~1.5.22~
Title and Topic I think this chapter will be about the gilded age.
Chapter 16 ~
Gilded Age
1870-1890
pg 632-672
The Second
Industrial
Revolution
The Industrial
Economy
Railroads and the
National Market
The Spirit of
Innovation
● great upheaval in 1886 with waves of of strikes and labor
protests across the nation
● Economic Revolution after Civil War because of resources,
labor, market for manufactured goods, investment,
government promoted industrial/agricultural development
● rapid industrial revolution caused small farm society →
mature industrial society
● first industrial revolution in the US was around the beginning
of the Civil War focused on textiles in the New England area
● by 1880 the majority of people were in non farming jobs,
working for wages, and moving from farm to city
● The Great Lakes were the heart of the second industrial
revolution. Pittsburgh produced iron and steel, Chicago
produced steel/farm machinery and processed cattle to meat
● money and land grants from the government → railroad
possible, opening land for farming and markets for goods.
○ adopted a standard national gauge (distance
separating the two tracks) allowing trains from
different companies to share one track (5
transcontinental lines by 1890
○ railroad companies made nation’s four times zones
○ railroads were central to the national market
● growing population → mass production/distribution/market
○ spread of brand names and national chains
● 1866: opening of the Atlantic cable → instant electronic
telegraph messages between the US and Europe
● 1870-1880s: telephone, typewriter, and handheld camera
Competition and
Consolidation
The Rise of Andrew
Carnegie
The Triumph of John
D Rockefeller
● Thomas Edison (I hate this man) established phonograph,
light bulb, motion picture, and distribution of electric power
and opened the first electric generator in Manhattan
● electricity was more reliable than water or steam
● Nikola Tesla made a really nice electric motor
● abundant market + federal monetary policies = price drop
● Great Depression (1873-1897)
○ railroads/companies tried to bring order into market
■ formed “pools” that divided markets between
competing firms and fixed prices
■ established “trusts” where affairs of several rival
companies managed by a single director
■ efforts were short lived as individual companies
continued to intensely compete for profit
● to avoid competitions, companies tried to control entire
industries which led to smaller companies being gobbled up
● 1897-1904 4000 companies morphed into one corporation,
serving the national market and controlling the marketplace
● business leaders had huge economic power because of the
lack of income taxes
○ Pennsylvania Railroad was the nation's largest corp
● Andrew Carnegie established a vertically integrated steel
company (controlled every phase of the business from raw
materials to transportation, manufacturing, and distribution)
during the depression in 1873
○ dominated steel industry, most tech advanced globally
○ denounced worship of money
○ still ran factories nonstop two 12 hour shifts every day
● Rockefeller dominated the oil industry through horizontal
expansion, where he bought competing oil refineries and
established a vertically integrated monopoly
○ his Standard OIl Company controlled 90% of industry
by the 1880s
○ gave money away but also fought workers unions
● many viewed industrial leaders as either “captains of
industry” or “robber barons” who wielded power without
accountability in an unregulated marketplace
○ dictatorial attitudes led to fears that they were
undermining political and economic freedom
Workers’ Freedom
in an Industrial Age
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Sunshine and
Shadow: Increasing
Wealth and Poverty
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The
Transformation
of the West
A Diverse Region
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Farming on the
Middle Border
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■ Henry Demarest Lloyd’s Wealth against
Commonwealth exposed how Rockefeller’s
Standard Oil Company made a mockery of the
economic company and political democracy by
manipulating markets and bribing legislators.
workers economic independence rested on technological skill
rather than ownership
“miner’s freedom” were elaborate work rules that left skilled
underground workers free from managerial supervision
freedom only applied to a small portion of industry and
economic insecurity persisted
in depressions, millions lost jobs and had reduced pay
○ tramps were men looking for work
60 hour work weeks, no pensions, compensation for injuries,
protection against unemployment
strikes failed employers found replacements for strikers and
brought in police forces to intimidate workers
Nell Cusack’s “City Slave Girls” exposed the wretched
onditions of working women
class divisions because more visible, the rich resided in their
own neighborhoods while urban middle class moved to
urban and suburban neighborhoods
Wealthy Americans pursued aristocratic lifestyles and upper
class culture, spent money just to show off while much of the
working class lived in desperate conditions
1893 Frederick Turner argued in “The Significance of the
frontier in American History” that the west had individual
freedom, political democracy, and economic mobility
most settlers moved west in families or immigrant community
Federal gov aided in acquiring land from Indians by war and
treaty, land sales, regulated territorial politics, distributed
land and money to farmers, railroad/mining companies
construction of irrigation systems and dams opened up areas
to commercial farming
Lots of land came into cultivation, families acquired farms
under the Homestead Act
agricultural empire in the Middle Border (Minnesota, Dakotas,
Nebraska, Kansas) producing wheat and corn
○ Farmers were ethnically diverse
Bonanza Farms
Large Scale
Agriculture in
California
The Cowboy and
the Corporate West
The Subjugation of
the Plains Indians
“Let Me Be a Free
Man”
● Farming was difficult, the burden fell on women who cared
for animals, grew crops for food, cooked and cleaned.
○ farm families were lonely/isolated, especially women
● John Powell warned that the Middle Border required large
scale irrigation projects
○ Homestead Act could not apply because no single
family could do all the work for irrigation farms (only
cooperative communal farming would succeed)
● bonanza farms covered thousands of acres and employed
large numbers of agricultural wage workers
○ family farms still dominated the trans Mississippi West
● Farmers specialized in producing single crops for sale
● farmers depended on loans for land/machinery and became
vulnerable to changes of prices of agric. goods in the market
○ small farmers suffered in last quarter of 19th century
because of economic depressions and low prices
● Western farming relied on investments beyond family
farmers (irrigation, chemicals, machinery)
● California land worked by immigrant laborers who couldn’t
acquire land
● White, Mexican, and black men conducted early cattle drives
(symbol of freedom)
○ low wages → Texas Cowboys Strike 1883
● Barbed wire fences and bad winters ended cattle grazing
● SF was a major manufacturing/trading center
● Southern California grew with tourism and oil in LA 1892
● lumber industry and mining appeared in the west, large corp.
● Gold/silver rushes in Dakotas, Idaho, and Alaska
○ independent miners soon replaced by deep shaft
corporate mining employing wage workers
● Similar process in new Mexico where by 1880s, three
quarters of New Mexico’s sheep belonged to only 20 families
● natives began to hunt buffalo on horses in the 18th century
○ warfare with established tribes and newcomer tribes
● After Civil War, as settlers encroached native lands → conflict
● generals destroyed foundation of Indian economy- villages,
horses, and killed the buffalo to extinction
● 1877 Howard chased away the Nez Perce tribe to Oklahoma
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Remaking Indian
Life
The Dawes Act
Indian Citizenship
The Ghost Dance
and Wounded Knee
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○ Chief Joseph of Nez Perce gave a speech condemning
the confinement of Indians to reservations, adopting
the language of freedom from the Civil War
■ gov transported Nez Perce to Washington
1876, Battle of Bighorn, General Custer and his command of
250 men perished to the Sioux and Cheyenne defending
tribal land in Dakota (most successful Indian victory)
Cochise and Geronimo led bands along the Mexican border,
evading the army and killing civilians until the mid 1880s
events delayed only the onward march of white soldiers,
settlers, and prospectors
railroads throughout the Great Plains, farmers and cattlemen
exploited Indian land, Plains tribes moved to reservations
Indian freedom centered on preserving cultural and political
autonomy and control of ancestral lands
1871, Congress eliminated treaty system that negotiated
agreement with Indians as if they were independent nations
○ supported by railroad companies/Republicans because
they wanted construction and the unity from Civil War
○ established the Bureau of Indian Affairs which sent
Indian children from their tribes to boarding schools
the Dawes Act broke up land of nearly all tribes into small
parcels to be distributed ot Indian families, with remainder
auctioned off to white purchasers
○ citizenship to Indians who assimilated white culture
and accepted farm life
○ loss of tribal land/culture, whites benefited a lot
Laws/ treaties offered citizenship to Indians who assimilated
○ Elk v. Wilkins questioned if natives were citizens
■ 14th/15th amendment didn’t apply to natives
by 1924 Congress made all natives citizens
the ghost dance was a religious revitalization campaign
reminiscent of the pan Indian movements led by earlier
prophets like Neolin and Tenskwatawa
○ foretold disappearance of whites, return of buffalo,
return to ancestral customs
1890, government sent troops to reservations fearing
uprising which opened fire and killed 150-200 natives in the
Wounded Knee massacre which ended armed conflict
Politics in a
Gilded Age
●
The Corruption of
Politics
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The Politics of Dead
Center
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Government and
the Economy
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Reform Legislation
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○ lowest Indian population in American history (250,000)
1870-1890 was the GIlded Age
○ Gilded means covered with a gold layer but suggests
that underneath the glittering surface was a worthless
core and is therefore deceptive
Railroads/corporations had a lot of power, lawmakers held
stock in companies that got public aid
New York’s Tweed Ring forged close ties with labor unions,
won support of urban poor by making private welfare.
Considered as “urban Robin Hood”
lawmakers supported bills aiding companies they invested
money in
○ (Grant’s presidency) Credit Mobilier- corporation
formed by an inner ring of Union Pacific Railroad
stockholders to oversee the line’s gov. assisted
construction
■ enabled participants to sign contracts with
themselves at a huge profit to build a new line
■ protected by distribution of stock to influence
politicians
Many Republican presidential candidates fought in the Union
Army, had support from North, Midwest, agrarian West
○ 40% federal budget for pension of soldiers/widows
Democrats had support from South, Catholic, and Irish
Rarely ever one party in White House and both houses of
Congress
federal gov was ill equipped to handle growing economy
○ education, medical care, etc handled by state/local gov
Republicans supported tariff to protect industry
○ reduced federal spending, repaid national debt,
withdrew greenbacks, paper money from Civil War
Democrats opposed the high tariff, resisted demands from
debt ridden agricultural areas for increase in money supply
1879 US returned to gold standard
Republican policies favored eastern industrialists/bankers
○ bad for western/southern farmers
Civil Service Act of 1883 created a merit system for federal
employees, with appointment via competitive examinations
rather than political influence
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Political Conflict in
the States
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Freedom in the
GIlded Age
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The Social Problem
Freedom, Inequality,
and Democracy
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Social Darwinism in
America
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○ professional civil service, removed officeholding from
political machines
1887 Interstate Commerce Commission ensured that the
rates railroads charged farmers and merchants to transport
their goods were “reasonable” and did not offer more
favorable treatment to some shippers over others
○ regulated economic activity but had little impact on
railroad practices (it lacked power to establish rates)
1890, Sherman Antitrust Act banned restraining of free trade
○ so vague that it was almost impossible to enforce
Greenback Labor Party proposed that the gov stop taking
greenback money out of circulation to make more funds
available for investment and allow gov to control money
○ condemned militia and police use against strikers
1867 Farmers/local merchants came together in the patrons
of Husbandry/Grange which criticized railroad companies to
take their produce at a fair price
Labor movement: demanded laws establish 8 hour work day
Distrust between employees and employers
○ 1881 workers complained of overwork, poor housing,
and tyrannical employers
○ employers claimed workers were scum of the English
and irish, hereditary feeling of discontent
division of society into classes compared to the Old World
many viewed concentration of wealth as inevitable, natural,
and justified by progress
wages were determined by the iron law of supply and
demand, wealth flowed to those with business skill and
money, not those who worked the hardest
reformers feared that lower class groups sought to use gov
to advance their own interests and that democracy
threatened individual liberty
Social Darwinism: evolution was natural in human society
and the gov shouldn’t interfere
○ industrial corporations emerged because it was better
adapted to its environment
○ poor responsible for their own fate
○ workers should practice personal economy, keep out of
debt, education children, not seek aid from gov
Liberty of Contract
The Courts and
Freedom
Labor and the
Republic
“The Overwhelming
Labor Question”
The Knights of
Labor and the
“Conditions
Essential to Liberty”
● William Graham Sumner’s What Social Classes Owe to Each
Other claims no one is entitled to claim help or offer help
● Labor contracts reconciled freedom/authority in workplace
○ if labor relations were governed by contracts freely
arrived at by independent individuals, the gov/unions
couldn’t interfere with working conditions
● 14th amendment allows gov to overturn state laws violating
citizens rights
○ 1880s, liberty of contract, not equality before the law
for formers slaves came to be defined as the
amendments true meaning
● State and federal courts struck down state laws regulating
economic enterprise as an interference of the employer to
choose his employment and working conditions
● Courts saw state regulations of business insult to free labor
● 1877 Munn v. Illinois upheld the constitutionality of an Illinois
law that established a state bored empowered to eliminate
railroad rate discrimination and set maximum charges.
● Wabash v. Illinois 9 years later reversed decision: only federal
government can regulate railroads
● Women still didn’t have right to vote, but still were considered
to have same economic “liberties”
● Government continued to side with business over state laws
● Lochner v. New York voided a state law establishing 10
hours per day or 60 per week as the maximum hours of work
for bakers
○ interfered with right of contract → infringed freedom
● 1877 The Great Railroad Strike: workers protesting a pay
cut paralyzed rail traffic in much of the country. Militia units
tried to force them back to work and fired on strikers in
Pittsburgh killing 20. Workers responded by burning the city’s
railroad yards
○ strong sense of solidarity and close ties between
Republicans and industrialists
○ armories constructed in major cities to prevent further
labor difficulties
● 1880s Knights of Labor who tried to organize workers,
women, men, blacks/whites, for strikes, boycotts, political
action, educational/social activities, wanted 8 hour days, etc
Middle Class
Reformers
Progress and
Poverty
Cooperative
Commonwealth
Bellamy’s Utopia
Social Gospel
Haymarket Affair
Thesis
Reading
Statement
Reason 1-3
“However”/Cou
nterargument
● Could freedom exist in extreme economic inequality?
● fear of class warfare, concentrated capital power
● Ignatius Donnelly’s Caesar's Column ended with civilized
society destroyed in a civil war between labor and capital
● George’s solution was the “single tax” (real estate), prevent
speculation in borth urban/rural land
○ made land “common property”
● Gronlund popularized socialist ideas→ gov control of private
enterprises to ensure fairer distribution of wealth
○ access to private property essential to freedom
● Looking Backward (Edward Bellamy): socialist ideas but
using the term nationalism (freedom is a social condition
based on interdependence, not autonomy)
● Bellamy’s utopia: citizens obligated to labor for years in an
Industrial Army controlled by a single Great Trust
● most Protestant preachers focused on individual sins like
drinking and Sabbath-breaking
● Social Gospel (Rauschenbusch): insisted freedom/spiritual
self-development required equalization of wealth and power
and unbridled competition mocked Christian brotherhood
● May 1, 1886, MayDay, where workers across the country
demonstrated for an 8 hour work day
● Next strike, gov sided with company→ 4 strikers killed
● The next day in Haymarket square there was a rally for the
killings, someone threw a bomb into the crowd and police
opened fire, killing strikers and police officers.
● 8 people charged and sentenced to death (innocent)
The Industrial Revolution had many negative effects. With the
growth of wage labor, there was also a concentration of wealth
leading to increased class divisions. Conditions for workers also
declined as they were overworked and underpaid. This led to strikes
and growing dissatisfaction which was shut down by
companies/governments as demonstrated in the 1877 Railroad
strike. The government continued to side with businesses and
denied workers an 8 hour work week in Lochner v. New York as the
right of contract became the norm. However, economic activity was
somewhat regulated because of policies like the Interstate
Commerce Commission ensured farmers would get reasonable
prices to transport their products.
Design “The
Question”
Answered by
the thesis
Min. 2
additional
questions
Were the effects of the Industrial Revolution negative or positive?
What was the response to the growing dissatisfaction of the
workers?
How did the courts respond to working conditions?