The Gilded Age & Progressive Era (1870-1920)

The Gilded Age & Progressive Era (1870-1920)

Lesson 3.1: Rapid Industrialization - Factors

• Post-Civil War economic boost.
• Rapid population growth.
• Abundant land for development.
• Expanding transport via railroads.
• Raw materials availability.
• Supportive government policies (laissez-faire).
• Technological and business innovations.
• Capital availability and banking development.
• Protective tariffs and export markets.
• Pro-capitalism social attitudes.

Impact of the Civil War

• Stimulated production of goods.
• Evolved banking system.
• Increased tariffs to protect US goods.

Population Growth

• Improved living standards reduced death rates.
• Workforce grew significantly.
• Decline in agricultural workers.

Land Availability

• Territorial acquisitions (Louisiana Purchase, etc.).
• Homestead Act of 1862 facilitated Westward Expansion.
• Increased farm productivity through mechanization.

Growth of Railroads

• Railroads opened up the West.
• Transcontinental Railroad completed.
• Advantages:
  • Employed many workers.
  • Stimulated demand for steel, coal, etc.
  • Facilitated transport of goods and people.
  • Expanded farming and ranching industries.

Availability of Raw Materials

• Coal, iron ore, timber, cotton, fertile soil, rivers.

Technological Innovations

• Laissez-faire government policy fostered industrialization.
• Patent system protected inventors.
• Tariffs shielded American manufacturers.
• Key Inventions:
  • Bessemer Process: $\text{Cheap steel production}$
  • Sleeping Car: Comfort travel
  • Air Brake: $\text{Simultaneous train car stopping}$
  • Refrigerated Railroad Cars: $\text{Long-distance transport of perishables}$
  • Telegraph: Instant communication
  • Transatlantic Cable: \text{Communication between America & Europe}
  • Telephone: $\text{Instant Communication}$
  • Electric Light bulb: $\text{Extended working hours}$
  • AC current/electricity: $\text{Safer electricity over long distances}$
  • Oil Well: $\text{Petroleum development}$
  • Automobile: Transportation

The Great Entrepreneurs of the Gilded Age

• Andrew Carnegie (Steel): Vertical Integration, philanthropy.
• John D. Rockefeller (Oil): Horizontal Integration, philanthropy.
• J.P. Morgan (Banking): Financed Edison, formed U.S. Steel.

Integration

• Horizontal Integration: $\text{Purchase of competing companies in same industry}$
• Vertical Integration: $\text{Purchase of companies at all levels of production}$

Capital Availability

• Stock market developed in New York.
• Profits from the Civil War were invested.

Growth of Trusts and Corporations

• Corporations issued stocks.
• Trusts created to avoid laws, leading to monopolies.
• Monopolies: Less incentive to improve, could raise prices.
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): Aimed to curb monopolies.
• Munn v. Illinois: States can regulate businesses affecting public interest.
• Interstate Commerce Act: Regulated railroads.

Trade Policies and Protectionism

• Protective tariffs favored by manufacturers, opposed by farmers.

Lesson 3.2: Consequences of Rapid Economic Growth

• Political power accumulation by "bosses."
• Concentration of wealth.
• Impact of economic recessions.
• Impact of urbanization on living conditions.
• New Immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.
• Old vs. New Immigrants: Differences in origin, skills, and assimilation.
• Panics of 1873, 1893, and 1907: Caused by banking and stock market failings.

Concentration of Wealth

• Robber barons dominated business, criticized for wealth accumulation and spending.
• Philanthropy: Donations to museums, libraries, etc.

Impact of Urbanization

• Lack of public services, overcrowding, slums.
• Lack of sanitation & pollution: Waterborne diseases.
• Traffic congestion.
• Vast differences in wealth, rising crime.

Workers Face New Problems

• Impersonal conditions, long hours, repetitive tasks.
• Low wages, dangerous conditions, child labor.
• Lack of opportunity for advancement.
• Unpleasant living conditions.
• Labor Unions: Organized to improve conditions (higher wages, better conditions, mutual aid).
• Knights of Labor vs. American Federation of Labor (AFL).
• Employer Tactics: Firing, lockouts, strike-breakers, blacklisting, etc.
• Major Strikes: Haymarket Riot, Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike.

Farmers and the Populist Movement

• Farmers unite to address common problems (railroad rates, declining prices).
• The Grange/The Granger Movement: Fought against railroad corruption.
• Granger Laws: State laws to control railroads.
• Munn v Illinois: States could control railroads.
• Interstate Commerce Act 1886: Federal government's right to supervise railroads.
• Political Corruption: Political machines (Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed).

Lesson 3.3: Aims & Policies of the Progressive Movement

• Concerned with social, economic, and political implications of industrialization.
• Progressives borrowed ideas from the Populists.
• Laissez-faire policies didn't help.
• Members: middle-class professionals, college professors, lawyers, doctors, religious ministers and writers.
• Social Gospel Movement: Protestant ministers concerned for the poor.
• Wanted to protect consumers.
• Rejected socialism, anarchism, communism.
• Support of women and workers.
• The Muckrakers: Journalists exposing abuses (Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair).
• Social Reformers: Jane Addams (Settlement Houses).
• Municipal Reform: Replacing "bosses", expanding city services.
• State Government Reforms: Robert La Follette (Wisconsin).

POLITICAL REFORMS

• Political Reform:
  • Secret Ballot
  • Referendum: $\text{Voters could repeal a law}$
  • Recall: $\text{Elected officials could be dismissed}$
  • Direct Primary
  • 17th Amendment: $\text{Direct Election of Senators}$
  • Women’s Suffrage: $\text{19th Amendment}$
• Definition
  • Initiative: $\text{Introduce bills to state legislature}$

Social and Economic Reforms

• Laws abolishing child labor, regulating safety, limiting hours.
• Workers' compensation, railroad regulation, conservation.
• Laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol (Prohibition).
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911): Led to fire safety codes.

Principal Gains

• Amendments added to the Constitution, government regulation increased.
• The "boss" system declined
• Attempt to create a national banking system
• Major steps taken towards protecting the environment.
  • Civil service was reformed at national and local level.

The Progressive Presidents

• Theodore Roosevelt: Square Deal (control of corporations and the protection of consumers).
  • Acted as mediator in coal workers strike
  • Trust-buster (distinguished between "good" and "bad" trusts).
  • Elkins Act of 1903 started the process of regulating the railways.
  • Passed Meat Inspection Act through Congress in 1906, establishing government inspection of meat.
  • Pure Food and Drug Act.
  • Department of Commerce and Labor Act 1903 created a new Department of Commerce with a cabinet reporting directly to the president.
• William Howard Taft 1909-1913
  • Proposed the 16th Amendment – which permits the federal government to collect income taxes on individuals.
• Continued with trust-busting
• Woodrow Wilson:
  • New Freedom (regulation and improvement in the quality of lives).
  • Underwood Tariff of 1913 – Wilson believed that high tariffs only benefited the rich monopolist at the expense of the average American, so he lowered tariff duties by 25%.
  • The Graduated Income Tax
  • The Federal Reserve Act – created the Federal Reserve System that regulates banks and serves as “a bank to the banks”.
  • The Clayton Anti-Trust Act 1914– prohibited certain unfair business practices and said that the antitrust laws could not be used against labor unions or farmers cooperatives.
  • The Federal Trade Commission 1914– a regulatory agency with powers to investigate corporate activities and to issue orders forcing a corporation to discontinue its business practice.

End of the Progressive Era

• World War I shifted priorities.
• Americans entered World War 1 and the priorities shifted to making the world a safer place for democracy.
• Progressive Movement lost appeal.