“What is the chief end of man?To get rich. In what way?Dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." Mark Twain (1871)

The Gilded Age

Five Major Themes: Opening of the West

Immigration & Urbanization

Industrialization

Politics – Corruption & Reform

Labor Movements

Industrialization & The West

“Upon material progress is founded all other progress”-railroad president, 1888

Pacific Railway Act (1862)

charters two transcontinental RR lineso Union Pacific

o Central Pacific

provided for federal subsidies… public land

immigrant labor

Credit Mobilier Holding company created by the executives of Union

Pacific Given the contract by Union Pacific (read:

themselves) to build 667 miles of rail Credit Mobilier charged $23 million more than

needed, which came from the Union Pacific (publicly funded)

In essence, the executives of the Union Pacific paid themselves to build the railroad with government (tax) money

Union Pacific went bankrupt, stock was worthless, and all investors but those in Credit Mobilier lost millions

The ability to sell land-grants also proved to be a boon to railroad executives

Labor Central Pacific crews consisted primarily of

Chinese workerso White workers usually earned $40-60 per

month for ten hour days, plus mealso Chinese workers earned $35 per month for

dawn to dusk hours, provided own foodo Snow was frequently so deep (up to 40

feet), they would tunnel into it to live and work

Union Pacific workers were primarily Civil War vets and Irishmeno Hell on Wheels

Promontory Point Utah, May 10, 1869

Conquest of the Western Indians

“The white children have surrounded me and have left me nothing but an island” -Sioux Chief Red Cloud, 1870

-”permanent Indian country”?