Was the USA on the Verge of Moral, Political, and Material Ruin - Admission/Application Essay Example

Why did the Populists believe that the United s was on “the verge of moral, political, and material ruin?” Due primarily to the surrounding conditions that significantly justify the widely observed corruption of the government and its corresponding impact upon the people who were becoming demoralized, being brought to the verge of devastation in many aspects manifests where U.S. would be most likely headed within the poor state of labor economy via the exploitative behavior of capitalism from 1877 to the turn of the 20th century. The populists, in this regard, have particularly put to analysis cases that depict violation of rights to self-protection of urban laborers and importation of foreign workforce among a bulk of sensitive issues. In the media clip “Workers in the Gilded Age,” it states: “Imagine a world in which there were no laws regarding health and safety on the job; Imagine a world in which there’s no social security or unemployment benefits if you lose your job; Imagine a world in which there are no laws protecting the rights of labor to organize trade unions without suffering the consequences of persecution by their employers” (Workers in the Gilded Age). Hence, it turns out from this picture that populists believe the United States to be on “the verge of moral, political, and material ruin” (Populist Platform). To analyze, the basis for such belief by the populists may be traced back to the Gilded Age where despite drastic progress in the general standards of living via wage hike, the uneven allocation of national resources or gains led to gender and racial inequality as well as the great conflict of economic discrimination which unfairly distinguished skilled from the non-skilled workers. The height of capitalism in this period was found to have not conveyed presence of interest in the welfare of the laboring population which struggled to survive under hazardous working conditions. Then, as revealed by the socio-economic structure of industries and domestic communities at the time, unequal economic distributions highly reflected in the substantial difference among the middle class, the working class, the groups whose families prompted sons and mothers to work, and those at the lowest of ranks – being scavengers, beggars, and robbers (Mooney 40). In the media clip “Workers in the Gilded Age”, studies show that “child labor was extremely common in the 19th century – There was an economical logic to bringing children into the workforce sometimes the textile mills to work besides parents performing whatever labor that they could to contribute anyway that they could to a family economy” (Workers in the Gilded Age). Altogether, this makes a scenario of the material and ethical ruin that marked a series of unfortunate circumstances, demonstrating the wickedness of a capitalist society. Historical truths exhibit how this brought about deterioration of moral principles for the unemployed Americans who could barely cope in finding decent source of income. When the populists inferred on political instability, moreover, the argument also rests on the ground of having examined the U.S. Supreme Court in its power to weaken legislation and agencies of the government responsible for regulating business organizations. To a worse extent, the Supreme Court’s political control was also capable of undermining organized labor protests so that this situation naturally lowered the moral quality of communication between political parties. In the media clip “Foner on Court Decisions that Held Against Labor”, Eric Foner states “Over and over again, the Supreme Court would declare those laws unconstitutional under the 14th amendment – They deprived ‘the person’, the corporation, of their property without due process of law and this gave companies a freehand in trying to impose labor conditions which were often very impressive, very dangerous” (Foner on Court Decisions that Held Against Labor). In addition, industrial workers and small farmers were bound to establish an impression that in this system of complicated affairs between the judicial and legislative branches, they could hardly yield to the advantage of improving their economy in exchange of all the severe toils. Truly, how could the citizenry afford to judge the absence of political turmoil if the government was divided against itself as such? The sentiment of populism necessarily perceived the view of political miscommunication by means of investigating its unfavorable effects upon the impoverished population of ordinary underpaid workers. Similarly, the populist notion regarding the look of U.S. at the brink of political, moral, and economic depression had derived pertinent evidence from other relevant traits of the period of Industrial Revolution. Extensive use of machines was reported to have “dramatically increased output and decreased costs” yet this modern approach inevitably designated employees and employers in quite a considerable distance from each other that it created lesser sensible connections, thereby resulting to more misunderstandings. Reduced costs meant underpayment of laborers besides considerations to adjust costs on materials and mode of production. According to Mooney, mechanization further diminished the amount of skilled workers for the managers in charge of operation discovered the practicality of replacing them with non-skilled ones whose chief qualification was merely to manipulate engines unlike the skilled individuals who could even perform decision-making (Mooney 42). As a consequence, the rifts that emerged in the relations herein gave birth to protests against capitalism and the large-scale companies believed to be solely concerned about utilizing capital to augment revenues at the expense of workers’ right to financial and physical securities. Through the findings of C.W. Calhoun, the image of politics in the Gilded Age comprised mainly of the disastrous relations between the divided Republicans and Democrats. Calhoun exemplifies “The Republicans believed that the authority and strength of the government could be used to broaden the nation’s wealth – The Democrats asserted that the role of the government should be confined and minimal” (Calhoun 265). The tensions that accumulated to such rift could undoubtedly be felt with intensity that populists were eventually directed to draw herein a solid inference on America’s ensuing political decline. This condition was even made worse by the look of moral struggle which most farmers had to go through in seeking resolve to settle their agrarian disputes with law. James Stewart notes “Farmers formed cooperatives, interest groups, and political parties to protest their declining fortunes and to increase their political and economic power” (Stewart) out of which may be assessed a sense of ethical dilemma between violent and peaceful means. To Americans, the initial stages of achieving an industrial economy occurred to have established a revolutionary social order that only raised confusion especially among the working class, making them suspiciously ponder and react upon the possible negative outcomes of social development for the nation (Foner). It entailed a kind of thinking that such ways to spontaneous progress determines allocation of power and social security. Potential peril was conceived in the manner of response of the lower class people who were suspected of tumultuous aggression in exercising their democratic right to suppress individual economic growth. These people thought that liberty of acquisition of rights to property, particularly with those who could afford, would only emphasize inequality among social class divisions (Foner). Economic development in full progress enabled Americans to adapt to the concept and application of ‘Social Darwinism’ in their everyday living since the competition to acquire relative or higher advantage in upgrading social and economic status in American society had apparently become essential. With the rapidly growing rate of capital formation, GDP, and wages (Gilded), this condition concretized the effect of social freedom and transformation across vast critical regions of societies in U.S. in which citizens strongly expressed individual or collective views by putting up labor unions that served to oppose severely improper conditions, shift schedules, loads, and unjust wages at work. Democracy was put in wide and intense practice when protests were articulated with the desire to take part in the evolving process of industrial growth. In this endeavor, they sought to be assured as well of experiencing freedom from any form of injustice or oppression of employers who were predictably consumed by the principle of capitalism or profit-orientation for use in business that required irrational gravity of labor from the poor Americans. According to Mooney “The 1862 Homestead Act granted 160 acres to any current or prospective citizen willing to live on and improve that land for five years”(Mooney 44) but because capitalism prevailed over law, the Homestead Act was only partly successful and the federal government still sold 100 million acres to private citizens and corporations. Concerns toward personal economy further resonated in politics that the Gilded Age or era of Reconstruction was also witnessed to characterize corruption by the state authorities and widespread operation of fraudulent activities in the U.S. government. Unsettled personal economic interests had inevitably allowed democratic freedom to scandalize certain officials suspected of such misdeed or crime against the nation yet there also emerged liberty to choose to take or defend the side that justified the ends of attaining to optimum goals for oneself by covering unrighteous means with tricky propaganda. In the media clip “Economic Freedom in the Gilded Age”, Foner asserts “How can workers or ordinary people maintain economic freedom in a radically industrialized society in which economic power is extremely concentrated in the hands of corporations, very wealthy people with no restraint on their ability to act?” (Economic Freedom in the Gilded Age). Based on the findings of M. Kazin, “Others sympathized with discontented Americans and believed, as had the Populists, that a strong national government would be the best protector of the welfare of small farmers and wage earners” (Kazin). Evidently, at this stage, the object of moral, political, and material anxiety for the populist reformers have been provided with adequate reasons on believing that the United States was on “the verge of moral, political, and material ruin.” Works Cited Textbook Reference ___ . Tian Yan. “Workers in the Gilded Age.” YouTube. 21 Feb 2013. Web. 23 Feb 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIK2JWACnpk. Tian Yan. “Foner on Court Decisions that Held Against Labor.” YouTube. 21 Feb 2013. Web. 23 Feb 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV6V-QPmVfg. Tian Yan. “Economic Freedom in the Gilded Age.” YouTube. 21 Feb 2013. Web. 23 Feb 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyaaLCJRJoo. “Populist Platform 1892: Preamble.” Primary Sources. 2013. Web. 22 Feb 2013. http://www.learner.org/workshops/primarysources/corporations/docs/popplat.html Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. Norton, W.W. & Company, 2007. Kazin, Michael. “Populism and Agrarian Discontent.” Gilderlehrman.org. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, n.d. Web. Calhoun, Charles William. The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America, pp. 265-268. Stewart, James I. “Free-riding, Collective Action, and Farm Interest Group Membership.” Reed College Working Paper. 2006. Web. 24 Feb 2013. http://www.reed.edu/~stewartj. Read More