Farmers And Industrial Workers In The Gilded Age

With the end of Reconstruction, many companies were prospering the increase of production from the civil war. Many companies were ran by millionaires and the factories were run by the poor and working class men. Big companies also controlled farmers lives by shipping and selling their crops. Farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in similar ways, by forming large groups with big goals, the Populists and unions, in the Gilded Age
Farmers responded to industrialization by forming large groups with big goals, in the Gilded Age. Farmers became angry with the middlemen and big companies, who hiked up their own wages and cut profits for the farmers. Railroad companies raised rates for farmers in the west to ship their products

In the Declaration of Purposes of the Patrons of Husbandry in 1874, farmers stated, “Hence we must dispense with a surplus of middlemen, not that we are unfriendly to them, but we do not need them… We are opposed to excessive salaries, high rates of interest, and exorbitant per cent profits in trade.” The Grangers started a movement to help themselves keep their profits and stop the big company owners from gaining even more of the people’s money. Strengthening the farmers’ movement, the people formed the Populist party. The new political party rivaled the two major parties and gave farmers, and even industrial workers, a voice in the government. A major campaign ran under

Industrial workers were being worked 12 hour days, with unsafe working conditions, and low wages. Many workers died or were injured on the job with no compensation to the family. Big companies, like Standard Oil and U.S. Steel, did not care about their workers and only cared about profits. Workers were angered by the unfairness of the work in the factories so men formed unions, groups of workers looking for better rights. The first successful labor union was the Knights of Labor. The KoL advocated for cooperatives, members having an input in the factories. Membership to the KoL was not restricted to unskilled or skilled workers, people who did manual labor or had special craft skills, and it was not restricted by race or gender. The Knights of Labor worked to gain a national eight hour work day, keep out Asian workers, and end child labor and labor of convicts. Members of the union wanted all workers to benefit from these changes and opposed strikes, ending labor and ending production in a factory until a compromise is made, and opposed boycotts, not buying or using products from certain companies. Along with forming unions, workers were also able to pass the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. The act was created to take down monopolies, companies that have taken over all the competition in the area of production to gain profits and raise prices on consumers. The act