U.S History
Stratford High School
Common Benchmark Assessment
#2
Samuel Gompers, letter to Judge Peter
Grosscup, September 1894
“You say that ‘labor must not attack capital.’
. . . labor has no quarrel with capital, as such.
It is merely the possessors of capital who
refuse to [give] labor . . . the justice which is
the laborers’ due with whom we contend. . . .”
Source: Great Issues in American History, vol. 2, p. 108.
Using the quote above answer questions 1-4: (2 pts each)
1. Which of these individuals is MOST likely to have disagreed with the viewpoint expressed in the quote?
a. Mary Kenney O’Sullivan c. George Pullman
b. Terence Powderly d. Mother Jones
2. What can you infer from the tone and content of the quotation from Samuel Gompers’s letter?
a. Samuel Gompers represented companies that sued striking workers.
b. Samuel Gompers wrote to praise Judge Grosscup for supporting striking workers.
c. Unlike many federal judges in the 1890s, Judge Grosscup was a strong union supporter.
d. Judge Grosscup ruled against the striking workers whom Samuel Gompers represented.
3. What 1894 event, which prompted the letter from which the quote is taken, dealt a serious blow to labor unions?
a. The judge sent members of the ILGWU to jail.
b. The judge ordered wage reductions for railroad workers.
c. The judge ruled that the strike by Pullman workers limited free trade.
d. The judge outlawed unions in New York City’s sweatshops.
4. Which of the following is the BEST interpretation of this quotation?
a. Union workers will not be satisfied until they financially destroy company owners.
b. Union workers’ demands for higher wages are unrealistic.
c. Union workers should take over the factories in which they work.
d. Union workers want only the fair treatment that is their right under the law.
Using the chart answer questions 5-8: (2pts each)
5. Which statement about immigration to the United States is BEST supported by the information shown on the graph?
a. About the same number of immigrants arrived in 1894 as arrived in 1902.
b. Almost twice as many immigrants arrived in 1914 as arrived in 1902.
c. About half as many immigrants arrived in 1898 as arrived in 1902.
d. About three times as many immigrants arrived in 1914 as arrived in 1898.
6. What can you MOST likely conclude from the trend shown on the graph?
a. Between 1894 and 1914, life in the United States was getting easier for immigrants.
b. Between 1894 and 1914, pogroms were nonexistent in other countries.
c. Between 1894 and 1914, the immigrant’s journey to the United States became easier.
d. Between 1894 and 1914, push factors may have intensified in other countries.
7. Which statement is BEST supported by the information on the chart?
a. Between 1894 and 1898, immigration to the United States increased dramatically.
b. Between 1898 and 1902, immigration to the United States remained about the same.
c. Between 1898 and 1906, immigration to the United States increased dramatically.
d. Between 1910 and 1914, immigration to the United States decreased slightly.
8. Which is the MOST likely inference that can be drawn from the trend shown on the graph?
a. There was little demand for workers in the United States between 1898 and 1914.
b. There were no constitutional guarantees of religious freedom in the United States.
c. Immigration to the United States was often discouraged between 1898 and 1914.
d. Factory workers were in great demand in the United States between 1898 and 1914.
Using the chart answer questions 9-12: (2pts each)
9. In which part of the country did Wilson win all the electoral votes?
a. the Northwest c. the South
b. the Northeast d. the Southwest
10. Which statement is BEST supported by the information on the map?
a. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft split the Republican vote.
b. Wilson captured the majority of the popular vote.
c. More people voted for Taft than voted for Roosevelt.
d. Southerners favored Roosevelt.
11. In which of the following states did the Republican Party candidate win?
a. Utah and New Hampshire c. Texas and Florida
b. Washington and Pennsylvania d. Michigan and New York
12. Which statement is BEST supported by the information on the map?
a. The Republicans carried the South.
b. Wilson won the states bordering the Great Lakes.
c. Taft made a strong showing in the West.
d. Wilson won the southeastern states.
Multiple Choice (2pts each)
13. Which statement BEST describes one major effect of the Dawes Act?
a. Native Americans adapted from a hunting to a farming culture.
b. Native American families profited from their assigned plots of land.
c. Speculators convinced many Native Americans to sell reservation land.
d. Native Americans gained vast tracts of prime farmland.
14. Like other immigrants, Mexican Americans
a. settled mostly in eastern cities.
b. preserved their heritage after they came to the United States.
c. established unions to pressure employers for higher wages.
d. encountered very little discrimination in employment.
15. Women often supported the temperance movement because
a. temperance was the major concern of the suffragists.
b. they disapproved of bootleggers.
c. drinking caused violence and economic hardship for families.
d. most liquor manufacturers used child labor.
16. All of the following were concerns that shaped politics during the Gilded Age EXCEPT
a. bribery. c. patronage.
b. merit. d. voter fraud.
17. Why was the name muckrakers given to some members of the press during the Progressive Era?
a. because they exposed public corruption
b. because they wrote about poor sanitation services
c. because they worked to change public opinion
d. because they were themselves corrupt reporters
18. Which statement explains how railroad rebates worked?
a. Railroad owners reduced fares for low-income customers.
b. Railroad owners agreed to divide up the business in a given region.
c. Railroad owners gave secret discounts to their biggest customers.
d. Railroad owners fixed fares for shipping goods at the highest possible level.
19. Who laid an underwater cable that transmitted telegraph messages from North America to Europe?
a. Alexander Graham Bell c. Cyrus Field
b. Samuel Morse d. Thomas Edison
20. Which advance made a network of railroad lines possible?
a. the air brake c. the convertible berth
b. a standard gauge d. the dining car
21. Which of the following was NOT a factor in the growth of huge steel empires after the Civil War?
a. the railroads’ need for strong, durable rails
b. the cost-cutting benefits of the Bessemer process
c. the growing popularity of skyscrapers in big cities
d. the development of a less-polluting manufacturing process
22. Which of the following was NOT a problem that led workers to form labor organizations?
a. low wages c. unsafe working conditions
b. high unemployment rates d. use of child labor
23. Which of the following advances did women workers make during the late 1800s?
a. Women became the leaders of the two largest labor unions.
b. Women garment workers won better pay and shorter work hours.
c. Women organizers successfully lobbied for laws prohibiting child labor.
d. Women in all occupations won equal pay for equal work.
24. What was the most important effect of Henry Ford’s method of automobile production?
a. Manufacturers could produce more luxury cars for the wealthy.
b. Millions of Americans could afford automobiles.
c. Female workers were hired for factory work for the first time.
d. Manufacturers produced cars with more mechanical defects.
25. Which trait of American business leaders did NOT contribute to their creation of huge steel empires in the late 1800s?
a. boldness c. ruthlessness
b. imagination d. generosity
26. What was one of the tensions in Europe that led to World War I?
a. Russian people united by poverty overthrew their government.
b. Many people united by language and culture sought self-government.
c. A German submarine sank the British passenger ship the Lusitania.
d. The Treaty of Versailles placed difficult demands on Germany.
27. With which two countries did Austria-Hungary form the Triple Alliance?
a. Britain and France c. Russia and Italy
b. Britain and Russia d. Italy and Germany
28. How did Germany’s sinking of the Lusitania increase the risk of war with the United States?
a. The deaths of many American passengers on the British ship outraged President Wilson.
b. The sinking hurt the United States economy by halting United States trade with Britain.
c. American ships responded by blockading German ports.
d. American ships responded by attacking German submarines.
29. Why did the United States government create the War Industries Board?
a. to ensure that factories produced enough military supplies for the war
b. to educate soldiers
c. to ensure that young men registered for the military draft
d. to boost food production
30. Which of the following nations would have entered World War I if the Zimmerman plot had succeeded?
a. Serbia c. Switzerland
b. Spain d. Mexico
31. Which of the following was NOT a characteristic of trench warfare?
a. heavy artillery bombardments
b. attacks and counterattacks across open land
c. short battles with relatively few deaths
d. use of poison gases on enemy troops
32. Which of the following was a setback for the Allies in 1917?
a. the Zimmerman plot c. the Battle of the Argonne Forest
b. the Russian Revolution d. the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
33. The shortage of agricultural labor induring World War I was largely filled by
a. German Americans. c. women.
b. Mexican immigrants. d. European immigrants.
34. Which of the following BEST describes trench warfare?
a. long, deadly struggles ending in clear victory for one side
b. long battles that often advanced over miles of territory a day
c. long, deadly struggles with little gain for either side
d. long battles involving a variety of successful attack strategies
35. Which of the following was a result of the sinking of the Lusitania?
a. the Treaty of Versailles c. the Sussex Pledge
b. the Russian Revolution d. the Zimmerman telegram
Essay: Pick one question and answer (30 pts)
1. Gilded Age reformers tried with some success to clean up corruption. Give three examples of the reformers’ actions, and explain why each supports this statement.
2. In an essay, explain how Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal reflected the goals of the Progressives.
3. Journalists and writers contributed to Progressive Era reforms. Explain how three of these reformers achieved this goal.
4. Compare and contrast President Woodrow Wilson’s Progressive policies with those of President Theodore Roosevelt using big business, labor, consumers, conservation, and finance as examples.
Essay
1. How did Theodore Roosevelt’s policies change the Western landscape?