Expansion possible. We saw both the economic transformations and the effects of those changes on the economy as far as lifestyles, both for the very rich, these opulent robber baron lifestyles and also the very poor. Whether it was the People Living in the shacks of the new england mill towns or whether it was twhen the explored the gilded age city, he increasing problems of housing in the sanitation that came with this rapid and in many ways chaotic growth of the cities in the late 19th century. All of it accompanied by problems going along with immigration. Last time, we saw in particular there was some frustration with this new gilded age regime. As we talked about the farmers in this period. That lecture could have been called discontent in the gilded age part one. Today we turn our attention mostly back towards industry and in some ways back toward the cities as well. I want to look at different types of frustrations with this new order in america. We started with the song eight hours, which was a popular labor anthem in the 1880s. You heardthe chorus eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for. In some ways that song speaks what we will be talking about today. Eight hours for work and eight hours for rest. We are talking about labor relations. Were talking about more broadly speaking clinical economy. We are talking about the potential for state regulations, at these arguments over that. That is somewhat straightforward. What about eight hours for what we will . In the song, they say we want to feel the sunshine. We are not machines, were human beings. We want to have a life outside of work. Even those on the top of this new gilded age are also in many ways growing anxious over this new world that is coming about. But first we look at economics. As with so much else the semester, a lot of our story starts with the railroads. You have seen how much the Transcontinental Railroad changed the rest, the economy. Ive already told you, the Railroad Building bonanza didnt stop anything 16 i when they drove the golden spike, instead we continued to build by the end of the century. There were four Transcontinental Railroads. There are all sorts of tributary lines to connect to different parts of the west to those name corridors. It seemed like a really good investment. The lions share of the stocks, the New York Stock Exchange in the period, they were Railroad Stocks. A lot of people scrambled in to get in on the ground floor. One of those projects was the Northern Pacific railroad and the fellow who won the right to be the chief fundraiser for that project was jacob. Very well respected financier. He had been a major financier of the union effort during the civil war. But the problem was this. Investors were starting to realize a near an early 18 seventies that perhaps in our zeal for Railroad Building that we had gone too far. Maybe we overbilled. Maybe the Railroad Bubble is about to burst and all of a sudden, jake cook had trouble raising money. He had trouble getting along. People found out he was overextended. On september 18th 1873, jay cooke and company declared bankruptcy. When cooke we went under a drag down other businesses and railroads and banks with him, a panic hit wall street. You see the picture here. Beginning september 20th, the New York Stock Exchange which i said was very populated by Railroad Stocks closed for ten days. Over the next two months 55 railroads went bankrupt. It did not stop there. By 1874, 25 of the nations railroads bonds were in the fall. It wasnt just railroads that were affected. Over the following two years, there were over 18,000 businesses that failed. Many people, including this cartoonist, clung to the traditional view that ultimately this was a necessary evil. Failure is part of the capitalist system, and so we should see the panic as the cartoonist as, as a sanitation officer cleaning all of the trash out of wall street, and maybe so, but in the meantime, a lot of people had to suffer. In the meantime, Railroad Construction ground to a halt. Unemployment skyrocketed in many sectors. Some cities unemployment was as high as 25 . Childlessness remained rife for the next five years. At the same moment, people were also starting to ask questions about whether or not the railroads should have so much power. Within this new national economy. We saw the farmers asking these questions very loudly. Here we see Railroad Tycoon because William Henri vanderbilt soft, is the modern colossus of railroads along with some of his colleagues cyrus fueled in the notorious jail gold. Farmers considered their rates and their control over the economy to be extortion. And other groups were starting to feel this way as well. The political efforts of frustrated farmers and some allied industrials led to early attempts at state intervention. Big in the early 18 seventies, some states past what we call the granger laws. They did things like set maximum freight and crane elevator rates. Forbidding rate discrimination against short hauls. Many urban consumers felt that the railroads were actually overcharging them. It was not just farmers who are frustrated. They created state railroad commissions to supervise and enforce this new Regulatory Regime. This happened in places like minnesota, iowa, wisconsin and illinois. Illinois is particularly important for us, because it was there that the law was challenged by the firm of monica scott who were accused of overcharged their customers of the Grain Elevator in chicago. They challenged their 100 dollar fine and it went to the Supreme Court and in 1877 by eight seven two majority, the court under chief justice weight declared that when private property is devoted to public use, it is subject to public regulation, and incidently the federal government is not acting so there is an open door for the states to step in. But dont consider this a long term win for state level regulation. In 1886, a six three majority at the Supreme Court declared another case, this time under the Commerce Clause of the constitution, states were forbidden from imposing direct burdens on interstate commerce and illinois Regulatory Regime was considered a direct burden on a railroad which was considered interstate congress, and therefore state level regulation was severely hampered moving forward after the while backed cases. Among other cases in the late 18 eighties, which extended 14th amendment protections to corporations acting to undermine the state level regulations. That does not mean the public stopped being frustrated with the abuses of the railroads. In fact, public outrage over the wild dash decision led to a passage of the interstate commerce act by congress in 1887, it created the interstate commerce commission. In forbid it to have a special rebates for powerful shippers. You remember the rockefeller scheme from a few weeks ago. It would be no rate discrimination against short hauls. There would be public inspection of rates. If you abused these regulations, you could face up to a 5000 dollar fine. Take that vanderbilt. Moreover, in 1890, growing public frustration over the strength of this trusts and particular, standard oil trust. Led congress to pass the sherman antitrust act which is name the brother of sherman. By states has passed Anti Trust Law and the congress was joining the parade. Sherman law and the language is is important for us as we move forward. The sherman law out a every contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade, again, imposing a 5000 dollar fine offense and potentially when youre in prison but i dont want you to be misled. This hardly represents the foundation of a robust Regulatory Regime. From one thing, the president s of the guild in age were generally uncomfortable with the sort of intervention they held to a more traditional view. So Benjamin Harris was president and signed this law because it was in a court accord with Public Opinion but it didnt do too much to enforce it. The same could be said for his successors, whether they be a democrat like Rover Cleveland or republican like mckinley. When the federal government has tried to enforce it, they were smacked down by the courts. In 1895, the court defanged sherman act when he came to industrial combinations. In the case of u. S. Versus easy night, the court declared eight to one. Sherman act did not apply to manufacturing monopolies. U. S. Sugar finding Company Controlled more than 90 of its sector. Certainly this is consolidation. Right . They say production is not interstate commerce. That is something different, so they have narrowly defined the powers given to enforcement under the sherman antitrust act. It wouldnt be until the 20th century that the sherman act was used successfully against industrial monopolies, something we will talk about and later lecture. It wasnt only the government and Public Opinion but also workers who are growing frustrated with the commands of gilded age businessmen. And like the public and the legislatures, labour would be largely frustrated in its protests. The hard times of the 18 seventies meant a lot of things for workers. One thing it meant was hard times, had poor wages, less availability of, worthless security, lest ability, and at times harsh measures by management to try to keep their companies afloat. Railroads in particular had try to respond to the crises of the seventies by cutting their own rates to try and get their business to outdo their competitors. How do they make up for the losses of cutting these rates . They cut their workers wages. That led to a decade of mounting frustrations by the workers. There were a series of localized strikes in 1876 and an early 1877. Then, presenting the wage cuts, and resenting the public a probable that was often heaped on the workers if they stood up for themselves, because it was believed by many, especially in the present government that railroads are a public good, and so if you strike against a railroad, you are doing something especially evil. Workers began to resent all of this. Their resentment exploded in the summer of 1877. A new group called the treatments unions struck in Ohio Railroad beginning july 16th 1877. Baltimore police broke up the first round of pickets, but the next day you know workers to control of a key railroad shouldnt shun in a battle between local police and a serling mob required state militia intervention and eventually federal troops to restore order. Within days the sorts of scenes were erupting in a dozen Railway Centers around the country. And baltimore, a mob tried to trap the militia and an armory. The soldiers fired and killed ten people. In pittsburgh, rioters burned railroads and destroy the depots. While exchanging fires with troop. Strikers in indianapolis seize control of the depot and halted all cars and trains, except for train carrying mail. For reasons we will see in a moment. By july 25th, aligns outside new england and the south were being affected in when we earn other. You could feel the tension on streets around the country. And chicago, businessmen, patrol the streets with guns, cheering a potential revolution. In buffalo, the revolution was underway. Crowds swarmed they arts and the new york central. They claimed control of the depots of the Lakeshore Railroad and the erie railroad, ultimately, however, this Great Railroad strike of 77 collapsed. First of all, the depression was still going on and was easy to find desperate people to work as strike breakers. Unemployment was still around 8 nationally. These are estimates. Some companies were fearful of continued strikes and continued chaos and were willing to negotiate. Ultimately, we cannot call this in any way a win for labor. If anything, the press became increasingly indignant over the city outburst of street action and they called on the states to beef up their militias to put down future agitation. Indeed, with an eye to the future, state level militia units were enhanced and our marines were constructed to prepare for the next events. Meanwhile, conflagrations like those in the late 18 seventies caused many workers to ask a fundamental question. Would not this be more easily accomplished if we had some Better Organization . Many of them turned to a fledgling organization, the nights of labor. It started as a sort of secret society funded by a stephens and philadelphia who is obsessed with all sorts of rituals and secret oaths and so forth. After 1877, many workers became interested in organization and they looked to the knights. This was spontaneous. The knights were never particularly effective recruiters, but people were looking for an organization, so in 1879 the nights of labor had 9000 members. My 82 they had nearly 42,000. In the meantime, they were taken over by new leadership under terrence powder lee who moved the group away from ritual and toward reform. In the 18 seventies and eighties they began stressing monetary reform as we discussed last time. It began discussing an eighthour day. Organizing for a cooperatives among the workers. Trying to gain state and local political influence. Many within the knights of labor began embracing the ideas of henry george who called for a single tax on land. What is interesting besides their wide ranging agenda is their broad membership. This group, sort of anomalous for this period and in america. Especially within labor. This group was highly inclusive. They reached across lines of craft, lines of skill, so it was skilled and unskilled workers. It is immigrants and native born workers. There are catholics and protestants in this organization. There are black members as well as white members. Female members as well as male members. And so, this was a very large, Inclusive Organization and they were building a lot of momentum in the 1880s. We will see in a moment, they have a precipitous climb decline however. We when we see them start to decline, its a totally different deal in labor that comes to the fort. That is craft unionism. That is the American Federation of labour founded in 1886. Their leader is samuel gompers. If you want to learn more, and the papers are held at the library. They were not inclusive. They were for focused on elite craftsman. This is strategic. The skilled craftsmen had a little bit more leverage when it came to negotiations. Unskilled craftsman are replaceable. Skilled craftsmen are little bit harder to replace. Maybe actually have to talk to them. They had much narrower goals. The phrase that gompers spoke of was pure and simple unions and. We are going after bread and butter issues. We are going to get a better wage, shorter hours. We are not trying to change the world, though. This more conservative elite unionism would be the one that would survive the chaos that we are going to talk about now. In the meantime, the 18 eighties would win this recapitulations of many of the troubling themes of the 18 seventies. Once again, a Major Economic panic, thats when in 1884. Followed once again by an industrial downturn, followed once again by labored troubles. Most noteworthy in this time was a period known as the great upheaval. Its a sporadic series of events in many ways. In 1884 there was a successful strike by an organized Railroad Workers against of the Union Pacific railroad. The railroad capitulated within two days. The workers said now that we are on a roll, lets join the nights of labor. Lets make this a permanent fixture. In june of 1884, we saw the beginning of a major mine strike in a hawking river valuable high oh, where 4000 workers plus their families and community and went out on strike and the strike lasted six months. Minors lost the strike, but whats noteworthy is that it once again taught them the usefulness of organization and coordination. If you go on strike you dont get paid. The strike does not last very long, because you have to eat. But they were able to organize and raise funds. They had 100,000 Dollar Relief Fund that enabled him to keep this fight up for six months. Once again, it demonstrates to workers the value of organization. Then in march of 1885 became a major strike against the missouri pacific railroad. It was trying to have a pay cut. That strikes spread to the entire Southwestern Railroad network. Most of which was owned by our buccaneering friend jay, jay gould. On behalf of the workers which tells us more about gould than it does about the governors. Nevertheless, gould gave back the pay cut. Once again, workers saw value and organization. It all meant dramatic growth for the knights of labor. In 1984 1885 they had 100,000 members. In 1886, they had 700,000 members. But this would be the knights high water mark. The reason for the decline was the first of several and very famous but very telling episodes within American Labor relation. We call them explosions in the gilded age, and that is the hay market affair. There was a strike at the mccormack report works in chicago on may 3rd, 1886. They were calling for an eighthour day. There was violence between strikers and police. Shots were fired in at least two workers were killed. They were anarchists in chicago. They said this violence to us is a wonderful example of our broader critique of american capitalism in the american system, so we want to take advantage of this moment to use this tragedy in order to demonstrate to people the validity of our arguments. So they called for protests. The getting may 4. Protests were well attended by the working classes especially german immigrants. There was a large turnout. It was peaceful by all accounts. The rhetoric was relatively tame. According to the relatively tame mayor of chicago, carter harrison, a lot of people were deciding that things were ok and it was time to go home. A lot of people were deciding that things were okay and it was time to go home. But it wasnt. What happens next as the rally started to break up, someone threw a pipe bomb. A policeman was killed. The police began to fire and the shootout ensued. And additional six police and four protesters were killed in the cross fire. We never figured out who threw the pipe bomb. But that doesnt really matter. We knew who to blame. Anarchists. These germans, these radicals. Four of them were executed. Others received long prison sentences. One committed suicide by blowing himself up before he could be executed. Later on in the 18 nineties, john peter altgeld, the new governor of illinois and himself german born, part in three surviving in our costs. Basically saying the whole thing has been a travesty of justice. We still dont know who threw the pipe bomb. We know it wasnt them. Nevertheless, the resulting fear of radicalism led to increasing anti labor sentiment nationwide. Lets talk about another explosion in 1892. 1892 was a period. It could have picked any other number of Major Incidents to talk about. And you orleans there was a general strike that went on and on. It involve 25,000 workers. Dozens of different organizations. Black workers and white workers in new orleans. There was a Major Incident in the coal mining fields of eastern illinois. Known as the cold creek war. Started in 1891 going into 1892. In which tennessee minors protested against the use of convict labor which was being used to undermine their wages. They protested by arming themselves, burning down the stockades where the convicts were being held and releasing a lot of the prisoners. The militia came in and ended up being defeated. And when im going to choose to spend a little bit more time on occurred in a place we have already gotten to know a little bit in this class. Homestead, pennsylvania. At and you corny guy still works. Steel workers there were trying to organize. They were trying to join International Group known as the amalgamate amalgamated iron and steel workers. At one point in his career, Andrew Carney guy had favored the principle of collective bargaining that it was hitting a little too close to home so corny g changed his. Mind he did not become a Great Innovator and millionaire by being a full. He quite prudently decided this battle was not for him and left it to his number two, henry clay fabric. Henry clay held the line against union. On july 1st 1892 he declared that he would not negotiate with the union. They were not legitimate, instead he fortified the steel plant. This would not be the end of the story. The workers arent themselves, captured the plant. Barricaded themselves inside. Now youve got to talk to us. Frick had another move to make. He hired a group, and the tories group known as the pinkerton guards. The real term is mercenary. He came in lumbering up the the monongahela river on their barges. To fight these strikers. It didnt quite work out. When they arrived, a brawl in suit. Nine workers and one guard were killed, as the worker started firing on them the people of homestead were on the side of the workers. This is our families. These are our customers, our neighbors. So they chased them out of town. It could not sleep by their barges because they burned their barges. The haymarket affair, if you recall, local Law Enforcement had ultimately been effective in stopping the radicals. This could not be the case this time because the mayor, the sheriff, they are on the side of the workers. In fact, Public Opinion by and large was on the side of the workers. But that is not the end of the story. In the meantime, and an or kissed named Alexander Berkman brewed into fricks office and shot him twice and repeatedly stabbed him. Workmen is one of the great failures in assassin history. Not only did he fail to kill frick, he also undermined the strikers for who he was professing sympathy. In many ways, Public Opinion saw this outburst of radical violence as a discredit to the union movement. While some Public Opinion remained with the workers there was enough shift that there was political cover for us to move up when level of government. The governor of pennsylvania had the state militia go in. The workers were extricate it from the plant. Strike breakers were brought in and there would not be successful, long term unionization of American Steel workers until the name late 1930s. A puzzled three. Two years later. In illinois. The context for this is the depression that we talked about in the context of the farmers last time it started in 1893. What that meant for one thing is in 1894 there was a lot of labor frustration, almost 1400 strikes, a record breaking 505,000 workers out on strike that year. And the other part of the context is the place. Pullman, illinois. It is one of these Company Towns. And we have talked about Company Towns. As Company Towns go, compared to the unheated shacks with little water supply that we have seen in mind country or in textile towns in new england, pullman was a relatively nice company town by all reports. The housing was a decent standard and there were libraries, parks, playgrounds, schools. And mr. Pullman saw himself as a sort of patriarchal figure. He referred to his workers as his children. But this ended up being a problem. In the town of pullman, what do they make . A make sleeper cars for trains. So you work in his factory. You live in his town where he owns everything. You shop in his stores. You pay rent to mr. Pullman, and all right, well it all seems fine. This is a relatively decent standard of living as far as working class goes. But then came the depression. Mr. Pullman decided he needed to help the companys bottom line and he called for a major wage cut for his workers. Up to 30 . But the rent was going to remain the same. He is your boss, but he is also your landlord. So how are you going to argue this . One thing is the rent was already exorbitant. Because compared to similar rental properties in that region, he was charging about 15 to 20 more. Not only is he not lowering the cost, but he is also cutting their wages. He said this was for the good of the company, but consider this. They paid a 2. 8 Million Dollars worth of dividends in 1894. They were supposed to be losing money. In fact, the dividends they paid that year or higher than the dividends they had paid in previous years. So while there was a real problem and production was indeed down, it is not as though the company was on the verge of collapse. The workers try to negotiate. They sent in a grievance committee, mr. Pullman listen to what they had to say. He said that is very interesting. You guys are fired. This offended the workers, as you can imagine, and it led to a strike. A walkout beginning may 11th. This would have been one of the thousandplus strikes of that year, except it got bigger, because the workers of pullman were aligned with a national group, the American Railway union, and they had the support and sympathy of its president eugene v. Depths. Deaths in the American Railway union called for a secondary strikes. Our switch men our Railroad Workers across the country who refused to switch any pullman car into a train, or when you have 40,000 plus rail workers around the country saying this, it starts to get serious. By late june, Train Networks were being shut down around the country. They tried not to obstruct the mail, because they did not want to run afoul of the federal government. But management was quite smart and how they handle this. They said quite simply if the train is not complete, they were not running it. And they went to the federal government and explained that it was the unionists who were being obstructionists. So the federal government started to take notice at the action going on. In chicago, at a market who had dealt with this would be local authorities. This is too big a scale to be handled by local authorities. At homestead it wouldve been the state. But in illinois, the governor is john altgeld and he is sympathetic to the labor. The Justice Department went to court. They got an injunction against the strikers, but the strikes continued. So debs was arrested on july 10th for contempt of court. Meanwhile, the president had to act, because the strikes continued. The president is still gRover Cleveland. We got to know him last time. The main is being disrupted. Management tells us its the fault of the workers. George pullman is a friend of mine, by the way, and dont forget that cleveland is, like the other gilded age president s, for business, for management. So they get the injunction based on two matters. Number one they are interrupting federal delivery of the male, and number two, this is viewed by the courts and Justice Department as an illegal conspiracy in restraint of trade. These fellows are in violation of the sherman antitrust act. So the injunction is granted and the union does not back down. And so we have to send in the army. Thousands of u. S. Soldiers. Fighting took place, dozens were killed. The Supreme Court strike that. Following two new area, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of dips was wrong. The government was right. They were violating the law and so this gives great power to those seeking injunctions for against lever in the future. And all of these cases, a lot of americans knew who was to blame. It was the workers. It was the radicals, but also, it was groups that we have talked about in great depth a week ago. It was these outsiders. These newcomers. Hes immigrants. And so its not just that we could blame the immigrants in the city for undermining american democracy. It is not just that we can blame the immigrants for a challenging american religious traditions with judaism or challenging american cultural standards with their solutions and beer halls. But also, when we ask who is to blame for a crime and for anarchists and socialists, the answer, if you read this cartoon is quite clear. It is the russian anarchists, the german socialists, the italian bridge, in the polish vagabond, the irish popper, so forth and so on. So classics class and ethnicity, not for the first time in american history, but certainly an increasingly powerful extent, were being conflated, were being intertwined and this was going to be very against both the foreigners and the labor activists for decades to come as we will see. In the meantime i started out saying this was not all about the workplace. It was not all about the economy. Some of the discontent in the gilded age was social in nature. You could understand this. When you work in a factory you have no control. No control over what your work sensual looks like. In little town stay would ring bells to drag you out of bells in the morning. It would ring bells to clear the street so you could go home and wake up when the bells ring again in the morning. They control your life. You dont set your schedule the way you did when your peasant back in europe before you integrated. Or you dont get to spend much time out of doors. You dont get a lot of time. Access to nature. You dont make your own schedule. You dont have any sense of craftsmanship in what you are doing. When you combine this in many cases with living in a very large city, where an entire life could be consumed confined in a world of a few dozen blocks. Remember that that world as we read and observed, could be a very dark, dirty diseased world. Frustrating, stifling world. You start to understand why people would grow discontent with this arrangement. So there were certain solutions that were proposed. One response to this was a push for recreation. Reformers in the gilded age cities, we will get to know them well in future lectures. They believed that urban dwellers would benefit immensely from access to playgrounds, and parks and beaches, like this beach we see here being enjoyed by some of the immigrant textile workers that we met in previous lectures. So one response to the discontent, or at least the potential discontent of the cooped up urban dweller, was the rise of recreation and urban parks. It had been going on for many decades. Of course they did not invent parks in the gilded age. The most famous of those parks, central park in new york, began construction in its modern form in the frederick law austin beginning in 1858, completed in 1873, but more and more parks would follow, as the gilded age approached the 20th century, the push for outdoor breathing spaces for the urban masses would become even more vehement. While we have got green spaces, we also need to make sure we are keeping everybody fit and active. If they are physically active, that will keep them out of trouble on the one hand, and if they are physically fit, that will help keep them morally fit. It will help them be wholesome. It will help them avoid the saloon, potentially. Reformers and the city saw all sorts of means of keeping the masses from getting bored and both are jake, and ive encouraging them to stay healthy, both physically and morally. Lets see some exercise classes here. And this in turn, led to the increasing popularity of athletics. Sports or a way to bring order to people. To organize people. Not only into community organizations, but also to keep them fit at the same time. And to develop a sense of pride in your group, in your churches team. In your unions team. In your towns. In your towns team. In your schools team, rather which is very important. This is a transnational phenomenon. I dont want you to think this is only american. Historians can tell you the same story about soccer clubs in britain and europe or cricket clubs rising in the same period. But in our case history important as well. This is the time when baseball and its modern form starts to get organized and formalized in the years after the civil war. Basketball is invented by dr. James smith and 1891 at a ymca in springfield massachusetts. We start to have College Football. The First CollegeFootball Game took place in 1869 between princeton and the big 14 records. Records when for those of you who play trivia, six to four, that ever comes up. That game like our game was very violent, but theres was far worse no helmets. Plenty of unnecessary roughness. No notion of unnecessary roughness. The game came close to getting band a couple of times, but there was a president ial commission to discuss all of the carnage taking place on the College Football fields. Indeed, carnage is the right word for it. It was estimated by a historian that in the year the president in question how this commission in 1905, there were many as 45 deaths on College Football fields. When historian estimates that that was in the five years leading up to the commission, in the year 1905 itself, it has been estimated that College Football games produced 18 deaths and 159 catastrophic injuries. So we needed to do something to organize this and make it less bloody. So they have worked on that. It was not only the working classes who found modern society been l and sought outlets for their constrained energies. The upper classes. Intellectuals. In the gilded age, became increasingly disenchanted with the weightlessness of their society. Many of them suffered from an incredibly vague, but increasingly popular this order called which consisted of anxiety, fatigue, depression, stress, impotence, headaches the diagnosis depended very heavily on who you were. If you were of the working class and you are or whining about these things you were either lazy and in sane and you had to be institutionalized and if you are a woman, it was quite likely that you were simply hysterical. You needed to be locked up in this plane a room as possible until a major hysterical you read about this and Charlotte Gill means the yellow wallpaper from 1892. For a lot of people, male and female, these symptoms might mean you were suffering from nerve weakness. There was a neurologist named George Miller beard. He identified this disorder as a symptom of modern life. It was caused by this faster pace. This unnatural faster pace. Many things, but especially above all, it was caused by modern technology. Technology was not natural. It is degrading us in our biology. Beards solution was a regiment of electrical shocks. Other physicians would call for bed rest and isolation. To a lot of intellectuals they said if this burnout is a symptom of maternity, and our solution is to embrace anti modernas. So they wanted something more than the superficial consumers, the secularize drive for material gain that seemed to mark their times. Many of them rejected modern society in favor of any number of more basic alternatives. A vague return the simple life, or return to craftsmanship. Working with your hands. A return, in some cases, to medieval style religious devotions or a new turn to ancient religious practices of the far east. A romanticization of all things as they would say at the time, oriental. They turned four alternatives to their modern society. Oftentimes, in a bizarre way, but it gives you, nevertheless, insight into their frustration with the society. For many of them, including the president that i did not name that i was referring to during the football discussion. For many of them, self exertion was the tonic of choice. Theodore roosevelt was a young, sickly elite old running boy. His solution to all of this was the vigorous life. Particularly times spent in the great outdoors. In his very famous attempts to invigorate himself and his claw op, Theodore Roosevelt would hike mountains, hunt big game, engage and cattle ranches, lead military units and encourage his fellow white men to procreate as much as possible. These were some of his solutions, this vigorous life. While these concerns from neurotic elites were confused, overwhelmed intellectuals. They may seem trivial compared to the labor strife and economic turmoil of the late 19th century and indeed to a large extent, they are. But the point here is that elites were just as interested in using central park and other parks for themselves as they were creating the park as an outlet to prevent discontent among the lower sorts. We see them and join central park here. The point, in other words, is that during the gilded age there was disenchantment coming from all directions. From those who needed a break. From the monotony of industrial life. From those who feared the moral or social implications of an increasingly restless working class. From businesses who found themselves abused by monopolies. From states who found themselves powerless to stop monopolies. From workers who were constantly finding themselves being crushed by monopolies and other companies as well. Also, from those near the top of the gilded age social hierarchy, who found their society in cleanly vacuous and unsatisfying. We are not done with the gilded age, yet. We have been away from the south for sometime now. Next time when we return, we will turn our gaze back to dixie and observe their peculiar version of the gilded age. However have a wonderful weekend. Turn your papers and. If you are a new student, put your paper here. Have a wonderful weekend