American Studies--Chapter 18 “Big Business and Labor”

1.  Reason/factors causing/spurring on 2nd Industrial Revolution in the US

1. Transportation and communication networks: telegraph/RR/steamships, widespread use of electricity, scientific research, and advanced industrial processes. 

1. Impact/importance of RR to Westward Expansion

1. Economic development moving west of the Mississippi, federal troops moved west to combat indian disputes, immigrants could move west easily, growth of commercial AG, movement of raw materals/finished goods 

1. Problems that plagued rapid RR expansion

1. Inefficient routes/locations, dangerous working conditions, poorly constructed (train accidents), corrupt/poorly managed and financed, politicians were corrupted  

1. Details of 1st Transcontinental RR 

1. Starting point helped by secession (Congress starts in the North)

1. Alexander Graham Bell-

1. Created the bell telephone (Bell Telephone Company in 1876)

1. Thomas Alva Edison-

1. 1st light bulb in 1979, electric motor and transmission, motion picture camera projector (Edison General Electric Company in 1888)

1. Nikola Tesla-

1. Created the alternating current motor 

2. Croation immigrant

1. Impact of electricity on cities & industry

1. Made factories more efficient and located anywhere 

2. Buildings got taller with elevators 

3. Streetcars (development of urban sprawl and suburbs

1. Who/What are Robber Barons?

1. Captains of industry 

2. Shrewd, determined, and ruthless

1. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt-

1. Created railroads and made lots of money 

1. John D. Rockefeller

1. Started an oil business and became the first billionaire in the nation 

1. Andrew Carnegie-

1. Expanded the use of steel in America 

2. Libraries

1. Henry Clay Frick-

1. Frick locks out union members & build fences around plant

2. Placed in charge of the steel business while Carnegie was away

1. J.P. Morgan-

1. Financer/banker who transformed Americas financial system

1. Richard Sears-

1. Railroad worker who started the R.W Sears Watch Company 

1. Montgomery Ward-

1. Traveling salesman who created the mail-order retail  

1. Workers compensation-

1. Getting injured at work, and being paid while you heal 

1. Molly Maguires-

1. Irish coal miners in PA that are upset about working conditions and owners trying to fight off unionization 

1. Great RR Strike of 1877-

1. 1st interstate strike in US history– violence and attacks on Chinese in the West 

1. Chinese Exclusion Act-

1. 1st federal law to restrict immigration on the basis of race and class (no Chinese immigration for 10 years)

1. Knights of Labor-

1. Founded in 1869 by Uriah Tepends in Philadelphia- initially secretive organization, grew into a national organization in 1878

2. Equal pay for equal work

Anarchists

1. Believed government “was an abusive device used by the rich and powerful to oppress and exploit the working poor” Government will disappear. 

1. Chicago & the state of labor in the late nineteenth century-

1. Fast-growing and a hotspot of labor unrest 

1. Details of the Haymarket Affair/Incident-

Workers gather here to protest police killing 2 workers. Someone threw a bomb at the police and killed 7 and hurt 60. America's first terrorist bombing. Newspaper attacks and labor meetings/affairs are banned. 4 were hanged after the Il/US Congress, and the governor were involved

1. Samuel Gompers-

1. A tough, all-business labor leader (1886-1924)

1. AFL-

1. American Federation of Labor

1. Closed shop-

1. Hiring only union members 

1. Homestead Steel Strike of 1892-who, what, why, results

1. Carnegie plant newr pittsburg- frick in charge as carnegie is out of the country- they both are looking to cut costs with new contract 

1. Pullman Strike of 1894-where, who, what, why, results

1. Workers' walkout impacting rail traffic in 27 states due to wages and jobs cut 

2. Courts, troops, and president involved 

1. Eugene V. Debs- 

1. American railway union- caused the rail commerce to suffer (mail delivery impacted) 

2. Leading american socialists. ran for president