Credit: Library of Congress
In the late 1800s the shocking inequalities between the huge fortunes of the nation's "captains of industry" and an ever-growing population of impoverished workers drove Americans to grapple with questions about the rights of workers and employers. This 1883 editorial cartoon mocked the claims that plutocrat businessmen were the protectors of American industries by presenting Cyrus Field, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Russell Sage as bloated parasites sitting on bags of "millions," and protective bulwarks resting on the backs industrial workers making only $6 to $11 a week.
