In Joanne Reitano’s The Restless City, her chapter on the “Glided Age of New York” begins with an introduction of Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick. The quote talks about how anyone can reach the top of the social system if they plan wisely and save accordingly; the message was tailored to inspire impoverished Americans. This message coincides with the evolution of Manhattan in the late-nineteenth century, where it had become the home of modern American industrialization. The city had become overrun with robber barons, urban bosses, labor leaders, and social reformers (79). In short, New York City had gained the reputation of both excess and exploitation. Ragged Dick was the first novel that portrayed the gap between rich and poor as surmountable as protagonist Dick embodied the concept of Social Darwinism and the need to compete to survive. Alger’s novel encouraged laissez-faire capitalism and emphasized the need for the individual to reach success on his or her own terms (80). On the contrary, Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets showed the counter to Alger’s idealism by showing protagonist Maggie’s fall to prostitution and death. New York earned the label of “Empire City” by becoming “the nation’s largest and grandest metropolis – a master of finance, trade, and industry…” (80). That being said, New York also brought along with it crime, corruption, conflict, and violence, as prefaced by the Tweed Ring and the 1871 riots. However, the success of New York’s economic boom also meant the question of what exactly qualified as “progress” for the city and its inhabitants. Mayor Abram Hewitt deemed the future of New York’s destiny as one to “be realized or thwarted…by the folly and neglect of its inhabitants.” (81). Philosopher Henry George saw the crisis lie between the material progress of the city and the ongoing poverty and survivalist mentality of the people. Mark Twain coined the term “The Glided Age” as a period where success was only at the surface, but where the values of “every man for himself” were called into question. Twain went further on to knock down Alger’s illusionary portrayal of New York success by emphasizing the difference between myth and reality: the rich were not kind and generous, but rather cheap and volatile.
The idea of an economic oligarchy rang true as the infamous Wall Street barons dominated the financial wellbeing of the city. Bankers and trusts such as John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad, Andrew Carnegie’s steel trust, and J.P. Morgan’s banking house exemplified the allocation of power within the few on top. Rockefeller was the main robber baron of nineteenth century New York, as he personified the rags-to-riches archetype that Horatio Alger idealized. However, “Rockefeller’s austere manner, ruthless business techniques” earned him the title of “the greatest villain of the Glided Age” (82). He monopolized the oil and petroleum industry, taking over 90% of American’s refining business, and establishing both a national and global empire. Effectively eliminating his competitors, Rockefeller proved to be a physical manifestation of Social Darwinism and the “kill or be killed” mentality that reverberated from that Since this level of financial autonomy was unheard of before, there were no regulations in place to combat the trusts that formed as of a result of the economic free-for-all. By 1892, almost a third of America’s millionaires lived in the New York metropolitan area; by 1900, it harbored over two-thirds of the nation’s biggest businesses.” (82). In order to accommodate the massive influx of wealth and corporation to the city, New York City underwent a massive foundational overhaul of its infrastructure. From utilities such as gas and electricity to advanced technology like the telephone and railroads, the city transformed to mirror the fast-paced urban environment it needed to be. The construction and delivery of the Statue of Liberty portrayed New York as the city of opportunity, with the monument symbolizing the “golden door to America” (83).
The political sphere of the city, on the other hand, was mixed with corruption, with mobs and gangs influencing the motions of the government. Under the infamously corrupt organization, Tammany Hall, William “Boss” Tweed stole millions of dollars from the city in order to cement himself as the de facto political leader of Manhattan. He instituted the help of local immigrant populations to further his campaign in controlling New York and organized his own militia to scare any opponents away from the ballots. The “Tweed Ring” comprised of the mayor, city comptroller, city commissioners, and Tweed himself (85). The ring worked to pass several bills that would end up helping the city, such as annexing the Bronx, completing the build of Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. However Tweed’s lavish lifestyle and tensions within his Irish immigrant supporters drew Tammany Hall to a halt during the 1871 Orange Riot, in which Irish Protestants went to battle with Irish Catholics once again over native-born versus foreign-born control. The deterioration of public support for Tweed resulted in a movement to expose him for his corruption by the New York Times and various political cartoonists
The “Social Question” of whether or not the rich should help the poor and if the rich and poor could coexist in harmony began a prominent factor in deciding the social dynamics of late-19th century New York. Journalist Jacob Riis was pivotal in documenting just how decrepit the conditions of the urban impoverished were through his photograph series of the Five Points in his novel, How The Other Half Lives. Riis focused particularly on the children of the slums as a wake-up call to the city. The depiction of their lives in rags and dirt represented the continual cycle of poverty to crime. There was a contentious debate over the fate of the education system in New York as reformers pitted themselves against Tammany Hall over improving education standards to lift poor children out of poverty. Progressively, more and more affluent urbanites were turning to charity as a way of giving back to the local community and improving several key social components, such as settlement housing, labor unions, and health centers. Organizations such as the Salvation Army and YMCA were created from this era of giving back (94).
The “Labor Question” posed during the Glided Age aimed to tackle the tensions between the economic hierarchy that came as a result of a modernized New York. Issues such as equal opportunity, social mobility, hard work, individual initiative, fair play, and personal morality came to the surface of many working-class Americans (95). Many workers organized labor strikes in order to combat unfair labor practices and a demand for higher wages. This dissent was met with the brutality of local police forces determined to bar the congregation of labor union members. (96). The Central Labor Union, headed by popular labor activist Samuel Gompers, was one of the major forces in bringing labor rights to the attention of New York Government.
While on the surface New York City had refurbished itself to become one of the most successful and technologically advanced cities in the world, the reality was that with its advancements had come internal corruption, a rise in poverty, and a general conflict between urban elite and the working poor. The late-nineteenth century in the city had become a period of social, economic, and political reform, headed by the people themselves against those who worked to claim the city for its own. In the end, the city had not only become a modernized metropolis, but had also become a city idealized on liberty and drive.
