America - Post Depression essays

America - Post Depression essays By 1900, the farmers of the West and the South were struggling financially due to the new urban economy. This was due to troubles with the strikes, a large surplus, and tariffs. Besides the farmers, workers were also having problems at the turn of the century. Due to the Depression of 1893 and the "let nature-take-its-course" philosophy of the federal government, the majority of the American middle-class suffered in the late 1800's. The federal government was both directly and indirectly involved with almost all of the people's troubles as they were bias against farmers and workers during this time period. Many working class Americans found themselves at a difference with the national government. With different views on issues, the average working man was at a loss when trying to understand the government's mentality concerning various topics. One of these controversial issues was the proper usage of striking. Workers believed that the strike remained the only option of defense against the dominating trusts and other industrial companies. The government, on the other hand, believed that strikes accomplished no goals, and were simply a burden to the country's progress. One example of this discrepancy of views was the Pullman strike. At the time, Pullman deemed it necessary to cut back on the workers wages to benefit the overall income of the company. With this action, Pullman decreased a workers salary to approximately one third of a workers original wage. Outraged by such a steep salary cut, workers of his company went on strike. News of the strike spread to other cities, and as a r esult, Pullman cars were denied service and repairs. This widespread strike prevented the mail from efficiently circulating. Taking offensive measures Cleveland called in troops to break the amounting crowds. As a result to these actions, the working Americans were shown that a peaceful protest could achieve nothing. To see that their one counteracti...