Poopy v12029309203920392093029302xInfinity

Union Pacific Railroad Company

Company selected by Congress in 1862 to build a transcontinential railraod starting in Omaha, Nebraska

Central Pacific Railroad Company

company responsible for laying track on the California-side of the transcontinental railroad

Big Four

The four chief financial backers of the Central Pacific Railroad, included Leland Stanford and Collis P. Huntington

Northern Pacific Railroad

The transcontinential railraod running from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, was completed in 1883

Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe

The transcontinential railroad running from Topeka to California, was completed in 1884

Southern Pacific Railroad

The transcontinential railroad stretching from New Orleans to San Francisco, was completed in 1884

Great Northern Railroad

The transcontinential railroad running from Duluth to Seattle, was completed in 1893 by James J. Hill.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

United States financier who accumulated great wealth from railroad and shipping businesses

Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company vs. Illinois

1886 supreme Court Case in which it was ruled that individual states could not regulate interstate comnmerce

Interstate Commerce Act

1887 act that prohibited rebates and pools, required railroads to publish their rates openly, forbade unfair discrimination against shippers, and outlawed charging more for a short trip than for a long trip over the same line.

Interstate Commerce Commission

Also known as ICC, created by the Interstate Commerce Act, meant to administer and enforce the new legislation

Alexander Graham Bell

Person who invented the telephone in 1876, revolutionzing the way in which Americans communicated

Thomas Alva Edison

Person who invented numerous devices; most well-known is the electric light bulb in 1879

Andrew Carnegie

Was the "steel king", earned lots of money ferom steal-making operations, was not a monopolist and dislikes monopolistic ttrusts

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company (oil baron) and became very wealthy

J. Pierpont Morgan

Banker who financed the reorganization of railroads, insurance companies, and banks, very wealthy

Vertical integration

The business concept of combining all phases of manufacturing into one organization

Horizontal integration

The business concept of allying with competitors to monopolize a given market, tactic of creating trusts used by Rockefeller

interlocking directorates

Tactic used by Morgan of putting people on the boards of directors of rival companies

Bessemer process

The process that simplified the steel production process and reduced the price of steel. The process involved blowing cold air on red-hot iron to ignite the carbon and eliminate impurities.

United States Steel Corporation

America's first billion-dollar corporation, made in 1901

Kerosene

First major product of the oil industery, made obselete by the electirc light bulb

internal combustion engine

engine that became the primary means of automobile propulsion in 1900, gave a great lift to the oil industry

Plutocracy

A government that is controlled by the wealthy

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

1890 act that forbade business activities that the government deemed non-competitive, and required government to investigate trusts, infeffective due to legal loopholes and making all large trusts suffer

American Tobacco Company

Company founded in 1890 by James Buchanan Duke after tobacco consumption increased due to machine-made cigarettes replacing hand-made cigarettes

Pittsburgh plus

Pricising system that economically discriminated the South in the steel industry, pressure was put to increase shipping rates then deposits of coal and iron was discovered in Birmingham

cotton textiles

Product that the South excelled in manufacturing, paid workers extremely low wages

ironclad oath

A contract that states workers would not join a labor union

National Labor Union

organized in 1866, lasted 6 years and attracted 600,000 members. The purpose of the union was to organize workers across different trades and challenge companies for better working conditions.

Colored National Labor Union

Labor union formed by black workers, could not work with the National Labor Union because the latter supported the Republican Party and it was supported by racist white unionists.

Knights of Labor

Labor union that took over after the National Labor Union died out in 1877, led by Terence V. Powderly, started as a secret society, sought to include all workers

Haymarket Square

Incident on May 4, 1886 where Chicago police tried to break up a protest against alleged police brutalities, someone threw a dynamite bomb, killing several people. 8 anarchists convincted, 5 sentenced to death, 3 went to jail, governer of Illinois John P. Altgeld pardoned the 3 in prison in 1892.

American Federation of Labor

Unioon founded in 1886 led by Samuel Gompers that fought for better wage,s, hours, and working conditions, only included skilled workers which drained the Knights of Labor of its members

closed shop

The idea in which an employer could only hire union employees and all of the employyed had to be in a union, supported by the American Federation of Labor