2.1-2.6 BOOBAK

originally created by Quinton Smith

Second Industrial Revolution

A period of rapid growth in U.S. manufacturing in the late 1800s after the Civil War.

Gross National Product (GNP)

The total value of all goods and services produced by a country's economy in a given year. It includes all goods and services produced by corporations and individuals of a country, whether or not they are located within the country.

Erwin Drake

The first to successfully drill for oil in the US.

Thomas Alva Edison

Inventor of the light bulb.

George Westinghouse

Creator of the alternating current system.

Cyrus Field

American businessman who laid the first telegraph wire across the Atlantic. This cut down the time it took for a message to be sent from Europe to American and vice-versa.

Alexander Graham Bell

Inventor of the telephone.

Thaddeus Lowe

Inventor of the ice machine, which allowed goods to be shipped faster with less risk of food poisoning.

Gustavus Swift

Creator of the refrigerated railroad car.

Christopher Sholes

Inventor of the typewriter.

Josephine Cochrane

Inventor of the automatic dishwasher.

George Eastman

Inventor of the Kodak camera, the first handheld camera.

Frank & Charles Duryea

Builders of the first gas-powered carriage.

Corporation

A business owned by stockholders who share in its profits but are not personally responsible for its debts.

Stockholder

An owner of one or more shares of a corporation.

Economies of Scale

The property whereby long-run average total cost falls as the quantity of output increases.

Eli Whitney

Inventor of the cotton gin and developer of the concept of interchangeable parts.

Interchangeable Parts

Identical components that can be used in place of one another in manufacturing.

Laissez-faire

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

Consumers

Those who buy goods and services.

Pools

Agreements between companies to maintain prices at a certain level.

Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie Steel creator after Henry Bessemer taught him a way to make steel cheaply.

Henry Bessemer

Englishman who developed the first efficient method for the mass production of steel.

Vertical Integration

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

Horizontal Integration

Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level.

John D. Rockefeller

Established the Standard Oil Company. Used horizontal integration.

Monopoly

The exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.

Trust

A combination of firms or corporations formed by a legal agreement, especially to reduce competition.

Trustee

The people that are a part of a trust.

Holding Company

A company whose primary business is owning a controlling share of stock in other companies.

Investors

Groups of individuals who invest their money in various types of companies in search of making a profit.

N.W. Ayer and Son

The pioneer and creator of the large illustrated ad in magazines or newspapers to draw in consumers to a product or store.

John Wanamaker

United States businessman whose business grew into one of the first department stores.

Department Store

A large retail store organized into departments offering a variety of merchandise.

Mail Order Catalog

A publication that contains pictures and descriptions of items so that people can order by mail. Commonly used by Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck, and Co.

Montgomery Ward

Former American department store chain, founded as the world's first mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward.

Sears, Roebuck, and Co.

Retailer who dominated the mail-order industry and by 1907 had become one of the largest business enterprises in the nation; the Sears catalog helped create a truly national market.

Pacific Railway Act

1862 legislation to encourage the construction of a transcontinental railroad, connecting the West to industries in the Northeast (Union Pacific and Central Pacific RR).

Union Pacific RR

Partial creators of the Transcontinental RR. Began creation of the Transcontinental RR in Omaha, Nebraska.

Central Pacific RR

Partial creators of the Transcontinental RR. Employed 10,000 Chinese workers, each paid ~$1 a day.

Promontory Summit, UT

The town where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific RR lines merged to create the Transcontinental RR.

May 10, 1869

The date of the creation of the Transcontinental RR.

Transcontinental RR

A train route across the United States, finished in 1869. It was the project of two railroad companies: the Union Pacific built from the east, and the Central Pacific built from the west. The two lines met in Utah.

Land Grants

Federally owned acreage granted to the railroad companies in order to encourage the building of rail lines.

Track Gauge

The width of a RR track. Became universalized by the federal government.

Time Zones

Divisions of Earth for time-keeping purposes. Originally created to increase efficiency and planning while building the Transcontinental RR.

Granville T. Woods

Inventor of the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph.

Jay Gould

A corrupt RR owner who manipulated stocks.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

This scandal occurred in the 1870s when a railroad construction company's stockholders used funds that were supposed to be used to build the Union Pacific Railroad for railroad construction for their own personal use. To avoid being convicted, stockholders even used stock to bribe congressional members and the vice president.

Robber Barons

Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price.

James J. Hill

Builder of the Great Northern RR and person whose goal it was to avoid and escape the stigma or robber baron through many of his actions.

Great Northern Railroad

Railroad that ran from Duluth to Seattle north of the Northern Pacific. It was the creation of a man named James J. Hill. It was the last of the transcontinental railroads of the 19th century. It was finished in 1893.

Free Enterprise

Economic system in which individuals and businesses are allowed to compete for profit with a minimum of government interference.

Entrepreneur

A person who organizes, manages, and takes on the risks of a business.

Tariff

A tax on imported goods.

Subsidies

A sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.

Sherman Antitrust 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.

Interstate Commerce Commission

Created by Congress in 1887, it is an organization that monitored railroad shipping rates and interstate trade via railroad. It was the first government organization that monitored business practices, however at its time of creation it held little power.

Wabash v Illinois

Supreme court ruling that states could not regulate interstate commerce.

Socialism

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

Eugene V. Debs

Head of the American Railway Union and director of the Pullman strike; he was imprisoned along with his associates for ignoring a federal court injunction to stop striking. While in prison, he read Socialist literature and emerged as a Socialist leader in America.

Theodore Roosevelt

26th president, known for: conservationism, trust-busting, Hepburn Act, safe food regulations, "Square Deal," Panama Canal, Great White Fleet, Nobel Peace Prize for negotiation of peace in Russo-Japanese War.

JP Morgan

Owner of Northern Securities, a RR holding company.

Northern Securities

RR holding company.

Northern Securities v United States

1904 Supreme Court ruling that dissolved the railroad company for establishing a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Trustbuster

Title given to Theodore Roosevelt.

Commerce Clause

The clause in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.

Interstate Commerce

Trade between two or more states.

United States v E.C. Knight

1895, Any action against manufacturing monopolies would have to be taken by the state. Sherman Anti-Trust Act did not prevent these.

United Mine Workers

An industrial union of mine workers in North America who wanted increased pay, reduced hours, and union recognition.

Arbitration

Settling a dispute by agreeing to accept the decision of an impartial outsider.

Dept. of Commerce and Labor

Department established by Roosevelt to deal with domestic economic affairs. Later split into two departments for better management.

Hepburn Act

This 1906 law used the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate the maximum charge that railroads to place on shipping goods.

Deflation

A decrease in the general level of prices and increase in the value of a currency.

Buying Power

Resources, such as money, goods, and services, that can be traded in an exchange.

Labor Union

An organization of workers that tries to improve working conditions, wages, and benefits for its members.

Craft Workers

Skilled laborers such as a carpenter or mechanist. Higher in demand.

Common Laborers

Workers who had few skills and little training.

Industrial Unions

Labor organizations of unskilled and semiskilled workers in mass-production industries such as automobiles and mining.

Blacklist

List of persons who were not hired because of suspected union ties. Shared among employers.

Lockout

A company tool to fight union demands by refusing to allow employees to enter its facilities to work.

Strike

To refuse to work in order to force an employer to meet certain demands.

Strike Breakers

Workers hired to do the work of striking workers until the labor dispute is resolved; called scabs by unions.

Karl Marx

Father of Communism.

Anarchism

A political theory favoring the abolition of governments.

Panic of 1873

Financial panic in which banks closed and the stock market crashed.

Recession

A slowdown in a nation's economy.

Baltimore v Ohio RR

RR who announced a 3rd pay cut in 1877, sending the workers into a strike that spread nationwide. Over 100 died after President Rutherford B. Hayes told federal troops to restore order.

Rutherford B. Hayes

19th President of the United States.

Knights of Labor

Labor union that sought to organize all workers and focused on broad social reforms.

Terrence Powderly

Leader of the Knights of Labor.

Chicago Haymarket Square Riot

A nationwide strike occurred on May 1, 1886. On May 3, police opened fire on one of the places where the strike was occurring, killing 4. The next day, ~3,000 people gathered in Chicago's Haymarket Square.

Homestead Steel Factory

A Pittsburgh steel factory whose workers began a strike to protest a 20% wage cut.

Pinkerton Detectives

A hired army used to control the Homestead Strike.

Henry Clay Frick

Manager of the Carnegie Steel plant outside of Pittsburgh, PA who barricaded the plant and hired armed Pinkerton guards to attack striking workers.

Pullman Palace Car Company

Car company who cut workers' wages, causing the American Railway Union to go on strike.

American Railway Union

Union of railway workers.

Injunction

An order which legally prevents something.

Coal Creek War

Started when Coal Creek Mining Company began leasing prisoners for cheap labor, miners went on strike and prevented the prisoners from entering the mines; led to repeal of convict lease laws.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

A national organization of labor unions founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers.