Gilded Age Unit Flashcards
NA leaders
Sitting bull (killed during arrest at ghost dance) and crazy horse: second Sioux war, destroyed cluster at little big horn Chief Joseph: lead nez percé into Canada Geronimo: ?
Helen hunt Jackson
Wrote century of dishonor to create sympathy for the native Americans (triggered Dawes act)
Wounded knee/ ghost dance
To Drive whites from ancestral land, 200 natives killed, including sitting bull. Marked end of Indian war
Dawes act
Divided tribal lands, if they stay in the land for 25 years and adopted the habits of civilized life they can gain citizenship
Morrill act
Sale of federal land grants to maintain farm and technical colleges
Mining Fronteir
California gold rush caused gold strikes
Placer mining
Industrial cities, environmental scars
Chinese exclusion act, miners tax
Cow herding and it’s downfall
Mexican vaqueros
90% of Cows died due to overgrazing, barbed wire cold and drought
Farmer probs
Poverty from
- northern domination in railroads and steel
- late start of industrialization
- poorly educated workforce
- blacks cut off from opportunity
Agriculture
-tenants/ share cropping
-cotton value went down
-cycle of debt and poverty
-Farmers southern alliance/colored farmers alliance
Political reforms to solve problems
Granger laws
-social and educational organization for farmers
Established cooperatives: businesses owned by farmers to help costs from middlemen
-no pools
-munn v Illinois: Supreme Court rules public businesses
Ocala platform
- direct election of us senators
- lower tariffs
- graduated income tax
- new federal controlled banking system
Booker t. And WEB DuBois
Booker t: economic opportunities for blacks (National Negro business league)
DuBois: uncompensated equality
Civil rights cases of 1883
Congress could not legislate against racial discrimination by citizens
Populists
- unlimited coinage if silver
- graduated income tax
- telegraph and phones owned by the gov
- loans and storage for farmers
- 8 hr day
Elections
-democrats= southwest
-republicans = north/ business
Democrats controlled house
Republicans controlled senate
Cleveland was the only democrat elected in this age, two non consecutive terms
Democrats= rum, Romanism and rebellion
Party loyalty + only big problem is tariffs
American protective association
Nativist society that openly prejudiced Roman Catholics
Halfbreeds/ stalwarts / mugwumps
Mugwumps: on the fence between democrats and republicans
Stalwarts: roscoe conkling
Halfbreeds: rivals of patronage, James g Blaine
Panics of ‘73 & ‘93 causes and effects
Cause: OVERSPECULATION by financiers, industry, pools, bias in freight rates, monopolies in railroads
Effects: bankruptcy, foreclosure, business failure
Tariffs
Republicans: pro tariff for business prosperity
Democrats: low tariff
McKinley tariff: raised tax in imports to 50%
Gold reserve lowered by Sherman silver purchase act, passed Wilson gordman tariff:
-moderate reduction in tariff rates
-2% income tax on incomes $2000+
Hull house
Started by Jane Addams teaching english to immigrants, early childhood education, taught industry and music
Civic volunteers
Thomas Nast
Cartoons exposing political problems
Boss tweed
Stole $200 million from new York’s taxpayers taking large chunks of graft
Interstate commerce act and ICC
ICA: first federal regulatory agency, established the ICC:
-could prosecute pools, rebates and other discriminatory practices
-anti monopoly
-railroads found it useful in curbing competition
-lost most cases
Wabash v Illinois: states couldn’t regulate interstate commerce
Sherman silver purchase act
Increased coinage of silver, but not enough to satisfy farmers
Pendleton civil service act
Applications for federal jobs would be based in scores of competitive examination
Sherman antitrust act
- No contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce
- at first it was used to control labor unions
- loosely enforced:
- US vs EC knight ruled it could commerce, but not manufacturing
McKinley tariff
raised tax in imports to 50%
Helped Cleveland win
National labor union
First big union
8hr day and child labor laws
-dies with panic of ‘73
Knights of labor
- no bankers, lawyers, or liquor salesmen
- social and economic reform
- does with haymarket riot
American federation of labor
Skilled labor
Bread and butter (hours, wages, conditions)
Most successful
How to end/ prevent union strikes
- private police/ violence
- court injunctions
- yellow dog contracts
- lockouts
- blacklists
Great RR strike
Cause: cuts in wages
Effects: violence spreads to cities so gov steps in
Hay market riot
Cause: push for 8 hr day and wages
Effects: knights die off with ideas that they have socialist/anarchist toes
Homestead strike
Cause: cuts in wages by Carnegie and henchman frick
Effects: private police use violence to end strike
Pullman strike
Cause: wages cut w/o decrease in company town costs
Effects: injunction of courts will end strike
Pools
Businesses divide land and decide not to compete in that area
Trust
Control stock of other companies, but do not own it (hold in trust)
Interlocking directorates
the strategic purpose of tying corporations together for economic advantage for the owners
Holding company
Holds another companies stock
Horizontal/vertical integration
Horizontal: controls all of one part of production, refineries
Vertical: controls all aspects from raw materials to distribution
Social darwinism
Survival of the fittest tied to wealth
Gospel of wealth
Rich people should use wealth for public good, (libraries, schools etc)
Inventors and inventions
Thomas Edison: lightbulb, phonograph, alkaline battery Glidden: barbed wire Bell: telephone Pillsbury: wheat milling Westinghouse: electric transformer
Railroads: transcontinental
Union Pacific went west from the plains while the central pacific pushed east from California through mountains.
Southern pacific: New Orleans to LA
Northern pacific: Duluth to Seattle
Santa Fe: Kansas City to LA
St. Paul to Seattle,
*great northern was the only one built without federal subsidies
Railroads: govt funding
Federal loans and land grants
- some more than x3 homestead act
- hasty and poor construction
- widespread gov corruption (credit mobilier)
- controlled a lot of western states
Transcontinental railroad scandal
Credit mobilier
Time zones
Railroad company divided America into 4 time zones
Railroad time = standard time
