| A | B |
|---|
| American Federation of Labor (AFL): | a union or association of craft unions founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886. |
| arbitration: | a hearing at which a neutral judge attempts to settle a dispute between two parties (e.g., labor and management). |
| capitalism: | an economic system based on private ownership of property. |
| child labor: | the practice, common during the 1800s, of employing children to work in such places as factories and mines. |
| collective bargaining: | the process whereby a union, which represents its members, bargains with company management for changes in wages and working conditions. |
| command economy: | an economic system in which government, instead of private individuals, makes basic economic decisions regarding production and prices. |
| Contract Labor Law (1864): | a law passed in 1864 and later repealed in 1885, allowing American employers to hire foreign laborers to work in American businesses for a set wage and period of time. |
| corporation: | a business chartered by the state. It is legally separate from the individuals who own it. The owners are called stockholders in that business. |
| dividend: | a stockholder's share of a sum (usually money) that the corporation decides to distribute. |
| entrepreneur: | one who is willing to take risks to start and direct a new business. |
| free enterprise system: | an economic system in which individuals and corporations are free to conduct their businesses with little or no interference from government. |
| Gilded Age: | name given to the period of U.S. history from the end of the Civil War (1865) to 1900. This name was first used by Mark Twain. He said America had a "gilded" society -- as if it was covered by a thin layer of gold. It seemed rich on the surface but there was much poverty underneath. |
| Haymarket Affair (1886): | an episode in which several union leaders and anarchists were blamed for fatally bombing seven police officers in the Haymarket Square of Chicago even though there was no evidence that they were responsible for the officers' deaths. |
| Homestead Act (1862): | a law that granted 160 acres of western land to any citizen who worked the land for at least five years. |
| labor union: | an association of workers who unite to protect their interests or gain better working conditions. |
| laissez-faire: | a non-interventionist, "hands-off" approach by government to the economic affairs of a nation -- similar to the concept of free enterprise. |
| lockout: | the temporary closing down of a business by an employer to force employees to accept the employer's demands. |
| monopoly: | exclusive or total control of a certain industry. (For example, Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust monopolized the oil refining industry in the U.S.) |
| nationalization: | to bring private property or services under the control or ownership of the national government. |
| patent: | an official document declaring that a certain person (or company) has the exclusive right to make, sell, or profit from his or her invention. |
| philanthropist: | a person who donates time or money for the benefit of others. |
| protectionism: | the policy of supporting high tariffs in order to protect a nation's industries from foreign competition. |
| rural free delivery: | delivery of U.S. mail to addresses in rural areas without extra charge to the receivers. |
| Sherman Antitrust Act (1890): | a law which attempted to end monopolistic business methods by making "combinations in restraint of trade" illegal. |
| social Darwinism: | a belief of the late 1800s and early 1900s that the wealthiest and most powerful citizens had proven themselves to be society's most worthy leaders. |
| socialism: | an economic system based on government ownership and control of major industries. |
| strikebreakers: | people hired to cross picket lines and work jobs being boycotted by striking workers. |
| sweatshop: | a place where people work under poor conditions and for low wages. |
| trunk line: | a main railroad or communication line to which many smaller lines are connected. |
| trust: | a form of business combining several companies into a single business which is often large enough to have monopolistic control over an entire industry. |
| Wobblies: | the nickname given to a radical labor union, the International Workers of the World, which favored the destruction of capitalism. |
| yellow-dog-contract: | a written promise made to an employer by an employee stating that the employee would not join a labor union. |
| anarchist: | one who opposes all forms of government in the belief that government excessively interferes with personal liberty. |
| Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): | a law which barred immigration from China for ten years and denied U.S. citizenship to those who had already immigrated. |
| company store: | a store, owned by a company, from which employees of that company had to buy their necessities. |
| Contract Labor Law (1864): | a law which allowed American businessmen to go to Europe and sign labor contracts with European workers. Europeans who signed the contracts promised to come to America and work for a certain wage and for a certain period of time. It was illegal for these workers to leave their jobs before the end of their contract. |
| cultural mosaic: | a condition where, instead of ethnic minorities being assimilated, each group keeps its own cultural patterns and lives in its own neighborhood. |
| diversity: | the condition of having variety. (For example, immigrants from different lands and cultures brought diversity to America.) |
| ethnic group: | a group of people regarded as unique because of their different customs, language, or other characteristics. |
| ethnocentrism: | the belief that one's own race, nation, or culture is superior to all others. |
| ghetto: | a section of a city which is predominantly populated by members of an ethnic or racial group. |
| Gilded Age: | the period of post-Civil War America (1865-1900) characterized by growing wealth, materialism, and social change associated with American industrialization. |
| National Origins Acts (1924 and 1929): | laws that established immigration quotas, for each foreign nation, based on the number of Americans who had originated from that nation as of a given year -- 1890 was the year upon which quotas were calculated by the National Origins Act of 1924 but this base year was later changed to 1920 by the National Origins Act of 1929. |
| nativists: | Americans who wanted to halt immigration so that the U.S. would be populated only by native-born Americans. |
| new immigration: | immigration to the U.S. after 1890 which was different from earlier immigration in that most of the new immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. |
| old immigration: | immigration to the U.S. before 1890 which consisted mainly of emigrants from northern and western Europe. |
| "Plessy v. Ferguson" (1896): | a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided that state laws which segregated races did not violate the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment as long as separate facilities provided for each race were equal -- a ruling often referred to as the "separate-but-equal" decision. |
| pluralism: | the condition of having or allowing a variety of different groups, beliefs, or different practices. |
| quota system (1921-1965): | a system of limiting immigration to the U.S. by assigning to each nation an immigration quota (number of people from that country who would be allowed to immigrate to the U.S.). |
| settlement house: | settlement house: a place where help is provided to the poor and needy. (For example, Jane Addams established a settlement house called Hull House in Chicago in 1889 which provided day-care services for working mothers.) |
| tenement house: | a building which is divided into apartments, particularly one that provides substandard living conditions and is located in a poorer section of a city. |
