Trade unions formed an Independent Labor party and nominated for mayor Henry George, the radical economist, whose Progress and Poverty had been read by tens of thousands of workers. George’s platform tells something about the conditions of life for workers in New York in the 1880s. It demanded:

1. that property qualifications be abolished for members of juries.
2. that Grand Jurors be chosen from the lower-class as well as from the upperclass, which dominated Grand Juries.
3. that the police not interfere with peaceful meetings.
4. that the sanitary inspection of buildings be enforced.
5. that contract labor be abolished in public works.
6. that there be equal pay for equal work for women.
7. that the streetcars be owned by the municipal government.

In 1886, as a new mayor was being elected for New York City, the issues for workers were unfathomable if compared to the issues for workers in today’s society. Zinn highlights Henry George’s platform, and although considered a radical, these conditions accentuate how terrible and inhumane the factories were for workers, as well as the way that  workers were treated. For instance, numbers three and six are particularly shocking, three because in this age, unsafe buildings are never, under any conditions, used in any way, and six for the opposite reason: women still do not, in many fields, receive equal pay for equal work, and that this is considered a radical idea along with the other items is surprising. Zinn is trying to place a clear connection between the so-called radical ideas of the late 1800’s and the widely accepted ideas of today. While a few of these ideas seem rather minor, they were instrumental to emphasize to make bigger changes, one little change at a time. Although George did not win the election, he place din second, and drew attention to his cause in the process.

The People’s Party otherwise known as the Populist party was founded in 1891 and dissolved in 1908. The populist party’s radical causes were adopted by the democratic party at the time and had a huge impact on the political landscape. “According to Lawrence Goodwyn, if the labor movement had been able to do in the cities what the Populists did in the rural areas, “to create among urban workers a culture of cooperation, self-respect, and economic analysis,” there might have been a great movement for change in the United States.” (271) This anti elitist movement sided with labor unions to attack banks, railroads and unfair working environments. Zinn quotes Normal Pollak who says  “Populism regarded itself as a class movement, reasoning that farmers and workers were assuming the same material position in society.” (272) The movement united poor white people and black people to fight for industrial freedom. Zinn says that they were not above racist thinking but still strived for the “emancipation of all men” (273)   Zinn mentions the populist party because they have a huge impact on the labor unions, the democratic party, and arguably helped create the progressive movement.

“… a circular marked “Private and Confidential” was issued by the three banking houses of Drexel, Morgan & Company, Brown Brothers & Company, and Kidder, Peabody & Company. The most painstaking care was exercised that this document should not find its way into the press or otherwise become public…. Why this fear? Because the circular was an invitation … to the great railroad magnates to assemble at Morgan’s house, No. 219 Madison Avenue, there to form, in the phrase of the day, an iron-clad combination. … a compact which would efface competition among certain railroads, and unite those interests in an agreement by which the people of the United States would be bled even more effectively than before.” (Zinn,256)

At this time, the emergence of oligopolies was considered a feat of  financial ingenuity, as well as the bane of consumers and workers. For so long companies had been competing to get the most customers and to reap the highest profits. Eventually, they discovered the path to success, while counterintuitive, was to collude so they could focus on manipulating their consumers and workers for higher profits.  Zinn believed that the railroad magnates coming together sealed the fate of Americans: the tycoons and their corporations would go uncontested while the working class would inevitably suffer through cruel conditions. The title of the era as “The Gilded Age” is fitting as a select few reached unparalleled heights of success while underneath, most Americans lived through the harshest conditions. Saying the working class “would be bled even more effectively than before” was not just a metaphor. In 1889 alone, over 22,000 railroad workers were killed or injured. Because the companies were working together, workers could not seek better wages or working conditions at a different company. Such became the case with most labor jobs. On top of paying meager wages, these companies would charge exorbitant prices thereby effectively putting these wages back in their own bank accounts. As a result, these companies owned and controlled Americans.

Soon companies gained control of Americans not just on an individual level but on a federal level. The United States government stood by and allowed the greedy corporations to operate while infringing upon the rights and well-being of Americans. Zinn compares the government at this time to a Marxist definition of a capitalist state, “pretending neutrality to maintain order but serving the interests of the rich.” (Zinn,258) Under Grover Clevelend, the Federal bank had ran out of gold reserves. The large private banks working together saw this economic vulnerability as an opportunity for growth and took control over millions in government bonds. The government’s dependence on big banks became clear as it served to protect the interest of these banks as opposed to its constituents. Thus these industries were able to operate with little to no accountability and regulations. By working together, the heads of  the banking, oil, steel and railroad industries earned a lasting influence on America.

“Thomas Edison promised New Jersey politicians $1,000 each in return for favorable legislation”. (248).  In this era, fraud and deceit was the only way to have skyrocketing income. Robber Barons such as John D. Rockefeller made millions, all fueled by the poor people’s pockets. The working class remained with its low wages working 12 hour shifts. “Shred efficient businessman building empires, chocking out competition, maintaining high prices, keeping wages low, using government subsidies”. (251).

Then there were the lawyers, technicians, and engineerings, paid slightly more, but these were the ones keeping the scheme running in this perfectly devised system designed by the Robber Barons themselves. Ruthless tactics such as price fixing and sabotage were the norm. These banditos attained government subsidies and used it to their advantage to fund their enterprises; meanwhile the working class people could not obtain a simple housing subsidy.

Robber Barons alike to Rockefeller concentrated industry onto a saturated monopoly that controlled a great deal of markets. Many different industries depended on one another for survival, but the common denominator was, most of them needed the steel industry for survival, to supply machinery, railroad tracks, and raw material for building blocks.  Although there was much carelessness during industrialization, many good things came out from industrialization. Howard Zinn relates the good things to the transcontinental railroad which connected hubs and cities to many different destinations. Steel in itself increased productivity and made possible many commercial ventures. However, too much fast progress in society is usually accompanied by cutting corners and legalized organized crime as to the point where the middle-class is almost nonexistant.

Although social paradigm dictates that the transcontinental railroad was a marvelous innovation and signifier of the American manifest destiny, it is truly a representation of immorality by the wealthy and politically elite of the time. Howard Zinn asserts this accusation by stating, “The first transcontinental railroad was built with blood, sweat, politics and thievery, out of the meeting of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads.” (235).

With such a big project, fraud was almost inevitable. Millions of dollars in bonds and bribes were paid to politicians and companies in order to build the railroads. Overpayment became the norm and politicians were given shares at dirt low prices to allow this ‘thievery’ and to prevent investigation. Massachusetts Congressman Oakes Ames avows, “There is no difficulty in getting men to look after their own property.” (235). To make matters worse, thousand of immigrant and black labor was used to create the railroad. Making one to two dollars a day doing backbreaking labor, the workers risked their lives and died by the hundreds from all the risks they were exposed to. Some railroad workers even went on to join the populist workers having similar complaints to those of the farmers.

Zinn rebukes the mistreatment of the workers and the unethical practices of the railroad company/politicians, but doesn’t belittle the all the beneficial and practical uses this new system had. The chapter states that the steel company was inadvertently effected by the building of the railroads, as well as making it easier for people to travel, and allowing goods to be transported long distances (most notably meat products).

“They control the people through the people’s own money.” (p. 256) “I sympathize with the poor, but the number of poor who are to be sympathized with is very small…let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings.” (p. 262). The early capitalists established the rules in such a way that it would create a never-ending dependence of the rich by the poor. The big banks had the people’s money, who voluntarily contributed to the establishment and continuation of corporate capitalism. Little did they know that they would soon be putting their finances and future in the hands of men like J.P. Morgan, who only wanted power and did whatever he deemed necessary to obtain it, including selling rifles that would shoot off the thumbs of the soldiers using them.

The poor lived in a system of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. They would work for meager wages that would barely sustain their families. They would die doing the dirty work while the rich sat in their mansions, unsoiled. They increased the wealth of bankers by emptying their own pockets and willingly giving them the capital to support the system that oppressed them. This system was created by the rich, but fed by the poor. Unfortunately, once the Carnegies and the Rockefellers of that era claimed dominance of the nation’s wealth and created monopolies, there was little the poor could do to go against it or they would face financial starvation. In the end, both sides are to blame for the system that destroyed the lives of many during industrialization. The rich for creating such a system that deprived the poor and reduced them to mere tools to be thrown away once deemed useless, and the poor for feeding such a system with their blood, sweat, tears, and money.

– The working class vs. Robber Barons

It is true that wealth has been greatly increased, and that the average of comfort, leisure and refinement has been raised; but these gains are not general. In them the lowest class do not share… This association of poverty with progress is the great enigma of our times…

This quote by Henry George basically epitomizes what capitalism in the 19^th Century was all about. The Robber Baron class of the United States sought to all kinds of manipulative yet legal practices to fill their pockets. The government could easily be bought and had basically no control to regulate capitalism in the country. From a broader view, America was a country that was revolutionizing; steam, electricity, coal and iron, were just a few of the technological advances that occurred in this time. Farmers were moving to cities, and America was perceived to be a country full of prosperity. However, the reality was much different. Only a few rich people, like J.P Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie etc., were really benefitting from this era of capitalism. They were the ones who were reaping all the profits and their mantra was to gain more and more wealth by using people whose lives were less ‘valuable’. The construction of the first transcontinental railroad was done by thirteen thousand Irish and Chinese immigrants, who were paid only about two dollars a day. Thousands of immigrants died and got injured during the construction of the railroad, and yet their deaths were merely seen as sacrifices that had to be made for the sake of industrialization. It was the lower class that physically worked to industrialize America and yet it was the class of Robber Barons that enjoyed the benefits. I think Zinn tries to establish that the industrial revolution of the 19th century was really not a golden period for the United States, but was in fact a time that depicted the cruelties of unregulated capitalism.