Deck 19: Labor and Capital

Question 1

A "closed shop" was a business in which the employer

A)agreed to hire only members of a union.
B)refused to make agreements requiring union membership.
C)declined to bargain with unions.
D)closed the shop to union members.

Answer 1

agreed to hire only members of a union.

Question 2

Union organization of California's "peculiar institution" was difficult because

A)agricultural employers were violently opposed.
B)wages were too low to pay union dues.
C)local governments were dominated by the employers.
D)all of the above

Answer 2

all of the above

Question 3

In California most migratory agricultural workers have been

A)members of the IWW.
B)unemployed whites from the cities.
C)native-born whites seeking higher wages.
D)alien and nonwhite.

Answer 3

alien and nonwhite.

Question 4

The "Wheatland riot" of 1913 grew out of the labor organizing activities of the

A)Knights of Labor.
B)American Federation of Labor.
C)IWW.
D)Iron Workers.

Question 5

In the early 1900s,California's major "closed shop" city was

A)Sacramento.
B)San Francisco.
C)Los Angeles.
D)Marysville.

Question 6

Modern labor organization in California began

A)in Los Angeles in the 1870s.
B)during the gold rush.
C)in San Francisco in the 1880s.
D)with the Workingmen's party of California.

Question 7

The IWW

A)was primarily composed of unskilled workers.
B)enjoyed greater numerical strength than the union acknowledged.
C)was opposed to nonwhite membership.
D)all of the above

Question 8

The explosion at the Los Angeles Times building in 1910 was the result of a

A)leaking gas main.
B)bomb planted by employees of Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner.
C)conspiracy organized by Iron Workers union officials,including the McNamara brothers.
D)conspiracy organized by William J.Burns.

Question 9

In the early 1900s,the nation's leading center of the "open shop" was

A)Fresno.
B)Los Angeles.
C)San Diego.
D)Sacramento.

Question 10

Conditions on the Durst hop ranch in 1913 included

A)free drinking water in the fields.
B)eight outdoor pit toilets.
C)dormitories with insulated sleeping cubicles.
D)none of the above

Question 11

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries,most American laborers tended to favor

A)socialized public ownership of the means of production.
B)anarchism.
C)syndicalism.
D)craft unionism.

Question 12

Before 1900,working conditions showed the greatest improvement among California's unionized

A)carpenters and other building trades workers.
B)police.
C)seamen.
D)bakers.

Question 13

According to the text,the most effective factor impeding union growth in southern California was the

A)scale of industrial development.
B)relatively sparse and rural population.
C)personality of Harrison Gray Otis.
D)opposition of William Randolph Hearst.

Question 14

Japanese farm-labor organizations sometimes increased their effectiveness in the early 1900s by

A)joining forces with workers from Mexico and elsewhere.
B)mounting opposition to newly arrived Chinese immigrants.
C)forming a "pick handle brigade."
D)becoming naturalized US citizens.

Question 15

The attitude of California trade unions toward alien non- white workers was

A)sternly hostile.
B)casually indifferent.
C)openly friendly.
D)consistently encouraging.

Question 16

"Scabs" were

A)strike breakers.
B)crowded and ill-ventilated sleeping quarters for seamen.
C)keepers of sailors' boarding houses who served as employment agents.
D)abolished by federal law in 1850.

Question 17

Harrison Gray Otis,publisher of the Los Angeles Times,was

A)pro-union.
B)strongly anti-union.
C)the first major employer in southern California to accept the closed shop.
D)committed to socialism.

Question 18

During the free speech fight of 1912,the San Diego Tribune editorialized that Wobblies should be

A)granted their "basic constitutional rights."
B)hanged.
C)provided with free subscriptions to the newspaper.
D)escorted to the city limits by armed deputies.

Question 19

Working conditions in which San Francisco industry were especially atrocious before the development of effective labor unions?

A)the building industry
B)public services like police and fire protection
C)the maritime industry
D)the food industry

Question 20

In the early 1900s,women workers in San Francisco

A)remained concentrated in low-paying positions.
B)often worked in dangerous or unsanitary conditions.
C)occasionally went on strike.
D)all of the above

Question 21

In the early 1900s,women in San Francisco participated in union organizing and labor strikes.

Question 22

After a sensational trial,the McNamara brothers were found innocent of all charges in the Los Angeles Times bombing incident.

Question 23

In California more than two-thirds of the total number of persons employed in agriculture have been wage workers.

Question 24

In the early 1900s the Los Angeles Times adopted a strong anti-union labor policy.

Question 25

What were the unique California circumstances which gave rise to the pattern of alien,nonwhite,migratory agricultural labor in the state?

Question 26

Compared with other American cities in the early 1900s,San Francisco was a stronghold of unionism.

Question 27

Explain the difference between a "closed shop" and an "open shop." Compare the relative strength of organized labor in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.What factors accounted for this difference in strength?

Question 28

Describe the struggle between Harrison Gray Otis and organized labor in early 20^th-century Los Angeles.How did the Los Angeles Times disaster effect the cause of the unions?

Question 29

Harrison Gray Otis was a major advocate of the closed shop in early 20^th-century Los Angeles.

Question 30

According to the textbook,growers in the early 1900s viewed their migratory laborers as an unnecessary burden.

Question 31

Explain the goals and methods of the IWW in California.Why did the Wobblies meet with only limited success? If you had been a migrant worker in the early twentieth century,would you have joined the IWW? Why or why not?

Question 32

"Crimps" were crowded and unventilated sleeping quarters for seamen.

Question 33

Burnette G.Haskell was an early radical labor organizer in San Francisco.

Question 34

As a result of the violence during the "Wheatland riot",Ralph Durst,one of the state's largest growers,was convicted of murder and sent to state prison.