Chapter 16: Reading/Study Guide Terms Review

Haymarket Bombing

1886, conflict in which both workers and policemen were killed during an Knights of Labor workers strike in Chicago in the Haymarket district. The Knights of Labor had organized a strike for an eight-hour workday, and the strike had drawn a large crowd of onlookers as well as police. The violence began when an unknown person threw a bomb into the ranks of police at the gathering. The incident created a backlash against labor activism in general, but specifically against the Knights of Labor, who were blamed for the violence. It is estimated that approximately eleven people died including seven policemen and an unconfirmed number of civilians. Chicago newspapers incited the public against the Knights of Labor by publishing the police version of the Haymarket incident and stirring sympathy for them. This ultimately cost the Knights of Labor their popularity and power within the US.

Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was a Scottish-born immigrant, industrialist, and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. His entrepreneurial ventures in America's steel industry made him one of Americans first self-made millionaires. The methods he employed that made him an innovative businessman were underselling the competition and Horizontal integration. He is a perfect example of Social Darwinism during the Gilded Age. Once his company grew in success, Carnegie argued that the wealthy had an obligation to give back to the poor through the Gospel of Wealth, and made great contributions to social causes such as public libraries, education and international peace. Andrew Carnegie was one of the most contradictory of the robber barons: he supported workers' rights, but opposed and often destroyed unions; and when he acquired the largest fortune in US history, he tried to give it away.

Merger movement

Between 1895 and 1904 a great wave of mergers swept through the manufacturing sector. Nothing like it had ever been seen before, or has been seen since. The Great Merger Movement was an effort to integrate smaller businesses into single, giant corporations in an effort to eliminate competition, achieve economic order, and boost profits. The movement resulted in more than 1,800 businesses disappearing into consolidated corporations, which together represented 20% of the GDP. When J.P. Morgan bought out Andrew Carnegie's steel company in 1901 - US Steel, it became the first billion dollar economic enterprise.

Eugene V. Debs

Eugene V. Debs was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Debs had become president of the American Railway Union when it won national prominence by conducting a successful strike against the Great Northern Railway Company in April 1894. He gained greater renown when he was sentenced to six months in jail in 1895 for his role in leading the Chicago Pullman Palace Car Company strike .

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Founded by Samuel Gompers, the union arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor. After the disastrous Haymarket Bombing in 1886, that same year, Samuel Gompers helped found the American Federation of Labor. The AFL was a new kind of workers' organization, which only allowed skilled workers to be members. The AFL promoted 3 simple things for all workers: 1. better pay 2. better working hours 3. better working conditions By keeping it simple, unions could avoid the pitfalls that had drawn the life from the National Labor Union and the Knights of Labor. They also made sure that they avoided politics and violent strikes. With this strategy, the AFL scored major workplace improvements, such as when an AFL-affiliated cigar makers' union fought successfully in 1890 for the establishment of an 8-hour day. Until then, the 10-hour day was commonplace. Creating an 8 hour work-day was seen as a major accomplished for all laborers. The AFL still exists to this day.

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism is the application of Darwin's theory of natural selection to society- specifically in economics and business in America. Social Darwinism was embraced by the nation's wealthy upper class in the late 1800s to justify their accumulation of wealth and power. The theory held that due to natural selection, the most intelligent, industrious, and productive people would grow wealthy and survive while the uneducated and lazy would remain poor and die off. This justification of wealth accumulation by upper-class society, as well as laissez-faire policies by the government, led to the creation of powerful monopolies and trusts that dominated the economic and political landscapes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 started on July 14 in West Virginia, in response to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) cutting wages of workers for the third time in a year. Striking workers would not allow any of the trains, mainly freight trains, to roll until this third wage cut was revoked. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the strike (example of how government always sided with employers over workers in the Gilded Age). The worst railroad violence was in Pittsburgh, with over 40 people killed by militia men. More than 100,000 workers participated in the Strike, at the height of which more than half the freight on the country's tracks had come to a halt. By the time the strikes were over, about 1,000 people had gone to jail and some 100 had been killed. In the end the strike accomplished very little

Knights of Labor

The Knights of Labor, founded in 1869, was the first major labor organization in the United States. The Knights organized unskilled and skilled workers, campaigned for an eight hour workday, and aspired to form a cooperative society in which laborers owned the industries in which they worked. The Knights were an unusual labor union at the time, as they allowed an open-membership policy extending to unskilled, semiskilled, women, African-Americans, immigrant. They also took measures to protect children in the workplace. Their goal was to create a cooperative society between in which labors owned the industries in which they worked. They asserted that labor produced value in person, and laborers should never be as ashamed about their type of employment. When a bomb explosion at a workers' rally in Haymarket Square May 4 triggered a national wave of arrests and repression, labor activism of every kind suffered a setback, and the Knights were particularly-though unfairly-singled out for blame. By 1890, the membership had fallen to 100,000.

Pullman Strike

The economic depression of 1893 set the conditions for the Pullman Strike of 1894. When the Pullman railroad car company laid off workers and slashed their wages, the American Railway Union led a national strike that shut down the country's railroad system. In Chicago, the Pullman company cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town," causing severe economic hardships for the Pullman workers. The event pitted the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company,when Eugene Debs had the American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars. The strike and boycott shut down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit, Michigan. The massive strike changed how Americans viewed relationship of workers, management, and the federal government

Populist Party

U.S. political party formed in 1892, representing mainly farmers in the Mid-West. They favored free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other monopolies and a graduated income tax. Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against "the elite". As such, the Populist Party focused on helping rural and working-class Americans. They also made it so that farmers would only work 8 hours instead of 10 or more. In the 1892 presidential election, the Populist Party had gained enough support to nominate their own candidate for president, James Weaver.