Iron Horse
This railroad company started in the east and moved its way west at a rapid rate. Hiring mostly Irish immigrants to lay its track
The Union Pacific
This Supreme Court case stated that individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce (trade)
Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific RR Company v. Illinois
The Wizard of Menlo Park
Thomas Alva Edison
The wealthy, entrusted with society's riches, had to prove themselves morally responsible according to this
Gospel of Wealth
One of the earliest national-scale unions that aimed to unify workers across locales and trades to challenge their ever more powerful bosses
National Labor Union
The railroad company started in the west and inched its way east through the Sierra Nevada's, hiring mostly Chinese immigrants to lay the track
The Central Pacific
This law is first large-scale attempt by the federal government to regulate business in the interest of society at large.
Interstate Commerce Act
Inventor of the process that made it cheap and efficient to manufacture steel
Henry Bessemer
These are the two people who came up with the idea of Social Darwinism
Herbert Spence and William Graham
Event where Chicago police, anarchists and labor unions converged on May 4 1866. A dynamite bomb was thrown killing or injuring several dozen people and caused mass hysteria in Chicago and throughout the nation
Haymarket Square Affair
This is the place where the Transcontinental R.R. had the final golden spike tapped through. Leland Stanford was the one who tapped the golden spike at this place.
Promontory Point, Utah
May 10, 1869
This was a government organization created to enforce the laws that forbade unfair discrimination against shipping rates and outlawed charging more for a short haul than for a long one over the same line.
Interstate Commerce Commission
Head of the Standard Oil Company
John D. Rockefeller
The idea that individuals won their stations in life by competing on the basis of their natural talents. Where the idea of "survival of the fittest" comes from
Social Darwinism
The American Federation of Labor was the brainchild of this individual, who wanted the AF of L to be a conglomerate of self-governing national unions each of which kept its own independence.
Samuel Gompers
This genius of the steamboating industry decided to try his hand at the railroads and was able to amass a fortune of over $100 million dollars by being ruthless and offering lower rates than his competitors
Cornelius Vanderbilt a.k.a The Commodore
Money that is free flowing and can be used to invest in companies or corporations in order to make more money through investments
Liquid Capital
This person enlarged the United States Steel Corporation, purchasing it for $400 million and eventually turning it into the first billion dollar company in the United States
J.P. Morgan
This is the term used to describe the captains of industry who made their money on the broken backs of America's working people
Robber Barons
Beginning as a secret society this organization was a national organization that sought to include all workers in "one big union." Fought hard for the eight hour work day.
Knights of Labor
This was the practice that allowed railroad stock promoters to grossly inflate claims about a given line's assets and profitability allowing them to sell stocks and bonds far in excess of the RR's actual value
stock watering
This law flatly forbade any combinations in restraint of trade...in other words, any organizations that may impact interstate commerce...was used more often to curb labor unions than corporations
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
This person made a fortune in the steel industry by eliminating middle men and building the largest steel plants in the U.S. in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Andrew Carnegie
This is a creative entrepreneurial tactic that allows a corporation to take over every aspect of the manufacturing process from the mines, to transportation, to the actual manufacturing
Vertical Integration
This was the nickname given contracts that companies forced employees to sign, making it a fire-able offense to join a labor union.