Industrial to Progressive
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Presentation Transcript
Industrial to Progressive A.P. U.S. History Mr. Krueger
A Machine Culture • How did machinery revolutionize American Culture? • Job Aspects • Focus on Machines? • How did the U.S. fare in comparison to the other industrial powers of Europe? • Did the government support Industrialization? • New Idea: Interchangeable parts • How important were Railroads? • Steamships? • Communications? • Difference from European railroads? • Did the government sponsor railroads?
Group Work • Cornelius Vanderbilt • J.P. Morgan • Andrew Carnegie • John Rockefeller • George Eastman • Thomas Edison
Earning a Wage • Women and Children in the workplace • Horrid conditions and long hours • Labor Unions • Unrest and strikes • Court Cases • Haymarket Riot • Homestead strike • Pullman Strike
Immigration and Cities • Cities became the symbol of New America • Glass and Steel frames allowed the construction of Skyscrapers. • Electric elevators were first used in 1871. • Immigrants crowded into the cities, but were forced to live in the older sections. Nativist thoughts re-emerge. • Ellis Island – major immigration station • Rigorous testing of immigrants – most feared was the eye exam for trachoma • Island of Hope, Island of Tears • “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be free.”
Discussion • Where did the new immigrants come from? • What was domestic life like for them? • What were important institutions for the new immigrant families?
Tammany Hall • Political Machines helped the explosive growth of cities. • Corruption grew as did political confusion over local government responsibility. • Political machines traded services for votes. • Leaders of political machines were called “Bosses” • Tammany Hall • Democratic Political Machine in New York • Famous leader – William “Boss” Tweed and the Tweed Ring • Plundered New York for tens of millions of dollars • New York City County Courthouse • Designed for $250,000 • Costs ran higher – $5.5 million for furniture, carpet, and shades • $180,000 for 40 chairs and 3 tables • $1.5 million for plumbing fixtures • $500,000 for plaster work • $1 million to repair the plaster work • Total Bill - $2,870,464.06 – the six cents went to charity • Actual cost – over 13 million dollars • Political machines did help the city – population doubled every decade and the machines helped to create infrastructure and provide for the burgeoning population. • George Washington Plunkitt – another leader of Tammany hall coined the phrase “honest graft.”
Discussion • What was the changing role for women? • What did people do for entertainment? • How did higher education shape the United States? • What is Social Darwinism? • What are Settlement Houses and what did they do? What is a famous example?
Higher Education • 1880 -1900 – 150 new colleges opened • Morrill Land Grant – large grants to states to establish colleges • The act fostered 69 land grant institutions – including the state universities of Wisconsin, California, Illinois, and Minnesota • Curriculum changed – more practical • Women still fought for educational opportunities – formed study clubs • Study clubs read Virgil, Chaucer, history, architecture, and discussed women’s rights • Gave rise to women in colleges after the Civil War • Exception: Dr. Edward Clarke (Harvard) argued learning made women sterile • 1900 – 40% of college students were women • 4 out of 5 colleges admitted women
College Realities • Most did not accept minorities • W.E.B. Dubois – African American sociologist and Civil Rights leader – attended Harvard, but not fully accepted by institutions within the college • Booker T. Washington – Tuskegee Institute (Alabama) • 1900 – a model agricultural and industrial school • He called for slow progress through self improvement. Blacks should acquire property, and show their worth. He believed in black equality. • Dubois proposed a more aggressive approach • He examined crime and wrote a book, “The Philadelphia Negro” • Crime for blacks stemmed from the slum environment • Change the environment and people will change, education is the key to equality! • Encouraged blacks to: seek professions, seek civil rights, seek college education. • Called for integrated schools and to educate the “Talented Tenth”
Progress and Poverty • High infant mortality rate, decreased fertility marked the time period. • Depression and Labor Unrest • Henry George – “Progress and Poverty” – theory: land formed the basis of wealth, and few could become wealthy because the price of land rose. • Poverty was evidence of sin, poor had themselves to blame and God made the great to be great – common mindset • Many challenge this and establish missions in the slums • Settlement Houses created. • Hull house (Jane Adams) taught: education, Shakespeare, English, art, sewing, life skills • Robert Woods, Lillian Wald, Florence Kelly, Harriet Vittum • Other crisis centers included: Churches, Charity Organizations, and Community Chests • “Melting Pot Theory” emerges • America as a house of “have” and “want” becomes a common metaphor
Reading… • Read Plessy vs. Ferguson pg. 567 • Read Hardship and Heartache pg. 573
Politics…Again… • Politics were a major source of entertainment in this time period – more people than ever could read, and more could vote. • Discrimination was prevalent – literacy tests, Jim Crow South. • Party loyalties remained strong even after the Civil War. Democrats regain footing and hold the House for many years. • Republicans sought civil rights and federal authority. • Democrats sought state’s rights and limited government • North and South voted along party lines
Group Discussion • Interstate Commerce Commission • Bland Allison Silver Purchase Act • Pendleton Act • Sherman Anti-Trust Act • Sherman Silver Purchase Act • National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union • Ocala Demands
The People’s Party • Populist Party – reform party • Mary E. Lease “raise less corn and more hell. If one man has not enough to eat three times a day and another man has $25 million, that last man has something that belongs to the first.” • Populists worked to unite many people and change the policy of the Democratic Party. • Have a presidential nominee, but do not win the presidency. However, they have other politicians that get elected. • Very powerful protest and reform movements throughout history. • Lost support and was broken during party realignment.
Crisis of Depression • Economy expanded to drastically. Companies grew beyond their market, Railroads overbuilt, businesses had borrowed beyond capacity. • Panic of 1893 – New York Stock Market – investors dumped 1 million shares of the Philadelphia and the Reading Railroad. • Leads to the worst economic downturn experienced so far. • People hurry to sell stocks and buy gold – depletes the U.S. Treasury – this slumps to, and past the $100 million gold mark in the treasury. • People gather and the market plummets – “Industrial Black Friday” • The entire country suffers – banks revoke loans, crops wither, prices fall. People grow angry at the government.
Election of 1896 • “Battle of the Standards” – new voting patterns emerged – decisive and “exciting” politics • Free silver coinage was growing popular – offered a quick solution to the economic problems • Independent coinage – the U.S. would mint silver regardless of all other nations. Belief: more money in the economy = more economic activity. • Silver also was tied to a patriotic sense that if the U.S. adopted silver it would be independent of the world. • The Republicans advocated the Gold Standard • Bryan (Democrat) vs. McKinley (Republican) • Different Campaign Approaches • McKinley triumphs • Economy grows – new techniques for mining gold and new gold discoveries in Alaska and Australia • Modern Presidency – new relations with Press, traveling across country • New Republican pledge – promote economic growth • Gold Standard Act 1900
