Introduction

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Introduction
With advances in technology, plentiful natural resources and raw materials, a large immigrant labor force, a favorable tariff, and a laissez-faire government, American industry thrived in the late nineteenth century. Railroads were probably the most significant element in American economic development; important as an industry themselves, the railroads also contributed to the growth and development of other industries. Land-grant railroads helped to settle the West by selling their lands cheaply and on easy terms to settlers. Almost as important was the iron and steel industry, in which the Bessemer process made mass production possible. Furthermore, new technologies fostered the growth of the oil industry, and new inventions like the telephone and incandescent light bulb gave birth to industries of their own. The railroad, steel, and oil industries required expensive machinery and economies of scale, which led to economic concentration. Soon, monopolies developed; the same happened in the utility industries in order to avoid costly duplication of equipment and to protect patents. Many Americans saw such monopolies as threats to fair pricing and endangering economic opportunity and democratic institutions. They were also concerned about maldistribution of wealth and the sheer power of corporations. Reformers included authors such as Henry George, Edward Bellamy, and Henry Demarest Lloyd, and political movements like Marxism. The perceived threat of corporations’ large concentrations of wealth and monopolies was finally addressed by government, first on the local level and then the federal. Railroads were the focus of early regulation, but the subsequent Interstate Commerce Act and Sherman Antitrust Act targeted big business in general, and sought to restore competition. Workers also reacted to their lot by organizing, with varying degrees of success. Significant events in labor history from this era include the Knights of Labor’s involvement in the Haymarket Square riot, the formation of the American Federation of Labor, and the Homestead and Pullman strikes. The government's role in defeating the Pullman strike in particular raised questions about just how effective any labor action against big business could be. The largest question that dominated this era struck at the heart of the nation’s democratic promise: How could the government promote democracy and freedom with industrialization’s growing divide between rich and poor and its suppression of dissent?

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