APUSH Chapter 16
Herbert Spencer
"Survival of the fittest"; Social Darwinism between societies and cultures
Laissez-faire
"to let things happen," literally means "let do"; a system of free market economics in which the government doesn't intervene in the market, or intervenes as little as possible; the government practiced laissez-faire economics during the Gilded Age to let the economy grow
Vertical Integration
Andrew Carnegie used this to build his business by controlling every aspect of the steel industry. This process involves the control of all the parts of the production business. It is still legal because it allows other companies to compete in the market
Populist Party
-A.K.A. People's Party is launched in Kansas in 1890
Plessy vs Ferguson
-Court case in 1896 in which the Supreme Court supported the Jim Crow laws -supported segregation as long as there were equal facilities it was constitutional
Social Darwinism
Andrew Carnegie wrote Gospel of Wealth, which advocated social Darwinism, the survival of the fittest in business. Herbert Spencer coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" in applying the evolutionary theory to social institutions.
Invisible hand
-Idea from the Wealth of Nations written by Adam Smith -argued business should not be regulated by the government but by the "invisible hand" of the law of supply and demand
Identify the causes of industrial growth
-an abundance of resources(coal, iron ore, copper, timber) -abundant labor supply -abundant of capital -labor saving technologies -friendly government polices -entrepreneurs
Gospel of Wealth
Book written by Andrew Carnegie, advocated Social Darwinism, or survival of the fittest in business
New Women
-came from the Women's club Sorosis -a women who was athletic, self-confident, young and independent
sharecropping
-developed as an answer to the economic situation in the South -workers would work the land in return for some of the profit
John Rockefeller
-involved in the oil industry -used horizontal integration to build his business controlled all of one segment of the oil business
Andrew Carnegie
-made his millions in the steel industry -used vertical integration to build his business controlled every aspect of the steel industry
philanthropy
-promoted by the Gospel of Wealth -the rich have a duty to help out society with their wealth -the Captains of Industry gave millions to charity -example: Carnegie Hall
Jim Crow Laws
-supported segregation as long as there were equal facilities it was constitutional -Plessy v. Ferguson
Adam Smith
A Scottish moral philosopher, pioneer of the political economy, and a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment
Holding Company
A company that doesn't produce anything but owns the stock of companies that do
Wealth of Nations
-written by Adam Smith -argued business should not be regulated by the government but by the "invisible hand" of the law of supply and demand
Pacific Railway Act
1862 law that gave lands to railroad companies to develop a line linking the East and West Coasts
Chinese Exclusion Act
1882 law that barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States
Haymarket Riot
1886 labor-related protest in Chicago which ended in deadly violence
George Westinghouse
An american entrepreneruer and engineer who invented the railroad and the air brake and transformers for producing high voltage currents
Second Industrial Revolution
After the Civil War, this resulted in the growth of large-scale industry and the production of steel, petroleum, and electric power. America became the leading industrial nation in the world. Captains of Industry/Robber barons emerged, and the standard of living increased along with the connectivity of the markets and increase in communication and consumer goods.
Robber Barons
Alternative name for the "Captains of Industry," used by those who viewed them as thieves who lauded their money over the people
Jay Gould
American railroad executive, financier, and speculator, an important railroad developer who was one of the most unscrupulous "robber barons" of 19th-century American capitalism. He was involved in the "Black Friday" Gold market scandal during the Grant Administration. He ran a railroad and competed with Vanderbilt, and was involved with Boss Tweed. He also owned Union Pacific Railroad stock.
Panic of 1893
Caused the collapse of railroad overbuilding and caused bank failures
corporations
Companies that are treated like one person rather than a group
Lint head
Derogatory term for someone who works in a cotton mill, southern lower-class white person
American Railroad Association
Divided the nation into four time zones to keep railroad schedules coordinated
Interstate Commerce Act
Established the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first regulatory agency, which regulated railroads
Henry Grady
Editor of the Atlanta Constitution who proclaimed that a New South had emerged due to new technology
The Great Railroad Strike
First general strike in American history. Started with the B&O Railroad, railroad workers across the country walked off the job
Gustavus Swift
He founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late nineteenth century, over which he presided until his death. He is credited with the development of the first practical ice-cooled railroad car
Horizontal Integration
John Rockefeller used this to build his business by controlling all of one segment of the oil business. It involved controlling several smaller companies within the same industry and buying out or destroying all the competition so that it controls one whole sector of the manufacturing of a product through a giant monopoly. It is illegal today through the creation of antitrust legislation.
Standard Oil
John Rockefeller's company in the oil industry that used horizontal integration to build his business. He controlled all of one segment of the oil business.
Samuel Morse
Invented the telegraph
Alexander Graham Bell
Invented the telephone
Thomas Edison
Inventor of lightbulb, phonograph and numerous other innovations
US Steel
J. P. Morgan founded U.S. Steel on March 2, 1901 by combining Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company with Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company for $492 million ($14.47 billion today). At one time, U.S. Steel was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world. It was the world's first billion-dollar corporation.
Great Northern Railroad
James J. Hill established and ran this Railroad without any government land grants. It became the most successful transcontinental railroad.
Iron Law of Wages
Knights of Labor
Terence Powderly
Knights of Labor was a second national labor union that began as a secret order to avoid detection. He was their leader, and the reforms he advocated were to create worker cooperatives that make each man his own employer, abolish child labor, abolish trusts and monopolies, and settle disputes through arbitration with a third party.
Lockouts
Labor-management workplace action where management refuses to allow labor to work
Gilded Age
Late 1800s to Early 1900s - time of large increase in wealth caused by industrialization
Samuel Gompers
Led the American Federation of Labor (AF of L / AFL), which just focused on higher wages and better working conditions. By 1901 it was the largest labor union in the nation.
blacklists
Lists of pro-union workers given to managements of companies so they would know who not to hire
R.C. Macy
Made the large department store the place to shop
NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Black critics like W. E. B. DuBois accused Booker T. Washington of playing into the hands of white supremacists by accepting segregation as a temporary accommodation between the two races, so he founded this association.
Pittsburgh of the South
Nickname for Birmingham, Alabama, because it became the leading source of the textile industry in the South
Wobblies
Nickname for the Industrial Workers of the World union force; wanted to organize all workers w/o distinction between skilled and unskilled
Entrepreneurs
People who risk money in order to make more money; known as Robber Barons or Captains of Industry, depending on how you viewed them; caused massive economic growth in the Gilded Age
white collar workers
Salaried workers for corporations whose jobs did not require manual labor
Segregation
Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences.
B&O Railroad
The Great Railroad Strike started with this Railroad, when railroad workers across the country walked off the job after their wages were cut. It was the first successful railroad.
Economies of scale
The cost of manufacturing is decreased by producing goods quickly in large quantities
Who were the critics of the American economic system during the Gilded Age? What were their criticisms? What did they propose?
The critics were the working class, women, and African Americans who were disadvantaged by the systems. They criticized it because the wealth was concentrated in the hands of the few and they were paid low wages. They proposed antitrust acts to keep monopolies from forming, and many formed unions such as the National Labor Union, Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor, and Industrial Workers of the World. They proposed higher wages, a shorter workday, equal rights, better working conditions, an end to child labor, and settling disputes by arbitration. They would strike if they did not get their way. Also, small businesses were put out of business by monopolies, so they proposed changes. Also, Africans Americans like Booker T. Washington accepted segregation as freedmen worked their ways up in the world and formed the Tuskegee Institute to help them achieve this, but W.E.B. DuBois formed the NAACP in response to segregation and inequality.
Industrialism
The development of industries for the machine production of goods.
scapegoats
The economic conditions in the south caused frustrations and bitterness in which blacks became the __________ for white rage
American Federation of Labor
The first federation of labor unions in the United States. Founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886.
J.P. Morgan
The richest of the Captains of Industry/Robber barons. An influential banker and businessman who bought and reorganized companies. His US Steel company would buy Carnegie steel and become the largest business in the world in 1901.
Standard time
The time zones devised by railroad companies
Yellow Dog Contracts
These were agreements that employers forced workers to sign where workers pledged not join a union.
Disenfranchised
To deprive someone the right to vote
wage earners
Two thirds of Americans by 1900 and worked lots of hours. Unstable workforce impacted by immigration. 10/6 work shifts.
consumer economy
With the increase in production as well as the invention of new consumer products, there came a need to find new ways to sell merchandise to the public
Ida B. Wells
activist who launched nationwide campaigns against lynching
David Ricardo
famous economist who created the "iron law of wages" and believed wages should be kept low. He was a British stock broker. His law theorized that there was an eternal cycle in which higher wages resulted in larger families, followed by increased competition for jobs and an inevitable drop in wages.
W.E.B. DuBois
black leader who advocated more aggressive action from blacks and criticized Booker T. Washington's stances; founded the NAACP
Booker T. Washington
black leader who emerged in 1895; accepted segregation as a temporary accommodation between the races and believed whites would accept blacks and support their reform efforts if they became educated and adjusted to society
Frank Woolworth
entrepreneur who made the Five and Ten Cent Store a nationwide chain
James Hill
established and ran the Great Northern Railroad without any government land grants
standard gauge
the uniform width of 4 feet, 8.5 inches for railroad tracks, adopted during the 1880s
George Eastman
invented the Kodak camera
Cyrus Field
laid 1st transatlantic cable in 1866 with Morse code.
captains of industry
view of the industrialists as ingenious and industrious men who transformed the American economy with their business skills (positive view of industrialism). Examples are Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan, and Rockefeller. They believed in philanthropy and using their money to benefit society by giving money to charity (Carnegie Hall). Some were worth 2 to 300 billion dollars in today's money.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
made millions in the railroad industry
truck lines
major railroads during the Industrial Age of American that usually went from east to west all the way across the country
Promontory Point
marks the point where the transcontinental railroad system was completed. In Utah
Define, describe, and evaluate the robber barons.
men who acquired wealth unethically
Mark Twain
named the post Civil War era The Gilded Age
Grange laws
passed by Midwestern states to help out the farmers, promoted primarily by a group of farmers known as the Grange
Sherman Antitrust Act
passed by President Benjamin Harrison, it attempted to break up the trusts and monopolies and did not have much teeth. The United States v E.C. Knight Co decided that the Act only applied to commerce, not manufacturing.
wages of whiteness
racial superiority among southern whites
Interlocking Directorates
refers to the practice of members of a corporate board of directors serving on the boards of multiple corporations. A person that sits on multiple boards is known as a multiple director. Two firms have a direct interlock if a director or executive of one firm is also a director of the other, and an indirect interlock if a director of each sits on the board of a third firm. This practice, although widespread and lawful, raises questions about the quality and independence of board decisions. It is often involved in the creation of monopolies. They become illegal if they violate Antitrust Acts by linking together companies in the same industry to form horizontal integration.
US v E.C. Knight Co
the Sherman Antitrust Act only applied to commerce not manufacturing
Eugene Debs
was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States
National Labor Union
was the first labor federation in the United States, founded 1866 and dissolved 1873
Horatio Alger
writer who gave hope to many with his "rags to riches" novels; the classic example of which was Andrew Carnegie