From Farmers’ Hardships To A National Depression.pdf

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) Politics in the Gilded Age 1870-1900 From Farmers’ Hardships To A National Depression The United States economy saw a sharp decline in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Farmers were already experiencing financial difficulties, as was previously noted, and the rest of the nation swiftly followed. A larger economic disaster struck the country as the 1890s came to an end, following a brief recovery from the speculative Panic of 1873, which was caused by bank investments in railroad bonds that stretched the country's financial resources too thin. The recovery was largely attributed to the protective tariffs of the 1880s. There were many factors that contributed to the 1893 Depression, but railroad speculation in the preceding decades was a significant one. The economy as a whole was given the false sense of development by the railroads' rapid spread. Without comprehending that the growth they were observing was based on a bubble, banks and investors fueled the expansion of the railroads by making rapid investments in associated industries and enterprises. As the costs of building railroads exceeded the returns on investment, these enterprises, which included steel factories and banks, also collapsed. A number of railroads shut down as a result of investors cashing in their bonds, starting with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company's demise in 1893, which had an impact on the whole economy. Between 1893 and 1894, working-class Americans' unemployment rates rose from 3 percent to over 19 percent in a single year. The unemployment rate skyrocketed even higher in a few states: New York State had over 35 percent and Michigan 43 percent. During the worst of the Great Depression, more than three million American workers lost their jobs. Cities in America were used to seeing homeless people waiting up at soup kitchens or living on the streets by 1895. In the immediate wake of the economic crisis, citizens turned to their elected federal government for assistance. They immediately discovered what farmers had been taught for decades prior: the American people could not be helped by an ineffective and feeble government that was only interested in patronage and the spoils system to hold onto power. There wasn't much that the federal government could do to help job seekers or give immediate assistance to individuals in need. To be fair, though, this was a very new set of questions for the administration. Americans were forced to search elsewhere. An important illustration of the government's inaction is the tale of Coxey's Army. Businessman Jacob Coxey organized a march of jobless Ohioans from Cincinnati to Washington, DC, in the spring of 1894. There, the group's leaders pushed Congress to enact public works legislation, which would allow the federal government to employ jobless laborers to construct public works projects like highways. The march expanded from the initial 100 protestors to 500 as more people joined along the path to the country's capital. Not only were their demands for federal assistance disregarded when they arrived, but Coxey and a few other protestors were also taken into custody for trespassing on the grass outside the U.S. border. Capitol. Many irate workers were so incensed over the incident that they thought about voting for the Populist Party in the elections that followed. The deepening downturn was also dotted by a series of strikes, including many bloody uprisings in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and Ohio. However, the notorious Pullman Strike of 1894 is primarily remembered for having virtually shut down the country's railroad system during the Great Depression. Pullman Co., which manufactured train vehicles including Pullman sleeper cars, was owned by George Pullman, who dismissed over 2,000 employees and cut the salaries of the remaining 3,000 workers in the summer of 1894, sparking the start of the strike shortly after the Coxey's Army march. Unemployment also meant facing eviction because the plant was located in the company town of Pullman, Illinois, where employees rented houses from George Pullman and also shopped at his company store. All of the Pullman employees went on strike in protest of the choices after receiving such severe treatment. The American Railway Union's Eugene V. Debs led the strike. Debs used the striking technique of instructing all American Railroad Union members to refuse to handle any train that contained Pullman cars on it in an effort to draw attention to the predicament of Pullman, Illinois, among Americans nationwide. The Pullman car system was used by almost all American trains, therefore the strike really knocked the transportation sector to its knees. With such a crucial sector of the economy in a deadlock, President Cleveland looked to his attorney general for assistance out of concern for his ability to bring an end to the economic downturn. The attorney general suggested a fix: use federal forces to run the trains while claiming to be safeguarding the delivery of the mail from the United States, which was normally carried on every train. Debs and the American Railway Union were ordered to stop interfering with the mail by a court order, but they refused, therefore the strike ended shortly when the army took control of the trains. Debs was detained, put on trial, found guilty, and given a six-month jail sentence for violating the court order. Workers were far less powerful than before the American Railway Union was dissolved, and Debs was thinking about ways to move away from a national economy based on capitalism while he was incarcerated. With no signs of recovery, the nation hobbled into the next presidential election after the Great Depression of 1893.