Progress and Poverty in Industrial America DBQ

"The Gilded Age" was what the era of American Industrialization was called. The meaning of Gilded is when something is shiny and rich on the top but inside it is shallow and of something that is of little worth. During this time, The rich lived lavishly why the poor farmers and the middle class worked as laborers who risked their life everyday, made very little money, and were drowning in debts. American Industrialization had several advantages such as improvement in technology and education but there were still disadvantages such as the increase in Child labor and the working condition of workers.

American Industrialization resulted in new inventions that improved the lives of citizens and improved communications. Many business men began funding scientists and artists to create something new which represented America. The inventions of people like Thomas Jefferson enhanced industrialization. Invention such as the electric motor stated in Document 2, made trains more efficient which made transporting goods easier and more efficient. Inventions such as the phonograph and the Telegraph made communications over long distance possible. This attracted people to move west and create settlements there. Inventions not only facilitated industrialization but was a form of business itself. Many people like " Edison managed to become not only a renowned inventor, but also a prominent manufacturer and businessman through the merchandising of his inventions."(Doc 2) With factories and new invention house work decreased and created more time for leisure activities. New inventions such the washing machine advertised in document 7 decreased the amount of housework a women had to do, which created time for families to go out to parks and restaurants and enjoy their free time. The idea of Charity was also developing in during this time period. Andrew Carnegie and powerful business owner created the concept of Gospel of Wealth. It is a belief that businesses are a safe place to protect the people's money. As said in Document 4 by Andrew Carnegie, " The millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor; intrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but administering it for the community far better that it could or would have done for itself. According to Carnegie theory even though the poor deny it, business benefit the poor.

Even though there were many advantages to industrialization, there were also disadvantages such as the increase in child labor, the poor and working conditions and the fact the the worker were not able to share the leisure and wealth of the factory owners had. As the number of factories grew the need for labor increased. This was a great opportunity for the families who were financial unstable at the moment but in order to make a decent amount of money to live off of the whole family had to work in the factories included children. As shown in document 1 employment of children under 15 years of age in the 1870 was only 700,000 which grew to 1.63 million by 1910. The jobs that the kids had to do were not simple and easy or safe. Many little children had to clean the machines while they were still running. There was little care for the safety of the workers. The workers had to look out for their own safety. One of the dangerous places to work were the coal mines. Stephen Crane describes the dangerous of the Coal mines in an article called the "Depths of a Coal Mine". In the article he says, " There is an insidious, silent enemy in the gas. If the huge fanwheel on the top of the earth should stop for a brief period, there is certain death." As described by this article the coal miner worked putting their life at risk but in the end they still made very little. "the miner gets three dollars per day, and his laborer one dollar and a quarter."(doc 5) It is true that wealth has been greatly increased and that the average of comfort, leisure and refinement has been raised ;but these gains are not general. In them he lowest classes do not share."(doc 3) Industrialization brought great profit to factory owners and businessmen but the people working in the factories made little profit with there low wage and few or none benefits.

Essentially industrialization brought great profit and wealth to factory owner and business men and improved the lives of the rich, but for the factory workers received very few benefits from industrialization.