GILDED AGE

Business Expansion

• Laissez-Faire Capitalism (free market economy)
• Business Organizations
• Entrepreneurs (industrialists)
• Important Inventions
• Impact of Railroads
• Government Aid to Railroads
• Monopoly: Vertical, Horizontal Integration
• Economic Panics (1893, 1907)

Laissez Faire Economics

• Adam Smith (1723-1790) publishes Wealth of Nations: Invisible Hand, no government regulation    

Forms of Businesses

--- Monopoly Kings/ Industrialists: Carnegie, Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Vanderbilt... (control one particular sector) 

--- Stock Watering: (Railways) inflate claims about business, then sell stocks/bonds way higher than actual value

--- Pooling: (Railways) agreements between businesses to keep prices high and reduce competition by sharing profits

--- Trusts: (Standard Oil) Smaller stock companies give stocks. If not part of trust, did not prosper. trust = large business

--- Holding Company: Company whose purpose is to own shares of other companies rather than produce

Entrepreneurs

--- Carnegie: (Steel) The True"Rags to Riches". Associates > Middle Class. Dislike Monopolistic Trust

---- Rockefeller: (Oil) Spies, secret rebates, low business ethic BUT SUCCESSFUL. large scale production, TRUST

--- JP Morgan: (Banking) Reorganize railroads, insurance companies, banks. Honesty + Integrity

--- Jay Gould: (Stocks) Buy railroad stocks. Corner gold market in 1869, big gold price up

;

Degler- *Passion, not Greed*. Largely supported by gvt

Impact of Railroads

Creates national market

Growth of coal/steel industry

Time Zones

Stock Holder Corporation (modern finance/business)

Promote West Settlement (linking East-West)

Government Aid (Railroads)

Land Grants- 3X Homestead Act Giveaway... Checkerboard pattern- railroads sell land to finance construction

Transcontinental Railroads (Central Pacific -->, Union Pacific <--)

All TC Railroads subsidized except Northern Pacific 

1. Corruption - Jay Gould

2. Poor Construction

Methods of Monopoly

Vertical Integration: (Carnegie) all steps into ONE organization, mine --> market. Efficiency + Quality

Horizontal Integration: (Rockefeller) ally with competitors to monopolize market, trust. 

Interlocking Directorates: (JP Morgan) Consolidate rival enterprises. Place own officers on board of directors

Economic Panics

1893: (Cleveland) Billion Dollar Congress- pensions on CWar veterans, ^ gov silver, McKinley Tariff, Railroad over-speculation

---> JPMorgan take bankrupt railroads. Stabilize rates, reduce debt. Efficient, but monopoly

---> Cleveland champion gold standard and hands-off economy

---> Silver dollars trades for Gold Dollars (gold drain), repeal Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890

---> Loan from JPMorgan

---> Wilson-Gorman Tariff: moderate reduction in tariff rates, 2% income tax on incomes more than $2000 (unconstitutional)

political corruption

• Civil War Campaign Tactics - Party Systems
• Civil Service Reforms
• Era of Good Stealing
• Rutherford B. Hayes' Election (1876)
• Grant's Scandals
• Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall

Civil War Campaign Tactics

"Gilded Age"- both parties are close in power

Republicans: WASPs, middle class, Whig, tariffs

Democrats: Big city political machines, immigrants, limit gov

---> Republican Campaign: Waving bloody shirt (the war was caused by the South!)

Civil Service Reform(?)

      Conkling (Stalwarts)            VS            Half Breeds (Blaine) 

Jobs for votes, kickbacks (NY)           CS Reform? Who dish spoils?

                                ---> deadlock Republicans

Garfield Assassination, Arthur (Stalwart) is president (Motivation to reform civil service)

Pendleton Act of 1883: Compulsory campaign contributions from gov. employees illegal. Competitive Exams for appointment, not spoils

Election of 1876 (Hayes-Tilden)

         Republican Hayes         VS           Democrat Tilden

Obscure, get Ohio swing vote             Bring down Boss Tweed

      --- 3 disputed states (20 votes), while Tilden has 184/185

Compromise of 1877:

Electoral Count Act: commission of 15 men to determine vote

1. Withdraw federal soldiers in South

2. Texas + Pacific railroads in South (TC line)

3. Democrats to patronage positions in South

4. Democrats in the cabinet

Grant's Scandals

Whiskey Ring (1874-1875): Federal revenue agents conspire to rob Treasury of excise tax (Grant's personal secretary involved)

Crédit Mobilier Scandal 1872: Hired themselves at inflated prices, profit, then distribute stocks to Congressmen for secrecy. (VP take bribes)

Indian Reservations: William Belknap resign after accepting bribe from Indian reservation suppliers

Boss Tweed & Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall: Democratic political machine in NYC. Led by Boss Tweed- bribery, graft, rigged elections. Give $$$ to other businesses, while Tweed gets kickbacks. Immigrant Vote

Thomas Nast (Harper's Weekly): Pictures paint 1000 words NYT Expose Tweed's Corruption. Tilden head prosecution

immigration

Movements of People: 

1. Across the Atlantic

2. Westward Settlement

3. Farms to Cities (biggest) 

• Internal Migration - Homestead, Reservation, LDrive
• Periods of Migration - New VS Old
• Reaction against Migration - Nativism, Chinese, Indians, Others
• Theories of Immigration

Homestead Act 1862

160 acres if improve land over 5 years, pay $30

BUT the land was inadequate in the Great Plains 

"Sod-busters": People who poured into prairies after finding that after sod layer, land was fruitful

John Wesley Powell warn that West of Texas not agriculturally suitable w/out mass irrigation. Dry farming ---> Dust Bowl

Oklahoma made available for settlement- "Sooners" try to settle. "Boomers" come to Oklahoma

Morrill Land Grant Act

1862: Encouraged states to use the sale of federal land grants to maintain agricultural and technical colleges

1890: Division of funds received by 1862 Act among separate colleges for different races. ---> black facilities/colleges

Reservation System

1830's- Andrew Jackson use reservations to force Indians west, where they would settle

---> Need a new solution as Westward Expansion

• Fort Laramie 1851 and Fort Atkinson 1853 -- Tribe "chiefs" sign treaties with Government

Long Drive 

Cattle meat now shipped to West stockyards

--> meat packing business, ship to East in refrigerator cars 

--> Need to transport cattle to East cities 

Long Drive: Cowboys drive herd to railroad stations. 

STexas --> Kansas. Quite profitable

BUT sheepherders and homesteads set up barbed wire fences. 

Over-expansion and over-grazing destroy Long Drives

Immigration

New  (1880~1890)                VS                 Old (Before 1880)

SEastern Europe, Jews                          Western Europe WASPs

    Orthodox/ Synagogues                                    Protestant 

  Not used to Democracy                       Accustomed to law/order

Reasons --- Population Growth in Old World --> Unemployed

Colonial (1600-1775): British, Indentured servants, Primogeniture, Religious Oppression

Reactions Against Immigration

Nativism: Native born Americans > foreigners. 

---> American Protective Association 1887: Campaign for laws to restrict immigrants

Know-Nothing Party (1840-1850): Germans/Irish VS WASPs

Weaken Whigs before Civil War

Reactions Against Immigration- Chinese

Flood to California (9% of population)

Mine gold, then return to China later. If stay, hard life. 

Kearnyites (new European immigrants): hate Chinese because of low wages and competition for jobs

Chinese Exclusion Act 1882: Prohibit Chinese until 1943

America-born Chinese retain citizenship (14th Amendment)     Jus Soli (right of the soil)  VS Jus Sanguinis (right of the blood-tie)

Reaction against Immigration- NAmericans

Dawes Act 1887: Stop dealing with NAmerican tribes as separate nations, but as individuals (tribes keep NAs from being civilized, law abiding citizens)

--- Divide tribal lands into plots of 160 acres of less

--- US citizenship granted to 25+ years resident

--- 47 milion acres distributed

--- 90 million acres of former reservation land (best land) sold to white settlers 

--- Disease and poverty wreck the NA population

Reaction Against Immigration

Gentleman's Agreement 1907- Japan agree to limit immigration, if segregation of Japanese kids in schools can be stopped. Prevented a potential war.

National Origins Acts 1924- Restrict flow from South East Europe. Establish immigrants quotas that discriminate against SE Europeans. Decrease in European immigration in 1920s 

National Origins Act 1929- 2% of people already in US in 1890 is the limit for a nation. X Asians, V SE Europeans

Theories of Immigration

Melting Pot Theory: Assimilated, Americanized like WASPs, Homogenous

Salad Bowl Theory: Mixed together, but can pick out individual parts and cultures 

--- Separate Immigrant cities

--- Puritanization while trying to protect cultural barrier through banning revelling activities 

--- More Religious

--- More Conservative + Conformity

urbanization

Movements of People: 

1. Across the Atlantic

2. Westward Settlement

3. Farms to Cities (biggest) 

• Negative Effects of Urbanization
• Positive Effects of Urbanization
• Philosophies - Social Beliefs

Negative Effects

Housing: Slums- 4000 people into one city block. NYC 1879- each bedrooms needs window

Dumbbell tenements: ventilation shafts in center of the building for windows in each room

Health: Overcrowding, filth- cholera, typhoid, TB

Working Conditions: 12-15 hours a day, only break is Sunday. If get injured, immediately replaced  

Positive Effects

Skyscrapers 1885: William Le Baron Kenny build 10 story.     Otis elevator, central steam heating system, steel frame

Suburbs: cheap abundant land, inexpensive railroad transportation, low cost construction methods, ethnic and racial prejudice, American fondness for grass/privacy/individual

Yellowstone National Park

Central Park in NYC

Social Philosophies

Social Darwinism: Everyone has a fair chance to be successful, but the wealthy succeeded because they were "better". If you didn't, you were lazy. Don't want the dirty immigrants to breed

Protestant Work Ethic: If wealthy, you are blessed. Would you give away your blessing...?

Gospel of Wealth + Philanthropy: Written by Carnegie, the article argued that wealthy should give back to society. BUT TO INSTITUTIONS, NOT DIRECTLY.

reactions

• Women
• Unions / Working Class Laborers- Labor Unions
• African Americans- Reconstruction
• Farmers- Gold or Silver?
• Native Americans- Assimilation + Reservations
• Urban Middle Class

Women

"Gibson Girl": magazine image of independent and athletic new woman by Charles Dana Gibson

Delayed marriage + smaller families, but work more for economic necessity. long hours, working conditions, and wages for "women's jobs" lower. 

Urban Life- lonely and stressful

---> Divorce 

---> More children on farms good, in city bad (family size V)

Women 2

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Feminist, Women and Economics

Abandon Economic dependance, productive involvement. Centralized nurseries and cooperative kitchens (1898)

National American Woman Suffrage Association- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony

Carrie Chapman Catt- vote as right (=men) Can't voice  opinions in the cities- speak for Republican Motherhood

Wyoming- vote. Women's organizations created

(excluded black women. Ida B. Wells crusade for blacks)

Laborers - Power of the Industry

Large,soul-less. Middle class annoyed at workers. Strikes= bad

Buy Press, Good Lawyers, Pressure Politicians

Scabs (Strikebreakers), pool vast wealth

Call up federal assistance (court + troops)

Lockout: starve employees into submission

Yellow-Dog Contracts/Ironclad oath:  agree X labor union

Black list: Send out names of agitators to employers

Company Town: high prices, easy credit to put in debt (grocery stores)

Laborers - Discontent

National Labor Union 1866: skilled & unskilled. 8hours

Knights of Labor: un/skilled/women/blacks, X nonproducers **Socio Economic Reform, dislike industrial warfare**

Haymarket Square 1886- labor disorders, anarchists rounded up, KoL mistakenly associated, and un/skilled dislike

Coxey's Army 1894- (Panic of 1890) Gov relieve unemployment by inflationary public works program, issue $500mil in legal tender notes to be issued by the Treasury

Pullman Strike 1894- Pullman Palace Car hit by depression. Cut wages while keep company houses. AFL Decline support. Olney dispatch fed. troops (Cleveland support)

Laborers- AFL

American Federation of Labor 1886: for self-governing unions (X individuals). SKILLED WORKERS. Samuel Gompers

X Socialism, X Politics, O Economic Strategy

** Better wages, hours, conditions, realistic, trade agreement authorizing closed shop (all union labor)

- Boycott, "War chest" to prolong strikes

- Still represent minority, public recognize right to organize, bargain, strike

African Americans

Booker T. Washington: Trades for economic security/respect. 

"Accommodationist"- didn't directly challenge white supremacy, X social equality but O Education/economic equality

W.E.B. DuBois: Complete Equality, unlike Washington

Made NAACP 1910 (National Association for Advancement of Colored People), argue 1/10 of the best blacks should be given access to American life

Farmers- Technology

Montgomery Ward- first catalogue! CASH CROPS

1. Twine Binder 1870

2. "Combine" 1880- reaper thresher

**Did not know how to business, blame banks for loss**

---> Drive farmers off land

---> Remaining farmers produce (butchers, breadbaskets)

---> Bigger industrial workforce

---> Farmer is his own worst enemy

Farmers- Debt

One Crop Economy. Prices V 1880

Deflation caused by static $$$ supply (no $)

Nature- grasshoppers, drought (need fertilizer = $$$)

Government- overassess land, local tax, high protective tariff

Business- Harvest, barbed wire, fertilizer trusts price ^^^. Middlemen + storage V profit. Railroad expensive 

Farmers - Discontent

The Grange 1867: improves farmer life thru social, educational fraternal activities. Four-ply hierarchy, passwords and secrets

---> Improvement of collective plight ---> cooperatives

Populists (early 1890's): Nationalize railroads, telephone, telegraphs, graduated income tax, federal sub-treasury, free/unlimited SILVER coinage

Coin's Financial School 1894- "factual" silver benefits

Ignatius Donnelly- Congress 3X

Mary Elizabeth Lease- lead complaints

Farmers- Silver

William McKinley (Repub.)          VS         W.J. Bryan (Dem+Pop)

Marcus Hanna funded                       Win Democratic Convention

Industry + Trickle-down                            Cross of Gold Speech      

GOLD standard. Tariff                       Inflation by unlimited SILVER

Hanna pile up "slash fund" for propaganda- appeal to belly vote (got accused of buying election)

Big industry, middle class, financial conservatism, weakening of parties, less voter participation = "Fourth Party System"

Native Americans - Tribes

Migration, Conflict, Culture Change b4 whites

Sioux/Cheyenne- prey on other tribes, hunter, trader

Buffalo Bill Cody kill buffalos

---> construction's food supply

---> hides, tongues

---> killed for amusement

Native Americans- Battles

Sand Creek Massacre 1864- Colonel Chivington massacre 400 Indians (thought had been promised immunity)

Battle Of Little Bighorn led by Sitting Bull: Bozeman Trail lead to Montana gold fields, Sioux attack a group of soldiers, Treaty of Fort Laramie 1868 to abandon Trail and promise of Reservation. Custer finds gold, rush, and Sioux protect

Wounded Knee 1890: Stamp out Ghost Dance among Sioux

Native Americans- Reservations + Assimilation

Great Sioux Reservation- bad b/c nomadic, X authority. Chief Joseph X reservation, join Sitting Bull but sent away

Helen Hunt "A Century of Dishonor"- morality of Indians? But Humanitarians nor others respective of NA culture

Dawes Act 1887- X tribal identity, X tribal land. 160 acres per Indian family, citizenship after 25 years. Good land --> whites

Carlisle Indian School- separate from tribe. white values. 

Field matrons- teach NA women to sew, etc.

Frontier Thesis: Humanity would progress as long as there was land to go to. "American Frontier" now closed.

The Urban Middle Class

"Progressives"- X monopoly, corruption, inefficiency, injustice

Society cannot afford laissez faire

Attack trusts with corruption and wrongdoing

better housing, living conditions, feminist justice/suffrage

"Muckrakers"- young reporters in pop. magazine

Research and dig up "muck". Inform public of social issues (1906)