APUSH ch. 17-20
Terms
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- Railroads late 19th century
- -emphasis placed in organizing integrated systems -interregional systems began to appear -line activities standardized
- air brake
- -1869 by George Westinghouse -allowed engineer to apply brakes to all cars at the same time (used to have to have each individual car stopped) -sizes and travel rates increased
- bessemer process
- -a stream of air directed into a mass of molten iron caused carbon and other impurities to combine with oxygen and burn off -measured amounts of carbon, silicon, and manganese added: brew became steel -what had once been a rare metal could now be mass produced
- sleeping car
- 1864; George Pullman
- Andrew Carnegie
- -grasped importance of technological processes; adopted bessemer process -Carnegie Steel Company dominated by 1890 -expanded during rough economic times -sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901; set up United States Steel
- rebates
- secret reductions below the published rate to large shippers in order to get their business; caused railroads to lose revenue
- John D. Rockefeller
- -found Standard Oil Company 1870 -controlled 90% of nation's oil refining capacities by 1879 -imaginative, efficient -wanted to join with competitors -set up a trust: purpose was managing various operations in the interest of efficiency
- Morganizations
- reorganizations of railroads that brought most of the big systems under the control of financiers
- long haul/short haul inequity
- railroads charged higher rates where no competition existed; often cost more to ship long distance than short distance
- trust
- stabilized and structured Rockefeller's monopoly; established by Samuel C. T. Dodd
- laissez-faire
- economic policy of no government interference
- social Darwinism
- the belief that the activities of people were governed by the Darwinian principle that "the fittest" will always "survive" if allowed to exercise their capacities without restriction
- William Graham Sumner
- argued that there should be no government interference in the economy; idea became social Darwinism
- Progress and Poverty
- a book written by Henry George which attacked how wealth was unevenly distributed in the US; proposed a single tax (property tax)
- Looking Backward
- a book written by Edward Bellamy which described an America that was entirely socialized: all economic activity carefully planned
- Gospel of Wealth
- idea promoted by Carnegie that the wealthy had the responsibility to be philanthropic; softened harshness of social Darwinism
- National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry
- -1867 by Oliver H. Kelley -created to provide social and cultural benefits for isolated rural communities -resulted in strict railroad regulation
- Munn v. Illinois
- 1877; any business that served a public interest, such as a railroad or grain warehouse, was subject to state control
- Wabash Case
- Illinois could not regulate interstate shipments
- Interstate Commerce Act
- -all charges made by railroads "shall be reasonable and just" -rebates, drawbacks, long/short haul, and other competitive practices unlawful -established Interstate Commerce Commission -- first federal regulatory board -- to supervise affairs of railroads
- Sherman Antitrust Act
- any combination in the form of a trust that was in restraint of trade or commerce among several states/within foreign nations was illegal; meant to restore competition
- United States v. E.C. Knight
- American Sugar Refining Company had not violated the law by taking over a number of important competitors; showed Sherman Antitrust Act was not very effective
- Labor Unions
- -a worker's response to the big corporation: a combination designed to eliminate competition for jobs and to provide efficient organization for labor -major objective: formation of worker-owned cooperatives
- Knights of Labor
- -1869 led by Uriah S. Stephens -believed that by pooling resources, working people could advance up the economic ladder and enter capitalist class -accepted blacks, women, immigrants -lost organization; many protests became violent
- Terence Powderly
- leader of Knights of Labor (after Stephens); felt labor could own and operate mines, factories, and railroads through cooperation
- Haymarket Square
- a protest where a group of anarchists in the Knights of Labor met and someone threw a bomb, killing seven police officers
- American Federation of Labor
- -led by Adolph Strasser and Samuel Gompers -accepted the fact that most workers would be wage earners forever and therefore tried to develop a sense of common purpose and pride in their skills and station -chief weapon: strike
- Samuel Gompers
- -president of AFL from 1886-1924 -encouraged workers to vote on candidates who will advance their interests -produced solid growth -avoided direct involvement in politics
- "bread and butter" issues
- issues concerning higher wages and shorter hours; major focus of AFL
- Railroad Strike of 1877
- -began on Baltimore and Ohio system in response to wage cut and spread to other eastern lines and then throughout the West until about 2/3 of railroad mileage had been shut down -President Hayes sent troops to restore order, strike collapsed
- Homestead Strike
- -strikers attacked 300 guards at Carnegie's Homestead Steel Plant -struggle between capital and labor in the steel industry -Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate boss, Henry Clay Frick -ultimately destroyed unionism as an effective force in the steel industry and set back the process of organized labor
- Pullman Strike
- -workers walked out of George Pullman's Palace Car factory in 1894 due to wage cutes -some Pullman workers belonged to American Railway Union (headed by Eugene Debs) -union voted to refuse to handle trains with Pullman cars -tied up trunk lines running in and out of Chicago
- Eugene Debs
- head of the American Railway Union; defied federal injunction to end the walkout and was jailed, ending the strike
- injunction
- a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from an act
- "hayseeds"
- a negative term used to describe farmers; showed that people viewed farmers with amused tolerance or even contempt
- "push" factors
- improvements in transportation produced unexpected and disruptive changes in some European cities, farmers suffered due to more wheat from US and Russia, peasant economy in southern and eastern Europe collapsed due to spreading industrial revolution and increased use of machinery, unemployment, political and religious persecution
- "pull" factors
- increased need for labor, perfection of the steamship made travel faster and more safe, cheaper passage due to competition
- new immigration
- from southern and eastern Europe
- nativists
- disliked new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, felt they were incapable of becoming good citizens and should be kept out
- social Darwinists
- attributed social problems associated with mass immigration to supposed physiological characteristics of the newcomers; people from southern and eastern Europe were racially inferior
- American Protective Association
- founded 1887; largest nativist group tried to keep immigrants out of good jobs and discouraged efforts to climb social ladder
- settlement houses
- community centers located in poor districts that provided guidance and services to all who would use them
- Jane Addams
- opened Hull House in Chicago; said that private beneficence would not be enough to deal with all of the city's impoverished
- Cities grew because
- expansion of industry; jobs created by expanding industry pulled immigrants to live there
- Urban life
- ethnic districts impoverished, dirty, and crowded; streets paved, streetlights installed, better bridges, streetcar, trolley, better bridges; more people moved into suburbs because of transportation
- Social Gospel
- focused on improving living conditions rather than on saving souls
- How the Other Half Lives
- a classic study conducted by Jacob Riis on life in the slums in 1890; captured horrible conditions
- colleges and universities in the late 19th century
- wealthy philanthropists gave money to start/support colleges, number of colleges and students enrolled increased, state and federal aid increased, more opportunities for women, more emphasis on meticulous research and freedom of inquiry
- Morril Act
- 1862; federal government's land-grant program in support of training in agriculture and the mechanic arts
- public education in the late 19th century
- improved, increasingly complex society called for more people with intellectual skills
- Joseph Pulitzer
- -first publisher to reach a massive audience -improved St. Louis Post-Dispatch -Bought New York World
- Frederick Jackson Turner
- -scholar trained at Johns Hopkins University -came up with frontier thesis, which meant that everything unique in our culture could be traced back to the existence of the frontier
- "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
- essay written by Frederick Jackson Turner that argued that the frontier experience, through which every section of the country had passed, had affected the thinking of the people and the shape of American institutions
- major political issues of late 19th century
- 1. bloody shirt 2. tariffs 3. currency reform -- deflation 4. civil service reform -- patronage
- Pendleton Act
- creates more civil service reform; 10% of government jobs are based on a competitive exam, not politics
- Literacy tests
- forced voters to pass a literacy tests, blacks uniformly failed
- Factors that led to black disenfranchisement
- poll tax, literacy tests
- Poll tax
- raised economic barrier to vote, also disenfranchised poor whites
- Civil Rights Cases
- Blacks who were refused equal accommodations or privileges by hotels, theaters, and other privately owned facilities had no recourse at law because the 14th amendment protected their civil rights under states, not by individuals
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- segregation was legal as long as facilities of equal quality were provided
- Booker T. Washington
- -found Tuskegee Institute -asked blacks to "cast down your bucket where you are," which meant to concentrate on learning useful skills and stop fighting segregation and second class citizenship
- Atlanta Compromise
- Washington asked southern whites to help the blacks to advance themselves, and in return the blacks will be patient, faithful, and law-abiding
- William Marcy Tweed
- city boss who manipulated immigrants into voting for his people
- Alliance Movement
- -spurred by agricultural depression -stressed cooperation; co-ops bought products in bulk and sold them to members for a fair price -agriculture prices too low, transportation costs too high, something radically wrong with nation's financial system
- Populist Party
- -formed by Alliance members -nominated General James B. Weaver for president -urged election of senators by popular vote, initiative and referendum -unlimited coinage of silver -government ownership of railroads, telephone, and telegraph -sub-treasury plan -graduated income tax
- monetary policy
- -silver dollars withdrawn and only gold used -silver miners wanted a return to bimetallism, conservatives resisted inflationary paper money
- Election of 1896
- -McKinley (R) vs Bryan (D) -populist party also supported Bryan -Bryan less experienced but brilliant orator -McKinley used "front porch campaign": delivered speeches to groups of people representing specific ideas -McKinley won
- Coxey's Army
- led army of unemployed people to Washington and demanded that the government give him money to create jobs
- confrontation and accommodation
- choice blacks had to confront discrimination or accommodate it