U.S History Chapter 19
What was McKinley's propaganda of Bryan? What was his election by contrast?
His propaganda portrayed Bryan as a wild man from the prairie whose monetary schemes would further wreck an economy that had been plunged into depression during a Democratic administration. McKinley's election, by contrast, would maintain the gold standard, revive business confidence, and end the depression.
What did silver mean for farmers? Who wanted to take over the Populist party? When? What did they adopt into their program? What possibility did it raise? What did the Populists hope?
For many people silver meant far more than a mere change in monetary policy: it also represented a widespread yearning for a more equitable society in which corporations and banks held less power. Thus when Democratic dissidents stood poised to take over the party in 1896, they adopted free silver as the centerpiece of their program. This stand raised possibilities for a fusion with the Populists, who hoped the Democrats would adopt other features of their platform as well.
What was the AFL? When was it founded? By who? What trades were involved?
Founded in 1886, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was a loosely affiliated association of unions organized by trade or craft: cigar-makers, machinists, carpenters, typographers, plumbers, painters, and so on. Most AFL members were skilled workers. The leader of the AFL, Samuel F. Gompers.
What did Cleveland do that drove a wedge into the democratic party? When? Who went against him?
In 1893, President Cleveland's success in getting the Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed drove a wedge into the Democratic Party. Southern and western Democrats turned against Cleveland
Did McKinley prove his platform? How was the economy? What discovery was made? What happened to deflation and farmers?
Whether by luck or by design, McKinley did prove to be the advance agent of prosperity. The economy pulled out of the depression during his first year in office and entered into a long period of growth—not because of anything the new administration did (except perhaps to encourage a revival of confidence) but because of the mysterious workings of the business cycle. With the discovery of rich new goldfields in the Yukon, in Alaska, and in South Africa, the silver issue lost potency, and a cascade of gold poured into the world economy. The long deflationary trend since 1865 reversed itself in 1897. Farmers entered a new— and unfamiliar—era of prosperity.
What did middle-class observers see workers as? What did workers actually want?
While some alarmed middle-class observers believed that all workers were revolutionaries who wanted to overturn the American government, only a small percentage were political radicals, much less revolutionaries. The truth was more prosaic: workers wanted fair wages and fair conditions in the workplace. They wanted equality in a system in which power had been systematically stripped from them.
What did women start to do? Why? What were significant changes?
Yet an increasing number of women began to explore the world of work—whether out of necessity in the turbulent economy of the late 19th century, or because they chose to enter a wider sphere of life. Significant changes in middle-class women's lives included access to higher education and an embrace of a new, energetic athleticism.
What term was used for women as they changed in society? Where was it represented? What did it show?
"New Woman" in the 1890s. A cultural icon of cartoons, illustrations, paintings, short stories, and essays, the New Woman was depicted as a public figure who was athletic, self-confident, young, and independent: she wore the new, less confining fashion of shirtwaists and skirts; rode a bicycle; and even smoked in some images.
What was the result of the Homestead Strike? Who did it cripple? What happened to them after that?
A full-scale gun battle between strikers and Pinkertons erupted, Frick persuaded the governor to send in 8,000 militia to protect the strikebreakers, and the plant reopened. The failed Homestead strike crippled the Amalgamated Association; another strike against U.S. Steel (successor of Carnegie Steel) in 1901 destroyed it.
What factors set few limits on corporations? What did Americans fear of corporations? What act was made as a result? When?
A weak federal government and a conservative Supreme Court set few limits on corporations in this period, despite significant antitrust agitation in the 1880s and 1890s. By then, many Americans feared the power wielded by tycoons who had established monopolies or monopoly market shares not only in oil and steel, but also in sugar, tobacco, and transportation, among other industries. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was an attempt to declare any form of "restraint of trade" illegal, but it was so vague as to be almost useless in the actual prosecution of corporations.
What jobs did women go into after the Civil War? What about college women in cities?
After the Civil War, women moved into nursing and office work, while continuing to be a mainstay in teaching. By the end of the 19th century, middleclass women were also becoming editors, literary agents, and journalists in larger numbers, while also entering the professions of medicine and law in small numbers. Many college women moved to cities to take up work, living in apartments on their own as "bachelor girls."
What did Congress do to fix the railroad problem with farmers? What was it called? When? What did it do? What did they create as a result?
After years of discussion, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. This law, like most such laws, reflected compromise between the varying viewpoints of shippers, railroads, and other pressure groups. It outlawed pools, discriminatory rates, long-haul versus short-haul differentials, and rebates to favored shippers. It required that freight and passenger rates must be "reasonable and just." What that meant was not entirely clear, but the law created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to define the requirement on a case-by-case basis. Because the ICC had minimal enforcement powers, however, federal courts frequently refused to issue the orders the ICC requested
What happened with the Knights of Labor due to the Haymarket Massacre?
Although the Knights had nothing to do with the Haymarket affair and Powderly had repeatedly denounced anarchism, his opposition to the wage system sounded to many Americans suspiciously like socialism, perhaps even anarchism. Membership in the Knights plummeted
Why were the Alliancemen eager to form a third party? What was it called? When? Who opposed the idea? Why?
Anticipating that the Republicans and the Democrats would resist these demands, many Alliancemen were eager to form a third party, launching the People's Party, Populists, in summer 1890. White Southerners, mostly Democrats, opposed the idea of a third party for fear that it might open the way for the return of the Republican Party, and African Americans, to power.
What happened to families with industrial accidents?
As a result, many families were impoverished by workplace accidents that killed or maimed their chief breadwinner
What did industrialists change in seeking a more favorable image? Who was one famous person that was involved in this? What did he believe about the wealthy?
Began to restrain their displays of wealth and use their private fortunes to advance the public welfare. As early as 1889, Andrew Carnegie had advocated a "gospel of wealth." The wealthy, he believed, should consider all income in excess of their needs as a "trust fund" for their communities.
What did William Jennings Bryan do? When?
Bryan had taken up the cause of free silver. He came to the Democratic convention in 1896
What was happening in Eastern Europe in the 1880's that affected American agriculture? What happened to American agriculture?
But by the 1880s, the improved efficiency of large farms in Eastern Europe brought intensifying competition and consequent price declines, especially for wheat, just as competition from Egypt and India had eroded prices for American cotton. Prices on the world market for these two staples of American agriculture—wheat and cotton—fell about 60 percent from 1870 to 1895, while the wholesale price index for all commodities
What were the negative reactions to the "New Woman?"
But to some observers, the New Woman was a fearsome thing, threatening the sanctity of the home and traditional gender roles.
What did the Farmer's alliance evolve into? When? Who were they affiliated with?
By 1890, the movement had evolved into the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, which was affiliated with the Knights of Labor. It was also affiliated with a separate Colored Farmers' Alliance, formed by African Americans who recognized the utility of the Farmers' Alliance but were not welcome in the larger whites-only organization.
What had become common with strikebreakers? When?
By the 1890s, the use of state militias to protect strikebreakers had become common.
What were suburban communities like by the end of the 19th century?
By the end of the 19th century, suburban communities of detached houses, surrounded by lawns, were markers of the middle-class status of businessmen and professionals who worked by day in cities and traveled back and forth by train or streetcar to their homes.
What was one famous industrial giant?
Carnegie Steel.
What innovation did Carnegie contribute to? What did he do? Who else innovated as well?
Carnegie contributed an important innovation to 19th-century business organization: vertical integration. Carnegie steadily took control of all parts of the steelmaking process, starting with the mining of the raw material of iron ore and ending with the transportation and marketing of the final product. Vertical integration was a powerful new form of business organization that allowed for unprecedented consolidation and the building of business on a previously unimagined scale. Another titan, John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, also innovated with business structure.
What city was a center of labor activism and radicalism? What party formed? When? What percent of votes did they win? What benefited them? What year?
Chicago; In 1878, the newly formed Socialist Labor Party won 14 percent of the vote in the city. With recovery from the depression after 1878, the Socialist Labor Party fell onto lean times.
How were coal mines, iron/steel mills, and textile mills dangerous? Did the government have any regulation of industrial safety?
Coal mines threatened underground collapses, explosions, and the release of toxic gases; iron mills and steel mills required work with molten metals at open hearths; textile mills threatened mutilation and dismemberment. Yet there was little government regulation of industrial safety
How were conditions in the industrial workplace? Which was particularly hazardous? What made the U.S the highest rate of industrial accidents?
Conditions in the industrial workplace were often dangerous. The drive for even greater speed and productivity on railroads and in factories gave the United States the unhappy distinction of having the world's highest rate of industrial accidents. The railroads were particularly hazardous
What did corporations begin looking for in business? What industry helped them? What did that industry do? What corporate titan was involved?
Corporations began looking for ways to insulate themselves from harrowing downturns in the business cycle. The railroads led the way in tackling this problem. Rather than engaging in ruinous rate wars, railroads began cooperating. They shared information on costs and profits, established standardized rates, and allocated discrete portions of the freight business among themselves. These cooperative arrangements were variously called "pools," "cartels," or "trusts." Still, the railroads' efforts rarely succeeded for long because they depended heavily on voluntary compliance. During difficult economic times, the temptation to lower freight rates and exceed one's market share could become too strong to resist. Corporate efforts to restrain competition and inject order into the economic environment continued unabated, however. A number of corporate titans innovated with corporate organization, including Andrew Carnegie, the industrial leader who built giant Carnegie Steel after the Civil War.
What did craft unions negotiate with employers? For what? What were those agreements accorded to?
Craft unions negotiated contracts, or trade agreements, with employers that stipulated the wages workers were to be paid, the hours they were to work, and the rules under which new workers would be accepted into the trade. These agreements were accorded the same legal protection that American law bestowed on other commercial contracts.
What did electric power do for the economy?
Electric power, in short, stimulated capital investment and accelerated economic growth.
Who led the ARU? What did he do with Pullman? What did Cleveland do? What happened to the leader of the ARU after? What did the supreme court do with the Sherman Act?
Eugene V. Debs; When George Pullman refused the ARU's offer to arbitrate the strike of Pullman workers, Debs launched a boycott by which ARU members would refuse to run any trains that included Pullman cars. When the railroads attempted to fire the ARU sympathizers, whole train crews went on strike and quickly paralyzed rail traffic. Over the protests of Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, who sympathized with the strikers, President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops. That action inflamed violence instead of containing it. The U.S. attorney general (a former railroad lawyer) obtained a federal injunction against Debs under the Sherman Antitrust Act on grounds that the boycott and the strike were a conspiracy in restraint of trade. This creative use of the Sherman Act was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1895 and became a powerful weapon against labor unions in the hands of conservative judges.
How did farmers respond to railroads rising prices of transportation? What was it called? When?
Farmers responded by organizing cooperatives to sell crops and buy supplies. The umbrella organization for many of these cooperatives was the Patrons of Husbandry, known as the Grange, founded in 1867.
What did the Farmers alliance do?
Farmers' Alliance set up marketing cooperatives to eliminate the middlemen who profited as "parasites" on the backs of farmers. The Alliance served the social needs of farm families as well as their economic needs, organizing picnics and educational institutes in addition to camp meetings. Appealing to women as well as men, the Alliance helped farmers to overcome their isolation, especially in the sparsely settled regions of the West. The Alliance also gave farmers a sense of pride and solidarity to counter the image of "hick" and "hayseed"
What few AFL members were included? What did they accept? What did the concentrate on?
Few AFL members were women and blacks. The AFL accepted capitalism and the wage system. Instead of agitating for governmental regulation of the economy and the workplace, it concentrated on the bread-and-butter issues of better conditions, higher wages, shorter hours, and occupational safety within the system
What did Bryan focus on the most? How did the republicans respond?
Focused almost exclusively on the free silver issue. Republicans responded by denouncing the Democrats as irresponsible inflationists.
What was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877?
Great Railroad Strike of 1877; the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages by 10 percent—its third recent wage reduction. B & O workers had seen their wages drop steadily ever since 1873, a depression year. When workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, walked out in protest, workers up and down the B & O line joined them. The strike touched a nerve nationally and spread rapidly; within a few days, what had begun as a local protest had traveled to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Louisville, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and San Francisco. Women as well as men joined angry crowds in the streets; workers from a variety of industries walked out in sympathy; and in some places the strike crossed both gender and racial lines. Strikers and militia in a number of cities fired on each other, and workers set fire to railroad cars and depots. Alarmed at the possibility of a "national insurrection," President Hayes called in the army.
What did leaders of several craft unions form? When? What did they advocate for?
In 1866, the leaders of several craft unions had formed the National Labor Union, which advocated for an eight-hour day at a time when many industries required workers to work for 10 or even 12 hours daily
What act was passed to help the silver issue? When? What did it do? What was the issue?
In 1878, the Bland-Allison Act requiring the Treasury to purchase and coin no less than $2 million and no more than $4 million of silver monthly. Once again, silver dollars flowed from the mint. But with increased production of new silver mines, the market price of silver actually dropped to a ratio of 20 to 1. Pressure for "free silver"—that is, for government purchase of all silver offered for sale at a price of 16 to 1 and its coinage into silver dollars—continued during the 1880s.
What was the logic behind Social Darwinism? Who was it popular with? What did they try to explain?
In assuming that market forces were in fact laws of nature; "survival of the fittest" applied the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin to human society. Social Darwinism was popular among both white intellectuals and a wider middleclass reading public to explain existing racial and class hierarchies in society: according to its tenets, human history could be understood in terms of an ongoing struggle among races, with the strongest and the fittest invariably triumphing. The wealth and power of the Anglo-Saxon race were ample testimony, in this view, to its superior fitness. Social Darwinism reflected a widely shared belief that human society operated according to principles that were every bit as scientific as those governing the natural world.
What did populists control in several western states? What coalition won the state elections of 1894? Where?
In several western states, Populists or a Populist-Democratic coalition controlled state governments for a time, and a Populist-Republican coalition won the state elections of 1894 in North Carolina.
What was a nickname for industrial titans?
Industrial titans were often called "robber barons."
What did workers understand in the hope for economic improvement?
Lay in organizing unions powerful enough to wrest wage concessions from reluctant employers.
What other industrialist also followed Carnegie in restraining their wealth?
John D. Rockefeller
How did people react to the Haymarket Massacre?
Many workers, civil libertarians, and middle-class citizens who were troubled by the events branded the verdicts judicial murder, but most Americans applauded the summary repression of radicalism they regarded as un-American.
What did mass production mean for skilled workers? Why? Where did mass-production techniques spread to? How were they profitable?
Mass production often meant replacing skilled workers with machines that were coordinated to permit high-speed, uninterrupted production at every stage of the manufacturing process. Mass-production techniques had become widespread in basic steel manufacturing and sugar refining by the 1890s, and they spread to the machine-tool industry and automobile manufacturing in the first two decades of the 20th century. Such production techniques were profitable only if large quantities of output could be sold.
What was another important instrument of corporate expansion and consolidation?
Merging
How did most members wanted to improve their lot within the existing system? What did it mean with employers? How did they deal with strikes? What did the knights think about strikes?
Most members wanted to improve their lot within the existing system through higher wages, shorter hours, better working conditions—the bread-and-butter goals of working people. This meant collective bargaining with employers; it also meant strikes. The assemblies won some strikes and lost some. Powderly and the Knights' national leadership discouraged strikes, however, partly out of practicality: a losing strike often destroyed an assembly, as employers replaced strikes with strikebreakers, or "scabs." Another reason for Powderly's antistrike stance was philosophical. Strikes constituted a tacit recognition of the legitimacy of the wage system. In Powderly's view, wages siphoned off to capital a part of the wealth created by labor.
What success did the ICC have?
Nevertheless, its powers of publicity had some effect on railroad practices, and freight rates continued to decline during this period as railroad operating efficiency improved.
What did newspapers start to include? What fueled their growth in cities? What changed the the urban experience of shopping? What are 2 examples? What did they sell? What decorations did they have? What could people outside of cities participate in? When?
Newspapers expanded greatly as well, responding to the demands of a growing population with the first color comics, women's pages, Sunday sections, society pages, and sports pages—where readers could follow the standings of the first national teams in baseball. Advertising revenues from department stores fueled the growth of newspapers in large cities around the country. These new department stores were glittering "palaces of consumption" that dramatically changed the urban experience of buying consumer goods. In a major retailing innovation, stores such as Marshall Field & Co. in Chicago (1865) and R. H. Macy's in New York (1866) sold a wide variety of items—from perfume to shoes to hats to clothing to household goods—all under one roof in different departments, instead of in different stores. Customers strolled down carpeted aisles— arranged to mimic city streets—and gazed at a dazzling array of goods arrayed in glass cases. Ornate interiors with mirrors and lights added to a sensory experience of profusion, color, and excitement. Outside of cities, men and women could participate in the new national culture of consumption through mail order. By 1884 there was a 240-page catalogue that listed close to 1,000 items for sale—everything from women's underclothing to entire houses.
Where was protest loudest in the U.S? What did farmers lash out on?
Not surprisingly, distress was greatest and protest loudest in the wheat-producing West and the cotton-producing South. Victims of a world market largely beyond their control, farmers lashed out at targets nearer home: railroads, banks, commission merchants, and the monetary system
What was the Haymarket Massacre? When? What started it?
One of these embraced anarchism and called for the violent destruction of the capitalist system so that a new socialist order could be built on its ashes. Anarchists infiltrated some trade unions in Chicago and leaped aboard the bandwagon of a national movement centered in that city for a general strike on May 1, 1886, to achieve the eight-hour workday. Chicago police were notoriously hostile to labor organizers and strikers, so the scene was set for a violent confrontation. The May 1 showdown coincided with a strike at the McCormick farm machinery plant in Chicago. A fight outside the gates on May 3 brought a police attack on the strikers. Anarchists then organized a protest meeting at Haymarket Square on May 4. Toward the end of the meeting, when the rain-soaked crowd was already dispersing, the police suddenly arrived in force. When someone threw a bomb into their midst, the police opened fire.
What did railroad companies need? What was their answer?
Railroad companies stood to gain greatly if they built enough miles of track. But in order to build, they first needed often-staggering sums of money. The answer to this dilemma came in the form of financiers, bankers, and a wealthy elite—many of whom seized a golden opportunity to obtain power in the new industrial order.
Which company inaugurated a new era of big business that had an effect on business practice? What did businesses organize into? What did they do?
Railroad companies; Many businesses after the Civil War organized as corporations rather than single proprietorships: corporations could raise capital through selling shares in a company directly to the public. They also used boards of directors as a management tool, allowing for shared responsibility and a new scale and complexity of enterprise. Railroads were big business in every way, requiring huge tracts of land as well as enormous amounts of capital.
What did railroad expansion mean?
Railroad expansion meant a greater need for coal and iron, and later steel, to build railroad cars and lay track
What was an important spur to economic growth?
Railroads
What was another act that involved the silver issue? When was it passed? What did it do?
Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1890; increased the amount of silver coinage, but not at the 16-to-1 ratio.
Who did the Republicans nominate? What was his specialty? Who made that impossible?
Republicans nominated William McKinley; specialty, the tariff. Bryan made that impossible
Who won, the republicans or democrats? Of what? How long would the maintain control?
Republicans won decisive control of Congress as well as the presidency. They would maintain control for the next 14 years.
What was the result of the growth in the number and size of corporations? What did it create?
Revolutionized corporate management. The ranks of managers mushroomed, as elaborate corporate hierarchies defined both the status and the duties of individual managers. Increasingly, senior managers took over from owners the responsibility for long-term planning. Day-to-day operations fell to middle managers who oversaw particular departments (e.g., purchasing, research, production, labor) in corporate headquarters or who supervised regional sales offices or directed particular factories. Middle managers also managed the people—accountants, clerks, foremen, engineers, salesmen—in these departments, offices, or factories. The rapid expansion within corporate managerial ranks created a new middle class, whose members were intensely loyal to their employers
What did Roosevelt inspire for Americans in the 1890's? What did people start doing? What happened with universities?
Roosevelt exhorted Americans to live vigorously, to test their physical strength and endurance in competitive athletics, and to experience nature through hiking, hunting, and mountain climbing. Other writers, too, argued that through sport and vigorous activity, men could find and express their virility. The 1890s were a time of heightened enthusiasm for competitive sports, physical fitness, and outdoor recreation. Millions of Americans, both women and men, began riding bicycles and eating healthier foods. Young women began to engage in organized sports and other athletic activities. A passion for athletic competition also gripped American universities. The power and violence of football helped make it the sport of choice at the nation's elite campuses, and, for 20 years, Ivy League schools were the nation's football powerhouses.
What term defined the right of the wealthy?
Social Darwinism
What did Social Darwinism do as a result towards the workers and the rich?
Social Darwinism provided a comfortable way of understanding the glaring social inequality of the post-Civil War era: workers were doomed to be permanent wage laborers not because of some fault in the emerging corporate system, but because they were not "fit." The rich, meanwhile, were entitled to every dollar that came their way.
What did the federal government do that worsened deflation problems? Who suffered? How?
The 1862 emergency wartime issuance of treasury "greenback" notes had created a dual currency—gold and greenbacks—with the greenback dollar's value relative to gold rising and falling according to Union military fortunes. After the war, the Treasury moved to bring the greenback dollar to par with gold by reducing the amount of greenbacks in circulation. This limitation of the money supply produced deflationary pressures, with the South and West suffering from downward pressures on prices they received for their crops.
What was the Farmer's alliance's agenda?
The Farmers' Alliance developed a comprehensive political agenda. At a national convention in Ocala, Florida, in December 1890, it set forth these objectives: (1) a graduated income tax; (2) direct election of U.S. senators (instead of election by state legislatures); (3) free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1; (4) effective government control and, if necessary, ownership of railroad, telegraph, and telephone companies; and (5) the establishment of "subtreasuries" (federal warehouses) for the storage of crops, with government loans at 2 percent interest on those crops.
What was another organization with farmers?
The Farmers' Alliance, a new farmers' organization that expanded rapidly in the 1880s
What was the Homestead Strike? When? Where?
The Homestead plant (near Pittsburgh) of the Carnegie Steel Company. Carnegie and his plant manager, Henry Clay Frick, were determined to break the power of the country's strongest union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers. Frick used a dispute over wages and work rules as an opportunity to close the plant (a "lockout"), preparatory to reopening it with nonunion workers. When the union called a strike and refused to leave the plant, Frick called in 300 Pinkerton guards to oust them. 1892
When were the Knights of Labor founded? Who founded it?
The Knights of Labor had been founded in 1869, under the leadership of Terence Powderly, a machinist by trade.
What did the Knights oppose? What did they offer? What did they want?
The Knights opposed the wage labor system, instead it offered an inclusive vision of a "cooperative commonwealth" that would include both men and women and would not discriminate by race. In its platform it called for an eight-hour day, equal pay for women, public ownership of railroads, abolition of child labor, and a graduated income tax
What happened to the National Labor Union?
The National Labor Union withered away in the depression of the 1870s
What years were the depressions right after the Civil War?
The boom years right after the Civil War were followed by a crash in 1873 and a depression lasting through 1878, and there were additional depressions from 1882 to 1885 and from 1893 to 1897.
What did the end of the Civil War lead to for the economy? What did industrialization do for workers? What did they lose? What did employers resort to? What was the result?
The end of the Civil War had inaugurated an era of rapid economic expansion, but industrialization left many workers as permanent wage earners, with little hope of the independence that had been a cherished part of antebellum free-labor ideology. As a roller-coaster economy also subjected employers to boom-and-bust cycles, many resorted to periodic price-cutting and wage-cutting, even while demanding longer hours. The result was that capital and labor had never been more at odds with one another
What fueled the Pullman Strike of 1894?
The explosive tensions between capital and labor
From what period was there a price deflation? How did it affect farmers?
The long period of price deflation from 1865 to 1897, unique in American history, made credit even more costly for farmers. When the price of wheat or cotton declined, farmers earned even less money with which to pay back loans from country store merchants.
Which goal was the most important for the Farmers Alliance? Why?
The most important of these goals, especially for southern farmers, was the subtreasuries. Government storage would allow farmers to hold their crops until market prices were more favorable. Low-interest government loans on the value of these crops would enable farmers to pay their annual debts and thus escape the ruinous interest rates of the crop lien system in the South and bank mortgages in the West.
What did the populist platform call for?
The platform called for unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to 1; creation of the subtreasury program for crop storage and farm loans; government ownership of railroad, telegraph, and telephone companies; a graduated income tax; direct election of senators; and laws to protect labor unions against prosecution for strikes and boycotts.
What movement was the result of members of this new corporate middle class looking to distinguish themselves from the lower classes?
The post-Civil War suburbanization movement was one important spatial realization of this drive for distinction
What did railroad companies arouse? What did they do to farmers?
The power wielded by the railroad companies inevitably aroused hostility. Companies often charged less for long hauls than for short hauls in areas with little or no competition. To avoid "ruinous competition" (as the railroads viewed it), companies formed "pools" by which they divided traffic and fixed their rates. Some of these practices made sound economic sense, but others appeared discriminatory and exploitative. Railroads gave credence to farmers' charges of monopoly exploitation by keeping rates higher in areas with no competition (most farmers lived in areas served by only one line) than in regions with competition. Grain elevators, many of which were owned by railroad companies, came under attack for cheating farmers by rigging the classification of their grain.
What industry became a host for other ones? What was the result?
The steel industry in turn was a catalyst for a host of other industries, in a pattern repeated across the American industrial landscape. As a result, manufacturing expanded dramatically in this period.
How did the democrats and republicans react to these issues in the 1890's?
The two-party system seemed fossilized and unable to respond to the explosive problems of the 1890s.
Why was the Knights of Labor success limited?
Their success was limited, though, partly from lack of capital and of management experience and partly because even the most skilled craftsmen found it difficult to compete with machines in a mass-production economy.
What did the rich in urban areas send for in Europe? How did they spend their time? What did they extend to? What was their habits labeled to?
They sent agents to Europe to buy paintings and tapestries from impoverished aristocrats. In their mansions on Fifth Avenue and their summer homes at Newport, Rhode Island, they entertained lavishly. At one famous costume ball in New York in 1897, guests in satin gowns sewn with jewels impersonated aristocrats. Such aristocratic pretensions extended to marriage: between 1874 and 1911, 72 American heiresses married British peers. The extravagant habits of a wealthy elite gave substance to Mark Twain's labeling of this era as the Gilded Age.
What did Bryan do that put him in the presidential nomination? What platform did he run? Why did his nomination cause turmoil with the Populists? What happened to the Populist party? When?
This speech catapulted Bryan into the presidential nomination. He ran on a platform that not only endorsed free silver but also embraced the idea of an income tax, condemned trusts, and opposed the use of injunctions against labor. Most of them saw fusion with silver Democrats as the road to victory. At the Populist convention, the fusionists got their way and endorsed Bryan's nomination. In effect, the Democratic whale swallowed the Populist fish in 1896.
What did Americans worry about class distinctions? How did the rise of corporations contribute to this?
Throughout the late 19th century, many Americans worried over the class distinctions they saw emerging around them as part of the corporate reordering of American life. Was this sharpened sense of class distinctions acceptable in a republican society that promised equality for all? The rise of corporations helped to produce a new, "white-collar" middle class. Corporations needed salaried managers, engineers, office workers, and retail clerks.
Who did the populist party nominate for president and vice-president? Why? What was the result after their election? How did the republicans and democrats respond?
To ease the lingering tension between southern and western farmers, the party nominated Union veteran James B. Weaver of Iowa for president and Confederate veteran James G. Field of Virginia for vice president. Despite winning 9 percent of the popular vote and 22 electoral votes, Populist leaders were shaken by the outcome. In the South, most of the black farmers who were allowed to vote stayed with the Republicans. Democratic bosses in several southern states dusted off the racial demagoguery and intimidation machinery of Reconstruction days to keep white farmers in line for the party of white supremacy.
Which goals of the Farmers Alliance became law?
the income tax, government control of transportation and communications, and the subtreasuries
What standardized the American experience? What firm was in collaboration with this experience? What helped them? What did the create? When?
Consumer goods; Advertising firms began working hand in hand with manufacturers to create national marketing campaigns. Technological improvements in lithography and the half-tone process in the 1880s and 1890s allowed advertisers to create bright, colorful images that were distributed nationally.
What was the Pullman Strike? What union became involved?
George M. Pullman had made a fortune in the manufacture of sleeping cars and other rolling stock for railroads. Workers in his large factory complex lived in the company town of Pullman just south of Chicago, with paved streets, clean parks, and decent houses rented from the company. But Pullman controlled many aspects of their lives, including banning liquor from the town and punishing workers whose behavior did not suit his ideas of decorum. When the Panic of 1893 caused a sharp drop in orders for Pullman cars, the company laid off one-third of its workforce and cut wages for the rest by 30 percent, but did not reduce company house rents or company store prices. Pullman refused to negotiate with a workers' committee, which called a strike and appealed to the American Railway Union (ARU) for help.
What did gold do to silver? What is the 16:1 ratio?
Government mints had coined both silver and gold dollars at a ratio of 16 to 1—that is, 16 ounces of silver were equal in value to one ounce of gold. However, when new discoveries of gold in the West after 1848 placed more gold in circulation relative to silver, that ratio undervalued silver, so that little was being sold for coinage.
What 2 things went hand in hand in industrialization? What is one example?
Growth in manufacturing spurred technological innovation, while invention in turn spurred increased and more efficient manufacturing. Railroads, for instance, ran on a promise of reliability and efficiency, but poorly constructed tracks and rails were a significant hindrance to delivering on that promise. Technological advances like automatic signals and air brakes not only improved railroad efficiency, but aided railroad growth; similarly, the switch from iron to steel tracks not only aided efficient production of railroad tracks but also promoted the tremendous growth of the new steel industry.
What did the Haymarket Massacre set off?
Haymarket set off a wave of hysteria against labor radicals.
Who encouraged railroad building? When? What did they do? What did it mean? What was the result?
In order to encourage railroad building, between 1862 and 1871 the government stepped in with extremely generous land subsidies—over 100 million acres of federal lands—as well as monetary subsidies based on miles of track built. This largesse signaled the beginning of a close relationship between government and business in the postwar period—so much so that throughout the late 19th century and into the 20th century, government supported the rights of corporations rather than the rights of workers in a series of legal cases as well as major strikes.
What did Rockefeller pioneered? When? What did it do?
In the 1880s he pioneered a new form of corporate structure, the trust, as a way of making a determined assault on competitors in the oil refinery business. A vehicle for the creation of a monopoly, a trust was initially used by Rockefeller to gain control over the oil refining industry and to create the horizontal integration of one aspect of his business. Soon, like Carnegie, he engaged in vertical integration as well in order to gain control over every aspect of the oil industry, from extraction of crude oil to marketing.
What did manufacturing do to agriculture in the 1880's? What did it underline?
In the 1880s, manufacturing began to outstrip agriculture as a source of new value added to the economy, underlining America's ongoing transformation to an industrial society.
Why did the AFL have limited success? What did Gompers understand of this? What did he do? What was the result? What were the negative aspects?
Its 2 million members represented only a small portion of the industrial workforce. Its concentration among craft workers, moreover, distanced it from most workers, who were not skilled. Unskilled and semiskilled workers could only be organized into an industrial union that offered membership to all workers in a particular industry. Gompers understood the importance of such unions and allowed several of them, including the United Mine Workers (UMW) and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), to participate in the AFL. But AFL ranks remained dominated by skilled workers who looked down upon the unskilled, especially immigrants. AFL members demonstrated even worse prejudice toward black workers.
What caused the crash of the NY Stock Exchange? Who was involved? When? What event did this all lead to?
Jay Cooke, Cooke was undone by his attempts to finance the Northern Pacific Railroad: he ran out of capital in 1873 after selling risky bonds and mortgaging government property. When the Northern Pacific went into receivership, Cooke was forced to close his powerful Philadelphia banking house. Within hours, his closure triggered the crash of the New York Stock Exchange, which in turn began the Panic of 1873.
What party did farmers support? When? What did the party advocate? What was even more popular than that?
Many farmers in 1876 and 1880 supported the Greenback Party, whose platform called for the issuance of more U.S. Treasury notes (greenbacks). Even more popular was the movement for "free silver."
How did the Knight's assemblies work?
Most of its assemblies were organized by industry rather than by craft, giving many unskilled and semiskilled workers union representation for the first time. It was also a more inclusive labor organization than most, although in local practice the Knights did not live up to its lofty ideals. Only some assemblies admitted women or blacks. Tendencies toward exclusivity of craft, gender, and race divided and weakened many assemblies.
What became a national fad in the 1880's? What increased from there in the 1890's and early 1900's? What became part of a shared national visual culture? What breakthroughs in printing allowed what new reading material to circulate?
Multicolor advertising trade cards (including baseball cards from cigarette companies) became a national fad in the 1880s, followed by increased visual imagery in ads in the 1890s and early 1900s. Advertisements became part of a shared national visual culture. A series of technological breakthroughs in printing allowed new popular magazines and mass-circulation newspapers to reach hundreds of thousands of readers nationally, as well.
What created the conditions that powered economic growth?
New corporate structures and new management techniques—in combination with new technology—created the conditions that powered economic growth.
What did machinery and managers do to skilled workers? What happened to craft with skilled workers? Labor?
New machinery took over tasks once performed by skilled workers and managers made decisions about the procedures and pace of operations once made by workers. Many crafts that had once been a source of pride to those who practiced them became just a job that could be performed by anyone. Labor increasingly became a commodity bartered for wages rather than a craft whereby the worker sold the product of his labor rather than the labor itself.
What did labor uprisings correlate with? What did employers and businesses do?
Significant labor uprisings correlated with economic downturns, as employers and businesses sought to cut their losses by cutting wages or laying workers off.
How did the courts react to the unions? What did judges do for employers? What federal law still hadn't existed before 1916 concerning workers' rights? What did this hostile legal environment do?
The courts, following the lead of the U.S. Supreme Court, repeatedly found unions in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, even though that act had been intended to control corporations, not unions. Judges in most states usually granted employer requests for injunctions—court orders that barred striking workers from picketing their place of employment (and thus from obstructing employer efforts to hire replacement workers). Before 1916, no federal laws protected workers' right to organize or required employers to bargain with the unions to which their workers belonged. This hostile legal environment retarded the growth of unions from the 1890s through the 1920s.
