political, economic, and social change · big business industrialists reduced competition through...

Political, Economic, and Social Change

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Why a Gilded Age?

Mark Twain

From a satirical novel written with Charles D. Warner, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today 1873.

Meaning the prosperity and culture that is seen is only on the surface

major problems lurk beneath the surface.

Golden “cow paddy”

Politics

In the Gilded Age

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Series of weak presidents

Party bosses ruled.

Presidents should avoid offending any factions within their own party.

Few significant issues separated the major political

parties

Lifeblood of both parties was

PATRONAGE(or the “spoils system”)—disbursing jobs

by the bucketful in return for VOTES! 5

After the Civil War

Boss Tweed

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Cartoonist Thomas Nast

will take down Tweed.

Along the way, he will

create the party symbols

and modern version of

Santa!

NYC Party Boss over

Democratic political

machine of Tammany

Hall

Two-party stalemate

1869-1877 Ulysses S. Grant

1877-1881 Rutherford B. Hayes

1881 James A. Garfield

1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur

1885-1889 Grover Cleveland *

1889-1893 Benjamin Harrison

1893-1897 Grover Cleveland *

1897-1901 William McKinley

*Democrat

Election of a President

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Civil Service- refers to government jobs other than

legislative, executive, or judiciary

Two Republican groups differed over civil service reform. Half-breeds (for reform) Supported by Garfield

Stalwarts (against)

A disappointed and mentally deranged “office seeker,” Charles J. Guiteau, shot President Garfield in the back at a Washington railroad station.

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Civil Service Reform

Senator Roscoe Conkling

(Stalwart)

Charles Guiteau: “I Am a Stalwart, and Arthur is President now!”

Assassination of a President

Read excerpts from the Pendleton Act to determine changes brought by the legislation.

Activity

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Garfield's assassination spurs its passage

the “Magna Carta” of civil-service reform which called examinations for potential office seekers, outlined appropriate behavior, and created a Civil Service Commission.

Pendleton Act (1883)

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Economics

In the Gilded Age

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Industrialization

Industrialization

New inventions helped the growth of industry, including the Bessemer process, electric bulb, telegraph, and telephone.

For example, better steel created by the Bessemer process led to “big business” as demand for steel increased construction, for example, railroads and skyscrapers.

Other inventions allowed factories to produce more faster.

Rapid immigration provided more factory workers.

Growth of Railroads

Technology and industry enabled the growth of railroads.

Industry used railroads for shipping products.

Railroads were needed because of increased demand with settlement and economic development of the west.

Meeting of the Union Pacific and

Central Pacific at Promontory Point in

southern Utah in 1869

Rise of Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise

Adam Smith Herbert Spencer

Rise of Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise

Entrepreneur- someone who organizes, manages, and takes on the risks of a business.

Many new businesses sprung up in the U.S. including many begun by immigrants using their trade skills.

Free enterprise-business can operate with little government influence. “laissez-faire”

The U.S. promoted this idea during the Gilded Age.

What do

you see in

the

political

cartoon?

Big Business

Industrialists reduced competition through monopolies and trusts.

Monopoly-control of one group over service or product

Trust-companies come together and agree to control aspects of a business

They used vertical and horizontal integration to control industries.

Vertical-group controls many parts of the “supply chain”

Horizontal-groups monopolizes a portion of an industry

Important Industrialists

Andrew Carnegie-steel

Cornelius Vanderbilt-

railroads

J.P. Morgan-banking/finance

John D. Rockefeller-

oil

Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons

Some people viewed them as great assets to the growth of American industry

Others saw them as ruthless men only interested in their profit

Either way…the gap between rich and poor widened as industry grew

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20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

$ billions $

Rockefeller

Carnegie

Vanderbilt

Bill Gates

Jay Gould

JP Morgan

James H. Hill

How rich were the “robber barons” compared to

Microsoft founder Bill Gates?

Labor Conditions

Labor leaders criticized companies for

reducing competition,

paying low wages, and

unsafe working conditions

child labor

Growth of Unions

Factory workers formed and joined labor unions to engage in collective bargaining.

Knights of Labor-formed in 1869, Terrence Powderly led national union of skilled and unskilled workers

American Federation of Labor (AFL)-formed in 1881, founded by Samuel Gompers and included a series of different unions of skilled workers

In opposition to business practices, many workers went on strike during the 1880’s.

In the late 19th century, government favored business and opposed unions.

Haymarket Square

Clash between police and a mob of labor activists and anarchists on May 4, 1886, in Chicago’s Haymarket Square.

Farmers React to Big Business

Farmers’ problems in the late 19th century leads to a call for change.

Farmers tried to keep big businesses from fixing prices and further hurting their profits.

Populism

By 1890, farmers react to McKinley Tariff which hurt farmers who sold their harvests on unprotected markets but were forced to buy expensive manufactured goods

Many farmers wanted government control of transportation and communication to protect farm industry.

Other concerns-8 hour workday, free silver, graduated income tax, direct election of senators…

Early Legislation

Interstate Commerce Act (1887):

Prohibited unfair railroad practices and created the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce the act. First time that Congress stepped in to regulate business in America.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890):

Aimed was to break up large monopolies and trusts designed to restrain trade.

Initially not successful because it was vague and lacked any means of enforcement.

Clayton Act (1913) passed to strengthen the Sherman Act.

Social Issues

In the Gilded Age

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NEW INVENTIONS MADE RAPID URBAN GROWTH POSSIBLE

CITIES NEAR NATURAL

RESOURCES GREW THE FASTEST.

REQUIRED MORE LABOR,

ATTRACTING MANY IMMIGRANTS

1800-1880s

Immigration Changes

Northern and Western Europe Eastern and Southern Europe

AFTER 1880s

NEW IMMIGRATION, MILLIONS ARRIVED, CATHOLICS AND

JEWS FROM EASTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE

COMING TO AMERICA

WHY?

WHAT WERE THE

PUSH/PULL FACTORS

PAPER READS: “MAFIA IN NEW ORLEANS, ANARCHISTS IN CHICAGO, SOCIALISTS IN NEW YORK”

Nativism

NATIVISM CHINESE

EXCLUSION ACT

AMERICAN PROTECTIVE

ASSOCIATION

INCREASED IMMIGRATION

REACTIONS TO INCREASED

IMMIGRATION ANTI-CATHOLIC GROUP THAT HAD

OVER A MILLION MEMBERS BY 1894.

Idea of protecting the

interests of native-born

people against those of

immigrants.

It was the first significant law

restricting immigration into the

United States

CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT OF 1882

The act barred

Chinese immigration

for 10 years

Prevented the

Chinese in the U.S.

from becoming

citizens.

*It was not repealed until

1943.

Problems of Urban Growth

Tenements-poor housing

Sanitation and disease

Low wages

Child Labor

Immigrant challenges Isolated, scared

Unable to speak language

Used by politicians

Women’s Rights Women were working for

greater rights,

More women working but often for low wages and sometimes poor conditions Triangle Shirtwaist factory for

example

Especially suffrage (the right to vote)

Notable people, pioneers in women's’ suffrage, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1948 Seneca Falls Convention

Rights of African- Americans

The majority were poor and lived for the most part in the southern states.

They worked as tenant farmers.

Jim Crow Laws-were enacted in many Southern areas to promote segregation of Blacks from Whites

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)-court case that established ”separate but equal”

Blacks had little political control.

Faced the brutality of mob violence and lynching, Ku Klux Klan.

Notable people: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Ida B. Wells