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Tindall and Shi; Big Business and Organized Labour (Ch 20)

Terms in this set (38)

Agriculture
By 1870, this US industry led the whole American economy and was top in the world
First Industrial Revolution
Started in Great Britain in the late 18th century; this centered around three new developments | coal-powered steam engine, textile machines (spinning thread and weaving cloth), and blast furnaces to produce iron; helped increase the growth of the early American economy.
Second Industrial Revolution
This term refers to the late 18th century industrial movement which was generally focused in the United States and Germany. This, with the movement from domestic systems of production to factory systmes, involved heavy industry and innovations such as mass production. It also revolutionized communication with the Trans-Atlantic wires and the telephone. Unlike the first, this had access in its later years to electrical power
Pacific Railroad Act
In 1862, this act gave aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific ocean, following the northern route through Nebraska as proposed by Douglass, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific would be the two companies to profit from the venture and would finish in 1869.
Southern Pacific Railway
This company, who had absorbed the Central Pacific, in 1882 completed the southern transcontinental railway to St. Louis and New Orleans.
Robber Barrons
The process of running other businesses out of business so that one's own business can prosper; includes Rockefeller and Morgan. The term originated from the greedy money-men who ran the railroads
Credit Mobilier
a joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was involved in a scandal in 1872 in which high government officials were accused of accepting bribes to ignore outrageous prices construction projects for the Union Pacific Railway, which were subsidized nearly in full by the federal government.
Jay Gould
United States financier who gained control of the Erie Canal and who caused a financial panic in 1869 when he attempted to corner the gold market (1836-1892)
Cornelius Vanderbilt
The railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical. This man was one of the few railroad owners to be just and not considered a "Robber Barron"
George Westinghouse
Inventor of the air-brake (1868)
Christopher Shole
Inventer of the typewriter (1867)
Barbed Wire
New invention of the Second Industrial Revolution used to fence in land on the Great Plains, eventually leading to the end of the open frontier.
Alexander Graham Bell
United States inventor (born in Scotland) of the telephone (1847-1922), and owner his namesake telephone company which challenge Western Union and Thomas Edison for dominance in long-distance communication
Thomas Edison
American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures. This man was also the father of his namesake Electric Illuminating Company, which would later become a part of General Electric when George Westinghouse's (Westinghouse Electric Company) company championed better alternating current
John D Rockefeller
an American industrialist and philanthropist. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, this man founded the Standard Oil Company and ran it until he retired in the late 1890s. He kept his stock and as gasoline grew in importance, his wealth soared and he became the world's richest man and first U.S. dollar billionaire, and is often regarded as the richest person in history. This man perfected the practice of artificially lowering prices to drive his competitors out of business
Andrew Carnegie
A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company, US Steel of Pittsburgh, dominated the American steel industry. For all of his wealth, he was bought of in 1901, only 9 years after the founded his company on the Bessemer converter, which was a process that quickly created steel out of pig iron
JP Morgan
Had made a legendary reputation for himself and his Wall Street banking house by financing the reorganization of railroads, insurance companies, and banks, He did not believe that "money power" was dangerous. He also bought out Carnegie's Steel, and became the top Robber Barron of all time, and arguably the most powerful money-man ever
Sears, Roebuck, and Company
a retailer who dominated the mail-order industry and by 1907 had become one of the largest business enterprises in the nation. By this method, anyone anywhere could get nearly anything, opening new domestic markets for industrialists. Its magazine was the second most printed thing after the bible
Child Labour
This type of Labour, while ever present in America at the turn of the century, was controversial, especially in the mining and milling industries. This labourer had his lifespan shorted in half by working in the textile mills
Molly Maguires
members of a secret Irish organization. Many historians believe the this group was present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States from approximately the time of the American Civil War until a series of sensational arrests and trials in the years 1876−1878. Evidence that the this group was responsible for coalfield crimes in the U.S. rests largely upon allegations of one powerful industrialist, and the testimony of Pinkerton detectives. Fellow prisoners also testified against the alleged this group, but some believe these witnesses may have been coerced or bribed. These trials that came as a result of Pinkerton detectives put an end to the Miners' National Association which this group led
The Railroad Strike of 1877
This started on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in response to the cutting of wages for the second time in a year by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O). Striking workers would not allow any of the stock to roll until this second wage cut was revoked. The governor sent in state militia units to restore train service, but the soldiers refused to use force against the strikers and the governor called for federal troops. This began to lose momentum when President Hayes sent federal troops from city to city. These troops suppressed strike after strike, until at last, approximately 45 days after it had started, this ended in failure.
Workingmen's Party of California
(1878) This party was created by Denis Kearney who was an Irish immigrant who opposed Chinese immigration. This party would fail due to Kearney's inability to lead a true revolution, but it did convince Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Chinese Exclusion Act
(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing a few students and merchants to immigrate.
National Labor Union
1866 - established by William Sylvis - wanted an eight hour work days, banking reform, greenbackism, equal rights to all people, and an end to conviction labor. This group attempted to unite all labourers, but collapsed when Sylvis died, and was disbanded in 1872. It was the templet for later unions. In its short time however, it forced to repeal the 1864 Contract Labor Act and the government to adopt an eight hour work day for its own employees
The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor
Founded in 1869, this was the first important national union, and it reached its peek in 1886. It tried to bring together the entire working class, both skilled and unskilled, and form cooperatives in many industries, especially coal. It was unsuccessful, however, due to the many disagreements between skilled and unskilled workers. They succeeded with the establishment of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1884 as well as the Foran Act of 1885 which penalized employers who imported contract labor, and also a 188 that required arbitration in labour disputes
Uriah S Stephens
This man, a Philadelphian tail and mason, founded the Knights of Labor Union.
Terence B Powderly
This man was a highly visible national spokesman for the working man as head of the Knights of Labor from 1879 until 1893. Although the Knights claimed over 600,000 members at its peak in 1886, it was so poorly organized that this man had little power.
Anarchism
a political theory favoring the abolition of governments
Haymarket Affair
An organized Chicago strike by the Knights of Labor (at the square bearing this affair's name) that turned deadly when someone thew a bomb, many protesters were arrested and some were excuted for inciting the riot
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers, this group sought to organize craft unions into a federation. The loose structure of the organization differed from its rival, the Knights of Labor, in that the AFL allowed individual unions to remain autonomous. This group survived by avoiding politics or utopian ideas and just focusing on the economics of Labour
The Homestead Strike
(1892) When Henry Frick of US Steel, determined to weaken the union by forcing through wage reductions in bargaining, failed to agree to terms with The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, he built a fence and hired 300 Pinkerton detectives to protect his newly hired strike breakers. The lock out culminated with a firefight between Unionists and Pinkertons, with 10 dead. Six days afterwards, the Pennsylvanian Governor ended the strike by sending a force of 8,500 to break the unionists
Alexander Berkman
This man ruined the Homestead Strike by attempted to assassinate Henry Frisk, causing sympathy for the strikers to evaporate. Nearly 5 months after the strike began, the strike failed and only 1/5 of the original strikers were hired back at lower wages
Pullman Strike
In Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", Eugene Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars, but by connecting Pullman cars to mail cars via scabs, the Railroad owners were able to put the strike and the American Railway Union in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, as they blocked the service of the mail. Cleveland sent in federal troops and threw Debs into jail. The strike froze the Railroads for May and June of 1894
Mother Jones
United States labor leader (born in Ireland) who helped to found the Industrial Workers of the World (1830-1930)
Daniel De Leon
This man was a leader of the socialist labor party during the 1890s. He believed in military labor activities and created a union. He was also the editor of the Marxist newspaper, People
Eugene Debs
Prominent socialist leader (and five time presidential candidate under the Social Democratic Party which was a remnant of the American Railway Union) who founded the American Railroad Union and led the 1894 Pullman Strike. He led the union in 1921 when it had one congressman, 6% of the popular vote for president, and 33 mayors. The Socialist movement fell out after his death, and the anti-German sentiment after WWI coupled with the emergence of the Communist faction
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Founded in 1905, this radical union, also known as the Wobblies aimed to unite the American working class into one union to promote labor's interests. It worked to organize unskilled and foreign-born laborers, advocated social revolution to run the nation like one giant union, and led several major strikes. Stressed solidarity and was focused geographically in the West (founded in Butte, Montana). Its most successful strike occurred in Lawrence, Massachusettes, but failed miserable later in 1912 at Paterson, New Jersey, which, along with WWI, ended the party's significance
Bill Haywood
a labor leader of the (IWW), refused to accept the wages granted by the War Labor Board and War Industrial Board and urged his workers to strike for better wages. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and eventually moved to Soviet Russia where he was honored on his death by being buried in the Kremlin wall
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