A Political Cartoon By Joseph Keppler - 1204 Words

Post-Civil war United States was a time for political, economic, and social reform as well as management and innovation. Thomas Edison helped to create the use of electric lighting all throughout the United States during this broad time period. Cities bustled with newly received immigrant workers from all across Europe, and still, the influence of monopolies grew to an extreme. National corporations emerged such as U.S steel and Standard Oil with smaller regional corporations still maintaining their fair amount of influence in the United States. The wage gap between rich and poor continued to increase and corruption began to flourish under the mostly uninvolved government in the later 1800’s. Although these emerging corporations influenced the economy and politics quite significantly, they also caused a social riff where people’s opinions on big business changed to reflect negatively on those corporations. Politically, Labor Unions rose to power and much of the anti cor poration and antitrust propaganda was a result from their influence and popularity among laborers. A political cartoon by Joseph Keppler depicts the resentment placed towards monopolies and trusts by personifying those trusts as extremely bloated â€Å"Bosses of the Senate† including â€Å"Coal† â€Å"Standard Oil Trust† â€Å"Steel Beam Trust† and many more (Doc. D). Monopolies were gaining power everyday, and to some, their power superseded that of the real senate, which was a major catalyst for emergence of new political