Gilded Age Given name by Mark Twain Post-Civil War until 1890s

The Gild Breakers of the Vanderbilt Family The Astor Family The Boldt Castle The Mount of Edith Wharton Lockwood-Mathews Mansion

Monopolies Monopoly—one company controls the entire market for a certain good Allows to set price anywhere they want Stomps out all competitors

POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE As cities grew in the late 19 th century, so did political machines Political machines controlled the activities of a political party in a city The head of the Political machine was known as the “Boss”

Political Corruption was considered to be widespread Voter Fraud- used fake names and voted multiple times Patronage- granting favors in return for political support Graft- bribes kick-backs - Return of money in exchange for a business

Civil Service Reform Patronage-appoint people you know to government positions President Garfield assassinated as a result of patronage

ROLE OF THE POLITICAL BOSS The “Boss” controlled jobs, business licenses, granting of contracts and influenced laws and courts Political Machines helped immigrants with naturalization (citizenship), jobs, and housing in exchange for votes Boss Tweed ran NYC

THE TWEED RING SCANDAL William M. Tweed, known as Boss Tweed, became head of Tammany Hall, NYC’s powerful Democratic political machines Between , Tweed led the Tweed Ring, a group of corrupt politicians, in defrauding the city Tweed’s ring stole between 40 and 200 million Tweed died in Jail Boss Tweed

Essential Question Industrialization increased the standard of living and the opportunities of most Americans, but at what cost?

Causes of Rapid Industrialization 1.Steam Revolution of the 1830s-1850s. 2.The Railroad fueled the growing US economy:  First big business in the US.  A magnet for financial investment.  The key to opening the West.  Aided the development of other industries.

Causes of Rapid Industrialization 3.Technological innovations.  Bessemer and open hearth process—make steel  Refrigerated cars  Edison o light bulb, phonograph, motion pictures.

4.Unskilled & semi-skilled labor in abundance. 5.Abundant capital. 6.New, talented group of businessmen [entrepreneurs] and advisors. 7.Market growing as US population increased. 8.Government willing to help at all levels to stimulate economic growth. 9.Abundant natural resources. Causes of Rapid Industrialization

New Business Culture 1.Laissez Faire → the ideology of the Industrial Age.  Individual as a moral and economic ideal.  Individuals should compete freely in the marketplace.  The market was not man-made or invented.  No room for government in the market!

2. Social Darwinism British economist. Advocate of laissez-faire. Adapted Darwin’s ideas from the “Origin of Species” to humans. Notion of “Survival of the Fittest.” Herbert Spencer

2. Social Darwinism in America William Graham SumnerFolkways (1906) Individuals must have absolute freedom to struggle, succeed or fail. Therefore, state intervention to reward society and the economy is futile!

New Business Culture: “The American Dream?” 3.Protestant (Puritan) “Work Ethic”  Horatio Alger [100+ novels] Is the idea of the “self-made man” a MYTH??

→ John D. Rockefeller  Standard Oil Co.

Tycoons JP Morgan—banking

Andrew Carnegie—steel

Cornelius Vanderbilt –railroads

Iron & Steel Production

% of Billionaires in 1900

% of Billionaires in 1918

The Protectors of Our Industries

The ‘Bosses’ of the Senate

The ‘Robber Barons’ of the Past

Cornelius [“Commodore”] Vanderbilt Can’t I do what I want with my money?

©2010, TESCC * Rise of Mass Media New Technologies in printing allowed newspapers to increase their circulation. The Muckrakers! People who wrote to expose the evils in society and businesses. ©2010, TESCC

* Thomas Nast As a political cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly, Nast attacked the Tammany Hall (Democratic) political machine that ran New York City in Along the way, Nast created the Democratic Donkey, Republican Elephant symbols (he did not like the Democrats), the Tammany Tiger and even Santa Claus. ©2010, TESCC

Thomas Nast ©2010, TESCC *

* Boss Tweed Picture from Boss Tweed Page "Stop them darn pictures. I don't care what the papers write about me. My constituents can't read. But, darn it, they can see the pictures." ©2010, TESCC

Mulberry Street Bend, 1889

5-Cent Lodgings

Men’s Lodgings

Women’s Lodgings

Immigrant Family Lodgings

Dumbbell Tenement Plan Tenement House Act of 1879, NYC

Blind Beggar, 1888

Italian Rag-Picker

1890s ”Morgue” – Basement Saloon

”Black & Tan” Saloon

”Bandits’ Roost”

Mullen’s Alley ”Gang”

The Street Was Their Playground

Lower East Side Immigrant Family

A Struggling Immigrant Family

Another Struggling Immigrant Family

Rosa Schneiderman, Garment Worker

Child Labor

Average Shirtwaist Worker’s Week 51 hours or less4,5545% hours65,03379% hours12,21115% Over 63 hours5621% Total employees, men and women 82,360

Womens’ Trade Union League

Women Voting for a Strike!

The Uprising of the Twenty Thousands (Dedicated to the Waistmakers of 1909) In the black of the winter of nineteen nine, When we froze and bled on the picket line, We showed the world that women could fight And we rose and won with women's might. Chorus:Hail the waistmakers of nineteen nine, Making their stand on the picket line, Breaking the power of those who reign, Pointing the way, smashing the chain. And we gave new courage to the men Who carried on in nineteen ten And shoulder to shoulder we'll win through, Led by the I.L.G.W.U.

Local 25 with Socialist Paper, The Call

Social and Political Activists Clara Lemlich, Labor Organizer Carola Woerishoffer, Bryn Mawr Graduate

Public Fear of Unions/Anarchists

Arresting the Girl Strikers for Picketing

Scabs Hired

“The Shirtwaist Kings” Max Blanck and Isaac Harris

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Asch Building, 8 th and 10 th Floors

Typical NYC Sweatshop, 1910

Inside the Building After the Fire

Most Doors Were Locked

Crumpled Fire Escape, 26 Died

One of the Heroes

10 th Floor After the Fire

Dead Bodies on the Sidewalk

One of the “Lucky” Ones?

Rose Schneiderman The Last Survivor

Scene at the Morgue

Relatives Review Bodies 145 Dead

Page of theNew York Journal

One of the Many Funerals

Protestors March to City Hall

Labor Unions March as Mourners

Women Workers March to City Hall

The Investigation

Francis Perkins Future Secetary Of Labor

Alfred E. Smith – Future NYC Mayor and Presidential Candidate

Future Senator Robert Wagner

Out of the Ashes ILGWU membership surged. NYC created a Bureau of Fire Prevention. New strict building codes were passed. Tougher fire inspection of sweatshops. Growing momentum of support for women’s suffrage.

The Foundations Were Laid for the New Deal Here in 1911 Al Smith ran unsuccessfully in 1928 on many of the reform programs that would be successful for another New Yorker 4 years later – FDR. In the 1930s, the federal government created OSHA [the Occupational Safety & Health Administration]. The Wagner Act. Francis Perkins → first female Cabinet member [Secretary of Labor] in FDR’s administration.

History of the Needlecraft Industry by Ernest Feeney, 1938