The Civil War, while devastating to the South, brought industrial growth and economic strength to the North. The capital gained during the war enabled many in the North to invest in new factories and industry. Foreign investment, an abundance of natural resources, and a pro business government spurred further growth. Government policies kept the tariffs high to protect United States industries, kept taxes low, and stayed out of the businesses’ affairs in a true Laissez Faire fashion. The federal and state subsidies to railroads led to over 200,000 miles of track being laid by 1900. The railroads spurred the settlement of the remaining regions of the West and connected all the regions of the nation. These railroads companies began to merge and developed into the first big businesses in the nation. Cornelius Vanderbilt began consolidated smaller railroad companies, which made transportation easier and railroads more profitable. As Vanderbilt and his railroad contemporaries earned the nickname “Robber Barons” for being unscrupulous with their business dealings. This name soon was generalized to all leaders of industry such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Rockefeller and Carnegie each used the lack of government interference to their advantage as they developed their own industries; Rockefeller was in oil and Carnegie was in steel. These men used business methods, such as horizontal and vertical integration, to eliminate competition and increase their profits. This massive accumulation of wealth was unprecedented in United States history. Many big business owners used Herbert Spencer’s idea of Social Darwinism to justify their cutthroat practices. They were often on the edge of legality. Authors Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner coined the phrase “The Gilded Age” to describe the time period. Horatio Alger’s “rags to riches” novels built on the Protestant work ethic and gave rise to the belief in the American Dream: anyone who worked hard work and determination could achieve great wealth.
As the wealth of the large industrialists grew, their political power grew as well. Instances of government corruption became more widespread when businesses tried to influence government actions in their favor. Citizens began to complain of the big businesses’ practices despite the strong belief in Laissez Faire capitalism. The government finally stepped in with laws such as the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroad travel between states, and the Sherman Antitrust Act to eliminate the excessive power of the big businesses. These laws were often not used in the fashion for which they were created.
One of the problems with industry and big businesses was the elimination of competition. These eliminations hurt the consumer and worker alike. Child labor persisted. Both children and women were discriminated against in the workplace. Labor unions began to spring up to look out for the interests of the workers, with such groups as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. Business and government response to unions was not positive, nor was the public perception of them. Socialism and anarchism were linked with labor unions. Violence resulted from such labor events such as the Haymarket Riot and the Homestead Strike, and was blamed on the workers and the unions.
The huge growth of industry led to an increased demand for labor, which was satisfied by immigration. Most immigrants to the United States had come from Northern and Western Europe in the past. The immigration in the later part of the 19th century and early 20th century was largely from Eastern and Southern Europe as well as from parts of Asia. The immigrants from these parts of the world were vastly different both culturally and ethnically. Nativism, or fear of immigrants, became an issue. United States citizens looked to restrict and control the immigrants with such laws as the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882. The vast majority of the immigrants lived in ethnic urban neighborhoods. Urbanization caught most cities unprepared to meet the demands of the rapid influx of people. The poverty, pollution, crime and lack of sanitation services created needs that the local governments were unable to handle. Without cities stepping in, political machines, such as Tammany Hall in New York, provided some of the much-needed services for the poor and the immigrants in exchange for votes. Industrialization and urbanization had positive impacts as well. Factory worker looked for new forms of entertainment on their days off; saloons, dance halls, amusement parks, libraries, museums, and spectator sports all competed for the leisure time of the industrial workers.
Growth in the West was fast as well. The Pacific Railway Act and the Homestead Act of 1862, helped develop the West and bring a number of new settlers to the regions. Less land was available for the Native Americans as more settlers moved west. The United States Army engaged in battles against the Native Americans. The United States succeeded in pushing Native Americans off their land and onto land was that much less desirable. In 1890 the frontier was closed; all the land had been settled.
The farmers out West experienced major problems. The end of the Civil War led to overproduction in agriculture and much lower prices. Farmers took out loans for more land or better equipment to meet the demand during the war. Farmers were now faced with high debt and less income flow. Government policies did not aid farmers in stopping deflation, which caused prices to drop as much as the demand for their goods. Services necessary for the farmers were extremely costly. Railroads charged farmers increased rates, when compared to big businesses. Farmers had little recourse since they needed the railroads to get their goods to market. The Grange and the Farmers Alliance formed to address problems that confronted farmers. Both groups showed farmers the power of numbers. By the early 1890s, farmers had formed a political party known as the People’s Party, but better known as the Populist Party. The Populist platform contained many strong and unachievable ideas. The platform consisted of such ideas like a more democratic approach to government, government regulation of big business, government control of the railroads, and a graduated income tax. The Populists supported the Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan, in the election of 1896. Bryan lost and the Populists faded away as well.
The ideas of the Populists were incorporated into the Progressives, a group formed after the turn of the twentieth century. The Progressives used the ideas from other earlier reforms groups in hopes of correcting problems that had lasted since the Civil war. They believed urbanization and industrialization had created problems. They felt the same methods used to create new technology could correct the problems that had developed. The Progressives’ called for the government to be involved in addressing these issues. The Progressives addressed reforms in government, politics, the workplace, and long-term movements such as women’s rights and temperance. The first three presidents of the twentieth century, Teddy Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, dealt with many of the Progressives’ concerns. Many of the desired reforms had occurred before the end of the Progressive Era in 1920. Direct election of senators became a reality with the passage of the seventeenth amendment in 1913. The Populists felt this would make the government more democratic. Prohibition started when the eighteenth amendment was adopted in 1919. This idea had been pushed since the temperance movement began in the 1820s. The nineteenth amendment was ratified in 1920 finally granting women the right to vote.
The same mentality that fueled growth of industry in the United States also fueled the growth of the United States as an empire. European nations spread their influence and power to new regions of the world during America’s Civil War and Reconstruction. Many believed the United States needed to become an imperial power in order to compete with the European nations. The idea of Social Darwinism extended to United State’s international affairs. The United States extended its borders with the purchase of Alaska, the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, and the acquisition of the Philippines and Puerto Rico following the Spanish American War. This helped America to be an impenetrable country. The United States also exerted its influence in a number of regions around the world such as Asia and Latin America. The Open Door policy and the Roosevelt Corollary, an extension of the Monroe Doctrine, gave justification for the United States involvement in China and in many nations of the Western hemisphere. Many in the nation felt the United States as an imperial power violated the very ideals on which the nation had been founded.
Primary Sources for Era 6
- The platform for the Populist Party from July 2, 1892
http://www.pinzler.com/ushistory/popparplatsupp.html - The DeLome letter. Written by Enrique DeLome, Spanish ambassador to the USA, describing the new American president, William McKinley
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=53 - Photograph of women protesting for suffrage in front of the White House.
http://memory.loc.gov/service/mss/mnwp/160/160022v.jpg - A collection of images for Charleston’s South Carolina Inter-state and West Indian Exposition held in 1901-1902.
http://lowcountrydigital.library.cofc.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/expo&CISOPTR=158&REC=2 - Journals from the Exposition with drawings and articles about what was found at the Expo. These also contain a number of advertisements, which would be interesting for students to view to compare to modern day
http://lowcountrydigital.library.cofc.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/expo&CISOPTR=248&REC=5 - Speeches by Teddy Roosevelt given in Charleston when he came for the SC Interstate and West Indian Expo in April, 1902.
http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/txtspeeches/2.txt
http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/txtspeeches/334.txt
