A question regarding American History. Please look at it and tell me what you think.?

Question

What early efforts were made to control the new corporate industrial giants [late 1800's] ? Were these effective at all?

Answer 1

Control is not something that was done then. There was no reason. And no one to do the controlling. More should be asked about this. Who did you want to control? What aspects needed controlling? Where did this question even come from?

If you are talking about government control, it has only been the last 30 years we have allowed government to control us.

Answer 2

The late 19th century was known as the "gilded age" and the era of the "robber barons." The economic philosophy was called "laissez faire" where the robber barons always tried to exploit the working class and maximize profits.

I can think of three efforts to restrain the greedy corporations. Some reformers started working on child labor conditions. Eventually this led to the child labor laws. The union movement got started in the late 19th century. Samuel Gompers started what became the AFL/CIO in the 1880s. And finally, the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust (the Big Oil monopoly) was broken up under that law.