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Chapter 14 Review Joe Puccio
Key Terms
1. Closed Shop
2. Depression
3. Recession
4. Cooperative
5. Blacklist
6. Anarchist
People To Identify
Jacob Coxey was a businessman and populist who wanted to pressure the federal government to help those hurt by the depression of 1893. To do this, he led “Coxey’s Army” on a slow march to the nation’s capital.
Eugene V. Debs founded the American Railway Union (ARU) and was jailed, without a jury trial. He sued and the case went to the Supreme Court where it was overturned by unanimous vote.
Henry Clay Frick was a plant manager at the Carnegie firm and was responsible for the Homestead strike.
Samuel Gompers was elected president of the AFL whose mission was to push for closed shops by using collective bargaining.
Oliver H. Kelley founded the Patrons of Husbandry which was dedicated to solving the problems facing farmers of the time.
Terence Powerly was a machinist. He joined the Knights of Labor in 1874 and five years later became its Grandmaster Workman. Unlike many other members, Powderly didn’t focus on better wages or shorter hours.
William Sylvis founded the National Labor Union (NLA). It was the first union to accept skilled and unskilled workers. The NLA was responsible for the 1882 ban on Chinese immigration.
Places To Locate
1. B
2. D
3. A
4. C
Reviewing the Facts
Some of the problems that led workers to unionize were caused by mandatory long work hours, pay cuts, and poor working conditions. Unionization helped workers by pressuring government and the business community to change labor policies.
The significance of the Haymarket Riot was that it failed to reach its intended goals and in fact, set the labor union movement back. It also caused unions to rethink their strategies, and in part, caused the end of the Knights of Labor.
The American Federation of Labor differed from the other unions in its strategies. It used collective bargaining to push for closed shops, which worked.
Most Americans opposed labor unionization in the late 1800’s because they felt that unions disturbed the peace. At that time, they also sympathized with business leaders who said that unions were an attempt to monopolize labor.
The Homestead Strike dealt a huge blow to unions in the steel industry. The Carnegie didn’t give a contract to a union for another 45 years. Also, although 20% of the workers were rehired after the strike, then were hired back at a reduced wage.
Farmers faced the issue of having to borrow money to survive between harvests. Additionally, then often lost their farms and/or were forced to switch to tenant farming. The underlying cause of these hardships were the steep railroad fees in rural areas and this prevent the farmers from being able to afford moving their crops to market. The fees often forced farmers to take out mortgages that they couldn’t pay back and many of them ended up losing their farms.
The Grange was a union of farmers. In many farming states it helped to pass the “Grange Law” which resulted in the regulation of railroad prices. The Supreme Court stuck this down on the grounds that one state couldn’t regulate a railroad that traveled through several states during its journey.
The origin of the Populist Party was in farmers’ alliances. The goal of the Populist Party was to change American Politics for the good of the people. It made it easier for “the people” to draft their own laws through many different means.
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act caused the government to buy silver dollars at more than they were worth. This made the government’s gold supply dwindle which resulted in a weakened public confidence in the US Dollar. The wealthy, such as the executives at J.P. Morgan, were in favor of this because it allowed them to make huge profits off bonds. Populists were opposed to it because it allowed the wealthy to make money off those who faced hardships in the nation.
In the 1896 election, the contenders were Bryan and McKinley. Those who supported Bryan were mainly in the south and northern mid-west. McKinley supporters were mainly in the northeastern states, who were mostly labor workers and republicans.
Critical thinking
I think that this statement was an opinion. Rural laborers mostly had to deal with the rail road companies and banks. Urban workers had to deal with their employers and big business.
The groups that opposed inflationary policies were the urban workers. They were opposed to them because they stood to lose from them since prices would go up but their wages likely would not.