Cleveland to Harrison 1885 - 1893

Question 1

What was the Interstate Commerce Act?

Answer 1

In 1886, the Supreme Court held in Wabash v. Illinois that only Congress could regulate interstate shipping rates. By enacting the Interstate Commerce Act in 1886, Congress established the first regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission. Congress charged the Commission with ensuring that railroad rates were “reasonable and just.”

Question 2

President Grover Cleveland continued the process of civil service reform by making what announcement after his election in 1884?

Answer 2

Cleveland, a Democrat, announced that he would fire no Republican officeholder who was doing his job well. The announcement disappointed many Democrats, who had been out of office for decades.

Cleveland also reduced the size of several federal agencies, which had become bloated with inefficient appointees.

Question 3

Who were the Knights of Labor?

Answer 3

The Knights of Labor:

• Was the second large-scale national labor union, reaching a million members in the 1880s.
• Advocated for arbitration (rather than strikes) to:
• end disputes between workers and employers
• establish an eight-hour work day
• end child labor
• increase government regulation of business

Question 4

What event prompted the demise of the Knights of Labor?

Answer 4

During a Knights of Labor rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago, an unknown anarchist with ties to the Knights threw a bomb, which injured seven policemen.

Americans condemned the labor union movement, believing it too radical and prone to violence. Membership in the Knights of Labor plummeted and the union movement as a whole received a severe setback.

Question 5

In 1886, Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), a combination of craft unions that had one million members by the early 1900s. What did the AFL advocate?

Answer 5

Far more peaceable than the National Labor Union or the Knights of Labor, the AFL denounced violent revolutions and political radicalism. While the AFL used militant strikers, they sought a peaceful resolution of strikes through collective bargaining, in which all employees negotiated with management together.

The AFL achieved success in part because it represented hard-to-replace skilled labor, and workers could not be easily substituted by scabs.

Question 6

Who led the Apaches in their efforts to resist Army attempts to force them onto a barren reservation in the American Southwest?

Answer 6

Geronimo

Geronimo led Apache raids on both Mexican and American settlements for over 30 years. In 1886, Geronimo surrendered to U.S. troops after a long campaign.

Question 7

What Indian policy did the government establish in the Dawes Act of 1887?

Answer 7

The US government forced Native Americans to sell their “excess land”, oftentimes underpaying when purchasing land from them. To encourage them to sell their land, they promised Native Americans their citizenship but only if they sold their excess land.

By doing this, the US government was hoping to encourage them to farm the land, despite that most of the land was not suitable for farming.

Question 8

Define:

Merger

Answer 8

A merger is where two companies are joined into one, e.g. Company A and Company B are consolidated to form Company C.

Mergers were first used during the railway boom after the Civil War, as companies were consolidated to increase efficiency and to reduce duplication of railway lines.

Question 9

Define:

Interlocking directorates

Answer 9

An interlocking directorate takes place when a member of the board of directors of one company also serves on the board of directors of a competitor. By serving on both boards, the director is able to coordinate policy between the two, harming competition.

Often used by corporations during the late nineteenth century, interlocking directorates became illegal with the Clayton Act (1914).

Question 10

What was the Standard Oil Company?

Answer 10

The Standard Oil Company, under the control of John D. Rockefeller, was the largest oil producer in the United States in the late 1800s, with ownership of 95% of the market.

Rockefeller grew Standard Oil through the use of horizontal integration; stockholders of competitors sold their stock to Rockefeller, giving him control of their company. Using this tactic, Rockefeller then drove the price of oil down, forcing other competitors out of business.

Question 11

What is horizontal integration?

Answer 11

Horizontal integration is where a single person or trust owns virtually all of one aspect in the production process.

Horizontal integration is usually brought about by consolidating several smaller companies in the same field into one cooperating enterprise.

John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company controlled virtually all the oil refining capability in the United States in the late 1800s by using horizontal integration. The control of this crucial phase in the production of oil gave him power over the entire market for oil.

Question 12

How were corporate trusts used in the late 1800s to eliminate business competition?

Answer 12

Trusts were used to combine several smaller competitors into large business concerns, the resulting company being known as a “trust.” The tactic eliminated competition between the firms. Trusts existed in a number of industries, including sugar, whiskey, meat, leather, and tobacco.

Question 13

How did the rise in industrialism affect the upper class in the late nineteenth century?

Answer 13

As a whole, the amount of wealth in the hands of the upper class grew, as industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie amassed vast sums of wealth. Many of the wealthy were self-made men, having achieved great wealth in manufacturing or mining.

Question 14

After the Civil War, there was an exponential increase in manufacturing in the United States. How did this increase affect the middle class?

Answer 14

The middle class grew, as the companies in new industries needed white-collar workers, such as clerks, bookkeepers and salesmen.

There was also an increase due to the need for professional men who worked with the new industries, such as lawyers and accountants.

Question 15

What type of working conditions prevailed in the new factories during the late nineteenth century?

Answer 15

By modern standards, working conditions were atrocious in the new factories. Workers toiled for ten hours per day, six days a week, often in dangerous conditions. Deaths at the workplace were common in the absence of worker safety laws.

Low pay and an increase in prices of basic goods during and after the Civil War led women into the workforce to supplement familial income. Most working women found employment in textile mills or garment factories.

Question 16

What are company towns?

Answer 16

Company towns are towns in which most, if not all, the real estate and buildings are owned by a company that employs the populace of the town.

During the late nineteenth century, industrialists such as George Pullman, who owned most of the luxury railroad cars during this time, built company towns that provided workers with indoor plumbing, sewers, and gas heating. Workers in this town still had to pay the company for rent though. In this way, the company could also make money off of the workers too.

Question 17

Define:

Yellow dog contract

Answer 17

A yellow dog contract is an agreement between a worker and an employer that requires the worker to agree not to join a union. If the worker joins one, he would be automatically fired from the job.

Question 18

What pejorative term is applied to employees hired to replace striking workers?

Answer 18

Scabs

Scabs are often hired during a strike to keep a company’s production flowing, and can be used by a company to prolong and defeat a strike by the company’s workforce.

“Hey man, I don’t think the company is going to give us a raise because those scabs just went in there and took our jobs!”

Question 19

In the 1888 presidential election, Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland. What did Harrison and the Republicans advocate?

Answer 19

Harrison and the Republicans advocated a high tariff, which was favored by Northerners who wanted to protect American industry from less expensive foreign manufactured goods.

They also supported the free coinage of silver, which was popular among farmers and laborers.

Question 20

What did Andrew Carnegie argue in his essay Gospel of Wealth?

Answer 20

Carnegie argued that the wealthy had a duty to better society by aiding the poor. Carnegie did not, however, advocate merely providing the poor with money. Rather, Carnegie believed that it was the duty of the wealthy to provide means by which the poor could achieve success, such as by endowing free libraries, schools, and universities.

Question 21

What were the Ocala Demands?

Answer 21

In 1890, several regional farmers’ alliances gathered in Ocala, Florida, where they drafted the Ocala Demands. In part, the Demands advocated:

• increased federal regulation of the railroads
• an income tax
• lower tariffs
• silver currency
• a federally regulated banking system

The Ocala Demands were incorporated into the Omaha Platform, the founding document of the Populist Party.

Question 22

What is the name of photographer and social reformer Jacob Riis’s most influential work?

Answer 22

How the Other Half Lives

Published in 1890, How the Other Half Lives contained photographs of the living conditions in New York’s tenements and slums. The shock value of Riis’s photographs drew attention to the squalid living conditions of the “other half.”

Question 23

In 1890, Alfred Mahan wrote The Influence of Sea Power on History. What did Mahan argue?

Answer 23

The head of the United States Naval College, Mahan contended that any army would eventually succumb to a blockade and thus sea power, and not a strong army alone, was imperative for national survival.

Mahan’s work resulted in renewed enthusiasm for a strong U.S. Navy, which in the 1880s was weaker than the navies of countries such as Chile and Italy. A strong navy led to U.S. victories in the Spanish-American War, and the dispatch of the Great White Fleet.

Question 24

Who were the leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association?

Answer 24

The National American Woman Suffrage Association’s leaders were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

The Association was the result of the merger of the American Women’s Suffrage Association and the National Women’s Suffrage Association in 1890, and continued to advocate for the extension of voting rights for women.

Question 25

During the late 19th century, women were still denied a vote in most areas, but did achieve suffrage in what section of the country?

Answer 25

In many Western states, women received the right to vote, at least in presidential elections. Wyoming allowed women to vote in the territorial constitution in 1869, and continued to allow female suffrage after becoming a state. Utah followed suit as did Arizona, California, and other states within the next few decades.

Question 26

What vice did the Women’s Christian Temperance Union target?

Answer 26

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union targeted alcohol and by the late 1890s had almost half a million members. A related entity, the Anti-Saloon League, convinced 21 states to ban saloons and bars.

To appeal to men, female temperance workers championed the slogan, “Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.”

Question 27

How did Congress attempt to regulate the growth of trusts in 1890?

Answer 27

In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited all restraints of trade and unfair methods of competition. The new act was ambiguously written and rarely enforced by the government, so it did little to weaken the monopolies that crushed competition during the Gilded Age.

Question 28

Making good on their electoral promise, Republicans in Congress passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. What did the Act accomplish?

Answer 28

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 obligated the government to purchase a minimum amount of silver each month, reducing the supply of silver in the open market, and driving up its price.

Farmers hoped the Act would spur the economy and cause inflation, which would in turn enable farmers (many of whom were heavily in debt) to pay off their debt with less expensive dollars.

Question 29

In 1890, at the same time they passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, Congressional Republicans passed the McKinley Tariff. What did the Tariff establish?

Answer 29

The McKinley Tariff, proposed by future President William McKinley, increased tariff rates to almost 50%.

The McKinley Tariff was strongly supported by Republican protectionists, who advocated protecting American businesses and workers within the country by restricting or regulating trade with foreign nations.

Question 30

What was the “Billion-Dollar Congress”?

Answer 30

From 1889 to 1891, during the first two years of President Benjamin Harrison’s administration, Congress passed the first ever billion-dollar budget. The budget included pensions for non-combatants who had served in the Civil War, substantial increases in appropriations for the Navy, and other lavish spending.

Question 31

What was the Ghost Dance movement?

Answer 31

The Ghost Dance movement, which achieved its zenith in the 1890s, was an Indian spiritual movement that incorporated numerous Indian belief systems.

Viewed as a threat by most whites, the Ghost Dance movement was outlawed.

Question 32

What was the Battle of Wounded Knee?

Answer 32

The Battle of Wounded Knee took place in 1890, and was more of a massacre than a battle. On the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, U.S. soldiers killed 135 Sioux Ghost Dance practitioners.

Following the Wounded Knee massacre, the Ghost Dance movement ended.

Question 33

In 1891, two American sailors (who may have been drunk) were stabbed outside a bar in Valparaiso, Chile. How did President Harrison respond?

Answer 33

Harrison demanded that Chile apologize, but the Chileans refused and Harrison threatened war. Secretary of State James G. Blaine, who’d been severely ill, returned and calmed the situation. Chile agreed to pay nominal reparations.

Question 34

Two of the tactics used by employers to prevent unionization during the late 1800s were lockouts and blacklisting. What did these tactics entail?

Answer 34

A lockout is the opposite of a strike, whereby unionized workers are prevented from coming into the workplace.

Employers often shared the names of union agitators amongst themselves, with each agreeing not to hire the agitator, a tactic known as blacklisting.

Question 35

In 1892, workers at Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Mill went on strike when manager Henry Clay Frick announced a 20% reduction in wages. How did Frick respond to the strike?

Answer 35

Frick instituted a lockout and brought in scabs. When strikers attacked the scabs, Frick hired Pinkerton detectives, who worked as a type of private army. Frick ordered the detectives to remove the strikers. In the ensuing violence 16 workers died and 150 were injured.

To stop the violence, the governor of Pennsylvania ordered out the state militia, who joined the mill’s management in protecting scabs. The strike was crushed.

Question 36

What was the Populist Party?

Answer 36

Active during the late 19th century, the Populists fielded James G. Weaver as a Presidential candidate in 1892. The Populists sought to build a coalition of urban workers and farmers in the Midwest, and appealed to supporters of the Greenback Party, union workers, and those who belonged to the Farmers’ Alliance. Over one million voters cast ballots for Populist candidates in 1892, and Weaver carried four states.

As part of their 1892 platform, the Populists adopted the Ocala Declaration.

Question 37

What significant reforms did the Populists propose?

Answer 37

Drawing support from laborers, farmers, and reformers, the Populists proposed a graduated income tax, restrictions on immigration, public ownership of railroads, telephones and telegraphs, and the direct election of senators.

Prior to the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1912, senators were elected by state legislatures, rather than by the voters at large.

Question 38

In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner published his essay The Frontier in American History. What did Turner argue?

Answer 38

Turner argued that America’s success was due to the American Frontier.

As Americans moved west, each succeeding generation discarded elements of European political and social culture which were no longer valuable, such as established churches and a small group of landowners; becoming instead individualistic, independent, and less tolerant of hierarchy.

Question 39

What prompted the Pullman Strike in 1894?

Answer 39

Pullman was the largest maker of railroad cars in the country. In 1894 George Pullman announced a reduction in wages, but not a corresponding reduction in rents at the Pullman company town. Workers went on strike and sought the assistance of Eugene V. Debs, head of the American Railway Union.

Throughout the country, Debs instructed workers to refuse to load, link, or carry any train that had a Pullman car attached, and the nation’s transportation infrastructure ground to a halt.

Question 40

How did rail owners respond to the Pullman Strike of 1894?

Answer 40

The Pullman Strike of 1894 paralyzed the nation’s rail network, as workers refused to load, link, or carry any train with a Pullman car. Rail owners attached mail cars to the Pullman cars, and then claimed to the U.S. government that the strikers were blocking the mail, a violation of U.S. law.

With the approval of Grover Cleveland, rail owners sought and received an injunction from the courts, which required workers to stop striking. Workers and the American Railway Union leadership who refused (including Eugene V. Debs) were jailed.

Question 41

What did the Supreme Court hold in In re Debs (1895)?

Answer 41

Eugene V. Debs was the head of the American Railway Union, who had been arrested in the Pullman Strike of 1894 for violating a court injunction ending the strike. Debs argued that the use of court injunctions to stop strikes was impermissible. The Court disagreed, and justified the use of injunctions to avoid interruptions of interstate commerce during strikes.

The decision had two results:

• It tacitly allowed corporations to destroy labor unions through the use of the courts, and
• Debs concluded that more radical solutions were needed to assist labor, and turned to socialism.

Question 42

What were long drives?

Answer 42

Long drives were cattle drives. Cowboys guided huge herds of longhorns from cattle ranches in Texas, Colorado, and Nebraska to rail yards in Kansas, where they were shipped east to slaughterhouses.

The era of the long drives ended in the 1890s as railroads expanded their lines to cattle-ranching states.

Question 43

During the 1870s, most immigrants to the United States arrived from the countries of Northern Europe. During the 1880s and 1890s, from where did most European immigrants arrive?

Answer 43

Most new immigrants were from Italy, or were Jews from Eastern Europe.

Increasingly, these immigrants clustered in their own neighborhoods, such as Little Italy in Manhattan, or University City in St. Louis.