Back to AI Flashcard MakerHistory /Gilded Age Industry and Labor Movements
Homestead Lockout
The 1892 lockout of workers at the Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel mill after Andrew Carnegie refused to renew the union contract; the mill became a non-union mill
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Key Terms
Term
Definition
Homestead Lockout
The 1892 lockout of workers at the Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel mill after Andrew Carnegie refused to renew the union contract; the mill became a no...
management revolution
An internal management structure adopted by many large, complex corporations that distinguished top executives from those responsible for day-to-day o...
vertical integration
A business model in which a corporation controlled all aspects of production from raw materials to packaged products; pioneered by Gustavus Swift and ...
horizontal integration
A business concept invented in the late nineteenth century to pressure competitors and force rivals to merge their companies into a conglomerate; pion...
trust
A small group of associates that hold stock from a group of combined firms, managing them as a single entity; critics referred to giant firms like Sta...
deskilling
The elimination of skilled labor under a new system of mechanized manufacturing, in which workers completed discrete, small-scale tasks rather than cr...
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Homestead Lockout | The 1892 lockout of workers at the Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel mill after Andrew Carnegie refused to renew the union contract; the mill became a non-union mill |
management revolution | 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 |
vertical integration | A business model in which a corporation controlled all aspects of production from raw materials to packaged products; pioneered by Gustavus Swift and Andrew Carnegie |
horizontal integration | A business concept invented in the late nineteenth century to pressure competitors and force rivals to merge their companies into a conglomerate; pioneered by John D. Rockefeller |
trust | A small group of associates that hold stock from a group of combined firms, managing them as a single entity; critics referred to giant firms like Standard Oil as 'trusts' |
deskilling | 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 could pay workers less and replace them more easily |
mass production | A phrase coined by Henry Ford, who helped invent it, a system of production of goods based on assembly of standardized parts; this system accompanied the continued deskilling of industrial labor |
scientific management | A system of organizing work developed by Frederick W. Taylor in the late nineteenth century; designed to coax maximum output from the individual worker, increase efficiency, and reduce production costs |
Chinese Exclusion Act | The 1882 law that barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States; continued in effect until the 1940s |
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 | A 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 |
Greenback-Labor Party | A national political movement calling on the government to increase the money supply in order to assist borrowers and foster economic growth; also called for greater regulation of corporations and laws enforcing an eight-hour workday |
producerism | The argument that real economic growth is created by workers who make their living by physical labor, such as farmers and craftsmen, and that merchants, lawyers, bankers, and other middlemen unfairly gain their wealth from such 'producers' |
Gustavus Swift | A shrewd Chicago cattle dealer, saw that local slaughter houses lacked the scale to utilize waste by-products and cut labor costs, so he invented the assembly line; pioneered vertical integration and used predatory pricing to bring down his competitors |
John D. Rockefeller | Used ruthless business tactics to ensure the success of his petroleum business, called Standard Oil; had strong nerves, a sharp eye for able partners, and a genius for finance; went into the kerosene business and borrowed heavily to expand, and became Cleveland's leading refiner; succeeded through vertical integration and pioneered strategy a called horizontal integration; his lawyers created a new legal form called the trust |
Henry George | Wrote the book Progress and Property in 1879; warned that Americans had been too optimistic about the impact of railroads and manufacturing; believed that the emerging industrial order meant permanent poverty; proposed a federal 'single tax' on landholdings which helped encourage radical movements for economic reform |
Terrence Powderly | The leader of the Knights of Labor; warned that the abuse of liquor robbed as many workers of their wages as did ruthless employers |
Leonora Barry | A full-time women's organizer for the Knights of Labor; an Irish American widow who was forced into factory work after her husband's death, and became a labor advocate out of horror at the conditions she experienced on the job; she also investigated and exposed widespread evidence of sexual harassment on the job |
Granger laws | Economic regulatory laws passed in some midwestern states in the late 1870s, triggered by pressure from farmers and the Greenback-Labor Party |
Knights of Labor | The first mass labor organization created among America's working class; founded in 1869 and peaking in strength in the mid-1880s, they attempted to bridge boundaries of ethnicity, gender, ideology, race, and occupation to build a 'universal brotherhood' of all workers |
anarchism | The advocacy of a stateless society achieved by revolutionary means; feared for their views, they became scapegoats for the 1886 Haymarket Square bombing |
Haymarket Square | 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 |
Farmers' Alliance | A rural movement founded in Texas during the depression of the 1870s 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 |
Interstate Commerce Act | An 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 |
closed shop | A workplace in which a job seeker had 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 |
American Federation of Labor | 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 |
Andrew Carnegie | Arrived in America from Scotland as a poor 12-year-old in 1848; quickly worked his way up the Pennsylvania Railroad managerial ladder; failed as an iron manufacturer and decided to enter the steel industry, building a massive steel mill outside Pittsburgh with a Bessemer converter, making steel refining more efficient; implemented the Homestead Lockout |
Samuel Gompers | A Dutch-Jewish cigar maker whose family had emigrated to New York in 1863; leader of the American Federation of Labor; started working at age 10; gravitated to New York's radical circles, where he participated in lively debates about which strategies working men should pursue; hammered out a doctrine that he called pure-and-simple unionism, which limited union membership and worked towards simple goals |