Jeff ShafferMr. AkersEnglish 25/32/14The Gilded AgeLook at our society today, would it be the same if it wasn't for the Gilded Age?? The Golden Age led to many things that people still benefit from today. The Gilded Age was a time of economic growth, especially in the North and West. Millions of European immigrants were attracted to the United States. European wages, especially for skilled workers, were much lower than in America. Wages in the United States have grown at a very rapid rate and have continued to rise. Increasing industrialization means a growing workforce. However, despite the increase in jobs, the Gilded Age was also an era of poverty as very poor European immigrants moved to the United States. The main industry was the railways, but trade unions, mining and the industrial system also increased in importance. A major nationwide depression, known as the Panic of 1893, stunted growth. The South was economically devastated; its economy was linked to the production of tobacco and cotton, which suffered low prices. African Americans in the South lost the right to vote. The political outcome was remarkable despite some corruption, the elections between the equal parties were close and the voter turnout was very high. The larger issues were economic: tariffs and the money supply, and cultural: specifically including Prohibition, racial and ethnic groups, and education. Before the Gilded Age, life in the United States was tremendously different. John D. Rockerfeller founded the Standard Oil Company. The Fifteenth Amendment was passed giving African Americans the right to vote. The first baseball league “The National Association” was founded. The Chicago Fire of 1871 caused $196 million in damage and burned... half the paper... Republicans insisted on high wages and warned that European factories would flood the American market. Overall, the Democratic and Republican policy platforms remained constant in the years before 1900. Democrats favored other policies of laissez-faire, hard money, and free trade, Republicans generally favored inflationary and protectionist policies. Immigration to the United States in the Gilded Age brought approximately 10 million immigrants to the United States in what is known as the New Immigration. Many of the immigrants were poor farmers who came to the United States for the “American Dream” by performing unskilled manual labor in mills, mines, and factories. The “New Immigration” is made up of very poor farmers and rural populations from southern and eastern Europe. Push factors included anti-Semitism, economic crisis and land shortages. The pull factors were i