The Second Industrialization Revolution In The U.S.: The Gilded Age

By the end of the 1800’s, America became one of the highest producing/manufacturing countries in the world, which would continue to grow exponentially for the years to come. The U.S was built on top of rich and raw natural resources that helped fuel Americas economy, and the expansion westward helped to rapidly industrialize and exploit these materials and resources. In 1860, ¼ of Americans worked at a manufacturing job, and by the 1900’s, ½ of Americans were. The rise of Americans working in manufacturing was all due to the technological advancements and using more durable and efficient resources such as Bessemer steel, oil (both crude and refined), electricity, steam engines and Anthracite coal.

By 1860, most of the U.S used steam power at an astonishing 70%, and during this period, the rise of Capitalism and as well as the rise of power by Industrial Giants. “Robber Barons” were the names given to those who had exploitative and somewhat criminal practices. One popular Robber Baron was Andrew Carnegie. “When he retired, the former penniless immigrant had $250 million (which is close to 7.4 billion dollars today), making him one of the wealthiest men in the country.” [Andrew Carnegie, The true Gospel concerning Wealth]. Carnegie was also considered to be a philanthropist. He believed that the wealthy needs to give back their money to society to leave an impact, however, some historians and critics criticize him and called hypocrisy.

Carnegie as well deprived his workers of a sustainable wage, and disbanded protests such as the Homestead Lockout, where he used a private army to disband the protesters, this eventually led to violence and seven strikers were killed, while the others who did protest were fired and blacklisted from returning to the manufacturing industries. Another Robber Baron included John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company which originated from oil fields located in Ohio, and was a key example of an abundance of controversial market control methods. His company practiced the creation of trusts in which stockholders in smaller oil companies were persuaded to give control of their shares in their company to the board of trustee of the Standard Oil. Persuasion took many forms from sweet reasoning to market sabotage, price cutting, and plain intimidation. Through trusts, it helped to establish horizontal interrogations within the U.S oil Industry, and by 1880, Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company controlled 90% of the nation’s oil production.

By the 1890s, standard oil had merged 43 oil-producing companies together under their control, and through the vertical interrogation, standard oil also controlled not only production, but also distribution and marketing of their product. “ Rockefeller reaped huge profits by paying his employees extremely low wages and driving his competitors out of business by selling his oil at a lower price than it cost to produce it. Then, when he controlled the market, he hike prices far above original levels.” [Littell McDougal, The Americans Reconstruction to the 21st Century]. Like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller was a philanthropist, and gave almost 500 million dollars, creating and establishing his foundation the Rockefeller Foundation, providing funds to found the University of Chicago, and as well as creating a medical institute that helped to find the cure for yellow fever. Although Carnegie and Rockefeller and many other Robber Barons were similar in approaching the marketplace, and becoming philanthropists, these men did underpaid their workers and put children through brutal conditions, and even though Carnegie did give 90 percent of his wealth that he accumulated during his lifetime, it does not heal the scars and pains brought by him through his extreme labor of both adults and children.

Excessive work hours, low pay, unsafe work conditions, and the ever-growing divide between the wealthy and everyone else resulted in often explosive social upheavals during the gilded age. “The rapid industrialization of the United States created a tremendous concentration of wealth into the hands of relatively small elite class.” [Ward McAllister, Society as I have Found It]. This boom in new technologies and industries such as steel, not only disrupted and negatively affected the different classes, but caused an economic disparity between the wealthy and the working class. While the working class worked, the wealthy used their money on lavish and over the top items such as mansions. These individuals also threw galas and ball room parties to show the immense wealth they had. A piece of evidence states that “In 1900 one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of the population held more than 20% of the nation’s wealth.

The average wealth of a family in the top 1 percent was $264,000 versus $150 for the average wealth for a family in the bottom 50%.” [Ward McAllister, Society as I have Found It]. As you can see, the wealth between the wealthiest of the wealthy was disproportionate with the average family household. Because of the low wages that families made, Parents depended on their children as a source of income, and during this time, there was little to no child labor laws or regulations in the workplaces. Children would regularly smoke and chew tobacco because there was no regulation for the consumption of drugs by the underage, children would also lose appendages such as fingers because the work they did required them to stick their hands into small enclosed spaces which was unsafe and dangerous. These children along their parents and siblings would work sunrise to sundown. “We managed to keep the home together mother and I, though at no time did our combined earnings amount to more than ninety cents a day.

Though we worked from early morning until late at night, we could not earn no more.” [Anonymous, Women in the Workforce]. As you can tell, the bottom 50% of families made barely enough to sustain themselves. From these excerpt, this family in particular only made around $24 per month, which is only $288 a year. The money they got per week was used to make up their rent, and the remaining $3 was used to buy necessities such as food and drinks. Because they earned less than minimum, the family could not but a lot of clothing and usually wore the same clothes until it was unusable. Because children worked sunrise to sundown, there wasn’t time for them to go to school and get an education. An abundance of Northern States proposed and passed several bills which set age restrictions, and maximum hours during each workdays for the children.

However, most of these laws were difficult to enforce because Parents that had children who worked in the industries opposed these laws, because their children were a source of income to them, and relied on them to help to family out money wise. “One of the most industrialized states in the county, Massachusetts passed several child labor laws in the 19th century limiting the employment of children.” [Emma. E Brown, Childrens Labor: A Problem]. Overall, the Industrial Revolution showed the advancement of technologies and machineries such as the steam engine which dramatically increased the speed in which goods were transported by water and the railroad systems that helped people and goods cross America in a way that has never been seen before on land, which propelled the U.S economy tremendously, new jobs were created, urbanization and suburban neighborhoods were created, but with all good things comes with negatives. With the new jobs being created because of industrialization and the advancement of machineries, a gap between the wealth classes started to appear which showed the wealthy become wealthier while the working class lived on wages that barely sustained their everyday lives. Because people wanted to be closer to their factory jobs, this lead to a boom in the population which quadrupled some cities populations and eventually overcrowding in cities, which eventually lead to illnesses and diseases that made cities exceedingly unsanitary.

Due to the shifts in the social classes in America, workers felt like it was necessary to create a movement to push back against the realities of working in the factories. And because of that manufacturing jobs began to escalate. Protests regarding working conditions, safety hours, low pay, and child labor led to the very first organized labor groups called labor unions. The exploitation and unsafe working conditions the workers faced helped to bind the workers of America giving birth to the first Labor Union. A union is an organization of like minded individuals typically in the same field that come together to create a positive change in their working environment and ensures certain standards, these Unions were especially popular after the 1873 depression in which hundreds of thousands of american workers found themselves without work and those who were working were being paid at a much reduced rate. Some methods of protesting were Strikes, Boycotts, Negotiations and Mediations, Violence, and Sabotage, and the Destruction of Property. The first real labor union was the Knights of Labor.

This union was founded by a group of skilled cloak makers, meant to be for all toilers. It was very progressive for its time. Extended membership to skilled and unskilled labor as well as immigrants, Black Americans, and Women. But some local branches in California disallowed Chinese membership. Another Labor Union was the American Federation of Labor founded by Samuel Gompers. “Samuel Gompers helped found the American Federation of Labor in 1886 and served as its president for almost 40 years. The AFL rapidly grew to become the most powerful single union in the U.S at the turn of the century, boasting more than 1.7 mil members in 1904.” [Samuel Gompers, The labor movement is a fixed fact]. With the help of Gompers, he helped to set 8 hr work days, and 8 hr for sleep, and 8 hr for leisure time which effectively increased the moral of the workers. But Labor Unions did not have their way that easy, they had to protest and organize huge crowds and it would occasionally result in violence.

One occasion being the Homestead Lockout. In our source packet, the Homestead Lockout is written in the perspective of the Wealthy, the Manufacturer and as well as the Workers perspective, the New England Magazine. Both accounts tell the opposite of the others view, The Manufacturer’s describe the protesters as “silly opposition to the logic of facts deceives no one but the more ignorant and unthinking of the rank and file of their following… lawlessness is a crime against the liberty and prosperity of every law-abiding citizen.” [The Manufacturer and Builder, The Homestead Affair]. The editors of this specific newspaper suggest that Labor Unions are nothing but hooligans, and sees them as opposition to the manufacturing industry because they are slowing the economy by protesting. On the other hand, the New England Magazine says “Let none of us need any second prompting to declare that if any man is indeed pilling up millions out of the labor of discontented men, with whom he has driven sharp bargains about wages, and out of the profits is building schools or libraries or hospitals or churches, the title of “Christian Philanthropists”.” [New England Magazine, Editors Table].

Occurs at Carnegie Steel Company in Pennsylvania. The company ordered the de-unionization of the amalgamated skilled workers, since new technology has made their skill set obsolete. Workers protested and the company ordered the lockout of workers. Utilized a private enforcement group to break up and also attack workers. Intense violence ensued but, ultimately defeated and every person involved was blacklisted and never worked in the industry again. There were many other protests such as the Pullman Boycott, which saw American socialists Eugene debs organized boycott, essentially refusing to handle trains that carried pullman services. The strike paralyzed western half of America, and President Grover Cleveland broke the strike by attaching mail cars to Pullman, making interference a federal offence. Socialism comes under serious attack for the first time in U.S as subversive and anarchic, There was the Railroad Strike of 1877, which was a direct response to the 1873 Depression. Railroad companies had to cut wages by 10-20% and buyoff 30-50% of workers. Within a week, 80k railroad workers were on strike and 50k workers of other fields did the same as support. The entire railroad transportation system was shut down, and workers stopped the railroads from functioning and getting to places. This eventually led to violence breaking out, and the result was that food could not be transported as well. Caused serious problems. U.S Army was called to force workers back into work. People were astounded that their own army would turn against them, new apathy towards government and accusations of corruption.

The first immigrant groups to come into America were from Northern Europe, primarily, England, Ireland, Germany and Scotland. In General. Irish and Scottish Immigrants faced a great deal of discrimination from English-American. “Not only part of massive migration of eastern European Jews to the United States… In the space of 24 years from 1866 to 1900 more immigrants arrived in the United States than in the previous 250 years.” [Anonymous, Immigration to a “Promised Land”.] In the 1880’s there was a new wave of immigrants simply called the “New Immigrants” who came to America not speaking fluent English neither protestant. “At the same time non-European immigrants also flocked to the United States, albeit in smaller numbers than eastern and southern Europeans.” [Anonymous, Immigration to a “Promised Land”.] Primarily Immigrant groups became first Italian, Jews, Russians, Polish, Hungarians, and to a smaller extend Greeks.

And then by the 1890s also Chinese, Japanese, and smaller Filipino populations especially in the West Coast. By the Early 1900s, over 1 million Mexicans came to the U.S fleeing from the revolution. These “New Immigrants” were culturally and ethnically different and so often faced extreme forms of discrimination-prejudice and at time violence became commonplace. Discriminatory practices including workplace and legal, that had once been applied to the Irish, Scottish, and German Immigrants populations became applied to these “New Immigrants”. In Addition to the demographic make-up having shifted, the number of immigrants to the U.S increased. From 1870-1920, 28 Million immigrants came to the U.S. To serve the arriving population, Ellis Island in New York opened up in 1882 to process new arrivals. Each new arrival had to undergo both medical and psychological evaluations before being admitted into the country. In 1910, Angel Island in San Francisco was opened up to process West Coast Immigrants primarily Pacific Islander. Initially, the majority of new immigrants settled in Coastal Areas-East and West.

Many of these New Immigrants were fleeing oppressive government systems, religious persecution, poverty, often based in declining production, increasing taxation and class hierarchies. And political as well as social upheaval back home. To survive and preserve cultural values and traditions, many of these new immigrants formed their own communities within larger cities, such as chinatown, japan town, little russia, and little italy. For some immigrants, the goal was to earn money in America and return to their homeland, others built an entirely new life and due to better opportunity, “The American Dream.” Eventually, some “New Immigrants” left the cities for more suburban and rural areas in particular to practice agriculture but also to work in mines and manufacturing factories. As conditions within American cities changed, the middle and wealthy classes began to leave these overcrowded and poverty stricken urban areas for wealthy suburban districts.

The best homes in an area were not found in the middle of the city as had been true, but directly outside of the city in exclusive neighborhoods. Part of what allowed for the development of suburbia wa the development of new,and efficient public transportation. “Like Abraham Cahan and other eastern European Jews, came to the United States largely to escape religious persecution; others came to work. Chronically underemployed and suffering from land shortages, Europeans responded enthusiastically to labor agents from U.S industries, who aggressively recruited labourers.” [Anonymous, Immigration to a “Promise Land”.]

Historians refer to the Second Industrialization Revolution as the “Gilded Age” because there was an abundance of changes both socially and economically. America’s economy grew exponentially and as well as rapidly, which lead to urbanization, railroads, and other key inventions that helped to propel America to the top of the Global Powers. The Gilded Age was also keyed by Mark Twain. “Mark Twain dubbed this era “The Gilded Era” for its social ostentation, worship of wealth and venal politics.” [Ward McAllister, Society as I Have It Found It.] But under the “Gilded” there was corruption and darkness. Robber Barons plagued the workers with low and unsustainable wages, but at the same time donated and supported charities giving an abundance of their wealth to these charities rather than their hard working workers. This is why Labor Unions were created, and they helped to provide a standard on how workers should be treated and give them the rights they deserve and not treat them as machines. The Gilded Age was an age of a lot of things, especially expansion such as the West, which helped to find new and raw resources that could be transported by the Railroad to the Eastern coast of America.