Deck 5: Dissent, Depression, and War, 1890-1900

Question 1

After his six-month jail sentence for his part in the Pullman strike,union leader Eugene Debs believed that

A) unions must work within the existing government structure.
B) unions were absolutely necessary to protect workers' interests.
C) workers must take control and establish a socialist state.
D) the Republican party offered the best solutions for American workers' problems.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The platform of the People's party in the 1890s

A) called for less government intervention in the United States.
B) presented an alternative vision of economic democracy.
C) was fundamentally a traditionalist response to hard times.
D) called for the reorganization of the U.S.government along Communist principles.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What issues formed the basis of farmers' dissatisfaction in the late nineteenth century?

A) Banking,railroading,and speculation
B) Weather and mechanization
C) Family farming,homesteading,and agribusiness
D) Sharecropping and tenant farming

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What decision made by Henry Clay Frick led to the deaths and injuries that took place at the Homestead mill in 1892?

A) The call for the Pennsylvania National Guard to defend the plant
B) The hiring of Pinkertons to enter the plant via the river
C) The call for strikebreakers to fire on the striking workers
D) The plan to shut the plant's doors and arm nonunion workers

Question 5

By 1892,the Farmers' Alliance had become

A) a party of farmers,lawyers,and professors.
B) the People's party.
C) a branch of the Democratic party.
D) an advocate of the gold standard.

Question 6

Why did the American temperance movement attract women in the late nineteenth century?

A) It gave them a higher social standing.
B) It promoted churchgoing for women and men.
C) Drunkenness adversely affected women in many ways.
D) It wanted to keep the issue of alcohol consumption out of national politics.

Question 7

The Populists' plan to help western farmers in the 1890s included

A) government ownership of railroads and telegraph lines.
B) continuation of the gold standard to tighten the money supply and limit credit.
C) a march on Washington to promote agricultural freedom and democracy.
D) higher tariffs to support the inflation of farm prices.

Question 8

What happened after the governor of Pennsylvania ordered 8,000 National Guard troops into Homestead?

A) Frick reopened the mill using strikebreakers for labor.
B) Carnegie gave in to the workers' demands.
C) The workers organized a mass attack against the troops.
D) A labor leader murdered Henry Clay Frick.

Question 9

What was the outcome of the four-and-a-half-month-long strike at the Homestead mill?

A) The strikers were forced to find new jobs.
B) The plant shut down forever to avoid another tragedy.
C) The strikers returned to work minus their union leaders.
D) Labor had won a decisive victory that improved life for all workers.

Question 10

Which group or groups took part in the February 1892 St.Louis gathering,which evolved into the People's party?

A) Loyal Republicans and Democrats
B) Factory managers,bankers,and civil engineers
C) Farmers,labor unionists,and women's leaders
D) Third-party dissidents with ties to anarchists

Question 11

How did the Populists propose to help American farmers in the 1890s?

A) They recommended that farmers join forces with industrial workers in American cities.
B) They suggested that farmers increase both the production and the price of crops.
C) They recommended creating a government-sponsored subtreasury.
D) They advocated decentralizing the railroads to make them fairer to small businesses.

Question 12

What might the phrase attributed to Mary Elizabeth Lease,"raise less corn and more hell," have referred to?

A) That farmers should agitate more vocally for their rights
B) That farmers should form white mobs to control blacks
C) That farmers should rebel against police and local government
D) That women farmers should stop working to protest their oppression by men

Question 13

"Continued and menacing lawlessness marked the progress yesterday of Dictator Debs and those who obey his orders in their efforts at coercing the railroads of the country into obeying the mandates of the American Railway Union....At Blue Island,anarchy reigned.The Mayor and police force of that town could do nothing to repress the riotous strikers and they did their own sweet will...." Who,according to this 1894 Chicago Tribune article,practiced "continued and menacing lawlessness"?

A) Railroad bosses
B) Union strikers
C) The police who suppressed the strike
D) Newly arrived immigrant workers

Question 14

Compared to the Homestead lockout,labor's success at Cripple Creek demonstrated

A) the power of united,dedicated,and politicized workers.
B) the benevolence of western mine owners.
C) the importance of state support in the outcome of labor disputes.
D) the weakness of Colorado's Populist governor Davis H.Waite.

Question 15

The Farmers' Alliance movement of the 1880s aimed to help farmers

A) by sponsoring cooperatives that would give them greater economic independence.
B) through underwriting a large-scale campaign against sharecropping in the South.
C) through lending money to small farmers so they could compete with agribusinesses.
D) by facilitating their cooperation with urban workers in northern cities.

Question 16

What sparked the Homestead lockout and the ensuing strike in 1892?

A) Workers demanded higher wages,shorter days,sick pay,and safer working conditions.
B) The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers tried to renew its contract.
C) Henry Clay Frick fired several workers for refusing to adopt the company's new ten-hour workday.
D) Andrew Carnegie left for Scotland after refusing to shorten workers' shifts.

Question 17

What issue triggered the Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894?

A) The Western Federation of Miners' demanded that workers should own the gold mines.
B) Owners attempted to lengthen the workday from eight to ten hours.
C) Miners were displeased with the outcome of Colorado's gubernatorial election in 1892.
D) Miners organized to demand higher wages.

Question 18

Which of the following problems was a drawback of living in the town of Pullman,Illinois?

A) The abundance of saloons
B) The rapidly rising crime rate
C) The high rents
D) The substandard housing

Question 19

One of the root causes of the major strike at the Pullman plant in 1893 was

A) George Pullman's raising rents in his town.
B) the inability of labor and management to negotiate a new contract.
C) Eugene Debs's participation in the negotiation process.
D) the company's attempts to control the work process.

Question 20

Which event led to the end of the Pullman strike of 1893?

A) The courts issued an injunction leading to the imprisonment of Eugene Debs.
B) Eugene Debs decided to demonstrate his power by capitulating to management.
C) The army immediately forced the strikers to abandon their demands.
D) George Pullman announced his willingness to negotiate with the American Railway Union.

Question 21

What were the chief priorities of American diplomacy at the end of the nineteenth century?

A) Maintaining peaceful international relations in order to maintain a primary focus on the American West
B) Building democracy and protecting human rights in the Western Hemisphere,Asia,and the Pacific
C) The protection of the Monroe Doctrine and Open Door Policy from German and Japanese expansion into the Pacific and Asia
D) The acquisition of new colonies for the settlement of its burgeoning population

Question 22

What was the impact of the 1896 election on the Populist party?

A) The Populist party was the biggest loser.
B) The Populist party was stronger than ever.
C) Populist ideas were dropped from the national political agenda.
D) Southern Populists shifted their allegiance to the Republican party.

Question 23

By 1900,the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)could claim credit for

A) the emergence of an organized movement for woman suffrage.
B) providing a generation of women with experience in political action.
C) securing the right to vote for all women.
D) securing a constitutional amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol.

Question 24

In addition to economic motivations,which factor contributed to U.S.expansion overseas in the 1890s?

A) Christian missionaries' eagerness to spread the Gospel
B) Americans' interest in new religions and cultures
C) The federal government's commitment to promote cultural understanding
D) The federal government's plan to provoke religious conflict in Asia

Question 25

Which of the following describes the National Woman Suffrage Association,which Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.Anthony formed in 1869?

A) It was the first women's group in America.
B) It was the most conservative group of women in America.
C) It focused on both voting rights and wage equalization.
D) It demanded the vote for women.

Question 26

After Frances Willard assumed the presidency of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1879,the organization's focus gradually changed to include

A) alcoholism as a sin and poverty as the result of drink.
B) social action,labor conditions,and women's voting rights.
C) the use of education and persuasion in an effort to ban the sale of alcohol.
D) prayer and missionary work to draw women back into church membership.

Question 27

At the St.Louis People's party convention in 1896,the Populist delegates decided to

A) denounce the Cleveland administration as tyrannical.
B) call for the preservation of the gold standard.
C) give up on winning support from urban workers.
D) nominate Tom Watson for vice president.

Question 28

The Boxer uprising in China in 1899 targeted

A) missionaries.
B) western businessmen.
C) Japanese and British businesses.
D) Chinese farmers.

Question 29

How did the People's party fare in the presidential election of 1892?

A) It won fewer than one million votes.
B) It failed to win a spot on the ballot in twenty-five states.
C) It captured more than a million votes.
D) It won very few votes owing to black disfranchisement in the South.

Question 30

What was one outcome of the depression of 1893 in the United States?

A) Americans criticized government spending.
B) The federal government offered generous aid to the unemployed.
C) Most elected officials rejected laissez-faire politics.
D) It put nearly half of the labor force out of work.

Question 31

What made presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan's 1896 campaign particularly notable?

A) He reversed his opinion mid-campaign to support retention of the gold standard.
B) He set a new style for presidential campaigning by traveling and speaking widely.
C) His campaign strategies led him to win the popular vote but lose the Electoral College vote.
D) He pioneered dramatic campaign tactics by traveling the country carrying a large gold cross.

Question 32

Suffragists suffered a bitter defeat in 1896 when a referendum on woman suffrage failed in which state?

A) Colorado
B) California
C) Utah
D) Massachusetts

Question 33

Which candidate made an eloquent plea for free silver-"Do not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold"- in 1896?

A) Grover Cleveland
B) Arthur M.Sewall
C) William Jennings Bryan
D) Tom Watson

Question 34

How did the federal government respond when American sugar interests requested that the United States annex Hawai'i in 1893?

A) President Benjamin Harrison opposed the plan because he did not believe the United States could annex geographically distant territory.
B) President Grover Cleveland withdrew the annexation request from Congress when he learned that Hawaiians opposed it.
C) Congress lowered the tariff on sugar in order to avoid the complications associated with annexation.
D) The Senate tabled the request in order to respect the president's wishes.

Question 35

According to Map 20.1: The Election of 1892,which of the following was true of the election of 1892?

A) A majority of the public voted for the People's Party candidate.
B) Most of the southern states voted for the Democratic candidate.
C) Most of the southern states voted for the Republican candidate.
D) Most states were evenly split between the Democratic and Republican candidates.

Question 36

Which issue sparked conflict in the Democratic and Republican parties as the election of 1896 approached and the depression worsened?

A) Increasing crop prices
B) The unlimited coinage of silver
C) The parties' positions on labor reforms
D) The question of whether or not to control trusts

Question 37

According to Map 20.3: The Spanish-American War,1898,which of the following was a Spanish possession in 1898?

A) The Philippines
B) Haiti
C) The Dominican Republic
D) Formosa

Question 38

What factor posed a major obstacle to the alignment of the Populists and Democrats in the election of 1896?

A) William McKinley's running mate,Garret Hobart
B) William Jennings Bryan's running mate,Arthur Sewall
C) The campaign's focus on woman suffrage
D) Western Populists' hatred of Democrats

Question 39

Some Americans called for U.S.expansion in the 1890s to

A) acquire new markets.
B) oppose the lobbying of American business interests.
C) counteract the nation's shrinking capacity for production.
D) make up for the decrease in European imports.

Question 40

In 1894,Jacob S.Coxey led thousands of unemployed people to Washington to propose a plan to

A) put the jobless to work building roads.
B) replace paper currency with gold and silver coins.
C) nationalize railroads.
D) create a new program for farm relief.

Question 41

The 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the war with Spain ceded which islands to the United States?

A) Cuba,Haiti,and the Samoan Islands
B) Puerto Rico,Guam,and the Philippines
C) The Virgin Islands and Guantanamo
D) San Salvador and the Aleutian Islands

Question 42

For what reason was it difficult for the United States to win control of the Philippines after 1898?

A) U.S.business interests saw no reason to develop markets in that part of the world.
B) Congress did not adequately support the war effort.
C) Filipino revolutionaries fought against the United States for seven years.
D) A majority of people in the United States at the time opposed imperialism.

Question 43

The U.S.role in the 1895 border crisis in Venezuela signaled to the world that

A) revolution in South America was inevitable without U.S.intervention.
B) the Monroe Doctrine was all but useless without American military might.
C) the United States had achieved hegemony in Latin America and the Caribbean.
D) the United States would go to great lengths to avoid military conflict with Great Britain.

Question 44

What provoked America's entrance into the Spanish-American War in 1898?

A) Spain's attack on the coast of Florida
B) The sinking of the Maine
C) Spain's border dispute with Venezuela and Colombia
D) The nation's desire to colonize Cuba

Question 45

The Platt Amendment in the 1898 Cuban constitution

A) gave Cuba total independence.
B) gave the United States the power to oversee Cuban debt.
C) made it Cuba's responsibility to establish a democracy.
D) established a two-party system in Cuba.

Question 46

Secretary of State John Hay initiated the Open Door Policy in 1900

A) to ensure trade between the United States and Africa.
B) for the protection of trade between the United States and Latin America.
C) in order to allow Asian immigrants to enter the United States.
D) to guarantee access to trade in China for all colonial powers.

Question 47

What position did President Cleveland take in the 1895 border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana that tested the Monroe Doctrine?

A) Britain should give in to Venezuela.
B) America had the right to step in and mediate.
C) Venezuela should give in to Britain.
D) Venezuela should solve its own problems with the advice of the U.S.State Department.

Question 48

Who became the most famous man in America after the Spanish-American War?

A) General William Shafter
B) Jim Dead Shot Simpson
C) William Howard Taft
D) Theodore Roosevelt

Question 49

What did the United States hope to secure through the Spanish-American War?

A) Naval bases in Cuba and the Philippines
B) A part of Florida claimed by both Spain and the United States
C) Cuban independence from Spain
D) The area in which the United States hoped to build the Panama Canal

Question 50

For what reason did William Jennings Bryan oppose foreign acquisitions for the United States?

A) He believed expansionism only distracted the nation from problems at home.
B) He predicted that acquisitions would lead to wars with England,Japan,and Germany.
C) He feared that the United States would have to build democratic institutions in those nations.
D) He believed the federal government lacked the strength to properly conquer foreign nations.