Welcome back everybody, as you know weve been in the golden age for sometime now. We have already seen the Technological Innovations that have made some of this economic expansion possible. We saw about the economic transformations and the effects of those changes in the economy as far as lifestyles both of the very rich, these opulent robert baron lifestyles on the one hand and on the other hand on the very poor but it was the People Living shacks of the new england newtowns or whether it was when we explored the gilded age city, the increasing problems of housing that came with this rapid and in many ways, chaotic birth of the cities in the 19th century in all of it accompanied by problems going along with immigration. And then last time, we saw in particular there was some frustration with this new gilded age regime as we talk about the farmers in this period. That lecture really couldve been called the discontent in the gilded age part one. Today, we turn our attention mostly back towards industry and in some ways back to the city as well. I want to look at different types of frustrations that this new order in america. We started with the song eight hours which was a popular labor anthem in the 18 eighties and you heard the chorus. Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours from what we will and in some ways, that song speaks to what we are going to talking about today. On the one hand, it hours for working eight hours for rest. Were talking about labor relations. Were talking about more broadly speaking, political economy. Were talking about the potential for state regulation 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. In other words, we are not machines, we are human beings. We want to have a life outside of work. And even those on the top of this new gilded age are also as we will see toward the end, in many ways, growing anxious over this new world, that seems to be coming about. But first we look economics. And as with so much else, this semester, a lot of our story starts with the railroads. You have seen how much the Transcontinental Railroad changed west. It change the economy. Ive already told that that railed road didnt stop an 1869 when he drove the golden spike instead they continue to build by the end of the century and there were four Transcontinental Railroad by the end of the century. There were all kinds of tributary lines to connect to different parts of the west to those main corridors. It seemed like a really good investment. It would be the lions share of the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange in this period. They were not industrial stocks, they were railroad stocks. And a lot of people scrambled to get in on the ground floor. And 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 jay cook. A very well respected financier, hed been a major financier of the union effort during the civil war. The problem was this. Investors were starting to realize in the early 18 seventies, that perhaps in our zeal for Railroad Building we had gone too far. Maybe we are overbuilt. Maybe the Railroad Bubble is about to burst. And all of a sudden, jake cook had trouble raising money. He had trouble getting alone. People found out he was over extended, and on september 18th, 1873, jay koch and company declared bankruptcy. When cook went under a drag down of the businesses and railroads and banks with him. A panic hit wall street. You see a pictured here. The inning september 20th, the New York Stock Exchange which i said was heavily populated by railroad stocks, closed for ten days and on over the next two months, 55 railroads went bankrupt. And it didnt stop there. The 1874, 25 of the nations Railroad Bonds were in default. It wasnt just railroads that were affected. For the following two years, the rover 18,000 businesses that failed. Many people, including this cartoonist, clung to the tradition of you that ultimately, this was a necessary evil. Failure is part of the capitalist system and so we should see the panic has the core tunic does cartoonist does, as a sanitation officer cleaning all of the trash out of wall street. Maybe so, but in the meantime, a lot of people had suffer. In the meantime, Railroad Construction ground to a halt. Unemployment skyrocketed in many sectors and in some cities, unemployment was as high as 25 . Jobless nurse remained rife for the next five years. Were at the same moments, 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 railroads tycoon William Henry vanderbilt, member of the family weve gotten to know well over the past few weeks, pictured of as the modern colossus of railroads. Along with some of his colleagues cyrus field and the notorious jail gold. As we saw last time, farmers considered their great control over the economy to be extortion. And indeed, other groups were starting to feel this way as well. The political efforts or frustrated farmers and some allied industrialists led to early attempts at state intervention. In the early 18 seventies, some states called what we pass the granger laws. They said maximum freight elevator rates. Forbidding rate discrimination against shortfalls. Many urban consumers father the railroads were overcharging them. It was not just farmers who were 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 particularly important for us because it was there that the law was challenged by the form of meng and scott, who were accused of having overcharged their customers at their green elevator in chicago and they challenged their 100 dollar fine and it went to the Supreme Court in 1877 by seven to majority the court under chief justice weight declared that when private property is devoted to a public use, it is subject to public regulation. And incidentally, the federal government is not acting so there is a door open for the states to step in. Adam but dont consider this a long term win for state level regulation. Because an 1886, a six three majority at the Supreme Court declared in another case, this time the railroad versus illinois, that 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 commerce, and therefore state level regulation was severely hampered moving forward after the the wabash case. This, along with a couple of other cases in the late 18 eighties extended the 14th amendment protections to corporations. It acted to undermine the state level regulation. That doesnt mean the public stopped being frustrated with the abuses of the railroads. In fact, public outrage over the wabash case led to the passage of the interstate commerce act by commerce in 1887. It created the interstate commerce commission, it made it forbidden to have special rates and rebates for powerful shippers. You remember rockefellers scheme from a few weeks ago. There would be no rates discrimination against stewart shortfalls. There would be public inspection of rates and if you abused these regulations, you could face up to a 5000 dollar fine. So take that, vanderbilt. Moreover, they work through. In 1890, growing public frustration over the strengths of the trust in particular, the standard oil trust, led congress to pass the sherman act which was named for senator john sherman of ohio, the brother of william sherman. By 1890, 27 states had pass trust laws and how the congress was during the parade. The sherman law, the language is important for us moving forward today, the sherman law outlawed every contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade, again imposing a 5000 dollar fine for offense. And potentially also a year in prison. But i dont want you to be misled. This hardly represents the foundation of a robust regulatory. Regime for one thing, the president s of the gilded age were generally uncomfortable with this sort of state intervention. They held to more traditional laissezfaire view and so Benjamin Harrison was president and signed this law because it was in accord with Public Opinion, it didnt do too much to enforce it and in the same can be said for his successors. Whether they be a democrat like we democrat like Grover Cleveland or a republican like william mckinley. In moments when the federal government did try to enforce it, they were smacked down by the courts. In 1895 the course defanged the sherman act when it came to industrial combinations. The court declared eight to one, that the sherman act did not apply to manufacturing monopolies. The u. S. Sugar Refining Company controlled more than 90 of its sector. Certainly, this is consolidation. But they say production is not interested commerce. That is something different. And so they have narrowly defined the powers they have given to enforcement under the sherman antitrust act. And it wouldnt be until the 20th century that the sherman act was used successfully against industrial monopolies, something we will talk about in a later lecture. It wasnt only the government in Public Opinion but also workers who were growing frustrated with the commands of the gilded age businessmen. And like the public, and the legislatures, labor 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 that hard times, they got poor wages, less availability of work, less security, less stability. And at times, harsh measures by management to try and keep their companies afloat. Railroads in particular had tried to respond to the crises of the seventies by cutting their own rates to try and get their business out through their competitors and how do they make up for the losses of cutting these rates . They cut the workers wages. That led to a decade of mounting frustrations by the workers. There were a series of localized strikes in 1876 and then early 1877. And then, presenting the wage cuts, and presenting the public opprobrium that was often heaped on the workers as they stood up for themselves because it was believed by many especially in the press in the government, that railroads are a public good and so if you strike against the railroad, you are doing something especially evil. So the workers began to resent all of this. Them and their resentment exploded in the summer of 1877. A new group called the train mens union struck against the baltimore and ohio railroad, beginning july 16th, 1877. Baltimore police broke up the first round of pickets. The next day, they took control of the key Railroad Junction in martin berke, west virginia. A battle between local police and a sorely mob required state militia intervention. Eventually, federal troops had to restore order. Within days, these sorts of scenes were erupting in a dozen Railways Centers around the country. And baltimore, a mob tried to trap the militia in an armory. The soldiers fired and killed ten people. In pittsburgh, rioters burned rail yards and destroyed 2000 cars and the depots. All while exchanging fire with troops. Strikers in indianapolis seized control of the depot and halted all cars and trains except for trains carrying mail, for reasons we will see in a moment. By july 25th, all lines outside new england and south were being affected in one way or another. And so you could feel the tension on streets around the country. In chicago, businessmen patrol the streets with guns, fearing a potential revolution. In buffalo, the revolution was underway. Crowds swarmed the yards of the new york central. And claims control of the depots of the Lakeshore Railroad and the theory railroad. Ultimately, however, this Great Railroad strike of 77 collapsed. First of all, the depression was still going on at a point unemployment was still high and so it was easy to find as for people to work as strike breakers. Unemployment was still around 8 , nationally. These are estimates. Some companies were feel for all of continued strikes and continued chaos and were willing to negotiate. But ultimately, you cant call this in any way a win for labor. If anything, the press became increasingly indignant over this 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 armorys were constructed to prepare for the next events. Meanwhile, conflagrations like those in the late 18 seventies cause many workers to ask a fundamental question. Wouldnt this be more easily accomplished if we had some Better Organization . And in this, many of them turned to a fledgling organization, the nights of labor. The nights of labor started as a sort of secret society. It was founded by stevens, a garment worker in philadelphia who is obsessed with all sorts of rituals in secret oaths and so forth. But after 1877, many workers became interested in organization and they looked to the nights. This was often spontaneous. The nights were never particularly effective recruiters but people were looking for an organization and so in 1879, the nights of labor had 9000 members, but you need to they had near 42,000. In the meantime, they were taken over by new leadership under terrence powder lee who moved the group array from ritual and toward reform. So in the 18 seventies and eighties, they began stressing monetary reform like we discussed last time. They began discussing an eight hour day. Organizing for a cooperatives schemes among the workers. Trying to gain state and local political influence. Many within the nights of labor began embracing the ideas of henry george who called for a single tax on land. Was interesting is besides the sort of wideranging agenda is their broad membership. Sort of anomalous for this period in america. Especially in river. This group was highly inclusive. They reached across lines of craft, lines of skill and skilled workers. It is immigrants and native oil workers. Catholics and protestants in this one is an organization there are black members as well as bright members as well as male members and so this is a very large organization. They were building a lot of momentum in the 18 eighties. You see in a moment to have a precipitous decline. And at the very moment we see them start to climb, the totally different idea of labor comes to the for and that is craft unionism. And that is the American Federation of labour, founded in 1886, their leader is samuel coppers. His papers are held in a library. They were inclusion its inclusive, they were focused on elite craftsman. This is strategic. The skill crossed we have a little bit more leverage when it comes to negotiation. Unskilled craftsman are replaceable but skilled craftsman are little harder to replace to maybe activists talk them. And they had much narrower goals. The phrase that he spoke of was pure and simple unionism. Were going after bread and butter issues who are going to get a better wage, a shorter hours. Were not trying to change the world though, this more conservative elite unionism would be the one that would survive the chaos that were going to talk about now moving forward you. In the meantime, the 18 eighties would witness recapitulations of many of the troubling themes of the 18 seventies. Once again, a Major Economic panic, this one in each 84, followed once again by an industrial downturn, followed by labor troubles. Most noteworthy in this time was a period known as the great upheaval. This is sporadic series of events in many ways and in may of 1884, there was a successful strike by an organized Railroad Workers against the Union Pacific railroad. The railroad capitulated in two days in 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 the river valley of ohio. 4000 workers plus their families in the community we went out on strike and the strike lasted six months. The minors lost the strike but what is noteworthy about this is that once again, it taught them the usefulness of organization and coordination. If you go on strike, you dont get paid, the strike doesnt 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 them to keep this fight off for six months. And once again, it demonstrates to workers the value of organization. Then in march, of 1885, became a major strike against the missouri pacific railroad. They were trying to have a pay cut. That strike spreads to virtually the entire Southwestern Railroad network, most of which was owned by our buccaneering friend jay gould. The governors of nebraska and kansas intervened on behalf of the workers, which i think probably tells us more about gould than it does about the governors. But nevertheless, gould gave back the pay cut. And once again, workers saw value in organization. It all that dramatic growth for the nights of labor. In 1885, they had 100,000 members. By 1886, they had 700,000 members. But this would be their high water mark. And one reason for the decline is the first of several very famous but very telling episodes within American Labor relations. You can call it 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 eight hour day. The