The Gilded Age (Ch. 16) Terms

The Interstate Commerce Act

An 1887 US federal law, designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates.

bonanza farming

John Wesley Powell, who surveyed the Middle Border in the 1870s, warned that because of the regions arid and limited rainfall, development there required large-scale irrigation projects. Covered thousands of acres & employed large numbers of agricultural wage workers

Battle of the Little Bighorn

June 1876 - General George Custer and his entire command of 250 men perished. The Sioux and Cheyenne Warriors were defending tribal land in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory, reserved for them in 1868.

The Populist Party

(peoples party) a short-lived political party in the United States that historians agree was on the left wing of American politics. It was highly critical of capitalism, especially banks and railroads, and allied itself with the labor movement.

Crédit Mobiler Scandal

1872-1873 damaged the careers of several Gilded Age politicians. Major stockholders in the Union Pacific Railroad formed a company, the Crédit Mobilier of America, and gave it contracts to build the railroad. They sold or gave shares in this construction to influential congressmen

The great depression

1873-1897

knights of labor

1880s - first group to try to organize unskilled workers as well as skilled, women alongside men, and blacks as well as whites

Elk v. Wilkins

1884 - the US supreme court said that citizenship rights guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments did not apply to Indians. Even though John Elk left his tribe & lived w/ white settlers, the court questioned whether any Indian had achieved the degree of "civilization" required by American citizens.

Haymarket affair

1885- the iron boulders union organized a strike against a wage reduction at the McCormick plant in Chicago. Fearing chaos, mayor & business leaders persuaded the company to settle on the unions terms. But Feb 1886, after company installed new machinery & dependence on iron moulder's reduced - announced factory would operate on a nonunion basis. Result was strike. City gov sided w/ company. May 3, 1886- 4 strikers were killed by police when they attempted to prevent strikebreakers from entering the factory. Next day, rally held in Haymarket square to protest the killings, someone threw a bomb into the crowd, killing a police. Startled police shot several bystanders. Even though very weak evidence - jury convicted the "Haymarket martyrs"

interstate commerce commission

1887, law designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. Required that railroad states be "reasonable and just", but did not empower the government to fix specific rates; Established by Congress in 1887, in response to public outcries against railroad practices. Established to ensure that the rates railroads charged farmers and merchants to transport their goods were "reasonable" and didn't offer more favorable treatment to some shippers over others. First federal agency intended to regulate economic activity, but since it lacked the power to establish rates on its own -it could only sue companies in court- it had little impact on railroad practices.

Civil Service Act (Pendleton Act)

A US federal law, enacted in 1883, which established that positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political affiliation.

social darwinism

After Charles Darwin, published "On the origin of species" in 1859. The idea of natural superiority of some groups to others. Evolution was as natural a process in human society as in nature, and government must not interfere. Terms like natural selection, the struggle for existence, and the survival of the fittest

Henry George

American political economist, journalist, and philosopher. Is famous for popularizing the idea that land/resource rents be captured for public use or shared, in lieu of harmful taxes on labor and productive investment.is best remembered as a proponent of the "single tax" on land. The government should finance all of its projects, he argued, with proceeds from only one tax. This single tax would be on the unimproved value of land—the value that the land would have if it were in its natural state

the significance of the frontier in american history

Celebrated lecture by Jackson Turner in 1893, in which he argued that on the western frontier the distinctive qualities of American culture were forged: individual freedom, political democracy, & economic mobility

Laurence Gronlund

Danish-born American lawyer, writer, lecturer, and political activist. Is best remembered for his pioneering work in adapting the International Socialism of Karl Marx

patrons of husbandry

Founded in 1867 - AKA the Grange, critics of the railroads who came together, which moved to establish cooperatives for storing and marketing farm output in the hopes of forcing the carriers "to take our produce at a fair price". Members called on state governments to establish fair freight rates and warehouse charges

liberty of contract

Growing influence of Social Darwinism - negative definition of freedom as limited gov. & an unrestrained free market. Labor contracts reconciled freedom and authority in the workplace. So long as labor relations were governed by contracts freely arrived at by independent individuals, neither the gov. nor unions had a right to interfere w/ working conditions, & Americans had no grounds to complain a loss of freedom.

Dawes act

In 1887 - the act broke up the land of nearly all tribes into small parcels to be distributed to Indian families, w/ the remainder auctioned off to white purchasers.

Sherman antitrust act

Passed by congress in 1890- banned all combinations and practices that restrained free trade

Homestead Act

Signed into law by Lincoln May 20, 1862, it encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land. In exchange, people paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land.

social gospel

They insisted that freedom and spiritual self-development required an equalization of wealth & power & that unbridled competition mocked the Christian ideal of brotherhood. Originated as an effort to reform Protestant churches by expanding their appeal in poor urban neighborhoods and making them more attentive to the era's social ills. ADD MORE (pg 631-32)

ghost dance

a religious revitalization campaign reminiscent of the pan-indian movements led by earlier prophets. Its leaders foretold a day when whites disappear, the buffalo would return, & Indians could once again practice their ancestral customs "free from misery, death, and disease"

Whiskey Ring

a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. Began in St. Louis but was also organized in Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Peoria. Soon after the Civil War taxes were raised to very high levels. Large distillers bribed government officials in order to retain the tax proceeds. A public scandal, but it was considered impregnable because of its strong political connections.

Edward Bellamy

an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, His vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of at least 165 "Nationalist Clubs" dedicated to the propagation of his political ideas and working to make them a practical reality.

horizontal expansion

buying out competing companies

vertical integration

controls every phase of the business from raw materials, to transportation, manufacturing, and distribution

Massacre at wounded knee

during the 1890 congressional elections Democrats had accused Republicans of mismanaging Indian affairs and Republican s responded that Indians were barbarians who posed a danger to white settlers. Dec 29, 1890 - soldiers opened fire on Ghost Dancers encamped near wounded knee creek in S. Dakota, killing between 150&200 indians, mostly women & children.

captains of industry v. robber barons

energy and vision pushed the economy forward v. wielded power w/o any accountability in an unregulated marketplace/big business men robbing a big portion of American people

John D. Rockefeller

founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. Began w/ horizontal expansion. Soon established a vertically integrated monopoly. By 1880s the company owned more than 90% of America's oil refineries. Also gave much of his fortune away. Bitterly fought employees' efforts to organize unions

trusts

legal devices whereby the affairs of several rival companies were managed by a single director

The gilded age

period of american history from 1870-1890 after the title of an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

standard gauge

railroads adopted in 1886 - distance separating the two rails. Made it possible for trains of one company to travel on other company's tracks

Andrew Carnegie

revolutionized the steel industry w/ a new, efficient way of turning iron to steel. Came to America w/ his poor Scottish parents when he was 12. After JP Morgan bought his company, he gave away most his money to schools, artists, and foundations. Bitterly fought employees' efforts to organize unions.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

scandal of 1872 involved the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier of America construction company in the building of the eastern portion of the first Transcontinental Railroad; In 1872 during Grant's presidency. A corporation formed by an inner ring of Union Pacific Railroad stockholders to oversee the lines government-assisted construction. Essentially, it enabled the participants to sign contracts w/ themselves, at an exorbitant profit, to build the new line.

gospel of wealth

the idea that those who accumulated money had an obligation to use it to promote the advancement of society, Andrew Carnegie promoted this idea.