Lecture 3~Chapter 19 The Vitality and Turmoil of Urban Life 1877-1920

1. History 121 US History Since 1877 Lecture 3~Chapter 19 The Vitality and Turmoil of Urban Life 1877-1920 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

2. Standards of Living; Commonplace Luxuries Consumer-oriented society changes: dress with ready-made clothing diet with canned food habits with home appliances New industrial elite emerge: 1920: richest 5% earn 25% of income Size and income of middle class expand For most workers: wages increase, but cost of living rises faster

3. Cost of Living;Higher Life Expectancy Many afford new goods only by having wives and children work for pay rent rooms to boarders Extensive wage/money economy develop Post-1900, science and technology: increase life expectancy lower death rate More attend school; path to middle class

4. Flush Toilets & Other Innovations • Symbolic of revolution in lifestyle • Mass production (post-1900) changes habits/ attitudes toward cleanliness, water use • First for elite and middle class • Spread to working class, post-1920 • Tin cans, refrigerated rail cars, iceboxes, & dietary reform (Kellogg) diversify diets • Workers still spend much of their pay on food

5. W. K. Kellogg Advertisement • Using color, large-scale scenes, and fanciful images, manufacturers of consumer goods advertised their products to a public eager to buy. This ad from the W. K. Kellogg Company, maker of breakfast foods, shows the increasingly common practice of using an attractive young woman to capture attention. Picture Research Consultants and Archives

6. The Modern Bathroom • The modern bathroom, with sink, tub, and flush toilet, marked an unheralded but noteworthy feature of American living standards. It improved habits of personal hygiene, increased household water consumption, altered patterns of waste disposal, and occupied a new and private realm of domestic space. Picture Research Consultants and Archives

7. Ready-made Clothing; Department Stores • By 1900, clothing shift from being made at home to mass-produced, consumer product • Department stores create merchandising revolution (big stores with massive inventory) • A&P, Woolworth’s = 1st national chain stores • Advertising (newspapers, billboards) entice Americans to consume new products • Try to create brand loyalties

8. Department Store Advertisement • Offering a wide variety of goods and services, such as prescriptions, meats, furniture, loans, medical help, and restaurants, this late-nineteenth-century department store in Chicago epitomized the new conveniences of consumerism. It even featured a grand fountain as an easily recognized meeting place. Chicago Historical Society

9. The Corporate Consolidation Movement • Recurring boom/bust cycles hit economy • Business leaders use centralization for stability • Use corporations to raise capital with limited liability (help from Supreme Court) • Massive conglomerates dominate economy • Start with pools, then trusts • Later holding companies & mergers • Ruthlessly take control of small competitors

10. Consolidation Movement (cont.) • With horizontal & vertical integration, JDR’s Standard Oil refine 84% of US oil by 1898 • Financiers (Morgan) assume new power • Corporate growth expand stock/bond exchanges, foreign investment, personal savings, & bank investments • Industrial leaders assert Social Darwinism • Also demand government aid (tariffs, loans)

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12. Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth • Justified wealth/power w/ philanthropy • Critics argue greedy monopolies exploit workers, stifle competition, & corrupt politics • Criticize Social Darwinism & laissez-faire • George & Bellamy advocate using government to solve mass poverty • Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) example of early big business regulation • Unsuccessful (US v. EC Knight Co, 1895)

13. The Atlantic Cable • Laid by British ships across the ocean in 1866, the Atlantic cable linked the United States with England and continental Europe so that telegraph communications could be sent and received much more swiftly than ever before. Now Europeans and Americans could exchange news about politics, business, and military movements almost instantly, whereas previously such information could take a week or more to travel from one country to another. Library of Congress

14. Ch.19: Urban Life, 1877–1920 • New urban environment create many changes • Cities = source of hope, conflict, adjustment • Especially so for “New Immigrants” • 51% of Americans urban (1920) • City central to US life • Source of diversity & pluralism (class, race, ethnicity) • Also new sources of entertainment (vaudeville)

15. Industrial Development • Cities = centers of industrial growth • Provide capital, workers, & consumers • Most cities have variety of factories • Often specialize in 1 product (clothing, NYC) • Shape of city change • Earlier cities compact; sprawl start late 1800s

16. Mechanization of Mass Transportation • Mass transit allow middle-class & rich to live away from congestion of urban core • Then commute for work, shopping, etc. • Cable cars, 1870s; electric streetcars, 1890s • Largest cities build elevated trains and/or subways (both expensive) to bypass traffic • With sprawl, cities subdivide • Growing separation between home & work • Between rich & poor

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18. Beginnings of Urban Sprawl • Electric interurban railways link nearby cities and accelerate growth of suburbs • Fares too expensive for factory workers • Growth unplanned & guided by profit motive • Little attention to parks, traffic, etc. • Some businesses (shops) also move to suburbs • Urban core = work zone • Urban growth both centrifugal & centripetal

19. Taken from J. B. Legg’s architecture book, this page illustrates the ideal suburban home. His book, published in 1876, was aimed at the prospering middle class. 19 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

20. Population Growth • 1870: 10 million Americans in cities • 1920: 54 million (550% increase) • Some growth from annexing nearby areas • Biggest factor = migration from countryside and immigration from abroad • Rural populace decline • Low crop prices & high debts hurt farmers • Move to cities for jobs & to escape isolation

21. Map 19-1a, p. 490

22. Map 19-1b, p. 490

23. 23 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

24. Population Growth (cont.) • 1000s of rural African Americans migrate to cities in search of new opportunities • Discrimination limit them to service jobs • More openings for black women than men • Many Hispanics in West migrate to cities • Take over unskilled jobs (construction) • Even more newcomers were immigrants • Some from Canada, Asia, or Latin America

25. Foreign Immigration • Most immigrants from Europe • 26 million (1870–1920); most go to cities • Part of worldwide population movement • Causes: population pressure, land redistribution, & industrialization • Religious persecution motivate some • New communications & transportation facilitate global movement of peoples

26. MAP 19.2 Population of Foreign Birth by Region, 1880 European immigrants after the Civil War settled primarily in the industrial districts of the northern Midwest and parts of the Northeast. French Canadians continued to settle in Maine, Cubans in Florida, and Mexicans in the Southwest, where earlier immigrants had established thriving communities. SOURCE: Clifford L. Lord and Elizabeth H. Lord, Lord & Lord Historical Atlas of the United States (New York: Holt,1953). 26 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

27. The New Immigration • Earlier, most European immigrants from northern & western Europe • By 1900, shift to southern & eastern Europe • Bring greater diversity in language, religion, ethnicity, & customs to USA • Foreign-born & native-born of foreign parents become majority in many US cities Many native-born whites (old immigrant heritage) resent “new” immigrants

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29. Sources of European-Born Population, 1900 and 1920 • In just a few decades, the proportion of European immigrants to the United States who came from northern and western Europe decreased Ireland and Germany or remained relatively stable England and Scandinavia, while the proportion from eastern and southern Europe increased dramatically. Data from U.S. Census Bureau, “Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850–1990,” February 1999, http://www.census.gov/population [accessed February 12, 2000]

30. Geographic and Social Mobility • Newcomers cope with challenges by relying on family (pool resources, help with jobs) • Also constant movement within city or to another city in search of better opportunities • Some find success; others keep moving • White male occupational mobility exist with more white-collar jobs & small businesses • Few rag-to-riches successes • Most rich start with affluence

31. Geographic and Social Mobility (cont.) • Moderate advance occur for some white men, esp. native-born • 17–20% of manual workers rise to non-manual work within 10 years • Some downward mobility also occur • Especially owners of small businesses • Little mobility for women and people of color

32. Children in the Inner-City • As cities grew and became increasingly congested, children in immigrant and working-class neighborhoods used streets and sidewalks as play sites. Activities of youngsters such as these, playing unsupervised in front of a Polish saloon, prompted adults to create playgrounds, clubs, and other places where they could protect children’s safety and innocence and where they could ensure that play would be orderly and obedient. Chicago Historical Society

33. Cultural Adaptation • Immigrants try to preserve native language • But children learn English at school & at work • Music reflect cultural interaction • Religiously, USA become more diverse w/ more Catholics, Jews, Orthodox Christians, etc. • Some Catholics & Jews accommodate US culture • Others resist (Conservative/Reform Judaism)

34. Composition of Population, Selected Cities, 1920 • Immigration and migration made native-born whites of native-born parents minorities in almost every major city by the early twentieth century. Moreover, foreign-born residents and native-born whites of foreign parents combining the purple and green segments of a line constituted absolute majorities in numerous places.

35. Living Conditions in the Inner City • Massive influx of people create immense problems of overcrowding, disease, poverty • Some improvement overtime, but many problems remain • Biggest problem = lack of adequate housing • High rents force 2–3 families to occupy one-family apartments in tenements, esp. NYC • Tiny rooms lack windows, water, safe heat • Result = disease, vermin, & filth

36. The intersection of Orchard and Hester Streets on New York’s Lower East Side, photographed ca. 1905. Unlike the middle classes, who worked and played hidden away in offices and private homes, the Jewish lower-class immigrants who lived and worked in this neighborhood spent the greater part of their lives on the streets. 36 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

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38. Housing Reform;New Home Technology • NY regulate light, ventilation, & safety of new buildings; not affect existing structures • Riis & Veiler advocate model tenements • Even reformers reject public housing • New systems of heat, light, & plumbing benefit upper & middle classes first • Slowly others gain access to gas, electricity, water • Wealthy create new private spaces in home

39. In his watercolor The Bowery at Night, painted in 1885, W. Louis Sonntag Jr. shows a New York City scene transformed by electric light. Electricity transformed the city in other ways as well, as seen in the electric streetcars and elevated railroad. 39 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

40. Sanitation, Construction; Urban Poverty • In response to germ theory, cities build better water purification & sewer systems • Street paving, steel-frame construction, elevators, & steam-heat improve urban life • Still, many working families live in poverty • Seasonal nature of work; boom/bust cycles • Americans debate whether to help poor

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42. Poverty Relief • Traditional belief: poor = lazy & immoral • Aid to poor create dependence • Some reformers begin to argue new urban environment contribute to poverty • Advocate government action to address poverty with safety & health regulations • Origins of later Progressive movement • In late 1800s, most wealthy reject reform

43. Crime and Violence • Homicides & other crimes (theft) increase • More reporting may explain growth • Nativists blame immigrants • Native-born also participate in crime • Violence against newcomers frequent • Race riots against blacks in cities across USA • Atlanta, GA (1906); East St. Louis, IL (1917)

44. Managing the City • Governments slowly address new problems • Many urban governments lack organization • Clean water & waste disposal = urgent needs • Lack of 2 cause disease (yellow fever, typhoid) • Engineers purify water with filters & chlorine • Also improve waste disposal, street cleaning, lighting, construction, & fire protection

45. Law Enforcement • Cities develop professional police, post-1850 • Police often exhibit poor training, corruption, & ethnic/racial prejudice • Different groups want different kinds of law enforcement on customer-oriented crimes

46. Political Machines • Political machines arise from confusion of politics (seek office for economic rewards) • Use bribery & graft, but also help urban newcomers with their many problems • Machines: organizations with popular base • Boss: professional politician who broker diverse interest groups; often an immigrant • For votes, boss help with jobs, food, law, etc.

47. New York’s New Solar System, 1899 All politics revolves around “Boss”Croker

48. Political Machines (cont.) • NYC’s Tammany Hall mix personal gain with public accomplishments • Profit from control of city contracts & jobs • Also profit from illegal actions (gambling) • Construct vital public works • Bribes & kickbacks inflate costs to taxpayers • Like business leaders, bosses use politics for self-interest and reflect racial/ethnic bias

49. The Tammany Tiger on the Loose

50. Civic Reform • Upset by corruption & taxes, middle/upper classes oppose bosses but with little success • Advocate city managers & city commissions to create efficient government by experts • Reformers do not realize urbanities are loyal to boss because boss help with problems • A few reform mayors use government to address poverty (Pingree of Detroit)