1 Study Questions and Guide for First Examination The first major examination will cover the Gilded

Age and Urban American: l877 to 1917 This will include the following material: Chapters 18, 19, 20, 21 in Out of Many The following readers from United States History Since 1877 How Organizing was done by Early Knights of Labor Conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Conditions at the Slaughterhouse From the Souls of Black Folks Seventy Years of Life and Labor: An Autobiography Lecture to Young Men Professor Tillerys lectures The format for the examination will be multiple-choice and essay. The questions for the essay part of the examination will come from the questions below. The multiple-choice will come from Out of Many and the Word Bank. Students will be provided with scantrons and bluebooks. Please bring a number two pencil and a pen to write the essays. The essays should be no more than one page length of the bluebook. Multiple-choice and essay questions will generally emphasize what Professor Tillery has stressed in his lectures. The professor may combine several questions to create answer that are similar in length. The multiple-choice questions will be worth 40 percent and the essays 60 percent.

1. Compare and contrast the views of Social Darwinism, the Ideology of Success, the Gospel of Wealth, and laissez-faire. What do they all have in common and in what ways are they different? Explain why each had a popular appeal in America in the late nineteenth century. Where would Andrew Carnegies Lecture to Young Men fit with the above views? a. The philosophies of the Ideology of Success and Social Darwinism dominated American thinking. The Ideology of Success encompassed the belief that adhering to the Puritan work ethic of hard work and moderation and self-restraint would lead to success. i. Argued that people were in a constant struggle of survival of the fittest. ii. Herbert Spencer 1. Over time the strongest species will emerge (i.e. The rich) 2. Anglo Saxons 3. He argued that in years we would have the perfect race. b. This was also embodied in the notion of the Gospel of Wealth which stated that the wealthy should give back to charities and help people who were in need. People believed the Ideology of Success and Gospel of

2 Wealth both encompassed the so called American Dream and people wanted the believe they could be successful no matter what race, religion, gender, etc. they were as long as they were willing to work hard. c. While the above doctrines emphasized individualism and free will to success, Social Darwinism, which was embraced by big business, believed that wealth, leadership, success, and prosperity were more determined by evolutionary superiority (survival of the fittest) and that once all the weak species died off only the superior race would be left. d. People who believed in Social Darwinism also believed in a Lassiez-Faire type of government which had little to no government involvement in the economy or business. The only area these people wanted government involvement in was the protection of private property and they believed competition would regulate the economy. e. Big businesses supported Darwinism. f. People believed in Social Darwinism and Lassiez-Faire because they liked the idea of a scientific reason for achievement and because they believed in Big Business. Ironically, most of the people who did believe in Social Darwinism were the superior ones. g. Ideology of Success, and gospel of wealth i. To truly appreciate what success is you need to start off from the bottom. ii. Drinking 1. Dont drink h. Ideology of Success (from lecture) links to lecture to a young man i. Be a hard worker ii. Have industry iii. And Economy 2. Explain how the railroad played a key role in the development of the steel, oil, and meatpacking industries in late nineteenth-century America. a. Railroad played a key role in the development of steel, oil, and meatpacking industries because they were able to transfer goods more rapidly and frequently from one place to another. So they went from transferring items on wagons, carts, canals through the river, to transporting on land. which was more efficient and faster. 3. Compare and contrast the goals, means, leadership, and accomplishments of the late nineteenth-century national labor organizations: National Labor Union, Knights of Labor, and the American Federation of Labor. Use the excerpts from Terence Powderly and Samuel Gompers to develop this essay. a. The first National Labor Union was formed in 1866. Then the Knights of Labor was established in 1869 and it was established by a minister named Uriah Stephens. Uriah Stephens believed you should ask for basic things like improvements in working conditions. Skilled and non-skilled workers were allowed in and women and different races were also allowed in. They also demanded the free incorporation of silver and an equal rights amendment for women. They believed in Moral Suasion and that everyone

3 was a Christian. They also believed if they showed their bosses what they were going through then their bosses would surely improve their working conditions and benefits, because thats what any Christian would do. This procedure did not work the way they thought it would and they started to go on strike. They went on strike often and were successful but not enough to change anything. Then the Knights of Labor got all the blame for the Haymarket Riot and got shut down. The reason they got the blame was because it was at one of their strikes when a fight broke out and someone blew up a bomb and police started shooting and killed other police because they couldnt see where they were shooting. August Spies, a man present to the Haymarket Riot, got sent to jail and executed for starting the riot. b. Then the American Federation of Labor was formed and they decided they would not allow unskilled workers or women into their club. They also found you couldnt have a strike without a strike fund so they charged their members money in order to pay for strikes and this discouraged many from joining. Their strikes and protests didnt result in immediate change but they did let their voices be heard. c. Pg.508 i. 4. What do you judge to be the most negative consequences of American industrialization in the late nineteenth century? Explain your choices. Who do you think lost the most in this economic transformation: Why? a. I believe the most negative consequences of American industrialization were the wage system and the terrible treatment of workers. The wage system provided businesses a way to hire workers who would be paid for less and with minimal skills. It also created jobs that were repetitive and tiresome. Once workers got a low paying job theyd have to also become accustomed with their workplace being extremely unsanitary and even dangerous. Many popular nationwide jobs at the time proved to be dangerous, such as the meatpacking industry where workers had to worry about the massive blade they had to work with every day. Factory workers would also fail to mark high voltage areas of the workplace and allow emission of toxic fumes that had the potential to kill their workers. I believe immigrants lost the most during the economic transformation, specifically Chinese. There were a very large number of Chinese immigrants coming to America at the time and the white Americans saw them as threats because they would work the same amount as white workers for less money. So, white Americans would have riots and protests to demand a halt on Chinese immigration. In response to this Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which restricted Chinese immigration to America and limited the rights of Chinese immigrants already in the US and forbade their naturalization. 5. If you were a common laborer in the late nineteenth-century American factory, what would be your feelings about the conditions of your work? Describe the

4 ways you would translate these feelings into outward behavior. How does Upton Sinclairs Conditions at the Slaughterhouse and Conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company contribute to your feelings about factory work? Be specific. a. My feelings about working an eight hour day everyday in a disgusting and bad work place would horrible. It would be hot or cold depending on the season and I would be working everyday for eight hours for little pay I would be pissed off every day because I wouldnt know if the money that I am making is going to be enough to feed my family or even myself. My children may even have to work just to make ends meet and I wouldnt want to put that on my children at such a young age. I would express my feelings by not talking to anyone and to continue to do my work because I know if I lash out or do anything stupid I will get fired which would be a really horrible thing to happen. If I got fired I wouldnt be able to take care of my kids and we would be out on the streets dying. 6. Imagine you are an immigrant from a rural community or European community to a large American city in the l890s. Describe what you see and what you think and feel about your new environment. a. There were factories and everyone lived around the factory. i. All the rich people left ii. Only the tenements were left iii. There was no concern for the tenements iv. No indoor plumbing (outhouses) v. Increases in diseases, (syphilis, gonorrhea, prostitution is rampant) 7. Compare and contrast what seem to you to be the most attractive features of turn of the century American city life with those features you find most objectionable. Given a choice in l900, would you have moved to a large American city? Why? a. No, because health conditions were horrible. 1900 American cities were not good places to raise children, or live b. Unholy infestations. c. Police extortion i. Paid extra to protect houses d. 511 8. Describe the key items on the Gilded Age farmers agenda for economic, political, and social reform. What organizations arose to fight for those reforms? a. Farmers hated rate discrimination which was when businesses (especially railroads) cut prices on their more popular products and raised prices on their less popular products so they formed a group called The Grange to fight against it. An example of this was in the court case Muin v. Illinois. In Illinois farmers took over the state government and made a law that said they would regulate the rate of grain in elevators in cities with a population of over 250,000 which, was only Chicago. The trains ultimately had to pay a lot because of this law and decided they wouldnt put up with it and took them to court but didnt win the case. In response to the Gilded Age farmers created Farmers Alliances and these developed cooperatives that would help them compete with Big Business. Farmers

5 did produce more products but their prices still went down and they ended up going into debt. Farmers also started the Populous Movement which was a political movement where farmers argued that it was time to take over state legislatures and change the way Big Business was run and even ran in the 1892 election but 3rd parties never win elections and it ended in failure. 9. Profile the progressives. What kind of people were they? What were their goals, motivations, and means? Explain why middle-class women were involved in moral reform and social justice. a. The Progressives were displaced social elites that believed the accumulation of wealth was messed up in America. They had 3 goals, the first being; good government. Progressives wanted to clean up the government and eliminate corruption within it. b. Their second goal was social justice which meant they wanted to remedy many of the ills workers in America had been experiencing. c. The third goal of the Progressives was anti-monopoly. This goal focused on dealing with the accumulation of wealth in America and Progressives had two different views on the matter. Some of them thought the best way to fix it would be to break up the big combines of wealth and the other kind thought that the wealth should be regulated. d. Women had a rough time in the 19th century and did not live long so many women thought the Progressive Movement was something they should get involved in to help them move up in society and fight for their rights. i. Jane Adams was the epitome of the female progressive in the 19th century. She opened the first Hull House which was a place women could stay and get accustomed to living in an urban area and taught them how to do things around the house. ii. Women at this time were mostly Christian and longed for a way to help people and use their skills to their fullest and women began to get involved in social reform and other things that influenced the community in a good way. e. Progressives also believed in creative intelligence and that meant that you cant apply the laws of evolution to humans so therefore, Progressives did not believe in Social Darwinism. 10. Describe the key components of Americas understanding of the world before the progressives, and then contrast that to the new progressive world-view, emphasizing the differences in such areas as economics, sociology, education, and the law. a. Education between 1870-1900 was expanding but not to its full capacity. Business and civic leaders knew society was beginning to depend on educated people so more public schools were made available so everyone could go to school whether they could afford it or not but race was a different matter. African Americans had to go to different schools than whites and young immigrants didnt go to school very often. Although education was expanding it still had plenty of room to grow and flourish

6 after 1900. Then in the Progressive Era standardizing education became a much bigger goal. Teachers in the Progressive Era wanted to make education a mandatory thing in a childs life no matter what race or gender they were. Children began school earlier and stayed in school longer in the Progressive Era. The US before the Progressive Era was one full of mistreated workers who were often immigrants who had a very hard time fitting into the society and little to no help was given to them. Also many Americans were doing very bad off economically and wanted regulation over big businesses because their small businesses were not succeeding. When Congress did pass a law to help the small business called the Sherman Antitrust Act, the courts interpreted it in the wrong way and actually helped further big businesses and resulted in many small business closures. The laws established in the Progressive Era often gave more rights to the average American worker or immigrant and allowed the federal government to regulate Big Business such as the Meat Inspection Act and The Hepburn Act, to name a few. Before the Progressive Era the distribution of wealth was out of line and the people who were wealthy were really wealthy and the people who were poor were really poor and the Progressives sought out to change that. Women had a much larger role in the Progressive Era than they did beforehand and famous women such as Jane Addams set out to help other immigrant women become accustomed to everyday American life. America before the Progressive Era was a society trying to change and America during and after the Progressive Era was one that had changed and was moving in a new direction. 11. Assess the role of the muckrakers in progressive reform. What valuable service did they provide? What do you think about their kind of journalism? Why? a. Pg.560 b. Helped fuel reform by drawing attention of millions to urban poverty, political corruption, the plight of industrial workers and immoral business practices. c. Found as early as 1890 with Jacob Riis landmark book how the other half lives i. A series of photographs of New Yorks poor 1. Tenements, lodging houses, sweatshops and saloons d. They provided a type of journalism that exposed insurance scandals, patent medicine frauds, and stock market swindles. e. President Roosevelt coined the term muckrakers as those who raked the mud of society and never looked up. f. Key Innovator was S.S. McClure i. 1893 started first large circulation magazine McClures 1. Used exposure journalism g. Examples. i. Young African American newspaper editor, Ida B. Wells set out to search about lynching

7 1. It was claimed that African American men were lynched because of rape of white women a. She found out that most lynchings were actually done to rid African American business competition or African American that had become to powerful. 12. Cite what you think are key accomplishments of progressive reform in the cities and key accomplishments in the states. Justify your choices. a. The court case Holden v. Hardy was a big accomplishment for the Progressives because the court ruled you couldnt make workers work more than 10 hours a day in smelters (the dirty parts of mines). This court ruling had to do with safety and health issues and the court would continue to rule in favor of this for a while and this was what the Progressives wanted but it didnt affect everyone so their goal was not accomplished. The court case Muller v. Oregon was also a success for the Progressives because the court ruled that a women could only work 10 ten hours and if they worked any longer than that then they would have to be paid overtime. The reason the court ruled this way probably had to do with the fact that the state of Oregon got a very good lawyer named Louis Brandeis who wrote a 144 page brief that contained a lot of statistics pertaining to how women are the glue that hold the American family together and if they were at work all day then American children would not grow and flourish as well as they could if their mothers were home. Because of this ruling, in the court case Bunting v. Oregon, men got time-in-a-half and on Sundays they got paid double time for working. Then the Triangle Wayshur Fire in New York City was caused by no enforcement of building codes so there were no exits and many people died as a result. New York passed a set of laws making safety and sanitation conditions better and this was another win for the Progressives. 13. Both his contemporaries, and later historians, viewed Theodore Roosevelt as a national champion of progressive reform. Describe both the belief and the actions of Roosevelt that produced this assessment. a. Roosevelt believed that regulation over Big Business was necessary. He didnt want to destroy it, just regulate it. He didnt ignore economic and social inequalities but instead, sought out to change them. There are many examples of Roosevelts success in Progressive reform. One of which is the Hepburn Act which strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission by authorizing it to set maximum railroad rates and inspect financial records. Two other laws Roosevelt got passed also expanded the power of the federal government. The Pure Food and Drug Act established the Food and Drug Administration which tested and approved drugs before they went on the market. The Meat Inspection Act empowered the Department of Agriculture to inspect and label meat products. Roosevelt also passed the Expedition Act which created a department of justice and an additional attorney general whose sole function was to try anti-trust cases. He also passed the Elkins Act which regulated big businesses,

8 mostly railroads. The Elkins Act prevented railroad rebates or kickbacks and farmers loved this bill. Then he got the Newlands Reclamation Act passed which sought to treasure and keep safe Americas many natural resources because Roosevelt feared if we didnt cherish them we would soon run out of them. 14. Summarize the major points of W.E. B. Du Boiss excerpt from Souls of Black Folks. a.