Mechanization+Takes+Command

RCJ: The Gilded Age was a profitable one for Americans that led big businesses, and led to the advancement of America as a force to be reckoned with internationally. But beneath the veneer of wealth and riches were impoverished, overworked, underpaid employees with distrust and distaste for factory owners and businessmen. This wariness led to strikes that demonstrated the negativity the Second Industrial Age brought to the American workforce. The mechanization of factories caused many workers to lose their jobs to the machines that needed no rest and no pay, which led to strikes such as the one held against the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. plant. The police action against a perfectly legal and peaceful protest demonstrated the extent of disconnect between laborers, their employers, and the government; in response, another protest was organized for the following day, advertised in a flier bearing the headline "REVENGE". A violent riot broke out at this retaliative protest, and the outbreak, which led to the deaths of striking workers and police alike, only caused more hatred to brew between the underprivileged that were preyed on by mechanized corporations, and those who ran them. As workers fought against the age of the machines, America charged onwards in its efforts to industrialize- and this would raise many more strikes as the years went on.

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