APUSH chapters 17-19 in class notes

Bessemer Process

• converted iron into much stronger steel

• created by Henry Bessemer and William kelly

• steel used in RRs, construction, ect

• Andrew Carnegie: revolutionized steel production using the Bessemer process, making steel affordable for railroads and infrastructure.

Taylorism

• created by frederick taylor

• subdivided tasks, each individual had a specific task

• made workers interchangeable, less reliance on skilled workers

horizontal integration

• buying businesses in a similar industry

• later deemed illegal because of monopolies

• STANDARD OIL

vertical integration

• owning all aspects of production

• CARNEGIE STEEL

Social Darwinism

• applied Darwins ideas to Humans

• Herbert Spencer: advocated that the fittest survived

• appealed to business owners and justified their weath

Gospel of Wealth 1889

• people of great wealth had great responsibilites

• it was their duty to use their riches to advance social programs

• Andrew Carnegie wrote The Gospel of Wealth, the main message was that the wealthy should have “trust funds” to be used for the good of the community

Horatio Alger

• wrote “rags ro riches” stories

• wrote a popular biography of James A. Garfield that framed the 20th U.S. President’s life as the ultimate "rags-to-riches" story.

• sold 100 million copies

Standard Oil

• a massive American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller.

• It dominated the industry, controlling roughly 90% of U.S. oil refining by the 1880s, but was broken up into 34 independent companies by the Supreme Court in 1911 for violating antitrust laws

National Labor Union 1866

• excluded women workers, feared it would lower wages

• when in doubt, the government and public will side with the owners, not union

• the first major national labor federation in the U.S., uniting skilled/unskilled workers and farmers.

• Led by William H. Sylvis, it aimed to improve work conditions, advocating for an 8-hour workday, currency reform, and cooperative ventures over strikes

• “molly maguires”: labor organization in PA- used violence

• Great RR strike: RR cut pay by 10%, hayes ordered troops to stop the strike

Knights of Labor 1896

• all workers- men, women, AA

• skilled and unskilled

• membership grew under Terence Powderlu

• hurt by the haymarket square riot

• campaigned for 8 hour workday

• aspired to form a cooperative society in which laborers owned the industries in which they worked

• national leadership did not include strike, but local assemblies would use them in the 1880s

• leader was terence Powderly

American Federation of Labor 1886 (AFL)

• association of autonomous craft unions and represented mainly skilled workers

• hostile to organizing unskilled workers and women workers

• led by Samuel Gompers

• concentrated on relationship between labor and management

• supported immediate better wages and working conditions

• ready to use strikes if necessary

• focused on “bread and butter issues”, collective barganing, rarley used strikes

• first world war helped this group, for they supported the war

• Craft union: Labor organizations whose members were skilled workers in a particular craft--for example, carpenters, masons, or cigar makers.

• was composed of individual craft unions.

Homestead strike 1882

• Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick wanted to break the union at Homestead

• the plant was shut down, pinkerton’s were called in

• after fighting, Pinkertons left

• governor of PA broke up strike with national Guard

Pull Strike 1894

• pullman palace car company cut wages, did not cut rent in towns

• American railway union- Eugene V. Debs went on strike

• President Cleveland sent troops

Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890

• Made to prevent corporations from engaging in monopolistic practices that were seen as "combination in restraint of trade."

• Used to shut down several businesses.

• Found unconstitutional in the case of E.C. Knight vs. United States.

• more symbolic than anything else

• purpose was to break up trust

• in actually it was used to break up unions

Gilded Age

• The name applied to the 1870s and 1880s during which national politics was characterized by party rivalries, the spoils system, and unregulated business competition.

• The term comes from tie title of a novel written by mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

Republicans and Democrats

• The main parties blur during this period, with loyalties determined primarily by regional, religious, and ethnic differences as opposed to political platforms.

• Voter turnout for elections averaged over 78 percent (60 to 80 percent in off years).

• Both parties were pro-business, opposed to any type of economic radicalism or reform, and supportive of "sound currency" and the economic status quo.

• Federal government and, to some extent, state governments tended to do very little.

• Republicans dominated the Senate; Democrats dominated the House of Representatives.

• Republican splinter groups include the Stalwarts, Halfbreeds, and Mugwumps.

Populist Party

• Formed in 1891 by remnants of the Farmers' Alliances.

• Sported a long list of demands that included the free coinage of silver, government ownership of the railroads, telegraphs, and telephone lines, a graduated income tax, the direct election of U.S. senators, and the use of initiative, referendum, and recall.

• The party eventually faded because the farmers' situation improved in the late 1890s, and also because its political agenda was absorbed by the Republicans and Democrats.

Haymarket Square 1886

• there was already a strike @ McCormick harvester Company

• police had been harassing the strikers, and when they ordered the crowd to disperse, someone threw a bomb that killed 7 officers and injured 67 people

• the police fired into the crowd, killing four more people

• Chicago officials found 8 suspects guilty and were sentenced

• alarming symbol of social chaos and radicalism

• “Anarchism” become code word for violence

• company town: a community built and owned by a single company, typically during the late 19th/early 20th century, where the firm owned the housing, stores, utilities, and schools.

• Common in mining and manufacturing, these towns allowed owners to control all aspects of workers' lives, limiting labor union activity and ensuring worker dependence

trusts

• originally had a different meaning, later associated with monopolies

• A form of business organization in which a group of corporations in the same industry gave their stock in the individual companies to a board of trustees in return for stock certificates that earned dividends

• The trust effectively eliminated competition by giving control to the board.

• The earliest example is the Standard Oil trust that controlled ninety percent of the oil refineries and pipelines.

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closed shop

• a factory or place of business that employs only union members

New Immigration 1880-1920

• Southern and Eastern Europe- Poland, Italy, ect

• moved to cities because they had little money to buy farming goods

• nativism increased: different languages, hard to unionize, worked for low wages, unskilled jobs, mostly catholic

Nativism examples 1887

• American Protective Association: Anti-Catholic, wanted to stop immigration. similar to the know-nothing party

• Immigration Restriction League: advocated screening of immigrants

Tenement houses 1890

• immigrants lived in crowded cities, often in poor conditions

• tenement houses became known as slum houses

• Jacob Riis: photographed tenement houses in NYC, How the Other Half Lives

• schocked middle-class Americans

• described dwelings as sunless, practically airless, and dark

• favored solution of raising slum dwellings, sometimes gov. adopted

Political Machines 1890-1900

• informal political organization with a system of favors, providing crucial services (jobs, housing aids) to new immigrants and the poor in exchange for votes and loyalty

• provided jobs and assistance to constituents

• William Marcy tweed was the powerful Democratic leader of Tammy Hall

• A vote-gathering organization of politicians who loyally support a party boss and get the votes in their neighborhoods to support their party's candidates by fulfilling needs and providing services to constituents.

• Honest Graft: inside scoop on government projects. buy land before government, then resell at a higher price

• Dishonest Graft: steeling

• Tweed Ring 1869-71: stole an estimated $30 million to $200 million from NYC taxpayers

Yellow Journalism 1895-1898

• publisher Joseph Pulitzer helped popularize “yellow journalism”

• deliberately sensational, often vivid style of reporting presented in bold graphics

• designed to reach a mass audience

Important writings

• The Octopus by Frank Norris: depicted relationships between farmers and railroads.

• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: exposed horrors of meat packing industry. sensationalized and dramatized the lack of safety and sanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry. would lead to the pure food and drug act

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Stalwarts and Half-breeds

• Stalwarts: Republicans that favored patronage (financial aid). roscoe conking

• “Half-breeds” favored reform in government. James Blaine

• Factions in the Republican Party that emerged by 1880: the Stalwarts, led by Senator Roscoe Conkling. supported the spoils system,

• The Half-Breeds claimed to represent the idea of civil service reform

Pendleton Act 1883

• President Garfield was killed by a Stalwart

• Provided the President a way to determine the fitness of applicants for office by way of a competitive exam.

• Civil Service exam

• Merit system: required hiring based on qualification

Greenback party 1874-1884

• that advocated for the continued issuance of paper money ("greenbacks") not backed by gold to increase the money supply.

• Primarily supported by farmers and laborers, it aimed to help debtors, fight for labor rights, and counter the deflationary policies of the era

Election of 1884

• Democrats – Grover Cleveland

• Republicans – James Blaine

• The main campaign issue was the integrity of the candidates.

• dirty campaigning

• Cleveland won, he was a laiseez-faire president

• tariff issue separated Republicans and Democrats

• “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion”: An insult made against New York Irish-Americans by a Republican clergyman in the 1884 election; Republican candidate James Blaine’s failure to repudiate this statement lost him New York and contributed to his defeat by Grover Cleveland.

McKinley Tariff 1890

• McKinley was a Republican, so he wanted to raise tariffs

• Raised taxes on imported goods by 50%

• This protective tariff promised by the Republicans in 1888 extended to industrial and agricultural goods.

• served interests to business owners

• sold products for cheaper than foregin imports

• The act also included reciprocal trade provisions that allowed the President to retaliate against nations that discriminated against U.S. products and reward countries that opened their markets to American goods.

Munn v Illinois 1877

• state governments can regulate industries when in best interest of public

• the Court upheld the power of state governments to regulate private industries that affect "the common good."

Interstate Commerce Act 1887

• government refued to regulate railroad industry

• Created the Interstate Commerce Commission

• outlawed higher rates on short hauls than long hauls

• RRs must publish their rates

• Provided for the creation of a commission to oversee rates on railways, end discriminatory practices, and require annual reports and financial statements

• Long vs short hauls: the railroad practice to charge higher rates on lines where there was no competition than on routes where several lines were operating. This often meant that the cost of shipping goods a short distance was greater than over a long distance.

The Grange 1867

• provided social and economic opportunities for farmers

• sought to end monopolies in RR, wanted government ownership of businesses

Populist Party

• absorbed some ideas from farmers

• written by Ignatius Donnelly, the Omaha Platform did the following:

• free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16:1

• a graduated income-tax to redistribute wealth

• gov’t ownership of the telephone, telegraph, and railroads

• initiative, referendum, and recall

• postal savings banks (safe repository run by govt)

• limiting gov land grants to settlers rather than rialroads

• direct election of senators

• Formed in 1891 by remnants of the Farmers' Alliances.

• The party eventually faded because the farmers' situation improved in the late 1890s, and also because its political agenda was absorbed by the Republicans and Democrats.

Subtreasury Plan 1889

• a late-19th-century proposal by the Farmers' Alliance (and later the Populist Party) to establish federal warehouses where farmers could store nonperishable crops (like cotton or wheat) until prices improved.

• Farmers could receive low-interest government loans for up to 80% of the crop's value, allowing them to avoid selling at low prices immediately after harvest

• agrarian malaise: discontent among farmers, resulting from changes in their economic position after the Civil War. They sought help from states and the federal gov, thus abandoning the doctrine of laissez-faire

Crime of 73

• Through the Coinage Act of 1 873, the United States ended the minting of silver dollars and placed the country on the gold standard.

• This was attacked by those who supported an inflationary monetary policy', particularly farmers, and believed in the unlimited coinage of silver.

Sherman Silver Act 1890

• Silver interests passed legislation authorizing Congress to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver each month at market price and issue treasury notes redeemable in gold and silver.

• This act was repealed due to the Panic of 1893

Coxey’s Army 1894

• advocated a public works program

• marched a group of unemployed people to Washington

• broken up by police

• Populist businessman Jacob Coxey led a march of millions of unemployed people into Washington, demanding a work relief program.

• Free Silver: having silver back to the value of the dollar at a ratio of 16:1. would favor farmers and debtors because it’s easier to pay off debt

William Jennings Bryan

• won democratic nomination in 1896, great orator

• challenged McKinley

• portrayed as a radical and a socalist

• Cross of Gold - "We will answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them: ‘You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

• Bryan w\advocated lowering the tariff

Alfred T. Mahan

• Influence of Sea Power

• control of the sea was important to world dominance

• urged the US and other countries to build their navies

• favored by T. Roosevelt and other expantionists

• US sought expansion overseas because Manifest Destiny was complete

Platt Amendment 1901

• Cuba can’t have treaties with other countries that compromises independence

• US can intervene to restore order

• Guantanamo Bay given to US

• The U.S. made Cuba a protectorate.

• Cuba could not make a treaty with a foreign nation.

• Cuba was to allow the United States to issue orders and lease a base at Guantanamo Bay for 99 years.