Chapter 16: Big Business and Organized Labor, 1860–1900
CORE OBJECTIVES
1. Explain the primary factors that stimulated unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth
TRUE/FALSE
1. Power sources—such as water, coal, wood, and oil—were readily available in the United
States.
2. The Second Industrial Revolution was not characterized by urban growth; rather, it only
involved growth in rural areas.
3. A catalyst for the Second Industrial Revolution included scientific research methods being
applied to industrial processes.
4. By 1870, the United States had become the world’s leading agricultural producer, especially
as an exporter of grain.
5. Corporations are legal entities that were on the rise during the late nineteenth century and
separated the ownership of a company from its management.
6. Instead of manufacturing goods and offering services on its own, a holding company owns
and manages the stock of other companies.
7. The tariff was one way through which the federal government and businesses were allied.
8. Laissez-faire is a social doctrine holding that government should regulate businesses.
9. The middle class was the fastest growing social class in the late nineteenth century.
10. Most middle-class Americans who worked outside the home were employees of large
businesses.
11. By the 1880s, most states had outlawed child labor.
12. The Sandlot Incident in San Francisco in 1877 led to attacks against Chinese immigrants.
13. The Haymarket affair was a peaceful protest against the use of child labor.
14. Anarchists oppose all forms of government.
15. As a result of an onslaught of riots, strikes, and other forms of organized labor activity, by
1900 the productivity of the United States in terms of international trade had fallen
significantly.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. What is one thing that the United States had that other nations did not that helped spur the
Industrial Revolution?
a. An intelligent workforce
b. A universal health care system
c. Socialized medicine
d. Vast natural resources
e. Government-mandated quotas
2. Which of the following factors contributed to explosive industrial growth during the Gilded
Age?
a. Reluctance to taking business risks
b. Limited natural resources
c. Low tariffs
d. Less immigration
e. New technological innovations
3. What is the term given to describe the ability of companies to afford technological
improvements and the workforces to propel them into the modern age?
a. Rugged industrialism
b. The American system
c. Economies of scale
d. Innovation
e. Integration
4. What were bonanza farms?
a. Small-scale family farms that produced much of America’s food
b. Farms predominantly in tropical areas that produced fruit rather than wheat and corn
c. Livestock farms that fell out of use by the time of the Second Industrial Revolution
d. Large-scale farms that were developed by corporations and spread across the West
e. Textile factories powered by new loom technology and human labor
5. Who developed a company that came to manufacture both short- and long-distance
telephones and had one of the most valuable patents in history?
a. Alexander Graham Bell
b. Thomas Alva Edison
c. Samuel Andrews
d. John D. Rockefeller
e. Sir Henry Bessemer
6. Because of this machine, and the belief that women were more dexterous than men, the
post–Civil War era saw an increase in the female workforce in business offices.
a. Cotton gin
b. Vacuum cleaner
c. Typewriter
d. Gas light
e. Sewing machine
7. By 1897, the United States had more of which of the following than all the European
nations combined?
a. Factories
b. Automobiles
c. Electricity-generating factories
d. Railroads
e. Bridges
8. Which of the following statements about the American railroad industry during the 1860–
1900 period is accurate?
a. The first transcontinental railroad was built in the South.
b. In the 1880s, there still were not enough railroads built to meet the economic demand.
c. Unlike other industries, the railroad industry experienced little corruption.
d. Most of the country’s railroads had already been completed before the Civil War.
e. Former soldiers, ex-slaves, and immigrants formed much of the crews who built the
transcontinental rail line.
9. Which of the following statements about strategies businessmen used to eliminate
competition is accurate?
a. Larger corporations were far less likely than small corporations to use strategies to
eliminate competition.
b. The most successful way for companies to avoid competition was to sell shares of stock.
c. The most successful way to avoid competition was to form secret “pools” of companies
that agreed to keep prices the same.
d. An effective strategy to avoid competition was to drive out or buy out weaker
competitors.
e. Strategies to avoid competition were so common that they were readily accepted as
uncontroversial.
10. John D. Rockefeller is best associated with which industry?
a. Steel
b. Railroad
c. Iron
d. Oil
e. Banking
11. What is it called when one company buys or forces out all of their competitors, the way
John D. Rockefeller did with his company’s industry?
a. A union
b. Vertical integration
c. Horizontal integration
d. A corporation
e. A grant
12. What is it called when one company buys everything needed to produce, market, and
deliver their product?
a. A union
b. Vertical integration
c. Horizontal integration
d. A holding company
e. A corporate-controlled market
13. Which legal entity allowed companies to sidestep laws that forbade them from owning stock
in their competitors?
a. Monopoly
b. Corporation
c. Industry
d. Trust
e. Integration
14. In an effort to prevent corporations from obtaining market monopolies, Congress passed the
a. Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
b. Merrill Enforcement Act.
c. Interstate Commerce Act.
d. Terrell Act.
e. Free Market Act.
15. Why were trusts first created?
a. To allow companies to diversify their accumulated wealth
b. To sidestep laws preventing one company from owning another
c. To streamline the marketplace
d. To abolish competition
e. To lower prices to hurt a company’s competitors
16. Andrew Carnegie is best associated with which industry?
a. Steel
b. Railroad
c. Iron
d. Oil
e. Banking
17. Whose invention caused steel to become substantially cheaper to make?
a. Andrew Carnegie
b. John D. Rockefeller
c. George Titus
d. Henry Bessemer
e. J. P. Morgan
18. Who led an investment bank that often relied on money from European investors to buy or
merge unrelated companies?
a. Andrew Carnegie
b. John D. Rockefeller
c. George Pullman
d. Henry Bessemer
e. J. P. Morgan
19. What was the United States’ first billion-dollar corporation?
a. United States Steel Corporation
b. Standard Oil
c. Northern Pacific Railroad
d. Standard Oil
e. Sherman Trust Company
20. The way in which businesses cultivated and bought influence from government officials is
called
a. lobbying.