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Chapter five poses three main questions about the Gilded Age in New York City (1865 1899): a political, a social, and an economic question. A running theme throughout the chapter revolves around Horatio Alger’s novel Ragged Dick. Alger’s work was very influential during this time period. He focused on the “rags-to-riches” notion that was very apparent in the city. This was a period or rapid modernization. There were many positive aspects to this modernization but also some negatives. People were becoming better informed about what was going on in their society through literature such as Alger’s or other inexpensive newspapers or novels. This lead to a push for social reform. Many people greatly profited from social Darwinism but others saw the negative consequences of this. Although the city as a whole was progressing, there was much conflict within. The gap between rich and poor was rapidly expanding. This uneven distribution of wealth created conflict within the society. People called robber barons and urban bosses took advantage of the malleability of society and dominated business into their own empires. Some of these robber barons were the poster children for the rags-to-riches concept put no all could be so lucky. Men like Rockefeller had a ruthless approach to business and used social Darwinism to rise in the ranks. Once the government identified the monopolies as a problem they began to try and regulate. They needed to find “harmony between capital and labor in the pursuit of progress” (Reitano 83). There was also an influx of new immigrants which contributed to a rapid increase in population. Brooklyn faced problems with immigrants, crime and corruption.

The chapter begins with the political question. It focusses on Tammany hall and how it worked. There was quite a bit of corruption in NY politics at this time. People would rise into power from nothing and take advantage of the rest of the city for their own purposes. One very important figure was Boss Tweed. Tweed started as working class Scottish immigrant and rose to power very quickly. “Tweed’s success represented a shift of political power away from the old formal party structure. . . to a new grassroots system” (Reitano 85). Tweed and his followers soon dominated to entire state political sphere. They did do some good for society by improving schools and other public infrastructure. A cartoonist named Nast often made cartoons about Tweed to expose the corruption in his system. This outraged the general public and even lead to violence. A particularly horrifying riot was the Orange Riot of 1871. It was caused by religious conflict between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics. After having to deal with much violence and massacres Tweed eventually lost his power. His corrupt ways were revealed and although he had done some good it was not enough. Tweed’s actions opened up people’s minds to what was going on in American politics.

Next is the social question. Although there was much affluence in the city at his time it was coupled with extreme poverty. Some looked down upon the poor. There was a sense of optimism for them as they saw the opportunity but there was also potential for conflict. Jacob Riis was an extremely important photographer of the slums. He has a “humanistic” approach to photography and tried to capture real life in the slums. He used some very interesting and imaginative camera techniques to create images that were impactful on the public. His book, How the Other Half Lives, was a huge hit and was a great way to bring attention to these issues. It made people rethink their view of the slums and caused them to empathize a bit more with the poor. Some nativist sentiments resurfaced during time which targeted poor immigrants. In response to the tensions in the slums the police force was strengthened. There were also campaigns to fight disease. Public education was a main focus for improvement of society. Education was views as a ladder of social mobility. Some issues arose regarding racial segregation in public schools. There was also reform in labor to push for better working conditions for women and children.

Lastly, is the economic question. The laborers had had enough and decided to organize. The notion of the American Dream had faded in many people’s minds and they decided that they needed to take direct action. Unions grew rapidly. Many saw strikes as their only option to make any change. It started with the railroad strike in 1877. Some feared that these strikes would lead to “Communist riot”.  Other riots followed soon after. Many were short lived but the unions eventually became stronger. The Central Labor Union was important because it “brought together a variety of workers’ groups. . . it endorsed a wide range of strategies” (Reitano 98). These organizations were initially looked down upon and put down by the police. After seeing little success, the CLU decided to take a different approach; a political approach.  They nominated Henry George to represent them in government. George put up a pretty good fight in the election and although he was not elected this showed the government that the unions were a real threat. Other, stronger, unions formed after this. The most important one was the American Federation of Labor which promoted “business unionism”. Later came the newsboys’ strike which was also influential. Their “strike attested to the complexities of economic change.” (Reitano 103).

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 19^th-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.”

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 19^th 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.

In Chapter 5 of The Restless City, Joanne Reitano discusses late nineteenth century New York City—the center of modernization in America. The growing metropolis, particularly in finance, trade and industry, was aptly titled the Empire City, but digging deeper into the political, social, and economic climates of the urban environment reveals much strife and ultimately progress.

Reviewing literature of the time, the first novel to depict New York in a positive light was Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick with New York being home to the “rags to riches” narrative, a place of both suffering and opportunity. The main character of the dime novel became the face of Social Darwinism, explaining the gap between rich and poor because those fit for the city would prosper in it. However, Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) shows a poor girl’s fate as an unfortunate product of circumstance rather than a fatal flaw. The myth that the rich were deserving of their position in society was questioned especially with wealth concentrated in the few hands of robber barons. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust, Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad, and Carnegie’s steel trust, just to name a few, were examples of expansive monopolies controlled by individual men, yet these men were New York City’s heroes on Wall Street.

John D. Rockefeller is a prime example of the farm boy from West New York who achieved success and wealth in the Empire City through hard work and frugality. In his modernization of the American economy, he was both the greatest villain and a most brilliant innovator. The idea that monopolies are a natural ascension of the most effective businesses yields two very different responses in late nineteenth century New York City. The first is one of horror that yielded government intervention and a regulation of business practices to stem systematic consolidation. The second, though, is a proliferation of trusts with weak regulations that made New York City the great organizer of American Commerce.

The immense wealth gap also led to the questioning of what progress looked like during this time. Mayor Abram Hewitt’s belief that New York came to be “by natural causes” opposed renown reformer Henry George’s view that the juxtaposition between the increasingly wealthy rich and exacerbating poverty is proof that progress isn’t real. In all its wealth, New York City did blossom but was also politically seen as “the worst governed city in the world”. Bossism paralleled expanding capitalism in the Gilded Age with William Tweed heading machine politics between 1965 and 1971. With his cronies serving positions such as governor, mayor, city comptroller, and city commissioner simultaneously, in 1868, Tweed ruled both city and state. However, despite the politically disreputable methods employed, the Tweed Ring ultimately allowed for the flourishing of public works and facilities in New York.

While Tammany’s empire did contribute to the development of schools, hospitals, public baths and orphanages, it wasn’t really until Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives (1890) that the country’s social conscience was awakened and social reform was provoked. Riis targeted the “ignorant wealthy” in his humanistic view of poverty to show that poverty was not exclusively a function of individual morality but of societal responsibility to provide just wages and conditions. The New York City Consumers’ League mobilized upper and middle class women to boycott stores that exploited female workers which ultimately led to New York State setting minimum standards for working conditions, and out of the Settlement House Movement by the young and educated of the upper and middle classes emerged the field of social work.

The trusts and tenements, resulting from modernization, that ever-elucidated the wealth gap and threatened the American Dream also led to the beginning of labor unionization in the 1860s and 70s. Contrary to the pursuit of social harmony by the already established Knights of Labor, striking became a crucial weapon for labor’s self advancement in the late nineteenth century, and in response, industrial management retaliated by employing strike breakers, circulating blacklists and enforcing lockouts and evictions. There were 1,200 strikes in 1886 in New York City alone, and often coordinated with strikes were boycotts. However, after boycotts were declared illegal, workers found themselves limited and resorted to political activism.

Overall, the political, social and economic climates of New York City during the Gilded Age were very much entwined with closing the gap between rich and poor that was produced by rapid modernization. Like freedom and capitalism, reform was becoming symbolic of the Empire City.

“Bread Givers” is a look into lives of those who have little but sacrifice and give much. In it, the Smolinsky women diligently work all day, in and out of the home to provide. The vast majority of their provisions go straight to Reb Smolinsky, the man of the household. He preaches daily about getting into heaven, and spends his time studying the word of God whilst his family provides for him to live in comfort. By this context, the title of the book is very telling.

A Bread winner is the title given to the person who earns a living for a household, as they earn money to “win” bread (or food or supplies) which keeps their family alive. However, I think the idea of the Bread Giver is very significant. Not only does the Bread Giver earn the wages and win the bread, but they give it away. A bread winner gives to themselves, but a bread giver gives their earnings away. This idea is reflected in the novel, as the women are the ones sacrificing their hopes and dreams for the man. Reb Smolinsky’s family gives all they have away to him, which defies traditional  gender roles as well as the idea of the American Dream (everyone working hard to earn what they get, every man for himself).