Social Darwinism, Spring 2005

Andy Wilson April 22, 2005 American Political Thought Seminar Paper

The Gilded Age is probably one of the least known chapters in American history. Few people know of the Tea Pot Dome or Credit Mobilier scandals. The names Carnegie and Rockefeller are now associated with public edifices, not the men who built and bequeathed their names to them. Yet what the Gilded Age lacks in historical notoriety it makes up for in its importance in the formation of modern America. The Gilded Age is possibly one of the most critical eras in the development of modern American political thought. Two of the most important political and social aspects that defined the period are the captains of industry and the Social Darwinist ideas of Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner. The captains of industry were influential not because of anything positive that they did but because the reaction against them triggered a decision that was pivotal in the development of modern American economic policy. Spencer and Sumner were important to the Gilded Age because they supported the captains of industry and gave the U.S. the legitimacy it needed in order to pursue a more aggressive foreign policy. These two aspects were the most important and influential features of their day and their impact was felt well into the 20th century. The Gilded Age saw the coming and going of the political machine, the first major interventions of government in business and the beginning of social reforms. Also

2 during the Gilded Age, large, national corporations became the dominant fact of the business world. The rise of the modern corporation, the advent of national brand names, and the building of national communication and transportation infrastructures, like the railroad, defined the period. New technologies revolutionized business, and the economy became increasingly composed of managers and shareholders. The US built up a national marketplace connected by railways in which mass marketing and national product lines were developed. Because of the rampant economic development that was taking place during the Gilded Age, there was an opportunity for men to make large sums of money. Men such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, the Vanderbilts and J.P. Morgan, were capable of fully exploiting the natural resources of the country. Carnegie became the “steel king”, Rockefeller made millions on oil, the Vanderbilts ran the railroads and J.P. Morgan was the banker of bankers. These men combined savvy maneuvers and sometimes questionable business practices in order to gain large sums of money. For instance, the railroads blatantly bought and sold people in public life. They bribed judges and legislatures, employed arm-twisting lobbyists, and elected their own “creatures” to high office.(Bailey) The most notorious action of the robber barons was the formation of the trusts or monopolies. The trusts were formed with the intent to control all the means of production or all of the resources necessary so they could control the price and set it as high as they wanted. There were two ways that the trusts were built: horizontal integration and vertical integration. Rockefeller used horizontal integration in his building of a trust; instead of competing with rival oil firms he simply drove them out of business by lowering prices. Carnegie instituted vertical integration by controlling every

3 step from the mining of the iron ore, to the railroads that shipped it, to the factories that made the steel.(Bailey) But if the captains of industry were known for their ruthless business practices, they, in some instances, were actually beneficial to society or were the motivation for positive change.(Carnegie) For instance Andrew Carnegie founded over two thousand libraries in the United States, Europe and English speaking world in the 19th century. He founded the libraries on the belief that his money should be spent in a way that did not encourage laziness and should instead foster those characteristics which could make some one rich and prosperous. Carnegie also founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York which gave money for the libraries and other endeavors; the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace which focuses on issues concerning war and peace; the Carnegie Institution of Washington is a research institution which has, among other things, discovered the expanse of the universe, proved DNA is the genetic material, devised applications as varied as radar and hybrid corn, and opened Mayan ruins in Central America.; the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching which provided pensions for teachers, established standards for nations colleges and universities; and the Carnegie Hero Funds which gives medals and money to those who are injured in an attempt to “preserve and rescue their fellows.”(Philanthropy) Andrew Carnegie is not the only philanthropist to come out of the Gilded Age but his contributions have been the most enduring and well known. Andrew Carnegie and the other captains of industry did try to help others and make society a better place, but their greatest impact on society is that through their actions they brought about a pivotal decision regarding American political thought. They helped Americans decide whether

4 they wished to pursue and ideology of laissez-faire economics or one of government intervention. The philanthropic work done by these men has not had as great an affect on American society and politics as has the legislation enacted against their trusts. At first the people of the U.S. tried to fight the trusts at state level but failed due to the corruptibility of the legislatures. They then took their case to Congress and eventually the Sherman Antitrust Act was signed. The Sherman Antitrust Act simply forbade the “combination in the form of trusts or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade.”(Bailey) The ambiguity of the act, which was used against labor unions, initially had a very limited affect on the trusts and it wasn’t until the passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act and the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission that the federal government had the teeth to go after the trusts. By destroying much of the power of the trusts the federal government moved towards ensuring fair practices between companies and between companies and consumers. The breaking of the trusts also lightened the darkening cloud of plutocracy that was forming over the nation. During the Gilded Age many of the trusts and robber barons exercised more power then most state governments and the federal government. This was because they had bought off many politicians and other influential people. Even though the government was not supposed to interfere in economics, the politicians at the time saw it necessary to destroy the trusts by putting aside the idea of laissez-faire economics and embracing a more hands on government form of economics. The idea of some government intervention which began in this period has become an accepted part of American politics. From Wilson’s further battling of trusts, to the legalization of labor unions and creation of safety standards to FDR’s New Deal, government continues to

5 intervene in economics. The great captains of industry did not by their own design change American political thought; they would probably be upset to see how Americans did not follow the path of laissez-faire and instead embraced government intervention. They simply were the catalysts that brought about a fork in the road which the American people chose. In order to justify their wide-open capitalism, men like Carnegie and Rockefeller looked to theories and other outside influences. They defended their position by crediting God or their own moral uprightness but others based it on the survival of the fittest theory. During the Gilded Age apologists for the robber barons found their justification in Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Charles Darwin was an English biologist who, along with a few ideas from others, developed a biological concept which he put forth in The Origin of Species. Darwin found that all living things, which were obviously related, differed slightly and these differences seemed to be tied in with their ability to survive. Differences, which he called "adaptations," were often related to geographical factors. He also saw that fossils of certain animals resembled their contemporary brethren. There seemed to be an interesting, complex relationship: extinct creatures looked somewhat like contemporary ones but were not in the same phyla. What this seemed to mean to Darwin was biological evolution. Organisms better suited to their environment gained some survival advantage and passed their genetically transmitted advantages to their offspring. (Bowler) Darwin’s theory of evolution led many social scientists, especially Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner, to apply Darwinian Theory to human development, leading to what Spencer called the “survival of the fittest.” They argued

6 that wealth and power were signs of fitness and that mankind benefited from intense competition and removal of the weak and unfit. These theories they used to apologize for the greed and uncouth behavior of many captains of labor. “The millionaires are a product of natural selection,” concluded William Graham Sumner. “They get high wages and live in luxury, but the bargain is a good one for society.” Spencer and Sumner believed that the large discrepancy in wealth was not due to low wages or because of the poor living conditions of the workers. They believed that it was because the workers were of a lower race of men who were not capable of succeeding beyond base level. The wealthy industrialists on the other hand were the prime specimen of the human race because they obviously had the traits suitable for success. Because of this view and because many industrialists had come from the lower ranks to their current position, they refused to donate money directly to the poor, raise the wages of those working for them or improve the working conditions in the factories. They felt by giving the poor money they were only making the problem worse. For instance, Andrew Carnegies establishing of libraries was intended to raise the masses through hard work not by giving them a hand out. In the United States Social Darwinism eventually led to a mild Eugenics program. Based on the same lines as Social Darwinism, Eugenics quickly caught on in the United States, receiving endorsements from Carnegie, Rockefeller and other industrialist. Social Darwinism stated that there are weak races and people in society; Eugenics took that theory a step further by saying that those who are weak should be eliminated from the gene pool either by sterilization, segregation or simple extermination. By 1927, 22 states had eugenics sterilization laws and by 1945 nearly 45,127 eugenic sterilizations had

7 occurred. One of the darkest moments in world history, the Holocaust, was partially assisted by American Eugenicists. In 1925 the Rockefeller Foundation gave $2.5 million to the Psychiatric Institute of Munich, Germany for the study of Eugenics. Germany later performed 375,000 sterilizations between 1933-39 and beginning in 1940 sterilized 70,000 people every 18 months. The next step was the systematic extermination of the Jews in order to keep the blood lines of Germany pure.(Black) Social Darwinism eventually led to what is called Cultural Darwinism. In Cultural Darwinism it is not a persons place in society that is inferior to another it is their entire culture. Cultural Darwinism states that the reason that one nation is more technologically advanced than another and has a higher standard of living is because the more advanced nation’s beliefs and customs are better than those of the less developed. This is not a far step from Social Darwinism because it replaces a social class, which sometimes has its own cultural traits, with a culture. Cultural Darwinism is a force that found a strong voice during the Gilded Age. Initially Cultural Darwinism was used to justify American Imperialism in the Pacific and Latin America. Americans believed that it was their right as a superior people to go abroad and spread their culture to those who they considered backwards. Examples of this can be seen in Hawaii where the government of Queen Liliuokalani was violently overthrown by American settlers and especially in Latin America where the United States intervened over one hundred times in the time period from the Spanish American War to World War II. Cultural Darwinism, which is just a more broad interpretation of Social Darwinism, justified American Imperialism in the late 19th century into the early 20th century. It created much resentment among the peoples of the nations the United States was taking over. This resentment

8 could be seen years later when nationalism would sweep through the ex-colonies riding on a wave of anti-Americanism. The Gilded Age represented a transition period for the United States. It was a time of growth and change for the United States. Thanks to such captains of industry or robber barons as Carnegie and Rockefeller, Americans decided that the best form of economy for the United States was one that had some government intervention, not unrestrained capitalism. The ugly face of Social Darwinism reared its head in the Gilded Age making it hard for many Americans to receive better pay and working conditions from their boss and when they eventually did it was because the government had made the companies pay up. Social Darwinism also found itself expressed in different forms in the period during and shortly after the Gilded Age. The Eugenics programs that swept the nation in the early 20th century and the Cultural Darwinism of American foreign policy both exemplify the expanding of Social Darwinism into other fields of thought. The Gilded Age represented a period of extreme change in how Americans saw themselves and also the world around them.

9 Bibilography

Bailey, Thomas A., Cohen, Lizabeth, Kenedy, David M., The American Pageant, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, Boston 2002

Black, Edwin, Eugenics and the Nazis -- the California connection, S.F. Chronicle http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/offSiteArchive/www.sfgate.com/

Bowler, Peter J., History of Darwinism, British Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/darwin/leghist/bowler.htm

Carnegie, Andrew, The Gospel of Wealth and Other Timely Essays, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1965

Philanthropy 101: The Carnegie Legacy, The American Experience: Andrew Carnegie,

Sumner, William Graham, Social Darwinism, Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1963