Gilded Age Through Populism

Gilded Age Through Populism

1865-1899 1865-1899

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FORGING AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

Forging an Industrial Society

From Civil War (1861) until Spanish American War (1898) America becomes an INDUSTRIAL NATION

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SHEER SCALE OF IT ALL!

SHEER SCALE OF IT ALL!

Industrial Employment

Transcontinental Railroads

Megamillionaires

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ROBBER BARONS AND REBELSBETWEEN CIVIL WAR AND 1900

steam and electricity replaced human muscle, iron replaced wood, and steel replaced iron

machines drove steel tools

oil lubricates machinery and lights homes and factories

people and goods move by railroad

Machines Change FarmingBefore the Civil War - it took 61 hours of labor to produce an acre of wheat

By 1900 - it took 3 hours and 19 minutes to produce an acre of wheat

manufactured ice enables transportation of food over long distances and the meatpacking industry is born

Machines Change Manufacturing

steam drove textile mill spindles

it drove sewing machines

IT CAME FROM COAL

1860- 14 million tons of coal mined

1884- 100 million tons of coal mined

more coal makes more steel

RailroadsFirst transcontinental railroad built of blood, sweat, politics, and thieveryUnion Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads

construction done by 3,000 Irish and 10,000 Chinese over 4 years

Credit Mobilier company (scandal) gained $94 million for a job that cost $44 million

RR built longer, twister routes to get subsidies from towns they went through

Railroads1890s most of the country’s railways mileage was concentrated in 6 huge systems

Four of these were completely or partially owned by the House of JP Morgan

During Civil War JP Morgan bought five thousand rifles @ $3.50 from army arsenal then sold them to a general in the field for $22.00 each. Rifles were defective and would shoot off the thumbs of soldier using them.

Congressional investigation cleared Mr. Morgan http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Jpmorgan.jpg

Shrewd, Efficient Businessmen

John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil Company

secret agreements w/ RR to ship his oil with them if they gave him rebates (discounts) on their prices and he drove competitors out of business

Shrewd, Efficient Businessmen

John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil Company

Standard Oil Company was a HOLDING COMPANY - profits of $81 million a year

$1,752,854,150.85 in 2006.

Shrewd, Efficient BusinessmenAndrew Carnegie - Wall Street broker - Steel plants

tariffs meant no foreign competition

1880 he was producing 10,000 TONS of steel a month!

making $40 million a year$835,092,665.93 in 2006.

Shrewd, Efficient BusinessmenAndrew Carnegie - Wall Street broker - Steel plants

at dinner party sells his steel plant ($492,000,000) to JP Morgan

JP Morgan forms the U.S. Steel Corporation combining Carnegie’s with others

He sold stocks and bonds for $1,300,000,000 ($400 million more than combined worth of companies) and took a fee of $150 million

how to keep that profit? Make sure Congress passes tariffs and pay some 200,000 men twelve hours a day for wages that barley kept their families alive

STRUGGLE TO ADAPT OLD IDEALS OF PRIVATE AUTONOMY TO NEW REALITIES OF CIVILIZATION

SWEEPING CHANGES

Spirit of capitalism

Spirit of the Western frontier

Spirit of individualism

mushrooming cities

anti-immigrant

social and political turmoil

labor violence: Chicago and Homestead, Pa

Small farmers squeezed by debt and foreign competition gather behind the People’s Party or the POPULIST PARTY - they attack Wall street, big bankers, and RR executives

BITTER DISPUTES OVER MONETARY POLICY AND TARIFFS

DEBTORS

FARMERS

WEST AND SOUTH

LENDERS

MANUFACTURERS

NORTHEASTVS

CORRUPTION

PLAINS INDIANS

federal gov’t subdue - large army force in the West

federal gov’t control resources

SOUTH

untouched by Industrial Revolution!

rural and race relations untouched

NATIONAL SELF CONFIDENCE