The Gilded Age

        Period of growth in industry and a wave of immigrants production of iron and steel rose dramatically western resources: lumber, gold, and silver increased the demand for improved transportation.

Railroad development boomed as trains moved goods from the resource-rich West to the East.

Steel and oil were in great demand. produced wealth for businessmen: John D. Rockefeller (in oil), Andrew Carnegie (in steel), known as robber barons (people who got rich through ruthless business deals). Gilded Age gets its name from the many great fortunes created during this period and the way of life this wealth supported.

term coined by Mark Twain to represent the prosperity of the period that gilded or covered the corruption underneath.

 What was a robber baron?

 How did the Gilded Age get its name?

Political Machines

   A

political machine

is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts. The machine's power is based on the ability of the workers to get out the vote for their candidates on election day. highly efficient organizations in urban areas that ran like machines in getting candidates elected to city and state offices. In return, these candidates would kick back contracts or other benefits to the machine politicians who generally owned businesses that would benefit.

best example NYC – Tammany Hall

 Describe a political machine.

Major Scandals

   Boss Tweed – NYC political machine boss – would have his men work the docks to offer low rent housing and cheap wage jobs to incoming immigrants. In return, got the immigrant votes when they naturalized and often used them to stand in for dead voters (no ids required back then) to stuff ballot boxes.

Tweed made millions of dollars on government contracts to build different projects in NYC.

Brought down primarily by the cartoons of Thomas Nast which ridiculed and exposed the corruption. Also Samuel Tilden, reform governor of NY, brought investigations against Tweed Ring.

 Summarize the scandal that Boss Tweed was involved with.

   “Black Friday” Sept 24, 1869 – Grant’s brother-in-law caught up in Fisk and Gould’s scheme to corner the gold market Credit Mobilier – Union Pacific RR – sold stock to congressmen and used that to influence them to appropriate money for subsidizing the building of the RR – made profits by overcharging for materials and labor Whiskey Ring – a group of Republican politicians, including Orville Babcock, Grant’s private secretary, in a conspiracy to siphon off federal tax revenues from whiskey taxes – the “ring” was uncovered and brought to light by Sec of Treasury, Benjamin Bristow

 What was the scandal involving the Union Pacific Railroad?

 Describe the “ Whiskey Ring ” scandal.

 Economic disparity – huge difference between the wealth of the industrial capitalists and the low wage workers, farmers, and small business owners http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st3_8LEQvck