Chapter 17: The Rise of Industrial America 1865-1900

Question 1

Trunk Lines

Answer 1

The major route between large cities; smaller branch lines connected the trunk lines with outlying towns
~Vanderbilt (“Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt) used his millions to merge local railroads to the New York Central Railroad

Question 2

Crédit Mobilier

Answer 2

Insiders gave stock to influential members of Congress to avoid investigation of the profits they were making from government subsidies for building the transcontinental railroad
~As high as 348%

Question 3

Union Pacific

Answer 3

Railroad company chartered to build the eastern half of the transcontinental railroad
~Was to build westward across the Great Plains starting from Omaha, Nebraska

Question 4

Central Pacific

Answer 4

Railroad company chartered to build the western half of the transcontinental railroad
~Took on the formidable challenge of laying track across mountain passes in the Sierra Nevadas by pushing eastward from Sacramento, California

Question 5

Southern Pacific

Answer 5

Another transcontinental railroad constructed across the West
~Tied New Orleans to Los Angeles

Question 6

Northern Pacific

Answer 6

Another transcontinental railroad constructed along the West

~Connected Duluth, Minnesota with Seattle, Washington

Question 7

Jay Gould

Answer 7

A speculator who went into the railroad business for quick profits and made millions by selling off assets and watering stock

Question 8

Watering Stock

Answer 8

Inflating the value of a corporation’s assets and profits before selling its stock to the public

Question 9

Pools

Answer 9

An attempt by railroaders to increase their profits

~Competing companies agreed secretly and informally to fix rates and share traffic

Question 10

JP Morgan

Answer 10

Banker who moved in to take control of the (now) bankrupt railroads and consolidated them
~With competition eliminated they could stabilize rates and reduce debts
~Created regional railroad monopolies

Question 11

William Vanderbilt

Answer 11

Inherited his father’s (Cornelius Vanderbilt) transportation empire

Question 12

Henry Bessemer/William Kelly

Answer 12

Discovered that blasting air through molten iron produced high-quality steel
~Able to produce large quantities of steel

Question 13

Andrew Carnegie

Answer 13

A shrewd business genius who gained leadership of the fast-growing steel industry
~Began manufacturing steel in Pittsburgh and soon outdistanced his competitors by a combination of salesmanship and use of the latest technology
~Employed a business strategy known as vertical integration
~Carnegie Steel climbed to the top of the steel industry

Question 14

Vertical Integration

Answer 14

A company would control every stage of the industrial process: from mining raw materials to transporting the finished product

Question 15

U.S. Steel

Answer 15

The first billion dollar company and the largest enterprise in the world
~Controlled over 3/5 of the nation’s steel business

Question 16

John D. Rockefeller

Answer 16

Founded a company that would come to control most of the nation’s oil refineries by eliminating its competition
~Applied latest technologies and efficient practices
~His company Standard Oil Trust controlled 90% of the oil refinery industry

Question 17

Standard Oil

Answer 17

Rockefeller’s oil refinery company who owned the monopoly on oil refineries
~Able to keep prices low for their consumers due to the monopoly

Question 18

Trusts

Answer 18

Consists of the various companies acquired all managed by a board of trustees the main company controlled

Question 19

Horizontal Integration

Answer 19

Where former competitors were brought under a single corporate umbrella

Question 20

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

Answer 20

Prohibited any “contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce”
~Unable to stop the development of trusts

Question 21

United States v. E.C. Knight & Co. (1895)

Answer 21

Court ruled that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act could not be applied only to commerce, not manufacturing
~The U.S. Department of Justice secured few convictions until the law was strengthened in the Progressive Era

Question 22

Laissez-Faire

Answer 22

If a government kept its hands off the economy, businesses would be motivated by their own self-interest to offer improved goods and services at low prices

Question 23

Herbert Spencer

Answer 23

Influential Social Darwinist who thought Darwin’s survival of the fittest should be applied to the marketplace
~Englishman
~Concluded that the concentration of wealth in the hands of the “fit” was a benefit

Question 24

William Graham Sumner

Answer 24

American Social Darwinist who taught at Yale
~Argued that help for the poor was misguided because it interfered with the laws of nature and would only weaken the evolution of the species by preserving the unfit

Question 25

Gustavus Swift

Answer 25

Used refrigerated railroad cars and canning to change the eating habits of Americans
~Mass produced meat and vegetable products

Question 26

Horatio Alger

Answer 26

Author who publicized the growing class distinctions by romanticizing the American dream
~Each Alger novel portrayed a young man of modest means who became rich and successful through honesty, hard work, and a little luck
~Rags to Riches stories like Andrew Carnegie’s were unusual

Question 27

Black List

Answer 27

Tactic used by employers to defeat the Unions

~Names of pro-union workers circulated among employees

Question 28

Yellow Dog Contracts

Answer 28

Tactics used by employers to defeat the Unions

~Workers being told, as a condition for employment, that they must sign an agreement to not join a Union

Question 29

Great Railroad Strike (1877)

Answer 29

Railroad companies cut wages to reduce the costs
~Strike that spread across 11 states and shut down 2/3 of the country’s rail trackage
~First strike to be put down using federal troops; violent
~Employers addressed some of the worker’s demands while others took a hard line by busting worker’s organizations

Question 30

National Labor Union

Answer 30

First attempt to organize ALL workers in all states
~Championed the goals of higher wages and the eight hour day
~Wanted equal rights for women and blacks, monetary reform, and worker cooperatives
~Lost support after unsuccessful strikes of 1877
~Won stand on 8 hour day

Question 31

Knights of Labor

Answer 31

A second national labor union which began as a secret society in order to avoid detection by employers

Question 32

Terrence v. Powderly

Answer 32

Led the Knights of Labor, took the union public
~Opened its membership to all workers, including Africans and women
~Advocated a variety of reforms:
1. Worker cooperatives to make each man his own employer
2. Abolition of child labor
3. Abolition of trusts and monopolies

Question 33

Haymarket Square (1886)

Answer 33

The place where protesters threw a bomb into a sea of police officers, killing 7
~Bomber never found
~Led to decline of unions due to the view that they were radical

Question 34

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Answer 34

Concentrated on attaining practical economic goals

~Did not advocate a reform program to remake American society

Question 35

Samuel Gompers

Answer 35

Led the American Federation of Labor
~Went after the basics of higher wages and improved working conditions
~He directed his local unions of skilled workers to walk out until the employers agreed to negotiate a new contract through collective bargaining

Question 36

Henry Clay Fricke

Answer 36

The manager of Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Plant near Pittsburgh
~Precipitated a strike in 1892 by cutting wages by nearly 20%
~Used the weapons of the lockout, private guards, and strike breakers to defeat the steel workers’ walkout after five months

Question 37

Homestead Strike (1892)

Answer 37

Strike at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Plant

~Set back the union movement

Question 38

Pullman Strike

Answer 38

Manufacturers of the sleeping cars
~Caused by Pullman’s announcement of lower wages
~The boycott tied up railroad transportation across the country

Question 39

Eugene V. Debs/In Re Debs (1895)

Answer 39

The American Railroad Union leader/Supreme Court approved the use of court injunctions against strikes
~Gave employers major power to break the unions