End of First Term Spring 2019

In 1888 Ohio Senator John Sherman introduced an antitrust bill in Congress. The following excerpt is from a speech he delivered on the floor of the Senate.

"The popular mind is agitated with problems that may disturb the social order.....none is more threatening than....the concentration of capital into vast combinations...Congress alone can deal with them and if we are unwilling or unable there will soon be a trust for every product and a master to fix the price for every necessity of life"

What is Sherman's analysis of the impact of trusts on the capitalist economy?

• He proposed punishing monopolies by transferring ownership of corporations to the government

• He suggested the law would help consumers by protecting unrestricted competition among industries

• He suggested that government was needed to balance the power of concentrated wealth

• He proposed to protect economic growth by requiring that profits be distributed to workers

W.E.B. Du Bois argued that African Americans should educate themselves so they could

• assimilate into white culture

• win acceptance from white politicians

• learn a trade

• provide leadership in the fight for civil rights

The Pendleton Civil Service Act was passed to

• end the spoils system

• print money backed by silver rather than gold

• place additional regulation on the railroads

• end Japanese immigration to the United States

Andrew Carnegie argued that the success of wealthy industrialists

• Should be limited by the government

• Had no effect on average Americans

• was illegal according to the Sherman Antitrust Act

• helped the entire nation

According to the theory of Social Darwinism, the government should

• outlaw trusts and cartels

• raise taxes on the rich

• stay out of the affairs of business

• protect the rights of workers

The main objective of the nativists was to

• repeal laws that restricted immigration

• build tenement apartments for immigrants

• help immigrants adjust to American culture

• restrict immigration

Fredrick Jackson Turner's thesis held that the frontier

• had little effect on the American character

• destroyed the West and the Americans who went there

• would continue to exist for at least another 50 years

• helped create the strong, individualistic American spirit

The government responded to the Pullman Strike by

• using federal troops to control the workers

• taking Pullman officials to court

• forcing unions and workers to negotiate

• shutting down all railway operations

During the late 1800s, children often worked in factories because

• employers offered high wages to skilled children

• their parents believed in the process of "natural selection"

• families needed the income to survive

• there were no public schools for children to attend

What did the Morrill Land Grant Act and the Homestead Act have in common?

• They provided ways for settlers to acquire Western lands

• They forced Native Americans onto reservations

• They discriminated against African American families

• They enabled railroad companies to develop the land near their tracks