Unit 4 Study Guide: Reactions to the Industrial Age

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, movements, legislation, and historical figures from the Unit 4 study guide on the Labor Movement, Populism, and the Progressive Movement.

Collective Bargaining

The process where workers organize into a group (called a union) and select leaders to negotiate with management regarding working conditions, wages, benefits, and other employment terms.

Strike

A labor protest where workers walk off their jobs and refuse to work until their demands are met by employers.

Scab

A strikebreaker who crosses union picket lines to take over the jobs of striking workers.

Blacklisted

A practice where an individual's name was circulated on a list shared among employers, preventing that worker from being hired anywhere.

"Yellow-dog" Contract

An employment agreement potential workers were forced to sign promising not to join a union, under penalty of immediate termination (now illegal).

Lock-out

A tactic where employers shut down factories and prevent workers from entering due to the potential for violence or unrest by striking workers.

Boycott

A concerted refusal to purchase certain goods or do business with specific stores as a form of protest.

American Federation of Labor (AF of L)

A national labor organization that focused on more basic and achievable workplace goals compared to the broader, more idealistic goals of the Knights of Labor.

Homestead Strike ("Fort Frick")

A labor conflict triggered when Henry Frick ordered a factory lockout, imposed wage reductions, and refused to negotiate with workers.

Pullman Strike

A major nationwide strike caused by steep wage cuts while company town rent costs stayed the same; it led to the firing of most Pullman workers, national rail disruption, and federal troop intervention.

Pinkertons

A private detective agency and armed security force that companies routinely hired to suppress strikes and break up labor unions.

Eugene Debs

A prominent labor organizer jailed during the Pullman Strike who studied socialism and communism in prison and later ran for U.S. President as a Socialist candidate while incarcerated.

Socialism

An economic system in which the government controls major industries while still permitting limited private ownership of small businesses, differing from capitalism where supply and demand guide production with minimal state control.

Communism

An economic system organized under a command economy where the government dictates all decisions regarding the price and output of goods, with all private property eliminated.

Farmers' Adversaries (Populist Era)

Railroad companies, Eastern manufacturers, and bankers, all of whom farmers viewed as predatory entities that charged exorbitant shipping rates, high interest, or disproportionately higher costs to poorer individuals.

Farmers' Alliance

An organized agricultural movement formed in the 1880s to help farmers collectively fight against unfavorable economic conditions and monopolistic practices.

"Free Silver"

A Populist economic policy advocating the unlimited coinage of silver to expand the money supply and cheapen currency, which debtors believed would make their loans easier to repay.

Populist Reforms (Adopted Later)

A platform of Populist demands that were subsequently enacted into law, including immigration restrictions, a graduated income tax, women's suffrage, and shorter working hours.

Progressive Movement

An early 20th-century reform movement aimed at addressing societal problems created by rapid industrialization and creating a more efficient, responsive government.

Pendleton Act

A civil service reform law designed to award government offices to individuals based on their qualifications and merit rather than political connections or patronage.

Political Machine / Political Boss

An authoritative urban political organization operated like a mafia, where self-appointed bosses maintained control of cities by exchanging favors, jobs, and financial relief for votes and kickbacks.

Muckraker

Investigative journalists during the Progressive Era who went undercover or conducted deep investigations to expose corporate corruption and societal wrongdoing.

The Jungle

An expose novel written in the 1900s highlighting the unsanitary and horrific labor and health conditions within the meatpacking industry.

Meat Inspection Act & Pure Food and Drug Act

Consumer protection laws enacted in response to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, requiring mandatory federal inspection of meat and testing to ensure foods and drugs are safe for consumption.

Federal Reserve Board

A governing body created to supervise the national banking system, promote maximum employment, maintain stable prices, and foster steady economic growth.

Temperance Movement

A social reform crusade seeking to eliminate the consumption of alcohol, supported by many Progressives who viewed alcohol as a primary root of domestic abuse and societal decay.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

A landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld racial segregation laws under the legal doctrine of "separate but equal."

W.E.B. DuBois' Equality Philosophy

A civil rights view that rejected Booker T. Washington's accommodation of racial segregation, arguing that conceding rights invited disenfranchisement and that African Americans should demand full civil rights immediately.

19th Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1920 that officially granted women the right to vote.

Preservation

An environmental philosophy advocating that wilderness and natural resources should remain completely protected, untouched, and undisturbed by human activity.

Conservation

An environmental policy advocating for the planned management and sustainable protection of natural lands and public resources.

Trustbuster

A nickname given to President Theodore Roosevelt because he was the first president to vigorously enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 to dismantle unlawful corporate monopolies.