Discussion & Reflection

Gilded Age Living: A Summary of The Empire City

New York City was the center of American modernization during the late-nineteenth-century. Due to New York City’s appeal to both immigrants and rich and also being the home to finance, industry, and trade, the city earned the label the Empire City. However, New York was filled with problems ranging from the Tweed Ring to the “discovery of poverty.”

The late 1800s, dubbed as the “Gilded Age”, were a time where money was more important than morals, which encompassed the nation’s debate over the definition of progress. During this time, New York City was run by robber barons and their businesses, such as John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Trust or J.P. Morgan and his banking house, who made New York City the home of America’s national and international business. During this time, regulations were weak causing trusts to form; one of the most famous was Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust which used cutthroat competition and systematic consolidation to obtain control.

Aside from the economic aspects, New York City was also physically transforming. During this time, the city metamorphosed through elevated railways, new buildings, and electricity. The Brooklyn Bridge was opened in 1883 which allowed the five boroughs to link together, making New York City a mega-city, the biggest city in America, and the second biggest city in the world. The Statue of Liberty also became America’s symbol of freedom during the “Gilded Age,” since it instilled the idea for immigrants that New York City was the door into America.

New York City not only transformed physically and economically but also politically. The Tweed Ring became the prominent form of political corruption, thus, becoming a model of how government should not act. The Tweed Ring was lead by William Tweed who held various elected and appointed positions that helped him eventually dominate both Tammany Hall and the Democratic Party. Tweed’s power eventually lead him into ruling both state and city by 1868. However, the 1871 Orange Riot showed how though Tweed offered jobs and schools to his Irish Catholic supporters, he could never tame them. Tweed was eventually punished and sent to Ludlow Street jail, where he died at the age of fifty-five. Even after his death, the Tweed Ring remained strong, ingraining the notion that the “Gilded Age” was full of greed.

During the “Gilded Age,” the building of brownstone buildings and mansions was juxtaposed with the already existing tenements. The opulent buildings with their spacious living conditions contrasted the dark and confined tenements. Journalist Jacob Riis published the book How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. When making his book, Riis used a magnesium powered camera to illuminate the darkness of the slums. His book was a great success, allowing people from all over the country to see the true living conditions in New York.

New York City also experienced a debate over child and public education during this era. Schools were meant to be used as agents of assimilation in order to teach children how to work in the new industry and resist Tammany Hall. In 1896, New York State reorganized the schools in the city to be under one centralized system, and in 1901, New York City became the first city to require schooling for all children under twelve. However, schooling issues did not end there. Racial segregation in schools was a state policy since 1864, causing some schools to have very limited opportunities for black children. For example, in Jamaica, black children were limited to a one-room schoolhouse and one teacher to teach seventy-five students. The black working class and lawyers fought for the cause; however, they risked jail time and job loss for fighting. Eventually in 1900, a law desegregating schools in New York State was signed by Governor Theodore Roosevelt.

The public not only opened its eyes to the poor living and educational conditions but also to poor working conditions during this time. New York City’s unions began protesting and striking during the 1860s and 1870s. Labor organizations were created during this time in order to fight for better wages and working conditions. Throughout the “Gilded Age,” New York City embodied the negatives of the industrial age through its corrupt government and poor living, working, and educational conditions. However, throughout this era, the people of New York City fought for better treatment and conditions. During this age, the people “learned to smile and weep with the poor,” in order to fight for their rights. (104)

Chapter 5 Summary: The Empire City

Chapter Five of Joanne Reitano’s The Restless City focuses on the major problems New York City faced during the 19th century. During the years 1856–1899, New York rapidly modernized, and was nicknamed the “Empire City.” New York was the setting of Horatio Alger’s book, Ragged Dick, which showed the city in a positive light but raised questions involving poverty, corruption, and labor. The city was now the hub for finance, industry, trade and immigration, but with this success came many problems that only solidarity through reform could change.

New York was the known as the Empire City for its success, but it was also under the corrupt power of the Tammany Empire. Tammany Hall, led by William M. Tweed, dominated the city’s political scene. Tweed had held various elected and appointed positions of power in New York, and used his connections (and bribes) to gain influence in both the Democratic Party and Tammany Hall. He appealed mainly to the white middle and working class voters, and had newly-naturalized immigrants vote for him as well. While he was deeply corrupt and stole millions, he did help the city – playing a role in the completion of Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as creating funds for hospitals and schools. Eventually, Tweed’s luck ran out, and he was exposed for all his corruption. Violence in the streets, like the Orange Riots of 1871, also hurt his image, and he eventually did time for his crimes against the city.

The city experienced corruption in not just politics. Robber barons and their companies were located in New York, and their businesses did equal parts damage and good to society. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust Company helped modernize the American economy and contributed to the large market centered in New York. Rockefeller created trusts in steel, lead, sugar, amongst others, which now made New York home to most of the nation’s biggest businesses. Trusts became so powerful that it attracted political action and led to the regulation of many business practices.

Poverty was another major issue in 19th century New York. The city might have been the center for economic growth, but there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. There was a Social Darwinian, capitalist mindset amongst many New Yorkers that “justified” poverty. Many were patronizing towards the poor, and others only wanted to help because they feared that poverty would lead to violence and crime. However, there were some who were actually dedicated to social reform and bringing about change in the slums of New York. Jacob Riis, a reporter for the New York Tribune, was in the Five Points daily for his job, and used photography as a means to expose the realities of poverty. His book, “How the Other Half Lives,” opened people’s eyes and exposed what life in poverty was really like, drawing special attention to problems youths in slums faced. Riis also promoted the creation of parks in slums, slum clearance, and tenement house reform, and worked with other reformers like Josephine Shaw Lowell. Lowell was the first female commissioner of the State Board of Charities, head of the NY Charity Organization Society, and later the president of the NYC Consumer’s League, the latter in which she helped mobilize women to boycott stores that exploited female workers. She was also an important leader in the women’s suffrage movement in addition to the labor reform movement.

In 1886, labor activism peaked and there were 1,200 strikes in New York alone. Previous efforts to organize were usually drowned out by police and led to conflict and police brutality. However, various strikes and simultaneous boycotts, led by organizations like the Central Labor Union, proved that there was strength in solidarity and power in collective activism. Other areas of reform included the New York City public schools, which became part of a centralized system in 1896. In 1901, the state of New York required all children under the age of twelve to attend school, and in 1900, became desegregated.

Y Boodhan: Blog 8 – Summary of Reitano Ch.5

Summary of Joanne Reitano’s “The Restless City”, Chapter 5 – The Empire City

In this chapter, Reitano talks about the growing economic gap between the rich and poor as a result of corrupt politics and unlivable working conditions. Reitano discusses the issues of New York city in the late 20th century and how they led to increased social reform.

During the late-nineteenth-century, America was growing increasingly complex industrial. Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger, one of the most successful books of that era, managed to portray “old values” in a world that seemed increasingly impersonal and immoral.

The book was a rag to riches tale that managed to show the city in a fascinating and positive light. It was seen as an optimistic novel for the time, giving people hope that the poor can rise up economically and socially.

Stephen Crane, the author of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, had a contrasting view. Unlike Alger, Crane portrays the harsh consequences of social Darwinism. Unlike Dick, Maggie falls victim to the city and its hold over the poor.

New York was growing for the best and the worst. Nicknamed the Empire City, New York was the center of finance, trade, and industry. It housed the rich and attracted poor immigrants.

New York was the center but it was not perfect. the city had many problems at the time that needed to be addressed. Among them was the gap between the poor and the wealthy. The era was dubbed the Gilded Age and was seen as an era of social struggle and strife between the rich and poor. Authors like Mark Twain challenged myth and reality when addressing the social and economic gap, questioning Alger’s viewpoint about whether one can really go from rags to riches.

The wealthy class in New York City included robber barons who ran monopolies on their companies and who controlled a majority of the wealth in the city. Rockefeller was one of the most important and powerful of the businessmen at the time. Although he had humble beginnings, he expanded his company through ruthless methods and made himself a wealthy man.

Because of growing companies like Rockefeller’s, the government began to reassess their role in the economy and struggled to control trusts. As the economy boomed, so did the infrastructure of the city. Iconic changes to New York included the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

With the influx of new immigrants came a set of new issues that needed to be addressed politically. Corrupt politicians entered the office by taking advantage of the needs of the poor. A good example of this is politician William M. Tweed who was described as having New York City under his thumb. He took on several positions in Tammany Hall. Tweed rigged the votes so that he could continuously hold office. Despite his unethical rise to power, Tweed helped New York City by funding several public projects.

Tweed was exceptionally wealthy and powerful during the time period.  His fall began with the Orange Riot in 1871 when there was a conflict between the Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics. This was soon followed by evidence that proved Tweed was stealing money from the city. Tweed was removed from office and later arrested. After Tweed, there focus on creating a good government and honest politics.

As changes were being made to improve politics, changes were also being made to improve social conditions. In an effort to expose poverty and the economic gap in New York, journalist Jacob Riis publicized his book How the Other Half Lives with very graphic images to appeal New Yorkers. He managed to capture the very worst of the city. At the same time, he increased awareness about the unsanitary and overall terrible conditions faced by the city’s youth.

Now that the problems were known, efforts were being made to fix these problems. The mayor worked with journalists like Riis to make improvements in the city. This included changes to the police force and public schools.

Jacob Riis was not the only one making changes. Josephine Shaw Lowell was improving prisons workhouses and  job programs. She supported Riis and his projects and completed several projects of her own to help women rise to leadership positions.

Overall, efforts were being made to improve working and living conditions. Several organizations were created and privately funded to support the poor. To Jacob Riis and historian Alan Nevins New York City was very philanthropic.

At this time, concerns about labor were on the rise. The financial panic in 1873 along with wage reductions and  unemployment caused workers to ask the government for relief. When the government refused, workers went to the streets to protest. However, the police took to the streets and violently stopped protesters. 

There were as many as 1200 strikes in New York City alone and ongoing conflict with the police force and judicial system made it more difficult to achieve labor goals. With the help of Samuel Gompers and Henry George, people strived for better hours wages benefits and working conditions.

Even young newsboys were trying to improve working conditions and wages. To Jacob Riis, the role of the newsboys in striving for better labor conditions mirrored the current culture of society. For New York, labor was one of the primary concerns in the late 20th century. To Riis, the Empire City was growing by starting to care for the poor and working-class.

By investing in improving labor, New Yorkers were investing in improving living conditions and were adopting the optimistic mindset of Dick — that maybe things will change for the better.

Summary of Reitano’s Chapter 5: “The Empire City”

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.

What Is A Bread Giver

“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).

Summary of Reitano’s The Restless City Chapter 5- The Empire City

The Empire City begins with a quote from Horatio Alger, in which advice is given to a young ‘street urchin’. The chapter covers most of the Gilded Age in New York, which took place during the late nineteenth century. Retiano discusses Alger’s book: Ragged Dick which draws focus to how New York City during this time period was facing a great many changes and could be considered both a land of promise and hope and a land of danger and exploitation.  The possibility of upward mobility emerged, when combined with the benefits of social Darwinism and laissez-faire capitalism. She label’s Alger’s book an optimistic take on the period as his character becomes an urban hero. She then claims Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets provides a pessimistic view of the same as his heroine could not overcome the demand of the changing city.

New York City was in the throws of the Industrial Revolution and was experiencing both its benefits and its drawbacks. The ‘Empire City’ dominated national finance, trade, and industry however it was wrought with poverty, political corruption, and exploitation. Mark Twain labeled the time period “the Gilded Age” as it focused on wealth and production at its surface but was filled with poverty and destitution within. “All that glittered was not gold” (p. 81). Those who were rich often stepped on the heads of others. Robber barons such as John D. Rockefeller, who dominated and monopolized the oil business, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, who did the same with the railroad, made New York the industrial powerhouse that it was through their social Darwinian tactics and upward growth. Competitors were taken over or steamrolled and organizations like Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust grew with little government control or regulation. The growth added to New York City’s power and appeal and by 1900 it housed two thirds of the American millionaires of the time.

This growth in power and status led to physical updates as well. The industrial revolution came with inventions, gas, electricity, better transportation, better communication, and a growing landscape. New York City icons such as the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge emerged. The five boroughs were combined and New York City became the largest city in America in 1898.

For a time, bosses such as Tweed and Tammany Hall dominated politics in New York City through corruption and exploitation. Eventually, evidence was gathered to take the Tweed organization down with the help of The New York Times. Once Tweed’s bookkeeping was made public in the Times, he attempted to escape punishment by fleeing to New Jersey and then to Spain, but he was eventually captured, and returned to New York. There, he wrote a confession that exposed many powerful corrupt officials, was imprisoned, and never pardoned. However, with Tweed’s loss of power came the 1871 Orange Riot (between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants) occurred.

As previously stated, the Gilded Age, ignored or hid the poor from the public eye. However, writers brought attention to the poverty of the time. Charles Loring Brace’s novel: The Dangerous Classes of New York, as well as Jacob Riis’ writings in the New York Tribune and his book How the Other Half lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York were a few of many attempts to expose the inequality, suffering, and wide wealth gap due to social Darwinism. Many New Yorkers became actively “concerned about what the called ‘the Social Question’” (p. 89) and contributed some form of kindness to those in need. Reform was attempted when William L. Strong was elected as mayor by a new Committee of Seventy to remove Tammany from power.  As reform was endeavored, controversies over children, public education, and segregation emerged. Other reform organizations were created by members of the upper- and middle- classes. A sort-of “Crusade against poverty” occurred.

Labor, too, was a cause of much contention during the Gilded Age in New York City. This is because, while there was a booming laissez- faire capitalist economy, the only ones who benefitted were the rich. “Modernization challenged assumptions about equality of opportunity, social mobility, hard work, individual initiative, fair plate and personal morality” (p. 95). Workers were exploited: often underpaid and overworked. To counteract this inequality, strikes were commonplace. However, participants were often struck down by police with little improvement being accomplished. Labor unions were started by men such as Samuel Gompers.  Gompers headed the Cigarmakers’ Union in 1877 however the internal debates between skilled and unskilled, large factory and small shop workers, caused it to have little success. The Knights of Labor, the Central Labor Union, etc. all nevertheless tried to band together to counteract the control of big business. The Central Labor Union drew government and public attention to the poor labor conditions in 1886 by nominating reformer Henry George for mayor. While he didn’t win the office his popularity among voters, he drew more attention towards reform. Unions across the country in states such as New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, etc., began nominating labor reformers for political office.

In 1886 Samuel Gompers spearheaded “the creation of the most important labor organization in American History” (p. 102). This was the American Federation of Labor which focused on improving overall quality of employment (such as better pay, hours, conditions, and benefits). Labor unions were made up of people of all ages, as shown by the strikes among the young boys who sold newspapers.

The Gilded Age was a period of conflict between rich and poor, big business and small, corrupt politicians and reformers, social Darwinism and struggling classes. New York City grew to be great in name and power, but its lower class inhabitants suffered greatly, struggling with poverty and few worker/laborer rights. It was a time of abuse, corruption, and exploitation, as much industry, economic growth, and invention.

The Gilded Age: What it Actually Stood For

In the mid-19th century, Horatio Alger published a book regarding how to achieve success, whether it’d be in the United States or in the growing city of New York. In this piece, he portrays the city as lively, well-rounded, and the center of opportunity. It was as if all the world revolved around what happened in Manhattan. But when the Industrial Revolution came, New York had its fair share of ups and downs. Soon after, the city was nicknamed many things, ranging from what Alger coined as the “Empire City” to what the Commercial Advertiser called it “the Cosmopolitan City.” As time moved along, different people started to conclude different things about New York, and although it started to make a massive impact on the economy, wealth, and growth for the nation at the time, many started to believe that it could lead to its destruction as well.

John D. Rockefeller is a household name that monopolized the oil business, owning and operating nearly 90% of the industry. He wasn’t the only multi-billionaire that functioned out of the city either. With this new eco-centric city, came way of the world’s elite. By 1900, the majority of the world’s richest people took home to Manhattan. And as they continued to prosper, so did the city they colluded in. While these businesses evolved, the city had no choice but to evolve with it. At this point in time, the city’s infrastructure as its citizens knew it was adapting at rates uncontestable with modern times. The Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State building, all rising from the ground up to make room for the business aspect the city now took on.

It was only time before New York became the largest city in the country, and with that being said, its population grew as well. Tammany Hall was well-known for housing the government that had to tame this wild beast, and one man in particular was elected the role to do it. William Tweed is one of the well-known politicians from this era, holding different seats throughout his tenure. Aside from his unorthodox ways of handling his constituents, he had a huge hand in allowing the city to develop the way it did. The system in which he formed allowed big businesses to produce its fullest potential, leaving no room for missed opportunity. On the other hand, he failed to receive as much support from the poorer crowd, and in fact provided the key that led to the “Tammany Riots.”

The Gilded Age disproved Alger’s path to success and made his work irrelevant by this time. The independence that came with its generation started to change drastically to a dependence on those who can barely help themselves. By this point, people were unemployed. Those who had jobs took the risk of joining unions in hope for better working conditions, better pay, and better hours. For some, these gatherings resulted in the changes they needed. But many found themselves struggling to pay their bills and watched as their jobs got filled by people who were willing to suffer. Henry George was one of the key actors in providing the support for unions, speaking at rallies, meetings, and sometimes in the middle of the roads. The American Federation of Labor became the most fruitful labor societies in history. Regardless, many strikes continued to occur, like the Brooklyn Trolley strike of 1895.

This age in New York made its people stingy, provincial, and uneducated to the rest of the world around them. With time, the gap between the wealthy and poor only grew. In the late 19th century, many journalists attempted to answer why this issue was so prominent, but one man in particular stood out above the rest. Jacob Riis, an immigrant from Denmark, was an author for novels about poverty, especially focusing on that of New York. He presented the people with the knowledge they either didn’t have access of seeing or refused to see in the beginning. By the time others began to run with the movement, the population began to help the cause as a whole.

With that came the fight from younger workers as well; while in today’s world, children are expected to go to school, many were forced to work from the time they were old enough to throw newspapers. And yet, they fought too for the better things in life, seeing how much they were suffering as compared to their counterparts who did manage to receive an education. These ideas led to the “Newsies” strikes, and allowed for organizations to be built from their struggles. They didn’t last, but managed to cause national uproar, as similar groups in Philadelphia, Boston, and other parts of New England joined in as well. For Riis, this could have been expected, although he never imagined his work would have such influence. Whether it was him or many other Americans at the time, the Gilded Age wasn’t so rich after all, especially not for the majority living in muted conditions, barely making it through each day.

 

The Empire City Summary

Chapter five of Joanne Reitano’s The Restless City explains the political, social, and economic questions that sprung up during the Gilded age in New York City. She uses Horatio Alger’s words from his novel Ragged Dick to demonstrate how New York City during the late-nineteenth century period of modernization was a place of curiosity and opportunity as well as a place of hardship and crime. Throughout the city there was a huge separation between the rich and the poor and the ideas of social Darwinism controlled many people’s thoughts. Although social Darwinism flooded the minds of many with the ideas of faith in material values, the survival of the fittest, the inevitability of progress, and the futility of reform, many New Yorkers were starting to reexamine those ideas to bring about change for the better.

At this time, New York’s largest companies were monopolizing their businesses. The famous robber baron John D. Rockefeller controlled the oil business with his Standard Oil Trust. His social Darwinian way of thinking eliminated all of his competitors and created a trust that shocked the people and the government to start regulating business practices. Despite the government starting to regulate business, the trusts grew stronger and stronger which also strengthened New York City as a center of the American economy. To keep up with the growing economy of the city, physical aspects of the city were updated as well.

As the city was expanding, corruption and urban bossism grew as well. William M. Tweed dominated both the Democratic Party and Tammany Hall while becoming the nation’s first true political boss. He provided jobs, naturalization, money, food, and other services to the middle and working class people in return for votes. He used race to garner support from the white working class and appealed to mostly everyone besides the African Americans and the wealthy Protestant reformers. Tweed became so powerful that something had to be done to stop him. Thomas Nast first publicly exposed Tweed when he published his cartoons showing the members of the Tweed Ring as robbers and wrongdoers in 1869. The New York Times eventually was able to find enough evidence to uncover his corruption and finally arrest him. The Gilded Age bosses such as Tweed forced America to make good government a national priority and pushed New York City into change.

During this time, many people began to actively help the poor out. Whether they saw them as inferiors that needed correction or acted out of good character to help them, everyone agreed that it was in their own self-interest to bring about change. Jacob Riis’ collection of photos, How the Other Half Lives, unmasked the poverty and horrors of living in a tenement. His book spurred a social revolution where reformers tried many different ways to help the poor. The reformers elected William L. Strong as mayor in 1894 to unseat Tammany and bring improvements for the city’s lower class. The reformers were even able to make schooling for all children under twelve mandatory in New York in 1901 and desegregated schools in 1900. Even the wealthy were becoming more involved in helping the poor. A member of an upper class family, Josephine Shaw Lowell, the first female commissioner of the State Board of Charities and head of the New York Charity Organization Society (COS), advocated for a living wage where people would make enough to sustain a decent life. To continue to aid the poor, settlement houses were created that offered inexpensive meals, free kindergartens, health clinics, language classes, and taught job skills. Social reform was on the rise and the public reassessed urban problems.

Modernization provoked people to question, “why there was so much strife in a booming capitalist economy” (95). At the beginning of the 1860s, New York City’s unions started to grow and gain more power. Wealthy New Yorkers looked down upon unions in the light of social Darwinism and the police used brutality to stop any and all action from the unions. In 1877, Samuel Gompers proved to be one of the most important union organizers of the time. Led by Gompers, the Cigarmakers’ Union raised funds from America and from across Europe to provide for fifteen thousand strikers and their families. He later learned about striking, boycotting, and other union ideals from the Central Labor Union (CLU) while labor activism was peaking across the country.

The CLU started in politics to further demonstrate the power of labor. They nominated Henry George to run for mayor which surprisingly unified all different type of laborites in the city. Although George was not voted into office, the sheer amount of votes he did receive startled many people into facing the problems of society and even forced Tammany to recognize the problem of labor in New York.

In 1886, Gompers formed the American Federation of Labor to work for better hours, wages, benefits, and working conditions. Even though Gompers got labor to be a national issue, it was still a problem in the 1890s as demonstrated by the Brooklyn Trolley Strike of 1895.

Even the young children who worked as newsies were forming a union and striking. Their strike was mirrored all around the country in cities like Boston, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Providence. It was evident from this strike that these children will eventually become adults and become America’s future. Improving their lives and implementing social change is, “a wise social investment in a better life for all” (104).

 

The Glided Age of New York: Reitano, Ch. 5

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.

New York’s Guilded Age

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.