Significance of the Terms

• Andrew Carnegie went from rags to riches by working at the Pennsylvania Railroad. He began his own steel company which became into a major producer. Credit for his success should be given to his management practices which quickly were put into use by others.
• Social Darwinism is a scientific explanation of Carnegie's success. It stated that business was governed by natural law and no one could control it but many entrepenuers did all they could to make their business empire prosper.
• John D. Rockefeller had a different approach on mergers. He used trusts to gain control of the oil industry. At first he underpaid his workers and priced the oil very low to run his competitors out of business. After he had total control of the market he overpriced his oil. This led to the Sherman Antitrust Act being put into place for a while.
• Sherman Antitrust Act tried to make it illegal for trusts to interfere with free trade. As a result the trusts split up into single businesses but this act was difficult to enforced so after a while things went back to the way they were before.
• Samuel Gompers was president of the American Federation of Labor who liked to use negotiating. Their main tactic was to use strikes. This was very effective because workers' wages rose and hours declined.
• American Federation of Labor (AFL) this union was different from the Knights of Labor. They instead used strikes which helped them to reach their goal of higher weekly wages and lower weekly hours.
• Eugene V. Debs formed the American Railway Union which won a strike for higher wages. Although they had more than 150,000 members the group never recovered after failing a major strikes. On the bright side it did add momentum to union organizing. She later turned to socialism.
• Industrial Workers of the World waas another laborere union that was ope to African Americans although it did not gain more than about 100,000 supporters. This was mainly an unskilled workers union. It gave the members a sense of pride and dignity.
• Mary Harris Jones supported the Great Strike of 1877 and helped to organize the United Mine Workers of America. She inluenced the passing of child labor laws.