Henry Burby
MHC 10201
3/20/16
Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger’s feel-good, rags-to-riches tale, was the most influential defense of traditional societal values and structures in pre 1900s America. It portrayed the city in a positive light, and placed great faith in the idea that, by working hard, and living lean, anyone could be successful. However, these preindustrial teachings were incompatible with the rising heavy industry and capitalism in its New York City setting. Set against Alger’s optimistic, well meaning, social Darwinism was Maggie: A Girl on the Streets, by Steven Crane. It warned that, for the industrial poor, social mobility was often impossible. Both books held some truth. In the late 1800s, New York was the center of industrial America; the richest, poorest, and most corrupt city in American history. Some celebrated this new “Empire City”. Others feared its combination of both extreme wealth and poverty, of a level never seen before. Mark Twain called this period “The Gilded Age”; beneath its facade of success lay poverty.
The New York City of the late 1800s was changing fast. The cut-throat tactics of the robber-barons drove the country forward, and since these elites were based in New York City, their momentum brought electricity, gas, elevated trains, and bridges to Gotham. The city was swelled by the huge influx of Jewish and Italian immigrants. Politically, its hopeless corruption found new depths.
William Magear Tweed, aka Boss Tweed, successfully unified the local Democratic Party and the Tammany Hall Political organization, and embezzled millions from public funds as the first American political boss. He refined and ran the Tammany political machine, which used kickbacks, violence, repeat voting, and ballot manipulation to ensure almost constant political control. By 1869, Tweed had a “Ring” of friendly politicians controlling both New York City and Albany, which he used to promote home rule and power for NYC. He erected many important buildings, which advanced the city culturally, municipally, and socially. Though he avoided Blacks, and angered reformers, he was loved by any who sought to turn a profit. However, his downfall was triggered by three elements: rioting, which demonstrated his inability to control the lower classes he depended on, his grotesque portrayal in the political cartoons of Thomas Nast, and most importantly, the release of his financial records, which revealed the full scope of his corruption. He had, for example, raised $13,000,000 to build the $250,000 County Courthouse, and pocketed the difference. While tweed was out of office by 1877, the system he built kept Tammany in power 1933, and powerful till 1961.
Though the poverty divide in New York and America was severe, the release of Jacob Reiss’ “How the Other Half Lives” made it impossible to ignore. His photographs of the slums raised awareness among the powerful, and forced them to take action. The book was followed by crackdowns on police corruption and brutality, the building of public amenities, such as baths and parks, and education reform, both through the centralization and eventual desegregation of New York’s public schools. The book educated the rich, and led many to abandon their former Social Darwinist beliefs, and to raise standards of living. One such leader was Josephine Shaw Lowell, who began supporting workhouses and prisons, but later advocated for living wedges. She also fought for women’s suffrage and organized boycotts of exploitative businesses. Reformers fought to end child labor, helped and learned about the poor in settlement houses, and formed numerous private societies to aid the needy. Many new social ideas were first seen in NYC.
The American labor movement also began in the Empire City, as it was the nation’s industrial capital. Early on, attempts at labor reform were rabidly put down. Though unions began to form by the late 1860s, demonstrations and strikes were turned into battles, with the police, and even the military, working at the behest of the industrialists. Labor activist and leader Samuel Gompers learned the difficulty of change during the 1877 Cigar Makers Strike, which was put down by blacklists, evictions, and violence, as well as lack of resources and organization. He also worked with the brief Central Labor Union, which banded twelve New York unions together, recruited across color lines, and used various tactics to promote worker’s rights. 2,000 marched in NYC’s first Labor Day parade. However, violence ended the 1886 Horsecar Workers Strike, and the boycott, a powerful weapon used in conjunction with the strike, was deemed un-American, and outlawed. The reputation of labor organizers was further damaged when the bombing of a protest in Chicago’s Haymarket Square killed seven policemen.
Threatened, outlawed, and now branded Anarchists, laborers turned to politics. The CLU backed, 1886 mayoral run of reformer Henry James demonstrated the power and numbers of New York workers, and unified them under one banner. George’s nomination forced both Democrats and Republicans to nominate reform-friendly candidates. George found the support of union members and leaders. His Tammany rival felt that labor and capital should work together, and followed the Social Darwinism of Alger, which also prevailed in the minds of the powerful at the time. However, George’s campaign helped to dispel the idea that the poor were happy with the current system. Though he lost, the large turnouts in his favor, both in the polls and the streets, showed the strength of popular discontent, and began a brief national flirtation with labor politics. When this movement collapsed from without and within, the American Foundation of Labor used the “New York Model” to begin a more grounded national movement. However, as seen in the brutal repression of the 1895 Brooklyn Trolley Strike, both industry and government were still strongly apposed to the disturbance caused by organized labor. Four years later, the Newsboys Strike met with more success, partly because the newsies had been organized for many years, and partly because they attracted more sympathy and support from their elders. This last may seem to undermine the strike’s impact, but it showed an increased urge to protect children, which wasn’t seen previously. By the end of the Gilded Age, the social question had not been answered in New York, but the growing awareness between rich and poor had sown seeds which might sprout in the future.
