insurers in early america. she talks about how they helped the u.s. negotiate foreign loans, and created the first national bank. here is a portion of that program. >> who is in charge? these marine insurance a business under united states law? if so why? if not, why not? it sounds like one of the essay questions that i assigned to my undergrads for the end of this term. again, i think this is a particular puzzle, insurance itself is a form of governance in the age of revolution, insurance is it kind of form of self governance. it's an imperfect one that is threaded through the institutions of the state itself. it is helping to make the state, shaping the terms according to which the state governs a business which it still can't fully govern because insurance is so wealthy and complicated, so international in nature. >> watch the full program

online at c-span.org slash history, by searching hannah farber, or the name of her book, underwriters of the united states. >> good morning, how is everyone? good, good, good. so last time, we were talking about the post-civil war south of 1865 to 1900, and the post civil war west in the same timeframe. today's topic is called the gilded age. roughly in the post civil war up to 1900. but this lecture is really about america becoming an industrial power. industrialization will be the key to understanding what is going on in the post civil war north, okay? i will explain the title, the gilded age in a few minutes. it has roots in our own state of missouri. but to talk about america becoming an industrial power, there are certain sets of conditions that we need for that process to occur.

for example, if you will become an industrial power, you need an abundance of mineral resources. coal, iron or, copper, tin, zinc, all kinds of things such as that. what is fortunate for the united states, we are blessed with all of those materials in our own country. we have huge pockets of coal in western pennsylvania. eastern kentucky. we have iron ore around lake michigan. led, copper, zinc out in the southwest. arizona, new mexico. there are some nations in the world that have to purchase these from other countries in order to become an industrial power. at the united states, we have those already here, we just need to locate them, get them out of the soil, and we are blessed in that regard, having an abundance of mineral resources. the second thing that you need to become an industrial power,

is an abundance of workers. and after the civil war is over, we have that as well. we have hundreds of thousands of union soldiers who are returning from their job in the last four years to defeat the confederacy. they are now ready to look for a new vocation. we will have many southerners will leave their land, that is an absolutely destroyed by the civil war, heading north to look for a job. have millions of immigrants floating into the united states once the civil war is over, looking for a job. so we have plenty of people, will be the labor force for our industrialization. and talking about that idea, two very good things happen when there is an abundance of workers and in a workplace. if you are the business owner, the captain of industry have say, ten jobs that are available, if you have an

abundance of workers, you get the pick of the later. you get to pick the ten best out of the hundred or so who are applying. you don't just have to hire whoever shows up. you can see who is most qualified for the job at hand. plus, you pay them the very least amount of money. , here's what the job pays, five cents, ten cents an hour. they say that is not enough. well, i got 90 other people standing outside, ready to take the job for that price, take it or leave it. so when there is an abundance of labor, two very good things happen if you are one of the business owners. you get the very best workers and pay them the very least amount of money,? if you are going to become an industrial power, lots of money. and we have that once the war is over. there are a couple of harsh truths about war.

the first is that people die. second, people make money off of people dying. during the civil war, if you ran munitions plant or factory, rifles, pistols, ammunition, cannon artillery, you could name your price and the united states government because i wanted to defeat the confederacy. and you made a lot of money off of the civil war. well, but war is over but now you are flush with cash and looking for the next great big investment opportunity. part of the industrialization process is, you have an abundant natural materials are needed? have enough workers? you have enough money? the united states hands of these things after 1865. the next element, do you have a government that will be a friend, in the business of

industry? a favorable government, one which will help foster economic growth, business expansion? in the post civil war era, we have that. i want to fall back a bit in time and introduce you to a fellow by the name of adam smith. he is an englishman, who was living back during the american revolution. in 1776, he published a book called wealth of nations. and in that book, he talked about the relationship between business and the government. and in his book, smith said there was a natural order to economics, a natural order to things. and governments disrupt that natural cycle. governments like to investigate, regulate. he says any dumb government gets involved in business, it is almost always a negative. it disrupts the natural cycle

of economics. and in that work, he used a fringe phrase, laissez-faire. anyone happen to know what that means? could he translate that for me? >> for the government to stay out of war? >> not just war, but business. basically, laissez-faire means, let it be. leave it alone. do not involve yourself. in other words, don't pass legislation that will lead to inspections, regulations, any sort of restrictions. just let business take care of business. in other words, hold your hands up, don't get involved. that would be the best type of government for economic growth. we have that in the post civil war era. the government is not going to pass a lot of regulations, they will not send out investigators into factories all over the country.

but if government can't help itself, sometimes politicians just can't help themselves. if they can't help themselves, there are two ways a government can still be a friend to business, if you aren't going to leave your hands off of it, there are two ways to help. one way is by passing a high, protective tariff. we talked about that this semester, it is a tax on imported goods, to jack up the price, to artificially inflate it. so when it hits the american marketplace, it's much more expensive than the american made product, right? we have seen tariffs of 25% and higher. well, the proper role of government to business, according to smith, was just don't get involved. but if you can't help yourself, then pass legislation which helped business and industry by jacking up the price of goods from england, france or whatever country so that they are so expensive that americans

will buy american made. the other way a government could help foster economic growth is through tax cuts. tax cuts for business and industry. tax cuts for the rich and well to do, the owners of business and industry. the idea being, if you cut taxes for the one percenters, you cut taxes for business, profits, then you have more revenue. that business owner would take that additional revenue, and put it back into business expansion. that means he could add another shift of workers, he could expand his planned or something like that. so a general attitude, when you have a government, friend of business and industry, it sort of keeps its hands off, laissez-faire, leave it alone, let it be. but if you want to help business, you can do that one of two ways. you jack up the price of

foreign competition, eliminating them from the marketplace, essentially. or you pass cuts for the rich, be well to do, the owners of business and industry. they will take that additional revenue, reinvested, leading to business expansion. today, we might have a trickle down economics. you cut taxes at the very top, and then the benefits trickle down through the system, so someone at the bottom end of the social economic could possibly get a job which he or she otherwise might not have mueller's business was allowed to expand and grow. as a historian, i am here to tell you that sometimes the theory works. sometimes, when they are tax cuts for business and industry, in fact, the reinvest that money and expand. i am also here to tell you that sometimes, they take the money and run. they do not reinvested, therefore there are no benefits at all, okay? but the united states has

abundance of mineral resources, an abundance of workers, an abundance of money. and from 1865 to roughly the turn of the century, we have a government which will keep its hands off. virtually no investigations or regulations, but they will pass tax cuts and they will pass a high protective tariff in 1890, which basically eliminates all foreign competition. all we need to become an industrial power, are individuals who will take advantage of everything that is on this slide. now, ladies, unfortunately, the leaders of his industrial boom are almost exclusively man. your day is coming, in the progressive era. but today, i'm talking about individuals will take advantage of every single one of these

characteristics. andrew carnegie, a scottish immigrant, to the united states. worked in railroads. worked in the telegraph. he worked his way up, to basically control one particular industry, steel. carnegie steel. carnegie is a great example of a captain of industry. he will make hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, because his headquarters is in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. that's why they are known as the pittsburgh steelers, for those of you who do not know. it will be the central hub of our industrial steel activity. again, he is a very powerful individual. but the thing that i like about carnegie, he had a sort of

epiphany before he died. he realized, he called it the gospel of wealth. he said a man who dies which dies disgraced. you can't take it with you. so when he sold his business, and made hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, he started giving his money away. he buys thousands of organs and donate them to churches all across the country. he donates books to libraries, build parks, recreational areas in cities. and of course, most notably, we have carnegie hall in new york city, we have the carnegie endowment for the arts, endowment for the humanities. things which are still a part of our fabric even to this day. john d. rockefeller, southern baptist, he's going to dominate

the oil industry in america, standard oil was his company, there is no more standard oil in america today, it was broken up years ago. but there are variations, sort of the children of standard oil in virtually every street corner in america. you have a buy gas from bp, exxonmobil, chevron? all of these companies today can trace their routes back to standard oil. he dominated that business. rockefeller center, rockefeller plaza, top of the rock? the name resonates to this day. this is jpmorgan. he is in banking and finance. how would you like to go and ask him for a loan? look at that face. anyways, his office is directly across the street from the new york stock in --

exchange. he so integrated in our finance, banking. jpmorgan chase today, the name is still around. good luck, getting that loan. cornelius vanderbilt, vanderbilt university. he was in transportation, shipping, railroads, the commodore, as he was known. the point is that each of these men, they become captain of industry, at the top of their profession. and if you noticed, one thing is they are not competing against each other as such. each of them carved out their own niche in society, the american society. it is steel, oil, finance, banking, transportation.

you see, these men realized early on, the competition is not a good thing. competition is a bad word and it drives prices down. industand that's not a good thi. so, what they are after is to control their particular industry. they need to find a way to have total control over one particular aspect of the american economy. and they are going to get some help in this search for, or justification for, control. it comes from this fellow, love that beard, love those sideburns. herbert spencer is an englishman who is synonymous with what is known as social darwinism. i know you have heard of charles darwin. an englishman, naturalist, sailed on the hms beagle down today galapagos island. found that the finches in the

galápagos islands were different than the finches in london. and then he theorizes that they have adapted to change in order to survive. of course, that becomes an 1855 vote, origin of the species. you've heard of this? okay. herbert spencer takes that idea and applies to society in general. that in society, only the strongest should survive. so, this is the perfect ideological justification for a carnegie, vanderbilt. in business and industry, only the strong businesses should survive. if you have an operation that is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, then spencer with the rise you don't even need to be in business, a weak business is a drag on business. you don't deserve to be in,

business you could be purchased by a competitor, you can do all things about boards or maybe a little shady activity. you have a competitor that you try to, by he refuses. you offer him a counter. he still refuses. then, in the dark of night, maybe his factory goes up in flames. oh, he should have taken my offer. because now you are out of business and i'm going to simply move in and take over. only the strongest survive. that means that there are no real rules. the government isn't going to get involved in regulating or investigate, then it's fairly free day. question? >> does that mean like loans, giving people loans? >> not necessarily that. we are talking about the large picture of ownership. not particularly a loan to get involved in business, but to actually be a competitor.

that's the thing that these captains of industry are absolutely going to avoid, competition. so, maybe you buy out a competitor or you burn them out. doesn't matter. because you've got politicians in your back pocket, you've paid off judges to get to the top. you're not going to have any legislation to hamper you in any way. i'm not saying this was the wild west and it's a no holds barred type of activity. but it is a philosophy that these men would use to get to the very top. survival of the fittest. so, in order to get to that mountaintop, they are aiming for, trying to achieve a monopoly. control. control of one specific industry. and the way they're going to do it is generally described by

directions. for ethical or horizontal integration. now, i'm going to assume that you understand this is vertical and this is horizontal. right? so, i'm going to give you an example of both how a monopoly can be achieved vertically and horizontally by using a nifty chart here. this is a five-step process. and this is obviously dealing with oil, so, we start out here with the raw material. okay? this is a great example of how john d. rockefeller came to control the oil industry. and his control, his monopoly is horizontal. so, we've got five steps. john d. rockefeller did not owned all the oil wells in america, okay? he didn't own all of the pipelines or the railroads that are going to transport that crude oil.

but what he did own was that third process. rockefeller owned over 90% of the oil refineries in america. so, if you were taking crude oil out of the ground, you hit a gusher down in west texas, you're going to have to go to a standard oil refinery for it to be processed into a usable, sellable product. he owns over 90% of that horizontal level, the refineries in america. which means, then you have to do business with him. he would say, here is what the price is going to be. you would say, now, that's too high. good luck finding another refinery. oh, wait a minute, i own over 90% of them. you're going to have to do business with me, which means i can set the price as high as i want. because i have no competition. rockefeller doesn't own the

railroads that will take that finished product down to sail to the consumer. he owns, at one horizontal level, the refineries. and he has an absolute monopoly dog. now, i'm going to use that same chart, but i want to talk about andrew carnegie and steal. so, transport yourself at make this steel instead of oil. because carnegie is a great example of vertical integration. carney is going to own land outside of up in michigan, where there is a great wasabi range and iron ore will be found. he will own a railroad that will take that iron ore from michigan down to his steel mills in pittsburgh. he owns the mills. then, he owns those railroads that will take that finished product out to sail to the consumer. so, carnegie owns every step of that process, from raw material to finished product.

and that is still a monopoly. he has no competition. you own the, land you own the transportation system, you own the factories. i, mean he has got complete control. both of those unique, horizontal or vertical, end up being a monopoly. complete control. he >> went people would hit gusher go -- to rockefeller, because he owns 90% of it. would they ever go to a person who owns a small portion of it? >> question is, what happens if you simply want to refuse to pay the price that rockefeller would and you want to find a competitor? good luck with that. i mean, it would occur occasionally. but here's the deal. how much time are you going to waste searching for that competition? how much extra money it will be expended looking for that better, more competitive price? chances are you will take the

money now, at whatever price rockefeller says. so, we are talking about captains of industry. i mean, these people, carnegie, rockefeller, vanderbilt, morgan, i would argue that they are more influential in american society from 1865 to 1900 than our presidents. i mean, they literally are gazillion airs and are controlling american economic growth because event because of a monopoly. which brings me back to missouri, and our own mark twain. who is famous for hockey finn, tom sawyer, all those kinds of details. but in 1873, twain wrote a book called the gilded age. a tale of today. and that is back to describing the title of today's lecture. if something is gilded, what does that mean? anyone know?

it's covered in gold. so, you take something that is not particularly pretty, not particularly valuable, i and you cover it up. i you get a false facade. maybe it's gold leaf, all of a sudden it looks brand-new, shiny, expensive, valuable, it looks great. not as old, rusty kind of self. mark twain, one of his less known works, has a perfect title for what i've been describing for you so far today. american industrialization, he said, was gilded. it's a tale of today. he sort of pokes fun at american industrialization. it all looks, great rags to riches, anybody can become a millionaire. but what he is also saying is that there is more to the story of industrialization just from the vantage point of being a

carnegie or a rockefeller or a morgan. there's more to the story. of course, you know me, i'm going to tell you the rest of the story. the gilded age absolutely dominated by these captains of industry, but. there is more to the story. i'm calling them the underside. these men got to the very top of their professions at the expense of other groups. for example, to understand american industrialization, maybe we ought to take a look at what it was like to be a factory worker in carnegie steel works. don't look at how much money he made or how much money he gave away. maybe to fully understand industrialization, maybe we take a look at what life was like to be a steel worker. what is life like if you are an immigrant who is arriving in

america for the allure of this job? that is out there? how is american society and culture going to treat you? will you be able to assimilate easily, quickly? or are there going to be issues? what is industrialization doing to our cities? because that is primarily where our business and industry is located. what effect is that having on the inner cities of new york, chicago for example? what is it doing to our environment? what are we putting in the air, the water, the soil as a byproduct of industrial growth? what about life on the farm? it's american industrialization helping or hurting the farm community that is the backbone of the american economy? that jeffersonian vision of america, small farm spreading

across the country. that's what i mean by the underside. it's like, let's scrape away some of that gilded nist of industrialization, let's take a look at the other side, the underneath side, of a gilded image of american industrial power. that's what i want to transition to, sort of like the rest of the story. now, i'm going to make just some broad strokes here. because there are going to be some variations. but remember, statistic never lie but liars use statistics, so here you go. generally speaking, during the gilded age, you are working ten hours a day, six days a week. this is a general number. guys, chances are you are working more than 60 hours a week. you are probably working 12, 14-hour days. ladies, you are probably

working 6 to 8 hours a day and we even employ children who are going to be 2 to 4 hours a day. on average, around number would be ten hours a day, six days a week. as an average number. you're being paid about ten cents an hour. some might be paid a little more, some are going to be paid a little less. so, let's do some quick math. if you're working 60 hours a week and you're getting paid ten cents an hour, how much are you making each week? $6 a week. how much is that a month? $24 a month. now i'm really going to test your mathematical skills. how much is that a year? little over $300, very good. so, think about that for a second. you are working 60 hours a week

and your annual salary is roughly $300. what kind of life can you have on three under it dollars a year? which is why there are so many women in the workplace, somebody children being employed. because the husband or the head of the household simply can't make enough to feed his family. $300 a year. and here's the real startling number. at the end of the 19th century, on average, we've got 30,000 workers killed on the job. not total, but each year. you are killed on the job. and over half 1 million wounded, injured on the job. because the government's attitude is, we don't get involved, laissez-faire.

there are no regulations, no investigations, we don't have inspectors coming into the, factories looking, and is there adequate lighting? adequate ventilation? adequate supervision? are they getting breaks to rest? we don't inspect machines. the tragic thing about this number is that, if you were hurt on the job, you basically lost your job. there is no such thing as workman's compensation in the gilded, age like we have today. because the government didn't get involved. so, if you got hurt on the job, you basically lost your job. because there are plenty other people out there to take it. allison? >> do you think that most were injured or killed because that machinery wasn't working right? >> absolutely. >> or because of over exertion? >> most of these deaths or injuries is due to this is an early age of machinery. they are going to break down.

it's a trial and error. is this going to work or not? it might blow a gasket, all of the sudden you got bullets flying every direction. here is a jam. so, you hire children to come in. because small, tight places where gears are located, you have small hands to reach into that very tight place. i couldn't fit my hand into an area but a child, six, seven year old kid could maybe fit his hand in there and maybe dislodge whatever had gotten clogged. the tragedy there is that machinery may not even have been turned off. and if they unclog that gearbox, it starts right back up and if they don't pull that handed in time they lose some fingers, they lose a hand. it is the early age of mechanization, these machines are largely unregulated. they are going to break, down they are going to have all kinds of issues. that's where these injuries are

occurring. plus, you are just tired. they're working 60, 70, 80 hours a week. and you get sleepy, dozing on the job. next that you know, your hand or your leg is caught on a machine and that is the problem. a photograph of textile workers. just look at how young they are. they are so small that they have to stand on the baskets at the bottom of the machine just to reach the spindles at the top. what i love about this photograph is this lad right re. you might be thinking,well, he probably can't afford a better shirt. that may have been the case. but probably, more likely, that torn sleeve right there is a byproduct of getting that sleeve caught, when these machines start moving.

he probably is very lucky that his shirt sleeve was just torn, rather than his arm being torn off. when you think of coal miners, do you think of kids? i mean, in western pennsylvania, a photograph of youngsters. these kids, these young boys out to be in school. they are little leaguer's. but they are working in coal mines. when you're thinking about industrialization, don't think of it with just the husband or the father's. oftentimes, owners of businesses will hire children, i can, because small hands fit in small places and they don't have to pay them very much. and, then that help your bottom, line your profit factor. what is life like for immigrants arriving in america? they are flooding into the united states now that the

civil war is over. again, a statistic. in a 40-year period, as we go from the 19th into the 20th century, 20 million, nearly 20 million, are going to arrive. they're coming from, europe from asia. millions are flooding in. they might be escaping famine, what were, persecution. all of those things i call sort of push factors, a sociological term. these are negative things. they are escaping some negative aspect. america seems like the land of opportunity, because it is that gilded image. where everybody can become a millionaire, rags to riches. we have religious, political freedom, but you can also make a lot of money in america. like and andrew carnegie did.

most immigrants arrive in the united states in one of two locations. if you are coming from europe, you're coming through new york city. and of course, the location would be what is today ellis island. if you arrived after 1892, up until the early 1950s, all ships sailed into new york harbor and then you would be off-loaded in ellis island, where you would be processed. if you came from the far east, japan, china and elsewhere, you came through san francisco. most folks have heard of ellis island, angel island in san francisco is little less well-known unless you are out on the west coast. but here's the thing. the boat arrives, you off-load, you go into a multiplicity of buildings to be processed. they will record in a ledger

your name, your home country, your occupation, what skill set you have, what family members are with you or it might be coming later. they will ask things like, do you have a job? do you have a place to live? they will check over your general health, give you sort of a fitness exam. and then, if you pass all of these hurdles, then you will be ferried over to the south tip of manhattan island. and then you are free to pursue your dream. it's what i call the five ole effect. who is fivel? somebody in this room knows what i am talking about when i say fivel, but you're almost embarrassed to say so. fivel it is a mouse, right? fivel moskowitz. he lives in russia. and he wants to come to america,

because, do you remember, there are no cats in america and all the streets are paved with trees. it's a great example of the gilded america. i'm teaching history through children's videos fievel moscow, it's an american tale. a russian mouse who wants to come to america because there are no cats in america and all the streets are eight with cheese. when fievel arrived in america, guess what he discovers? there are cats in america industries aren't paved with cheese, it's a perfect example of what is happening to millions and millions of immigrants arriving during the gilded age. here is a photograph. of folks crossing from the ship onto ellis island to be processed. i want you to take a really

close look at this. i want you to tell me what you see and particularly what or who they see. where are the men, exactly. this photograph shows women and children. the question, is where are the man? now, it's not that they got off first. the husband, the father, the head of the household, would oftentimes leave the country, the family, and come to america himself first. find a job, find a place to live. and then he writes back to the family, here is where i'm living, here's where i'm working. sell everything we have, take the next vote. i will meet you. so, this is a photograph of women with probably their

worldly possessions in those suitcases. they have arrived, they're going to be processed. and then they're going to be ferried across to meet the husband or the father. this was not a typical, of this was very common. but ladies, i'm going to ask you a question or two. let's say that this is you, you've come from italy, you've come from russia, you come from poland or someplace. you've been processed, you're headed across, you're so excited to see her husband again and then you come ashore and he is not there waiting for you. what do you do? okay? what do you do? do you just sit down and wait,

like when you are lost in a forest? you're supposed to hunker down and wait for someone to find you, do you do that? if so, how long do you wait? an hour or two? a day or two? or are you going to be bold and courageous and ask for help? for example, let's say that you've got that letter that your husband wrote to you and it has an address on there where you're going to be living. ladies, are you going to be strong enough of character to walk up to a complete stranger and ask for directions on where to find this address? because, chances are, you don't speak the language, you don't speak english. so, you are basically going to have to take an envelope and point and try to communicate that way. are you going to be that bold?

is that a yes or a no, i'm not quite sure? let me take another example. let's say that you are from italy, so you speak italian. all of a sudden, a complete stranger walks up to you and start speaking italian. eureka, you can understand me! i'm so glad that somebody speaks my language. that's a complete stranger says, how can i help you? i'm looking for my husband, he supposed to be here to meet us. what is his name? you real often name, oh, i know him. you do? yes, he talks about you all the time. you know where he's living? yes, i have this address. i know where that is, i'm glad you guys are finally here. tell you what, if he's not, here i'll be glad to take you to your new apartment, he might be there waiting for you. what do you do, ladies? lizzy, what do you do?

are you going to go with him or not? you are. oh, bad move. because, unfortunately, the kindness of strangers is not always so kind. this is sort of mans depravity of man. because every day, about load of immigrants are arriving and they are going to be individuals who are waiting to prey upon these folks. ladies, probably you. they are going to take you down. let's go this, way just down this road, we're going to turn. all of a sudden, you go into an alleyway and then he turns and pulls a pistol, pulls a knife. i want everything in that suitcase, i want any jewelry you have, whatever money you have. and that is what's going to happen. what is industrialization doing to our cities? well, we've got millions of

immigrants floating into new york city. they need a place to live. so, the solution was to build what were called ten immense. these are multi story apartment buildings, 3 to 5 stories tall. i'm putting them in the category of being unsafe, that's a broad overstatement. and here's why. there is a demand for housing, there are no regulations, no building codes. so, you are going to build them quickly and cheaply. what i mean by that is you are thinking, well, every apartment is going to have electricity and running water, not necessarily, because that takes time. to run water lines from one floor to another floor to another floor to another floor in every apartment. that takes time and that costs money. so, eight tenement apartment might have running water on the

first level. but if you are living up on the fifth level, you are going to have to walk down several flights of stairs just to get a pail of water to wash your face in the morning. you don't have a toilet, the restroom is in a separate building or a different room. no electricity, no running water in many of these tenement apartments. the typical tenement apartment would be about a biden in terms of square footage which is sort of like a dorm room, right? how many people live in your dorm room? basically, to. okay? a tenement parchment could have as many as eight or ten people living in and in one time. i took this photograph from this book called how the other half lives, by jacob wrists. this photograph is the interior of a tenement apartment and in this book, the caption to this photograph is called five cents

a spot. what jacob risk found was that immigrants revving to pay five cents a night, just to get out of the rain or the cold, or the weather outside. they might not have a bed. this actually has two men sleeping in that bed for that night. five cents gets you a wall to lean up against. five cents a night just to get in out of the elements, the weather. there is no running water. there is no electricity. there is no bathroom. there is no kitchen. and the thing about tenement apartments is they are built side by side by side. they are sort of elongated, like shotgun houses. and a tenement apartment would have four or five apartments on every floor. and these things are crammed with newly arrived immigrants.

and so what that means then is the conditions inside are horrible. horrible conditions. disease is rampant. if there is fever in a tenement apartment, it's going to spread to the entire block. and what i mean by the rise in crime, again, relative to the example we talked about just a few minutes earlier, unfortunately, there are going to be individuals who will be willing to, because they can, they are strong, they formed themselves into gangs. they go out and harass and intimidate, to take from lesser is. it is a variation on social darwinism. survival of the fittest. if you can't defend yourselves you're going to end up losing everything you have brought to america. keepsakes, money, hopefully not

your life. but that oftentimes occurred as well. we are talking about subsistence living, we're talking about a horrible, horrible conditions. and ladies, again, i am going to gently discuss this, but if you arrived in america with children in tow, but your husband is nowhere to be seen, he might have died, he might have been killed, murdered. he might have just left, who knows? but you are left to fend for yourself and to provide for your children. oftentimes, the only available opportunity for you is you are shaking care for children during the day, and an opportunity for employment would be in the evening. you put them to bed, you go out and you stand on the street corner. because there are plenty of men looking to take advantage of women who are looking and selling the most valuable thing

they have, and that is of course themselves in their body. pornography is rampant. prostitution is rampant. on every street corner. now, you might be thinking, surely to goodness there are some laws in these cities that would help. unfortunately, during the gilded age, and we also see the rise of big city political machines. individuals or groups of individuals who are going to control the system, control the city. they might be down there on the south tip of manhattan, ready, greeting you as a newly-arrived immigrant. they are going to say, do you have a place to stay? you don't? let me show you to a tenement apartment. and remember, vote for me. you don't have a job? i am going to find you a job, all i ask in return is a vote for me. they are selling influence. they will provide something that you desperately need, and

an exchange, they are asking for or basically requiring your political loyalty, so they can remain in power. and a great example of the political machine new york city 's george washington plunk it, otherwise known as boss plump get. and i ask you to read today a document that is showing how he is able to get ahead. boss plunk it, defending his honest graft. all right, for times sake, can somebody summarize for me, i am going to skip to the meat of this document. can somebody summarize what is going on in this auctions about to occur? >> he tells the other people that would bid against him that he will give them what they

want. >> we've got 250,000 paving stones of the of new york is putting up for auction. so boss plunk it goes to competitors and says how many of these do you need? and one guy said, well, i need 20,000. another guy says, 15,000. another says, i just need 10,000. and pocket says, fine. i will give you what you need an exchange for you not bidding against me. so a deal is struck. so the auctioneer comes out, says okay, we've got 250,000 paving stones. what is my opening bid? and what does boeing plunk it get? >> 2:50. are we talking to hundred $50,000? $2.50, is that $2.50 per paving stone? no. it's $2.50 total. for for 250,000 paving stones,

the auctioneer thinks, this is a joke. what are the other bids? they are just silent. so george washington plante get gets 250,000 paving stones for $2.50. and then he gives one guy 20, 000, the other 15, the other ten. and he keeps all the rest. for $2.50. i'm asking you, is that good business practice? is there anything illegal about what he did? but but is it morally and ethically right? he is treating the system, right? it's the city of new york. some of you might say, this is great business practice. okay, i get that. but maybe some of you are out there saying, yeah, but. that's how this operates,

inside information. they run the city, and it's tough he. this is chicago. showing immigrant populations, the city of chicago actually went into their neighborhoods to find out the ethnicity of their residents. now, the colorsown here at the bottom. and they are very stereotypical, unfortunately. english speaking or white, i rush our green. okay, so there are other groups, germans, josh, russians, polls, swiss. you can't see this one, bohemian. i love that term. bohemian, we don't want to call them, we're going to call them bohemians. here's the point. look at the variety of colors. it's not just one ethnic group,

look at the multiplicity of colors living in this area of chicago. and the other thing is, there are some clustering. that's what it's known as. you have ethnic groups living in close proximity to one another, clustering. and that is a means of survival, primarily. you have arrived in america, you don't speak the language. so you move into a neighborhood where your native tongue spoken. someone can understand you. it's where your customs and traditions will be observed, just like you were back in your homeland. if you ever wondered why we have places known as little italy, chinatown, virtually every major american city has this kind of ethnic diversity, and it starts here in the gilded age. all right.

on the underside, what is industrialization doing to the environment? and i really don't like to use this phrase, i find it terribly offensive. but i don't know of a better way to say that industrialization is going to rape the landscape again, what i'm talking about is, there are no environmental laws to protect mother earth. we are going to go in with dynamite, nitroglycerin, tnt, water pressure. and you can blast away a hillside to get to the coal or the iron or, or whatever is at the bottom. once you have mined that particular product, you just simply move on to the next hillside. there is no legislation at all that says that you have to put the landscape back the way it was before you decided to destroy it. if you just take advantage of that landscape, and then once

you have finished, you discard it. and you move on. again, the general attitude is, we don't get involved. laws a fair. if you are an environmentally aware student, if you are green, if you will, this is one of the darkest periods of american history, the gilded age. in terms of legislation for the land, for the water, for the air. it is virtually nonexistent. and there is no voice that could speak up for mother earth. the industrialists just a complete and full advantage of it. and then a tossed aside and move on. what about farms? all right, so you are thinking, industrialization. okay, that surely is going to help farmers. it's going to become less labor intensive. mechanization has come of age, we are going to have repairs

and harvesters and tractors. and surely, that will improve life on the farm. i'm not so. here is part of the problem, the farmers in america were generally associated with the democratic party. the party of the common man that we talk about with the age of jackson. the farm community were generally democrats. but the gilded age is dominated by the republican party. and the republican party initially was interested in trying to do something to help the freedom in, the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments that we talked about. but once they reach that point, they turn their attention to business and industry. and again, either they did nothing at all, or they passed tax cuts and -- they are focused on business and industry, so there is no legislation whatsoever, relate, to help the farm community.

the problem there, also, is that in this age, following the civil war, you have historically low prices for farm products. whether it's corn, whether it's cotton. there is actually more cotton grown in the south after the civil war than there was before the civil war. but prices are at record low levels. and when you have very little revenue coming in because prices are so low, and then you have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to ship your product to market, remember, that can become a monopoly and you can charge as much as you want. because there is no competition. when you've got high expenses and very low price for your product, you are not going to be able to purchase that harvester, that reap, or whatever. to help make life on the farm

less labourious, less task oriented. mark twain wrote a book called gilded age. a tale of today. and he is really trying to call attention to what i am calling the underside. again, part of the american story of industrialization is the rags to riches, the carnegie, the rockefellers, the morgan,'s the vanderbilts. but to truly understand industrialization you have to understand what it was like to work in one of those factories. knowing full well that you could be killed or injured on the job. what is it like to be an immigrant, arriving without speaking the language? maybe being completely on your own, what is industrialization doing to the cityscape? tenement parchments, crime, poverty, exploitation at every

street corner. what is it doing to the environment? what is it doing to the farm community. at some point, someone or some groups will need to speak up for the underside. to challenge the evils and the ills of industrialization. to try to improve conditions in the factories, in the cities, on farm. help the environment, and let me tell you, that is in fact what is going to happen. but of course, that's our next lecture. there is more to the story, obviously. it's called the progressive era. when the government is going to pull back from being hands off to being very much hands on. and trying to correct some of the abuses of industrialization. that's another story for another day. so i'm done, enjoy the rest