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