POPULISM AND THE GILDED AGE

THE SECOND OF A THREE-PART SERIES OF NATIONALISM AND POPULISM

Populism what is it? In many ways that is the million-dollar question. In 1967 the London School of Economics in a conference attended by dozens of academics attempted to define Populism and could not do it. (Here) As we have shown with words like culture and ethnic in our essay on Nationalism, Populism is misused too, and often in a derogatory manner. It is used to marginalize groups. We have all seen as alt left or alt right. In truth we know those are the fringes and not representative of everyday citizens in this country. As we go back to what was described as the Gilded Age, a time when Populism was first labeled, we will get the true meaning.

THE GILDED AGE

From the end of reconstruction in 1872 until 1900 was a time of mass immigration to the United States. The industrial revolution was in high gear. The country which was founded on farming and being self-sufficient was changing. With the need for labor in urban areas people flocked to these areas. Working for a paycheck was transforming our country and economy to a consumer-based economy.
The term Gilded Age comes from a book published in in 1873 by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warmer. It is a satirical look about the greed and political corruption of the time. To utterly understand the genius of Twain and Warner’s title it is important to understand the meaning of “gilded”. According to Dictionary.com, the definition of gilded is- “having a pleasing or showy appearance that conceals something of little worth.” It captured in our country the era that was upon us, an era of dualities, extraordinarily rich and everyone else.
With a population that increased by 140% from 1860 to 1900 and a voter participation rate of 90% of eligible voters party leaders of both parties began to worry about “working class” voters. For the most part, the immigrants were laborers and trades people with little formal education. Then, as now, the lack of formal education was looked down upon on.

HENRY GEORGE

While not considered a populist, Henry George was in many ways the first populist candidate. George was born to a lower middle-class Philadelphia, PA. Dropped out of school at 14 and was self-educated. He went to sea at 15. His life as a seaman ended 4 years later in California. Faced with the choice of being a prospector for gold or a typesetter for a newspaper, he chooses the latter.
George began penning editorials against monopolies and corrupt politicians. After working for several newspapers, George became the owner of the San Francisco Daily Evening Post. For four years George struggled to keep the paper in business. It became so bad for the George family that he was forced to the street to beg. Following the struggle and perseverance George was able to lift his family out of poverty.
During a trip to New York, where he saw the poverty in a well-established city was crippling and much worst than San Francisco a city far less developed gave the idea and subject matter for a book. In 1879 George published Progress and Poverty which was remarkably successful selling more than 3 million copies.
Following a move to New York, George was drafted into a mayoral candidate in the 1886 mayor’s race. As an intellectual and self-made man George represented the United Labor Party. In the election George polled second to Abram Hewitt. Many of George’s supporters believed chicanery gave the election to Hewitt. What is notable able the race, George out polled eventual U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

THE KANSAS PEOPLE’S PARTY

1888 was a time when industrialist capitalism was raging, rural farmers and communities were having a difficult time. They were working 16 to 18 hours a day to try and make ends meet. The prices for their products continued to decrease. To make up the difference, farmers were forced to take up mortgages. This was at a time when there were no laws against predatory lending. In a sense, the banks from the east coast were like loan sharks charging 20,30 up to 50 percent interest.
For the farmers to get their crops to market on the east and west coasts the farmers had to rely on the highly competitively priced railroads at the time. In December of 1988 J.P. Morgan called a meeting of the railroad executives. A deal was hammered out to fix prices. The deal was short lived. The only thing for Morgan to due was form a merger which eventually became a monopoly.
In 1890 farmers were paying a substantial part of their revenues on shipping cost due to the monopoly of the railroads. In Kansas it was the tipping point.
It was a former schoolteacher who happened to be a trained lawyer who would rally the citizens of Kansas. Mary Elizabeth Lease a woman of Irish immigrants was that voice. Ms. Lease could truly empathize with the farmers. During an earlier panic, Ms. Lease and her husband lost their business and savings. The rally cry was “No longer is Government of the people by the people. It is Government of Wall Street by Wall Street.”
At first both parties seemed to ignore Ms. Lease and the Peoples Party. However, as the number of people attending rallies grew both parties, knew they had problems. In state elections that year, a state in which the Republican party was dominate, it was a blood bath. The final tally was Peoples Party 91 members, Republicans 26 members and in last Democrats with 8.
While the elections in other State Houses did not mirror Kansas’s, the Peoples Party was gaining popularity in rural America.
During the same time as the excitement in Kansas was happening to the east in Pennsylvania there was another insurrection of sorts with the Homestead Steelworkers against Carnegie Steel. The Homestead Mill was the pride of Carnegie Steel.

HOMESTEAD STRIKE

Andrew Carnegie always publicly favored unions. But, with collective bargaining agreement nearing its end he instructed his operator Henry Clay Frick at the Homestead Mill to break the union. Erecting a barbed wire topped fence, snipper towers, and water cannons at the entrances, when the lock-out occurred the Homestead was virtually a fort.
A 300-man private army made up of Pinkerton men was set to arrive by river the night of the lock-out. When the union found out, they arranged a welcoming committee of striking mill workers and their families. A gun battle ensued in which 10 people died and 23 were injured.
Pennsylvania Governor Robert Patterson who had been elected with a Carnegie supported political machine had to act to support Carnegie. 4000 National Guard troops were deployed and within 20 minutes executives were back in their offices.
This was the second time in a few months in which troops were used against strikers. The first was in the Coeur d’ Alene labor strike. The difference in this strike was federal troops were also used against the strikers.

FIRST MARCH ON WASHINGTON D.C.

The feast or famine economic cycle continued with the Panic of 1893. Unemployment was extremely high during this time leading a small business self-made man Jacob Coxey to devise a plan for the first ever march on Washington D.C. With roads and other infrastructure lacking, Coxey thought it a good idea for Congress to tackle the issue using unemployed workers due to the panic.
With 100 people in his tow, Mr. Coxey began the 700-mile trek from Massillon, Ohio to Washington D.C. Along the route the number of marchers joining Mr. Coxey group increased. Towns and cities would feed and make small cash contributions to the marchers. Groups of other men also took up the march for other areas around the country.
Upon arriving in Washington D.C., Mr. Coxey had hoped to present Congress the petition signed by citizens for his infrastructure project. Jacob Coxey never had the chance. Police beat him and dragged him away. Mr. Coxey was charged with hanging a partisan banner on the Capital grounds and walking on the grass.

ELECTION OF 1896

One of the main issues in the last Presidential election of the 19th century was whether U.S. would continue back the dollar with gold. Wall Street and the industrialist wanted gold and the farmers wanted silver. An easy way to understand this is, the landlords wanted gold while the tenants want silver.
The Peoples Party had fussed with the Democrats, a move that Mary Elizabeth Lease did not approve of, basically thinking they sold out. The nominee for the Democrats was Williams Jennings Bryan a congressman from Nebraska. For the Republicans, the nominee was William McKinley a former governor of Ohio.
McKinley buoyed by contributions from Wall Street and the likes of Andrew Carnegie and other industrialist carried all the dense population centers and won.

THE END OF A CENTURY

Wars, economic panics, mass immigration, emancipation and industrialization are what made up the 19th. century. In many ways different then when the Constitution was ratified in 1789. Individual rights led to a laissez faire country. We failed to heed the advice James Madison gave us in the Federalist Papers when he said, “Men are not angels…”.
Historian Nell Irvin Painter said of the time, “It’s a confirmation that the political establishment is not in the hands of the people. It is in the hands of corporate interests and the political parties who don’t want to hear from the people.” She is right glitter on top of chicken feed, gilded.