HIST 112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Rutherford B. Hayes, Gilded Age, Laissez-Faire
16 Aug 2016
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Turned out to be an illusion for most. Unfair labor conditions, didn"t need a lot of skills so many unskilled workers got the job and they were very replaceable. Tenements in nyc housed multiple families, 2 bathrooms per floor. Great railroad strike of 1877 (tail end of economic downturn) starts with b&o railroad: 10% wage cut for workers, offered less hours and a simultaneous 10% dividend to stockowners. Workers not formally organized railroad owners worried they wouldn"t be able to ship their goods spontaneous yet correlated strikes all over the country bring light to worker discontent. Rutherford hayes orders national guard to come in to mediate a business dispute essentially to shut down the strike. This really adds to the perception that people aren"t really looking out for the best interest of the worker. Political ideology review: socialism, communism, anarchy, classical liberalism/laissez-faire. Socialism and communism become very different things but in the gilded age they weren"t so different yet.
