1. Economic Change and the Crisis of the 1890s © 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Chapter 19

2. Economic Growth 15 years between 1878 – 1893: U.S. economy grew at one of the fastest rates in history Growth in manufacturing: –180% increase Agriculture: –26% increase (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

3. Value Added by Economic Sector, 1869-1899 (In 1879 Prices)

4. Railroads Railroads: single most important agent of economic growth Railroad “pools” and other sources of resentment Patrons of Husbandry or Grange (1867) –"Granger laws" –Munn v. Illinois (1877) Interstate Commerce Act (1887) –Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) Standard time zones (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

5. Technology Advancements in: –Railroads –Steel Mills –Telephone –Electricity: light and the generator –Typewriter –Elevators and skyscrapers –Entertainment: phonographs and motion picture –Household items: refrigerators, washing machines –Internal Combustion engine leads to automobiles and first flight (Wright Brothers) (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

6. The American Middle Class Middle class achieves class consciousness Tries to recreate nation in their image

7. Philadelphia Centennial Exposition American inventions on display Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone Christopher Sholes and the typewriter Corliss Steam Engine Fair demonstrated that the antebellum Market Revolution had become industrial

8. Gilded Age Cities Urbanization increased –U.S. 20% urban in 1860, 40% in 1900 Streetcars allow urban growth beyond “walking city” Great disparities of wealth in cities Suburbs for middle class Public vs. private utilities and urban services

9. American Museum Museums move from warehouse of curiosities to ornate display of fine art and scientific artifacts –Natural History Museum in New York –Field Museum in Chicago Labor groups pressure museums to open on Sundays Middle class decorum maintained

10. The Department Store and Mail Order Catalogs Department stores replace small, single item shops –John Wanamaker’s Philadelphia 1876 Mail Order catalogs bring department experience to rural areas –Montgomery Ward –Sears Roebuck Chain Stores –A & P –Woolworth’s All required standardization of goods

11. Advertising and magazines Advertising becomes a major industry Magazines –Primary method of advertising distribution –Pioneered artistic style like Realism –Pioneered literary forms like short stories –Made important technical breakthroughs for media like photo reproduction and printing Newspapers –Sunday editions and comic strips

12. African-American Middle Class Culture Segregation forces Blacks to organize their own economic and social institutions The Colored American Frances E. Harper Paul Laurence Dunbar W. E. B. Du Bois

13. The New Woman Women challenge “separate spheres” in generation after the Civil War More women obtain high school and college degrees Women begin to work in professional and white collar occupations –Work put women away from supervision of male family members –Wages gave them some independence Women and volunteer associations –Settlement Houses and YWCA

14. World’s Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893: culmination of the middle class revolution White City— middle class ideal for future of America Midway Plaisance –Sol Bloom –Ferris Wheel

15. Wealth and Inequality Gulf between rich and poor widened dramatically Thorstein Veblen and Conspicuous Consumption –The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) “Robber barons“ –Criticism was of power, not wealth (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

16. Real Wages of Workers and per capita Income of all Americans, 1870-1900 (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

17. The Antitrust Movement Standard Oil Trust John Sherman and the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) –“Restraint of trade” U.S. v. E. C. Knight Company (1895) (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

18. Labor Strife Labor discontent –U.S. had world’s highest rate of industrial accidents –Decline in status of craft labor National Labor Union (1866) Bureau of Labor (1884) Labor Day (1894) Molly Maguires Greenback-Labor Party (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

19. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Railroad wage cuts –Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 10 states call out militia (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

20. The Knights of Labor Terence V. Powderly and the Knights of Labor (1869) Rank and file wanted to concentrate on improvement in bread and butter issues Leadership wanted alternative to wage system Although leadership opposed strikes, Knights greatest triumphs were through strikes (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

21. Haymarket National general strike for 8 hour day 5-1-1886 McCormick strike, police kill 4 strikers 5-3-1886 Protest of killings at Haymarket Square 5-4-1886 –Anarchists –Bomb kills 10, 6 police –8 Anarchist tried for murder –Knights of Labor caught in anti-labor backlash American Federation of Labor (1886) –Samuel Gompers –Accepted capitalism and wage system (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

22. Henry George Progress and Poverty (1879) Land monopoly is source of wealth disparity Solution: 100% tax on “unearned increment” of land value Sensitized generation that become the Progressives to social issues (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

23. Edward Bellamy Looking Backward (1887) Social Gospel and Christian Socialism –Aid to poor as important as saving souls –Settlement houses –Contributed to rise of Progressives (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

24. The Homestead Strike Carnegie Steel Company Henry Clay Frick Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers Lockout vs. sitdown 1892 Pinkertons and state militia break strike (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

25. The Depression of 1893-1897 Panic of 1893 –Reading Railroad –National Cordage Company Jacob Coxey –End depression with road building –"Coxey's army" (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

26. The Pullman Strike George Pullman Company town Pullman cuts wages, but keeps rents and store price the same American Railway Union (ARU) –Eugene V. Debs –Success in spring 1894 against Great Northern Railroad –Sympathy strike with Pullman workers –Federal troops sent, 34 die –Strike broken, Debs jailed (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

27. Farmers’ Movements Settlers fill plains states in generation after Civil War Agricultural challenges for farming in the west –Severe weather was devastating –Precipitation swings “in God we trusted, in Kansas we busted” –Isolation and loneliness for farm families Global agricultural glut in wheat and cotton by 1880s (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

28. Credit and Money Deflation hurt farmers in debt –“Greenbacks" Public Credit Act (1869) Specie Resumption Act (1875) Effects mixed –Facilitated overall economic growth –Hurt rural economies of South and West (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

29. Wholesale and Consumer Price Indexes, 1865-1897 (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

30. The Greenback and Silver Movements Greenback Party –"the Crime of 1873" Bland-Allison Act (1878) “Free Silver” Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

31. The Farmers’ Alliance Farmers' Alliance –Marketing cooperatives –Ocala, Florida demands (1890) Graduated income tax Direct election of Senators Free silver Government control of railroads, telegraph, and telephone industry Subtreasury Plan People's Party –Populists (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

32. The Rise and Fall of the People’s Party Support for Populists strong in Plains and mountain states Leonidas L. Polk Omaha platform (1892) –Mirrors Ocala demands James B. Weaver Results –Gain control of some Western legislatures –Defeated by racial demagoguery in the South (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

33. The Silver Issue William Jennings Bryan –“Cross of gold" speech –Democratic nominee Populist dilemma –Democratic whale swallowed the Populist fish in 1896 (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

34. The Election of 1896 Republicans and William McKinley –Preferred tariff campaign –Bryan is irresponsible inflationist –Mark Hanna –"front porch campaign" 1896 election most impassioned in a generation Section pattern: South and West vs. North International gold discoveries reverse deflation, prosperity returns (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

35. Conclusion 1890s in America: –American Past: large rural and agricultural economy –American Future: cities and commercial- industrial economy Social and Political upheavals –Economic changes and the widening gap between rich and poor (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved