Chapter 14: A New Industrial Age
Bessemer Process
A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities. IMPROVED STEEL MAKING PROCEDURES.
Transcontinental Railroad
Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west.
Andrew Carnegie
Creates Carnegie Steel. Gets bought out by banker JP Morgan and renamed U.S. Steel. Andrew Carnegie used vertical integration by buying all the steps needed for production. Was a philanthropist. Was one of the "Robber barons" STEEL MAGNATE.
Interstate Commerce Act
Established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) - monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices
John D. Rockefeller
Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
First United States law to limit trusts and big business. Said that any trust that was purposefully restraining interstate trade was illegal. BANNED FORMATION OF TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
Industrial Workers of the World
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, and led several major strikes. Stressed solidarity.
Samuel Gompers
He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers. AFL (American Federation of Labor.)
Alexander Graham Bell
Inventor of the telephone.
Eugene V. Debs
Leader of the American Railway Union, he voted to aid workers in the Pullman strike. He was jailed for six months for disobeying a court order after the strike was over.
Horizontal Integration
Merging of similar companies. Practiced by Carnegie.
Collective Bargaining
Process by which a union representing a group of workers negotiates with management for a contract., Negotiations between representatives of labor unions and management to determine pay and acceptable working conditions.
Edwin L. Drake
Successfully used a steam engine to drill for oil near Titusville, PA. Started an oil boom across Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas
Social Darwinism
The application of ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies - particularly as a justification for their imperialist expansion or business practices. PROMOTES BUSINESS COMPETITION.
American Federation of Labor
The first federation of labor unions in the United States. Founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886.
Mary Harris Jones
United States labor leader (born in Ireland) who helped to found the United Mine Workers. (1830-1930) Also in favor of child labor laws. United Miners Union.
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. MAJOR RAILROAD SCANDAL AND CONGRESSMEN TOOK BRIBES to look the other way.
Knights of Labor
one of the most important American labor organizations of the 19th century, demanded an end to child and convict labor, equal pay for women, a progressive income tax, and the cooperative employer-employee ownership of mines and factories. Failed.
Industrial Workers of the World
supported Socialists, militant unionists and socialists, advocated strikes and sabotaging politics, aimed for an umbrella union similar to Knights of Labor, ideas too radical for socialist cause
Munn vs. Illinois
(1877) Supreme Court ruled that stated could regulate businesses clothed w/ a "public interest" including railroads. Went against "Granger laws" in which farmers wanted to fix max freight rates and warehouse charge against grain elevators
Munn vs. Illinois
1877 Supreme Court decision that allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders. GAVE STATES THE RIGHT TO REGULATE RAILROADS.
