Chapter 16 Notes: Business and Labor in the Industrial Era

Cornelius Vanderbilt

wealthy through steamboat and railroads

Second Industrial Revolution

Mid 19th century greatly improved after civil war. household products once made at home now produced at factories and textile mills. transportation and communication, electricity, and scientific research

Bonanza farms

corporate owned farms managed by college educated professionals - like factories

Oliver Dalrymple

Most famous bonanza farmer.

Alexander Graham Bell

Invented the telephone and created AT&T to manufacture

Thomas Edison

Invention factory and electric lighting (DC/Direct Current)

George Westinghouse

developed AC (alternating current)

Nikola Tesla

invented AC motor and sold plans to Westinghouse

"Hell on Wheels"

mobile camps that housed railroad workers

Union Pacific railroad workers

former civil war soldiers, formerly enslaved people, Irish and German immigrants

Central Pacific railroad workers

90% Chinese (called "coolies")

Corporations

legal business setperatefrom its owner/management

Shareholders

own a part of a company and elect a board of directors

John D. Rockefeller

founded Standard Oil company, horizontal integration, monopoly, Standard Oil Trust, holding company

Andrew Carnegie

Steel, world's largest industrial company

J. Pierpont Morgan

helped corporations merge and consolidate, controlled 1/6 of US railroads, bought Carnegie's Steel company and created US Steel, worlds first billion dollar corporation

Sears and Roebuck

business's needed ways to reach rural customers, Montgomery Ward Mail order catalogs

Gospel of Wealth

This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists.

Lobbying

attempting to influence policy makers. Republican + big business

Legal Tender Act

Act creating a national currency in February 1862

National Banking Act

Created a national banking system and uniform currency.

Morrill Land-Grant College Act

gave states fed land to fund colleges focused on agriculture and technical education

Laissez Faire

Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs.

Hetty Green

Wealthy investor; invested in real estate and rail roads

Jane Addams

Is best known for founding Hull House in Chicago.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

A large number of railroad workers went on strike because of wage cuts. Governors called out state militias to suppress. After a month of strikes, President Hayes sent troops to stop the strike .

Sand-Lot Incident

San Francisco White workers attacked Chinese workers

Chinese Exclusion Act

Congress banned Chinese immigration for 10 years

National Labor Union

First major national political organization - 8hour day, workers cooperatives, greenbacks, voting rights-declined after leader died

Knights of Labor

Terence V. Powderly - wanted to reform capitalism and eventually abolish wage system - negotiation over violence - declined after Haymarket Riot

Mother Jones

Labor activist who was a member of the Knights of Labor union and who used publicity techniques to create awareness of the plight of mine workers and child laborers.

Anarchism

wanted to eliminate gov and have workers control society

Haymarket Riot

In this location, a bomb was hurled toward police officials, and police opened fire on the demonstrators; numerous policemen and demonstrators were killed and wounded; response in nation's press was decidedly anti-union.

American Federation of Labor

federation of craft unions: skilled workers in a particular trade

Homestead Steel Strike

A violent labor conflict at the Homestead Steel Works near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that occurred when its president, Henry Clay Frick, refused to renew the union contract with Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. The strike, which began on June 29, 1892, culminated in an attempt on Frick's life and was swiftly put down by state militias. The strike marks one of the great setbacks in the emerging industrial-union movement.

Terence V. Powderly

leader of Knights of Labor

Henry Clay Frick

anti union executive

Alexander Berkman

anarchist who attempted to assassinate Frick

Pullman Strike

Palace Car Company town - workers laid off, wages cut, and company houses rent remained high - Pullman workers joined APU and struck - Pres Grover Cleveland sent fed troops - fed court issued injunction against union - Debs later imprisoned for violated injunction and became associated with socialism

Eugene V. Debs

led the Pullman strike and founded the American Railway Union

Western Federation of Miners

was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts - and often pitched battles - with both employers and governmental authorities.

"Big Bill" Haywood

leader of Western Federation of Miners

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Also called "Wobbles" - Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, Daniel De Leon, Mother Jones - Wanted "One Big Union" of skilled and unskilled workers - workers across racial ethnic, and gender lines - supported replacing capitalism with worker controlled unions

Lawrence Textile Strike

Major successful IWW strike in Lawerence, Massachusetts - mostly immigrant woman workers - won higher wages, overtime pay, and other benefits