The Gilded Age

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The Gilded Age

• Ch 15 Skeleton Notes

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15.1 Gilded Age

• Thin glittering layer of prosperity covering
  poverty and corruption of society
• Mark Twain
• Golden period for Americas industrialists
• Wealth helped hide the problems of the
  immigrants, laborers, and farmers and the
  widespread abuse of power in business and
  government
• Ex Jay Gould and corruption with the railroads

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Remember laissez-faire?

• Adam Smiths ideas in The Wealth of Nations
• How US gov ran things in late 1800s
• Most people supported but also agreed on gov aid
  when it helped them
• Ex high tariff helped American manuf. goods,
  land grants, subsidies (payments to encourage
  industry)
• To ensure gov aid, business giants gave political
  gifts of money to the gov leaders

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Credit Mobilier Scandal

• Congress hired the Union Pacific Railroad Co to
  build the 1st transcontinental RR
• Union Pacific hired Credit Mobilier to build the
  tracks
• Credit Mobilier overcharged Union Pacific, who
  overcharged Congress
• Extra money pocketed and used to bribe gov
  officials
• Congress didnt investigate until 1872, 3 yrs
  after RR opened

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Spoils System/Patronage System
Led to corruption and bribery for government
jobs, and corruption when used by dishonest
appointees for personal profits
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Republicans

• Industrialists, bankers, eastern farmers
• Strongest in North and upper Midwest , almost
  non-existent in South
• Favored tight money supply, gold standards, high
  tariffs, generous pensions for Union soldiers,
  government aid to RR, strict limits on
  immigration, enforcement of blue laws

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Democrats

• Less privileged, Northern urban immigrants,
  laborers, southern planters, and western farmers
• Claimed to represent the interests of ordinary
  people
• Favored increased money supply, lower tariffs,
  higher farm prices, less government aid to big
  business, and fewer blue laws

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Presidential Candidates and Parties

• Parties were almost equal in size so presidential
  candidate needed almost all the votes from their
  party to win
• Avoided well-defined stands on issues (cost them
  votes)
• Most states had strong ties to one party so most
  candidates came from swing states
• 7 of 8 presidents who followed Johnson came from
  OH or NY
• Republicans stirred up Civil War and won votes
  (blamed on the Democrats)
• Democrats stirred up Reconstruction

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1877 Hayes Elected

• Didnt use the spoils system
• Appointed qualified gov officials and fired those
  not needed
• Began to reform the civil service govs
  nonelected workers
• Angered his party by doing so
• And more when removed Arthur and replaced him
  with a Democrat
• Strengthened the gov but weakened the Republicans

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1880 election

• Republicans split 3 ways
• Stalwarts (defended the spoils system) Senator
  Conkling
• Half-Breeds (wanted reform but to stay loyal to
  the party) Senator Blaine
• Independents (opposed the spoils system
  altogether)
• James Garfield won nomination (friend of
  Half-Breeds)
• Chester A. Arthur (Stalwart) won VP nomination

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• Democrats General Winfield S. Hancock
• Results slim win by Garfield
• Assassinated over expected job through the spoils
  system that didnt happen (7/2/1881)
• Arthur became the next president
• Fought for patronage in NY but encouraged reform
  in Congress

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Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)

• Created Civil Service Commission classified gov
  jobs and tested applicants fitness for them
• Federal employees couldnt be required to
  contribute to campaign funds and couldnt be
  fired for political reasons

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1884 Election

• Republican Candidate Blaine
• Democratic Candidate Grover Cleveland
• Scandals ran that election campaign not the many
  issues
• Cleveland became first Democratic president since
  1856

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Clevelands Presidency

• Favored tight policies, business interests
  supported him
• Not all policies were pro-business
• Opposed high tariffs, took back 80 million acres
  of federal land given to RRs and other interests
• Supported more gov regulation of RRs

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Regulating Railroads

• By 1880 about 14 states had RR commissions that
  looked into complaints
• charging more for short hauls than long hauls
• Rebates
• Keeping rates secret charging different rates
  to different people for the same service

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Munn v. Illinois (1877)

• Allowed states to regulate certain businesses
  within their borders including RRs (intrastate
  commerce)
• Problem many RRs crossed state borders
• Only fed gov had power to regulate (interstate
  commerce)
• 1886 Wabash Case
• RRs continued to be unregulated

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Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

• Congress responded by passing this
• Required that rates be set in proportion to
  distance traveled and that rates be made public
• Outlawed special rates to powerful customers
• Set up Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to
  enforce the act

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ICCs Abilities

• Could not set RR rates
• Had to take the RRs to court
• Usually lost
• Of 16 cases that came before Supreme Court
  between 1887 and 1905, the Court ruled against
  the ICC 15 times

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Economy of the 1890s

• American business grew
• But 1893 a depression struck and lasted for up to
  7 years
• Ups and downs in economy made it the hot topic
  of politics in this time

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1888 Election

• Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison
• Increase the tariff
• Give more money to war soldiers
• Won business support
• Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland
• Reduce tariff
• Cleveland lost

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Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

• Law passed by Congress to stop companies from
  getting a monopoly
• Another act was later passed to enforce this act

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Election of 1892

• Harrison vs. Cleveland
• Cleveland was re-elected
• Campaigned to lower tariffs

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Clevelands Presidency

• 1893 depression
• 1894 repealed Sherman Silver Purchase Act
• 1894 used troops to end the Pullman Strike which
  upset the unions

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1896 Election

• Republican candidate William McKinley
• Democrat and Populist candidate William Jennings
  Bryan
• Cross of Gold Speech
• McKinley won

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McKinleys Administration

• New tariff
• Stronger gold standard
• Ran again against Bryan in 1900
• Depression ended
• September 6, 1901 McKinley assassinated
• Shot by a mentally ill individual, died a few
  days later

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15.2 Immigration

• In the late 1800s people were moving from country
  to country and many came to US
• Why?
• Crop failures
• Famine
• Political persecution
• Religious persecution
• Wanted to fulfill the American dream
• Russian pogroms of 1880s
• Shortage of jobs and land
• Rising taxes

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Getting Here

• By ship
• 1st and 2nd class pretty comfy
• Steerage most immigrants traveled this way
• Limited toilet facilities, no privacy, poor food,
  but cheap tickets
• Not sure on exact of immigrants or countries of
  origin
• 1/3 were birds of passage

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Immigration

• 1865-1890 10 million immigrants mostly from NW
  and central European countries
• Until 1880 the states decided who was allowed in
• 1882 Fed gov began to control it by excluding
  certain categories of people
• 1891 Office of the Superintendent of Immigration
  was formed
• 1890s shift happened and most came from central,
  southern, and eastern Europe and the Middle East
• 1890-1920 10 mill immigrants came

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Entering the US

• Entered through port cities
• NYC, Boston, Philadelphia on east coast
• San Francisco and Seattle on the west coast
• These would be Asian immigrants
• More than 70 of all immigrants came through NYC
  which was called the Golden Door

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Immigrants From Europe

• 1892 Ellis Island immigration station opened
• Physical exam was required
• Could deport or quarantine
• Show papers, collect baggage
• Find a home
• Ghettos developed in cities and towns
• Find a job (many employers took advantage of
  them)
• Faced discrimination like restricted covenants
• Agreements among homeowners not to sell property
  to certain groups in better neighborhoods

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Immigrants from Asia

• Largest groups were Chinese and Japanese
• Many worked for RR companies
• Faced racist attitudes
• Labor unions worked hard to exclude Chinese
  immigrants
• 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act stopped Chinese
  laborers from entering the US
• If you were already here you were allowed to
  return through Angel Island, San Francisco, CA

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Japanese Immigration

• 1st settled in Hawaii
• Some came to CA as farmers
• Did not compete with union laborers like Chinese
  did
• Still discriminated against by unions and
  politicians
• 1907 Gentlemens Agreement President Theodore
  Roosevelt
• San Francisco stopped school policy and Japan
  stopped issuing laborers passports
• Webb Alien Land Law 1913 (CA) Alien Asians could
  not own land

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Mexican Immigrants

• 1902 Newlands National Reclamation Act
• More irrigation in southwestern lands
• Millions of acres of farm land coming from the
  desert (TX-CA)
• More jobs available
• Mexicans immigrated
• Pull factor new work opportunities
• Push factor revolution and civil war in Mexico
• 1921 Immigration Restriction Act
• Limited immigration from Europe and Asia

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15.3 High Populations of Cities

• Immigrants and Americans moving into the cities
• Americans
• Left hardships of farms for factory work in
  cities
• New products are putting people out of work
• African Americans
• Went to cities to look for work

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How Cities Changed

• Horse-drawn carriages that ran on rails
  introduced in the 1850s
• Allowed people to live farther away from work
• Suburbs people moved to residential communities
  outside cities

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Motorized Transportation

• 1868 1st elevated trains in NY
• 1873 cable cars intro in San Francisco
• 1887 subway in Boston
• 1888 electric trolleys in Richmond, VA
• 1890s automobile invented
• 1910s automobile mass produced

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Upward Change Too

• Skyscrapers (before Civil War, no building more
  than 5 stories high)
• 1852 Otis invented a safety device for elevators
• 1885 Chicagos Home Insurance Company Building
  appeared (1st skyscraper of 10 stories)

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Cities Become Specialized

• Specialized areas emerged in cities
• Banks, financial offices, law firms, and gov
  offices located in one area in center
• Retail shops and department stores located in
  another in center
• Industrial, wholesale, and warehouse districts
  formed a ring around the center of the city

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Urban Living Conditions

• Tenements low-cost apartment buildings
• Groups of run-down tenements turned an area into
  a slum
• Slums
• Cities declined
• Grass and trees disappeared
• People crammed into small areas
• Dirty and unhealthy (diseases spread fast)
• Fire was a constant danger

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Dumbbell Tenements

• 1879 NY laws required outside window in every
  room so new shape of building was created

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Results of City Growth

• Middle and upper class began to move to suburbs
  widening the gap b/w rich and poor
• Some wealthy kept houses in the city and in the
  country

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Governing Cities

• Pressure to improve police, protection,
  transportation systems, sewage disposal,
  electrical and water service, and health care
• Cities raised taxes and set up offices to deal
  with peoples needs
• New income made city gov more powerful
• Competition for control rose
• Some groups represented the middle and upper
  classes, others represented the majority of the
  population (workers and immigrants)

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Political Machines and Bosses

• Political Machine unofficial city organization
  designed to keep a particular party or group in
  power and usually headed by a single powerful
  boss
• Sometimes he held public office
• Often picked those who would hold office
• Worked through exchange of favors
• Used ward leaders to help people in exchange for
  their votes
• If you wanted a gov job, you had to pay the
  machine 1st

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Political Machines and Graft

• Using ones job to make a profit (bribery)
• Major source of income for the machines
• Many blamed immigrants for power of political
  machines
• Said the immigrants were taken advantage of
  because they didnt understand democracy
• Immigrants supported them because they helped
  them with jobs and housing

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Examples of Bosses

• George B. Cox Cincinnatis boss
• Actually fairly honest
• William Boss Tweed most infamous boss
• Controlled Tammany Hall club that ran NYCs
  Democratic Party
• Used citys treasury for his own
• Padded bills for construction projects, used fake
  expenses, kept extra money for themselves
• Gained millions of dollars
• Eventually brought down and jailed
• Other leaders took his place though

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15.4 Helping the Needy

• Charity Organization Movement charity becomes
  scientific enterprise (1882)
• Social Gospel Movement (1880s and 90s)
• Treat problems that drove people to drinking and
  gambling
• Apply the gospel to society charity and
  justice, especially labor reforms
• Settlement Movement settlement houses
• Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr Hull House in
  Chicago
• Henry St. Settlement Lillian Wald in NYCs
  Lower East Side

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Development of Sociology

• Study of how people interact with one another in
  society
• Scientific counterpart to settlement houses
  practical experience
• Studied effects of industrialization and
  urbanization on establishing communities

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Controlling Immigration and Behavior

• Many blamed new problems in cities on immigrants

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Nativism

• Favoring native-born Americans over immigrants
  (reappeared)Chinese Exclusion Act of
  1882American Protective Association (1887)
  founded to target immigrants and Catholic
  Church1885 Congress repealed the Contract Labor
  Act (1864) which allowed employers to recruit
  foreign laborers to replace strikersImmigrant
  Restriction League (1894) by Harvard grads hoping
  to exclude immigrants considered unfit by
  requiring literacy tests

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Prohibition

• Ban on manufacturing and sale of alcoholic
  beverages (from Temperance Movement)
• Prohibition Party (1869)
• Womans Christian Temperance Union (1874)
• Anti-Saloon League (1893)
• By 1890 only 3 states were dry

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Purity Crusaders

• Vice (immoral/corrupt behavior) was highly
  visible and profitable in society
• NY Society for the Suppression of Vice founded by
  Anthony Comstock 1873
• Comstock Law prohibited mailing obscene
  materials through US mail
• Slowed distribution of information on birth
  control
• Others focused on urban political machines
• Sometimes they ran for office, sometimes got the
  pol machine out but usually regained control

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