INTRODUCTION
The term Gilded Age, coined by Mark Twain, refers to the rapid economic growth of the late 1870s to the turn of the 20th century. An era of robber barons, monopolies and massive industrialization, wealth became increasingly concentrated. Immense fortunes were founded on the exploitation of newly urbanized industrial workers, recruited from agricultural sectors or recently arrived immigrants.
Railroads dominated the landscape. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad unified the national marketplace and revolutionized the economy. Reducing the six-month trek from New York to San Francisco to just six days, quick continental travel facilitated a rapidly expanding network of factories, mining and finance. Visionary entrepreneurs, like Nelson Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, developed the end-to-end business model. Massive corporations controlled all aspects of production, transportation and marketing, consolidating costs and undercutting competitors. Dominant monopolies resulted in unprecedented concentrations of wealth, enabling extraordinary philanthropic endowments that transformed American culture and education. The cost was dehumanizing conditions and terrible poverty. Industrial workers, including women and children, were exploited. Their grueling hours, minimal pay and dangerous work environments allowed the industrialists to live in splendor.
Did You Know?
Obscenely rich, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish threw a party to honor her dog, who sported a $15,000 collar! (The average industrial wage in 1890 was $564 per year.)
Click on the items in the case image below for an enhanced view
|
AUDIO COMPANION
|
(18th) President Ulysses S. Grant implemented federal Civil Service reform in 1871, part of his effort to create greater opportunities for newly freed African Americans. However, despite his personal honesty, his administration was marred by corruption and cronyism. (19th) President Rutherford B. Hayes vowed to destroy the established “spoils system,” wherein government jobs were given as rewards. Instead, government appointments were made on merit, regardless of political or personal considerations. Sadly, it wasn’t until an entitled government job-seeker shot (20th) President James A. Garfield that Congress finally approved a more robust Civil Service Act. The Pendleton Act of 1883 prescribed employment and promotion based on competency. It also established the Civil Service Commission to enforce its provisions, regardless of considerations like race.
Grover Cleveland, America’s 22nd and 24th President, is the only person to be elected for two non-consecutive terms. He is also the only President to be married in the White House. Known as the “father of the modern Civil Service,” (26th) President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed himself “steward of the people,” and broadened executive power. Government, he felt, should be the arbiter of conflicting economic forces, guaranteeing justice to each and dispensing favors to none.
