As the Railroad industry grew during the Gilded age, it had major impacts on the country. In some way the government helped the building of railroads across the nation with either loans or land grants, in order to fulfill manifest destiny and connect the country from east to west.
Farmer's alliances were created such as the Grange, which wanted to stop being pushed into bankruptcy from railroads due to prices being changed by railroads because they were able to transport crops. These alliances tried to push legislatures to regulate the railroad monopoly. The Munn vs. Illinois case concluded that states were allowed to regulate certain businesses within their state which included railroads, but in the later case Wabash vs. Illinois, decreed that individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce. |
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Although the Interstate Commerce Act was intended to help control railroad monopolies at times the government was corrupt as shown in the Credit Mobilier scandal. The governments position towards labor has varied. During several strikes including the Great Railroad strike of 1877 state and government troops were sent to stop the protesting. On the other hand, the government has also shown support for the labor force with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This banned Chinese immigration to america because other workers were complaining they were taking all the jobs and were paid at an excessively low rate. President Cleveland did not show support for labor unions by stopping the Pullman strike, but tried to compromise with passing the law allowing Labor Day.
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