Ch 6, Sec 3, Part BBig Business and Labor

1. By the 1880s John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company controlled about how much of America’s oil refining business?

• 90%

2. What was one way that Rockefeller and those like him would drive away competition?• By selling products at very low prices (below a profit) so that

their competitors could not compete.• After their competitors died out, Rockefeller and others would

raise their prices and return to making profits. This is called Predatory Pricing.

3. People such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller were often referred to as what?• Robber Barons• The term was a derogatory (negative) term

4. What was the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act?• A law designed to discourage the creation of

combinations of corporations (a Trust) that would undermine free trade and combination.

• The law was not very effective

5. What part of the United States did not initially develop in terms of industry?• The South (late 1800s and early 1900s)• Industrialization was more common in the Northeast and

Midwest• The South tended to remain agricultural until well into the

1900s.• During the early 1900s, thousands of African Americans

migrated to the North, Midwest, and West Coast in order to find industrial jobs.

• This became known as The Great Migration.

6. As business interests became more organized and consolidated, what other economic interest began to organize?• Labor

7. For many industrial workers, how were wages and working conditions?• Wages were often low• Working conditions were often unsafe, unsanitary, and

inhumane• To fight these situations, many workers tried to organize

themselves to attain better pay and working conditions

8. Some of the steel mills required workers to labor how many days a week?• Seven

9. About how many hours a day did many industrial workers work?• Twelve

10. What were some benefits that workers such as these did NOT have?• Vacations• Sick Leave• Unemployment insurance• Disability insurance

11. As industrialization increased, the labor force increasingly included whom?• Women and Children (both boys and girls)

12. Some laborers worked in tenements known as “Sweatshops.” What were some typical wages for Sweatshop labor?• 27 cents for a 14 hour day. • That equals less than 2 cents per hour

13. In 1869, Uriah Stephens organized what?• The Knights of Labor

14. What were some of the demands of the Knights of Labor?• They wanted an 8 hour work day• They wanted equal pay for equal work by men

and women

15. The Knights of Labor were reluctant to do what?• Go on strike (refuse to do work)

16. Who was an early president of the American Federation of Labor?• Samuel Gompers

17. What did the American Federation of Labor concentrate on?• Collective Bargaining, that is the negotiation

with companies for better wage and working conditions on behalf of labor

18. For unionized workers, between 1890 and 1915, wages tended to do what?• Increase

19. Labor leader Eugene V. Debs turned to what political philosophy on behalf of labor?• Socialism