Chapter 24 American Pageant 16th Edition

Interstate Commerce Act

Established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) - monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices

Wabash v. Illinois

1886 - Stated that individual states could control trade in their states, but could not regulate railroads coming through them. Congress had exclusive jurisdiction over interstate commerce.

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

Horizontal Integration

Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level

trust

a combination of firms or corporations formed by a legal agreement, especially to reduce competition

Standard Oil Company

Founded by John D. Rockefeller. Largest unit in the American oil industry in 1881. Known as A.D. Trust, it was outlawed by the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1899. Replaced by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey.

interlocking directorates

The practice of having executives or directors from one company serve on the Board of Directors of another company. J. P. Morgan introduced this practice to eliminate banking competition in the 1890s.

Social Darwinists

Believers in the idea, popular in the late nineteenth century, that people gained wealth by "survival of the fittest." Therefore, the wealthy had simply won a natural competition and owed nothing to the poor, and indeed service to the poor would interfere with this organic process. Some social Darwinists also applied this theory to whole nations and races, explaining that powerful peoples were naturally endowed with gifts that allowed them to gain superiority over others. This theory provided one of the popular justifications for U.S. imperial ventures like the Spanish-American war.

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

National Labor Union

1866 - established by William Sylvis - wanted 8hr work days, banking reform, and an end to conviction labor - attempt to unite all laborers

Knights of Labor

1st effort to create National union. Open to everyone but lawyers and bankers. Vague program, no clear goals, weak leadership and organization. Failed

Haymarket Square

Labor disorders had broken out and on May 4 1886, the Chicago police advanced on a protest; alleged brutalities by the authorities. Suddenly a dynamite bomb was thrown that killed or injured dozens, including police. It is still unknown today who set off the bomb, but following the hysteria, eight anarchists (possibly innocent) were rounded up. Because they preached "incendiary doctrines," they could be charged with conspiracy. Five were sentenced to death, one of which committed suicide; the other three were given stiff prison terms. Six years later, a newly elected Illinois governor recognized this gross injustice and pardoned the three survivors. Nevertheless, the Knights of Labor were toast: they became (incorrectly )associated with anarchy and all following strike efforts failed.

American Federation of Labor

1886; founded by Samuel Gompers; sought better wages, hrs, working conditions; skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent.

closed shop

A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.

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.

Alexander Graham Bell

Invented the telephone

Thomas Alva Edison

This scientist received more than 1,300 patents for a range of items including the automatic telegraph machine, the phonograph, improvements to the light bulb, a modernized telephone and motion picture equipment.

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.

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history

Marry Harris Jones

A woman who organzied MANY strikes to form laobr unions, some of the most powerful strikes in history were started by her

Samuel Gompers

He was the creator of the American Federation of Labor. He provided a stable and unified union for skilled workers.