land and the
frontier, it produced phenomena that were most clearly visible in the
West, although affecting the whole United States. In the case of
concentration of capital and the growth of trusts, its phenomena were
mostly in the East, where were to be found the accumulations of capital,
the great markets, and the supply of labor.

Through the improvements in communication it became possible to conduct
an efficient business in every State and direct it from a single head
office. Not only railroad and telegraph helped in this, but telephone,
typewriter, the improved processes in photography and printing, and the
organization of express service were of importance and touched every
aspect of life. Journalism both broadened and concentrated. The
effective range of the weeklies and monthlies and even of the city
dailies was widened, while the resulting competition tended to weed out
the weaker and more local. Illustrations improved and changed the
physical appearance of periodical literature.

Social organizations of national scope or ambition took advantage of the
new communication. Trade unions, benevolent associations, and
professional societies multiplied their annual congresses and
conventions, and increased the proportion of the population that knew
something of the whole Union. A few periodicals and pattern-makers began
to circulate styles, which clothing manufacturers imitated and local
shopkeepers sold at retail. Mail-order business was aided by the same
conditions. A new uniformity in appearance began to enter American life,
weakening the old localisms in dress, speech, and conduct. Until within
a few years it had been possible here and there to sit down to dinner
"with a gentleman in the dress of the early century--ruffles, even
_bag-wig_ complete"; but the new standards were the standards of the
mass, and it became increasingly more difficult to keep up an
aristocratic seclusion or a style of life much different from that of
the community.

With the growth of national uniformity went also the concentration of
control. As the field of competition widened, the number of possible
winners declined. Men measured strength, not only in their town or
State, but across the continent, and the handful of leaders used the
facilities of communication as the basis for the further expansion of
their industries. Business was extended because it was possible and
because it was thought to pay.

Many of the economies of cons