The Machine Age (1877-1900) Flashcards
Age of Invention
Last quarter of the nineteenth century
Many technological advances made that generated greater opportunities for mass production
Thomas A. Edison
Invented the light bulb
Led to widespread electricity and power plants
Allowed for the extension of the work day
Economies of Scale
Concept that the lower the cost, the cheaper the product. The cheaper the product, the more they sold. And buying raw materials in bulk for less money
Corporate consolidation
Government made little effort to regulate the rapid economic growth, giving no restraint to companies. Businesses followed the path that led to greater economies of scale, which meant larger and larger business
Holding company
Owned enough stock in various companies to have a controlling interest in the production if raw material, the means of transporting that material too a factory, the factory itself, and the distribution network for selling the product.
Monopoly
Complete control of an entire industry
Horizontal integration
Created monopolies within a particular industry
Several smaller companies within the same industry are combined to form one larger company, either by being bought out legally or by being destroyed through ruthless business practices such as cutthroat competition or pooling agreements
Standard Oil John D. Rockefeller
Vertical integration
One company buys out all the factors of production, from raw materials to finished product.
Problems with monopolies
Rapid growth required lots of money -> borrowed lots of money -> bank failures if the business failed
One major financial panic per decade
Lower class suffered the most
Monopolies created extremely powerful men whose interests clashed with those of the rest of society
Public resentment increased
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890
Public pressure and resentment led to the passage of this law forbidding any “combination…or conspiracy in the restraint of trade”
Wording too ambiguous - allowed the pro-business Supreme Court to rule as it saw fit
Labor unions declared illegal, thought to be “in restraint of free trade”
Loophole closed with Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914
Andrew Carnegie
Steel mogul who promoted Social Darwinism
Wrote the gospel of wealth
Lacked consistency - argued against government regulation but supported all types of government assistance in business
Gospel of Wealth
Andrew Carnegie’s philosophy that great wealth brought with it social responsibility. He advocated philanthropy, but not charity. Argued that the concentration of wealth among a few was the natural and most efficient result of capitalism
Ways manufacturers cut costs and minimized profits
Hired women, children and newly arrived immigrants who were anxious for work. Paid as little as possible -> poverty and crime in cities
Factories were dangerous
Mass transportation
Expansion of railroad lines, streetcars, and subways allowed the middle class to live in nicer neighborhoods away from the cities, making cities more impoverished with immigrants
Ethnic neighborhoods
Tenement areas where immigrants settled to avoid prejudice
Black and Latino migrants had it worst
Political bosses
Politically corrupt men who helped uh poor find homes and jobs and apply for citizenship and voting rights. They built parks, funded auxiliary police and fire departments, and constructed railroads and sewage lines. In return, they expected community members to vote as they were instructed. Occasionally, they required “donations” to help find community projects
Political machines
The organizations run by political bosses
Rendered services that communities would not otherwise have received. However, because the bosses resorted to criminal means to accomplish their goals, the cost of their service was high
Labor unions of the late 1800s
Considered radical organizations by many, and the government was weary of them
Businesses and the courts were openly hostile toward them
Tried to counter the poor treatment of workers
Knights of labor
One of the first national labor unions
Founded in 1869 by Uriah Stephens
Organized skilled and unskilled workers from a variety of crafts into a single union
Goals:
1. 8 hour work day
2. Equal pay for equal work for men and women
3. Child labor laws, including the prohibition of working under 14
4. Safety and sanitary codes
5. Federal income tax
6. Government ownership of railroad and telegraph lines
Terrence Powderly
Leader of the knights of labor who led a series of unsuccessful strikes that led to the declining popularity of the Knights
Americans began to associate unions with violene
Haymarket Square Riot
1886 labor demonstration where a bomb went off, killing police. Many blamed the incident on the influence of radicals in the labor union movement, although no one knew who set of the bomb
Samuel Gompers
Led the American Federation of Labor
Realized that his union could gain more power if it excluded unskilled workers
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Avoided larger political questions and consent rated on “bread and butter issues” such as higher wages and shorter work days
Formed as a confederation of trade unions - didn’t allow unskilled workers
Refused to accept immigrants, blacks and women
Settlement houses
Charitable middle class organizations, usually run by women, were getting frustrated by the governments slow pace
Founded and moved to settlement houses in poor neighborhoods
Became community centers, providing schooling, child care, and cultural activities
Jane Addams
Founded the Hull House in Chicago
Provided English lessons for immigrants, day care for children of working mothers, child care classes for parents, and playgrounds for children
Campaigned for increased government services in the slums
Awarded the Nobel peace prize 1931
Wealthy and middle class luxuries
Sports, high theater, variety acts, and movies became popular diversions.
Large segments of the public began to read popular novels and newspaper
Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst
Responsible for the growth of the newspaper industry
Understood the commercial value of bold, screaming headlines and lurid tales of scandal
Yellow journalism
New style of sensational reporting under Pulitzer and Hearst
Share cropping
Landless farmers, both white and black, after the civil war, rented land and borrowed what they needed for farming and promised a portion of their crop as collateral
Crop lien system
Method by which landless black and white sharecroppers rented land. It was designed to keep the poor in constant debt.
Jim Crow laws
Towns and cities passed discriminatory laws as the federal government exerted less influence over the states
Supreme Court ruled that the 14th amendment didn’t protect blacks from discrimination by privately owned businesses and that blacks have to seek protection from the states
Civil rights cases 1883
Reversed the civil right act of 1875, thus opening the door to legal (de jure) segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson
1896 Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” facilities for the different races were legal
Set back civil rights gains
Booker T. Washington
Accommodationist
African Americans need to prove themselves before being accepted into society - refused to press for immediate equal rights
Promoted economic independence as the means by which blacks could improve their lot
Atlanta Compromise speech 1895
Transcontinental railroad
1863-1869 former farmers, immigrants, freed slaves and civil war veterans built it
Privately owned, but built largely at the publics expense through direct funding and substantial grants of land to the railroads
Massive hunts for buffalo (as a nuisance) destroying Native American source
Transformed depot towns into vital cities by connecting them
Easier, faster travel -> more contact with ideas from the east
Accelerated the industrial revolution
“Railroad time” - first standardized method of time telling with time zones
Little Big Horn
Tribes angry about buffalo extermination
Battle won by native Americans
George Custer met his death
Frederick Jackson Turner
Thesis that the frontier was significant in shaping the American character, defining the American spirit, fostering democracy, and providing a safety valve for economic distress in urban, industrial centers by providing a place to which people could flee
Homestead Act
Passed 1862
Offered 160 acres of land to anyone who would “homestead” it for five years
Giving away land that belonged to native Americans
Private speculators and railroad companies often exploited the law for their own personal gain
Morrill Land Grant Act
Set aside land and provided money for agricultural colleges
Eventually agricultural science became a huge industry in the United States
Dawes Severalty Act
1887
Broke up reservations and distributed some of the land to the head of each Native American family. The allotment was 160 acres of land. This time, however, it was required that the family live on that land for 25 years, after which time the land was legally theirs, and they would get American citizenship
Goal was to accelerate the assimilation of Native Americans into western society by integrating them more closely with whites
Gilded Age
Term coined by Mark Twain - shiny on the outside but actually a cheap base
America seemed to be prospering, with a handful of families having amassed unprecedented wealth, but the affluence of a few was built on the poverty of many
