• Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
Reading...
Front

Card Range To Study

through

image

Play button

image

Play button

image

Progress

1/24

Click to flip

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;

H to show hint;

A reads text to speech;

24 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Laissez-faire
Laissez-faire: It meant non-governmental interference in business. The doctrine favors capitalist self-interest, competition, and natural consumer preferences as forces leading to optimal prosperity and freedom.
Adam Smith
In The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, he believed that self-interest was an "invisible hand in the marketplace, automatically regulating the supply of and demand for goods and services." He endorsed a laissez-faire approach to economics and was the first to define the system of capitalism.
Andrew Carnegie
Carnegie decided to build his own steel mill in 1870. His philosophy was simple: "watch the costs and the profit will take care of themselves." At the age of 33, when he had an annual income of $50,000, he said, "beyond this never earn, make no effort to increase fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes."
Robber Barrons
They lined their pockets, these captains, or villains, of industry made their money by manipulating the stock markets and company policies. Some examples were Jay Gould, Hill, and John D. Rockefeller.
John D. Rockefeller
He is famous for his Standard Oil Company. He had a desire for cost cutting and efficiency. Rockefeller helped form the South Improvement Company in early 1872, which was an association of the largest oil refiners in Cleveland, and he arranged with the railroads to obtain substantial rebates on shipments by members of the association.
Horizontal consolidation
Within three years, the Standard Oil Trust had consolidated crude oil by buying throughout its member firms. It had slashed the number of refineries in half. Rockefeller integrated the petroleum industry horizontally by merging the competing oil companies into one giant system.
Vertical consolidation
Andrew Carnegie organized his steel mill in this fashion by owning or controlling a company or companies in each level of the industry. He controlled all aspects of manufacturing from mining to selling.
Thomas A. Edison
An American inventor, his development of a practical electric light bulb, electric generating system, sound-recording device, and motion picture projector had advanced the life of modern society. He shared the same dream as Carnegie to interconnect industry system with technology.
Bessemer process
The process consisted of a shot of air blasted through an enormous crucible of molten iron to burn off carbon and impurities. This new technology, combined with cost analysis, provided a learning railroad experience for Carnegie. This invention offered a means of driving up profits, lowering cost, and improving efficiency.
Stock Watering
This term referred to the act of issuing stock certificates far in excess of the actual value of the assets.
Pool
Competition became so vicious that railroads tried to end it by establishing pools in order to divide the traffic equally and to charge similar rates.
Trust
This was a legal device that centralized control over a number of different companies by setting up a board of trustees to run all of them.
Holding Companies
This is a corporation that owns a controlling share of the stock of one or more other firms.
SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT
Fearing that the trusts would stamp out all competition, Congress passed this in 1890, which outlawed trusts and other restraints of trade. Violators were fined up to five thousand dollars and one year in prison. It failed to define either trust or restraint of trade clearly. As a result, between 1890 and 1904, the government prosecuted only eighteen antitrust suits, and it was instead used to hinder the efforts of labor unions who acted "in restraint of trade."
National Labor Union
In 1866, acting on his dream of a nationwide association to represent all workers. Sylvis called a convention in Baltimore that created this organization. The organization supported the eight hour day movement, but also embraced banking reform.
KNIGHTS OF LABOR
This organization was founded in Philadelphia in 1869, and was led by Uriah Stephens, who was also the head of the Garment Cutters of Philadelphia. They welcomed all wage earners, and demanded equal pay for women, an end to child and convict labor, and cooperative employer-employee ownership. In their organization, they excluded bankers, lawyers, professional gambler, and liquor dealers.
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AFL)
Confronted by big business, Samuel Gompers and Adolph Strasser put together a combination of national crafts unions to represent the material interests of labor in the matter of wages, hours, and safety precautions. They demanded bargaining in labor contracts with large corporations such as railroads, mining, and manufacturing. They did not intend to have a violent revolution nor political radicalism.
Closed Shop
This is an agreement between a trade union and an employer which is a collective bargain. It provides that employees in the bargaining unit shall be union members and remain in good standing in the union as a condition of employment.
Blacklist
With the formation of labor unions, workers began to strike to obtain better conditions. However, employers noted employees that went on strike, which which made getting another job later much harder.
Yellow Dog Contract
This was an agreement forced upon workers keeping them from joining unions or striking.
Haymarket Square riot
Strikers and police had a confrontation while a strike was in progress on May 4, 1886, at the McCormick reaper works in Chicago. Several protesters were shot by police the day before, and a protest against police violence was called. The police were attempting to break up the meeting when a bomb was thrown. A violent gun battle ensued in which seven police were killed. Many police and civilians were injured as well.
Homestead Strike
Called in 1892 by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, it was one of the most violent strikes in U.S. history. It was in retaliation against wage cuts. On July 6, company guards and Pinkertons opened fire on the strikers after four months of striking, killing and wounding many strikers. The state militia dispersed the strikers.
American Railway Union
Created by Eugene V. Debs, it was created in a short-lived attempt to bring all of the railroad workers into one organization. It was involved in the 1894 Pullman Strike.
Pullman Strike
The American Railway Union and Eugene V. Debs led a nonviolent strike which brought about a shut down of western railroads, because of the poor wages of the workers. President Grover Cleveland interfered and stopped the strike by saying that they had interfered with the right of the government to maintain the uninterrupted transport of mail. Debs was arrested and the strike was broken up.