Paul Jones

American Pageant Chapter 24

1. Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt, also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American
entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads and was the patriarch of the
Vanderbilt family.
2. Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is
credited with inventing the first practical telephone.
3. Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed
many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion
picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo
Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to
apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and
therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.
4. Andrew Carnigie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur and a major
philanthropist.
5. John D. Rockefella
John Davison Rockefeller was an American industrialist. Rockefeller revolutionized the
petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the
Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897. Standard Oil
began as an Ohio partnership formed by John D. Rockefeller, his brother William Rockefeller,
Henry Flagler, chemist Samuel Andrews, and a silent partner, Stephen V. Harkness. As kerosene
and gasoline grew in importance, Rockefeller's wealth soared, and he became the world's richest
man and first American billionaire. He is often regarded as the richest person in history.
6. J. Pierpont Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated
corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the
merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General
Electric. After financing the creation of the Federal Steel Company he merged the Carnegie Steel
Company and several other steel and iron businesses to form the United States Steel Corporation
in 1901.
7. Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor
history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and served as the AFL's
president from 1886-1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924. He promoted harmony among
the different craft unions that comprised the AFL, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles.
8. Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, prominent
classical liberal political theorist, and sociological theorist of the Victorian era. Social Darwinist.
9. Rebate
A rebate is an amount paid by way of reduction, return, or refund on what has already been
paid or contributed. It is a type of sales promotion marketers use primarily as incentives or
supplements to product sales.
10. Vertical integration
In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of
management control. Vertically integrated companies are united through a hierarchy with a
common owner. Usually each member of the hierarchy produces a different product or (market-
specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need.
11. Horizontal integration
In microeconomics and strategic management, the term horizontal integration describes a
type of ownership and control. It is a strategy used by a business or corporation that seeks to sell
a type of product in numerous markets.
12. Trust
A trust company is a corporation, especially a commercial bank, organized to perform the
fiduciary of trusts and agencies. It is normally owned by one of three types of structures: an
independent partnership, a bank, or a law firm, each of which specializes in being a trustee of
various kinds of trusts and in managing estates.
13. Capital goods
Marxian economics, capital goods originally referred to the means of production.
14. Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order, whereby a party is required to
do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts.
15. Trust-busting
Trust-busting is any government activity designed to break up trusts or monopolies.
Theodore Roosevelt is the U.S. president most associated with dissolving trusts. However,
William Howard Taft signed twice as much trust-busting legislation during his presidency.
16. Company town
A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings (both residential
and commercial), utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations,
and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company.
17. Closed shop
A closed shop is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to only
hire union members, and employees must remain members of the union at all times in order to
remain employed.
18. Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest and oldest
operating railroad network in the United States
19. Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad was the California-to-Utah portion of the First Transcontinental
Railroad in North America.
20. Bessemer process
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of
steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took
out a patent on the process in 1855.
21. United States Steel
The United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an integrated
steel producer with major production operations in the United States, Canada, and Central
Europe.
 22. Gospel of wealth
"Wealth", more commonly known as "The Gospel of Wealth", is an essay written by Andrew
Carnegie in 1889 that described the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-
made rich.
23. Interstate Commerce Act
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory body in the United States
created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which was signed into law by President Grover
Cleveland.