How the process of industrialization affected the political and social realities of American life between 1877 and 1914

How the process of industrialization affected the political and social realities of American life between 1877 and 1914
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The late nineteenth century witnessed an increase in the economic power of the elite. They used their power to consolidate raw materials and human labor to organize America’s manufacturing industries. There was a shift from the traditional skilled artisans and farming into a reliable labor force. This period also witnessed mass influx of rural to urban migrants in search for work. They dense urban populace was vulnerable to the economic fluctuations.There arose many forms of entrepreneurs including those working in the gray and black markets. Many of them accrued substantial wealth and forged working partnerships with legit commercial networks. Following the industrial revolution, the government supported economic risk taking and relaxed regulatory measures to build capitalism. This period resulted in great entrepreneurs such as Rockefeller, Andrew Carnergie and Cornelius Vanderbit.
. Social Darwinism garnered support from accomplished entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie and William Graham Summer. They advocated notions that competition was the mother of prosperity and personal liberty. Summer propagated the idea that the government refrain from regulating economic functions. He viewed the economy as a natural event that did not require government intervention either in labor strikes or in the form of antitrust legislation. The gospel of wealth concepts also had significant influences on the nineteenth century entrepreneurs. It was a more subtle version of capitalism advocacy as compared to Social Darwinism. Gospel of wealth advocates espoused that prosperity accrued from capitalist ventures would benefit all people in the society. It meant that the successful businessmen such as Russell H. Conwell had obligations to assist others in the society and to encourage people to identify economic opportunities in their villages. Other entrepreneurs such as Carnergie indicated that the government had no right to restrain capitalism as it created wealth that was beneficial to the society. He espoused views that the rich were trustees of money that could be spent for public benefit when need arose.
Farmer’s sons, discharged soldiers and immigrants were the main workers in the industrialized cities. There were restrictions on blacks’ involvement in industrial work as they were deemed unfit to work in the factories owing to the availability of cheap labor by other immigrants. The welsh immigrants mainly obtained work as tin-plate workers and Germans were machinists. Italians and Slavs obtained heavy and underpaid jobs as mechanization continued. Immigrants would earn different incomes based on their race, sex, social class and national origin.
The laissez-faire economy perpetuated poor working conditions such as wage cuts which sparked frequent strikes. There was a deepening gap between the rich and the poor. The underprivileged immigrants worked for sixty hours a week earning meager incomes of twenty cents per hour and had no additional benefits. They lived in extreme poverty in the cities. Migration to the urban areas also resulted in increased demand...