American History - Unit 4

Entrepreneurs

People who build and manage businesses or enterprises in order to make a profit

Laissez Faire

Policies that allow businesses to operate under minimal government

Protective Tariffs

Taxes that made imported goods cost more than those made in the United States

Patent

A grant by the federal government giving an inventor the exclusive right to develop, use, and sell an invention for a set period of time

Thomas Edison

The person who established a research laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey in 1876. He was a creative genius who had only a few months of formal education, and received more than 1000 patents for new inventions and scientific discoveries.

Time Zones

24 different zones, one for each hour of the day, that the railroads adopted because of how difficult it was to set schedules

Mass production

Systems for turning out large numbers of products quickly and inexpensively

Industrial Revolution

The rapid development of industry brought about by the development of machines

Corporation

A form of group ownership where a number of people share the ownership of a business

Monopoly

The complete control of a product or service, where a company either buys out its competitions or dries them out of business

John D. Rockefeller

An Ohio oil tycoon who made agreements with railroads that made it difficult for competitors to ship their products

Horizontal integration

A way to decrease costs and increase profits by merging competing firms into a giant company whose size would lead to lower production costs

Trust

A type of business organization where companies assign their stock to a board of trustees, who combined them into a new organization that the trustees run

Andrew Carnegie

A steel tycoon who strengthened his company and made the workplace more efficient by using vertical integration

Vertical integration

A way to decrease costs of production by gaining control of the different businesses that were involved in all stages of manufacturing their products

Sherman Antitrust Act

An act passed in 1890 that outlawed any trust that operated in restraint of trade of commerce among the several states

Sweatshops

Small, hot, dark, and dirty workhouses that thousands of factory workers spent time in

Company towns

Housing in isolated communities near laborers’ workplaces that were owned by the business and rented out to employees

Collective bargaining

negotiations between an employer (or group of employers in an industry) and a group of workers who all agree on working hours, conditions, and/or wages

Socialism

An economic and political philosophy that favors public, instead of private, control of property and income

Haymarket Riot

Strike in May 1866 where thousands of workers mounted a national demonstration for an eight hour workday. Strikes erupted in several cities, and fights broke out between strikers and strike break

Homestead Strike

Part of an epidemic of steelworkers’ and miners’ strikes that took place as economic depression spread across America

Pullman Strike

A strike that the ARU ordered against Pullman and his strikebreakers that made the nation’s railroad traffic come to a stop

Labor Union

A group of workers who act as one to negotiate with the business owners for better working hours wages, working conditions, and restrictions on child labor

1. Working hours

2. Wages

3. Working conditions

4. Restrictions on child labor

What were the 4 goals of labor unions?

Strike

Work stoppage by employees to protest working hours, conditions, and/or wages

Boycott

The labor union will ask consumers to avoid using a specific product or business

1. Labor unions got associated with radical ideas and violence

2. Business owners get support from the government

3. Unions survived

What were the 3 parts of the pattern of outcomes for labor unions?