Chapter 24-The American Pageant

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Leland Stanford

One of the Big Four financial backers of the Central Pacific railroad. He was the ex-governor of California who had useful political connections. He kept clean of bribery and drove the ceremonious "last gold spike" into the connected transcontinental railroad.

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

He was an American inventor who was responsible for developing the telephone. This greatly improved communications in the country.

Thomas Edison

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

John D. Rockefeller

Was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy.

JP Morgan

Banker who buys out Carnegie Steel and renames it to U.S. Steel. Was a philanthropist in a way; he gave all the money needed for WWI and was payed back. Was one of the "Robber barons"

Terence Powderly

led the Knights of Labor, a skilled and unskilled union, wanted equal pay for equal work, an 8hr work day and to end child labor

Samuel Gompers

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

Philip Armour

Pioneered the shipping of hogs to Chicago for slaughter, canning, and exporting of meat.

Charles Darwin

English naturalist. He studied the plants and animals of South America and the Pacific islands, and in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) set forth his theory of evolution.

James Buchanan Duke

Southern industrialist behind the American Tobacco Company and Southern Power Company who made great advances in the businesses of tobacco and hydroelectric power.

land grant

a tract of land given by the government, as for colleges or railroads.

standard time zones

A condition created by the railroad companies because efficient RR transportation needed to be regulated and directed

vertical integration

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

horizontal integration

An act of joining or consolidating with ones competitors to create a monopoly. Rockefeller was excellent with using this technique to monopolize certain markets. It is responsible for the majority of his wealth.

trust

A monopoly that controls goods and services, often in combinations that reduce competition.

interlocking directorates

A board of directors, the majority of whose members also serve as the board of directors of a competing corporation

plutocracy

society ruled by the wealthy

injunction

A judicial order to a party to do or stop doing something

company town

A town or city in which most or all real estate, buildings (both residential and commercial), utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company.

Social Darwinism

A description often applied to the late 19th century belief of people such as Herbert Spencer and others who argued that "survival of the fittest" justifies the competition of laissez-faire capitalism and imperialist policies.

"survival of the fittest"

Process by which individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called natural selection

scabs

Stirkebreakers hired by employers as replacement workers when unions went on strike

lockout

When management closes the doors to the place of work and keeps the workers from entering until an agreement is reached

yellow dog contract

an agreement some companies forced workers to take that forbade them from joining a union. This was a method used to limit the power of unions, thus hampering their development.

blacklist

A list circulated among employers containing the names of persons who should not be hired

nonproducers

Bankers and merchants; use connections to increase wealth to the disadvantage of producers (farmers/artisans); Whigs; Federal economic development include tariffs, national bank, and internal improvements; bankers, businessmen, farmers in good regions, wealthy planters;

anarchists

people who oppose all forms of organized government

socialism

A system in which society, usually in the form of the government, owns and controls the means of production.

craft union

union made up of skilled workers in a specific trade or industry

closed shop

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

Union Pacific Railroad

Congress commissioned this railroad to push westward from Omaha, Nebraska to California

Central Pacific Railroad

A railroad that started in Sacramento , and connected with the Union Pacific Railroad in Promentary Point, Utah

Crédit Mobilier

a joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was involved in a scandal in 1872 in which high government officials were accused of accepting bribes.

Pullman Palace Cars

luxury passenger cars that were built and were very popular for travelers

Grange

an association formed by farmers in the last 1800s to make life better for farmers by sharing information about crops, prices, and supplies

Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois

A Supreme Court decision that severely limited the rights of states to control interstate commerce. It led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Mesabi Range

A section of low hills in Minnesota owned by Rockefeller in 1887, it was a source of iron ore for steel production.

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.

Bessemer process

A way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron to quickly remove impurities.

United States Steel

Created by J.P. Morgan from Carnegie's holdings; became the first billion dollar Corporation

Gospel of Wealth

This was a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy.

Sherman Anti-Trust 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

American Tobacco Company

A company formed by the Duke family of Virginia after the invention of a machine for rolling cigarettes. The invention of the machine and the growing popularity of cigarettes provided a market for the company's ready-made cigarettes. Tobacco was the one industry that the South dominated in the late 19th century.

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

National Labor Union

The first large-scale U.S. union; founded to organize skilled and unskilled laborers, farmers, and factory workers.

Knights of Labor

Led by Terence V. Powderly; open-membership policy extending to unskilled, semiskilled, women, African-Americans, immigrants; goal was to create a cooperative society between in which labors owned the industries in which they worked

Haymarket Square

Labor disorders had broken out and on May 4 1886, the Chicago police advanced on a protest; alleged brutalities by the authorities. 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.