Jordan Leyba

U.S. History from 1865

2/2/17
The Gilded Age Gap
The Gilded Age took place in the late 19th Century, more specifically the 1870-1890s.

The Gilded Age was a time of change and development within the United States of America. The

economy and development of the labor crisis were two of the major changes that took place

during the Gilded Age. With the economy changing, the gap between wealthy and the poverty

grew as well. In the Reading the American Past it states, "by 1890, the richest 1% of Americans

received the same total income as the bottom half of the population and owned more property

than the remaining 99%."1 The gap between the wealthy and the poverty continued to grow

while the nation was looking for an explanation. Some types of people contributing to the gap

were politicians, industrialists, historians, and political economists. They all had separate

solutions for helping America eliminate the gap between wealth and poverty.

The gap between the wealthy and the poverty was growing throughout the Gilded Age.

This was due to the poor labor organizations and laws within the country. Workers were

considered the lower class of America, the middle class was almost nothing at this point in

history and the upper class was controlling the lower classes hours and conditions. Andrew

Carnegie was an immigrant from Scotland who led America in the steel industry. 2 Carnegie

believed that the "rich had a moral obligation to promote the advancement of society."3 Carnegie

was known for giving his money to various charities and the creation of public libraries across

the nation. While Carnegie believed in the denouncement of money and the promotion of

1
Samuel Gompers "Letter to the American Federationist," 1894, excerpt from Reading the American Past.
2
Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 598.
3
Foner, 599.
society, he had a dictatorial hand when it came to his own companies. His employers worked

twelve-hour shifts, that ran twenty-four hours.4 Carnegie promoted his idea of "Gospel of

Wealth" in the North American Review magazine, he states "obedience to which is destined

some day to solve the problem of the rich and the poor."5 Carnegie was seen as a wealthy man

who gave generously to charity but did not practice what he preached. This historical

significance of this primary document was that Carnegie contributed to the gap between the

wealthy and the poor while preaching that it can be solved by improving working environments.

Andrew Carnegie was not the only man to have a solution for the gap between the

wealthy and the poor. Henry George was a political economist who wrote Progress and Poverty.

Progress and Poverty had no direct impact on government policy but caught public attention

almost immediately.6 George had a very simple solution to fixing the gap between the wealthy

and the poor, he proposed a "single tax" to replace all of the other taxes. The "single tax" would

have a levy on the value of real estate and this would prevent speculation in both urban and rural

land.7 George believed that his proposal would help all economic classes, "the reform I have

proposed accords with all that is political, socially, or morally desirable."8 George's historical

significance in Progress and Poverty is that he sought the solution to the gap between the

wealthy and the poor in the economy rather than in the industry like Andrew Carnegie.

While Andrew Carnegie and Henry George were presenting their solutions to the public,

politicians were arguing over the labor organizations. Two politicians, Samuel Gompers and N.F.

Thompson argued their sides of the labor conditions and strikes happening across the United

4
Foner, 599.
5
Eric Foner, Voices of Freedom. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 31.
6
Foner, 628.
7
Foner, 629.
8
Foner, 39.
States. Samuel Gompers and N.F. Thompson has very different views when it comes the labor

organizations. N. F. Thompson has several argues that the government intrudes too much into the

public lives and the government gave people the right to earn an honest living in this country.9

Thompson was in favor of labor organizations with certain limits into individuals lives unlike

Samuel Gompers who says that the labor organization already has laws to prevent certain unjust

behavior. Gompers also mentions that Thompson has just heard about the middle class and has

not visited the middle class to see how their living conditions really are. Gompers interesting

calls the national wealth a chimera, which is a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a

goat's body, and a serpent's tail.10 These two politicians had very different opinions on how to

solve the problems with the labor dilemma in the United States. In Reading the American Past, it

states "fundamental disagreements about the roles of the capitalist, working people, and

governments on the path toward progress."11 The historical significance of the Gompers and

Thompson discussion is that they both realized the labor organizations needed a change but

neither presented a solution for it. They both stated what they knew about them but never gave

an explanation for how to deal with it.

In the primary sources analyzed, every person who wrote about the gap between the

wealthy and the poor had different solutions on how to solve it. All included an economic,

political, historical, and industrial solution to the poverty problem in the United States. While

every primary source had its own solution for the poverty gap, no one seemed to intervene.

Andrew Carnegie is an example of a wealthy man who didnt idealize money and wanted change

in the nation but had harsh labor practices. Many of the people who contributed to the poverty

9
Gompers, 92.
10
Gompers, 94.
11
Gompers, 91.
gap were wealthy or politicians. Their purpose for speaking up was to see the nation change but

change for the benefit of the wealthy. These wealthy men throughout the sources seemed to be

writing to the very small middle class. They were encouraging them to stand up to the labor

organizations for the rights they deserve. When they themselves failed to give them those rights

or experience the work conditions. The assumptions found in the primary sources was that every

individual knew the country needed to change and had answers but no one was willing to take

action. Wealthy men kept adding to their wealth, "the most flamboyant members of a new

millionaire class built sumptuous mansions, threw lavish balls, cruised in their yachts, and

traveled to Europe to shop for artistic masterpieces or the latest Worth gowns."12 Proving, the

argument that the wealthy did nothing to decrease the poverty gap.

Throughout the Gilded Age, the nation underwent changes and development. These

changes affected the economy and development of the labor crisis. The economy and the labor

crisis contributed to the gap between the wealthy and the poor. The majority of the contributions

to the poverty gap were wealthy politicians, industrialists, historians, and political economists.

These wealthy men also believed they had their own individual solutions to solving the gap

between the wealthy and the poor but never did anything to help the close the gap. The Gilded

Age was a time in history where the poverty gap affected the entire nation.

12
Ginny Jones, "Tramps & Millionaires," New Spirits Tramps & Millionaires, , accessed February 06, 2017,
http://www.rebeccaedwards.org/tramps.html.
 Bibliography

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty: An American History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2014.

Foner, Eric. Voices of Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.

Gompers, Samuel. Letter to the American Federationist. 1894, excerpt from Reading the
American Past.

Jones, Ginny. Tramps & Millionaires. New Spirits Tramps & Millionaires. Accessed February
06, 2017. http://www.rebeccaedwards.org/tramps.html.