Key Terms and Concepts of the Industrial Era

Which best describes tariffs during the Industrial Era?

• Taxes on exports to protect domestic sellers

• Fees on interstate rail rates set by ICC

• High taxes on imports reducing outside competition

• Company payments called dividends to stockholders

What was a major effect of business consolidation in the Gilded Age?

• Trusts were banned and split into pieces

• Combined companies often drove small rivals out

• Lower prices created more small competitors

• Stockholders lost ownership of their shares

Which statement about free enterprise in this period is accurate?

• Courts required reasonable and just tariffs

• ICC guaranteed fair wages to workers

• Businesses could operate as they wished

• Government set all consumer prices by law

The Interstate Commerce Act primarily aimed to do what?

• Provide dividends to railroad stockholders

• Create settlement houses for immigrants

• Regulate railroad rates as reasonable and just

• Ban trusts in oil and steel industries

What does capital refer to for a company?

• Large amounts of workers for factories

• Shares sold to trustees controlling trusts

• Money or assets needed to run operations

• Government licenses for interstate trade

Who are stockholders in a corporation?

• Managers who set company policies

• Trustees who control multiple companies

• Workers who negotiate union contracts

• People owning shares and earning dividends

Dividends are best defined as what?

• Government fines for unfair rates

• Fees paid to trustees for consolidation

• Portions of corporate profits to stockholders

• Taxes paid on imported goods

Which idea is linked to the Gospel of Wealth?

• Wealthy industrialists should donate generously

• Government must own major industries

• Workers should strike until wages rise

• Immigrants must assimilate completely

What was a trust in the Gilded Age?

• A charity fund managed by stockholders

• A federal office enforcing railroad fairness

• A union strategy to arbitrate labor disputes

• A board of trustees controlling member corporations

Why was the Sherman Antitrust Act initially weak?

• It taxed only exports not imports

• It eliminated the ICC’s investigations

• It was vague and difficult to enforce

• It applied solely to small local shops