APUSH Chapter 17 Vocab – Flashcards
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Homestead lockout
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1892 lockout of workers at the Homestead, Pennsylvania steel mill after Andrew Carnegie refused to renew the union contract
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Management revolution
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An internal management structure adopted by many large, complex corporations that distinguished top executives from those responsible for day to day operations and departmentalized operations by function
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Vertical integration
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A business model in which a corporation controlled all aspects of production from raw materials to packaged products; "Robber barons" or industrial innovators such as Gustavus Swift & Andrew Carnegie pioneered this business from at the end of the Civil War
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Horizontal integration
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Business concept incented in the late 19th century to pressure competitors and force rivals to merge their companies into a conglomerate; John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil pioneered this business model
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Trust
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A small group of associates that hold stock from a group of combined firms, managing them a single entity;
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Deskilling
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The elimination of skilled labor under a new system of mechanized manufacturing, in which workers completed discrete, small-scale tasks rather than crafting an entire product; employers found they could pay workers less and replace them more easily with this
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Mass production
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Praise coined by Henry Ford, who helped to invent a system of mass production of goods based on assembly of standardized parts; this accompanied the continued deskilling of industrial labor
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Scientific management
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A system of organizing work developed by Frederick W. Taylor in the late 19th century; was designed to coax maximum output from the individual worker, increase efficiency, and reduce production costs
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Chinese Exclusion Act
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1882 law that barred Chinese laborers from entering the U.S.; it continued in effect until the 1940's
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Great Railroad Strike of 1877
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Nationwide strike of thousands of railroad workers and labor allies, who protested the growing power of railroad corporations and the steep wage cuts imposed by railroad managers amid a severe economic depression that had begun in 1873
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Greenback-Labor Party
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National political movement calling on the government to increase the money supply in order to assist borrowers and foster economic growth; these followers also called for greater regulation of corporations and laws enforcing an eight hour work day
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Producerism
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The argument that real economic wealth is create by workers who make their living by physical labor, such as farmers and craftsmen, and that merchants, lawyers, bankers, and other middlemen unfairly gained their wealth from such "producers"
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Granger Laws
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Economic regulatory laws passed in some Midwestern states in the late 1870's, triggered by pressure from farmers and the Greenback-Labor Party
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Knights of Labor
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The first mass labor organization created among America's working class; founded in 1869, peaked to strength in mid 1880's, they attempted to bridge boundaries of ethnicity, gender, ideology, race, and occupation to build a "universal brotherhood" of all workers
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Anarchism
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The advocacy of a stateless society achieved by revolutionary means; became scapegoats for the 1886 Haymarket Square bombing
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Haymarket Square
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The May 4, 1886 conflict in Chicago in which both workers and policemen were killed or wounded during a labor demonstration called by local anarchists; created a backlash against all labor organizations, including the Knights of Labor
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Farmers' Alliance
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Rural movement founded in Texas during the depression of the 1870's that spread across the plains states and the South; advocated cooperative stores and exchanges that would circumvent middlemen, and it called for greater government aid to farmers and stricter regulation of railroads
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Interstate Commerce Act
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1887 act that created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), a federal regulatory agency designed to oversee the railroad industry and prevent collusion and unfair rates
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Closed shop
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Workplace in which a job seeker hat to be a union member to gain employment; was advocated by craft unions as a method of keeping out lower-wage workers and strengthening the unions' bargaining position with employers
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American Federation of Labor
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Organization created by Samuel Gompers in 1886 that coordinated the activities of craft unions and called for direct negotiation with employers in order to achieve benefits for skilled workers
