Time Period 6 (1865-1898) CDE Vocab

Henry Bessemer / Bessemer Process

An English engineer who created the process of producing steel, in which impurities are removed by forcing a blast of air through molten iron.

Thomas Edison

American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.

George Westinghouse

An American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry.

Gustavus Swift

Developer of an efficient system of mechanical refrigeration, an innovation that earned him a fortune and provided a major stimulus to the growth of the cattle industry. He monopolized the meat industry.

Consumer Economy / Culture

An economy driven by consumer spending as a percent of its gross domestic product, as opposed to the other major components of GDP (gross private domestic investment, government spending, and imports netted against exports).

Cornelius Vanderbilt

United States financier and railway 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.

J.P. Morgan

A highly successful banker who bought out Carnegie and renames it to U.S. Steel. With Carnegie's holdings and some others, he launched U.S Steel and made it the first billion dollar corporation. Was a philanthropist in a way--gave all the money needed for WWI and was payed back.

Andrew Carnegie

A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. He led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history.

John D. Rockefeller / Standard Oil Trust

This company, by using horizontal integration, soon controlled most of the oil refineries in the nation. He believed in survival of the fittest in business and helped the oil economy flourish at home and abroad.

Monopoly

Complete control of a product or business by one person or group.

Trust

A group of corporations run by a single board of directors that controls goods and services, often in combinations that reduce competition.

Horizontal Integration

A business strategy in which one company grows its operations at the same level in an industry, helps companies grow in size and revenue, expand into new markets, diversify product offerings, and reduce competition. A type of monopoly where a company buys out all of its competition. Ex. Rockefeller

Vertical Integration

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

Holding Company

A company whose primary business is owning a controlling share of stock in other companies.

Laissez-Faire Capitalism (classical liberalism)

An economic philosophy of free-market capitalism that opposes government intervention. The theory was developed by the French Physiocrats during the 18th century and advocated that economic success is inhibited when governments are involved in business and markets.

Adam Smith

Scottish economist, considered the father of modern economics, who wrote "The Wealth of Nations" which became a precursor to modern Capitalism.

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human, political, and economic struggle.

Horatio Alger

19th-century American author, best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty.

William Graham Sumner

An American clergyman, social scientist, and classical liberal. He taught social sciences at Yale University—where he held the nation's first professorship in sociology. A leading proponent of Social Darwinism, he believed that the wealthy were rich because of natural selection and argued that their wealth was a social service.

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.

"Iron Law of Wages"

A proposed law of economics that asserts that real wages always tend, in the long run, toward the minimum wage necessary to sustain the life of the worker.

Unions (Organized Labor)

An association of workers united as a single, representative entity for the purpose of improving the workers' economic status and working conditions through collective bargaining with employers.

Collective Bargaining

Process by which a union representing a group of workers negotiates with management for a contract.

Knights of Labor / Terence Powderly

An American labor union originally established as a secret fraternal order and noted as the first union of all workers. It was founded in 1869 in Philadelphia by Uriah Stephens and a number of fellow workers. Advocated for the abolition of child labor, worker cooperatives, trusts, and monopolies.

American Federation of Labor / Samuel Gompers

A loose union of skilled craft unions, in contrast to other unions that admitted unskilled laborers. They sought tangible economic gains for laborers, such as higher wages, shorter hours, and better conditions, in addition to staying out of politics.

Great Railroad Strike (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.

Haymarket Square Bombing (1886)

A bomb detonates near Haymarket Square in Chicago after police arrive to break up a rally in support of striking workers. The rally was advocating for implementing the 8-hour workday.

Homestead Strike / Lockout (1892)

A violent labor dispute between the Carnegie Steel Company and many of its workers that occurred in Pennsylvania. Carnegie Steel Company discharged workers from the local workers union. A bloody confrontation ensued between the workers and the hired Pinkerton security guards, ultimately killing 16 people and causing many injuries.

Pullman Strike (1894)

Workers rebelled because the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages by 1/3 and the American Federation of Labor refused to support the strikers. Military action was needed in order to keep mail delivery on track.

Eugene V. Debs

Head of the American Railway Union and director of the Pullman strike; he was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to stop striking. While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in America.

"Old" Immigrants

Immigrants who arrived primarily from Northwestern Europe during most of the 1800s.

"New" Immigrants

Immigrants primarily from Southeastern Europe and Asia and made up a large part of the American immigrant population from 1890-1920.

Streetcar Suburbs

A residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Led to the growth of suburbs.

Tenements

Poorly built, overcrowded housing where many immigrants lived.

Ghettos

Ethnic neighborhoods of New York

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Law that suspended Chinese immigration into America. The ban was supposed to last 10 years, but it was expanded several times and was essentially in effect until WWII. The Act was the first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States of an ethnic working group. Extreme example of nativism.

Ellis Island

An immigrant receiving station on an island in New York Bay that opened in 1892, where immigrants were given a medical examination and only allowed into the country if they were healthy.

Political Machines / Machine Bosses

A party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state.

Tammany Hall

The main political machine of the Democratic Party, and played a major role in controlling NYC and New York State politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s.

William "Boss" Tweed

An american politician most notable for being the boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic political machine that played a major role in the politics of New York City in the late 1800s.

Settlement Houses

Community centers located in the slums and near tenements that gave aid and provided education and social services to the poor, especially immigrants.

Jane Addams / Hull House

Social reformer who worked to improve the lives of the working class. In 1889 she founded the first private social welfare agency in the country in Chicago in order to assist the poor, combat juvenile delinquency and to help immigrants learn to speak English.

Americanization (Melting Pot)

The belief that assimilating immigrants into American society would make them more loyal citizens.
White people of all different nationalities blended to create a single culture.

White Collar Workers / Middle Class

A person who performs professional, desk, managerial, or administrative work. May be performed in an office or other administrative setting.

"Gospel of Wealth"

An article written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich.

"City Beautiful" Movement

A reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities.

Henry George / Progress and Poverty

Writer who published Progress and Poverty, in which he pointed out that the wealthy extracted huge profits from the ownership of land. He advocated the enactment of a single tax system that would transfer unearned increment to the government to fund a variety of social programs. All other forms of taxation could be abolished and monopolies and poverty would disappear. George's ideas were immensely popular and single tax societies were formed throughout the nation.

Edward Bellamy / Looking Backward

Rivaling Henry George, he wrote Looking Backward, a utopian novel, published in 1888, it described the experiences of a young Bostonian who went into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and awoke in 2000, finding a new social order in which want, politics and vice were unknown. The society had emerged through peace and evolution, and all of the trusts of the 1800's joined together form one government controlled trust, which distributed the abundance of the industrial economy equally among all people. "Fraternal cooperation" replaced competition, there were no class divisions, and there was great nationalism.

Social Gospel Movement

A 19th century reform movement based on the belief that Christians have a responsibility to help improve working conditions and alleviate poverty.

Walter Rauschenbusch

Leading Protestant advocate of the "social gospel" who tried to make Christianity relevant to urban and industrial problems.

Crédit Mobilier Scandal

A construction company was formed by owners of the Union Pacific Railroad for the purpose of receiving government contracts to build the railroad at highly inflated prices—and profits. In 1872 a scandal erupted when journalists discovered that the company had bribed congressmen and even the vice president in order to allow the ruse to continue.

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

Congressional legislation that established the act, 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.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Outlawed monopolies and practices that restrained trade, such as price fixing.

Pendleton Civil Service Act (1881)

Provided that federal government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that government employees be selected through competitive exams. The act also made it unlawful to fire or demote for political reasons employees who were covered by the law.

Soft Money / Free Silver

Money donated to political parties in a way that leaves the contribution unregulated, there are no limits attached to the amount that can be received.

Hard Money / Gold Standard

Political donations that are regulated by law through the Federal Election Commission.

Greenbacks

Name given to paper money issued by the government during the Civil War, so called because the back side was printed with green ink. They were not redeemable for gold, but $300 million were issued anyway. In 1879 the federal government finally made the currency redeemable for gold.

"Crime of 1873"

Dropping silver dollars from official coinage by act of Congress in that year, setting the stage for the adoption of the gold standard in the U.S.

Bland-Allison Act

1873 law that required the federal government to purchase and coin more silver, increasing the money supply and causing inflation.

Party Patronage

Rewarding faithful party workers and followers with government employment and contracts.

"Mugwumps"

Republican political activists in the United States who were intensely opposed to political corruption. They were never formally organized. Typically they switched parties from the Republican Party by supporting Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the presidential election of 1884.

Waving the "Bloody Shirt"

The practice of politicians making reference to the blood of martyrs or heroes to criticize opponents.

The "Solid South"

The electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states.

People's Party (Populists)

An agrarian-based political movement aimed at improving conditions for the country's farmers and agrarian workers. One the most influential 3rd parties in the history of the country.

Omaha Platform

Political agenda adopted by the populist party in 1892 at their Omaha, Nebraska convention. Called for unlimited coinage of silver, government regulation of railroads and industry, graduated income tax, and a number of election reforms.

Panic of 1893

Serious economic depression beginning in 1893. Began due to rail road companies over-extending themselves, causing bank failures. Was the worst economic collapse in the history of the country until that point, and, some say, as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"Coxey's Army"

Formed by an Ohio quarry owner, members of the group marched to Washington to demand that Congress provide relief to the unemployed. Members wanted the federal government to use public works projects as a way to provide relief to the unemployed.

Election of 1896

Republican William McKinley defeated Democratic-Populist "Popocrat" William Jennings Bryan. 1st election in 24 years than Republicans won a majority of the popular vote. McKinley won promoting the gold standard, pluralism, and industrial growth.

William Jennings Bryan

Unsuccessfully ran for president of the United States. A former Democratic congressman from Nebraska, gained his party's presidential nomination in July of that year after electrifying the Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech which won him the support of the Populist Party.

"Cross of Gold" Speech

Speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former United States Representative from Nebraska, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 9, 1896. In his address, he supported "free silver" which he believed would bring the nation prosperity.

William McKinley

25th President of the US, he presided over victory in the Spanish-American War of 1898; gained control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Cuba; restored prosperity after a deep depression; rejected the inflationary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard; and raised protective tariffs to boost American industries.