there was a serious incident that involved many of his supporters in Congress. The Union Pacific Railroad Company had helped build a railroad across the American West to California. The cost of building the railroad was very high. The company got large amounts of aid from the government. Not all this aid came honestly. An investigation showed that leading members of Congress, and even the vice president, received shares of ownership in the company for free or at low cost. In exchange, they voted to use federal money to help build the railroad. A few months later, members of Congress voted a pay raise for themselves and the executive branch of government. The pay raise would be retroactive. This meant the extra money would be paid for the two years already passed. Newspapers and citizens raised a storm of protest. Some lawmakers were afraid they would not be reelected, so they refused to accept the pay raise. Within six months, another shameful incident was uncovered. This one involved Jay Cook, one of the richest bankers in the country. He also was a good friend of President Grant. In 1869, Cook began raising money to build another railroad across America's West. He planned to sell $100 million worth of railroad bonds. Many people invested all the money they had in Cook's railroad, but Cook was unable to sell as many bonds as he expected. Soon, his banks had no money left. They could return no money to the thousands of people who had bought railroad bonds. People hurried to other banks to withdraw their savings. Within hours, many of these other banks had to close. They, too, were out of money. Within a month, more than 5,000 banks across the country failed and closed their doors. This created an economic crisis. The New York Stock Exchange closed for 10 days. Factories closed. Thousands of people lost their jobs. Investigations showed that many of the banks that failed had violated banking laws. The laws often were not enforced because so many bankers had given money to the ruling Republican Party. Other incidents followed. One of the biggest was called the Whiskey Ring. It involved a group of whiskey producers and some high officials who were friends of President Grant. Together, they found a way not to pay taxes on their whiskey. One of Grant's close advisors was at the center of the incident. A grand jury found him not guilty of any crime. However, it charged several hundred whiskey producers and government officials with illegal activities. President Grant had done nothing illegal, but the Whiskey Ring incident increased public feeling that there was no honesty in the White House. The feeling grew that Grant was a failure. These incidents took place during a time of intense social and political change in the United States. The period after the Civil War was a time of industrial revolution and business growth. Most of this growth was taking place in the North. Before the Civil War, most businesses were small. Now there were many companies with large numbers of workers. The companies also had large numbers of owners. They sold shares of ownership to anyone with enough money to buy. A few men rose to positions of great power in business. In the steel industry, for example, there was Andrew Carnegie. He came to the United States as a boy from Scotland. He took a low-paying job in a factory that produced cotton cloth. He worked hard. In time, he earned enough money to take control of an iron factory. Carnegie soon built another factory. This one produced steel with a new technology. The system worked well. Soon he was earning more than one million dollars a year. He competed fiercely with other steel companies. He pressured railroads to transport his steel for lower prices than his competitors, and he cut his prices to force other steel makers out of the business. Before long, Andrew Carnegie was the unquestioned leader of America's steel industry. His position gave him great power over the economy of the whole country. What Carnegie did for the steel industry, John D. Rockefeller did for the oil industry. Oil became a useful product only in the middle of the 1800s. Rockefeller was part of a group of businessmen who built an oil processing center in Ohio. It was so successful that Rockefeller gave up his other business interests. He put all his money into oil production. He formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. John D. Rockefeller's new company used the same aggressive business methods as Andrew Carnegie. Rockefeller bought control of other oil processing companies. He started price wars that forced his competitors out of business. Most important, Rockefeller made a secret deal with the railroads. The deal greatly reduced his transportation costs. This permitted him to crush his competition. Before long, he controlled 95% of the oil processing industry in the United States. As with steel and oil, America's railroads were an extremely important business in the 1800s. In fact, they were the nation's biggest business. They were as important as automobiles and airplanes are to the American economy today. Before the Civil War, most railroads were east of the Mississippi River. Most were small lines. In the years after the war, four major railroads got control of almost all the lines in the east, and they began building new lines in the west. The first rail line to cross the nation was completed in 1869. It was built by two companies. One company started from the east and went west. The other went in the opposite direction. Finally, after six years of back-breaking labor, the two work teams met in northern Utah. They connected the rail lines with a golden spike. It was a great moment in the nation's history. Now, at last, the two coasts of the United States were united by a single line of metal rail. It was like the day a hundred years later when the first American walked on the moon. Like the steel and oil industries, the railroad industry also had its stories of intense business competition. In this case, the most influential man was Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt already was rich from the shipping industry. Now, he formed the New York Central Railroad. It was the largest railroad in the east. Cornelius Vanderbilt tried to take over the railroad industry. He was not as successful as Andrew Carnegie with steel or John D. Rockefeller with oil. A group of other rich railroad owners blocked his plans. But Vanderbilt did succeed in winning a great amount of power and influence. Vanderbilt and the other new leaders of industry were powerful, and they let others know it. They sometimes made statements about how they did not have to obey the law. Other powerful men thought the same way. Some were officials, elected or appointed to serve in the federal government. Political power blinded them to their responsibility to be honest and fair to the public. As a result, the Republican Party lost public support. The blame was placed on Ulysses Grant.