I know my sourcing is bad, so any advice would be appreciated
This is for the 2025 2nd DBQ, I would link but Reddit will flag it
As the 19th century came to a close, the United States was rapidly industrializing, greatly affecting the standard of living and ways of life within American society. Although this industrialization often brought a stable wage to the average American, working conditions, low wages, monopolies, and other issues were beginning to expose the reality of the big-business grip on the economy, sparking protests and anti-business legislation. Economic changes such as the growth of big business, a growing poor-rich divide, and industrial political leadership influenced United States society to a large extent. These changes provoked society into progressive political parties, deepened class divides, and political movements against big business.
The growing power of big business in the late 20th century provoked distaste among the lower-class US citizens who were harmed by these corporations. In a book titled The History of Standard Oil by Ida Tarbell, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company was exposed as being greedy due to its buying of nearly all smaller oil corporations. This fueled public distaste towards trusts such as Standard Oil, and contributed to the formation of a progressive movement that would shape early 20th century elections and policies. These growing sentiments are reflected in Charles Lewis Bartholomew’s 1903 cartoon depicting President Roosevelt attempting to “tame” the trusts through anti-trust laws (Doc. 7). President Theadore Roosevelt, driven by public disapproval–especially from the lower class who were harmed by the trust system’s overtaking of their competition–broke down multitudes of trusts through laws such as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This further mobilized the lower class into advocating for the Republican officials and policies. As a whole, the growing power of big business and trusts greatly changed societal attitudes towards these corporations and shaped policies to act against them.
A growing rich-poor divide also worked to further deepen the class divide within United States society. Journalist and politician Henry George, in an article about industrial depressions, reveals that an increase in productive power deepens poverty (Doc 2.). Due to the increase in power and economic control of large corporations, wage earners in turn have less political power and economic independence from their employers. These ideas reveal the deepening class divides and provoke fear among wage-earners of their weakening financial and political situation. Lucy Parsons, an industrial activist, aims to further the cause of the reformation movement against the growing class divide by mobilizing wage earners who will be deeply affected. She appeals to them in an 1886 Missouri newspaper (Doc. 3) by revealing that if the middle class continues to become non-existent, the rich and poor will then “find themselves arrayed against each other; a struggle in the revolutionary stage will come, and the order of things in the world will be changed by the people themselves.” Parsons is trying to communicate that the wage system and the growing economic power of the monopolies will deepen the grievances of those who are not in the upper-class, and therefore calls wage-earners to step forward against the current system. These sentiments reveal the lower and middle class society’s disapproval of the industrial economy and wage earning, and contribute to further trust-busting, support for workers unions, and industrial political power reforms in the early 20th century.
In contrast, advocates for the economic growth of big businesses often justified it through the cause that it would be of benefit to all of society. Former president Benjamin Harrisson wished to protect big businesses, as he believed it was for the good of all classes and American peoples. In his speech where he supports Republican candidates who would uphold these ideals, he appeals to the voters by questioning “why it was an offense against society or country for a man
to build a [factory] and give employment to men and women at decent wages inside of it” (Doc. 4). By recognizing that these large industries provided employment to men for stable wages, he was able to garner support for the Republican cause. His sentiments contrast to the increasingly anti-big-business motives that were sweeping American society in the later 19th century, and also contributed to Republican officials largely protecting these corporations.
As a whole the economic growth sparked by Industries provided large corperations a growth in political power, stimulating further disapproval of big businesses within American society and therefore fostered legislation that limited this power.