USH Terms 2

• Capitalism & Socialism

  • Capitalism - an economic system in which factories, equipment, and other means of production are privately owned rather than controlled by the government

  • Socialism - a political theory that advocates ownership of the means of production, such as factories and farms, by the people rather than by capitalists and landowners

• Laissez Faire Economics

  • the idea that the free market, through supply and demand, will regulate itself if the government does not interfere

• Trust-Busting & the Sherman Antitrust Act

  • an 1890 federal law that outlawed trusts, monopolies, and other forms of business that restricted trade

• Factories & working conditions

  • Unsafe and unsanitary - child labor, excessive hours, dangerous conditions, low wages

• Tenements

  • Immigrant and urban poor housing

  • Cramped, unsanitary, poorly ventilated, poverty-stricken areas

• Labor Unions: Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor

  • Knights of Labor - first national union, founded by Uriah Stephens, included workers of any trade and skill, recruited women and African Americans, functioned as a secret society devoted to broadening social reform, disappeared in the 1890s after failed strikes

  • AFL - founded by Samuel Gompers, a loose organization of unions of skilled workers of specific crafts, focused on specific worker issues such as wage, hours, conditions, “bread and butter” union

• Haymarket Riot, Homestead & Pullman Strikes

  • Haymarket Riot - a violent clash in 1886 between union supporters and Chicago police that divided and weakened the labor movement

  • Homestead Strike - an 1892 Carnegie Steel plant workers' strike that was broken by the state militia and resulted in the union being shut out of the plant for four decades

  • Pullman Strikes - Pullman laid off workers and cut wages, didn’t reduce rents in his company town, workers sought help from ARU who ordered a nationwide strike against Pullman (no rails were worked on), federal militia stopped the strike because mail was affected

• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  • Someone dropped match/cigarette on top floor of factory → fire broke out and spread quickly because of textiles

  • Doors locked to prevent unionization → few means of escape, most women jumped to their deaths

  • Revealed poor and dangerous regulations and conditions

  • Factory owners were not penalized

• Ellis Island & Angel Island

  • Ellis Island - NY Harbor, mostly eastern and southern European immigrants, took a few days to process through

  • Angel Island - SF Bay, Asian immigrants, took weeks and even months to process through

• Push & Pull factors for immigration

  • Push - disease, collapsed economies, few economic opportunities, poverty, food shortages, discrimination, unstable govt, war

  • Pull - economic opportunities, religious freedom, democracy, freedom of expression, govt stability

• Ethnic neighborhoods

  • Communities where immigrants practiced their own customs, spoke native language, opened businesses, etc.

• Chinese Exclusion Act

  • Banned Chinese immigration for 10 years with exception of students, teachers, merchants, tourists, and govt officials

  • First ethnic group to be excluded from immigration based on race in the US

• Progressives & Muckrakers: Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Jane Addams

  • Progressives/muckrakers - people who favored/promoted change toward new ideas using the press to expose atrocities in society

  • Ida Tarbell - published writings on the rise of business monopolies and use of unfair practices → breakup of Standard Oil

  • Upton Sinclair  - published the Jungle, exposing poor/unsafe/unsanitary regulations in meatpacking/food industry, meant to help workers but also helped food regulations