Question #1- In the post–Civil War United States, corporations grew significantly in number, size, and influence. Using the excerpts and image below, analyze the impact of big business on the economy and politics and the responses of Americans to these changes. Place your answer within 1870 and 1900.

Document A

Source: Joseph Keppler, “The Bosses of the Senate,” Puck, January 23, 1889. U.S. Senate Collection

Document B

This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.

Source: Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth,” North American Review, June 1889.

Document C

“The organized working men and women, the producers of the wealth of the world, declare that men, women and children, with human brains and hearts, should have a better consideration than inanimate and dormant things, usually known under the euphonious title of “Property.”. . . “

“We demand a reduction of the hours of labor, which would give a due share of work and wages to the reserve army of labor and eliminate many of the worst abuses of the industrial system now filling our poor houses and jails. . . .”

“Labor . . . insists upon the exercise of the right to organize for self and mutual protection.”

“That the lives and limbs of the wage-workers shall be regarded as sacred as those of all others of our fellow human beings; that an injury or destruction of either by reason of negligence or maliciousness of another, shall not leave him without redress simply because he is a wage-worker. . . .”

“And by no means is the least demand of the Trade Unions for adequate wages.”

Source: Samuel Gompers, What Does Labor Want?, an address before the International Labor Congress in Chicago, August 28, 1893.

Document D

“I am but one of many victims of Rockefeller’s colossal combination,” said Mr. [George] Rice, “and my story is not essentially different from the rest. . . . I established what was known as the Ohio Oil Works… I found to my surprise at first, though I afterward understood it perfectly, that the Standard Oil Company was offering the same quality of oil at much lower prices than I could do—from one to three cents a gallon less than I could possibly sell it for.”

“I sought for the reason and found that the railroads were in league with the Standard Oil concern at every point, giving it discriminating rates and privileges of all kinds as against myself and all outside competitors.”

Source: George Rice, “How I Was Ruined by Rockefeller,” New York World, October 16, 1898.

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