Industrialization and Labor Quiz

Grade 11 · Social Studies · Quiz

Test your knowledge of Gilded Age industry, labor conflicts, key legislation, and the rise of unions.

Questions

1. Andrew Carnegie's strategy of owning iron ore mines, railroads, and steel mills to control all stages of steel production is called:

   1. Horizontal integration
   2. Vertical integration
   3. Monopolization
   4. Trustification
   Show answer

   Answer: Vertical integration

   Carnegie Steel controlled every stage from raw material extraction to finished steel — eliminating supplier markups and giving the company cost advantages no competitor could match.

2. The American Federation of Labor (AFL), led by Samuel Gompers, primarily represented:

   1. Unskilled immigrant factory workers
   2. Skilled craft workers seeking collective bargaining
   3. Agricultural workers and sharecroppers
   4. All workers regardless of skill level
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   Answer: Skilled craft workers seeking collective bargaining

   Gompers deliberately focused the AFL on skilled workers in specific trades (plumbers, carpenters, cigar makers) who had bargaining leverage their employers couldn't easily replace.

3. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 killed 146 workers primarily because:

   1. The building had no fire escapes
   2. Fire exits were locked to prevent workers from taking breaks
   3. The fire department could not reach floors above the sixth
   4. Workers refused to evacuate due to fear of losing their jobs
   Show answer

   Answer: Fire exits were locked to prevent workers from taking breaks

   Factory managers locked stairwell doors during work hours to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks or stealing; when fire broke out, 146 workers — mostly young immigrant women — could not escape.

4. In its early years, the Sherman Antitrust Act was used more often against labor unions than against corporations.

   Show answer

   Answer: true

   Courts interpreted unions as 'combinations in restraint of trade' and issued injunctions against strikes; the Clayton Act (1914) was passed partly to correct this by explicitly exempting unions.

5. The Pullman Strike of 1894 was broken when:

   1. Workers voted to return to work after a pay increase
   2. Samuel Gompers negotiated a settlement with the Pullman company
   3. The federal government obtained an injunction and President Cleveland deployed troops
   4. Pullman moved its manufacturing to non-union states
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   Answer: The federal government obtained an injunction and President Cleveland deployed troops

   Eugene Debs was jailed for defying the injunction; the Supreme Court upheld this in In re Debs (1895), establishing broad government power to break strikes.

6. Rockefeller's Standard Oil controlled approximately what share of US oil refining at its peak?

   1. 40%
   2. 65%
   3. 80%
   4. 90%
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   Answer: 90%

   Standard Oil controlled approximately 90–91% of US oil refining at its peak, making it the archetypal American monopoly and the target of the Supreme Court's landmark 1911 breakup order.

7. The Haymarket Affair of 1886 was significant because it:

   1. Led directly to the eight-hour workday law
   2. Led to an anti-labor backlash and damaged the image of the labor movement
   3. Resulted in the founding of the AFL
   4. Led to the Sherman Antitrust Act
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   Answer: Led to an anti-labor backlash and damaged the image of the labor movement

   Though the bomb-thrower was never identified, eight anarchists were convicted on dubious evidence; the affair associated labor activism with violence in the public mind.

8. Child labor was extremely rare in US factories and mines during the Gilded Age.

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   Answer: false

   In 1900, approximately 1.75 million children under 15 worked in US mines, mills, and factories; the National Child Labor Committee documented conditions through photographer Lewis Hine's famous images.

9. The Knights of Labor differed from the AFL by:

   1. Focusing exclusively on skilled white male workers
   2. Welcoming unskilled workers, women, and some Black workers
   3. Opposing strikes in favor of political lobbying
   4. Supporting business consolidation as beneficial to workers
   Show answer

   Answer: Welcoming unskilled workers, women, and some Black workers

   The Knights of Labor was more inclusive than the AFL, accepting workers across skill levels and accepting women and Black members, though often in separate local assemblies.

10. Which 1935 New Deal law finally gave workers the robust legal right to organize unions and bargain collectively?

    1. The Clayton Antitrust Act
    2. The Sherman Antitrust Act
    3. The Wagner Act
    4. The Fair Labor Standards Act
    Show answer

    Answer: The Wagner Act

    The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act, 1935) guaranteed the right to organize and bargain collectively and created the NLRB to enforce these rights; union membership tripled in subsequent years.

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