“What is the chief end of man?To get rich. In what way?Dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." Mark Twain (1871)
The Gilded Age
Five Major Themes: Opening of the West
Immigration & Urbanization
Industrialization
Politics – Corruption & Reform
Labor Movements
Industrialization & The West
“Upon material progress is founded all other progress”-railroad president, 1888
Pacific Railway Act (1862)
charters two transcontinental RR lineso Union Pacific
o Central Pacific
provided for federal subsidies… public land
immigrant labor
Credit Mobilier Holding company created by the executives of Union
Pacific Given the contract by Union Pacific (read:
themselves) to build 667 miles of rail Credit Mobilier charged $23 million more than
needed, which came from the Union Pacific (publicly funded)
In essence, the executives of the Union Pacific paid themselves to build the railroad with government (tax) money
Union Pacific went bankrupt, stock was worthless, and all investors but those in Credit Mobilier lost millions
The ability to sell land-grants also proved to be a boon to railroad executives
Labor Central Pacific crews consisted primarily of
Chinese workerso White workers usually earned $40-60 per
month for ten hour days, plus mealso Chinese workers earned $35 per month for
dawn to dusk hours, provided own foodo Snow was frequently so deep (up to 40
feet), they would tunnel into it to live and work
Union Pacific workers were primarily Civil War vets and Irishmeno Hell on Wheels
Promontory Point Utah, May 10, 1869
Conquest of the Western Indians
“The white children have surrounded me and have left me nothing but an island” -Sioux Chief Red Cloud, 1870
-”permanent Indian country”?