Protective Tariffs

Taxes that would make imported goods cost more than those made locally

Laissez-faire

Allowed businesses to operate under minimal government regulation

Patent

A grant by the federal government giving an inventor the exclusive right to develop, use, and sell an invention for a set period of time

Thomas Edison

Established a research laboratory and invented the light bulb; developed plans for central power plants to light entire sections of cities

Bessemer Process

Process for purifying iron, resulting in strong, but lightweight, steel

Impact of Electricity

Lit city streets and powered homes and factories, which extended the number of hours Americans could work and play

Impacts of the invention of steel

Made possible the building of skyscrapers, elevators, and suspension bridges

Reasons for technological and industrial growth

Vast supplies of natural resources, a growing workforce, capitalism encouraging entrepreneurs, and government policies encouraging free enterprise

Mass Production

System for turning out large numbers of products quickly and inexpensively

Corporation

A form of group ownership; investors lose no more than they originally invested in the business if it experiences economic problems; perfect solution to the challenge of expanding business

Monopoly

Complete control of a product or service by either buying out a company's competitor or driving them out of business

Cartel

Businesses making the same product agree to limit their production and keep prices high; worked to eliminate competition

John D. Rockefeller

Oil tycoon who made deals with railroads to increase his profits; one of the first businessmen to use the horizontal integration method

Horizontal Integration

System of consolidating many firms in the same business

Trust

Companies assign their stock to a board of trustees who combine them into a new organization

Andrew Carnegie

Steel tycoon who used vertical integration

Vertical Integration

Gaining control of the many different businesses that make up all phases of a product's development; allowed companies to reduce costs and charge higher prices to competitors

Social Darwinism

Wealth was a measure of one's inherent value and those who had it were the most "fit"

Technological Innovations

Electricity, communication (telegraph & telephone), steel production, and transportation (railroads)

Capitalism

Private individuals own all of the means of production

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

Created to oversee railroad operations; first federal body ever set up to monitor American business operations; could only monitor railroads that crossed state lines; could require the railroads to send their records to congress

Sherman antitrust Act

Outlawed any trust that operated "in restraint of trade or commerce among several states"

Sweatshop

Small, hot, dark, and dirty workhouse; employed mainly women who worked for long hours on machines making mass-produced items

Company Towns

Isolated communities near workplaces where laborers lived

Working Conditions in Factories

Very dangerous; workplaces were poorly lit, overheated, and badly ventilated; some workers lost their hearing

Collective Bargaining

Negotiating as a group for higher wages or better working conditions

Socialism

Economic and political philosophy that favors public, instead of private, control of property and income

Knights of Labor

Labor union founded by Uriah Smith Stephens; devoted to broad social reform such as replacing capitalism with workers' cooperatives

Terence V. Powderly

Took on the leadership of the knights in 1881; continued to pursue ideological reforms meant to lead workers out of the bondage of wage labor; encouraged boycotts and negotiation with employers

Samuel Gompers

Formed the AFL in 1886; set high dues for membership in the AFL to create a strike and pension fund to assist workers in need

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Craft union that focused on workers' issues such as wages, working hours, and working conditions; often called a "bread and butter" union; opposed women members because Gompers believed they drove wages down

Effects of Haymarket Square

The knights of labor eventually disappeared, employers became more suspicious of union activities, and they associated them with violence

Homestead Strike (1892)

Workers' wages were cut causing them to go on strike in which Henry Frick brought in the Pinkertons, killing several strikers

Pullman Strike (1893)

Pullman Palace Car Company laid off workers and reduced wages by 25%; George Pullman required workers to live in the company town and controlled their rents and the prices of goods; he fired three workers and shut down the plant

Eugene V. Debs

Led the American Railway Union in which he grouped all railroad workers together rather than separating them by the job they held; organized a strike against Pullman and refused to end it, causing him to be imprisoned