Big Business and Organized Labor (APUSH CH. 20) – Flashcards
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Second Industrial Revolution
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(1871-1914) Involved development of chemical, electrical, oil, and steel industries. Mass production of consumer goods also developed at this time through the mechanization of the manufacture of food and clothing. It saw the popularization of cinema and radio. Provided widespread employment and increased production.
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Robber Barons
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Refers to the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price.
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Transcontinental Railroad
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Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west
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Captains of Industry
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Owners and managers of large industrial enterprises who wielded extraordinary political and economic power
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Alexander Graham Bell
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1876 - Invented the telephone.
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Thomas Edison
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American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.
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Andrew Carnegie
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A Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. By 1901, his company dominated the American steel industry.
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John D. Rockefeller
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American businessman - founder of Standard Oil Co. (major monopoly)
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J.P. Morgan
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A highly successful banker who bought out Carnegie. With Carnegie's holdings and some others, he launched U.S Steel and made it the first billion dollar corporation.
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Vertical Integration
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Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution
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Horizontal Integration
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Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level
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Trusts
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A group of separate companies that are placed under the control of a single Board of Directors. p.575
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Sherman Antitrust Act
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First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions
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Molly Maguires
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An active, militant Irish organization of farmers based in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal fields who are believed responsible for much violence
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Railroad Strike of 1877
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One of the worst outbreaks of labor violence erupted in 1877, during economic depression, when railroad companies cut wages in order to reduce costs. It shut down 2/3 of country's rail trackage. Strike quickly becoming national in scale. For the first time since 1830s federal troops used to end labor violence. More then 100 people killed.
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Sand Lot Incident
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After the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, a meeting held to show sympathy towards those who were on strike led to anti-Chinese riots
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Knights of Labor
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1st effort to create National union. Open to everyone but lawyers and bankers. Vague program, no clear goals, weak leadership and organization. Failed
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Haymarket Riot
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100,000 workers rioted in Chicago. After the police fired into the crowd, the workers met and rallied in Haymarket Square to protest police brutality. A bomb exploded, killing or injuring many of the police. The Chicago workers and the man who set the bomb were immigrants, so the incident promoted anti-immigrant feelings.
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American Federation of Labor
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1886; founded by Samuel Gompers; sought better wages, hrs, working conditions; skilled laborers, arose out of dissatisfaction with the Knights of Labor, rejected socialist and communist ideas, non-violent.
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Homestead Strike
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1892 steelworker strike near Pittsburgh against the Carnegie Steel Company. Ten workers were killed in a riot when "scab" labor was brought in to force an end to the strike.
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Eugene V. Debs
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Leader of the American Railway Union, he voted to aid workers in the Pullman strike. He was jailed for six months for disobeying a court order after the strike was over.
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Mother Jones
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Labor activist who was a member of the Knights of Labor union and who used publicity techniques to create awareness of the plight of mine workers and child laborers.
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IWW
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(Industrial Workers of the World) A labor organization for unskilled workers, formed by a group of radical unionists and socialists in 1905.
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Laissez faire
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Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs
