Laissez-faire DBQ

The railroad companies were becoming a very successful business during the 1865-1900 time period. Much of their success was attributed to the laissez-faire economic system. However, there were numerous accounts of the government acting in the railroad industry, trying to limit certain aspects of the companies, directly contradicting the laissez-faire idea. Document E is an example of this, where they try to set a price for the railroad industry, by calling for a “fair rate”. Although this is not a clear-cut standard set for the industry, it is still a standard. Document G is another instance of such violations. It goes into detail, exposing the bonds, g

rants, and money distributed by the government to various railroad companies, resulting in the citizens having to pay higher taxes. Document D is a data presentation of the mass amounts of land granted to the railroad companies by the government, totaling 131.5 million acres. Finally, Document I shows the violations of laissez-faire. It explains that the railroad companies did not follow laws regulated by the government, but instead ignored them. As you can see, the idea of laissez-faire was not as closely followed as intended.

During the late 1800’s trusts had been a growing trend, which eventually led to great amounts of power in the hands of a few people and also the corruption of the government. Many laws and acts were created to help with the regulation of trusts; along with them was the Sherman Antitrust Act. Although the Sherman Antitrust Act went against laissez-faire it had little effect on how businesses were run. During this era, many of the people holding trusts had many of the people in Congress under their control, which created opened many opportunities to get around the acts. This idea is shown in Document M. The comic shows how congress

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