chapter 16 history review

Pendleton Civil Service Act

-(1883): Did away with the "spoils system" and made the hiring of federal employees merit based. - first step in establishing a professional civil service and removing officeholding from the hands of political machines. - civil service reform had the unintended result of increasing politicians' dependence on donations from business interests.

labor strikes

-. During the depressions of the 1870s and 1890s, millions of workers lost their jobs or were forced to accept reductions of pay. -most strikes for higher wages and better working conditions failed -employers brought scabs

American Federation of Labor

-1886; founded by Samuel Gompers; sought better wages, hrs, working conditions; skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent.

Dawes Act

-An act that removed Indian land from tribal possesion, redivided it, and distributed it among individual Indian families. Designed to break tribal mentalities and promote individualism. -Indians who accepted the farms and "adopted the habits of civilized life" would become full-fledged American citizens. -proved to be a disaster, leading to the loss of much tribal land and the erosion of Indian cultural traditions

Vertical Integration

-An approach typical of traditional mass production in which a company controls all phases of a highly complex production process. -Carnegie set out to establish a "vertically integrated" steel company—that is, one that controlled every phase of the business from raw materials to transportation, manufac- turing, and distribution. -horizontal = buying out competing companies

Trusts

-Firms or corporations that combine for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices (establishing a monopoly). There are anti-trust laws to prevent these monopolies -affairs of several rival companies are managed by a single director

Sherman Antitrust Act

-First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions -language was so vague that the act proved almost impossible to enforce. Weak as they were, these laws helped to establish the precedent that the national government could regulate the economy to promote the public good.

Social Gospel

-Movement led by Washington Gladden - taught religion and human dignity would help the middle class over come problems of industrialization -insisted that freedom and spiritual self-development required an equalization of wealth and power and that unbridled competition mocked the Christian ideal of brotherhood. -The movement's adherents established missions and relief programs in urban areas that attempted to alleviate poverty, combat child labor, and encourage the construction of better working-class housing. -These developments suggested the existence of widespread dissatis- faction with the "liberty of contract" understanding of freedom.

Social Darwinism

-The application of ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies - particularly as a justification for their imperialist expansion. -The giant industrial corporation had emerged because it was better adapted to its environment than earlier forms of enterprise. To restrict its operations by legislation would reduce society to a more primitive level -poor were essentially responsible for their own fate. -william graham summer - helped to popularize an idea that a "negative" definition of freedom as limited government and an unrestrained free market.

Interstate Commerce Act

-ensure that the rates railroads charged farmers and merchants to transport their goods were "reasonable" and did not offer more favorable treatment to some shippers over others. -first federal agency intended to regulate economic activity, -it lacked the power to establish rates on its own it had little impact on railroad practices.

Haymarket Affair

-incident that made unions, particularly the Knights of Labor, look violent because a bomb exploded during a protest of striking workers. --Inspired by a successful strike by western railroad unions against lines controlled by the powerful financier Jay Gould, workers flooded into the Knights of Labor. -strikers were killed so a peaceful rally was held for them but a bomb was thrown into crowd killing a police. police open fire on ralliers. 8anarchists charged - employers said labor movement was damaged and unamerican prone to violence and controlled by foreigners

Settlement of the Great Plains

-most important impact of the Homestead Act - Most settlers moved west in family groups or as members of immigrant communities, not as lone pioneers. -farming was hard -active intervention from federal government -bonanza farms covered thousands of acres and employed large numbers of agricultural wage workers, family farms still dominated the trans-Mississippi West. -cattle drives -california had migrant workers

Tammany Hall

-political machines like New York's Tweed Ring, which plundered the city of tens of millions of dollars. -william m boss tweed -forged close ties with railroad men and labor unions, -supported by immigrant poor by fashioning a kind of private welfare system that provided food, fuel, and jobs in hard times. -A combination of political reformers and businessmen tired of paying tribute to the ring ousted tweed

labor unions and immigrants

-socialist beliefs were largely confined to immigrants, whose writings, frequently in foreign languages, attracted lit- tle attention.

Westward Expansion

-west had been seen as a place of opportunity for those seeking to improve their condition in life. -people tired to force indians to assimilate -battle of little bighorn, wounded knee

Robber Barons/Captains of Industry

Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price. -their dictatorial attitudes, unscrupulous methods, repressive labor policies, and exercise of power without any democratic control led to fears that they were undermining political and economic freedom.

William M. Tweed

a disgraced American politician who was convicted for stealing millions of dollars from New York City taxpayers through political corruption and died in jail. Tweed was head of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York.