Unit 13: Gilded Age

• The Gilded Age


  Period of growth in the United States from 1865-1900
• Mark Twain: '"What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must."'
• The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain
• During the Gilded Age, there was growth of consumer goods and services as 19th century America grew more urbanized, and business, industry, and society were transformed
• Both the rich and poor benefitted during the Gilded Age, but many issues remained
• Causes of Industrialization


  • Steam Revolution of 1830s-1850s

  Railroads fueled the growing US economy

  Technological innovations

  Abundant unskilled & semi-skilled labor

  Abundant capital

  New, talented group of businessmen and advisors

  Growing US population

  Government willing to help stimulate economic growth

  Abundant natural resources
• Laissez-faire


  The ideology of the Industrial Age where individuals should compete freely in the marketplace with no room for government intervention
• Social Darwinism


  Adaptation of Darwin's ideas of "survival of the fittest" to human society, advocating that individuals must have absolute freedom to struggle, succeed, or fail
• The idea of the "self-made man" in the American Dream may be a myth
• New Inventions and Mechanization

  • Rural free delivery by Sears and Montgomery Ward

  Department stores capturing market formerly for specialty stores

  Advertising firms helping companies reach customers

  Development of chain stores
• Integration, Combination, and Merger


  • Horizontal combination to control the market for a single product

  Vertical integration to control every step of production
• The Standard Oil Company

  • Example of a trust that gained control over the oil industry
• The cartoon suggests that Rockefeller and the trusts had a negative reputation at the turn of the twentieth century, and that Americans were concerned about the power of these large corporations
• New Inventions and Mechanization

  • Marketing
  • Rural free delivery by Sears and Montgomery Ward
  • Department stores captured market formerly for specialty stores
  • Advertising firms helped companies reach customers
  • Chain stores developed in other retail areas
• Integration, Combination, and Merger

  • Business leaders tried to gain control over the economy to enlarge their commercial empires
  • Economic setbacks wiped out weaker competitors and enabled the survivors to grow to unprecedented heights
  • Businesses employed horizontal combination to control the market for a single product (ex. John D. Rockefeller and oil)
  • Businesses employed vertical integration to control every step of production (ex. Andrew Carnegie and steel)
• The Standard Oil Company


  • What does this cartoon tell us about Rockefeller's reputation at the turn of the twentieth century? What does it suggest about Americans' feelings about the trusts?
• The Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) hampered unionization but did not prevent the continued consolidation of American business
• Rockefeller, at the age of 86, penned the following words to sum up his life:: 'I was early taught to work as well as play,<|>My life has been one long, happy holiday;<|>Full of work and full of play-<|>I dropped the worry on the way-<|>And God was good to me everyday.'
• Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?

  • "Gospel of wealth"
  • Wealth no longer looked upon as bad
  • Viewed as a sign of God's approval
  • Christian duty to accumulate wealth
  • Justified ruthless financial maneuvering by men such as Jay Gould
  • Andrew Carnegie self-made multimillionaire who brought efficiency to the steel industry before turning to philanthropy
• The Work Force


  • Late 1800s: American labor force transformed
  • Number of Americans working for wages grew
  • Immigrants
  • Mechanization transformed labor by changing employer-employee relations and creating new categories of workers
  • Women workers moved into clerical positions created by the advent of the typewriter and telephone, and into retail as salespeople
  • Racism kept African Americans and Chinese out of most skilled positions
  • Factory work was a dangerous and tedious ten-to twelve-hour stint
• Relative Share of World Manufacturing
• Labor Unions


  An organization of workers joined to protect their common interests and improve their working conditions
• Socialism


  Economic and political philosophy that favors public instead of private control of the means of production; wealth distributed equally to everyone
• Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto
• Most Americans opposed socialism
• Early Labor Unions


  • National Trades Union: 1st national labor organization; destroyed by 1837 panic and depression
  • After Civil War: provide help for members in bad times; means for expressing workers' demands to employees: shorter workday, high wages, better working conditions
  • National Labor Union: 1872 election nominate president candidate; failed to survive 1873 depression
• Knights of Labor


  • Founded by Uriah Stevens in 1869
  • Hoped to organize skilled and unskilled men and women, black and white, into a single union
  • Led by Terence V. Powderly
  • Urged workplace cooperation as the alternative to the wage system
  • Set up small cooperatives in various industries
  • Joined the fight for a shorter workday
  • Used strikes; series of failed strikes followed (some violent) caused membership to drop
  • Haymarket Square riot
• American Federation of Labor

  • Founded by Samuel Gompers in 1881
  • Unlike KOL, AFL was a craft union (organize skilled workers in a network of smaller unions, each devoted to a specific craft)
  • Tiny portion of nation's total work force; African Americans and women not welcome (their presence would lower wages)
  • Issues of workers' wages, hours, working conditions; help members through political activity and education; relied on economic pressure (strikes, boycotts) against employers
  • Collective bargaining: process in which workers negotiate as a group with employers
  • Pressed for closed shop (workplace in which only union members would be hired)
• Wobblies


  • Founded Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or Wobblies in 1905
  • Founded by Bill Haywood and Daniel DeLeon in 1905
  • Opposed to policies of AFL
  • Focused on unskilled workers
  • Put means of production in hands of workers; overthrow employing class
  • Radical union that included many Socialists
  • Violent strikes
  • 1914 IWW demonstration in New York City
• Reaction of Employers


  • Disliked and feared unions: fear had to pay higher wages -> costs go up -> be less competitive
  • Forbid union meetings
  • Fire union organizers
  • Force new employees to sign "yellow dog" contracts in which workers promised never to join a union or participate in a strike
  • Refuse to bargain collectively when strikes occur
  • Refuse to recognize unions as their workers' legitimate representatives
• Homestead Strike


  • Industrial lockout and strike; began June 30, 1892 at Homestead Steel Works in Pennsylvania between Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and Carnegie Steel Company
  • Strikers and private security agents July 6, 1892
  • Resulted in a defeat for the union and a setback for efforts to unionize steelworkers
• The ultimate goal of the Populist movement was to return power to the hands of the people.
• Farmers' Complaints


  • Competition abroad -> prices on decline -> many unable to make loan payments
  • Panics of 1873 and 1893 -> banks failed, unemployment rose AND banks tried to call in loans
  • Tariffs hurt farmers b/c of raised costs of manufactured goods like machinery
  • European nations retaliate with own tariffs against American farm products
  • Railroads charged outrageous prices to ship crops (no regulation!)
  • Lower prices for crops
• Falling Price of Wheat Flour, 1865–1900
• Different Groups Representing Farmers' Interests

  • 1867: The Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange)
  • 1880s: Farmers' Alliance and Colored Farmers' National Alliance
  • 1892: Birth of the Populist, or People's, Party
• Money Supply?? Gold Bugs Silverites


  • Inflation: -prices rise, -value of $ decreases, -more people have $, Sellers helped
  • Deflation: -prices fall, -value of $ increases, -fewer people have $, Lenders helped
• Bimetallism


  "cheap money" (more money in circulation)
• Gold Standard


  "Tight Money" (less money in circulation)
• What They Wanted?


  • Farmers and Laborers
  • Bankers and Businessmen
• Populist Platform


  • Regulate the railroad companies (stop them from charging such high rates)
  • Make more cash available (back the $ with silver, not gold, so $ will be worth less)
  • Low interest loans
  • Unite Black and White farmers
  • Lower tariffs
  • Political demands: single term for President and Vice-President; secret ballot; popular election of Senators
  • Graduated income tax
  • To get industrial workers to support them: 8-hour workday; restrict immigration