CARLEY+R+ --+Compare+and+contrast+the+attitudes

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**Theme:** Reform **Topic:** Gilded age wealth **Free Response Question**: Compare and contrast the attitudes of the following toward the wealth that was created in the United States during the late nineteenth century. Introductory Paragraph **Setting:** In the late nineteenth century the gap between the rich and the poor was vast in America. **Basis for Analysis**: There were many different reactions to this unequal distribution of wealth. **Partitions**: These reactions boiled down to those who believed in providing for the less fortunate, fighting the rich company owners, and working hard and earning your place among the wealthy few. **Thesis:** The gap between the rich and the poor sparked a desire for reform and change in all classes, although each reformer had different reasons to do so.
 * Andrew Carnegie
 * Eugene Debs
 * Horatio Alger
 * Booker T Washington
 * Ida Tarbell

<span style="background-color: #e1ff00; color: #ff4700; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px; text-align: left;">**Partition 1:** Many of the upper-class, wealthy Americans believed that they should use their fortunes to provide for society. Andrew Carnegie- Wealthy owner of a steel producing company "Gospel of Wealth"-Written by Carnegie, displayed his belief that money from the wealthy should go to improving society Carnegie believed that having wealthy people was a sign of progress in a country

<span style="background-color: #808000; color: #e1ff00; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">**Partition 2:** Another trend during this time was to fight these wealthy people whose companies were often corrupt and organized to cheat the worker and to expose their corruption in books and articles. Eugene Debs- head of the American Railway Union Pullman Strike- 150,000 union members went on strike at the Pullman Palace Car Company, hoping to obtain better working conditions and protesting the recent cut of their wages without decreasing the price of company housing Debs defied the orders of a federal court and refused to go back to work, he went to jail first time an injunction against a strike is issued by a federal court, This strike started other strikes, because it looked like the government was collaborating with the big businesses "The Jungle"- Eye opening study on corruption and lack of sanitation in the meat packing business Muckrakers- Journalists who tried to create debates on subjects, their aim was to be controversial Ida Tarbell- Wrote an article about the corruption of John D. Rockefeller's oil company, she exposed his monopoly over the industry, a common practice among big business owners

<span style="background-color: #0000ff; color: #00ff00; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">** Partition 3: ** The final reaction people had was to try to work to earn the American Dream, to go from the depths of poverty and work to become one of the upper class business owners. Horatio Alger- A children's book author who glorified the "rags to riches" tale, he wrote that hard work morality would lead anyone to wealth. Booker T Washington- An African American who advised others of similar race and background to him to learn how to do factory work and abandon farm labor he believed this would give them self sufficiency Washington also advised blacks to stop fighting for civil rights, and asked whited to stop attacking innocent people

<span style="background-color: #800080; color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 23px; text-align: left;">General Information: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> The Gilded age was the last part of the nineteenth century and was characterized by the large class differences  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Large companies were often corrupt and manipulated smaller companies into becoming a part of a larger one, forming industry monopolies, and forming trusts with other companies  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Trust-coalition between large companies to be in charge of a particular industry  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Monopoly- one company is in control of the production and distribution of a product, the monopoly controls the price  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">