In discussions of corporations in America, a controversial issue is whether or not these companies provide more benefit or harm to the economy. While some argue that corporations are beneficial in the sense that they provide jobs for citizens throughout the country, others contend that corporations take the humanity out...
In discussions of corporations in America, a controversial issue is whether or not these companies provide more benefit or harm to the economy. While some argue that corporations are beneficial in the sense that they provide jobs for citizens throughout the country, others contend that corporations take the humanity out of trade by replacing happiness and fairness with their own wants and needs. However, as seen in the Gilded Age, it is apparent that massive monopolies controlled the marketplace without any regard to the lives of the common people.
Businesses during this time were essential in shaping the American society but it came at the cost of mistreating citizens.
First and foremost, advancements of the Gilded Age helped introduce present day America. Urbanization and mechanical inventiveness prompted many essential advances such as extensions and channels, lifts and high rises, trolley lines and trams. Specifically, the railroad industry shaped the American society to the way it is today through transportation innovations.
Historian Benjamin Waterhouse agrees when he writes “Railroads became the first “Big Business” because they combined they combined the unique scale and scope of their industry and the deliberate choices by their leaders to adopt what we now recognize as a modern system of management.” (Waterhouse 86) Much more effective methods of managing a business came from the railroad companies. The railroad company as a whole started to get split up into multiple divisions and branches under the supervision of many superintendents. This structure distributed accountability to a vast array of people so the work is equally distributed all the while obtaining quality performance. This relieves a massive amount of pressure from one superintendent overseeing the entire railroad operation. Through the 1850s-70s, railroads were the only private businesses to have this relatively new form of management. Not only did this new method of managerial bureaucracies create better performance within a company, but it created a new class of professional managers that “form the heart of a new urban middle class in the modern American economy.” (87) Gilded Age businesses affected the way Americans manage companies in the modern day. The modern methods began with the railroads and it eventually evolved to the countless procedures of business management that society has today.
When it comes to the topic of business, common sense seems to dictate that large corporations provide jobs for the citizens and boost the economy for the general public. However, what people fail to mention are the massive downsides of these so-called productive companies.This is clearly presented in a particular Gilded Age political cartoon. This political cartoon depicts a monstrous character representing the railroad monopoly during the Gilded Age.
It can be seen that the figure stomps through the lands of defenseless people claiming it for itself. This is a direct comparison to the railroad industry during the twentieth century in the sense that no other company or person can stop the momentum of the expanding railroads. The “capital” weapon that the figure is holding on the left side represents corruption between the company and the government or other corporate charters. According to the author Richard White, corruption can “take the form of tariffs, land grants, loans, or other subsidies that favored a few and hurt many, or corporate charters that gave the railroads public aid without concomitant public control.” (White) In other words, wealthy and powerful taxpayers controlled the economy by paying the railroad monopoly with the incentive of gaining even more money in the long run.
Since the railroad companies were funded by taxpayers during the Gilded Age, there was less incentive to function efficiently or responsibly. The railroad industry was paid based on the terrain on which they built, with rougher terrain being worth more. Hence, company executives naturally selected routes on hills and through mountains, even though such routes were neither efficient nor safe. On the right side of the cartoon, it can be seen that the figure is holding a flag that says “judicial ermine” which represents the purity of the government being torn apart. On the right side, a distinguished man dressed in all black is seen standing calmly and not panicking which completely contrasts the citizens in the background. This man symbolizes the American government during the Gilded Age in the sense that the national government had no control over the sprawling railroad industry so they just took the laissez faire approach and watch innocent citizens get their land taken away.
Furthermore, the corporations during the Gilded Age created harm for the people of America. This can be seen in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Workers for the B&O Railroad went on strike, because the company had reduced workers’ wages twice over the previous year. The strikers refused to let the trains run until the most recent pay cut was returned to the employees. President Hayes then sent federal soldiers to each city to shut down strikes with brute force causing more than one hundred workers to be killed in the process. (Waterhouse 98)
Basically, since the railroad corporation has so much power, the government essentially sides with them and turns their back against the laborers getting paid below minimum wage. The railroad corporation can also be seen as being privileged and oppressive as seen in another political cartoon entitled “The Tournament of To-day”. In this cartoon, the railroad monopoly is well armed with equipment and weapons while the farmer is seen with little to no arms. This represents the corporation taking over the land of these farmers with no competition whatsoever.
The corporation took advantage of the people’s helplessness and about its “power to set rates.” (White) This meant the railroads charged people whatever it pleased since the railroads were a monopoly. The railroad train also has a shield labeled “corruption” which accurately portrays the literal relationship between the industry and the government. The spear labeled “subsidized press” shows just how much influence and power the railroad corporation has because it controlled the only source of media it had during the time of the Gilded Age. The power of the railroad depicted in this cartoon relates directly to a Richard White quote when he states “Railroads had the ability to disrupt existing market networks and determine whether existing towns and businesses prospered or died.” (White) That is to say, if a group of people in a town such as the farmers shown in the cartoon were to disagree with the railroad corporation’s terms, the railroad monopoly would leave the town miles to the side building no tracks anywhere near the town. This would eventually cause businesses to collapse since little to no new people would come through the town to help businesses flourish.
All in all, although corporations during the Gilded Age were essential in changing the course of American life, they have also caused much harm and distress to the people at that time. The corporations during that time changed the way modern day businesses function through new methods of management but it came with the cost of much damage of the faultless natives such as getting their personal land taken away or getting physically hurt. In the end, there is no progress or accomplishment without sacrifice.
Works Cited
- “Railroad Monster Cartoon.” Railroad Monster Cartoon, n.d.
- “The Tournament of To-Day.” Puck, August 1, 1883.
- Waterhouse, Benjamin C. The Land of Enterprise: a Business History of the United States. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
- White, Richard. Railroaded: the Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2012.
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