AICE U.S. History Unit 3 Gilded Age and Progressive Era Vocabulary

Gilded Age

A name for the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth caused by the industrial age and the ostentatious lifestyles it allowed the very rich. The great industrial success of the U.S. and the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy hid the many social problems of the time, including a high poverty rate, a high crime rate, and corruption in the government (America am i right).

Mass production

production of goods in large numbers through the use of machinery and assembly lines (basically mechanical slavery).

Interchangeable Parts

uniform pieces that can be made in large quantities to replace other identical pieces (twinninggg yass).

Wall Street (New York Stock Exchange)

area in New York City where all prime businesses and companies were located; the land of the big bucks (and many recessions).

McKinley Tariffs

US takes tax of 50% of imports to raise US production, which is cheaper for people because they are not imported; productionism—provision—gives president power (with Congress) to negotiate with producers outside US (wrestler something agreement) I stole these definitions btw.

Patents

licenses that give an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell an invention for a set period of time (if u make something, patent it first so u get the money for it).

Transcontinental Railroad

Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west (very hard labor btw).

Pools/Trusts/Monopolies

Pools: verbal agreement that companies would keep the same prices as each other and no competition

Trusts: Companies hand over all of their stock to a board of trustees and receive trust certificates in return

Monopolies: Total control of a specific industry. The goal was to eliminate competition. One large corporation.

(again, I stole the definitions).

Holding Company

a company whose primary business is owning a controlling share of stock in other companies (think business slavery).

Predatory Pricing

selling a product below cost for a short period of time to drive competitors out of the market (not sigma). Usually done by Robber Barons.

Laissez-faire capitalism

an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated for profit with minimal or no government interference (think lazy fair; gov't too lazy to take part or interfere).

Sherman Antitrust Act

First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions (remember William T Sherman).

Entreprenuer

a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so (shark tank).

Thomas Edison

American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures (NOT Thomas Jefferson).

Henry Frick

Chairman of Carnegie Steel (1889) during the Homestead Strike; wanted to introduce new machinery to the steel plant. New machines would decrease the number of workers. Couldn't agree with unions and set out to break unions and cut costs (frick u).

Alexander Graham Bell

Invented the telephone with Thomas Watson in 1876 (graham cracker).

J.P. Morgan

An influential banker and businessman who bought and reorganized companies. His US Steel company would buy Carnegie steel and become the largest business in the world in 1901. Also a Robber Baron (L, do u get that spotify ad for JP Morgan Chase Bank?)

Americanization Movement

education program designed to help immigrants assimilate to American culture (grease, freedom, eagles, oil and fries in YOUR chicken curry, imagine :( frownie face).

Gentleman's Agreement (1907)

an informal agreement between the United States and the Empire of Japan whereby the U.S. would not impose restriction on Japanese immigration or students, and Japan would not allow further immigration to the U.S. (they hate the chinkerbells).

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate (chinkerbell hate fr).

American Protective Association

An organization created by nativists in 1887 that campaigned for laws to restrict immigration (rejected New Immigrants and didn't like dirty immigrants).

Old vs. New Immigrants

Old: Northern European (English, Germans, Irish Catholics), assimilated easier, high skill level, often spoke English

In the early to mid 1800s, came from Northern and Western Europe.

New: In the late 1900s, they came from Southern and Eastern Europe.

South/Eastern, wouldn't assimilate, close- knit community, uneducated, poor, unskilled laborers

Jane Addams/Settlement or Hull Houses

Social reform activists. Started to help needy immigrants who struggled with housing. America's first woman to earn the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts of women's rights and ending child labor (do more research; i literally just read britannica).

Jacob Rils

reformer wrote "How the Other Half Lives" (describes how poor immigrants live) So people like u and me bro

Thomas Nast

A famous caricaturist and editorial cartoonist in the 19th century and is considered to be the father of American political cartooning. His artwork was primarily based on political corruption. He helped people realize the corruption of some politicians (bro offended Tweed in the newspaper by deceiving the illiterate Tweed twinks).

Patronage/Graft

Two types of graft:

Honest Graft - for the good of the party, city, and oneself (parks, hospitals, museums).

Dishonest Graft - selfish. For the good of onseself (patronage = political party helping with jobs).

Political machine/Tammany Hall

-Organized groups of politicians in cities

-Basically a political monopoly

-Bosses give government jobs to supporters

-Coordinate business needs + help unemployed and immigrants for election votes

Tammany Hall: famous political machine in NYC, founded in 1789. Ran from 1850s to 1930. Welcomed Irish immigrants, especially since they typically supported them.

Boss William M Tweed

a disgraced American politician who was convicted for stealing millions of dollars from New York City taxpayers through political corruption and died in jail. Tweed was head of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century New York (Tweezer is weezing money bro).

Tenements/Dumbbell

crowded areas of housing where multiple families were cramped into one small apartment building. Often had to share one toilet and stinky. Caused many health problems like typhoid, cholera, pneumonia, and whatnot.

Lowk idk what a dumbbell is except the handheld weights but i think it's the same thing.

Urbanization

An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements (very negative consequences because of too many people moving in at the same time).

Corporations (limited liability)

Corporations- Combined resources of large numbers of shareholders developed rapidly in 1830s.

Limited liability- Individual stockholders risked losing only the value of their own investment (and not corporation's larger losses) if enterprises failed. Made possible for larger manufacturing and business enterprises (i'm a robber baron for stealing all these definitions).

Robber Baron

a negative term for business leaders that implied they built their fortunes by stealing from the public (a bad poopy guy who is NOT sigma and tries to climb on top of the industry to be the best).

Captain of Industry

a business leader whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributes positively to the country in some way (a good and cool sigma guy).

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution (Carnegie's Method).

Horizontal Integration

Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level (it's what Rockefeller did for the Standard Oil Company).

Social Darwinism

The application of ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies - particularly as a justification for their imperialist expansion. Distorted Darwin's theory, giving an excuse for the rich to exist.

Bessemer Process

A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities. Popular tactic in Britain, Carnegie brought it back with him to make steel production more efficiently (blowing steel).

Nicola Tesla

a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system (do not think Elon Musk and his ugly ahh build).

Garrett Morgan

African American inventor whose inventions included the traffic light and the gas mask (black ppl can be cool sometimes, u feel me?)

Lewis Howard Latimer

African-American inventor and draftsman. Patented an improved method for producing the carbon filaments used in the new electric light bulb (i never even heard of this guy bro).

Henry Ford

1863-1947. American businessman, founder of Ford Motor Company, father of modern assembly lines, and inventor credited with 161 patents (FORD F150).

John D. Rockefeller

Was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy (oily man who looks like bill nye).

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry (also potentially Robber Baron or Captain of Industry, depends on how u see it ig).

Cornelius Vanderbilt

A railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. He popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical (vrailroad = vanderbilt and who tf has a name like cornelius). He also in charge of infrastructure and built steamships.

Progressive Movement

(1901 -1917) Formed by Midwestern Farmers, Socialists, and Labor Organizers that attacked monopolies and wanted other reforms, such as bimetallism, transportation regulation, the 8-hour work day, and income tax. A period of trying to fix the problems in America (back when Americans were actually smart and cool sigma people).

Ida Tarbell

A leading MUCKRAKER and magazine editor, she exposed the corruption of the oil industry with her 1904 work, A History of Standard Oil. Exposed the stinkiness and anti sigma treatment of employees in the Standard Oil Company. Tarbell’s work resulted in the 1911 Supreme Court decision, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, that found Standard Oil in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Court found that Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly and ordered it broken into 34 separate companies (she's so cool, absolute icon; IDA = ICON, THINK IDA THE ICON).

Lincoln Steffens

A United States journalist who, in 1906, started an era of muckraking journalism (1866-1936). Writing for McClure's Magazine, he criticized the trend of urbanization with a series of articles under the title Shame of the Cities. Found the American Magazine with ICON IDA TARBELL. Used comical irony rather than moral indignation.

Robert La Follette

A Republican, "Battling Bob" La Follette served three two-year terms as governor. From 1901 to 1906, La Follette spearheaded numerous progressive reforms. His leadership helped Wisconsin establish a railroad regulation commission to set fair freight rates. A graduated state income tax that taxed the rich at a higher rate was passed into law. A pure food law was voted in. A corrupt political practices act became law. A direct primary system was enacted, allowing political party members rather than party bosses to nominate candidates. "Battling Bob" also modernized state government with the so-called "Wisconsin Idea." This involved participation in government by experts such as political scientists, economists, and educators.

The astounding success of La Follette's progressivism in Wisconsin swept the country. Soon, other reform-minded leaders were adapting La Follette's ideas to their own states (go read that one assignment called Progressive state vs. federal).

Susan B. Anthony

social reformer who campaigned for women's rights, the temperance movement, and was an abolitionist, helped form the National Woman Suffrage Association, president of the association for 8 years. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. Worked with Carrie Chapman Catt and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (look back in ur socratic notes for women's rights and African Americans).

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

Created in 1890 by the merger of the two major rival women's rights organizations—the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association—after 21 years of independent operation. NAWSA was initially headed by past executives of the two merged groups, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony. The strategy of the newly formed organization was to push for the ratification of enough state suffrage amendments to force Congress to approve a federal amendment. adopted the "Winning Plan" in an attempt to tap the energy and enthusiasm of the organization for a final push toward a federal amendment. Led by Carrie Chapman Catt, the organization coupled its drive for full woman suffrage with support of World War I and persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to throw his support behind what was to become the Nineteenth Amendment.

Florence Kelley

American social reformer who contributed to the development of state and federal labour and social welfare legislation in the United States. Kelley was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909, and for several years she served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Led in organizing the New York Child Labor Committee in 1902, and in 1904 she was a founder of the National Child Labor Committee. Her efforts contributed greatly to the creation of the U.S. Children's Bureau in 1912.

Keating-Owen Act of 1916

Limited the working hours of children and forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor. The Supreme Court later ruled it unconstitutional. The first child labor bill. It was based on a 1906 proposal by Senator Albert J. Beveridge and used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce to regulate child labor. It banned the sale of products from any factory, shop, or cannery that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than eight hours during the day. Ruled unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918) because it overstepped the purpose of the government's powers to regulate interstate commerce. In its opinion, the Court delineated between Congress's power to regulate production and commerce.

Temperance/Prohibition

Temperance is to abstain from alcohol.

Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874. The WCTU employed educational and social as well as political means in promoting legislation. During the 1880s, the organization spread to other lands, and in 1883, the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was formed.

Movement sped rapidly with the influence of churches.

Wayne Wheeler, the leader of the Anti-Saloon League, the Eighteenth Amendment passed in both chambers of the U.S. Congress in December 1917 and was ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states in January 1919.

Notable icon: CARRY A. NATION (HATCHET GIRL)

Prohibition is legal prevention of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 to 1933 under the terms of the Eighteenth Amendment.

Millions of Americans were willing to drink liquor (distilled spirits) illegally, which gave rise to bootlegging (the illegal production and sale of liquor) and speakeasies (illegal, secretive drinking establishments), both of which were capitalized upon by organized crime. As a result, the Prohibition era is also remembered as a period of gangsterism, characterized by competition and violent turf battles between criminal gangs (AP LANG reference: Roaring 20s, Gatsby).

Dry States

Regions prohibiting alcohol sales and consumption.

Wet states were opposite of this. Alcohol was either illegally transported here or it was permitted.

Theodore Roosevelt

26th president, known for: conservationism, trust-busting, the Hepburn Act, safe food regulations, the "Square Deal," the Panama Canal, the Great White Fleet, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiation of peace in the Russo-Japanese War. Inspired the teddy bear. Ho suffered asthma and caca eyesight as a child. After McKinley gets shot, Roosevelt is the youngest president in U.S. history.

Broke up a huge railroad conglomerate, the Northern Securities Company. Roosevelt pursued this policy of "trust-busting" by initiating suits against 43 other major corporations during the next seven years.

1902: Roosevelt intervened in the anthracite coal strike when it threatened to cut off heating fuel for homes, schools, and hospitals. The president publicly asked representatives of capital and labor to meet in the White House and accept his mediation. He also talked about calling in the army to run the mines, and he got Wall Street investment houses to threaten to withhold credit to the coal companies and dump their stocks.

He pushed Congress to grant powers to the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate interstate railroad rates. The Hepburn Act of 1906 conveyed those powers and created the federal government's first true regulatory agency. Also in 1906, Roosevelt pressed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection Acts, which created agencies to assure protection to consumers.

Congress created the Forest Service (1905) to manage government-owned forest reserves.

Trust-busting

government activities seeking to dissolve corporate trusts and monopolies (especially under the United States antitrust laws). THINK THEODORE ROOSEVELT --> T.R. = TRUST BUSTING. ALSO TAFT.

Northern Securities Company

A giant conglomerate of railroads that had a monopoly over the Great Northern and Northern Pacific lines; President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the company broken up in 1902, and it was dissolved by the Supreme Court in 1904.

A railroad holding company owned by James Hill and J.P. Morgan. In the end, the company was "trust-busted" and paved the way for future trust-busts of bad trusts.

Elkins Act 1903

Railroads would offer reduced shipping costs and rebates to their partners as a means of bolstering business. Senator Elkins drafted the amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which ordered that any railroad company, leader, or employee found offering rebates would be punished by a fine.

Interstate Commerce Act 1887

Congressional legislation that established the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Compelled railroads to publish standard rates and prohibited rebates and pools. Railroads quickly became adept at using the Act to achieve their own ends, but the Act gave the government an important means to regulate big business.

The Jungle

This 1906 work by Upton Sinclair pointed out the abuses of the meat packing industry. The book led to the passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act.

Pure Food and Drug Act

1906: Forbade the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs; it gave the government broad powers to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs in order to abolish the "patent" drug trade. Still in existence as the FDA (eat bussing food safely).

Meat Inspection Act

1906: Law that authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to order meat inspections and condemn any meat product found unfit for human consumption. Influenced by Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

William H. Taft

27th President of the United States, the tenth Chief Justice of the United States, a leader of the progressive conservative wing of the Republican Party in the early 20th century. He had been a prosecutor and judge, U.S. solicitor general under President Harrison, the first civilian governor of the Philippines, and Roosevelt's Secretary of War.

Under the Mann‐Elkins Act (1910), the authority of the ICC was again expanded to cover regulation of telephone, telegraph, and cable companies. The act also enabled the commission to suspend rates set by railroads pending investigations or court actions.

Taft actively supported both the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments (which provided for the federal income tax and direct election of senators, respectively) and established new agencies, such as the Bureau of Mines, which set standards of mine safety, and the Federal Children's Bureau.

The two most famous antitrust cases under the Taft Administration were Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and the American Tobacco Company. The Supreme Court upheld the breakup of Standard Oil under the Sherman Antitrust Act (1911) during his administration.

He also won a lawsuit against the American Sugar Refining Company to break up the "sugar trust" that rigged prices. And when Taft moved to break up U.S. Steel, Roosevelt accused him of a lack of insight—unable to distinguish between "good" and "bad" trusts.

The Payne Aldrich Tariff, which kept unpopular tariffs high, Taft began to irritate the Progressives and Roosevelt. Then, Taft made the ill-fated decision to not only return lands Roosevelt had set aside for conservation back to big industry, he also fired Roosevelt's handpicked head of the Interior Department, Gifford Pinchot.

Pinchot's firing split the Republican Party further and estranged Taft from Roosevelt for good.

Gifford Pinchot

head of the U.S. Forest Service under Roosevelt, who believed that it was possible to make use of natural resources while conserving them. Later fired by President Taft, which further divided Taft from Roosevelt.

Woodrow Wilson

28th president of the United States, known for World War I leadership, created the Federal Reserve, Federal Trade Commission, Clayton Antitrust Act, progressive income tax, lower tariffs, women's suffrage (reluctantly), the Treaty of Versailles, sought 14 points in the post-war plan, the League of Nations (but failed to win U.S. ratification), and won the Nobel Peace Prize. Adopted La Follette's reform ideas (refer back to Woodrow Wilson reading and Progressive state vs. federal).

Underwood Tariff

This tariff provided for a substantial reduction of rates and enacted an unprecedented, graduated federal income tax. By 1917, revenue from the income tax surpassed receipts from the tariff, a gap that has since been vastly widened.

Clayton Antitrust Act

1914 act designed to strengthen the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890; certain activities previously committed by big businesses, such as not allowing unions in factories and not allowing strikes, were declared illegal.

Federal Reserve Act

1913 Act that established the Federal System, which established 12 distinct reserves to be controlled by the banks in each district; in addition, a Federal Reserve board was established to regulate the entire structure; improved public confidence in the banking system.

16th Amendment

Amendment to the United States Constitution (1913) gave Congress the power to tax income (think rapper 6ix 9ine, income tax vibes).

17th Amendment

Passed in 1913, this amendment to the Constitution calls for the direct election of senators by the voters instead of their election by state legislatures (17 looks like an L, so think ELection).

18th Amendment

Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages (8 looks like a letter B, so think B for beverages).

19th Amendment

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920) extended the right to vote to women in federal or state elections (the number 9 looks like a woman with huge tatas, so think 9 is a woman).

Referendum

A general vote by the electorate on a single political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision. Voters could compel legislators to place a bill on the ballot for approval.

Significance: limited corruption in government because an act of the legislature could be overturned with a popular veto.

Initiative

Voters could directly introduce bills in state legislature and could vote on whether they wanted a bill passed

Significance: roughly over 1,700 initiatives submitted over the past century, with about 1/5 qualifying for the ballot.

Recall election

Elected officials can be removed from office by voters in a special election.

Significance: in 1921, voters of North Dakota removed their governor, attorney general, and commissioner of agriculture from office.

Primary election (direct primary)

An election to select candidates to run for public office.

Significance: mitigated corrupt control of party and state bosses.

Australian ballot

A voting method in which a voter's identity in an election/referendum is anonymous.

Significance: less voter intimidation, allowed less corruption to remain in power.

Commissioner System

a system of municipal government in which all the legislative and executive powers of the city are concentrated in the hands of a commission.

Alt. definition: A form of municipal government that vests all legislative and executive authority in a small board

Red Scare

Fear that communists were working to destroy the American way of life (communists are red).

Palmer Raids

A solution to the Red Scare. A 1920 operation coordinated by Attorney General Mitchel Palmer in which federal marshals raided the homes of suspected radicals and the headquarters of radical organizations in 32 cities. Led to the arrest of nearly 5,500 people and the deportation of nearly 400.

Bipartisan

Supported by two political parties (bi means two).

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Interracial organization founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and discrimination and to achieve political and civil rights for African Americans.

Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (1922)/Ida Wells

In 1918, Missouri Representative Leonidas Dyer, a white Republican, introduced his anti-lynching bill in Congress. A progressive who represented a predominantly African-American district, Dyer was deeply disgusted by the violence resulting from race riots in St. Louis and continued lynching across the South.

"An act to assure to persons within the jurisdiction of every state the equal protection of the laws and to punish the crime of lynching."

Under Moorfield Storey, NAACP did not support the Dyer Bill, arguing that it was unconstitutional. Storey, a lawyer, revised his position in 1918, and NAACP supported Dyer's anti-lynching legislation and pushed other lawmakers to act.

The Dyer Bill was passed by the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922. Although the Senate Judiciary Committee moved the bill to the Senate floor for a vote, its passage was halted by a filibuster in the Senate by Southern Democrats.

Ida Wells was an American journalist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She later was active in promoting justice for African Americans. In 1909, she participated in the meeting of the Niagara Movement and the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) that sprang from it. Although she was initially left off the NAACP's controlling the Committee of Forty, Wells-Barnett later became a member of the organization's executive committee; however, disenchanted with the NAACP's white and elite Black leadership, she soon distanced herself from the organization.

Knights of Labor/Terrence Powderly

It was the first labor union, and it was secretive. They wanted broad social reform, such as replacing capitalism with worker cooperatives. They were led by Terrence V. Powderly, and they fell apart after the Haymarket riot. This organization was founded in Philadelphia in 1869. They welcomed all wage earners and demanded equal pay for women, an end to child and convict labor, and cooperative employer-employee ownership. In their organization, they excluded bankers, lawyers, professional gamblers, and liquor dealers.

AFL/Samuel Gompers

AFL (American Federation of Labor) did not have the idea of reforming the whole society. It was organized in 1886. The leader was Samuel Gompers, an individual in the cigar-rolling trade who was also self-educated. Skilled workers were allowed to join. Their small goals were looking for an 8-hour workday and not wanting to reform society.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

July, 1877 - A large number of railroad workers went on strike because of wage cuts. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the rioting. The worst railroad violence was in Pittsburgh, with over 40 people killed by militia men.

Homestead Strike

1892 steelworker strike near Pittsburgh against the Carnegie Steel Company. Ten workers were killed in a riot when "scab" labor was brought in to force an end to the strike.

Pullman Strike

In Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town." Eugene Debs had American Railway Union refuse to use Pullman cars; Debs was thrown in jail after being sued; the strike achieved nothing.

1894 riot at the Pullman Palace Car Co. over wages; Prez. Cleveland shut it down because it was interfering with mail delivery.

Haymarket Riot

100,000 workers rioted in Chicago. After the police fired into the crowd, the workers met and rallied in Haymarket Square to protest police brutality. A bomb exploded, killing or injuring many of the police. The Chicago workers and the man who set the bomb were immigrants, so the incident promoted anti-immigrant feelings.

Yellow Dog Contract vs. Closed shop

agreement between an employer and an employee in which the employee agrees, as a condition of employment, not to join a union during the course of his or her employment. Such contracts, used most widely in the United States in the 1920s, enabled employers to take legal action against union organizers for encouraging workers to break such contracts. A federal law prohibiting the use of yellow-dog contracts on the railroads (the Erdman Act of 1898) was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as an unconstitutional infringement upon the freedom of contract (Adair v. United States, 1908).

Closed shop is an arrangement whereby an employer agrees to hire—and retain in employment—only persons who are members in good standing of the trade union. Such an agreement is arranged according to the terms of a labour contract.

Injunction

An order which legally prevents something. Command or order.

Eugene Debs (ARU)

The other presidential competitor to Roosevelt and Taft was Debs

Founded the American Railway Union, group that included skilled and unskilled workers

Boycotted sleeping cars and utilized strikes a lot

Debs served time in prison and it radicalized him

He challenged the two major parties and supported socialism.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

March 1911 fire in a New York factory that trapped young women workers inside locked exit doors. Nearly 50 ended up jumping to their deaths, while 100 died inside the factory. Led to the establishment of many factory reforms, including increasing safety precautions for workers

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

A law of 1883 that reformed the spoils system by prohibiting government workers from making political contributions and creating the Civil Service Commission to oversee their appointment on the basis of merit rather than politics.

Social Gospel

Christian faith is practiced as a call not just to personal conversion but to social reform.

Movement led by Washington Gladden, which taught religion and human dignity would help the middle class overcome problems of industrialization.

Muckrakers

A group of investigative reporters who pointed out the abuses of big business and the corruption of urban politics, including Frank Norris (The Octopus) Ida Tarbell (A history of the standard oil company) Lincoln Steffens (the shame of the cities) and Upton Sinclair (The Jungle). Term coined by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Granger Movement/Kelley

A farming coalition that fought monopolistic grain transport practices.

Kelley was an employee of the Department of Agriculture in 1866 when he made a tour of the South. Shocked by the ignorance there of sound agricultural practices.

Farmers' Alliance/Omaha

An American agrarian movement during the 1870s and '80s that sought to improve the economic conditions for farmers through the creation of cooperatives and political advocacy. Farming in the late 19th century was made difficult by a combination of drought and high fees for the storage and transportation of farm goods to market. In addition, interest rates on loans were high. Farmers subsequently formed various associations to deal with these issues. One such organization was the National Farmers' Alliance (also called the Northern Alliance). Came from the Granger Movement.

Populists/Populist Party

Focused on populism or an appeal to the common people; wanted government ownership of railroads and telegraph lines; wanted to replace the gold standard currency; Favored a "free silver" policy (unlimited coinage of silver), wanted to limit president and vice president to single terms, and wanted direct election of senators.

William Jennings Bryan

Democratic candidate for president in 1896 under the banner of "free silver coinage," which won him support of the Populist Party.