Chapter 15:

1. Chapter 15: Immigrants & Urbanization

2. Contrast old and new immigrants: • Old immigrants largely came from Northern and Western Europe. • New immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, Mexico, and the West Indies. • New immigrants tended to have different religious beliefs, such as Judaism and Catholicism.

3. New Immigrants Irish Immigrants Italian Immigrants

4. What were the two main ports of entry for immigrants? • Ellis Island in New York Harbor ‘processed’ about 17 million immigrants, mostly Europeans, from 1892-1924. • Angel Island in San Francisco Bay ‘processed’ about 50,000 Chinese immigrants between 1910-1940.

5. What feeling began to arise regarding immigrants? • Nativism is the overt favoritism of native-born Americans. • This feeling resulted in prejudice against immigrants and widespread discrimination. As such, Prescott Hall formed the Immigration Restriction League to limit immigrants from the ‘wrong’ countries.

6. What pieces of legislation highlighted anti-immigrant sentiment at the turn of the century? • The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 banned entry to all Chinese except for teachers, students, tourists, and diplomats. • It wasn’t repealed until 1943. • The Gentlemen’s Agreement repealed the San Francisco segregation law against Japanese students. Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the repeal, in exchange for the limitation of Japanese immigrants.

7. Where did immigrants settle? • Immigrants mostly settled in cities, due to cheap housing, available jobs, and ethnic neighborhoods. • The Americanization movement endeavored to assimilate immigrants into mainstream American society, by teaching them English, American history, and social etiquette.

8. What is the rapid growth of cities called? • Urbanization occurred mostly in the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast. • Cities began to double, triple, or even quadruple in size and population. Population growth from 1890-1920

9. What were some of the problems that cities faced at the turn of the century? • Housing • Tenements and row houses were overcrowded and dangerous. • Transportation • Mass transit lines were developed to move lots of people simultaneously. • Water • Sanitation • Crime • Fire

10. Who wrote a book exposing the living conditions of the urban poor? • Jacob Riis wrote How the Other Half Lives and focused on the plight of the urban poor, especially children

11. What were some of the organized efforts to ease urban problems? • The Social Gospel Movement preached salvation through service to the poor. • The Settlement House Movement established community centers in slum neighborhoods. • Jane Addams created Hull House in Chicago.

12. Describe political machines: • Political machines were corrupt organizations that influenced party politics, municipal jobs, and the courts in certain cities. • The local precinct workers would gain voters’ support in a certain neighborhood. The ward boss would secure votes during election time. The city boss controlled the activities of the political party throughout the city. • However, they offered help to immigrants, thereby securing their votes.

13. What was the most infamous political machine in New York City? • Boss Tweed ran Tammany Hall in New York City. • Through bribery, fraud, and graft, he controlled city politics and defrauded the city of millions of dollars. • A Thomas Nast cartoon helped secure the arrest of Tweed in Spain.

14. Discuss the debate over patronage at the turn of the century: • Reformers wanted to eliminate patronage, or the granting of government jobs to one’s friends and supporters. They wanted to replace the spoils system with a merit-based examination. • Stalwarts favored patronage. • When President James Garfield was shot by Stalwart Charles Guiteau, Chester A. Arthur secured the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act in Garfield’s honor. • Government became more efficient, but politicians could no longer rely on their friends for campaign contributions, they began to turn to other sources for financial help.

15. Discuss the debate over tariffs at the turn of the century: • High protective tariffs raise taxes on imports, thereby helping domestic industries. However, prices go up, thereby hurting the poor and middle class consumers. • President Cleveland (Democrat) was in favor of lowering tariffs, but Benjamin Harrison (Republican) was supported by large corporations. When Harrison was elected president in 1888, he signed the McKinley Tariff Act in 1890, which raised tariffs to their highest level up to that point. • This furthered the ties between business and government.