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87-670: Built for Seattle real estate developer James A. Moore and designed by E. W. Houghton, the Moore Theatre functioned as a lavish social venue for the Gilded Age elite of early 20th-century Seattle. It opened in late 1907, in time for the originally planned date of the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition which was ultimately postponed to 1909. The Moore Theatre and adjoining Moore Hotel were designed partly to accommodate and entertain tourists for this event. The theater

174-510: A designated period in American history. The term was adopted by literary and cultural critics as well as historians, including Van Wyck Brooks , Lewis Mumford , Charles Austin Beard , Mary Ritter Beard , Vernon Louis Parrington , and Matthew Josephson . For them, Gilded Age was a pejorative term for a time of materialistic excesses and widespread political corruption. The early half of

261-463: A gain of 48%. Economic historian Clarence D. Long estimates that (in terms of constant 1914 dollars), the average annual incomes of all American non-farm employees rose from $ 375 in 1870 to $ 395 in 1880, $ 519 in 1890 and $ 573 in 1900, a gain of 53% in 30 years. Australian historian Peter Shergold found that the standard of living for industrial workers was higher than in Europe. He compared wages and

348-564: A great communications network. Elisha Otis developed the elevator, allowing the construction of skyscrapers and the concentration of ever greater populations in urban centers. Thomas Edison , in addition to inventing hundreds of devices, established the first electrical lighting utility, basing it on direct current and an efficient incandescent lamp . Electric power delivery spread rapidly across Gilded Age cities. The streets were lit at night, and electric streetcars allowed for faster commuting to work and easier shopping. Petroleum launched

435-415: A lifetime career for young men; women were rarely hired. A typical career path would see a young man hired at age 18 as a shop laborer and promoted to skilled mechanic at age 24, brakeman at 25, freight conductor at 27, and passenger conductor at age 57. White-collar career paths likewise were delineated. Educated young men started in clerical or statistical work and moved up to station agents or bureaucrats at

522-628: A long-distance outlet for wheat, cattle and hogs that reached all the way to Europe. Rural America became one giant market, as wholesalers bought the consumer products produced by the factories in the East and shipped them to local merchants in small stores nationwide. Shipping live animals was slow and expensive. It was more efficient to slaughter them in major packing centers such as Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati, and then ship dressed meat out in refrigerated freight cars. The cars were cooled by slabs of ice that had been harvested from

609-485: A new industry beginning with the Pennsylvania oil fields in the 1860s. The United States dominated the global industry into the 1950s. Kerosene replaced whale oil and candles for lighting homes. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil Company and monopolized the oil industry. It mostly produced kerosene before the automobile created a demand for gasoline in the 20th century. According to historian Henry Adams

696-508: A new middle class was rapidly growing, especially in northern cities. The nation became a world leader in applied technology. From 1860 to 1890, 500,000 patents were issued for new inventions—over ten times the number granted in the previous seventy years. George Westinghouse invented air brakes for trains (making them both safer and faster). Theodore Vail established the American Telephone & Telegraph Company and built

783-761: A peak membership in 1919. This period saw several financial crises and economic recessions—called "panics", notably the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893 . They lasted several years, with high urban unemployment, low incomes for farmers, low profits for business, slow overall growth, and reduced immigration. They generated political unrest. Gilded Age politics, called the Third Party System, featured intense competition between two major parties, with minor parties coming and going, especially on issues of concern to prohibitionists, to labor unions and to farmers. The Democrats and Republicans (the latter nicknamed

870-797: A world average real wage growth rate of 2% in 2013. Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America have all experienced real wage growth of under 0.9% in 2013, whilst the developed countries of the OECD have experienced real wage growth of 0.2% in the same period. (Conversely, Asia has consistently experienced strong real wage growth of over 6% from 2006 to 2013.) The International Labour Organisation has stated that wage stagnation has resulted in "a declining share of GDP going to labour while an increasing share goes to capital , especially in developed economies ." The Economic Policy Institute stated wages have failed to keep up with productivity in

957-555: A year, which kept them mired in poverty. Workers had to put in roughly 60 hours a week to earn this much. Wage labor was widely condemned as 'wage slavery' in the working class press, and labor leaders almost always used the phrase in their speeches. As the shift towards wage labor gained momentum, working class organizations became more militant in their efforts to "strike down the whole system of wages for labor." In 1886, economist and New York Mayoral candidate Henry George , author of Progress and Poverty , stated "Chattel slavery

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1044-440: Is bringing home more money each year, but the increases in inflation actually zeroes out the increases in their salary. Given that inflation is increasing at the same pace as wages, an individual cannot actually afford to increase their consumption in such a scenario. The nominal wage increases a worker sees in his paycheck may give a misleading impression of whether he is "getting ahead" or "falling behind" over time. For example,

1131-512: Is dead, but industrial slavery remains." The unequal distribution of wealth remained high during this period. From 1860 to 1900, the wealthiest 2% of American households owned more than a third of the nation's wealth, while the top 10% owned roughly three-quarters of it. The bottom 40% had no wealth at all. In terms of property, the wealthiest 1% owned 51%, while the bottom 44% claimed 1.1%. Historian Howard Zinn argues that this disparity along with precarious working and living conditions for

1218-605: Is generally given as the beginning of the Progressive Era in the 1890s (sometimes the United States presidential election of 1896 ). The Gilded Age was a period of economic growth as the United States jumped to the lead in industrialization ahead of Britain. The nation was rapidly expanding its economy into new areas, especially heavy industry like factories, railroads , and coal mining . In 1869,

1305-435: Is to look at how much time it took to earn enough money to buy various items in the past, which is one version of the definition of real wages as the amount of goods or services that can be bought. Such an analysis shows that for most items, it takes much less work time to earn them now than it did decades ago, at least in the United States. Consider an example economy with the following wages over three years. Also assume that

1392-416: Is used in undertaking some forms of economic analysis. For example, to report on the relative economic successes of two nations, real wage figures are more useful than nominal figures. The importance of considering real wages also appears when looking at the history of a single country. If only nominal wages are considered, the conclusion has to be that people used to be significantly poorer than today. However,

1479-416: The cost of living was also much lower. To have an accurate view of a nation's wealth in any given year, inflation has to be taken into account and real wages must be used as one measuring stick. There are further limitations in the traditional measures of wages, such as failure to incorporate additional employment benefits, or not adjusting for a changing composition of the overall workforce. An alternative

1566-611: The economic depression of the 1870s and became known as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 , which was, according to historian Jack Beatty , "the largest strike anywhere in the world in the 19th century." This strike did not involve labor unions, but rather uncoordinated outbursts in numerous cities. The strike and associated riots lasted 45 days and resulted in the deaths of several hundred participants (no police or soldiers were killed), several hundred more injuries, and millions in damages to railroad property. The unrest

1653-472: The eight-hour working day , and the abolition of child labor ; middle-class reformers demanded civil service reform, prohibition of liquor and beer, and women's suffrage . Local governments across the North and West built public schools chiefly at the elementary level; public high schools started to emerge. The numerous religious denominations were growing in membership and wealth, with Catholicism becoming

1740-468: The first transcontinental railroad opened up the far-west mining and ranching regions. Travel from New York to San Francisco then took six days instead of six months. Railroad track mileage tripled from 1860 to 1880, and then doubled again by 1920. The new track linked formerly isolated areas with larger markets and allowed for the rise of commercial farming, ranching, and mining, creating a truly national marketplace. American steel production rose to surpass

1827-492: The "Grand Old Party", GOP) fought over control of offices, which were the rewards for party activists, as well as over major economic issues. Very high voter turnout typically exceeded 80% or even 90% in some Northern states as the parties ran strong campaigns. Turnout in the South was lower. Average presidential turnout 1872 to 1900 was 83% in the North and 62% in the South. Competition was intense and elections were very close. In

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1914-521: The Democrats and Republicans. Gilded age politicians are somewhat infamous among historians for having few actual policies and doing very little of importance in office. Gilded age presidents are frequently called the "forgotten presidents" because of their mediocre presidencies where they did very little. The major metropolitan centers underwent rapid population growth and as a result had many lucrative contracts and jobs to award. To take advantage of

2001-812: The Gilded Age roughly coincided with the middle portion of the Victorian Era in Britain and the Belle Époque in France. With respect to eras of American history, historical views vary as to when the Gilded Age began, ranging from starting right after the Civil War ended in 1865, or 1873, or as the Reconstruction Era ended in 1877. The date marking the end of the Gilded Age also varies. The ending

2088-593: The Heritage Foundation used different inflation adjusting methods in their studies. Besides rising benefit costs, proposed causes of wage stagnation include the decline of labor unions, loss of job mobility (including through non-competes), and declining employment by the manufacturing sector. The countries of Belgium , France , Germany , Italy and the United Kingdom have experienced strong real wage growth following European integration in

2175-503: The Knights claimed 700,000 members. By 1890, membership had plummeted to fewer than 100,000, then faded away. Strikes organized by labor unions became routine events by the 1880s as the gap between the rich and the poor widened. There were 37,000 strikes from 1881 to 1905. By far the largest number were in the building trades, followed far behind by coal miners. The main goal was control of working conditions and settling which rival union

2262-464: The Malthusian phase of history, consists of the period of time before the mass modern economic growth that began around 1800. During this phase, real wages grew very slowly, if at all, since increases in productivity would typically result in equivalent population growth that offset this increased production and left the income per person relatively constant in the long run. The second phase, known as

2349-517: The Moore was one of the largest theatres in the U.S. at the time. The Moore was characterized by innovative architecture, luxurious materials, and sumptuous decor. The upper balcony, although well-appointed for its day, was originally racially segregated from the rest of the theater hall. It once had separate entrances, and to this day has a separate staircase connecting it to just inside the front door. The Moore's architect, E. W. Houghton, also designed

2436-550: The Moore's owners declined to renew their lease and moved to a Masonic Temple on Capitol Hill , taking the "Egyptian" name with them. The Moore Theatre and Hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Since the 1980s, it has hosted touring musicians and theatrical productions. It currently seats about 1,800 people. The Moore Theatre is an example of the history of segregation in Seattle and

2523-586: The Seeley Theatre in Pomeroy, Washington . Like the Moore, the Seeley, which currently seats 270 people, features a steel girder supporting the balcony without the need for supporting columns. Gilded Age In United States history , the Gilded Age is described as the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era . It

2610-463: The Solow phase, occurred after 1800 and corresponded with the massive technological and societal improvements brought about by the industrial revolution. In this phase, population growth has been more restrained, and as such real wages have risen much more dramatically with rapid increases in technology and productivity over time. Following the recession of 2008 real wages globally have stagnated with

2697-405: The United States as the "colored entrance" for Black audience members restricted to the balcony remains viewable around the corner from the front entrance for white patrons. Built of reinforced concrete (plus an enormous steel girder spanning the width of the house, carrying the weight of the balcony without the need for support columns) and faced with a façade of white ceramic tile and terra-cotta,

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2784-410: The United States led the world. Kennedy reports that "U.S. national income, in absolute figures in per capita, was so far above everybody else's by 1914." Per capita income in the United States was $ 377 in 1914 compared to Britain in second place at $ 244, Germany at $ 184, France at $ 153, and Italy at $ 108, while Russia and Japan trailed far behind at $ 41 and $ 36. London remained the financial center of

2871-560: The United States since the mid 1970s, and that wages have therefore stagnated. According to them, between 1973 and 2013, productivity grew 74.4% and hourly compensation grew 9.2%, contradicting the neoclassical economic theory that those two should rise equally together. However, the Heritage Foundation says these claims rest on misinterpreted economic statistics. According to them, productivity grew 100% between 1973 and 2012 while employee compensation, which accounts for worker benefits as well as wages, grew 77%. The Economic Policy Institute and

2958-664: The West based on farming, ranching, and mining. Labor unions became increasingly important in the rapidly growing industrial cities. Two major nationwide depressions—the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893 —interrupted growth and caused social and political upheavals. The South remained economically devastated after the American Civil War ; the region's economy became increasingly tied to commodities like food and building materials, cotton for thread and fabrics, and tobacco production, all of which suffered from low prices. With

3045-554: The agricultural and technical ("Ag & Tech") fields. Railroads, which had previously invented railroad time to standardize time zones, production, and lifestyles, created modern management, with clear chains of command, statistical reporting, and complex bureaucratic systems. They systematized the roles of middle managers and set up explicit career tracks for both skilled blue-collar jobs and for white-collar managers. These advances spread from railroads into finance, manufacturing, and trade. Together with rapid growth of small business,

3132-445: The amount of goods and services that can be bought. This term is used in contrast to nominal wages or unadjusted wages. Because it has been adjusted to account for changes in the prices of goods and services, real wages provide a clearer representation of an individual's wages in terms of what they can afford to buy with those wages – specifically, in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought; however, real wages suffer

3219-441: The average worker’s paycheck increased 2.7% in 2005, while it increased 2.1% in 2015, creating an impression for some workers that they were "falling behind". However, inflation was 3.4% in 2005, while it was only 0.1% in 2015, so workers were actually "getting ahead" with lower nominal paycheck increases in 2015 compared to 2005. Historically, the trends of real wages are typically divided into two phases. The first phase, known as

3306-514: The book, whereby an increasingly complex set of rules dictated to everyone exactly what should be done in every circumstance, and exactly what their rank and pay would be. By the 1880s the career railroaders were retiring, and pension systems were invented to provide for them. America developed a love-hate relationship with railroads. Boosters in every city worked feverishly to make sure the railroad came through, knowing their urban dreams depended upon it. The mechanical size, scope, and efficiency of

3393-568: The combined totals of Britain, Germany, and France. Investors in London and Paris poured money into the railroads through the American financial market centered in Wall Street . By 1900, the process of economic concentration had extended into most branches of industry—a few large corporations, called " trusts ", dominated in steel, oil, sugar, meat, and farm machinery. Through vertical integration these trusts were able to control each aspect of

3480-437: The competitive sectors. Increased mechanization of industry is a major mark of the Gilded Age's search for cheaper ways to create more product. Frederick Winslow Taylor observed that worker efficiency in steel could be improved through the use of very close observations with a stop watch to eliminate wasted effort. Mechanization made some factories an assemblage of unskilled laborers performing simple and repetitive tasks under

3567-486: The direction of skilled foremen and engineers. Machine shops grew rapidly, and they comprised highly skilled workers and engineers. Both the number of unskilled and skilled workers increased, as their wage rates grew. Engineering colleges were established to feed the enormous demand for expertise, many through the Federal government sponsored Morrill Land-Grant Acts passed to stimulate public education, particularly in

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3654-400: The disadvantage of not being well defined, since the amount of inflation (which can be calculated based on different combinations of goods and services) is itself not well defined. Hence real wage defined as the total amount of goods and services that can be bought with a wage, is also not defined. This is because of changes in the relative prices . Despite difficulty in defining one value for

3741-404: The divisional or central headquarters. At each level they had more and more knowledge, experience, and human capital . They were very hard to replace and were virtually guaranteed permanent jobs and provided with insurance and medical care. Hiring, firing, and wage rates were set not by foremen, but by central administrators, to minimize favoritism and personality conflicts. Everything was done by

3828-550: The early 1980s. However, according to OECD between 2007 and 2015 the United Kingdom saw a real wage decline of 10.4%, equal only to Greece . A 2014 study argued that wages now respond more strongly to changes in unemployment rates. It documented how the UK's 1979 - 2010 real wage growth across deciles has stagnated since 2003. Its models found that pre-2003, a doubling of the unemployment rate saw median wages fall 7%, but now

3915-482: The end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the rise of Jim Crow laws , African American (more generally termed Black, referring to darker skin color) people in the South were stripped of political power and voting rights, and were left severely economically disadvantaged. The political landscape was notable in that despite rampant corruption, election turnout was comparatively high among all classes (though

4002-424: The era by 1920s historians who took the term from one of Mark Twain 's lesser-known novels, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873). The book (co-written with Charles Dudley Warner ) satirized the promised " golden age " after the Civil War, portrayed as an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding of economic expansion. In the 1920s, and 1930s, the metaphor "Gilded Age" began to be applied to

4089-463: The era, the bottom 25% owned 0.32% of the wealth while the top 0.1% owned 9.4%, which would mean the period had the lowest wealth gap in recorded history. He attributes this to the lack of government interference. There was a significant human cost attached to this period of economic growth, as American industry had the highest rate of accidents in the world. In 1889, railroads employed 704,000 men, of whom 20,000 were injured and 1,972 were killed on

4176-880: The expense of the working class, by chicanery and a betrayal of democracy. Their admirers argued that they were "Captains of Industry" who built the core America industrial economy and also the non-profit sector through acts of philanthropy. For instance, Andrew Carnegie donated over 90% of his wealth and said that philanthropy was their duty—the " Gospel of Wealth ". Private money endowed thousands of colleges, hospitals, museums, academies, schools, opera houses, public libraries, and charities. John D. Rockefeller donated over $ 500 million to various charities, slightly over half his entire net worth. Reflecting this, many business leaders were influenced by Herbert Spencer 's theory of social Darwinism , which justified laissez-faire capitalism, competition and social stratification . This emerging industrial economy quickly expanded to meet

4263-486: The extent of the franchise was generally limited to men), and national elections featured two similarly sized parties. The dominant issues were cultural (especially regarding prohibition , education, and ethnic or racial groups) and economic (tariffs and money supply). Urban politics were tied to rapidly growing industrial cities, which increasingly fell under control of political machines . In business, powerful nationwide trusts formed in some industries. Unions crusaded for

4350-503: The inflation in this economy is 2% per year: Real wage = W / i ( W = wage, i = inflation, can also be subjugated as interest ). If the figures shown are real wages, then wages have increased by 2% after inflation has been taken into account. In effect, an individual making this wage actually has more ability to buy goods and services than the previous year. However, if the figures shown are nominal wages then real wages are not increasing at all. In absolute dollar amounts, an individual

4437-741: The job. The U.S. was also the only industrial power to have no workman's compensation program in place to support injured workers. Craft-oriented labor unions, such as carpenters, printers, shoemakers and cigar makers, grew steadily in the industrial cities after 1870. These unions used frequent short strikes as a method to attain control over the labor market and fight off competing unions. They generally blocked women, blacks, and Chinese from union membership, but welcomed most European immigrants. The railroads had their own separate unions. An especially large episode of unrest (estimated at eighty thousand railroad workers and several hundred thousand other Americans, both employed and unemployed) broke out during

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4524-399: The largest. They all expanded their missionary activity to the world arena. Catholics, Lutherans , and Episcopalians set up religious schools, and the largest of those schools set up numerous colleges, hospitals, and charities. Many of the problems faced by society, especially the poor, gave rise to attempted reforms in the subsequent Progressive Era . The term Gilded Age was applied to

4611-689: The local factory owner who could patrol every part of his own factory in a matter of hours. Civil engineers became the senior management of railroads. The leading innovators were the Western Railroad of Massachusetts and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1840s, the Erie in the 1850s, and the Pennsylvania in the 1860s. The railroads invented the career path in the private sector for both blue- and white-collar workers. Railroading became

4698-570: The many Egyptian Theaters in the U.S. and Canada and give the venue added sex appeal. There had previously been a Seattle Egyptian Theater on University Way ( The Ave ) in the University District . Ireland and MacDonald transformed the theater into a movie palace ; Dennis Nyback was the projectionist. The Moore Egyptian was the birthplace of the Seattle International Film Festival in 1976. In 1981

4785-559: The most hated railroad men in the country was Collis P. Huntington (1821–1900), the president of the Southern Pacific Railroad , who dominated California's economy and politics. One textbook argues: "Huntington came to symbolize the greed and corruption of late-nineteenth-century business. Business rivals and political reformers accused him of every conceivable evil. Journalists and cartoonists made their reputations by pillorying him.... Historians have cast Huntington as

4872-447: The natural resources and virgin lands that were available in America acted as a safety valve for poorer workers, hence, employers had to pay higher wages to hire labor. According to Shergold the American advantage grew over time from 1890 to 1914, and the perceived higher American wage led to a heavy steady flow of skilled workers from Britain to industrial America. According to historian Steve Fraser, workers generally earned less than $ 800

4959-434: The new economic opportunity, both parties built so-called " political machines " to manage elections, to reward supporters and to pay off potential opponents. Financed by the " spoils system ", the winning party distributed most local, state and national government jobs, and many government contracts, to its loyal supporters. Real wages Real wages are wages adjusted for inflation , or equivalently wages in terms of

5046-560: The new market demands. From 1869 to 1879, the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 6.8% for NNP (GDP minus capital depreciation) and 4.5% for NNP per capita. The economy repeated this period of growth in the 1880s, in which the wealth of the nation grew at an annual rate of 3.8%, while the GDP was also doubled. Libertarian economist Milton Friedman states that for the 1880s, "The highest decadal rate [of growth of real reproducible, tangible wealth per head from 1805 to 1950] for periods of about ten years

5133-399: The northern lakes in wintertime and stored for summer and fall usage. Chicago, the main railroad center, benefited enormously, with Kansas City a distant second. Historian William Cronon concludes: During the 1870s and 1880s, the U.S. economy rose at the fastest rate in its history, with real wages, wealth, GDP, and capital formation all increasing rapidly. For example, from 1865 to 1898,

5220-413: The output of wheat increased by 256%, corn by 222%, coal by 800%, and miles of railway track by 567%. Thick national networks for transportation and communication were created. The corporation became the dominant form of business organization, and a scientific management revolution transformed business operations. By the beginning of the 20th century, gross domestic product and industrial production in

5307-406: The period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants. The rapid expansion of industrialization led to real wage growth of 40% from 1860 to 1890 and spread across the increasing labor force. The average annual wage per industrial worker (including men, women, and children) rose from $ 380 in 1880 ($ 11,998 in 2023 dollars ) to $ 584 in 1890 ($ 19,126 in 2023 dollars ), a gain of 59%. The Gilded Age

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5394-405: The policemen dispersing a meeting. Police then randomly fired into the crowd, killing and wounding a number of people, including other police, and arbitrarily rounded up anarchists, including leaders of the movement. Seven anarchists went on trial; four were hanged even though no evidence directly linked them to the bombing. One had in his possession a Knights of Labor membership card. At its peak,

5481-427: The production of a specific good, ensuring that the profits made on the finished product were maximized and prices minimized, and by controlling access to the raw materials, prevented other companies from being able to compete in the marketplace. Several monopolies—most famously Standard Oil —came to dominate their markets by keeping prices low when competitors appeared; they grew at a rate four times faster than that of

5568-403: The railroads made a profound impression; people dressed in their Sunday best to go down to the terminal to watch the train come in. Travel became much easier, cheaper, and more common. Shoppers from small towns could make day trips to big city stores. Hotels, resorts, and tourist attractions were built to accommodate the demand. The realization that anyone could buy a ticket for a thousand-mile trip

5655-564: The real wage, in some cases a real wage can be said to have unequivocally increased. This is true if: After the change, the worker can now afford any bundle of goods and services that they could just barely afford before the change, and still have money left over. In such a situation, real wage increases no matter how inflation is calculated. Specifically, inflation could be calculated based on any good or service or combination thereof, and real wage has still increased. This of course leaves many scenarios where real wage increasing, decreasing or staying

5742-409: The same depends upon how inflation is calculated. These are the scenarios where the worker can buy some of the bundles that they could just barely afford before and still have money left, but at the same time they simply cannot afford some of the bundles that they could before. This happens because some prices change more than others, which means relative prices have changed. The use of adjusted figures

5829-505: The same doubling sees a fall of 12%. A 2018 paper contended that a major source of wage stagnation is underemployment . It studied the OECD with a focus on the UK, finding that unemployment rates often returned to 2007's pre- great recession levels. However, 2017 underemployment rates in many countries were still worse than 2007. So it argues that the low unemployment rates hide continued "labour market slack": its models found underemployment

5916-491: The solution. The AFL was a coalition of unions, each based on strong local chapters; the AFL coordinated their work in cities and prevented jurisdictional battles. Gompers repudiated socialism and abandoned the violent nature of the earlier unions. The AFL worked to control the local labor market, thereby empowering its locals to obtain higher wages and more control over hiring. As a result, the AFL unions spread to most cities, reaching

6003-498: The southern states, lingering resentment over the Civil War remained and meant that much of the South would vote Democratic. After the end of Reconstruction in 1877, competition in the South took place mainly inside the Democratic Party. Nationwide, turnout fell sharply after 1900. Despite the high voter turnout, aggressive political campaigning, and frequently nasty elections, there were few real policy differences between

6090-546: The standard of living in Pittsburgh with Birmingham, England, one of the richest industrial cities of Europe. After taking account of the cost of living (which was 65% higher in the U.S.), he found the standard of living of unskilled workers was about the same in the two cities, while skilled workers in Pittsburgh had about 50% to 100% higher standard of living as those in Birmingham, England. Warren B. Catlin proposed that

6177-418: The state's most despicable villain." However Huntington defended himself: "The motives back of my actions have been honest ones and the results have redounded far more to the benefit of California than they have to my own." The growth of railroads from 1850s to 1880s made commercial farming much more feasible and profitable. Millions of acres were opened to settlement once the railroad was nearby, and provided

6264-448: The system of railroads needed: The impact can be examined through five aspects: shipping, finance, management, careers, and popular reaction. Railroads provided a highly efficient network for shipping freight and passengers throughout the U.S., spurring the evolution of a large national market. This had a transformative impact on most sectors of the economy including manufacturing, retail and wholesale, agriculture, and finance. The result

6351-461: The theater is a mix of elements of the Byzantine and Italianate styles. Like most theaters, the exterior is relatively plain and stylistically neutral compared to the extravagant interior. The staging area was the largest of any theater in Seattle, with an electrical system that was state-of-the-art for its time, and unusually numerous dressing rooms. Seating 2,436 in its original configuration,

6438-451: The working classes prompted the rise of populist , anarchist , and socialist movements. French economist Thomas Piketty notes that economists during this time, such as Willford I. King , were concerned that the United States was becoming increasingly inegalitarian to the point of becoming like old Europe, and "further and further away from its original pioneering ideal." According to economist Richard Sutch in an alternative view of

6525-935: The world until 1914, yet the United States' growth caused foreigners to ask, as British author W. T. Stead wrote in 1901, "What is the secret of American success?" The businessmen of the Second Industrial Revolution created industrial towns and cities in the Northeast with new factories, and hired an ethnically diverse industrial working class, many of them new immigrants from Europe. Wealthy industrialists and financiers such as John D. Rockefeller , Jay Gould , Henry Clay Frick , Andrew Mellon , Andrew Carnegie , Henry Flagler , Henry Huttleston Rogers , J. P. Morgan , Leland Stanford , Meyer Guggenheim , Jacob Schiff , Charles Crocker , and Cornelius Vanderbilt would sometimes be labeled " robber barons " by their critics, who argue their fortunes were made at

6612-489: Was $ 1.8 billion; 1897, it reached $ 10.6 billion (compared to a total national debt of $ 1.2 billion). Funding came primarily from private finance throughout the Northeast, and from Europe, especially Britain, with about 10 percent coming from the Federal government, especially in the form of land grants that could be realized when a certain amount of trackage was opened. The emerging American financial system

6699-486: Was also a dark side. By the 1870s railroads were vilified by Western farmers who absorbed the Granger movement theme that monopolistic carriers controlled too much pricing power, and that the state legislatures had to regulate maximum prices. Local merchants and shippers supported the demand and got some " Granger Laws " passed. Anti-railroad complaints were loudly repeated in late 19th century political rhetoric. One of

6786-489: Was also an era of poverty, especially in the South, and growing inequality, as millions of immigrants poured into the United States, and the high concentration of wealth became more visible and contentious. Railroads were the major growth industry, with the factory system, oil, mining, and finance increasing in importance. Immigration from Europe and the Eastern United States led to the rapid growth of

6873-406: Was an integrated market practically the size of Europe's, with no internal barriers, tariffs, or language barriers to hamper it, and a common financial and legal system to support it. Railroad financing provided the basis for a dramatic expansion of the private financial system. Construction of railroads was far more expensive than factories. In 1860, the combined total of railroad stocks and bonds

6960-511: Was apparently reached in the eighties with approximately 3.8 percent." The rapid expansion of industrialization led to real wage growth of 60% from 1860 to 1890, spread across the increasing labor force. Real wages (adjusting for inflation) rose steadily, with the exact percentage increase depending on the dates and the specific work force. The Census Bureau reported in 1892, that the average annual wage per industrial worker (including men, women, and children) rose from $ 380 in 1880 to $ 564 in 1890,

7047-454: Was based on railroad bonds. By 1860, New York was the dominant financial market. The British invested heavily in railroads around the world, but nowhere more so than the United States; The total came to about $ 3 billion by 1914. In 1914–1917, they liquidated their American assets to pay for war supplies. Railroad management designed complex systems that could handle far more complicated simultaneous relationships than could be dreamed of by

7134-713: Was deemed severe enough by the government that President Rutherford B. Hayes intervened with federal troops. Starting in the mid-1880s a new group, the Knights of Labor , grew too rapidly, and it spun out of control and failed to handle the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886 . The Knights avoided violence, but their reputation collapsed in the wake of the Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago in 1886 , when anarchists allegedly bombed

7221-696: Was empowering. Historians Gary Cross and Rick Szostak argue: The civil and mechanical engineers became model citizens, bringing their can-do spirit and their systematic work effort to all phases of the economy as well as local and national government. By 1910, major cities were building magnificent palatial railroad stations, such as the Pennsylvania Station in New York City, and the Union Station in Washington, D.C. But there

7308-420: Was in control. Most were of very short duration. In times of depression strikes were more violent but less successful, because the company was losing money anyway. They were successful in times of prosperity when the company was losing profits and wanted to settle quickly. The largest and most dramatic strike was the 1894 Pullman Strike , a coordinated effort to shut down the national railroad system. The strike

7395-529: Was initially operated by John Cort , later the founder of a major Broadway theatre venue in New York. Programming continued at the Moore through the 1930s, but changes in entertainment gradually led to it facing a struggle for survival by the 1970s. In 1975 it became the Moore Egyptian, with the lease being taken over by Dan Ireland and Darryl MacDonald. They added Egyptian to the title to link it to

7482-438: Was led by the upstart American Railway Union led by Eugene V. Debs and was not supported by the established brotherhoods. The union defied federal court orders to stop blocking the mail trains, so President Cleveland used the U.S. Army to get the trains moving again. The ARU vanished and the traditional railroad brotherhoods survived but avoided strikes. The new American Federation of Labor , headed by Samuel Gompers , found

7569-508: Was named by 1920s historians after an 1873 Mark Twain novel . Historians saw late 19th-century economic expansion as a time of materialistic excesses marked by widespread political corruption. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, and industrialization demanded an increasingly skilled labor force,

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