APUSH VOC:17
Terms
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- White-collar workers
- Workers engaged in non-manual labor; contrasted w/ blue-collar (manual)
- Survival of the fittest
- Survival of the fittest is a phrase which is a shorthand for a concept relating to competition for survival or predominance. Originally applied to economics by Herbert Spencer, Spencer drew parallels with Charles Darwin's theories of evolution by what Darwin termed natural selection. The phrase is essentially a metaphor and is often felt to be unhelpful - biologists almost exclusively use natural selection in preference.
- U.S. Steel
- Prized for strength and durability when compared to iron; created through the Bessemer or open hearth processes after the Civil War and sparking industrial expansion; the US became the number one manufacturer of steel in the world by 1910; source of Carnegie's wealth
- Pools
- Grouping together of assets, samples, equipment etc. for the purposes of maximizing advantage to the users.
- John D. Rockefeller
- Young merchant from Cleveland; used horizontal integration to build Standard Oil Co; invested in oil during Civil War and drove out competition by keeping wages low, paying attention to detail, and negotiating secret deals with railroads; formed South Improvement Co and negotiated massive rebates w/railroads
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- American railroad magnate who opened a shipping line from the East coast to California and later one between Chicago and NYC
- Herbert Spencer
- British, developed system of philosophy based on theory of evolution, believed in primacy of personal freedom and reasoned thinking; sought to develop system where all human endeavors could be explained rationally and scientifically
- Trunk Line
- A direct line between two telephone switchboards, or the main line of a communications or transportation system.
- Watered stock
- A method employed in order to increase the weight of cows before sale. It entailed forcing a cow to bloat itself with water before it was weighed for sale - an asset with an artificially-inflated value
- William Vanderbilt
- A financier and banker who arranged the merger of several industrial corporations to form General Electric and the United States Steel Corporation. He controlled over 100 corporations and was worth more than $22 billion in assets.
- Rebates
- Developed in the 1880s, a practice by which railroads would give money back to its favored customers, rather than charging them lower prices, so that it could appear to be charging a flat rate for everyone.
- Bessemer Process
- The first inexpensive process for the mass-production of steel. Henry Bessemer patented the technique and initiated its use on an industrial scale.
- Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
- A federal law that committed the American government to opposing monopolies, it prohibits contracts, combinations and conspiracies in restraint of trade.
- Sears, Roebuck; Montgomery Ward
- Sears and Roebuck created the mass consumer market store and mail order catalog Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1886. Their main competitor, Montgomery Ward, had originated the sale of farming products through mail order in 1872, but was surpassed by Sears in 1900.
- Second Industrial Revolution
- (1871-1914) Involved development of chemical, electrical, oil, and steel industries. Mass production of consumer goods also developed at this time through the mechanization of the manufacture of food and clothing. It saw the popularization of cinema and radio. Provided widespread employment and increased production.
- Railroad strike of 1877
- Began on July 17 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had cut wages for the second time in a year. Protesting workers refused to let any trains move until the pay cut was restored. Militia units were sent in by the governor to restore train service, but when the soldiers refused to use force against the strikers, the governor called for federal troops, the first time such troops had been used for strikebreaking since the 1830s.
- New York Central Railroad
- Railroad operating in the Northeastern United States. Headquartered in New York, the railroad served most of the Northeast, including extensive trackage in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts and much of New England and in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec. NYC's Grand Central Terminal in New York City is one of its best known extant landmarks.
- Scab; lockout; blacklist; yellow-dog contract; injunction
- Scab-worker who refuses membership in labor union; employee who works while others strike; person hired to replace striking worker. Lockout- withholding of employment; used by employers to hinder union organization; literally locking employees out of workplace. Black list- list of persons or organizations that have incurred disapproval or suspicion or are to be boycotted or otherwise penalized. Yellow dog contract- agreement b/w employer and employee where employee agrees not to join union; prohibited by federal law. Injunction- A court order prohibiting a party from a specific course of action
- American Federation of Labor
- The most famous of the labor unions that grew in the Gilded Age to fight for better pay and conditions for factory workers. The AF of L was formed in 1881 by Samuel Gompers, a poor Jewish immigrant who rose to become president of a cigar maker's union in New York City. The AF of L was actually a federation (association) of many labor unions, and as such, represents a trend toward "bigness" similar to what was happening in industry. It included only skilled workers, not unskilled workers.
- Samuel Gompers
- An America labor and political leader. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and held the position as president of the organization for all but one year from 1886 until his death in 1924
- Federal Land Grants
- The first major railroad land grants came about with the 1862 legislation that enabled the transcontinental railroad. At that time, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads were granted 400-foot right-of-ways plus ten square miles of land for every mile of track built.
- National Labor Union
- On August 20, 1866, the National Labor Union, made up of skilled and unskilled workers, farmers, and reformers, called on Congress to order an eight-hour workday. the NLU created to pressure Congress to make labor law reforms.
- Vertical Integration
- The integration within one company of individual businesses working separately in related phases of the production and sale of a product; a stepping stone towards assembly lines in America
- Terence V. Powderly
- American labor leader Terence Vincent Powderly (1849-1924) presided over the Knights of Labor during the union's remarkable growth and rapid decline in the 1880s.
- Antitrust movement
- Trusts had emerged as sensible ways of rationalizing economic life. Basic industries needed dependable supplies, means of transportation, markets, and banking connections. Competing local, state, and federal jurisdictions interfered with efficient business practice without providing firm legal guidelines specifying which practices were illegal, unethical, or merely inevitable
- Panic of 1893
- A serious decline in the economy caused by widespread redemption of silver notes for gold until the minimum amount of gold in the federal reserves was reached. Next, several major railroad and stock companies went bankrupt. Thousands of banks and companies failed, mainly in the West, and the price of silver fell. About 12%-18% of the workforce was unemployed.
- Jay Gould
- American financier and speculator who with James Fisk and Daniel Drew wrested control of the Erie Railroad from Cornelius Vanderbilt (1867-1868). With Fisk, he caused the financial panic of September 24, 1869, with an attempt to corner the gold market.
- Haymarket bombing (1886)
- On May 1, 1886 (on May Day), labor unions organized a strike for an eight-hour work day in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Working conditions in the city were miserable, with most workers working 6 days a week, twelve hours a day, under dangerous conditions. On May 3, workers who were striking for an eight hour day were meeting near the McCormick plant. The police attacked the strikers without any warning whatsoever, killing six and mauling several others.
- Union and Central Pacific
- Chartered by Congress to build part of the nation's first transcontinental railroad line. Under terms of the Pacific Railroads Act, the Union Pacific was authorized to build a line westward from Omaha, Nebr., to the California-Nevada line, where it was to connect with the Central Pacific RR—which was to be built simultaneously from Sacramento, Calif. In 1864, Congress doubled the land grant, considerably eased the terms of government loans, and allowed the two railroad companies to borrow private capital. Also in 1864 and again in 1866 the Central Pacific was authorized to build eastward beyond the Nevada line.
- Horizontal Integration
- Horizontal integration is a theory of ownership and control. It is a strategy used by a business or corporation that seeks to sell one type of product in numerous markets. To get this market coverage, several small subsidiary companies are created. Each markets the product to a different market segment or to a different geographical area
- Standard Oil Trust
- By 1900 it controlled so many other interests that it fell afoul of anti-trust laws. In 1911 the U.S. Supreme Court called Standard Oil a monopoly and forced the Trust to separate into competing companies
- Concentration of wealth
- Wealth being concentrated by few elite, magnified by new industries
- Social Darwinism
- An attempt to adapt Charles Darwin natural selection principles to human society, thus producing a culture that embraces the "survival of the fittest." This is based on a misunderstanding of Darwin's theories. Natural selection, when applied to a society, also includes such factors as organizational ability, talent to inspire others, creativity, perseverance, mental flexibility, etc., in addition to physical fitness.
- J. Peirpont Morgan
- A financier and banker who arranged the merger of several industrial corporations to form General Electric and the United States Steel Corporation. He controlled over 100 corporations and was worth more than $22 billion in assets.
- Knights of Labor
- An American labor union originally established as a secret fraternal order and noted as the first union of all workers. It was founded in 1869 in Philadelphia by Uriah Stephens and a number of fellow workers. Powderly was elected head of the Knights of Labor in 1883.
- Middle class
- Class of people between very wealthy and unskilled laborers and the unemployed people
- Transcontinental Railroads
- The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States was built across North America in the 1860s, linking the railway network of the Eastern United States with California on the Pacific coast. Ceremonially completed in 1869, it created a nationwide mechanized transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West, catalyzing the transition from the wagon trains of previous decades to a modern transportation system.
- Upward mobility
- Tendency or drive to rise from lower to higher economic/social class
- David Ricardo; iron law of wages
- Leading British economist; established field of classical economics; stresses importance of free trade and competition for economic growth; argument that wages "naturally" tend towards minimum level corresponding to subsistence needs of workers
- Andrew Carnegie
- Scottish-born industrialist who made a fortune in steel and believed the rich had a duty to act for the public benefit.
- United States v. E.C. Knight
- C Knight held monopoly in sugar refining; gov sued company saying it violated Sherman Antitrust Act; E.C. Knight won. The Supreme Court ruled that since the Knight Company's monopoly over the production of sugar had no direct effect on commerce, the company couldn't be controlled by the government. It also ruled that mining and manufacturing weren't affected by interstate commerce laws and were beyond the regulatory power of Congress.
- Horatio Alger
- "Rags to riches" books for boys, based on the theme that honesty, hard work and virtues will always win out and be rewarded