Gilded Age: Capital and Labor

D. Hales
Swansea High School
US History

​Gilded Age: Capital and Labor

Students will be able to explain, evaluate and analyze the reasons and effects for the conflicts between Gilded Age Capital and labor

​Learning Objective

Standard 3: Demonstrate an understanding of how innovation and industrialization impacted demographic change, reform movements, and American identity from 1862–1924.

​Standard

2019 SC Social Studies College and Career Ready Standards

​Social Gospel

Only hard work and perseverance created wealth.

The elite, then, had the responsibility to spread their wealth in a way that was to the benefit of society (rejects the morals of Social Darwinism, but accepts the principles)

Thus, wealthy philanthropists began distributing their efforts through public works instead of leaving their money for their heirs to squander or for the public to distribute.

Carnegie wrote the article entitled "The Gospel of Wealth" in 1889, voicing this opinion. By the time of his death, Carnegie had given away 90% of his fortune.

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

​Corporations build wealth

Form monopolies

Get loans, grants from the US government​

List stocks on the New York Stock Exchange

--Vertical integration (own all the steps of the production process: Carnegie Steel)

--Horizontal integration (own all of your competition; Rockefeller and Standard Oil)​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Multiple Choice

The belief that business leaders should give money to charity as a way of benefiting the country

• Social Darwinism

• Social Gospel

• Socialism

• Social Contract

Multiple Choice

Corporate strategy of owning all steps in the production process--ex: Carnegie Steel

• Vertical Integration

• Anarchism

• Socialism

• Horizontal Integration

Multiple Choice

Corporate strategy of buying out your competition to control an entire industry

• Horizontal Integration

• Socialism

• Anarchism

• Vertical Integration

​National Labor Union

NLU (National Labor Union) in 1866 supported radical ideas, such as equal rights, currency reform, and an eight-hour workday. Although the group was able to garner support for a federally mandated eight-hour workday, the efforts of the NLU were stymied due to the Panic of 1873, during which workers accepted employment of any sort over reform.

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

​Knights of Labor

Wanted equal pay regardless of gender and an end of convict labor. Welcomed all wage workers, including women, African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants of all trades and skill levels. The group enjoyed many successes, which played a part in expanding its influence. Unfortunately, The Haymarket Affair of 1886 worked to undo the influence of the KOL. After which, labor union efforts lost mass national appeal and trended toward the earlier specialty groups.

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Multiple Choice

1886 riot in Chicago that terrified Americans into thinking unions were dangerous and led to the decline in the Knights of Labor

• Shay's Rebellion

• XYZ Affair

• Haymarket Affair

• Zimmerman Telegram

​How did industrialization affect different groups of Americans?

Farmers--overproduction drove down the prices of their crops

Women and Children--With assembly lines, many​ were hired to do cheap labor. Result: exposure to dangerous conditions, children not going to school.

Immigrants--More immigrants came from S and E Europe to work in factories; American workers resent them, put limitations on ​immigration

Migrants--Great Migration: African Americans move North to find jobs in factories, escape the racism of the South. This trend accelerates during WW1 (1914-1918)

Middle Class--​Better educated worked as bookkeepers, managers, and secretaries, among many other positions. Money to shop and spend on leisure activities (dept stores, amusement partks, sports)

​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

​Nativism

--Prejudiced response to large amounts of immigration

--Criticized immigrants for racial, linguistic, religious and cultural differences​

• In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped Chinese immigration. Racial prejudice against Chinese-Americans kept them from being allowed to become U.S. Citizens until 1943.

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

​Growth of Nativism

By 1921, Nativism had grown so strong in the United States that Congress passed a series of laws to restrict immigration. The Immigration Quota Act capped annual immigration at 350,000 and set National Origins Quotas to limit each country’s total. Further revisions of the law in 1924 and 1929 eventually brought the total of immigrants allowed in the US down to 150,000 per year. The details of the law reflected widespread prejudice against Southern and Eastern Europeans, whom most Americans considered to be racially inferior. These laws caused a dramatic decline in immigration to America.

Subject | Subject

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epDnsHf2CLM

Multiple Choice

Term used to describe Americans who believed there was too much immigration

• Socialists

• Anarchists

• Captialists

• Nativists

​Government Policies towards Industrialization

Beginning of the Gilded Age (1877-1900): Laissez-Faire--Government did not interfere with businesses and the economy

By the end (1901-1909) when Theodore Roosevelt was President, ​the government was moving more towards regulating what businesses were doing, trying to prevent monopolies

Why? Fear of revolution among working people, disruptions in the economy​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

​How the government started to regulate businesses...

Interstate Commerce Act--Tried to prevent the railroad in overcharging farmers; didn't work because the RR's had too much political influence

Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890--​outlawed trusts, which were groups of businesses that merged to form a monopoly in order to dictate market pricing structures. The Act's goal was to promote a fair and competitive marketplace and federally regulate interstate commerce.

​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Multiple Choice

Attitude towards "big business" at the beginning of the Gilded Age--let corporations control the economy, government doesn't regulate business

• Noblesse oblige

• Laissez Faire

• Joie de Vivre

• Carte Blanche

Multiple Choice

US President (1901-1909) who believed monopolies were bad for America and was afraid if businesses were not regulated it could cause a revolution

• Grover Cleveland

• Benjamin Harrison

• William McKinley

• Theodore Roosevelt

Multiple Choice

1890 law whose goal it was to prevent the rise of monopolies

• Interstate Commerce Act

• McKinley Tariff Act

• Sherman Anti-Trust Act

• Alien and Sedition Acts

Audio Response

Explain the term nativism and identify one law from this period that reflects a nativist attitude.

Open Audio Recorder

Open Ended

Explain how government attitudes towards big business changed from the beginning to the end of the Gilded Age? What might have happened if that attitude did not change? Explain.