The Gilded Age (1870s-1900)

The Gilded Age (1870s - 1900)

Origin of the Term

  • The term "Gilded Age" originated from Mark Twain's 1873 book, "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today."
  • Twain used the term as a satire to depict the severe social problems that were masked by a thin layer of gold or gilding.
  • This "thin gold" represented the national economic expansion that occurred in the post-Civil War era.

Historical Application

  • The term "Gilded Age" was applied by historians in the 1920s and 1930s studying the period of 1870s-1900.

Economic Factors

  • Average annual income during the Gilded Age:
    • 1870: 375375
    • 1880: 395395
    • 1890: 519519
    • 1900: 573573
  • There was a 53% increase in average annual income over these 30 years.
  • Rapid corporate growth occurred, especially with Northeastern capital being invested in the West.
  • Wages increased significantly faster than in Europe due to management and assembly line work.

Railroad Expansion

  • Railroad track mileage increased dramatically:
    • 1860: 30,000 track miles
    • 1900: 193,000 track miles
    • This represents a 543% increase.
  • Government loans and land grants facilitated the spread of the railroad network which helped economic development and settlement in the West.

Social Problems

  • Historians used the term "Gilded Age" to signify that human problems existed beneath the surface of industrial growth and progress.

Farmer Migration to Cities

  • Farmers became less self-sufficient and more dependent on market prices for selling crops.
  • They also relied on loans for heavy machinery and equipment.
  • Rising costs to ship crops on railroad lines added to their challenges.
  • Many farmers migrated to cities in search of industrial jobs.
  • Farmers faced exploitative practices, including:
    • Exorbitant interest rates from bankers for farm mortgages.
    • Extortionate rates from railroads for transporting farm produce.
    • Commodity brokers on Wall Street buying crops at rock-bottom prices and reselling them at much higher prices.

Urbanization

  • Urbanization refers to the movement of people into cities and surrounding areas (suburbs) due to physical growth within the city.
  • From 1860 to 1910:
    • Rural population doubled.
    • Urban population increased 7 times.
  • Proportion of Americans living in urban areas:
    • 1860: 1 in 5
    • 1900: 2 in 5

Urban Growth Factors

  • Industrialization attracted migration to cities.
  • New technologies enabled city growth:
    • Icebox (mid-1800s)
    • Electric Elevators (1871)
    • Street Cars (1871)
    • Central electric stations (1880s)
    • Steel frames (1880s)

Urban Life Conditions

  • Urban life was characterized by:
    • Crowded streets
    • Crowded apartments
    • Very dirty conditions
    • Smelly and noisy environments
    • Slaughterhouses located in the middle of the city, creating unsanitary conditions.
  • Regressive trends in smaller U.S. communities:
    • 1880: 75% of U.S. communities had under 2500 residents
    • 1900: 60% of U.S. communities had under 2500 residents

Health and Living Conditions

  • Chicago (in 1891): Over 6,000 people died from typhoid fever, pneumonia, or bronchitis.
  • 1890s: 10,000 to 12,000 children under the age of five died.
  • NYC's Lower East Side: 334,000 people per square mile (highest in the nation, early 1890s).
  • 1900: NYC's 120,000 horses produced six million pounds of manure on the streets every day.

Housing Costs

  • 1883 survey of NY bricklayers (among the city's best-paid workers): Paid 28% of income to landlords.
  • 1885 survey of NY cloak makers (another skilled group): Paid 38% percent of income to rent.
  • NYC: 16,000 evictions per year (early 1880s).
  • NYC: 23,000 evictions per year (early 1890s).

Child Labor

  • Children's health was threatened by child labor.
  • Children were exposed to:
    • Industrial accidents
    • Psychological stress
    • Insufficient financial compensation
  • Child labor statistics:
    • 1880: 33% of 10 – 15 years old male children
    • 1880: 12.2% of 10 – 15 years old female children
    • 1890: 26% of 10 – 15 years old male children
    • 1890: 6.4% of 10 - 15 years old male children
    • Late 1920s: 6% of 10 - 15 years old male children
    • Late 1920s: 3% of 10 - 15 years old female children

Education as a Solution

  • Compulsory education laws were adopted (until aged 14) as a partial solution to child labor problems.
  • Public school enrollment:
    • 6.9 million (1870)
    • 17.8 million (1910).

Immigration and Crime

  • Immigration (and heavy influx of migrated U.S. citizens into cities) increased crime (and vice-engagement).
  • This was because it resulted in a disproportionately high population of young single men (a frequent age cohort with increased crime and vice- engagement rates).

Urban Vices

  • Public music and singing in bars
  • Animal and fist fighting with gambling
  • Rat baiting.

Social Issues

  • Vices in the Urban World:
    • Brothels
    • Alcohol and tobacco consumption
    • Gambling
    • Heroin, opium, and cocaine

Alcohol Consumption

  • Alcohol consumption (1900): 325,000 saloons vs. less than 300,000 grocery stores
  • 33% saloons had “wine rooms” and “silk hat parlors” (private backrooms where prostitution occurred)

City Population Increases (1860-1920)

  • 1860: 1/6 of U.S. citizens lived in cities with at least 8,000 residents
  • 1900: 1/3 of U.S. citizens lived in cities with over 8,000 residents
    • New York (3.4 million)
    • Chicago (2.7 million)
    • Philadelphia (1.3 million)
    • 78 other cities (50,000+)
  • 1920: 1/2 of U.S. citizens live in cities with at least 8,000 residents

Frederick Trump Example

  • 1891: Frederick Trump immigrated from Germany and settled in Seattle, Washington.
  • He invested life savings (a few hundred dollars) to purchase restaurant called "The Poodle Dog".
  • Renamed "The Dairy Restaurant” and added a shooting range and a brothel.
  • Located on Washington Street, Trump's restaurant and brothel was located in Pioneer Square inside "the Line" that was considered "a hotbed of sex, booze, and money, [it] was the indisputable center of the action in Seattle."
  • Then Trump gained U.S. citizenship and expanded near the U.S.- Canadian border in a town called Bennet where he opened "The Arctic Restaurant and Hotel" (another brothel) and then "The White Horse Restaurant” (a casino and a brothel).
  • Early 1900s: The brothels were cracked down on and broken up by new laws and Trump first went back to Germany and then immigrated to New York City to invest in real estate.
  • Trump died from 1918 global flu pandemic and left wife and son a 7-room home in NYC, several property lots and 4,0004,000 in savings and 3,6003,600 in stocks (total worth 31,00031,000 (almost worth 600,000600,000 in 2020 dollars).

Mann Act (1910)

  • “An Act to further regulate interstate and foreign commerce by prohibiting the transportation therein for immoral purposes of women and girls, and for other purposes.”
  • Referred to as “The White Slavery Act” or “White Slave Trafficking Act”
  • Public Law: 61–277
  • Problem with this phrase applied into the legal language: “immoral purposes”

Rise of Gangs (1870s 1900s) (NYC)

  1. Dead Rabbits
  2. 40 Thieves
  3. Slaughter House Boys
  4. Bowery Boys
  5. 5 Points Gang
  • Gang Rivalries initially based on: foreign -versus- native
  • Then gravitated to: competition over trades in specific territories

Gang Activities:

  • Most profitable trades
    • Stealing fresh corpses (more common in 19th century)
    • Drug sales
    • Murder: Homicide rate tripled (1880s – 1900s)
  • Gang trades included:
    • Mugging
    • Bumping
    • Looting docks – often boats were quarantined for weeks before unloading goods
    • DURING LOCAL ELECTIONS: provided “muscle”

Cooping

  • Cooping: electoral fraudulent practices where voters were forced to choose particular candidates and often vote more than once.
  • Steps used for cooping:
    1. Cooping gangs’ apprehend voters and put them into “the coop”
    2. Alcohol and drugs were served to influence compliance
    3. Violence or threats used to influence compliance
    4. Different clothes, wigs, fake facial hair was applied to manipulate election officials

Political Incentives and Corruption

Rapid urban growth provided political opportunities to incentivize voters and campaign funders with:

  1. construction contracts (in exchange for kickbacks)
  2. jobs in police and building inspection
  3. (A) gain native support by denouncing immigration OR (B) gain immigrant support by denouncing nativism and anti-immigrant laws
  4. provide low income with cash bribes, legal counsel, gifts like Turkeys at Thanksgiving or bags of coal at winter (in exchange for votes)
  5. utilize connections in vice to establish relationships with street gangs for cooping during elections (most urban street gang criminals were young adults or teenage and pre-teen children)

Solution to Urban Crime

  • Partial solution to urban crime and vice engagement:
  • Compulsory education laws adopted (until aged 14)
  • Public school enrollment:
    • 6.9 million (1870)
    • 17.8 million(1910).
  • “I pledge allegiance to the flag…” (first published in youth magazine (1892)
    1. patriotism
    2. civic engagement
    3. 1492 - 1892

Women & Employment

  • 1900: 1/5 women employed
  • Opened Industries:
    1. Education
    2. Textiles
    3. Healthcare
    4. Immigration educational services
  • Common Jobs:
    1. Teachers
    2. Garment workers/sewers
    3. Nurses (1880: 15 schools, 1900: 432 schools)
    4. Settlement houses (1900: 100 houses, 1910: 400 houses)