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Richard Pettigrew was a United States Senator during the Gilded Age; a time when the captains of industry gained unprecedented power. His recollections of public service span decades.
Running on an anti-corruption platform and representing South Dakota, Pettigrew was appalled as the wealthy owners of the trusts exerted unhealthy influence on the burgeoning economy of the USA. With controlling interests in land, rail, steel, oil, commodities and labor, the trust owners drove out fair competition and monopolized vast swathes of the U.S. economy. Antitrust laws supported by Pettigrew took decades to materialize; as these memoirs grimly rue, much damage was done in the meanwhile.
To stall the legislation, the trust owners offered colossal campaign contributions and donations to politicians in their states. Under the guise of lobbying, many millions of dollars in bonds plus cash payments and job offers, were handed to Congressional representatives and their families. Yet Senators like Pettigrew struck back against the corruption; the Sherman antitrust laws, the creation of national parks and expansions of federal ownership of assets vital to the national interest put a brake on the Gilded Age.
The final chapters of Pettigrew’s memoirs reflect on world events, and the fate of nations which never muzzled their monopolies and distributed wealth across their economies.
