Chapter 17: Industrial America: Corporations and Conflicts, 1877-1911

Homestead lockout

The 1892 lockout of workers at the Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel mill after Andrew Carnegie refused to renew the union contract. Union supporters attacked the guards hired to protect the mill, but the National Guard soon broke the strike.

management revolution

An internal management structure adopted by many large, complex corporations that distinguished top executives from those responsible for day-to-day operations and departmentalized operations by function.

vertical integration

A business model in which a corporation controlled all aspects of production from raw materials to packaged products.

horizontal integration

A business concept invented in the late nineteenth century to pressure competitors and force rivals to merge their companies into a conglomerate.

trust

A small group of associates that hold stock from a group of combined firms, managing them as a single entity. Trusts quickly evolved into other centralized business forms, but progressive critics continued to refer to giant firms like United States Steel and Standard Oil as "trusts."

deskilling

The elimination of skilled labor under a new system of mechanized manufacturing, in which workers completed discrete tasks rather than crafting an entire product. Employers found they could pay workers less and replace them easily.

mass production

A phrase coined by Henry Ford, who helped to invent a system of mass production of goods based on the assembling of standardized parts.

scientific management

A system of organizing work developed by Frederick W. Taylor in the late nineteenth century. It was designed to get the maximum output from the individual worker, increase efficiency, and the cost of production.

Chinese Exclusion Act

The 1882 law that barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Nationwide strike of thousands of railroad workers and labor allies, who were protesting steep wages cuts amid a severe economic depression that had begun in 1873.

Greenback-Labor Party

A national political movement calling on the government to increase the money supply and to regulate corporations and enforce an eight-hour workday.

producerism

the arguement that real economic wealth is created by workers who make their living by physical labor, such as farmers and craftsmen, and that merchants, lawyers, bankers, and other middlemen unfairly gain their wealth from such "producers"

Granger laws

Economic regulatory laws passed in some Midwestern states in the late 1870s, triggered by pressure from farmers and the Greenback-Labor Party.

Knights of Labor

The first mass organization of America's working class. Founded in 1869, the Knights of Labor attempted to bridge the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, ideology, race, and occupation to build a "universal brotherhood" of all workers.

anarchism

The advocacy of a stateless society achieved by revolutionary means. Feared for their views, anarchists became scapegoats for the 1886 Haymarket Square bombing.

Haymarket Square

May 4, 1886 conflict in which both workers and policemen were killed and wounded during a labor demonstration in Chicago; the incident created a backlash against labor activism.

Farmers' Alliance

A rural movement founded in Texas during the depression of the 1870s that spread across the plains states and the South. The Farmers' Alliance advocated cooperative stores and exchanges that would circumvent middlemen, and it called for greater government aid to farmers and stricter regulation of railroads.

Interstate Commerce Act

An 1887 act that created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), a federal regulatory agency designed to oversee the railroad industry and prevent collusion and unfair rates.

closed shop

A workplace in which a job seeker had to be a union member to gain employment. The closed shop was advocated by craft unions as a method of keeping out lower-wage workers and strengthening the unions' bargaining position with employers.

American Federation of Labor

Organization created by Samuel Gompers in 1886 that coordinated the activities of craft unions and called for direct negotiation with employers in order to achieve benefits for skilled workers.