The Gilded Age "What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." -- Mark Twain-1871

During the "Gilded Age," every man was a potential Andrew Carnegie, and Americans who achieved wealth celebrated it as never before.

The Metropolitan Opera House In New York, the opera, the theatre, and lavish parties consumed the ruling class' leisure hours. Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish once threw a dinner party to honor her dog who arrived sporting a $15,000 diamond collar.

The Vanderbilt Chateau While the rich wore diamonds, many wore rags. In 1890, 11 million of the nation's 12 million families earned less than $1200 per year; of this group, the average annual income was $380, well below the poverty line.

Newly arrived rural Americans and new immigrants crowded into urban areas. Tenements spread across city landscapes, teeming with crime and filth.

Americans had sewing machines, phonographs, skyscrapers, and even electric lights, yet most people labored in the shadow of poverty. http://www.thirteen.org/tenement/logcabin.html

An economist in 1879 noted "a widespread feeling of unrest and brooding revolution." The Frick Mansion

John Jacob Astor Residence, 1897 Violent strikes and riots wracked the nation through the turn of the century.

Elbridge T. Gerry Residence, The middle class whispered fearfully of "carnivals of revenge."

For immediate relief, the urban poor often turned to political machines. During the first years of the Gilded Age, Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall provided more services to the poor than any city government before it, although far more money went into Tweed's own pocket.

Corruption extended to the highest levels of government Corruption extended to the highest levels of government. During Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, the president and his cabinet were implicated in the Credit Mobilier, the Gold Conspiracy, the Whiskey Ring, and the notorious Salary Grab.

George Vanderbilt Europeans were aghast. America may have had money and factories, they felt, but it lacked sophistication. When French prime minister Georges Clemenceau visited, he said the nation had gone from a stage of barbarism to one of decadence -- without achieving any civilization between the two.

Andrew Carnegie's private study The Carnegie mansion The frustrations of Gilded Age workers transformed the labor movement into a vigorous, if often violent, force. Workers saw men like Andrew Carnegie getting fabulously rich, and raged at being left behind. Andrew Carnegie's private study

They saw John D. Rockefeller as one of the wealthy controlling the country

With their own labor the only available bargaining chip, workers frequently went on strike. The 1880's witnessed almost ten thousand strikes and lockouts; close to 700,000 workers struck in 1886 alone.

The results were often explosive-none more than the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. When the B&O Railroad cut wages, workers staged spontaneous strikes, which spread nationwide.

In Baltimore, the state militia fired on strikers, leaving 11 dead and 40 wounded. In Pittsburgh, Carnegie was urged that strikers be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread."

For many Americans, unionization fed a fear that "barbarians" had invaded the nation.

In Chicago police were trying to break up a large labor meeting in Haymarket Square, when a bomb exploded without warning, killing a police officer. Police fired into the crowd, killing one and wounding many more. As a result of the riot, four labor organizers were hanged.

The hangings demoralized the national labor movement and energized management. By 1890, Knights of Labor membership had plummeted by ninety percent. The 1892 battle at Carnegie's Homestead mill became a model for stamping out strikes: hold firm and call in government troops for support.

In the wake of Homestead, Carnegie was roundly criticized by the public, the pulpit, and the press. Just six years earlier, he had been congratulated for his unusual position as an industrialist championing the labor cause. Now he had locked out his workers and imported strike breakers. The word "hypocrite" was on everyone's lips.

When George Pullman slashed wages and hiked rents in his company town, a national strike and boycott was called on all railways carrying Pullman cars. Railroad traffic ground to a halt as 260,000 workers struck, and battles with state and federal troops broke out in 26 states. The strike ultimately failed, its leaders imprisoned and many strikers blacklisted.

Meanwhile, the wealthy factory and business owners enjoyed their luxury “cottages” for the few weeks of summer in Newport

The workers lived in a little less luxurious circumstances.

J. P. Morgan of the Morgan Bank was one of the wealthiest men on earth J.P. Morgan of the Morgan Bank was one of the wealthiest men on earth. When asked how much it cost to keep up his yacht, he replied, “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”

The doctrine of Social Darwinism didn’t increase the sympathy of people with wealth for the less fortunate.

Herbert Spencer coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” Herbert Spencer coined the phrase “survival of the fittest”. To Spencer, human society should be modeled on nature. Humans should never interfere with the selection of the fittest humans for survival to the next generation.

New York Foundling Hospital, 1899–1900 Handouts to the poor, state schooling, and systematized health care were considered dangerous by Spencer, they could only help the weak survive, thereby damaging the “purity” of the rest of the human race. New York Foundling Hospital, 1899–1900

Although Darwinists might disagree Misconception: “Evolution supports the idea that ‘might makes right’ and rationalizes the oppression of some people by others.”

So, while the “idle rich” played

The poor survived the best they could Photo: Jacob Riis, circa 1890. "Street Arabs in their sleeping quarters" from How the Other Half Lives.

The Gilded Age "What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." -- Mark Twain-1871