Unit I – An Industrial Nation Chapter 5

1. Unit I – An Industrial NationChapter 5 Section 3 – Life at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

2. New Immigrants – A Nation of Immigrants • 1800-1880- more that 10 million immigrants- “Old Immigrants”- from Northern and Western Europe. • 1880-1910- some 18 million immigrants- “New Comers”- from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Catholics, Orthodox and Jewish faiths. • Severe immigration laws limited East Asia. • 1910- one out of every seven Americans was foreign born.

4. Coming to America • Reasons to immigrate- Political, Economic and Religious • Ellis Island, New York Harbor- in 62 years over 12 million came through • Angel Island, San Francisco Bay- newcomers from Asia. • Hardships in America- crowded tenements, low paying unskilled jobs, ghettos. • Ethnic neighborhoods tried to keep their cultures alive and build communities. • Prejudice- • Nativists- American Natives who blamed immigrants for increases in crime and poverty. Stealing American jobs. • Chinese Exclusion Act- 1882- banned Chineses immigration for 10 years. • Some Nativists wanted literacy tests to determine the ability to read. This Act was approved over President Wilson’s veto.

5. Coming to America All came for a better life Jews in particular fled eastern Europe to escape religious persecution. Southern and eastern Europeans also fled from severe poverty. In 1892 the government opened an immigration station at Ellis Island in New York Harbor. Over the years, some 12 million people passed through Ellis Island. Doctors checked them for diseases or disabilities. After 1910, Asians passed through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, but many were held like prisoners for weeks. Prejudice Against Immigrants Immigrants faced crowding and low pay, but settled near others from their country and started communities and organizations to help themselves. Some native-born Americans, known as nativists, saw immigrants as a threat to their jobs and safe communities. On the West Coast, prejudice was directed against Asians; Chinese immigrants were restricted from jobs and neighborhoods, and immigration was halted by Congress through the Chinese Exclusion Act. Nativists wanted immigrants to pass a literacy test, and Congress approved the bill. Reasons and Realities

6. Reasons to Come to America • 1830-1890 • The reason for immigration in the period from 1830-1890 is quite clear. Land remained plentiful, and fairly cheap. Jobs were abundant, and labor was scarce and relatively dear. A decline in the birthrate as well as an increase in industry and urbanization reinforced this situation. • The United States, in the 19th Century, remained a strong magnet to immigrants, with offers of jobs and land for farms. Glowing reports from earlier arrivals who made good reinforced the notion that in America, the streets were, "paved with gold," as well as offerings of religious and political freedom. • 1890-1924 • Jews came for religious freedom • Italians and Asians came for Work • Russians came to escape persecution • America had jobs • America had religious freedom • America was hyped up in many countries as "Land of Opportunity“ • 1968- Present • The main reason why everybody wants to go to US is because if they would go somewhere like France of Japan although they would get higher wages, there is a much greater chance of getting harassed, arrested or deported in those countries as opposed to US.

7. Immigrants – 1:06

8. Irish Potato Famine and Immigration to America – 1:36

9. Ellis Island Angel Island

11. Architects used steel frames and elevators to build tall buildings in cities. New urban planning specialists redesigned cities and built parks. • Settlement houses helped immigrants overcome poverty. Reformers who believed in social gospel, or expressing faith through good works, volunteered in the settlement houses. • Lifestyles varied dramatically for those of varied social status. • Working Class • Poor, paid low wages, faced housing shortages, lived in filthy, crowded tenements. • Many women held jobs outside the home. • Wealthy • Made their money in industry and business • Showed off their wealth • Built castle-like homes in places such as New York’s stylish Fifth Avenue • Middle Class • Made up of corporate employees and professionals • 1870s and 1880s: professional organizations begin to set standards for some occupations Urban Life in America

12. Local Urban problems such as crime and poor sanitation led people to give control of local governments to political machines, or organizations of professional politicians. Machine bosses were often corrupt, asking for votes in exchange for jobs and housing, taking bribes, and using fraud to win elections. William Marcy Tweed, or Boss Tweed, led a political machine called Tammany Hall in New York City and made himself and his friends very rich. Eight years later his corruption was made public, when he was sent to prison for fraud. Local and National Political Corruption

13. Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall – 1:35

14. Federal Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency was caught up in scandals, such as Crédit Mobilier, scheme to funnel federal railroad money to stockholders. Attempts at reform split the republican party. In 1880 the party chose a reformer, James A. Garfield, who was assassinated shortly after his inauguration His successor, Chester A. Arthur, supported reforms, and helped pass the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which required that promotions be based on merit, not politics. Local and National Political Corruption

15. James A. Garfield (Republican) 1881- 20th President • Election of 1880- opponent- James G. Blaine “Plumed Knight” and a half breed republicans. • Assassination • Charles Guiteau - crazed lawyer and disgruntled party loyalist who failed to get a government job.

17. Death of Garfield • It is commonly believed that Guiteau's outrage was responsible for the Garfield's assassination. In actuality, it only played a small role. • Guiteau was a deeply religious man and believed that God had ordered him to kill the President. One bullet grazed his arm but the other one had lodged itself somewhere inside the President's body. • Garfield was rushed to the White House, having never lost consciousness. For the next eighty days, sixteen doctors were consulted regarding the President's condition. At least 3 surgeons probed the wound with unwashed fingers and non sterile probes and could not find the bullet. A naval surgeon actually punctured the liver while probing and caused the damage the bullet did not. But, Garfield didn't die the next day. • His fever rose and he was put on a diet of milk spiked with brandy. And the surgeons continued to probe with unwashed fingers. • Alexander Graham Bell rigged up a crude metal detector to help find the bullet. With Garfield's condition growing steadily worse, doctors decided to cut him open to remove the slug. It was not found. What Bell had actually located so deep in the body was the metal spring under the mattress! No wonder they couldn't find the bullet. • In the end, they managed to take a 3 inch wound and turn it into a twenty inch canal that was heavily infected and oozed more and more pus with each passing day.The deep wound with its massive infection, coupled with possible blood poisoning from the bullet, caused the President's heart to weaken. Garfield had a massive heart attack several days later, but these well trained physicians botched this diagnosis also. They attributed it to the rupturing of a blood vessel in his stomach! • At the autopsy, examiners determined that the bullet had lodged itself some four inches from the spine in a protective cyst. Their conclusion -Garfield would have survived if the doctors had left him alone. • The physicians had the nerve to submit a bill for their services of $85,000 to the Senate. The federal government paid $10,000 (a ripoff) and good old Doctor Bliss was forced to make a public apology.

18. Settlement House Movement • Settlement House- volunteers offer immigrants services- language instruction, job training, social activities, clubs and sports. • Over 400 settlement house in America by 1910 • Social Gospel- faith is expressed through good works. Churches had moral duty to help solve social problems.

19. Jane Addams There is an old saying that says, “Behind every good man there stands a good woman.” But throughout history, was that man just standing in the way of the woman?

20. Jane Addams • Birth: 1860, Cedarville, Illinois • Death: 1935, Chicago, Illinois • Founder of the Settlement House Movement. • She and her friend Ellen Starr founded Hull House in the slums of Chicago in 1889. • She wrote 11 books, numerous articles and headed various organizations. • She participated in the International Congress of Women at the Hague in 1915 • First American Woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

21. Hull House, founded 1889 By 1893, Hull-House had become a center for a wide variety of clubs, functions, classes and activities for the neighborhood. Addams and her associates championed the protection of immigrants, child labor laws and recreation facilities for children, industrial safety, juvenile courts, recognition of labor unions, woman suffrage, and world peace. Addams never drew a salary from Hull-House, but instead used her inheritance and the proceeds from her many books and articles to live on as well as to underwrite these causes.

22. Hull House- National Historic Landmark Around Hull-House, immigrants to Chicago crowded into a residential and industrial neighborhood. Italians, Russian and Polish Jews, Irish, Germans, Greeks and Bohemians predominated. Hull House provided services for the neighborhood, such as kindergarten and daycare facilities for children of working mothers, an employment bureau, an art gallery, libraries, and music and art classes. By 1900 the Jane Club (a cooperative residence for working women), the first Little Theater in America, a Labor Museum and a meeting place for trade union groups. The original Hull mansion remains, a national historic landmark in June of 1967

23. In the late 1800s crop prices were falling and farmers began to organize into groups to protect themselves financially. • The Farmer’s Alliance wanted government to print more paper money, thinking they could charge more for farm goods if more money were circulating. • In 1873 paper money was placed on the gold standard, reducing the amount of money in circulation. Farmers wanted money to be backed by silver. • The Order of Patrons of Husbandry, or the National Grange, wanted the state to regulate railroad rates. • The Supreme Court ruled that only the federal government could regulate. • Congress then passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, marking the first time federal government regulated industry. • The Farmer’s Alliance started the Populist Party, calling for bank regulation, government-owned railroads and free coinage of silver. • Their stand against powerful interests influenced later politicians. Farmers Reform Movement

24. Farmers Organize • Patrons of Husbandry 1867 • Organized as a social and education society • Lodges called “Granges” • Farmers could discuss problems- absentee landlords, interest, railroads, elevator rates, etc. • Farmers organized cooperatives- mills and elevators. • Granger laws, setting or authorizing maximum railroad rates and establishing state railroad commissions for administering the new legislation. “Munn v. Illinois” (later to be overturned) • Production soared- more farmland under cultivation, more machinery, and better yield. Farmers had to compete on an international level. This caused the prices to go down farther due to surplus.

26. Farmers’ reform movements • Interstate Commerce Act of 1887- • Banned Rebates. • Rates must be proportional to distance traveled. • Rate schedules must be public and open to inspection.

27. Sherman Silver Purchase Act- 1890 • Required the U.S. government to purchase nearly twice as much silver as before, but also added substantially to the amount of money already in circulation. • The Treasury would purchase 4.5 million ounces (or 281,250 pounds) of silver each month at market rates • The Treasury would issue notes redeemable in either gold or silver. • However, the increased supply of silver drove down the price. Many mine operators in the West tried to reduce expenses by cutting the miners' wages. Labor unrest and sporadic violence followed. • As the price of silver continued to decline, holders of the government notes understandably redeemed them for gold rather than silver-Leading to the Panic of 1893.

28. The 1896 Election • After the election of 1892, a major railroad company failed, triggering the Panic of 1893. • Stock prices fell and millions lost their jobs. President Cleveland blamed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the government to buy silver with paper money redeemable in either gold or silver. • Silver was still an issue in the 1896 election, when Republicans nominated William McKinley, who favored the gold standard and Democrats chose William Jennings Bryan, who defended silver. • Bryan made a dramatic speech saying using the gold standard was like crucifying mankind on a “cross of gold.” • This speech won Bryan Populist support, but terrified business leaders gave money to the Republicans, and McKinley won the election.

29. Grange • From the start, the grange organization was thought of as a secret society, much like the Masons. Membership was supposed to be open to only farmers and their families, although at one point, lawyers, businessmen and politicians joined. • There was a time in the not-too-distant past when the local Grange Hall was the center of community life in many small towns. It was a place of social gathering, a political rallying point, an economic cooperative, a fraternal order, a service organization and an agricultural forum. It instilled love of God, family and country. It helped farmers band together to protect their mutual interests. And, more than any other institution it embodied an American way of life. • The Grange is the nation’s oldest and second largest farm organization. It had its beginnings in Washington DC in 1867, founded by a group of farmers for their mutual support and to foster civic, moral and political responsibility. Grange members joined in various group ventures: buying and selling goods; legislative lobbying on behalf of farmers; and eventually, in protecting themselves through insurance.

30. The Populists – 2:48 min.

31. Populist Party • Farmers as a group did not share in the general prosperity of the latter nineteenth century, and believed that they had been marked out as special victims of the new industrial system • Agricultural areas in the West and South had been hit by economic depression years before industrial areas. In the 1880s, as drought hit the wheat-growing areas of the Great Plains and prices for Southern cotton sunk to new lows, many tenant farmers fell into deep debt. This exacerbated long-held grievances against railroads, lenders, grain-elevator owners, and others with whom farmers did business. • Party of the People- farmers and reformers- 1892 • Governors, Senators and even a presidential candidate- Gen. James B. Weaver.

32. Populist Party- The goal was not just to relieve economic pressure on agriculture, but also to restore democracy by eliminating what the Populists saw as the corrupt and corrupting alliance between business and government. • Platform: Omaha 1892 • Support Labor Unions • Wealth belongs to those who make it • Government ownership of Railroads, telephone and telegraph. • Free Silver • Graduated Income Tax • Secret Ballot • Shorten work hours. • Initiative and Referendum • Direct election of Senators • Restriction of Immigration Mary Lease

33. William Jennings Bryan – 2:32

34. Wilson-Gorman Tariff- 1894 • It added a number of items to the free list, including sugar, lumber, coal and wool. Further, the duties on imported manufactured goods would be reduced while maintaining their protective nature. • To compensate for the revenue shortfall that tariff reform would create, Wilson’s bill called for the imposition of a two percent income tax, an idea recently heralded by the Populists. • In the end it was not an example of tariff reform and most was declared unconstitutional

35. Labor Discontent • Panic of 1893- Depression- 500 banks and 16,000 businesses declared bankruptcy, millions out of work, winter brought suffering. • Coxey’s Army- 1894- 500 workers (the Industrial Army) who marched from Ohio to Washington to protest the plight of the poor unemployed workers. He favored federally funded community public works and building programs as a solution to the panic. • Coxey wanted to increase the amount of currency in circulation, which would allow more money to be spend on public works, thus providing jobs for the unemployed. He and the other leaders were arrested in D.C. for trespassing (police arrested him for walking on the grass.)

36. Election of 1892 • Republicans- William Henry Harrison • Democrats- Grover Cleveland. • Populists- Gen. James B. Weaver. • Campaign- nation torn up by labor strife. Homestead Strike, miners, and federal troops • Outcome: Cleveland wins, Weaver got 1 million votes and Populist got 3 Senators and eleven congressmen elected. • One of the goals of the Populists in the South was to politically unite poor African Americans and poor whites.

37. Populist Party • Election of 1896 • Republican William McKinley- supports gold standard • Democrat/Populist William Jennings Bryant- supports free coinage of silver. “Cross of Gold Speech” scared business leaders who helped McKinley win.

38. Segregation and Discrimination • After Reconstruction, southern legislatures passed laws that restricted African Americans’ rights, but prejudice existed nationwide. • Some white southerners tried to restrict African Americans’ right to vote by requiring voters to pay a poll tax and pass a literacy test. • Southern legislatures passed the Jim Crow Laws to create and enforce segregation in public places. • One law requiring separate railway cars for African Americans and whites was tested by Homer Plessy, an African American. His case went to the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson. They upheld segregation, saying “separate but equal” facilities didn’t violate the Fourteenth Amendment. • In addition to legalized discrimination, strict rules governed social and business interactions between black and white Americans. • The worst outcome of discrimination was lynching, or murder by a mob. Nearly 900 African Americans were murdered between 1882 and 1892 by lynch mobs.

39. Booker T. Washington Born into slavery Believed African Americans had to accept segregation for the moment Believed they could improve their condition by learning farming and vocational skills Founded the Tuskegee Institute to teach African Americans practical skills W.E.B. Du Bois Believed that African Americans should strive for full rights immediately Helped found the Niagara Movement in 1905 to fight for equal rights Members of the Niagara Movement later founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Opposing Discrimination • Two approaches to fighting racism emerged. Some advocated accepting segregation and learning skills to rise up, others believed African American should strive for full rights immediately. • Two leaders represented these groups.

40. Asian Americans • In some areas, Asian immigrants lived in segregated neighborhoods. • Many landlords wouldn’t rent to them. • A law passed in 1900 prohibited marriages between whites and Asian Americans. • Some laws limited Chinese immigration. • Hispanic Americans • Most Mexican immigrants were farmers, but there weren’t enough farm jobs to go around. • Spanish-speaking people often had to take menial jobs for low pay. • Many were trapped by debt peonage, in which they couldn’t leave jobs until they paid debts to their employers. • Native Americans • Native Americans had to endure the government’s Americanization policy, which tried to stamp out their culture. • Living on reservations gave Native Americans few opportunities. • Many Native Americans did not have citizenship until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Other Groups Face Discrimination