Rule and Misrule in the Cities Critics and Challenges Political Machines General characteristics Boss Tweed The Tweed Ring fraud and corruption accomplishments Other Centers of Power Mayors Experts State governments Divided Rule Successes enlargement of municipal services creation of physical infrastructure debt reduction Failures private property regulation meeting the material needs of the poor Statehouses and Legislatures State Activism Regulation of financial and transportation sectors Aiding agriculture Social reforms Prohibition and "local option" Massachusetts and Unemployment Investigation of the problem Response Characteristics of State Politics Strong party organizations in some states High voter turnout Strong party allegiances The South Less activism The politics of race fiercely contested elections through the 1880s legal disfranchisement The Politics of Insurgency Labor Uniting National Unions National Labor Union Knights of Labor American Federation of Labor Politics and Strikes political parties Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Haymarket Square bombing Pullman Strike Women’s Suffrage Setbacks during Reconstruction National women’s suffrage organizations Ideological sources of resistance to women’s suffrage harmful to women and family life declining faith in democracy Shifting arguments in favor of women’s suffrage Impact of the movement during the Gilded Age Farmers and Their Discontents Discontents The Grange Farmers’ Alliances agenda 1890 political campaign The Nation State Parties and Issues Regional and class constituencies Issues the tariff civil service reform the money question regulating business the South and the nation Presidential Politics, 1877–1892 Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur Cleveland and Harrison The People’s Party and the Election of 1892 The Omaha Platform Challenges facing the People’s Party Populist successes The Crisis of the 1890s The depression of 1893 Cleveland’s response Midterm elections of 1894 The Election of 1896 Republicans nominate William McKinley Democrats nominate William Jennings Bryan Populists opt for "fusion" The campaign Reasons for Bryan’s defeat Impact of Bryan’s defeat The Conservative Courts Makeup of the Federal Courts Laissez-Faire Constitutionalism Labor law Government regulation The New Political Universe Single-Party Dominance Decline in Participation Declining Visibility of Third Parties