Towards the end of the Civil War, industry was booming. By 1894, America was the largest manufacturer in the whole world due to mass immigration and mechanization. There was a sudden need to innovate new ideas in industry and make life easier while making as much money as possible to live a comfortable life. However, the sudden interest in this “American Dream” led to an age of greed and evil, where anyone was willing to do whatever it took to reach the top. This time period was called the “Gilded Age,” a term coined by Mark Twain, referring to how America looked great on the outside with its growing industry, but once that layer of “gold” was peeled off, a corrupt internal core was revealed. But even with all the corruption, people still believed that the government should stay out of business affairs through the idea of laissez-faire, as they believed the government would do more harm than good. The government itself was corrupt as well, but they were actually needed to manage the booming economy at the time, as there were issues such as labor and transportation that only the government could handle. Thus, though many people attribute post-Civil War industrialism to a governmental policy of laissez-faire, it was in fact encouraged and sustained by direct governmental intervention through regulation of migration, mechanization, immigration, business consolidation, and social values.
The expansion of the railroad was the biggest innovation of industrialism post-Civil War. People needed an efficient way to move across the country as mass migration towards the west occurred, and they also needed a quick way to transport goods across the country for trading purposes to keep the economy running. The government saw and supported this by passing the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided land grants to people who wanted to migrate westwards, indicating that the government supported westward expansion. They also supported the railroad by giving railroad companies thousands of acres of land and. Due to all this government support, America expanded faster than ever before. While it took 250 years to reach mid-continent from when the first colonies were made, it only took 25 years to expand to the rest of the frontier (Telgen, 10). New advancements were even made to ensure safety and quality in railroads, such as the steel rail, the Westinghouse air brake, and the Pullman Palace Cars. Railroads also resulted in four national time zones so railroad operators would not get confused, and towns around railroads became bustling metropolitans where people flocked to settle down, while towns without railroads became forgotten. Railroads also produced some of the first millionaires, and with money came corruption. The Credit Mobilier scandal and stock watering (where railroad operators over-inflated their stocks and sold them at huge profits) are two big examples of the corruption within railroads. Other examples are how railroad operators abused and bribed people to get their way in the city, and gave rebates (discounts) to the rich people while making the poor people (like farmers) pay extremely high prices. Farmers made the Grange Movement to combat such corruption and create fair rates for all, and though many state governments tried to assist the corrupt rebate policy, they were stopped in the Wabash case ruling by the Supreme Court, where it ruled that states could not regulate interstate commerce, such as trains. All this corruption was not good for the economy whatsoever because it threatened the poor and made the rich even more powerful, so the federal government intervened, contrary to how people thought the government followed only laissez-faire. Rebates were the biggest issue so they tackled that first by passing the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. This banned rebates entirely and forced railroads to publically display their rates so nobody could be cheated. This was one of the first and most important steps the government took in regulating and assisting business, the economy, and agriculture.
There were many more inventions that were made in post-Civil War industrialism other than the railroad. A few famous examples are Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, John Deere’s steel plow, and Thomas Edison’s electric lightbulb, while some other common examples were the typewriter in 1867, barbed wire in 1874, the phonograph in 1877, and the petrol-engine car in 1885 (theusaonline.com). All of these inventions were revolutionary, as they assisted day-to-day life in both big businesses and agriculture. Thus, to support the growth of industry and agriculture, the government set up the policy of patents. The patent industry was a system where inventors could legally copyright their inventions and put them up for sale on the market without fear of someone stealing their idea, as they now had the government’s protection, while still encouraging competition in the market because it forced people to come up with new and unique ideas. This helped benefit industrial and agricultural growth because now machines were more common and accessible in the market for companies to buy for their industries (like the telephone) or for farmers to buy for their land (like the steel plow).
Mass immigration also took place post-Civil War as America provided a better life for immigrants with a vast opportunity for employment. This allowed for cheap labor all over America, producing jobs and improving the economy, as shown below:
By the start of the 20th Century, American industry was dominated by mining,        meatpacking, textiles, lumber, steel, oil, railroads, and heavy equipment manufacturing. The auto industry was just starting. The airplane was about to be invented. It was a time of rapid technological change, driven by electricity, which enabled large-scale business operations and manufacturing, as well as communications that linked distant operations and subsidiaries. All this provided employment for hundreds of thousands of new immigrants who poured into the country. More immigrants entered the U.S. in the first decade of the 20th Century than any other decade until the 1990s. (Riker)
The Chinese and Irish were massive parts of the construction teams for the various railroads being built across America. This mass influx of immigrants allowed for cheap labor in industries because immigrants were desperate for jobs but were willing to work for very low wages. American workers were extremely angry at the amount of competition this caused within employment. Political machines also took advantage of this and only gave the immigrants jobs if they voted for them in office. Even though this was corrupt, it kept the government in power; industry was assisted with the influx of labor, so people turned a blind eye to it. Regardless, the government helped give the immigrants jobs which were better than what they had back home, and while some people were pushing for anti-immigration laws, immigrants still greatly expanded America’s population and manufacturing power.
Business consolidation was a huge part of post-Civil War industrialism. As industry grew, natural resources were being exploited to their maximum potential and new inventions were constantly being made. Industry heads used various methods to beat out their competition and hold a monopoly on whatever they planned to sell, thus maximizing their income. For example, Andrew Carnegie used vertical integration to gain a monopoly on steel, where he took complete control of the industry by taking over every step of the manufacturing process. He took control over mining, refining, and transportation of iron, as well as the actual steel creation (the Bessemer process). By taking over every part of the process, no one else could even come close to trying to sell steel, as they had to go to Carnegie to get it made and Carnegie could simply turn them down or charge extremely high prices. By 1900, he was producing a fourth of the nation’s Bessemer steel and was earning near twenty five million dollars a year. John Rockefeller is another industry giant who used horizontal integration to gain a monopoly on oil. The use of oil for light in oil lamps was dying out due to the electric lightbulb being invented, but it was still highly important to machines and engines, so Rockefeller simply bought out or allied with all the competition to his industry so he would be the largest standard oil company in America. By absorbing all the competition into his own company, he had a virtual monopoly on oil, as all the weaker competitors were forced to either join him or go bankrupt (other examples on monopolies were John Deere’s monopoly on agriculture and Cornelius Vanderbilt’s monopoly on the railroad). Both Carnegie and Rockefeller were also known for their trusts, where they allied with other competitors to reach a common goal (another example of a trust would be the trust in the meat industry between Gustavus F. Swift and Philip Armour).While this all maximized their own profits and provided a successful life for Carnegie and Rockefeller, it was not healthy for the economy as a whole because they were discouraging competition, so the value of their goods would inevitably drop as they have no competition to encourage them to improve (this was not a problem for Rockefeller at the time however, as his company still produced the best oil at the cheapest price at the time). The government decided to tackle these issues and attempt to revive competition with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890, which essentially forbade all types of combinations (like trusts) that restricted trade, and the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which raised the duty on imports to about 50%, lowering competition from global competitors for American businesses. These were more major federal policies that promoted industrial growth, as it encouraged competition and the growth of the economy.
Once men like Carnegie and Rockefeller came into power, social values changed around drastically. “Social Darwinism,” the idea that the rich deserved to be at the top and the poor simply weren’t fit to be successful in society, was very prevalent. This ideology derived from Charles Darwin’s writing on the process of evolution and natural selection. It was thought that people were determined beforehand if they would be rich or poor, and it became survival of the fittest based on what your social class was. The poor thought it was impossible to move up and the rich looked down on the poor. For example, Carnegie became so successful because it was determined beforehand that he would be the best man to be in that position. The “Gospel of Wealth” was an alternate idea to Social Darwinism, where people believed that God chose who would be successful, and even if they were poor at birth they would eventually become rich through hard work and determination. Due to these ideals, the social classes and distribution of wealth were very distinct, where the rich like Rockefeller and Carnegie lived lavishly while the poor could barely manage to get through day to day activities, and very little was done to bring the classes closer together. It was especially bad for the working class, as conditions in the workplace were very poor because managers could easily replace workers with the immigrants coming in who would work for even lower wages. Due to how terrible conditions were for the working class, various labor unions were formed to fight for the rights of workers, such as an eight hour work day, better wages, and better working conditions. Some labor unions that were formed were the National Labor Union formed in 1866, the Knights of Labor formed in 1869, and the American Federation of Labor formed in 1886 by Samuel Gompers. Due to positive government intervention in industry, agriculture, social values, and other aspects industrialism, people began to re-evaluate their views on laissez-faire governing. The thinking was that the government should not involve themselves in business at all, but people soon realized they are practically needed to regulate businesses and monopolies. Even the Supreme Court re-evaluated their opinion:
The Supreme Court repeatedly supported “laissez-faire,” with, perhaps, its most notable ruling in 1905, that a law designed to protect bakers in New York from oppressive hours by restricting their working hours to no more than 60 per week was unconstitutional because it interfered with their “liberty of contract.” It also twice struck down laws governing working hours for children. It was not until the late 1930s that the Court began to reach different conclusions about governmental powers, but the current conservative majority of the Supreme Court has reverted to positions reminiscent of those of the “robber baron” era. (Riker)
What’s interesting is that America never truly was in a laissez-faire economy. Ever since the Bank’s creation by Alexander Hamilton, the government has been supporting business by giving loans out and creating a stable currency. It would be pretty much impossible for America to function in a laissez-faire economy; it just took time for people to realize this fact.
In conclusion, it was not a governmental policy of laissez-faire that resulted in post-Civil War industrialism, but it was instead direct governmental intervention through the regulation of migration, mechanization, immigration, business consolidation, and social values that in fact encouraged and sustained industrialism. The railroad was the biggest innovation of the time, alongside other major inventions that became possible with the government policy of patents. There were also plenty of governmental policies that assisted both westward expansion and industry, such as the Homestead Act, Interstate Commerce Act, and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Laissez-faire was preferred by the people in their minds, but in reality was never possible because the government was always there to regulate business, prevent monopolies, and foster competition. Post-Civil War industrialism was a huge time in America’s life, as it brought a sense of hope for the country after the Civil War, and if the government never intervened back then to ensure things were going smoothly, America might be very different from what it is today.





















Works Cited
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Telgen, Diane. The Gilded Age. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2012. Print.