The gilded age was a period of economical growth between
the 1870-1900. The United States jumped to lead the industrialization which brought many inventions like the telephone and the lightbulb.The nation was rapidly expanding its economy into new areas, especially heavy industry like factories, railroads, and coal mining.The great industrial success of the U.S. and the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy hid the many social problems of the time, including a high poverty rate, a high crime rate, and corruption in the government. That is when reformers raised to fight inequality. The reformers had some succeces however, they were not fully successful because of the limitation given by the higher power . The labor union was one of the successes the reformers had since Americans during the Gilded age were not aware that people were working a lot of hours, receiving low pay and putting their lives in danger. Union organization and strikes brought attention to this. Labor unions were a group of workers united in their goals that acted collectively. They participated in strikes like the Great Upvial and the Great railroad strikes where railroad workers in West Virginia voluntarily and without organized leadership blocked rail lines of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and they refused to move. They wanted their wages back . The strike spread to many nearby states and led to violence in many cities. State militaries and federal troops were called in to shut down the strike city by city, which they did in 45 days. The strikes spur better organizations like the Knights of Labor which was a significant organization of the Gilded age. They use strategies like boycotts and strikes against the uncooperative employers. The labor organization faced difficulties since the industrialists, political bosses, and even judges all blocked or crushed organizers’ efforts. Despite the limitation they made significant changes for workers so that they work lower hours and receive better payment. President Ulysses Grant issued the National Eight Hour Law Proclamation in 1869. In which he declared that employers could not cut down their employees' wages because of a reduction in the number of hours in a work day. The struggle for the eight-hour day is one of the most prominent labor fights in America's history. The Sherman Antitrust act of 1890 attempted to prevent business from uniting to the point they owned a monopoly over an industry. Many Americans saw this as unfair for the consumer. Since when business became a monopoly they controlled the market and had no other competitors which made the consumers only buy from the monopoly and made the monopoly lower the quality of the product and raise the price. The Sherman antitrust act authorized the federal government to establish an issue proceedings against the business that planned to unite a monopoly in order to dissolve them. But after a decade the act was rarely invoked against industrial monopolies. The federal government started to file cases under this act. Some of these cases were successful but some of them were not. The Gilded Age reforms were often limited by higher power but despite the limitations they achieved many meaningful successes such as the labor union which made workers work less hours and get higher pay and helped create the Sherman antitrust act to prevent businesses from becoming monopolies.
