Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick tells a rags-to-riches tale, and reinforces the idea that it is possible to make it to the upper classes even if your life begins in an impoverished state. On the other hand, Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets was about a girl who was a product of social Darwinism’s bad side, in that she was unable to rise above her poor beginnings.
In the late 19th century New York City was becoming an epicenter of power and prosperity, and earned the name the Empire City. Respected industrialist, philanthropist and mayor Abram Hewitt believed that New York was bound to be the greatest city in the world no matter what, but philosopher Henry George, Hewitt’s major opponent in the 1886 mayoral election, believed that New York needed to reform its governmental systems to prevent the city from reaching its demise.
The Empire City’s economy revolved greatly around robber barons like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, who were aggressive and ruthless businessmen who made the city America’s economic empire during the Gilded Age. Rockefeller was the quintessential robber baron, complete with the rags-to-riches story. With control of 90 percent of America’s petroleum refining businesses, he moved his Standard Oil company from Cleveland to New York in 1882. Due to his Darwinist ideals, he felt it was normal to eliminate competitors, and that even in business it was about survival of the fittest.
Soon, consolidation in business became common place and the Great Merger Wave swept through America. As a result, government began to further regulate business practices, but since these regulations were initially weak, merging continued to flourish, and by 1892 a third of the country’s millionaires lived in the New York area, and by 1900 it was home to two-thirds of the nation’s biggest businesses.
To keep up with the city’s blossoming economy, the new riches of New York began to shape the city accordingly. For example, the Brooklyn Bridge was built and opened in 1883, which combined art and technology to exemplify the city’s innovation. Another example is the Statue of Liberty, which replaced the Liberty Bell as America’s symbol of freedom when it was completed in 1886. But as New York City grew, its political atmosphere became increasingly more corrupt as the city came under control of the Tweed Ring.
Between 1865 and 1871, William M. Tweed was the master of the city. He was raised in the working class and entered politics in 1848 after organizing a volunteer fire company. He went on to hold many positions including congressman, senator, and school commissioner. With the ability to control various jobs, contracts, and licenses, he became the country’s first true political boss. While he promoted democracy by reaching out to the working and middle classes, he also subverted it by rigging votes in his favor to ensure his success. By 1868, Tweed ruled both the city and state of New York and had plenty of his comrades in various government sectors and was very powerful and wealthy.
Cracks in Tweed’s armor did not begin to show until a rebellious movement developed in Tammany and violence subsequently erupted in the streets. The 1871 Orange Riot erupted when Irish Catholics protested and fought against the Irish Protestants celebrating Boyne Day. Newspapers across America supported the Protestants in their anti-Catholic sentiments and their right to march. The New York Times used the riot as an example of how poorly Tammany ran the city, and finally when the Tammany Ring’s book keeper died, he was replaced by a Tweed opponent who gave information of Tweed’s dishonest practices to the Times. The news became widespread on July 22, 1871, and within months, Tweed faced disaster.
On September 4, the city’s prominent men gathered to reestablish their own power in the government and address the issue, and a Committee of Seventy was set up to help stabilize New York’s economy and government. Tweed attempted to flee once to New Jersey and once to Spain, but eventually died in Ludlow Street jail at age fifty-five. The truth about Tweed left the country to make sound governmental practices a national priority, and to ensure that the masses were attended to.
But even still, the difference between the wealth extremes in New York posed problems for the people and society, and many debated over the causes of poverty. Journalist Jacob Riis played a key role in undermining social Darwinism and informing the public of the true reasons for poverty. He traveled to the Five Points daily as a police reporter for the New York Tribune, and began photographing the awful conditions he witnessed and showing them to church groups in New York. He then published How the Other Half Lives in 1890, which further shed light on the issue of poverty. Creating a new Committee of Seventy, New York reformers elected reformer William L. Strong as mayor from 1894 to 1896. And in 1896, the struggle against Tammany had carried over into public school reform and the state reorganized New York City’s schools under a centralized system. In the town of Jamaica, working-class African Americans fought against the racial segregation of schools, and in 1900 Theodore Roosevelt signed the desegregation of public schools into law.
Shaw Lowell was a good example of an upper-middle-class American who became more educated about poverty and changed their views accordingly. As the first female commissioner of the State Board of Charities and head of the New York Charity Organization Society (COS), she refused to partake in services that would encourage government dependence. But after discovering how low wages really were and how they prevented people from rising up socially and economically, she began to advocate for a living wage. In 1891 she became president of the New York City Consumers’ League, which focused on unfair working conditions for women, and by 1896 they got New York state to set minimum standards for working conditions. After this, many other public organizations set their sights on combatting poverty in New York City. Settlement houses, the Salvation Army and the Children’s Aid Society were organized.
After a financial crisis in 1873 led to a surge in unemployment and wage reductions in 1874, laborites and socialists gathered in Tompkins Square Park on January 13, 1874. Since the police had revoked permission for the rally last minute, protestors were met with unexpected violence and assault by the police. A peaceful protest for the national railroads held in July of 1877 was also met with fierce and violent opposition from the police.
In 1877 a cigar makers strike was organized by the Cigarmakers’ Union under Samuel Gompers. He felt that the only way to combat unfair poverty and working conditions was to have protests that were organized by and for the people, and by late October he had over fifteen thousand strikers and their families to support. And while the Union raised money to aid these people, funds dwindled into December, and by the end of January the strike collapsed.
In 1886 labor activism peaked when the Central Labor Union (CLU) organized a horse car drivers’ strike. Their biggest weapon in their fight against unfair pay and hours was boycotting, which surged to an amount of 165 in 1886. But when boycotts were deemed illegal and a bomb killed seven policemen at a protest in Chicago in May, the repression of unions greatly increased.
Taking action for their cause, the CLU nominated popular reformer Henry George to run for mayor in 1886. Tammany offered George a seat in congress if he dropped out of the race, but he refused, so Tammany and the Democrats nominated Abram Hewitt, who had a more Darwinist point of view. George worked around the clock publicly speaking and campaigning, while Hewitt preferred to keep his campaign more formal. Despite many accusations of cheating and manipulation in the polls, Hewitt won the election. Even though George lost, his campaign was important because it was one of the most serious challenges to the current order and government at the time, and it led many other labor candidates to enter politics. Gompers later formed the American Federation of Labor in 1886, which was the most lasting legacy of the George campaign.
However, the Brooklyn Trolley Strike of 1895, in response to severe wage cuts, proved that there was still much left to fight for. And despite great support by the community, the strikers were met with violence and brutality by the police, and the strike collapse after five weeks. But in 1899, newspaper boys or “newsies” gathered in City Hall Park to form a union and call a strike against child labor and its unfair practices. They prevented the sale of newspapers and in two weeks they won their fight. The reason for their success had a lot to do with the fact that they were children and gained a lot of sympathy for their cause.
