The years following the war marked an era of extraordinary industrial and commercial activity. Inventive genius was taxed to provide machinery and the power necessary to operate it in factory, mill and mine. Manufacturing developed at an enormous rate. The railroads were penetrating the great west and the population spread over the vast domain.
Then came the symptoms of congestion, the glutted markets and the clogging of productive machinery.
The “good times” had come to a sudden end; factories and workshops closed down; railroads reduced wages and discharged thousands.
The country swarmed with unemployed workingmen; everybody was ominously discussing the “panic” and the “hard times.”
Discontent was brewing and strikes were threatened by the idle workers.
The railroad strikes and many others broke out in the financial crisis of 1873.
It was a period of financial bankruptcy, industrial stagnation and general gloom.
The sheriff’s hammer was heard everywhere beating the dolorous funeral marches of departed prosperity.
It was during this panic that the “tramp” era was inaugurated in the United States and the tramp became a recognized factor in our social life.
The trades-union movement had organized rapidly during the years of industrial prosperity. Many of the trades had formed national organizations and when the crash came, the strikes followed in rapid order.