The Brooklyn Bridge 1883 Chester Arthur 21

The Brooklyn Bridge, 1883

Chester Arthur, 21 st President of the United States, 18811885

William Marcy “Boss” Tweed • “Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall” of New York • A powerful social club for the New York City Democratic Party • Expert at bribery, kickbacks, and graft

The Mugwumps • Republicans who support Democrat Grover Cleveland for President

Accident rates on railroads Between July 1888 and June 1889 the railroads employed: • 704, 443 men • of these, 20, 028 were injured • and 1, 972 died • a 3 percent rate of injury and fatality Batvia, Ohio wreck of 1884

Industrial accidents in the late-19 th century • 1880 to 1900, 35, 000 fatal industrial accidents a year • do the math. . . • 700, 000 industrial accidents in 20 years • compare to civil war. . . • 600, 000 fatalities during the American civil war

Southwestern strike of 1886 • Knights lead a huge strike against Jay Gould’s southwestern railroads • But can’t sustain a long term strike against Gould, and the strike fails

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) • Founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers • A coalition of craft unions Samuel Gompers

May 4, 1886 Haymarket Square, Chicago

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) Samuel Gompers • Gompers advocates “pure and simple” trade unionism • “Pure” because AFL stayed out of politics • “Simple” because AFL organized only skilled workers • 1 million members by 1901. . .

Henry George • Advocate of “The Single Tax” in his book Progress and Poverty • Argued that productivity constantly outpaced demand • A big Single Tax on unused land would • Fund social needs • Discourage speculation and free up land for small farmers and producers Henry George

The New York Mayoral Campaign of 1886 Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Hewitt, Henry George

Populists? Huey Long; Joe Mc. Carthy; Jimmy Carter; Glenn Beck

The Gold Standard • During Civil War Lincoln issued “greenbacks” • But government withdrew them in the 1870 s • Only dollars redeemable for gold can circulate

Two gripes against Gold Standard • It put credit almost entirely in the hands of gold holders (banks) • It restricted how much money could circulate

Why farmers didn’t like the Gold Standard. . . Imagine a world in 1880 with 1 farmer, 1 bushel of wheat to sell and 1 consumer with 1 dollar? Q. How much is that bushel going to sell for? (A. 1 dollar) Suppose in 1881 the population goes up. . . Now there are 2 farmers and 2 bushels of wheat being sold to 2 consumers. But, still only one dollar because the dollar is based on the extant supply of gold! Q. How much do those two farmers get for their wheat? A. Still one crummy buck, which the two farmers have to divide among them!

• Three possible solutions: • Allow the dollar to be backed by silver as well as gold. • Just issue “greenbacks” based on government guarantees. • Create special credit system for farmers.

• Form cooperative buying committees • Form trade stores • At first emphasizes non-partisanship

Alliance supports the Knights of Labor • “Knowing that the day is not far when the Farmers Alliance will have to use a Boycott on manufacturers in order to get goods direct, we think it is a good time to help the Knights of Labor in order to secure their help in the near future. ” –William Lamb

Alliance begins to advocate Federal policy The Cleburn Texas platform of 1886 -An interstate commerce law to regulate railroad rates -Tax speculated land -Federally administered national banking system “Sockless” Jerry Simpson

1887 -88: The Texas Exchange • Farmers would put their land up as collateral for a huge group loan

C. W. Macune’s subtreasury plan • Government issue credit for farmers • Government construct warehouses for farmers • Farmers then able to cooperatively sell on the international market when prices are optimal Charles W. Macune

Obstacles to farm populism • Sectionalism divided northern and southern farmers • African American farmers loyal to the Republican party and fearful of white supremacist violence • Urban areas indifferent to populist cause

Sectional divisions in women’s movement • National Women’s Suffrage Association, refused to support Republicans unless they supported women’s suffrage • American Women’s Suffrage Association supported Republican Party

Key feminist issues • Voluntary motherhood • Reform of coverture • Universal education • Suffrage 28

Washington Gladden, 1836 -1918 Pastor, First Congregational Church Author of Working People and their Employers One of the progenitors of the Social Gospel Movement

The Gilded Age social justice coalition • The Knights of Labor • The Alliance Party • The American Federation of Labor • The Social Gospel Movement • The Women’s Christian Temperance Union • The Utopians: Single Taxers, Bellamyites, the Free Silverites • The anti-Monopoly movement

• 30, 000 miles of railroad in U. S. in 1860 • 193, 000 miles of railroad in 1900

Rise of the corporate state • Railroad revolution creates unprecedented need for financing • Communications revolution allows corporations to function • Legal revolution allows corporations to exist • Weak state allows corporations to thrive

Two key corporate cases Dartmouth College (1816) • New Hampshire had no right to take over Dartmouth College because it could not interfere with private contracts Charles River Bridge (1828) • Massachusetts could license a corporation to build a second bridge across the Charles River • The first corporation enjoyed no special status because of its state license

Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886) • Corporations are individuals as defined by the Fourteenth Amendment • Therefore they enjoy equal protection under the law “The court does not wish to hear the argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does. ”

The Corporation: a state licensed entity with the right to borrow from the public • Enjoys perpetual existence • Stockholders enjoy “limited liability” • Corporations can own other entities • Railroads required too much capital to depend on regional investors • Financiers sell stock on the international market to public railroad corporations

Three kinds of mega-entities • Railroad pools: agreements by which railroads fixed prices • Trusts: A corporation that bought stock in other corporations • The merger: corporations buying other corporations outright q 1899: 1% of corporations controlled 33 percent of manufacturing

Samuel Morse and his telegraph

Laying the transatlantic cable, 1858

• 1800: 235 newspapers in the United States (one for every 22, 500 people) • 1899: 16, 000 newspapers (one for every 4, 750 people)

Associated Press, 1849 • No new member will be admitted to the association unless by unanimous and written consent of all existing partners but news may be sold to newspapers outside of New York City upon a majority vote of all existing partners. ”

Morse plan • Federal government would buy his patents • Government would grant the right to individual companies to build telegraph lines • Federal government would also build its own system

Western Union’s empire • 1880: WU has 80 percent of all miles of wire • 92 percent of all messages transmitted • 91 percent of all press messages • Collects 89 percent of all receipts from messages

“The mere fact of monopoly proves nothing. The only question to be considered is, whether those who control its affairs administer them properly and in the interest, first, of the owners of the property, and second, of the public. ” --President, Western Union, 1870

Horatio Alger

Andrew Carnegie

The Chartists • Universal manhood suffrage • The secret ballot • Annual election to parliament • Equal electoral districts based on population not acreage

Carnegie Bessemer Steel

The man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.

How old is the earth? Othniel Marsh’s dinosaurs • 1870 s: Marsh’s team heads west and discovers major Jurassic period dinosaurs: Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, and Allosaurus • Further expeditions by Cope find new specimens • Support thesis that earth is millions of years old

• Social Darwinism • “Survival of the fittest” concept adapted to industrial life • Abundance concept: plenty of wealth for everyone willing to work hard and take risks • Malthusean economics: Harsh times the way of weeding out the weak

Henry Demarest Lloyd Caesar’s Column (1891), by Ignatius Donnelley