The belief that big businesses had too much power in the United States led to a backlash. During the 1880s alone, there were nearly 10,000 labor strikes and lockouts. Industrial strikes occurred with greater frequency-and greater violence-following the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. With such a yawning chasm between “haves” and “have-nots,” workers fought back against the inequality by forming labor unions. Approximately 40 percent of industrial laborers in the 1880s earned below the poverty line of $500 a year. Many Gilded Age workers toiled in dangerous jobs for low pay. The Populist Party Pushes for ReformsĪ meeting held by the Granges, a populist farmer's association organized in the western United States, c. By 1890, the wealthiest 1 percent of American families owned 51 percent of the country’s real and personal property, while the 44 percent at the bottom owned only 1.2 percent. The great wealth accumulated by the “robber barons” came at the expense of the masses. Graft fueled urban political machines, such as New York’s Tammany Hall, and the Whiskey Ring and Crédit Mobilier scandals revealed collusion by public officials and business leaders to defraud the federal government.Īs the rich grew richer during the Gilded Age, the poor grew poorer. Political corruption ran amok during the Gilded Age as corporations bribed politicians to ensure government policies favored big businesses over workers. Protected from foreign competition by high tariffs, American industrialists colluded to drive competitors out of business by creating monopolies and trusts in which groups of companies were controlled by single corporate boards.
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