The Intellectuals and Laborers who built Modern America

In postbellum America, the first industrial revolution transformed New England into a center of manufacturing, but the rest of the United States was still primarily agricultural. In the 1800s there was a shift in the workforce from farming and small shops to working in the factories. With this shift to factories came the rise of monopolies, and corporations. During the Gilded Age, members of the middle class found extreme economic inequality, and had no systems in place to regulate the level of influence that the corporations had over their lives. As a result, many individuals from the American middle class worked to build such a system, and amend it to match the needs of the people at the time. Among these reformers were writers and workers who were instrumental in fighting for economic equality, promoting and preserving the democratic principles which America was originally founded upon.

The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was characterized by rampant economic inequality and political corruption as corporations consolidated into large monopolies which dominated their industry. While these industrial leaders inspired awe and served as examples of the American dream, many Americans felt that their repressive labor policies and exercise of power were undermining political and economic freedom. Writers criticized monopolies through books and articles which highlighted terrible working conditions, and living conditions. Jacob Riis shocked Americans with his book How the Other Half Lives, bringing awareness to living conditions among the urban poor through writing and photographs of apartments in overcrowded tenement houses (Foner, 2019, p. 114). Chicago Times reporter Nell Cusack exposed the “wretched conditions among the growing number of women working for wages in the city’s homes, factories, and sweatshops” (Foner, 2019, p. 113). Other writers like Henry D. Lloyd drew attention to monopolies’ unchallenged influence of legislators in government which undermines democratic processes. These writers garnered support for workers and laid the foundations for future reformers to build off of.

The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era is marked by the economic freedom, political expansion of workers’ rights, and efforts to improve democracy by weakening political corruption. In 1910 cities inside the United States were exceeding a population of 100,000, and although most housing didn’t have electricity or indoor plumbing, the city attracted many people. A new generation of writers and journalists saw the city as corrupt and as the home of undemocratic institutions and began writing for magazines which exposed the ills of the industrialization based society. Father John A. Ryan’s book A Living Wage criticized the lack of ethical considerations in pursuit of making money (Foner, 2019, p. 273). Father Ryan strongly supported expanding worker’s rights, and called out corporations for unethical treatment of workers; replacing workers injured on the job without any responsibilities for endangering the workers. In the West, the Oregon System which enabled citizens to propose and vote directly on laws bypassing state legislatures. Together with direct primaries, these reforms succeeded in weakening political corruption. Democracy was enhanced by the Seventeenth Amendment, “which provided that the U.S. senators be chosen by popular vote rather than by state legislatures” (Foner, 2019, p. 299). This amendment holds senators accountable to the public and ensures that they are representing the people’s will, not their personal agenda.

World War I

During World War I (WWI), Americans used the idea of spreading democracy to justify interventionism and entering the war, but while they promoted freedoms abroad, democracy was severely limited at home. World War One started with the assassination of Austro-Hungarian’s Archduke Franz Ferdinant at the hand of a Serbian group called “The Black Hand”. As the Austro-Hungarians retaliated on the Serbs, Allies of the Serbs and of the Austro-Hungarians entered the war, and eventually all of Europe was at war. After the sinking of the Lusitania ship, America entered the war in the name of supporting democracy. Woodrow Wilson believed in exporting democracy to other countries, and sold the idea of making the world safe for democracy to Congress when seeking a declaration of war (Llayster, 2017). Wilson justified his version of imperialism under the guise of helping elevate other countries to the western way of government, but as seen in the case of Mexico, he often caused instability and did more harm than help. As America joined the war and pushed to fight for Democracy abroad, freedoms at home suffered with the passage of the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. (Llayster, 2017). Critics of the war were jailed and their voices were suppressed by the government, which is precisely the opposite of what they were claiming to fight for.

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a retreat from progressivism and a return to the pro-business Gilded Age era where unions were weak, and business lobbyists dominated politics. During the 1920s, some corporations implemented welfare programs for their workers to change public opinion (Foner, 2019, p. 419). During the Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era, Unions and Progressive reformers portrayed the corporations as brutal dictatorial entities that exploited workers, and to a degree that was true. Welfare Programs ultimately killed unions because the corporations gave workers everything they were seeking from unions, and then more. “During the 1920s, organized labor lost more than 2 million members” (Foner, 2019, p. 419). As a result, progressivism died down, and was replaced by a Republican Era. During the Great Depression, movements that were previously successful like Feminism started dying down as the progressive reformers who were at the top of politics started losing their position and it filled back up with conservatives.

New Deal Era

The New Deal Era saw a return to the heights of the Progressive Era and sought to promote and preserve the democratic ideals that America was founded on. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) entered office at the peak of the Great Depression, and went to work enacting many policies in his first 100 days to lift the economy out of the depression. One of the key decisions that President Roosevelt made to help the country as part of his New Deal, was to take America off the Gold Standard. This decision was opposed by elites in America since it lessened the value of their wealth, and individuals organized to get America back on the Gold Standard (The Fascist Plot to Overthrow FDR). After Al Smith lost the nomination to FDR, he became a bitter opponent and his organization the American Liberty Organization opposed FDR’s New Deal (The Fascist Plot to Overthrow FDR). Under FDR, millions of workers mobilized, with the Federal Government on their side. Workers demanded better wages, an end to arbitrary power in the workplace, and basic civil liberties like the right to picket, distribute literature, and meet to discuss their grievances (Foner, 2019, p. 493).

Conclusion

The individuals who fought for economic equality and to preserve democracy in the United States were successful in building a system that represented the working class, and that changed to accommodate the time period. Our rights to strike, boycott and speak out against the government are largely protected because of these reformers’ actions in the past.

References

Foner, E. (2019). Give me liberty!: An American history. New York City, New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

The Fascist Plot to Overthrow FDR [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2391&v=hTdx6vEUtIA&feature=emb_logo

Llayster (Director). (2017, October 17). The Untold History of the United States: Prologue A- World War I, the Russian Revolution & Woodrow Wilson [Video file]. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x64y4af

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Democracy. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved July 9, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy