US History Ch 5

What were the 3 main goals of the AFL?

1. To convince companies to recognize unions and to agree to collective bargaining. 2. Pushed for closed shops, meaning that companies could only hire union members. 3. Promoted an eight-hour workday.

What is an entrepreneur?

A person who organizes, manages, and takes on the risks of a business.

What was the Homestead Strike?

A strike to demand higher wages from the Carnegie Steel Company

What did George Westinghouse invent?

Air brake system for railroads

What is a corporation?

An organization owned by many people but treated by law as though it were one person.

Who was the most successful railroad consolidator?

Cornelius Vanderbilt

What are industrial unions?

Industrial Unions represent workers in the same industry.

Who was Thomas Edison?

Inventor of the light bulb

Who was Alexander Graham Bell?

Inventor of the telephone

The government gave _____ ______ to many railroad companies to raise money to build railroads

Land grants

The South's beliefs on the government being involved in the economy:

Opposed subsidies, favored low tariffs

What was the Credit Mobilier Scandal?

Railroad companies unjustly sold government land to farmers and paid politicians to let them do so

What is stock?

Shares of ownership

What is economies of scale?

The cost per unit of output is cheaper at mass production

To make rail service safer and more reliable, the American Railway Association divided the country into four _____ _______

Time zones

Who were the leaders of the railroads?

Union: Grenville Dodge Central: Leland Stanford

The North's beliefs on the government being involved in the economy:

Wanted high tariffs, supported federal subsidies for companies building roads, canals, and railroads

Two basic types of industrial workers

craft workers and common laborers.

Who was Andrew Carnegie?

led the expansion of the steel industry

What are anarchists?

people who opposed any form of government

What is Gross National Product (GNP)?

the total value of all goods and services that a country produces during a year

What is arbitration?

a process in which a third party helps workers and employers reach an agreement.

What is deflation?

a rise in the value of money

What are pools?

agreements to keep prices at a certain level

What is a trust?

allows one person to manage another person's property.

Who implemented vertical integration?

Andrew Carnegie

What was the Haymarket Riot?

Bomb goes off during demonstration; Americans associated unions with terrorism

Who was James J. Hill?

built and operated the Great Northern Railroad without any federal land grants or subsidies

What is horizontal integration?

combining firms in the same business into one large corporation.

What is a lockout?

company of business locks out everybody "workers" until they accept contract

What is a holding company?

a company whose primary business is owning a controlling share of stock in other companies. The company itself does not produce any thing

What is an injunction?

a court decree ordering the defendant to do or not do a particular thing

Who was Edwin Drake?

Founder of Oil in Pennsylvania with the use of a steam engine

What is the Morrill Tariff?

Greatly increased tariff rates to encourage domestic industry and to foster high wages for industrial workers.

What is an example of horizontal integration?

Heinz and Kraft merged into one company, the deal valued at $46 Billion.

What was the Great Railroad Strike?

In Martinsburg, West Virginia, workers walked off the job and blocked the tracks. The strike eventually involved 80,000 railroad workers and affected two-thirds of the nation's railways. Angry strikers smashed equipment, tore up tracks, and blocked rail service

What was the IWW?

Industrial Workers of the World—A radical socialist labor union also known as the wobblies" wanted to organize all workers according to industry, without making distinctions between skilled and unskilled workers.

Who implemented horizontal integration?

John D Rockefeller

Who are the Knights of Labor?

Largest labor union in America that fought for shorter work days and more pay

Why did the US population triple between 1860 and 1910?

More people survived because of better living conditions. Immigrants from other countries came to the US in search of a better life.

Who was Jay Gould and how does he relate to railroads?

Most notoriously corrupt railroad owner, manipulated stock

An abundance of _____ was one of the reasons the US industrialized successfully

Natural resources

What act began the building of railroads?

Pacific Railway Act

What 2 companies build the Transcontinental Railroad?

The Central Pacific and The Union Pacific

What was the Pullman Strike?

The Pullman company cut wages several times. When the company cut wages they did not decrease the price of rent for the workers and thus, most of the workers then went on strike. The strikers refused to handle trains that contain Pullman cars. Traffic was then brought to a standstill. President Cleveland called out federal troops to put down the strike. Violence immediately ensued, leading to the death of 25 strikers.

Who worked on the railroads?

Union: Civil War Veterans, newly recruited Irish immigrants, frustrated miners and farmers, cooks, adventurers and ex-convicts. Central: Workers from China

What is a monopoly and how does it function?

When a single company achieves control of an entire market

What is the American Federation of Labor? (AFL)

focused on promoting the interests of skilled workers. Let by Samuel Gompers.

What are trade unions?

organizations of workers with the same trade or skill

What is Marxism?

that the basic force shaping capitalist society was the class struggle between workers and owners. He believed that workers would eventually revolt, seize control of the factories, and overthrow the government.

What is vertical integration?

the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies.

What is the Women's Trade Union League?

the first national association dedicated to promoting women's labor issues. pushed for an eight-hour workday, the creation of a minimum wage, an end to evening work for women, and the abolition of child labor.

What is the idea of laissez-faire?

"Let people do as they chose" Government should not interfere with the economy

What is the difference between vertical and horizontal integration?

A horizontal integration consists of companies that acquire a similar company in the same industry, while a vertical integration consists of companies that acquire a company that operates either before or after the acquiring company in the production process

What is a blacklist?

A list of troublemakers, put on this list so nobody would hire them

What is an example of vertical integration?

A retailer, like Target, that has its own store brands. It owns the manufacturing, controls the distribution, and is the retailer.

Why did big corporations have advantages over smaller ones?

They could produce more goods cheaply and efficiently. They could continue to operate in poor economic times by cutting prices to increase sales rather than shutting down.