The Gilded Age: Another Industrial and Capitalist Revolution

Government (Un)Control

Connecting the nation

Industrial Strength

The Interstate Commerce Commission

• No industrial revolution can occur without a transport web
• The nation was now bound together by this enormous network and its citizens were ready to reap the rewards.

• What role did the federal government have in regulating business?
• Not much. Pro-business
• Because of this, corruption spread from the federal to the state and local levels
• True leadership resided among the magnates who dominated the Gilded Age.

• Train travel was not invented during the Gilded Age, but it became a safe way of transportation
• Passengers sat in the same room as a wood burner and had to be watchful of wayward sparks landing on their clothing

On The Right Track

• While expensive to build, the railroads offered major economic intensives
• Once completed, the railroad received 200 million acres in land from the U.S. government
• In addition to the corruption that followed, inconsistent prices were created among companies
• To reduce competition, railroad companies established informal arrangements to keep rates above a certain level.
• In 1887, Congress responded to public outcry by creating the interstate commerce commission to watch over the rail industry. This was the nation's first regulatory agency

Give me a break

• After the Civil War, many issues facing the railroads were fixed
• George Westinghouse invented the air brake and trains could stop more reliably
• Railroad firms agreed on a standard width between tracks to reduce transfers.
• The Pullman Car Company produced sleeper cars and dining cars to make travel more comfortable
• The dream of linking the nation became reality when the transcontinental railroad was finished
• The contract would go to Union Pacific and Central Pacific

• By 1914, the United States had surpassed most European Nations and had become the largest industrial economy
• However, this new found wealth did not reach everyone
• As the elite grew wealthy, there was also tremendous poverty
• How can some be so successful while others couldn't put food on the table?

The Golden Spike

• The government declared that the two railways would meet up up in Ogden, Utah
• On May 10,1869, Leland Stanford hammered a golden spike into the ground that marked the completion of the coast-to-coast line

Impact of Industry

Strikes and Protections of Rights

• The federal government was reluctant to help labor organizers
• One of the earliest attempts to regulate labor was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• Rail companies cut wages by 10%
• Workers went on strike, railroad travel stopped
• President Rutherford B. Hayes authorized federal troops to break the strike- 100+ workers were killed
• The first National Labor Union was founded in 1866 and worked for better conditions, wages, shorter hours, and the inclusion of women and African Americans

The Gilded Age

Growing Middle and Working Class

Organized Labor Fights Back

• As the wealth grew rich, US citizens Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to explain people's economic and social standing.
• Known as Social Darwinism, this argued that people were subjected to the laws of natural selection
• Social Darwinist believed that helping the poor was against the natural order; in return, many poor people began to believe in "rags-to-riches" stories

• As workers moved from farms to factories, the middle class expanded
• Management positions opened, and factories required people to make sure that human capital was efficient
• As the middle class grew, so did service industry, medicine, law, and education
• The working class grew exponentially
• Blue collar workers toiled 10-12 hours a day
• Women endured longer hours and less pay

• The second industrial revolution was different from that of the first
• Skilled artisans were replaced with factory workers
• Longer and harder work was demanded from workers
• Laborers soon began protesting for better conditions
• Laborers were replaced with "scabs"
• To counter this, employers would force employees to sign yellow dog contracts

After the war, railroads, small businesses grew larger and larger. By the end of the century, the nation's economy was dominated by a few, very powerful individuals.

• Who:
• What:
• When:
• Where:
• Why:

The Growth Of Industry

What is Capitalism??

Life After The Civil War

• From 1877 to the Panic of 1893, the US economy doubled in size and competition
• New technologies and business innovation led to few people having complete control of industries= less competition

• an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

• In addition to expansion in the west, industry grew in the United States
• Used as a means to defeat the Confederacy, the Union created factories to help the war effort
• Once the Confederacy was defeated, these factories converted to peace time manufacturing
• While factories existed prior to the Civil War, agriculture was the largest part of the US economy

Capitalist

• Captains of industry became household names:
• John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel, and J. Pierpont Morgan, the powerful banker who controlled a great many industries.
• Their tactics were not always fair, but there were few laws regulating business conduct at that time.

The Gilded Age: An Industrial and Capitalist Revolution