Ch 24:2 Reading Guide (pp543-556)
Answer in complete sentences on a separate piece of paper. Put information from the text in your
own words. Be specific and be sure to completely answer the question.
1. (A) Describe the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) was used at first primarily to curb the power of labor unions. It
forbade combinations, as they were deemed to be restraining trade, but didn’t distinguish between
good and bad trusts.
(B) How successful was the Act?
The S-AT Act was largely ineffective, it had no teeth and loopholes businesses could get around
2. What hindered southern industrialization in the years following the civil war?
- South remained overwhelmingly rural and agricultural, dominated by tenant farming/sharecropping
Railroads gave priority to goods going South and raw materials going North, ex. “Pittsburgh plus” steel
3. Describe the effects of textile production in the South after 1880.
- takes root in poor Appalachia
- exploits “hillbilly” labor- people desperate for any steady work and wages, saw it as “salvation”;
entire families, women and children, long hours, low wages
- compensated with credit to be used at company stores  cycle of debt
4. Create a chart comparing the positive and negative effects of the “New Industrial Revolution.”
Positives +s
Negatives --s
Standard of living rises
Urbanization poor living conditions
Urbanization more jobs
Time dictated by factory whistle
Federal government helps with tariffs
Long hours
and trust-busting
New opportunities for women
Dangerous working conditions
Rely on “real wages”
Class differences heightened
Shift from agricultural to an industrial
nation
At economy’s mercy
Unemployment, sickness, disability
could be catastrophic
Pressure for foreign trade
5. Describe the role women played in the “New Industrial Revolution.”
* Group most affected by the new industrial age
- worked as stenographers (a person who specializes in taking dictation shorthand), “hello girls”
(telephone operators)
- “Gibson Girl” 1890s magazine depicts ideals (page 548)
- later marriage smaller families
6. Why were workers compelled to form unions?
- to provide workers with job security, reformers wanted to introduce job protection, wage
protection, temporary unemployment compensation, and safety and health codes
8. How did attitudes towards unions change by 1900?
- Generally, the Supreme Court in the late 19th century interpreted the Constitution to favor
corporations
- only 31% of workers unionized
- general public increasingly recognized right to unionize
- Congress established Labor Day in 1894
- Labors increasingly viewed favorably as a way to avoid class warfare
- A majority of employers continued to resist unions
7. Create a chart comparing the National Labor Union, the Knights of Labor, and the American Federation of
Labor. Include who participated in each, leaders, goals, strategies/methods, and the level of success of
each.
National Labor Union
Knights of Labor
American Federation of
1866-1872
Labor 18861869-1890s
Who
600,000
Inclusive; all types of
Elitist
(including leaders)
Farmers, men,
workers, skilled and
government workers
unskilled; women, blacks
Gompers
No Chinese, women or
blacks
Barred “non-producers”
Association of selfgoverning national unions
Powderly
Goals
Social Reforms
Broad goals; utopian
8 hour day
“One Big Union” that
championed producer
cooperatives
Wage reductions
Strategies/Methods
Agitated for arbitration
and disputes
8 hour day
Strikes (May Day 1886)
Skilled men
Better working conditions
Shorter working hours
Higher wages
Economic strategies (over
politics)
Arbitration
RR strike
Level of Success
Lasts only 6 years
(1886-1872)
“trade agreement” for
“closed shop”- all union
labor
½ of strikes failed
Walkouts
Boycotts
Pooling funds
By 1900, 500,000 members
Haymarket Sq.- May 4 1886, Lost ½ of 23,000 strikes bet.
Knocked out by 1870s
Chicago- bomb killed
1881 and 1900
depression
several hysteria,
Won 8 hour workday for associated with anarchists
government workers
Skilled workers had more
Federal troops crushed
bargaining power
RR strike
By 1890s, small; fuses with
other groups