The Gilded Age
Labor, Business and
Immigration
Inventions of the
Time…
Alexander Graham Bell
Telephone (1876)
The Phonograph (1877)
The Light Bulb (1879)
Time Zones Created (1883)
to standardize railroad arrival and departure times
AC Transformer (1887)
George Westinghouse
The Motion Picture Camera
(1888)
The Airplane
Wilbur Wright
Orville Wright
Kitty Hawk, NC – December 7, 1903
Model T Automobile (1908)
Henry Ford
I want to pay my workers so that they can
afford my product!
In Washington D.C….
Federal Government
 From 1870-1900  Govt. did very
little domestically.
 Main duties of the federal govt.:
 Deliver the mail.
 Maintain a national military.
 Collect taxes & tariffs.
 Conduct a foreign policy.
 Exception  administer the annual
Civil War veterans’ pension.
The Job of the President
 Party leaders made most of the decisions
 Presidents should avoid offending any
factions within their own party.
 The President just doled out federal jobs.
 1865  53,000 federal govt. jobs
 1890  166,000
federal govt. jobs
 Presidents during this era: Arthur,
Cleveland, Harrison and McKinley
Changing Public Opinion
 Americans wanted the federal govt. to deal
with growing soc. & eco. problems & to curb
the power of the trusts:
 Interstate Commerce Act – 1887
 Sherman Antitrust Act – 1890
 McKinley Tariff – 1890
 Based on the theory that prosperity
flowed directly from protectionism.
 Increased already high rates another 4%!
Pendelton Act (1883)
Outlawed the Spoils System
 Civil Service Act.
 1883  14,000 out of
117,000 federal govt.
jobs became civil
service exam positions.
 1900  100,000 out of
200,000 civil service
federal govt. jobs.
 Chester Arthur
President
Meanwhile out West…
The Grange Movement
 First organized in the 1870s in the
Midwest, the south, and Texas.
 Set up cooperative associations.
 Social and educational components.
 Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger
Laws.”
 Rapidly declined by the late 1870s.
The Farmers Alliances
 Begun in the late 1880s (Texas first 
the Southern Alliance; then in the
Midwest  the Northern Alliance).
 Built upon the ashes of the Grange.
 More political and less social than the
Grange.
 Ran candidates for office.
 Controlled 8 state legislatures & had 47
representatives in Congress during the
1890s.
Result of Election Returns
 Populist vote
increased by
40% in the
bi-election year,
1894.
 Democratic
party losses in
the West were
catastrophic!
 But, Republicans
won control of
the House.
The Populist (Peoples’) Party
 Founded by James B. Weaver
and Tom Watson.
 Omaha, NE Convention in July,
1892.
 Got almost 1 million popular
votes.
 Several Congressional seats
won.
James B. Weaver,
Presidential Candidate
&
James G. Field, VP
Heyday of Western Populism
Why Did Populism Decline?
1. The economy experienced rapid change.
2. The era of small producers and
farmers was fading away.
3. Race divided the Populist Party,
especially in the South.
4. The Populists were not able to break
existing party loyalties.
5. Most of their agenda was co-opted by
the Democratic Party.
Immigration, Urban
Living and Factory
Work…
Men’s Lodgings
Immigrant Family Lodgings
Another Struggling Immigrant Family
Child Labor
Womens’ Trade Union League
Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910
Page
of the
New York Journal
Out of the Ashes
 ILGWU membership surged.
 NYC created a Bureau of Fire
Prevention.
 New strict building codes were
passed.
 Tougher fire inspection of
sweatshops.
 Growing momentum of support for
women’s suffrage.
Tenement Slum Living
Hester Street – Jewish
Section
Pell St. - Chinatown, NYC
Urban Growth: 1870 - 1900
Big Business…
Causes of Rapid
Industrialization
4. Unskilled & semi-skilled
labor in abundance.
5. Abundant capital.
6. New, talented group of businessmen
[entrepreneurs] and advisors.
7. Market growing as US population increased.
8. Government willing to help at all levels to
stimulate economic growth.
9. Abundant natural resources.
New Business Culture
Laissez Faire  the ideology of the
Industrial Age.
 Individuals should compete freely in
the marketplace.
 The market was not man-made or
invented.
 No room for government in the
market!
New Type of Business Entities
Wall Street – 1867 & 1900
The Protectors of Our Industries
Relative Share of World
Manufacturing
Regulating the Trusts
1886  Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific
Railroad Company v. IL –
created regulation on interstate
railroad fees
1890  Sherman Antitrust Act
 in “restraint of trade”
 Rarely enforced until T. Roosevelt