https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn Made with charm en-us 2017-03-14 14:06:46 UTC 2023-02-14 17:04:24 UTC hello@padlet.com waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/159985570 During the Gilded age the children were faced with the choice to work for little pay and in terrible conditions. "Tiny babies of six years old with faces of sixty did an eight hour shift for ten cents a day." This quote is an example of how young the children were when they began their long lives of labor. For many families at this time the children were a main source of income and without their contributions the family would suffer harshly. Women sent their children to work long days and nights  with pay of 10 cents a day. ]]> 2017-03-14 14:10:19 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/159985570 waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160248272  Some main businesses during this time were railroads, steel businesses, and oil businesses. Looking at the owners of the railroads, most of the agreements made between the companies were illegal and uneconomical meaning they were wrong and illegal. ''Many railroads formed pool agreements or cartels to keep profits up. Unfortunately for these businesses, since these agreements were not legal contracts and thus were unenforceable, they were regularly broken.'' Many of the less fortunate railroads would try to improve their businesses by submitting to the higher competition.
Other bunesses like the oil business were dominated by John D. Rockefeller, who eventually drove out all of his competition by buying up the more unfortunate producers,  and using secret rebates. ]]> 2017-03-15 13:51:36 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160248272 waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160252601 Workers in the gilded age were faced with similar issues such as terrible working conditions, unsafe environments, little pay, and unbearable hours. ''Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one. Of the butchers and floorsmen, the beef-boners and trimmers, and all those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb,'' This quote is a prime example if how dangerous the jobs were for the workers of this time period. These conditions were also seen in child labor. Such conditions left people prone to disease and faced  the possibility of death.]]> 2017-03-15 14:04:01 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160252601 waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160532309 Unskilled workers were mainly immagrants who had only the ability to work. Many of them lacking the ability to speak English, these workers settled for any work they could get which was a big reason why many of the bosses used these workers.  "They did the dirty work at the plant: lifting, shoveling, pushing. They worked a twelve-hour day with only two vacation days a year and earned under $10 a week. The union had little interest in organizing these people. Their view was: why bother when we, the skilled workers, are the most important part of the process of making steel."]]> 2017-03-16 14:01:09 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160532309 waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160532323 Skilled workers of the Gilded age were people who simply had the firsthand knowlage and ability to produce the product needed. These workers often recived special treatment from their bosses because without them the production would be stopped. Many of the workers had wages between 35-70 dollars and 8 hour shifts. "They were members of a craft union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, which had helped them gain wages ranging from $35 to $70 a week and an eight hour day" This quote further explains who the workers were and what their experience with work druing this time consisted of. One set back for these skilled workers was that many of them did not stay working at the same place for long especially when many of the business owners worked with Frick. Once the owners figured out how to keep their business running they often let go of the skilled workers and made the unskilled workers take smaller more doable jobs but jobs that would keep production up. ]]> 2017-03-16 14:01:13 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160532323 waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160537218 Henery clay Frick was a profetional union-breaker. Carnagie brought him in to help  gain control over his business. Frick's job was to stop the skilled workers union to keep making "Frick built a twelve-foot-high fence, three miles long, around the entire plant, topped it with barbed wire, and bored holes for guns every twenty-five feet. Then he gave the workers an ultimatum: take a pay cut—even though business was still booming in the steel industry—or the union will be broken." This made the skilled workers very upset and they decided they would strike against these new terms. In order for the strike to work however, the skilled workers had to communicate to the unskilled that they needed help with the strike and had promised them better working conditions and better pay in the end. ]]> 2017-03-16 14:12:31 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160537218 waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160682403 Although the skilled workers had won many of the unskilled workers over Frick sent in hundreds of armed men willing to shoot down the members of the strike. Because of the violence th govener sent in his own troop s to make sure everything was safe for both sides but still forcefull. As time went on people needed work and began giving up on the strike. "Nevertheless, after four and a half' months the strike was lost. With winter approaching, the strikers were forced to return to work on Frick’s terms. " Overall this strike was a prime example of how the people rebelled against the buisness owners and their attempts to fix what was being done to them.]]> 2017-03-17 00:28:08 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160682403 waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160800682 Settlement houses were another prime example of people coming together to try and help and fix what the business owners were doing to these workers. Settlement homes provided shelter, education, and food. By the year 1887 there were 74 settlement homes in the United States. "The major purpose of settlement houses was to help to assimilate and ease the transition of immigrants into the labor force by teaching them middle-class American values." ]]> 2017-03-17 14:08:43 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160800682 waldows https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160908669 Muckrakers were people who normally went undercover to expose the true conditions of places like hospitals or businesses. During the Gilded age muckrakers would expose business scandals and conditions of the products being distributed like food or beverages. Most mucrakers wrote about what was happening to the people in hope that society would be more aware of what was happening which was why they took great part in trying to fix the Gilded age. In a paper wrote by Cecilia Tichi she states, "The Gilded Age. Marked by an incredible disparity between the wealthy and poor, by waves of layoffs (especially in manufacturing) and business scandal after business scandal, this era is also burdened by a political culture that often seems heedless – or downright hostile – toward the well-being of the general American public" I think this quote better justifys what muckrakers did for the community and what the true meaning of the Gilded age was]]> 2017-03-18 03:30:13 UTC https://padlet.com/waldows/hlm778tqv5pn/wish/160908669