In his novel Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger wrote of the American Dream as if it was the country’s faith. Set in New York City, Alger championed the individuals and old values while ignoring the changes in society that made it increasingly “impersonal and immoral.” Alger’s presentation of New York, the “center of America’s late-nineteenth-century modernization,” as the height of social mobility due to the social conscience of the elite that allow for negotiation. Along with the 19th-century newspapers, Ragged Dick promoted the Social Darwinism approach to capitalism that dictated that anyone of a certain grain of character can rise up, even in the worst conditions. This depiction of New York City was contrasted by Mark Twain’s The Gilded Age and his short story parody of Ragged Dick.
The myth of American opportunity was fed by New York’s monumental accomplishments that were far beyond its time. From Rockefeller’s domination of oil to Vanderbilt’s advancements in railroads to Carnegie’s steel trust, Wall Street became a promise of success and wealth to American businesses that came there. A farm boy, Rockefeller took a Darwinist approach to business competition and consolidated businesses to create trusts in oil; the same model was used to consolidate trusts in steel, lead, salt, sugar, tobacco, whiskey, and more. Trusts threatened the competition that motivated capitalism and prompted government regulation in business. However, the regulations were not accomplished before a third of America’s millionaires lived in New York City.
In addition to Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty was an urban icon of the late-nineteenth-century. Upon its completion in 1886, it became a symbol of welcoming to immigrants, as described in Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus.” The influx of immigration, the consolidation of businesses, and the political corruption that ruled the city shaped New York into an Empire in the late-nineteenth-century.
The political corruption is almost entirely attributed to Tammany Hall, run by “Boss” William Tweed. Tweed himself never held the position of mayor; rather, he amassed a great wealth and used his influence to rig elections. By naturalizing immigrants before elections, using repeaters, and dispatching gangs to keep opposing voters away from polls, Tweed had his cronies serve as governor, mayor, city comptroller, and city commissioner. Tweed used this power to complete Central Park, to build the Brooklyn Bridge, and to construct the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Despite his illegal activities he used to gain power, in many ways, he helped the city. That power, however, began to slip when violence erupted on the streets, seemingly at the hands of Tammany. In July of 1871, a conflict between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics boiled over in July during a celebration of the Battlye of Boyne. The anti-Catholic songs resulted in a bloody two-day battle in Elm Park in which eight people died. The next July, Mayor A. Oakley Hall issued fifteen hundred policemen and over five thousand infantry and cavalry for the celebration. These soldiers responded to the skirmishes between Orangemen and Irish Catholics by targeting the Catholics. Newspapers responded by pinning the riot on Tammany, using the Tammany Ring bookkeeper’s replacement to infiltrate Tammany’s operations. They discovered that Tammany stole millions of dollars from the city for construction projects. After many trials and escape attempts, Tweed was finally arrested and the “Boss” era of the gilded age was put away.
The grandiose operations on Wall Street and massive industrialization of New York City not only outshined but also created the issue of immense poverty and class conflict. Jacob Riis played a central role in revealing these issues through the publication of How the Other Half Lives. Using a magnesium powder flash and a direct engagement of New York slums, Riis took striking pictures and gathered startling statistics that inspired “the discovery of poverty.” The author placed the children of the slums at the center of the discussion on poverty; to him, Ragged Dick lacked the reality of dirt, disease, and hunger that he observed in the slums. The realization that thousands of children lived on the streets led to the city’s focus on crime and education. Reformer William L. Strong was elected mayor and launched programs to fight disease, set up public baths, and created the city’s first effective street cleaning and sanitation removal systems. Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt improved the police department. Tammany saw the discussion on education as an opportunity; immigrants and teachers joined Tammany, viewing education as a ladder of social mobility. In 1901, New York became the first city to require all children under 12 to attend school. One year earlier, Governor Roosevelt signed a law desegregating schools in the state.
Meanwhile, Josephine Shaw Lowell led women in the suffrage movement as well as social reform. While first a believer in Social Darwinism, Lowell modified her position after realizing the suffering the poor faced. Her leadership in the NYC Consumer’s League demanded acceptable working conditions, and stood against the exploitation of female workers. Similar movements in Chicago followed, as Florence Kelly led protests against child labor. New York’s embrace of settlement houses and the improvement of the Charity Organization Society led Jacob Riis to declare it “the most charitable city in the world.”
New York’s leadership in the development of labor unions captured the movement away from Alger’s individualism and pioneered collective action. Trusts and tenements threatened the American Dream with low wages and overworked laborers. The ignorance to laborer’s struggles resulted in a rally at Tompkins Square in 1874 of laborites and socialists. The rally was violently ended by the police. Many in the city, including the mayor and the police commissioner, rejoiced the silencing of the laborers. However, the media attacked the police for their brutality and urged self-control. History repeated itself at the same location in 1877. Moving forward, class antagonism had manifested itself in physical presences, as the wealthy paid for armories to built in response to labor uprisings. Samuel Gompers improved the labor movement with organized strikes. In 1877, he spearheaded the Cigarmakers’ Union efforts to remain on strike while providing for thousands of families. Furthermore, his work in the short-lived Central Labor Union brought lessons on embracing differences to achieve a common goal. Eventually, police brutality and judicial restraints in defending protestors pushed labor unions towards politics and backed Henry George for mayor, who rejected Tammany’s offer of election to Congress if he pulled out of the race. George’s central message remained in labor reform, while his rival Abram Hewitt embraced Alger’s Darwinist views. Hewitt won in November; some speculate that his victory was a result of a rigged counting by Tammany and the denunciation of labor unions by Catholic Priests. George amassed a great percentage of the vote, however, startling many and popularizing him in Ireland and England.
In 1899, the newsboys unionized and called a strike. This strike was well-organized and gained a lot of support, partially due to the appeal of the cause. It spread from Long Island City into Manhattan, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, and Yonkers. The message of this strike appealed to social consciences and bolstered the labor union’s efforts. As Riis predicted, children were central to New York’s social reform. The same children would grow up with these social values and shape the quality of life for their children. Riis believed this awakening to poverty would be the true measure of “metropolitan greatness.”
