Deck 16: Building Factories, Building Cities, 1877-1900

Question 1

The Supreme Court's decision in Muller v. Oregon resulted in women being _____________________.

A) barred from some occupations
B) paid substantially more than before
C) hired for the first time in many occupations
D) permitted to strike for better working conditions or higher wages

Answer 1

barred from some occupations

Question 2

Under Frederick W. Taylor's theory of scientific management, _____________________.

A) workers' skills came to be valued more highly
B) workers increasingly controlled the pace and scale of production
C) workers were encouraged to shift frequently from one task to another
D) workers became another kind of interchangeable part

Answer 2

workers became another kind of interchangeable part

Question 3

In the search for economic order and stability, many corporation managers of the late nineteenth century

A) urged Congress to pass wage and price controls.
B) argued in favor of a regulatory commission for all industry.
C) sought new and larger forms of economic concentration.
D) sought lower tariffs.

Answer 3

sought new and larger forms of economic concentration.

Question 4

In practice, the "freedom of contract" principle meant that __________________.

A) employers increased workers' wages as the cost of living increased
B) employers could set pay as low as workers would accept
C) wages automatically increased as profits increased
D) employers recognized the right of workers to bargain collectively

Question 5

What was the alliance of craft unions that emerged from 1886 upheavals as the major workers' organization?

A) Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
B) Women's Trade Union League (WTUL)
C) American Federation of Labor (AFL)
D) Western Federation of Miners (WFM)

Question 6

The widespread use of the flush toilet is an example of the __________________.

A) effectiveness of modern advertising
B) effectiveness of state health regulations
C) traditional modesty of Americans
D) democratization of convenience

Question 7

In Holden v. Hardy, the Supreme Court of the United States ______________.

A) struck down a law limiting the working hours of miners
B) upheld a law limiting the working hours of miners
C) decided that miners were in violation of the Sherman Act
D) ruled that mine owners had no responsibility for the safety of their employees

Question 8

The _______________was Thomas Edison's contribution to the search for cheap and efficient indoor lighting.

A) fluorescent lamp
B) arc light
C) incandescent bulb
D) gaseous-discharge bulb

Question 9

Which of the following is true of the Knights of Labor under the leadership of Terence Powderly?

A) It sought to establish a cooperative society in which workers owned the means of production.
B) It changed its name to the American Federation of Labor in 1886.
C) It instigated the Haymarket riot.
D) It refused membership to blacks and women.

Question 10

Corporations received broad judicial protection in the 1880s and 1890s when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that _____________________.

A) stockholders were not liable for a corporation's debts
B) corporations, like individuals, were protected by laws preventing the government from depriving them of property rights
C) the Bill of Rights prevented the government from interfering with corporate activity
D) general incorporation laws were constitutional

Question 11

President Grover Cleveland responded to the 1894 Pullman strike by _______________.

A) offering to serve as a mediator
B) remaining uninvolved and doing nothing
C) intervening on the side of labor
D) intervening on the side of management

Question 12

Why did the proportion of women working as sales clerks increase in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

A) Sales jobs were attractive to women because they offered better working conditions than factory jobs.
B) Managers in department stores considered female cashiers to be much more trustworthy that male cashiers.
C) Sales jobs demanded many different skills that women usually possessed.
D) Sales jobs usually led to the managerial positions that most working women desired.

Question 13

The American Federation of Labor was founded by __________________.

A) Jane Addams
B) Eugene Debs
C) Samuel Gompers
D) William Haywood

Question 14

As a result of the Haymarket bombing, _______________.

A) President Cleveland sent federal troops to Chicago to protect working-class demonstrators
B) many people associated labor unions with foreign-born radicals
C) the Illinois state legislature banned labor unions
D) many major corporations gave in to workers' demands for an eight-hour day

Question 15

Which of the following is true of the Telephone Operators' Department of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers?

A) Out of the belief that they were detrimental to the cause of all workers, its leaders stood against strikes.
B) Its leaders were socialists who wanted the federal government to nationalize the Bell system.
C) It urged the Bell system to adopt the theories of Frederick Taylor.
D) It was dominated by women.

Question 16

The development of the textile industry in the South was aided by which of the following?

A) The use of electric looms
B) An abundance of water to power the drive shafts for machines
C) Cheap immigrant labor
D) The use of profit sharing to encourage worker productivity

Question 17

A crisis in the railroad industry, precipitated by four years of wage cuts, layoffs, and increased workloads, occurred in which year?

A) 1892
B) 1920
C) 1908
D) 1877

Question 18

Which of the following statements is most consistent with the beliefs of the Industrial Workers of the World?

A) Workers should take over and run the nation's industries.
B) Workers should not resort to strikes or violence.
C) Workers should align themselves with the Democratic party.
D) Workers should organize themselves into craft unions.

Question 19

Many employers cut wage costs in the late nineteenth century by _______________.

A) eliminating pension plans
B) hiring skilled workers
C) eliminating health insurance plans
D) hiring women and children

Question 20

________ was a Scottish immigrant who built an enormous steel company and became a renowned philanthropist.

A) Andrew Carnegie
B) Henry Ford
C) John D. Rockefeller
D) Thomas Edison

Question 21

Unlike Henry George and Lester Ward, Edward Bellamy ______________.

A) strongly criticized Social Darwinism
B) favored government ownership and management of the means of production
C) criticized government as a negative force in society
D) did not believe that humans could shape the course of nature

Question 22

Who was John D. Rockefeller?

A) Founder of the Ford Motor Company
B) Creator of Standard Oil and master of the use of pools and trusts to monopolize an industry
C) Inventor and founder of the first industrial research laboratory
D) Scottish immigrant who built an enormous steel company and became a renowned philanthropist

Question 23

Which of the following social reformers was a pioneer of the settlement house movement and founder of Chicago's Hull House?

A) Jacob Riis
B) Denis Kearney
C) Jane Addams
D) George Waring

Question 24

Which of the following is true of Denis Kearney?

A) He and his followers intimidated employers in San Francisco into refusing to hire people of Chinese descent.
B) He was the motivating force behind the massacre of hundreds of Chinese immigrants.
C) As a member of the San Francisco city council, he gained passage of a city ordinance prohibiting anyone of Chinese descent from living within the city limits.
D) He argued that immigrants who were not of Anglo-Saxon descent should not be allowed to become naturalized citizens of the United States.

Question 25

Advocates of Social Darwinism believed that _____________________.

A) the government should use its power of taxation to bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth
B) the government should protect the weak in society by regulating industry
C) wealth belongs to those most capable of creating it
D) wealth carries no responsibilities except to get more of it

Question 26

Which of the following was a provision of the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by Congress in 1882?

A) The act relaxed restrictions on the number of Chinese who could immigrate to the United States.
B) The act prohibited the employment of Chinese Americans.
C) The act prohibited Chinese workers from immigrating to the United States.
D) The act allowed for the gradual removal of all Chinese Americans from the United States.

Question 27

The padrone performed an important function by

A) maintaining the authority of the Catholic Church.
B) encouraging Italians to abandon the traditions of their homeland.
C) countering the influence of the Mafia.
D) acting as a broker between employers and unskilled workers.

Question 28

Which of the following is true of late-nineteenth-century immigrants to the United States?

A) Most settled in agricultural areas.
B) Family tended to be the focal point of their lives.
C) They usually flocked together on the edges of major American cities.
D) They were predominantly female.

Question 29

The main problem with pools was that _____________________.

A) too often members sued each other for violation of the agreement creating the pool
B) they did not increase profits
C) the Interstate Commerce Act made them illegal precisely when they were most important
D) there was no legal way to enforce the private agreement that created the pool

Question 30

Which of the following is true of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act?

A) It posed as much of a threat to small businessmen as to large corporations.
B) It did not clearly define what constituted a "restraint of trade."
C) It brutally destroyed American agriculture by defining any farm of more than 500 acres as a monopoly.
D) It was enforceable at the discretion of business bureaus in state governments.

Question 31

Which of the following is true of holding companies?

A) They had no existence in the eyes of the law.
B) They held capital for pending investments.
C) They owned partial or complete interest in other companies.
D) They controlled the assets of bankrupt companies.

Question 32

Henry George, the author of Progress and Poverty (1879), claimed that ________________.

A) tariffs benefited labor as much as business
B) the only way to achieve social justice was by abolishing private property
C) a single property tax, based on the rise in property values caused by increased market demand, would prevent profiteering by land speculators
D) only a rigidly enforced income tax on the wealthy could provide the revenue necessary to end poverty

Question 33

What was the identity of an urban neighborhood usually based on?

A) The primary language spoken by the children in the neighborhood school.
B) The specific dialect spoken by the residents.
C) The institutions and businesses found in the neighborhood.
D) The ethnic background of the people who lived in the neighborhood.

Question 34

As a result of the introduction of mass transit in cities, _______________.

A) working-class neighborhoods were broken apart
B) members of the middle class could live in neighborhoods on the urban outskirts and commute to work in the inner city
C) more mixed-use areas consisting of residences, shops, and factories emerged
D) human resources were drawn inward toward the central city

Question 35

Which of the following is true of urban housing conditions in the late nineteenth century?

A) Because of the construction of model tenements in most American cities, even the poor had clean, affordable housing.
B) Because population growth outpaced housing supplies in many large cities, low-income families often experienced extreme overcrowding.
C) Legislation establishing a national housing code made inhumane living conditions, a thing of the past.
D) In many cities, urban renewal projects funded by the federal government displaced the poor to cardboard shanties.

Question 36

Which of the following statements about urbanization is accurate?

A) As bad as American cities were, they were more orderly and beautiful than their European counterparts.
B) American cities proved the truth of "America, the melting pot."
C) American cities were dull, boring, and lifeless.
D) American cities were characterized by a mixture of social classes, ethnic groups, and racial groups that sometimes lived in harmony and sometimes did not.

Question 37

During the late nineteenth century, states that passed laws against trusts and monopolies ______________.

A) found that such laws caused economic depression because businesses fled to other states
B) were so successful that most people believed national legislation to be unnecessary
C) were mostly in the agricultural South and West
D) despite the pressure of great popular opposition to them

Question 38

Which of the following was especially important in helping African Americans cope with urban life?

A) The urban political machine
B) The availability of jobs
C) Government relief agencies for the urban poor
D) Religious activities associated with black churches

Question 39

Which of the following enabled city dwellers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to live in greater comfort and safety?

A) Indoor plumbing, central heating systems, and the adoption of public health regulations
B) The increased use of coal-burning stoves
C) Pollution control legislation
D) Government financing of low-income housing

Question 40

Most immigrant newcomers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

A) converted to a Protestant sect.
B) supported liberalizing trends in church services.
C) sought to retain their familiar religious practices.
D) did not go to church because they worked on Sundays.

Question 41

Which of the following statements best expresses the new attitude about poverty accepted by some humanitarians in the late nineteenth century?

A) Only the unfit are poor.
B) Relief of poverty should be tolerated but never encouraged.
C) Anyone can escape poverty through hard work and clean living.
D) Environment, rather than personal defects, causes poverty.

Question 42

Which of the following was often true of moral reformers?

A) They were especially sensitive to the needs of the diverse people inhabiting the cities.
B) They believed that cities were filled with sin and depravity and ultimately wanted to abolish urban areas.
C) They failed to understand that the crusades they launched were often seen as interference by others.
D) They recognized that it was futile to push moral reforms in urban areas.

Question 43

Women athletes in late-nineteenth-century America most often played _____________.

A) croquet
B) soccer
C) volleyball
D) basketball

Question 44

The daughter in an immigrant family might expect to be

A) given more opportunities than older siblings.
B) farmed out to a relative as a housekeeper.
C) urged to find a job and contribute to family earnings.
D) pressured to remain at home to do housework.

Question 45

Political machines spread and thrived in urban areas during the late nineteenth century because

A) they, unlike existing city governments, were able to provide much-needed services to urban residents.
B) they represented efficiency and honesty in an age of political corruption.
C) people were tired of the autocratic nature of existing city governments.
D) the middle classes were angry at the favoritism shown by existing city governments to the urban poor and ethnic minorities.

Question 46

The Intercollegiate Athletic Association was founded to

A) police college sports.
B) rank college football teams.
C) scout high-school prospects for college football teams.
D) establish a scholarship fund for college athletes.

Question 47

American cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries differed from cities in other industrialized nations in which of the following ways?

A) American cities had municipal welfare agencies that provided relief to the urban poor.
B) American cities had professional law enforcement officers.
C) American cities had no housing codes and no zoning restrictions.
D) American cities experienced a significant rise in homicide rates.

Question 48

Settlement-house workers such as Jane Addams

A) tried to impose their Protestant beliefs on immigrant newcomers and did little to deal with the real problems of urban life.
B) became reform leaders by fighting for such things as food and building safety regulations.
C) approached immigrants with an attitude of righteous superiority and made few meaningful contributions.
D) assumed that immigrants should immediately discard Old World customs.

Question 49

Which of the following is true of people who were part of the gay subculture in late-nineteenth-century American cities?

A) They usually faced little or no discrimination from the larger community.
B) There is no evidence that such people ever formed lasting relationships with same-sex partners.
C) They were labeled as "homosexuals" and faced laws specifically designed to deny them employment and housing.
D) They were usually categorized by their actions rather than by their sexual partners.

Question 50

Which of the following appears to have caused the decline in the birthrate in the late 1800s and early 1900s?

A) The increasing shift from a rural to an urban society
B) The decrease in the number of married couples
C) The increase in infant mortality rates
D) The climbing divorce rate

Question 51

Which of the following statements best expresses the belief of most middle- and upper-class Americans about poverty in the late nineteenth century?

A) Most poverty is caused by the business cycle.
B) The greed of the wealthy is the major reason for poverty.
C) The poor are poor because of their own personal weaknesses.
D) Much poverty is caused by the degrading environment in which people live.

Question 52

The popularity of bicycling in the late 1800s led to

A) the formation of immigrant "bike gangs" that terrorized neighborhoods.
B) fear that the automobile and related industries would be adversely affected.
C) the founding of the asphalt paving industry in America.
D) more practical and comfortable clothing styles for women.

Question 53

Which of the following is true of law enforcement officials in late-nineteenth-century American cities?

A) They often had to answer to various groups that differed on their views of the law and how it should be enforced.
B) They were merely volunteers with no professional training or status.
C) They were far more consistent in how they applied the law to various social classes and ethnic groups than is the case in today's society.
D) They usually showed far more leniency in applying the law to the disadvantaged.

Question 54

The rise of amusement as a commercial activity in the late 1800s took place for which of the following reasons?

A) Immigrants brought sports with them from Europe.
B) Employers wanted to draw workers' attention away from union organization.
C) Labor-saving devices brought a substantial increase in leisure time.
D) City reformers believed organized amusements would relieve working-class boredom and reduce the urban crime rate.

Question 55

The main goal of the urban political machines of the late 1800s was to

A) facilitate industrial development.
B) gather votes for presidential candidates.
C) improve the lives of the urban poor.
D) gain the rewards that accompanied political power.

Question 56

Which of the following is true of family life and the functions of the family by 1900?

A) People's roles in the home were no longer defined by age.
B) Kinship was no longer of any importance.
C) Age-based peer groups had far more influence over people's values than previously.
D) Parents spent a far larger portion of their lives caring for children than previously.

Question 57

Working-class families often supplemented their income by

A) doing piecework at home in the evening.
B) taking in boarders.
C) working as maids or servants on their days off.
D) running small businesses out of their homes.

Question 58

By the early twentieth century, cities increasingly depended on urban engineers to

A) establish public health regulations for hospitals, schools, and restaurants.
B) establish efficient refuse removal and disposal systems.
C) design buildings that would enhance the beauty of the inner city.
D) strictly enforce regulations designed to reduce air and water pollution within the urban environment.

Question 59

Most urban political bosses

A) tried to distribute favors in an equitable way.
B) were disdainful of local government and of the people they were supposed to serve.
C) retained their power because they knew people's needs and tended to those needs.
D) were thoroughly corrupt and assumed dictatorial powers.

Question 60

What was a primary goal of civic reformers?

A) To give elected officials greater local decision-making power
B) To put politics back into city government
C) To abolish the city-manager form of government
D) To make city government more efficient by running it like a business

Question 61

Discuss the problems of housing and sanitation in American cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and explain and evaluate the responses of private citizens and state and local governments to these problems.

Question 62

Discuss the characteristics of the immigrants who entered the United States between 1880 and 1920, and examine the impact these immigrants and American society had on each other.

Question 63

Discuss the objectives of civic reformers, the means by which they sought to achieve those objectives, and the effectiveness of their efforts.

Question 64

Discuss the Haymarket riot, the Homestead strike, and the Pullman strike, and examine the reaction of the government and the public to these instances of labor unrest.

Question 65

Discuss the various ways the concept of efficiency was applied to late nineteenth and early twentieth century life, industry, and work.

Question 66

In the late nineteenth century, several states passed laws designed to ease working conditions. Discuss the major rulings handed down by the Supreme Court in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in response to these laws.

Question 67

Compare and contrast the values and goals of reformers such as Jane Addams and Florence Kelley with those of the Women Unionists, Samuel Gompers and Eugene Debs

Question 68

D.W. Griffith's early motion picture Birth of a Nation

A) was an attempt to further the prohibition movement.
B) depicted the important role of women in the shaping of the republic.
C) was strongly anti-German in content.
D) depicted African Americans as a threat to white morality.

Question 69

Discuss the similarities and differences between the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor in relation to ideology, organization, membership, and goals. Why was the American Federation of Labor ultimately more successful than the Knights of Labor? How did unions seek to address workers' grievances, and were they successful?

Question 70

Discuss changes in the nature of work and working conditions that occurred during the late nineteenth century, including the role of Frederick Taylor. What impact did these changes have on American workers?

Question 71

Discuss the social and economic impact of electric-powered streetcars, elevators, and subways on the American city in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Question 72

Examine the urban experiences of African Americans in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America.

Question 73

Explain the emergence of urban political machines and political bosses, and discuss the characteristics of the political bosses and the political system they operated.

Question 74

The most popular form of mass entertainment in America in the early 1900s was ______________.

A) comic opera
B) musical comedy
C) the minstrel show
D) vaudeville

Question 75

Trace the corporate consolidation movement in late-nineteenth-century American society, and explain why businessmen felt the need for larger forms of economic concentration.

Question 76

Explain the position of women in the work force and in the union movement in the late nineteenth century.

Question 77

Discuss the contributions of technology and science to industrial and urban growth in the United States.

Question 78

African Americans in the entertainment business in the early twentieth century _______________________.

A) played roles which pandered to white prejudices
B) were paid extremely low wages, if at all
C) did not appear in films, but did appear in vaudeville
D) did not appear on the stage, but did appear in films

Question 79

Examine Social Darwinism as well as the growing demand in the late nineteenth century that something be done about the power of big business; indicate the result of this demand; and assess the effectiveness of this result in controlling big business by 1900.

Question 80

What was the focus of yellow journalism?

A) factual accuracy.
B) sensationalism.
C) thoughtful editorials.
D) want ads.