Chapter 7

1. Chapter 7 Immigrants and Urbanization

2. The New Immigrants Section 1

3. Europeans • 1870-1920, 20 million • Before 1890=Western Europe, After 1890=Eastern and Southern Europe • Push= Religious Persecution, pogroms, rising population… • Pull= Plentiful jobs (supposedly), more independence, religious freedom

4. Chinese and Japanese • Arrive on the West Coast • Between 1851-1883 about 300,000 Chinese arrivemostly for the Gold Rush, end up working railroads, farms, mines, domestic services or starting their own businesses • Hawaii asks Japanese to immigrate in order to gain a bigger labor force for plantations, when U.S. annexes Hawaii many of those Japanese then move to the West Coast. By 1920 200,000 Japanese live on the West Coast

5. West Indies and Mexico • Between 1880 and 1920 about 260,000 to Eastern and Southeastern from Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc. • Left because jobs were scarce where they lived but they heard rumors that jobs were plentiful in the U.S. because of the Industrial boom • Mexicans move to the West and Southwest, 700,000 people over 20 years (about 7% of the Mexican population) • Left because of political turmoil. Came because new farmland was opened up in the West because of irrigation

6. Difficult Journey • By 1870’s most traveled by steamship • From Europe to East Coast= 1 week • From Asia to West Coast= 3 weeks • Cheapest passages in the cargo hold, not allowed on deck, cramped, no exercise, no fresh air, sleep in louse-infested bunks, share bathroom… • Disease spread quickly and some died before completing the journey

7. Ellis Island • Immigration station for the East Coast • About 20% detained for more than a day, about 2% denied entry • Physical examine (sent home if you had a communicable disease), government inspection of documents, prove they’ve never been convicted of a felony, able to work, had money (at least $25), sometimes even had to have a sponsor • Between 1892-1924 about 17 million came through Ellis Island

8. Angel Island • Asian immigrants mostly for China (Japanese would come from Hawaii) 1910-1940, about 50,000 Chinese Immigrants • Endured harsh questioning and long detention in filthy ramshackle buildings before finding out if they would or would not be admitted

9. Cooperation for Survival • Have to find a place to live, get a job, understand daily life without culture shock, learn language… • Seek out those that share their same language, background, religious values… • These ethnic communities are rafts for immigrants, they build churches, social clubs, aid societies, orphanages, nursing homes, wrote their own newspapers… • Became hyphenated Americans • Viewed as a threat by Native born who wanted a melting pot

10. Ethnic Neighborhoods China Town Little Italy

11. The Rise of Nativism • Overt favoritism for native born Americans • Thought Anglo-Saxons were the best and did not object to the “right” kind of immigrants (British, German, Scandinavian…) • Objected to the “wrong” kind of immigrants (Slav, Latin, Asian…) • Objected mostly to immigrant religions (Catholicism and Judaism) • Pressured a bill to deny illiterate immigrants (vetoed by the president, brought up again later, vetoed again, but passed over the presidential veto)

12. Anti-Asian Sentiment • In the West, nativists become politically active in the labor movement • Angered by Chinese accepting lower wages • Pressured the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) • No more Chinese immigration except students, teachers, merchants, tourists and government officials • Not repealed until 1943

13. The Gentlemen’s Agreement • 1906 Japanese attended segregated schoolsin San Francisco • Japan gets angry • Roosevelt works a deal • 1907-1908, Japan agrees to limit immigration of unskilled workers in exchange for getting rid of segregated education • (Not so bad on the East Coast…)

14. Challenges of Urbanization Section 2

15. Immigrants settle in cities • Cheapest and most convenient • Offered unskilled factory jobs • Americanization Movement (help new immigrants “melt”), English, American History, Government, Cooking, Social Etiquette… • Those that don’t want to melt make ethnic neighborhoods that are soon overcrowded

16. Migration from Country to City • Because of new farming technologies (reaper, steel plow…) fewer people are needed to farm so they move to the city where there are factory jobs • Blacks (first to get fired when farmers don’t need them) move from South to West and North to escape racial violence, economic hardship, political oppression • Find plenty of segregation and discrimination in the North as well partially because they were seen as job competition for the white immigrants

17. Housing • Used to be either live on the outskirts and find a ride in, or live in a boarding house in the city • More people need houses, what now? • Now there are row houses, as single working class families leave these, multiple immigrant families move in, they become overcrowded and unsanitary • New York City passes minimum standard laws about plumbing and ventilation in apartments, buildings add “air shafts” so each unit has a window, when the garbage wasn’t picked up often enough people dumped it into the air shafts, this attracts vermin and then people end up nailing shut the windows… Creating a bigger problem than the converted single family homes

18. Transportation • More people need to get more places, so what is the solution? • Street cars and electric subways to connect city neighborhoods and the outlying communities

19. Water • How do you supply fresh drinking water to the masses? • Try to build public waterworks, most houses didn’t have any piped in water at all • Street faucets to fill up buckets • Disease spreads because of dirty water so 1870 filtration is introduced, 1908 chlorination is introduced, but still many did not have access to clean water

20. Sanitation • Horse manure, open gutters full of human waste, pollution from factories, no dependable trash collection (so it was dumped in the streets), people hired to collect garbage, sweep streets and clean outhouses didn’t do their jobs • Solution? Sewer lines and sanitation departments

21. Crime • Mostly pickpockets and thieves • New York City has first full-time, salaried police force… most other cities can’t afford it and therefore don’t have it.

22. Fire • Limited water supply • Packed with wooden buildings • Candles and kerosene lamps • Earthquakes (or cows…) • Volunteer fire departments • Solution? • Bricks and other building materials, automatic sprinklers and full-time, paid fire departments

23. Great Chicago Fire

24. Social Gospel Movement • Charity that preaches salvation comes through serving the poor • Start settlements houses in slum neighborhoods to help immigrants. Educational, cultural, and social services • Mostly run by middle-class, college-educated, women. Help cultivate social responsibility for urban poor

25. Politics in the Gilded Age Section 3

26. Political Machine • An organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in a city • Offered services to businesses or voters in exchange for financial or political support • After the Civil War, gained control of cities like Baltimore, San Francisco, New York… • Pyramid: Base=precinct workers and captains (gain voters’ support in a neighborhood), Level 2=Ward Boss (secure votes of an entire district during election time and provide help or favors in exchange for votes), Top=Political Boss

27. Role of Political Boss • Worked with precinct captains and ward bosses to get their candidates elected • Sometimes mayor, sometimes not, but usually in control • Controlled access to municipal jobs and business licenses; influenced courts and other city agencies • Sometimes control was used to build parks, sewer systems, and waterworks and then provide money to schools, hospitals and orphanages, or provide support to new businesses • This gained them more support to extend their influence

28. Immigrants and the Machine • Precinct captains were often 1st or 2nd generation immigrants • Few educated beyond grammar school • Entered early and worked their way up • Could speak in immigrants own language and understood the unique challenges they face and could provide solutions: help with naturalization, housing, jobs… in exchange for votes

29. Election Fraud and Graft • When their tactics did not gain them the required votes they tweaked the system • Using fake names they would vote over and over again until their candidate “won” • Illegal use of political influence for personal gain • Usually in the form of “kickbacks” (I give you the job, you charge the city more, we both pocket taxpayers $) • Also accepted bribes to allow illegal activity to continue, police did nothing because they were hired and fired by political bosses

30. Tweed Ring Scandal • Boss Tweed, in charge of Tammany Hall (New York City’s most powerful Democratic political machine) • Leads political machine to defraud the city of millions of dollars through graft • Corruption is exposed by Thomas Nast cartoons • Indicted on 120 counts of fraud and extortion, sentenced to 12 years in prison, reduced sentence to one year, almost immediately rearrested after release, escaped, fled the country, eventually captured in Spain when officials recognized him from the cartoon

31. Patronage Spurs Reform • Patronage: giving gov’t. jobs to people who got you elected (spoil’s system) • Led to unqualified employeeswho occasionally used their position for personal gain • Reformers want a merit system (job goes to the most qualified regardless of who they voted for or who recommended them for the job) for hiring civil service positions

32. Reform Under Hayes and Garfield • Hayes: named independents to his cabinet, commission to investigate custom’s houses, ended up firing 2 people because of the investigation, this enraged the Republican Senator and Political Boss (Conkling) and his followers the Stalwarts. Hayes decided not to rerun so Republican party split between Stalwarts and Reformers. The party agrees to nominate independent (Garfield) for president and Stalwart (Arthur) for vice-president. • Garfield wins and gives patronage jobs to reformers, this angers a mentally unbalanced Stalwart lawyer who then shoots him twice at a train station. He happily goes to jail because he is a Stalwart and Arthur is now president…

33. Reform under Arthur • Who turns against the Stalwart beliefs and becomes a reformer who encourages Congress to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Act • This act sets up a bipartisan civil service commission to appoint federal jobs to the best candidates based on an examination system • It’s unintended consequences…officials can no longer pressure employees for campaign contributions so they turned elsewhere for those donations

34. Cleveland, Harrison and High Tariffs • The elsewhere is business owners • In return business owners want high tariffs to eliminate foreign competition • Democrats don’t want high tariffs and they win the presidential election with Cleveland who tries to lower tariffs, but Congress won’t let him • Runs for reelection against Harrison (who was supported by big businesses that want high tariffs) • Harrison wins the electoral vote (not the popular…) and passes the McKinley Tariffs Act to raise tariffs to their highest ever level

35. Return of Cleveland • When Harrison runs for reelection Cleveland runs against him and wins (only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms) • Cleveland wants tariffs back down, Congress proposes a bill to lower them but in that bill is included a federal income tax so Clevelandrefuses to sign it (it becomes law any way) • Next, McKinley becomes president and raises tariffs again • Although overall the fight against tariffs was lost the spirit of reform lived on

36. Gilded Age Political Cartoons

37. What a funny little government

38. Bosses of the Senate

39. Who Stole the People’s Money?

40. History Repeats Itself

41. Tammany Tiger