Monopolies In The Gilded Age

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Beginning in the 1870’s and lasting until the beginning of the twentieth century, the Gilded Age is marked by a time of rapid economic growth, an influx of millions of European immigrants, and the expansion of industrialization. Simultaneously, the Gilded Age was an era of poverty and inequality; the disparity of wealth became more visible in result of the rise in big business and monopolies and the flood of poor immigrants. These big businesses took advantage of their workers, pushing them beyond their limits for little reward, and monopolies cut into their poor customers already small profits. In order to combat the losses in profits, western farmers established the Grange, the Farmer’s Alliance, and the Populist Party alongside industrial …show more content…
In order to purchase land, build homes, and buy farm supplies, farmers had to take out loans since most were poor and unable to pay out of pocket. The banks giving out these loans would charge high interest rates, cutting into a farmer’s profits. Along the same lines, silo owners had a virtual monopoly on grain storage, which gave these owners the ability to increase prices, knowing the farmers had little to no other choice but to pay. The railroads also used their monopoly to set high shipping rates with little limit since farmers in the west had practically no other way to ship their goods to the East. Due to the impracticality of farmers travelling to the East every time their goods were to be sold, the job of a middleman was created to eliminate the unnecessary travelling. These middlemen would sell the farmers’ products in the East and would take a large share of the profits, once again cutting into the farmers’ earnings. Fed up with losing profits and having no say against the monopolies and big businesses, farmers began to come together to stand up for themselves. Washington Gladden, a former American Congregational pastor and early leader in the Social Gospel movement, writes in his article “The Embattled Farmers” that “[farmers] are the bone and sinew of the nation; they produce the largest share of its wealth; but they are getting, they say, the smallest share for themselves”. The farmers were working tirelessly but getting little to show for their toil, and President Abraham Lincoln noticed this. Lincoln created the Department of Agriculture to educate farmers on profitability and be their voice in the government. The Department of Agriculture formed the National Grange of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, also
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