America's Industrial Economy During The Gilded Age

During the Gilded Age, America's industrial economy exploded, generating unprecedented opportunities for individuals to build great fortunes unfortunately it left many farmers and workers struggling merely for survival. American’s saw their nation as an island of political democracy. Although the world was still dominated by undemocratic governments. Americans understanding of political freedom was raising questions about the power of the new corporations and how immune to democratic control they were. Many lawmakers supported bills aiding companies in which they had invested money in or which they received stocks from. Not only was the Gilded Age a dynamic age it was also a harsh era of incredible economic explosion. In 1887, public outcries against railroad practices were responded to by congress establishing the …show more content…
Farmers lost money and much of their traditional influence on national affairs, but they continued to work and establish the organizations and methods that would preserve their place in American life. While industry generally increased in importance, farmers were struggling due to debt and falling prices of their products. There were crop failures starting to occur in the 1880s. Steamships and railways brought in wheat, lowering American farm prices even more. Economic transformation created industrial prosperity and new lifestyles, but in states still dominated by farming these changes also had a widespread negative effect.
On July 1892, 1300 delegates gathered in Omaha, Nebraska to write a national platform and selected a presidential nominee for the Peoples party. In sorting out the causes of their economic distress, they tended to focus less on the structural changes within international markets. But more important than the actual accuracy of their assessment was the way that it functioned to tie farmers together as a victimized