The American Yawp- Chapter 16

Taylorism

The application of scientific organization principles to increase efficiency in the workplace.

The intro of industrialism, assembly lines, mass production.

Frederick Taylor

"father of scientific management"created efficiency principles, increased the scale and scope of manufacturing, and allowed for the flowering of mass production.

Cyrus McCormick

utilized mass production and production managers with his mechanical reapers and saw increases in production and profit.

JP Morgan

Banker who oversaw the formation of United States Steel, built from eight leading steel companies (first monopoly).

"robber baron"

nickname for the great financial and industrial titans; like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, and Vanderbilt.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping.

John D. Rockefeller

an American oil industry business magnate, industrialist.

Andrew Carnegie

An American steel magnate that led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century.

Herbert Spencer

British sociologist and biologist, applied Darwin's theories to society and popularized the phrase 'survival of the fittest'.

He said, the fittest would demonstrate their superiority through economic success, while state welfare and private charity would lead to social degeneration—it would encourage the survival of the weak.

Social Darwinism

All species and all societies, including modern humans, the theory went, were governed by a relentless competitive struggle for survival. The inequality of outcomes was to be not merely tolerated but encouraged and celebrated. It signified the progress of species and societies.

Knights of Labor

Labor union successful in the early 1880s, that welcomed skilled and unskilled men and women workers in to its ranks. They focused on practical gains that could be won through the organization of workers into local unions.

Haymarket Square Riot

A union protest in which a bomb exploded and killed 7 policemen. Police fired into the crowd and killed 4 people. Helped many Americans to associate unionism with radicalism

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Emerged after the Haymarket Square Riot as a conservative alternative to the vision of the Knights of Labor.

An alliance of craft unions (unions composed of skilled workers) that aimed for practical gains (higher wages, fewer hours, and safer conditions) through a conservative approach that tried to avoid strikes.

Homestead Strike

In 1892, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers struck at one of Carnegie's steel mills in Homestead, Pennsylvania. After repeated wage cuts, workers shut the plant down and occupied the mill. Pennsylvania governor called the state militia, broke the strike, and reopened the mill. The union was essentially destroyed in the aftermath.

Pullman Strike

In 1894, workers at Pullman car factories struck when he cut wages by a quarter but kept rents and utilities in his company town constant. The American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs, launched a sympathy strike: the ARU would refuse to handle any Pullman cars on any rail line anywhere in the country.

Eugene V. Debs

American union/socialist leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States

Farmer's Alliance

In Lampasas, Texas, in 1877 farmers organized the first agricultural alliance to restore some economic power to farmers as they dealt with railroads, merchants, and bankers.

They could share machinery, bargain from wholesalers, and negotiate higher prices for their crops.

Mary Elizabeth Lease

Kansas Populist speaker and also for the Farmer's Alliance. She believed that big business had made the people of America into "wage slaves," and challenged her fellow farmers to "raise less corn and more hell."

Populist Party

Farmer's alliance members organized a political party—the People's Party, as a third party option.

The most significant third-party movement in American history.

James B Weaver

Former Civil War general nominated by the Populists as their presidential candidate at the party's first national convention in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 4, 1892.

Ignatius Donnelly

Minnesota political iconoclast and populist; wrote the platform's preamble.

He warned that "the fruits of the toil of millions [had been] boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few".

Omaha Platform

In 1892, Populist movement that sought to counter the scale and power of monopolistic capitalism. Expansion of federal power, nationalized railroad and telegraph systems, government loans, monetizing silver. Populists believed this would help shift economic and political power back toward the nation's producing classes.

Panic of 1893

Sparked the worst economic depression the nation had ever yet seen.

Free Silver

a promotion of the free coinage of silver, a deviation of the gold standard

William Jennings Bryan

A skilled orator, a Nebraska congressman, a three-time presidential candidate, U.S. secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson, and a lawyer who supported prohibition and opposed Darwinism. He attacked the gold standard and promoted free silver and policies for the benefit of the average American. He ran for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908; among the most influential losers in American political history.

William McKinley

Won the presidential election of 1896 and installed the gold standard in law.

Socialist Party of America (SPA)

Founded in 1901, carried on the American third-party political tradition. The party gained 150,000 members by 1913 making itself fairly influential in American society.

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

A radical and confrontational union that welcomed all workers, regardless of race or gender. Also called the Wobblies

Granger Movement

the agrarian movement organized in the 1870s as a protest against railroad power over the farmers