Chapter 24 FRQ Test Flashcards
Main principles of Social Darwinism?
Survival of the fittest theories
Individuals won their stations in life by competing on the basis of their national talents
How did Gospel of Wealth deal with and justify the concentration of wealth?
Those who were wealthy were given riches by God, God trusted those morally responsible enough with money
How did Social Darwinists justify and deal with concentration of wealth?
Those who were wealthy demonstrated greater abilities than poor, and , “millionaires are a product of natural selection”
Who is involved with “what were the main principles of Gospel of Wealth and Social Darwinism? In what ways did they attempt to justify the concentration of wealth?”
Gospel of Wealth
Carnegie
Episcopal minister of Massachusetts who said, “the good lord gave me my money”
Social Darwinism
Theories by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner
Sumner said “the millionaires are a product of natural selection”
British laissez faire economist David Ricardo
Not so much Charles Darwin
When was what were the main principles of Gospel of Wealth and Social Darwinism? In what ways did they attempt to justify the concentration of wealth?”
Industrial time period, late nineteenth century
Know when, where, why, how which is…
In what ways
What were some of the main ways in which the government tried to deal with the trusts?
The government, at first, tried to deal with the trusts through state legislation, like they had previously done to curb the railroads. Again, failed, and appealed to Congress.
The Interstate Commerce Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act
How did the Interstate Commerce Act deal with monopolies?
Prohibiting rebates and pools, requiring railroads to publish their rates openly, forbidding unfair discrimination against shippers, outlawing charging more for a short haul than a long one over the same line
The Interastate Commerce Act dealt with monopolies by est the Interstate Commerce Comission (ICC) to administer and enforce the legislation that individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce
How did the Sherman Anti-Trust Act deal with monopolies?
Was established to go against monopolies and, when passed, forbade combinations in restraint of trade.
Was the Interstate Commerce Act successful?
It wasn’t a major victory of corporate wealth, but did allow competing business interests to resolve conflicts peacefully, and to prevent rate wars between railroads and outraged state legislators who attacked to confiscate them
Was she Sherman Anti-Trust Act successful?
It was unsuccessful because it didn’t distinguish between good trusts and bad trusts, and had legal loopholes that corporation lawyers were able to find, though it did end up (going away from its original intent) curbing labor unions or labor combinations that restrained trade
‘Who’ of Sherman Anti Trust Act, when
More trusts formed under President McKinley in the 1890s than any other period,
When-1890
Who and when of Interstate Commerce Act
When-1887
Who-passed against President Cleveland’s wants (he didn’t look kindly on legislation before it was passed)
Passed under pressure from oragnized agrarian groups like the Grange (Patrons of Husbandry), so many Midwestern legislators tried to regulate railroad monopoly
What were the main principles of the Gospel of Wealth?
The wealthy had to prove themselves morally responsible to be trusted with society’s riches.
What were some of the biggest challenges facing labor in the second half of the nineteenth century?
How corporations treated simple workers,
manual skills replaced originality and creativity so factories became depersonalized, bodiless, soulless, and usually conscienceless
New machines replaced many workers
Railroads brought in unemployed workers from all over the country and elsewhere, which beat down high wage levels
The employees were highly dispensable and replaceable, as employees could gain wealth through stockholders, get expensive lawyers, buy up local press, pressure politicians, import strikebreakers, and employ thugs to beat up local organizers
To lessen employees’ wages more, corporations had the power to call upon federal courts to order strikers to stop striking, and if the defiance continued, the corporations could have the state and federal authorities bring in troops, along with also having the power of thr procedure, the “lockout”, shutting rebellious workers out and starving them into submission
The companies could also make employees agree not to join a labor union, put them on a “black list” for fellow employers to see, and cause employees to go into perpetual debt to them
