The Gilded Age
Or was it? The negative side…
Legislation

At first, government stayed out of business
◦ Laissez-Faire had them “hands off” and looking
the other way
◦ Wealth and power had some government
officials benefiting from the success of the
monopolies
Legislation:
Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
◦ Situation:
 RR’s were charging
small companies
more to ship short
distances than
large companies to
ship long distance
 What would you
do?
Legislation
Interstate Commerce Act
(1887)
◦ State passed laws to stop this
 Problem: Supreme Court ruled this
Unconstitutional
 Why?
 Because interstate commerce
happening over state lines) is
regulated by the US Congress per
the Constitution
(biz
◦ US Congress passed Interstate Commerce Act to
prohibit unfair pricing across state lines
 Who made sure they followed the law?
 Interstate Commerce Commission
Legislation:
Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

Situation
◦ Large corporations are
forcing small companies
out of business or buying
them
◦ Reformers called for
government to step and
stop the unfair practice

What would you do?
Legislation:
Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

Sherman Anti-Trust
Act
◦ Stops monopolies
from unfair practices
that prevented fair
competition

Significance?
◦ Changed how
Congress is looked at
big business and its
abuses
Labor - Situation
Long hours – average 10-14 hours per day
 Wages – extremely low
 Employees – whoever could be hired for the
least money
 Conditions – extremely dangerous
 The work – boring and repetitive
 Children – worked in mills and mines, did
dangerous work no one else was small enough
for (1/5 under 15 in 1910 worked)
 Job security – None! You could be fired for any
reason, any time

Labor
Reforms

Unions – groups formed by some workers to act
together
◦ Held strikes and protests
◦ Carnegie used immigrant workers or shut down his
plants rather than negotiate
Labor
Reforms

Knights of Labor – Terrence Powderly (founder)
◦ Single national union
◦ United skilled and unskilled laborers
◦ Demands





8 hour work day
Higher wages
Safety codes
No child labor
Equal pay for women
◦ Results
 Dissolved – too loosely organized & skilled laborers resented
being grouped with unskilled laborers
Labor
Reforms

American Federation of Labor (AFL) –
Samuel Gompers (founder)
◦ Unions of people with similar interests (skilled
workers)
◦ All the unions joined in a federation

Demands
◦
◦
◦
◦
8 hour work day
Higher wages
Better conditions
Closed shops (places where only union members
could work)
Labor
Reforms
Now… Let’s think about the two unions…How you ask? Why, with a
thinking map, of course!
We need to compare/contrast the unions…What map should we use?
A circle map! Don’t use just 2 circles, this is just an example.
Labor
The Government

Business leaders had political influence
◦ Saw worker demands as greedy

Concern was to protect the economy not
the people
◦ Sherman Anti-Trust Act was used to rule
unions a “restraint of trade”
◦ Troops were used to put down strikes
Labor
The Government

Laissez Faire
◦ Supported by the people
◦ People feared higher prices
◦ Haymarket Affair of 1886
 Worker striking in Haymarket Square in Chicago
 Labor leaders blamed when bomb exploded
 7 policemen killed – 67 others wounded