Causes Of The Great Strike Of 1877

grain was worth. Farmers became outraged and began demanding the government take action against this.

In March of 1877, the Granger Laws were upheld by the Supreme Court. This meant that the carriers could not collect exceptionally high profits on routes that had little competition. However, many railroads claimed that profits from these routes is how they survived. The new laws prevented grain elevators from taking advantage of their positions and controlled crop prices for farmers.

The railroad cut the wages of their employees due to these laws; to make up for the profit the companies lost. The employees across the railroad companies went on strike which forced the shutdown of some railway companies. Soon coal miners joined in on the strike collaborations. This event would become known as The Great Strike of 1877. It changed the way corporations handled their employees. It also shined light onto the ideas of the government being able to protect the people in the workforce through laws.

Chicago became one of the capitols when it came to shipping goods. However, there was no shipping for Chicago during the winter, because of the cold. The roads would become unreliable so they could not be driven on; as a result Chicago had to go with the railroad for shipment. Train schedules were a difficult issue at first because every town they shipped to was on a different time. To solve this problem the railroad created the four time zones that we still use today.

Chicago also tried to corner the lumber market at this time. They had a lot of lumber that came from around the Great Lakes area. They would cut the lumber then float it down the rivers to a saw mill located on the Great Lakes. However, they did not allow time for the whit...

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...k three hundred clerks to manage seven hundred fifty thousand letters a year; averaging around two thousand letters a day.

The American economic system grew dramatically during the Gilded Age, but not without loss in some of its values. It quickly became a time filled with greed and the strive for personal wealth, but it still prospered. The industrial revolutions of this time aided in beginning the United States’ change into a closer form of the country people recognize today. The change would not have been possible if it were not for the inventions of the railroad, telephone, education, and industry expansion. People began to fight for what was right through strikes and pickets, and the government began to look out for its people in more and different ways than ever before. The Gilded Age was an essential time that America would not be the same without.