US_Ch4_info

=**Sinews of Democracy Background Information**=

**__Life after Reconstruction__:**
The post-Reconstruction years are often called the **Industrial Revolution** due to an expansion of business and industry as major changes were taking place in the nation. Other sources refer to the time period as the **Gilded Age**, which was a term coined by Mark Twain, which meant that America looked great on its outside but there were still internal problems that needed to be dealt with and that there were extremes in wealth and poverty. As Reconstruction was ending (Compromise of 1877 over the electoral votes going to Rutherford Hayes or Samuel Tildon going to Hayes on an 8-7 decision by a committee with Hayes promising to pull army out of the South and end reconstruction) attention was shifting from the discrimination of the freedmen to other issues. Such issues included settling the West, rise of large scale enterprise, political corruption, and the growth of large cities. The biggest concern was the corrupt spoils system. Political corruption had spilled over into almost all aspects of life such as the transcontinental railroad and Credit Mobilier, city administration and the Tweed Ring, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its network of dishonest agencies were examples. Large scale businesses became targets of reformers because political influence was seen as buying legislation. Overall, America was changing from the nation that went to war over slavery.

__**President Hayes**__**:**

 * Rutherford Hayes** became president in the 1876 election, which saw the popular vote go to Samuel Tildon and three contested states in which the Compromise of 1877 saw a committee give the presidency to Hayes. This led to critics calling Hayes "His Fraudulency." Tildon had won Indiana and New York, which led Hayes believing he lost when he went to bed. However, the race got close and there were three states with troubling results (Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida). Hayes was hesitant to contest the states but learned that black votes may not have counted in some areas and he had fought in the Civil War for black rights. Through all of the fraud, Hayes appeared to have won South Carolina and Florida and Tildon Louisiana, which would give Tildon the presidency. The returning board in Louisiana threw out 15,000 ballots of which 13,000 were Democratic and gave the state to Hayes. Florida and South Carolina also would go to Hayes and he won 185-184. Rutherford Hayes would become president with a divided country, a divided party, and a divided Congress, which would make it tough for him to for him to achieve much. New issues were overtaking reconstruction issues. Hayes hoped that business revitalization and economic recovery could do for the freedmen what the government couldn't. Early into his administration, Hayes called South Carolina Republican Governor Daniel Chamberlain to the White House and reiterated that federal troops would ahve to be withdrawn. Chamberlain, realizing the situation, agreed and reconstruction was ending. In addition, Hayes looked for civil service reform (April 1877). He knew this move would upset his own party and the Democratic controlled House. He began by investigating the __New York Customs House__ and its excesses under Chester Arthur (who Hayes would remove in 1878) and naval officer Alonzo Cornell, who were part of Roscoe "Boss" Conkling's group. Conkling tried to hold up approval for Hayes' appointees in the Senate. Hayes tried to get a new tone, but it wasn't accepted by his party. The Democrat controlled House tried to challenge or ignore President Hayes. The **Bland-Allison Act** (1878) passed over Hayes's veto, which purchased large amounts of silver. In addition, they tried to unseat Hayes when two members of the Louisiana election board that certified Hayes as the winner in Louisiana were indicted, which gave the Democrats an opening to unseat Hayes by way of the courts (Louisiana was one of the contested states in the 1876 election with both sides accusing the other of fraud). However, investigations sponsored by the Democrats backfired, which unified the Republicans behind Hayes. The president had to send federal troops to protect property in the **Great Railroad Strike of 1877**, which was the first major interstate strike over pay cuts. There was violence (common among early unions and striking) and there was bloodshed in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Hayes and the troops were to protect property, but not interfere with either side (strikers and strikebreakers). Hayes was looked down on by labor since he vetoed the Bland-Allison Act and didn't completely side with strikers and also because he vetoed a bill to restrict Chinese workers. As a result the Democrats would be controlling both the House and Senate after the 1878 midterms. Overall, Hayes brought back respect to the presidency, demilitarized the South, and introduced civil service reform even though he was a lame duck president from the start.

**__Reforming the Spoils System__:**
In terms of controlling the spoils system, Hayes was unable to gain ground since both parties used the spoils. In the election of 1880, Republican spoils supporters, the **Stalwarts**, wanted a 3rd term for Grant, while reformers, called **Half Breeds**, supported James Blaine (whose commitment to reform came under press suspicion due to his lavish lifestyle well above his means). **James Garfield** emerged as a compromise candidate (a Half Breed) with Chester Arthur (a Stalwart) put on as the running mate. Garfield had risen to general in the Civil War, but Lincoln persuaded him to run for the House of Representatives. The Democrats countered with Winfield Scott Hancock, who had won medal for action at Gettysburg. However, Hancock lacked significant experience. Republicans published a book on his record, which consisted of empty pages. In addition, Hancock shot himself in the foot when he said the tariff issue was a local issue, which all secured victory for Garfield since Americans had enough of inexperienced generals in high office. Conkling, the Stalwart, expected more than Arthur on as vice president to get his support. He wanted all of his patronage nominations to be accepted. However, Garfield had no intention of allowing "Boss" Conkling to dictate federal patronage. Only a few months into office President Garfield was shot by a disgrunted office seeker, Charles Guiteau who, after shooting Garfield, said "I am a Stalwart and Arthur is now President." Guiteau was broke and mentally unstable. He demanded the consulship to Vienna for his vote. Garfield died a few weeks later. He didn't die from the bullet wound, but rather doctors putting their hands through Garfield's insides looking for the bullet. The press made the Stalwarts pay a heavy price for creating a climate of animosity that could produce a Guiteau type of person.


 * Chester Arthur** became president after the assassination of Garfield. Ironically, he became a reformer (he had been associated with corruption and patronage in New York though never evidence that he participated in graft). Some of his acts included his veto of a rivers and harbors bill that was nothing but political pork barreling. In addition, he prosecuted fraud. Furthermore, Arthur signed the **Pendleton Civil Service Act**, which required civil service jobs to be based on merit and competitive exams. As president, Arthur surprised Republicans in various ways. The party favored the tariff, however, Arthur worked to reduce the tariff in 1883 making him the first in a long line of Republican tax cutters. He also supported the **Chinese Exclusion Act** restricted Chinese laborers, which gained him favor with labor. Towards the end of his administration, he found out that he had Bright's disease, which at the time was a debilitating and fatal illness. Therefore, Arthur decided not to seek re-election.

**__Material Abundance, Social "Reform"__:**
As material abundance grew in the United States during industrialization of the rise of business, there were many who wanted reforms in society. The pace of industrial production and business enterprise accelerated. Growing industry, increasing immigration, and a gradual replacement of family farms as a chief form of economic organization brought new stresses. Eastern intellectuals, upper class philanthropists, and middle-class women gradually abandoned the quest for equality of blacks in order to focus on other goals. Emphasizing legislation that regulated large businesses, activists wanted widespread social and economic change under the umbrella of "reform" as well as looking to end prostitution, pornography, drugs, and alcohol. In addition, agrarians (farmers) looked for change since they believed the railroads, banks, and grain elevator owners were conspiring to steal their earnings (no evidence that this was the case though). The two groups (intellectual reformers and agrarians had little in common, but saw the U.S. government as a combination of moral evangelist and playground monitor. The **Social Gospel** was the name given to religious groups that aimed to help poverty as well as convince the government to get rid of social evils. This group led to a programs such as facilities for the youth beginning the __YMCA__ and looked to raise money to donate to the underprivileged with the __Salvation Army__. This group did, however, want government to control aspects of people's lives.

Ideas for more government involvement came from cities where individuals couldn't repair their own streets or clear their own harbors. Cities became what Jefferson feared - political patronage built largely on immigrants and maintained by graft and spoils. Reform would be tough since (1) both parties participated in spoils and (2) individuals could benefit from spoils. Reformers looked to expand more open and frequent democracy. One way was to allow people to bring up their own legislation through signatures (**initiative**). Another was to allow people to vote on an act of the legislators (**referendum**). Finally, the people would be able to remove judges or elected officials by vote (**recall**).

Another important issue of reformers involved public health (health of course is personal, not public). Addressing public health meant imposing one's standard of hygiene and behavior with, or without, anyone's consent. **Water systems** in cities would be an area of improvement by creating a sanitation or sewage system. The biggest problem for cities were diseases and fires and with improved water systems, these two problems could be dealt with. Cities around the U.S. began to plan water systems and the ones used had used steam pumps with cast-iron pipes, which provided effective protection against fire, especially when used in connection with hydrants, which became a part of major cities. Large-scale fires were problems for cities, since cities still used natural gas lighting, which proved susceptible to explosions and wood was the most common construction material in all but the largest buildings. By 1900, most fires that spread and burned whole cities were a thing of the past since water systems and fire departments grew. Electricity even more than water systems diminished fires since citizens wouldn't have to rely on gas lighting.

**__Titans of Industry__:**
The natural resources in America (oil - Drake's Well, coal, iron ore, lumber, cattle) along with America's large and growing population and new innovations and inventions would lead to the rise of industry in the U.S. Railroads were the first big business with **Cornelius Vanderbilt** being the biggest and wealthiest in the industry. Vanderbilt offered superior rail service at lower rates and replace iron rails with stronger steel rails, which could bear a heavier load. The railroads would spark the rise of other industries. Other famous railroad entrepreneurs were Jay Gould, James Hill, and George Pullman (built sleeper cars). **Robber barons** refer to those in the railroad industry who were corrupt, such as Gould who used bribery as well as others in the railroads who took advantage of government money to build railroads (discussed in previous chapter). James J. Hill was one who was not corrupt and built his railroad with private funds, not government. Critics of the leaders in the railroad industry often refer to them as "robber barons." Pennsylvania was home to much of the railroad business. The **Kinzua Bridge** in PA was the highest bridge and the **Rockville Bridge** was the longest. The free enterprise system allowed America's industry to grow with the government having a **laissez-faire** belief, which means "hands off" and allow businesses to grow without interference. Various **entrepreneurs**, or individuals who begin, manage, and bear the risks of business and are skilled in organizing and promoting industry, would lead the growth of new industries.

In 1870, **Andrew Carnegie** ordered the construction of his **Lucy blast furnace**, which completed vertical integration of his company. Vertical integration meant controlling all aspects of business - raw materials to production to sales. He had come to America penniless, but grow to become the nation's leading steelmaker. He worked hard at various jobs including a telegraph office where he was able to write messages without looking at the Morse Code translation, which impressed the district superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad who gave him a job as he personal telegraph operator. Here, Carnegie learned business management. He predicted the next boom after railroads would be constructing bridges and found the Keystone Bridge Company in 1865. Through his Lucy blast furnace, he could supply his own company rather than buying supplies. He saw recessions and depressions as an opportunity to buy at low cost what others had to sell. His company's need for coal and coke brought him into business with Henry Clay Frick, who Carnegie called a "positive genius." Frick operated 1,200 coke plants by age 35. Inexpensive steel, obtained by __driving costs down__ through greater efficiencies in production, provided a foundation of an economic surge. Falling prices meant greater sales as he slashed prices (from $160 a ton for rails to $17 a ton by 1898). Carnegie thought it all came down to finding good employees, excellent managers, and then streamlining the process. Labor unions became upset with Carnegie since he had little patience for unions. However, Carnegie appreciated workers and expected workers to do their own negotiating and for pay to be highly individualized with a sliding pay scale to reward greater productivity, which was resisted by unions (unions fight for everyone to have equal pay - Carnegie wanted harder workers to be paid more than less productive workers). Unions by nature cater to the least productive workers. In terms of unions, there was a major strike in 1892 when Carnegie was in Europe - the **Homestead Strike**. It was handled by Frick in which Carnegie agreed with Frick's principles on fighting the strike, but disagreed with Frick's tactics. Frick brought in **Pinkerton agents**, who were a group that specialized in union busting and were brought in to guard the plant and break the strike. Frick became a sympathetic person to the public when an anarchist (there was a group forming called anarchists who believed the government and business were corrupt and wanted to violently change the system - did not appeal to mainstream public support) burst into his office and shot him twice. Frick did survive and due to the violence the strike ended. Carnegie's legacy was beginning the iron and steel industry in Pittsburgh. He wrote the **//Gospel of Wealth//** in which he said a rich man should use his wealth for the improvement of mankind. In all, Carnegie gave away $300 million (over $6.5 billion today with inflation calculated) to museums, libraries, universities, and other endowments.

The oil industry was revolutionized by **John D. Rockefeller** and his company, **Standard Oil**. Of all of the business titans, he has come under the most scorn even though he was a devout Baptist, lifelong tither (giving money to the church and/or charity), and did more to provide cheap energy for the masses saving whales in the process then anyone else in history. He had worked as an assistant book keeper and developed an eye for the details of enterprise. It was in church where he learned about the new oil venture and formed a partnership to drill for oil. However, he saw that the real profits were in refineries and he set out to reduce waste by using his own timber, built his own kilns, and manufactured his own wagons to haul kerosene. Prices dropped by half from 1865 to 1870. He would reorganize his business as Standard Oil, which was based in Cleveland, Ohio. Some historians and sources criticize him as trying to corner the market and forcing smaller competitors to sell out to him or be crushed by his lower prices since he had railroad rebates. If this were true, he certainly did not gouge the public by raising prices with a monopoly. Quite the opposite. He produced kerosene at such low costs, that previous sources of lighting - whale oil - became expensive and whaling stopped (which is how he saved whales). In addition, he had chemists who were to come up with different uses for the by-products of oil after refining kerosene and eventually 300 different products could be made from a single barrel of oil. Rockefeller began to buy out other competitors and by the 1880s, Standard Oil controlled 80% of the kerosene market. He did receive rebates from railroads, which has come under scrutiny in some sources although it is common practice still today especially with small businesses to give a free item or discount to a frequent customer to maintain the sales with that customer. However, in the late 1800s, "rebate" became a symbol of unfairness and monopoly control. Most, if not all, complaints against Standard Oil came from competitors who with or without rebates weren't able to meet Rockefeller's efficiencies. Customers never complained since costs plunged. When Standard Oil got 90% of the market, kerosene went from 26 cents a gallon ($6.72 today) to 8 cents a gallon ($2.07 today). Ida Tarbell would become one of the biggest critics of Standard Oil in the 1890s but there is no evidence that Rockefeller was unethical or corrupt. Rockefeller's tithes in church went from $100,000 at age 45 per year to $1 million per year by age 53. In all, he gave away $540 million in his lifetime, most of it to preaching the Gospel.

The third major industrial titan was **John Pierpont Morgan**. J.P. Morgan profoundly changed the structure of business. He was born in more luxury than Carnegie or Rockefeller but still worked hard to learn the details of business studying aspects of banking and accounting business. He would work as an apprentice then with his father in investment banking in London. Morgan got into several partnerships and one in particular with Anthony Drexel that put him at the center of railroad reorganizations, which taught him that he needed to take a personal role in supervising any railroad to which he lent money. Within a few years he was merging, disassembling, and reorganizing railroads. One of his major railroad achievements was rate stability. After the Panic of 1893, Morgan would bail out the government by giving $3.5 million in gold to keep from national bankruptcy He would again save the banking system by 1907 although he also said it had grown to big for him to save again. Overall, J.P. Morgan hoisted Wall Street and the U.S. financial world on his back several times and helped America's financial system grow to be an equal with Europe.

Numerous inventors and corporate founders of the post-Civil War nation would put the U.S. ahead of Britain and France. From 1870 to 1890, there were more than 400,000 patents that were new, ten times as the previous 80 years. Entrepreneurs had generated a climate of risk taking, which gave incentive to inventors. With the emphasis on efficiency, the goal was to make products without waste and sell goods as efficiently as possible. It's important also to note that the government stayed out of the way and allowed industry to grow a make America a world power. Examples include **James B. Duke** who founded the American Tobacco Company and used the Bonsack rolling machine to turn out 120,000 cigarettes per day. **Charles Pillsbury**, a New Hampshire bread maker, invented a purifier that made bread flour uniform in quality and in 1872 he put in a rolling process like Duke's that mass-produced flour and by 1889 his mills were grinding 10,000 barrels of flour a day. New processing techniques along with innovative advertising created new household brands of food such as **Henry J. Heinze** with his pickle empire and then ketchup, **Joseph Campbell** and soup, and **Gustavus Swift** with his meat-packing plants (and refrigerated shipping). In addition, soap maker William Proctor and his brother-in-law James Gamble (Proctor and Gamble) processed and sold candles and soap to the Union army. **George Eastman** developed a camera that could take snapshot pictures, which changed the photography business as he began Kodak in the 1890s. **Milton Hershey** would develop the world's largest chocolate manufacturing plant (not until 1903 however).

**__Greed and Jealousy in the Gilded Age__:**
Not all lumbermen replenished forests like Frederick Weyerhauser and not all oilmen wanted kerosene to be cheap and affordable to all like Rockefeller, so even though wages increased as did purchasing power, widespread dissatisfaction for the system would surface. Not everyone was able to be an entrepreneur. Most people worked for someone else under difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. In addition, many faced tedious, repetitive, and dreary work with 54 to 60 hours a week. In terms of the cost of living, wages were sufficient, though not generous. A typical family in a typical city (Atlanta as a case study) paid $120 a year in food and $85 a year in other expenses (medical care, books, vacations, entertainment).

Greed and jealousy worked at opposite ends to create strife between social groups. __Greed__ could be seen on the part of some owners and industrialists with very lavish expenditures that seemed obscene. One example was all of the mansions in Newport, Rhode Island as the wealthy tried to impress each other. From 1865 to 1892, the number of millionaires went from a handful to more than 4,000 showing that America was the land of opportunity with the ability to go from rags to riches (as demonstrated by the hard work of Carnegie and Rockefeller). However, it didn't seem that way to farmers in the South and West who faced foreclosures or factory workers who saw wages stagnating even though they had gained purchasing power. __Jealousy__ came in the form of calls for legislation to deal with what many considered business excesses. For example, farmers were upset with railroad rates putting out allegations that the railroads enjoyed "monopoly control" while the farmers suffered more than any other group due to falling prices of their crops and mortgage rates that didn't change when they got less for their crop. However, in terms of statistics, widespread distress was more of a perception than reality. Some studies showed a low rate of foreclosures (5 year loans in the 1800s - 0.6% in Illinois and 1.6% in Minnesota) while other studies show that farmers who failed at least owned their land. The biggest problem though in terms of failing farmers were that some shouldn't have been farming in the first place. The __Homestead Act__ gave government money and land to encourage movement west - millions who went just weren't good farmers. The lesson is to use your skills and preferences. In terms of factory workers, earnings rose 60% from 1870 to 1900 raising an average of 1.4% per year from 1865 at a time when prices were decreasing due to industrialization. Statistics show that the average worker was well paid and there was an increase in the standard of living. However, the perception was that the rich were getting richer. In addition, there were some negatives in the workplace such as safety and health risks in the workplace, no workers' compensation, insurance, or paid time off. Furthermore, there were a number who were living in poverty.

**__Rise of Unions__:**
Unions had been considered illegal conspiracies until 1842 when the Supreme Court ruled that unions were allowed to form. Unionism was limited in its spreading due to employer resistance, pride in the independence of industrial workers, and unfamiliarity of mass movements. Before 1900, only 3% of workers were unionized. The discontent over the perception of the rich renewed interest in labor organization. Some in America were influenced by the writings of **Karl Marx** on socialism and communism. Average workers merely wanted a good wage and a good standard of living. The **Knights of Labor**, formed by Uriah Stephens in 1869, was the first major union. The height of power for the Knights was under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, who wanted to enlist everyone - skilled, unskilled, and farmers - to make the union as large as possible. They excluded bankers and doctors saying they were unproductive in society. They also favored the Chinese Exclusionary Act to ban Chinese workers (showing elements of discrimination). By 1886, the Knights had over 700,000 members and successfully struck the Denver Union Pacific RR and their greatest victory as a strike against Jay Gould's Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Wabash Railroads forcing Gould to restore pay cuts. However, disaster would take place at Chicago's **Haymarket Square**. Knights protested the McCormick Reaper Works for an 8 hour work day. There were 200 police watching angry, but orderly crowd of 6,000 when the work day ended and strikebreakers were leaving. Strikers converged and police feared the worst so they started clubbing and shooting the strikers. Radical editors set the table for more violence as one wrote: "Revenge! Workingmen to arms! Your masters sent out their bloodhounds!" At a meeting the next day, a bomb exploded killing several policemen and wounding many others. Trials showed that anarchists were involved and were only loosely associated with the Knights, but eight Knights were convicted for murder. As a result of the violence and anarchists being associated with the Knights, they were ended as a force in organized labor.

The American Federation of Labor, or **AFL**, formed in 1886 by former Knight Samuel Gompers. He grew up watching his father work as a cigar maker and saw the union organization as central to social interaction and security. He treated the union as his creed. Gompers rejected the Marxist ideas of socialism (unlike the Knights) stating that his union goals were to fight for immediate goals of wages and hours. Gompers was an effective union leader and said that the strength of unions were laying in skilled workers and craft unions rather than the unskilled masses. He looked to keep the AFL's eye on the goal of better wages and hours and kept out of politics. This was common sense since union workers were 2.3% of the labor force at the time. The AFL did support the **closed shop**, or businesses hiring only union workers. Walkouts and boycotts were his major tactics. He believed that for employees to have power, they had to be organized, strike infrequently (only for the most significant objectives), and maintain discipline. In terms of strikes, he felt they had to be coordinated and have money set aside to help strikers in tough times.

Farmers organized as early as 1867 with the Patrons of Husbandry, or the **Grange** and made political lobbying their major tactic. They focused on lobbying the government to reduce railroad and grain elevator rates. In //Munn v. Illinois//, the Supreme Court ruled that government can control anything that deals with the public. The Farmers' Alliance would be a larger group that would grow out of the Grange (the Grange still exists today). The Farmers' Alliance had more colorful individuals like Mary Elizabeth Lease and "Sockless" Jerry Simpson, who won a seat in Congress and went in without shoes to represent the problems for the farmers. They looked to widen their base by appealing to blacks, but such an attempt to expand the base would alienate others. Charles W. Macune was the Farmers' Alliance president who came up with a political plan. He advocated government loans given in greenbacks with inflating the currency (inflation is a devaluing of the money which leads to higher prices...farmers could get more for their crops). Farmers, sharecroppers, and the poor became indoctrinated by pamphlets and speeches that the solution was more money with little instruction on the negative impacts of inflation.

There were several "conspiracy writers" in the day including William "Coin" Harvey (wrote "Coin's Financial School") was one who wrote about the world's money being controlled by sinister bankers (often Jews). Conspiracy oriented books wrote about (for example) Jews in Europe conspiring to contract the money supply to benefit lending classes. These conspiracies were fictional and unfounded, but it did increase the stereotype of Jews as greedy. The origin of the silver and money issue was international, but was in no way the work of the Jews in Europe. Inflationists believed that wage levels increasing would allow them to pay back fixed loans, but ignored the fact that all other prices increase when there's inflation.

Agrarian and labor distress began in 1873 when the government decided NOT to monetize silver (that is put silver into circulation to cause inflation). Gold had become more expensive and silver more widely available. What **silverites** hoped for was that the government would purchase silver at fixed prices (higher than the market price), coin it, and the new silver coins would flood the market, which they thought was the solution. When Congress rejected the idea, silverites called it the "Crime of '73." Silver strikes in the west led westerners and southerners to believe this was the solution. Richard Bland (MO) and William Allison (Iowa) introduced a bill, the **Bland-Allison Act**, for the unlimited coinage of silver. It was vetoed by Hayes, which upset the silverites. By 1880, the government coined $250 million silver dollars with more than 3/4 in government vaults and only $50 million in circulation. Meanwhile, miners brought in more silver to exchange for gold, which steadily dwindled the government's supply. If the government had circulated all silver coins, it would NOT have produced prosperity like the silverites thought, but rather inflation - prices would've gone up and there would not have been an incentive to produce new goods. A new problem was developing though, which was that the government was having trouble paying its creditors in gold while having to accept silver from its debtors.

Overall, __unions had some positive goals__ looking for __better wages, hours, and working conditions__ as well as benefits along with collective bargaining, in which management and union leaders discuss contracts for the workers. However, __negatives__ with the start of unions have __racist__ origins as unions in the South discriminated against African-American labor and unions around the country were against Chinese laborers, favoring the Chinese Exclusion Act. Other unions had socialist ideas of Karl Marx involved in their origins. Marx saw a society without class structure in which everyone had equal everything in communism, which appealed to some. The problem with socialism is that there is no incentive to be productive or work hard, which is why communist nations eventually fail. Business owners and managers tried to fight union growth with the Pinkerton guards, blacklisting trouble makers, and yellow contracts (workers sign that they won't join a union when hired). All in all there would be rivalries between some businesses and labor unions while most were peaceful and non-confrontational. The infiltration of Marxists and anarchists would push unions to violence, which would lose sympathy for the unions.

It's important to point out that most workers who join unions do so to guarantee a wage and hours along with fair working conditions. However, union bosses that lead national unions often have other agendas many of which lean toward socialist ideas, if not complete socialism, which would be a threat to our nation.

**__Urbanization__:**
Industrialization, transportation, and trade led to the growth of cities both in the east as well as new cities in the old western frontier. Immigrants flooded into seaport cities for opportunity (many businesses advertised in Europe for workers). There was a policy of open immigration throughout most of the 1800s due to a shortage in labor. **Ellis Island** was the immigration headquarters in New York, while **Angel Island** was the immigration headquarters on the West Coast. Today, 40% of Americans can trace their ancestors to Ellis Island. Upon arrival, immigrants were examined. Those with diseases, criminals, and anarchists were sent back. Cities grew into true centers of commerce, arts, and economics as well as hotbeds of crime, corruption, and degeneracy. Ethnic neighborhoods developed (Little Italy, Chinatown). Carnegie's cheap steel, yet very strong due to the Bessemer Process along with Elisha Graves Otis's elevator brake allowed cities to grow vertically as well with skyscrapers. A lot of Carnegie steel also went into the Roebling's design of a suspension bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, which would be the symbol of the modern city. City transportation improved as well with mass transit cable cars, electric trolleys, elevated trains, and subways.

Turn of the century (20th century) reform has its heritage with the 1880s with intellectuals who believed man was perfectible and only man's environment prevented him from being perfect. Most reformers had a secular bent rather than religious. **Jane Addams** created Hull House to care for infant children of working women and help the urban poor, but she had said "Christ don't help me in the least." Most reformers came from wealthy families and seldom experienced hardship firsthand while receiving a first class education. For example, a group of writers who thrived on exposing scandals, the **muckrakers**, included Lincoln Steffens who wrote about city corruption was the son of an affluent merchant who could be sent to universities in Europe. Upton Sinclair, the writer of //The Jungle//, which was on the unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking plants went to Columbia University. Ida Tarbell, who wrote critical works on Standard Oil also got a first class education. **Social Darwinism** was a theory that existed at the time as well, which said stronger people (and nations) will rise higher in business and economics. The **Jim Crow Laws** in the South continued to discriminate against and segregate the blacks. The Supreme Court ruled in //**Plessy v. Ferguson**// that blacks were "separate but equal" allowing the Jim Crow Laws in 1893.

**__Cleveland Administration and Republican Interlude__:**
Modern historians downplay **Grover Cleveland**'s presidency. Republicans downplayed him because he was a Democrat, while Democrats downplay him because he governed like a modern Republican. His actions as president were genuinely dictated by the Constitution. Furthermore, he was the last president to answer the White House door himself and write checks for White House bills. He squelched attempts by outsiders to influence his policies for political favors. Above all, he saw himself as guardian of the people's money looking to reduce the tariff and whittle down the pension system. Cleveland won the 1884 election against James Blaine. Cleveland had gone from mayor of Buffalo, governor of New York, to president in a four year span. It was a close race with Cleveland winning the electoral college 219-182 an dthe popular vote 4.875 million to 4.852 million. New York made the biggest difference with a difference of 600 votes. If Blaine would've won New York, he'd have won the presidency. The campaign was dirty as Cleveland was labeled as being from the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" (refering to perceived affinity between immigrants and alcohol, large number of Catholics, and Confederacy). It would backfire since a lot of Irish and Italians went to the polls. In addition, Cleveland had a child out of wedlock. Republicans came up with the slogan "Ma, ma, where's my pa" to ridicule Cleveland (Democrats responded with "gone to the White House ha ha ha"). Cleveland admitted to having the child and was able to escape damage. Democrats attacked Blaine was being involved in spoils politics with the slogan "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine"). Coming into office, Cleveland announced that he would enforce the Pendleton Act, which was difficult since the bureaucracy "rotated" jobs rather than eliminating unneeded jobs. Cleveland also __looked to stop corruption of pensions__ going to Civil War veterans (group Grand Army of the Republic had formed to ensure the rights of war veterans). Some say Cleveland was unsympathetic to war veterans while others say he did a good job looking to eliminate corruption. The Interstate Commerce Act passed under Cleveland, which was the first attempt to regulate the railroads. It didn't set railroad rates, but required that railroads publicize shipping rates and prohibited short haul/long haul fare discrimination, a form of price discrimination against smaller markets, particularly farmers. The Act created a federal regulatory agency, the **Interstate Commerce Commission** (ICC), which it charged with monitoring railroads to ensure that they complied with the new regulations.


 * Benjamin Harrison** (R) would run against Cleveland in 1888 emphasizing the tariff as the major issue. Cleveland won the popular vote, but Harrison won the electoral vote, which made him the 23rd president. The electoral situation was simple in the 1880s: Republicans got the freemen's votes, which were shrinking due to intimidation, literacy tests, and poll taxes while Democrats got north support from immigration and labor. White Southerners would never vote for the party of emancipation, while freedmen and Union army veterans would never vote Democrat, so farmers and immigrants would make the difference. Republicans stood for the tariff and gold standard while Democrats pushed cheap money and reduction or no tariff. In office, Harrison signed the inflationary **Sherman Silver Purchase Act**, which turned out to be nearly fatal to the economy. It authorized the government to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver a month at the price of 16 1/2 to 1 (ration of silver to gold), which was not enough to ensure the inflation that the silverites wanted, but just enough to turn arbitragers (one who profits from change in prices) loose as speculators rushed in to exchange cheap silver for under-valued gold. The brunt of the damage would happen when Harrison was out of office. Harrison also signed the **Sherman Anti-Trust Act** in 1890, which outlawed monopolies. With prices falling any negatives that were seen in monopolies were not evident in 1890 (for example Standard Oil, which controlled 90% of the market led the reduction of energy prices). In a __trust__, a smaller business gives 100% control to a trust in return for trust certificates of equal value. They don't lose money, just control. Standard Oil formed a trust and other industries looked to do the same. To legislators, this seemed dishonest and shifty. After the law passed, the trusts simply became holding companies as businesses could get approval from state governments to hold stock in other companies. However, professional managers were already abandoning monopolies and trusts in favor of __vertical combination__ - less concern about competition and __more on efficiency by acquiring sources of raw materials, transportation, warehousing, and sales__. They were more efficient than monopolies and trusts. For example, Standard Oil owned each step of the oil process. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act actually made businesses bigger and more powerful, which was an unintended consequence. J.P. Morgan had bought Carnegie Steel and merged it with John Wayne Gates's American Wire Company and other small businesses and formed U.S. Steel, the world's first billion dollar corporation. Harrison also signed the **McKinley Tariff**, which would be the nation's biggest tariff on foreign goods, but it brought a steep rise in prices. A key Harrison success was rebuilding the naval power with the goal of having the biggest navy behind Britain.

The 1892 election year saw a summer hit by strikes including the Homestead Strike along with the McKinley Tariff leading to an increase in prices alienating Southerners and Westerners. The new **Populist Party** that formed in support of the farmers, was a third party that also wanted bank regulation, government ownership of the railroads, unlimited coinage of silver, an income tax, restriction to immigration, nominated James Weaver. The Populists claim to want greater control of government by the people, but their goals would mean more government control OVER the people. The Populists and Harrison split the silver vote, which brought back Cleveland, the first president to be elected to two non-consecutive terms. Coming back into office, Cleveland again showed firmness on issues with his seed corn veto, which took political courage since he had everything to gain and nothing to lose by signing it. If passed it would have set up a provision that millions of dollars in loans would go to midwestern farmers to buy seed. Cleveland said the Constitution didn't give the federal government such power and said private charities should help the farmers, which it did as private organizations raised much more than the federal government would have provided. The big concern in Cleveland's second term though was the **Panic of 1893**, a major depression from the gold drain and collapse of railroad stocks. At the peak of the depression, Jacob Coxey led a group of unemployed citizens, **Coxey's Army** to D.C., which was the first protest of its kind demanding that the government help those who are out of work. J.P. Morgan would come in a bail out the U.S. government. His second term also saw the **Pullman Strike** in which workers led by Eugene V. Debs blocked the railroad, which had mail cars attached. Cleveland sent in federal forces and arrested Debs for interfering with the mail service. Debs would become a committed socialist.

Going into 1896, the economy and silver was the key issue. Silver Democrats scorned Cleveland (at the convention in Chicago, the streets were lined with people wearing silver badges and silver banners). The Populist Party, a third party, lost with James Weaver in 1892, though he got 1 million votes and 22 electoral votes and helped elect 12 Populist congressmen and 3 governors. Soon, the Populists would infiltrate the Democrat Party with "Free Silver" as their rallying cry. The Democrats went with William Jennings Bryan, a devout Christian and great speaker who gave the "Cross of Gold" speech in which he used the metaphor of Christ's crucifixion to describe American enslavement to hard money. However, the Populists failed to grasp the fact that in the course of the last half of the 19th century, political power moved from the farm to the city. By 1896, __America was becoming modern with telephones__ widely available, as well as the __growth of industry__ and the days of a president running the government alone from the White House were gone, the Civil War generation was almost gone, and the post-Pendleton Act era in U.S. politics had pushed patronage directly to the voters.

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