Four years after the conclusion of the Civil War, the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad established a permanent link between the East and West coasts. This connection created new markets for the goods being produced as a result of industrialization. It also signaled the beginning of tremendous economic growth spurred on by big business especially in production of steel, oil, and the building of more railroads.
While some gained extreme wealth during this time period, not everyone in this period enjoyed the privileges that this wealth provided. It is often asserted that the real movers and shakers of the period were not the men in the White House or Congress but “the captains of industry” or, as some have called them, “the robber barons.”
As industrialization exploded, workers experienced harsh and unsafe labor conditions. Children were often forced to work in factories as families struggled to eke out a living. Finally, immigration was at a height due to the unrest in Eastern and Southern Europe. This influx of new immigrants faced a multitude of social and economic problems.
Politics in the period was dominated by political machines especially in the urban areas. While these machines did provide some relief for the conditions many faced, they also led to corruption and greed.
People
Bryan became an advocate of “Free Silver” policy, delivering his “Cross of Gold” speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention. His charisma impressed many of the delegates. He ran unsuccessfully for president 3 times, taking progressive and anti-imperialist stances. He supported President Woodrow Wilson, who appointed Bryan Secretary of State. He served for 2 years but resigned in protest when Wilson led the country into World War I.
In his later life, Bryan worked to secure prohibition and women’s suffrage. He became concerned about the teaching of evolution, calling it “consummately dangerous.” He argued for a literal interpretation of the Bible and in opposition to the teaching of evolution against Clarence Darrow in what became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial. He died five days after that trial ended.
Concerned with the growing power of monopolies and their impact on economic rights, the federal government tried to break up the U.S. Steel Company under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. At the time, U.S. Steel provided two-thirds of all steel produced in the country. However, the government was unable to show any misconduct on the part of the company and the case was dismissed.
Later in life, Andrew Carnegie dedicated his life to philanthropy, and he advocated an idea he called the Gospel of Wealth in which he encouraged the wealthy to give away their fortunes to worthy causes. He used his fortune to found the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
He and his team of engineers and scientists prided themselves on their perseverance, thinking of every failed experiment as one that would bring them closer to success. They also cherished their economic rights, protecting their hard work by registering patents with the federal government. Within five years, he and his team had perfected the telephone and created the phonograph. Next, they became famous for the incandescent light bulb. Later, they worked on the motion picture camera, “talking” movies, a car battery, and an x-ray machine. In his lifetime, Edison registered 1,093 patents.
The Wright brothers knew that citizens had the ability to protect their inventions through patents. They patented their invention as a “flying machine,” and almost immediately had to begin defending their work from rival inventors. Wilbur spent much of the last years of his life in this endeavor, traveling to consult with lawyers and testifying in court. He saw it as his responsibility to defend not only his own economic rights, but those of other citizens. Orville persevered in the legal battle until the case was decided in the Wrights’ favor in 1914.
Documents/Supreme Court Cases
The law was largely ineffective until later legislation provided the means for its enforcement, but the ICC did become the model for other government regulatory agencies.
The first major example of the law being used successfully to break up a trust occurred in 1904 during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency when the law was used to break up the Northern Securities Corporation: a railroad trust formed in 1901 by E. H. Harriman, James P. Hill, J. P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller which controlled all the principal railroad lines from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest. The law was also later used in 1911 during the presidency of William Howard Taft against the Standard Oil trust and the American Tobacco Company.
The founding convention of the Populist party occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, in July,1892. At this convention, the Populists adopted what came to be called the Omaha Platform.” The Preamble to this platform was written by Ignatius Donnelly, a Minnesota lawyer, farmer, and politician. In its Omaha Platform the Populists adopted a number of ideas which many Americans at the time considered radical: (1) a graduated income tax; (2) a secret ballot; (3) the direct, popular election of U. S. Senators; (4) an eight-hour work day; (5) government ownership of the railroads, telegraph, and telephone: (6) free, unlimited coinage of gold and silver; (7) limiting state and national revenue to necessary expenses of government, to keep as much money as possible in the people’s hands; and (8) government reclamation of land held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs and land held by aliens. Some of their proposals later became law in the Progressive and New Deal eras of American history.
William Jennings Bryan was a Democrat and a former two-term member of the U. S House of Representatives from Nebraska. He was an advocate for bimetallism or abandoning the gold standard and allowing the nation’s currency to be backed by silver as well. Bryan spoke on this topic in 1896 at the Democratic Party’s national convention in what came to be called his Cross of Gold speech. In a speech filled with religious imagery and righteous indignation, Bryan thundered, “having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”
At the start of the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Bryan was a “dark horse” candidate with little support for the party’s presidential nomination. This Cross of Gold speech is largely credited with winning him the party’s nomination. He lost the election to Republican William McKinley, and in 1900, the U. S. formally adopted the gold standard. Bryan later also lost races for the presidency in 1900 and 1908.
The Court ruled in favor of Wong Kim Ark, using a clause in the Fourteenth Amendment which granted citizenship to a child born in the United States. This case established the concept of “jus soli.” The Latin term “jus soli” means “by the soil” and was used to establish the citizenship of any child born on U.S. soil to non-citizens.
By a 7-1 vote, with only Justice John Marshall Harlan I dissenting, the Supreme Court upheld the Louisiana law and Plessy’s conviction. The majority concluded that the Louisiana law requiring “separate but equal” facilities for African Americans and whites did not violate either the Privileges and Immunities Clause or the Equal Protection of the laws Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The law mandating racial segregation, the majority reasoned, was in line with “the established usages, customs and traditions of the people, and with a view to the promotion of their comfort, and the preservation of the public peace and good order.” In his powerful solo dissent, Justice Harlan I wrote: “In view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”
The Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v Ferguson upholding racial segregation by law under the so-called “separate but equal rule” led more states to enact such laws. Plessy remained the law until the Supreme Court overruled the decision in 1954 in the case of Brown v Board of Education.
Events
Hundreds of private and government sponsored schools were modeled on the Carlisle school. At the schools, the children were required to change their Native American names, cut their hair, give up their tribal languages, religious beliefs, and customs while experiencing harsh discipline, corporal punishment, and isolation if they resisted. These schools were mostly unsuccessful because many Native American children resisted adopting American culture if it required them to also give up their identities, culture, and traditions. For those that did stay, the negative impact of losing their connection to their tribal culture was far-reaching.
With the cattle boom came issues and conflicts, especially with the farmers in the area. Farmers didn’t like the cowboys driving cattle to market through their land because it often destroyed their crops. Ranchers much preferred access to an “open range.” Because it allowed their cattle to graze freely. To protect their crops and land, farmers began to use barbed wire fences. Ranchers and cowboys resented the use of barbed wire to keep their cattle off the land, especially if it meant that a significant water source might also be behind the barbed wire fence. Barbed wire also damaged the cattle’s skin if they got entangled in the wire. These issues caused continued tension between the rancher and farmer in the settlement of the Plains.