Immigration, Urbanization and the Progressive Movement

Chapters 15, 16, and 17Standard 5Indicators 5,6, and 7

New Immigrants

Millions of immigrants entered the US in the late 19th century lured by the prospects of a better life.

Between 1870-1920 over 20 million Europeans came to the US.

In the beginning to was mostly immigrants from north and western Europe (English, Irish, Germans).

At the end of the 19th century it was mostly Europeans from the south and Eastern Europe (Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia)

Immigrants on the East coast had to pass inspection at the immigration station on Ellis Island in NY harbor.

Ellis Island

New Immigrants

Chinese and Japanese immigrants came in smaller numbers on the West Coast

Some Chinese came in hope of gaining fortunes in the Gold Rush

Many Chinese immigrants helped build the nation’s transcontinental railroad.

Immigrants on the west coast pass inspection at the immigration station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, CA.

New Life in the US

Many immigrants were too poor to move beyond the port cities where they landed.

Consequently, ethnic neighborhoods grew as immigrants looked for familiar in a strange, new land.

Churches, schools, businesses and newspapers reflected the different ethnicities. Example: Little Italy, China Town, Greek town, etc.

Ethnic neighborhoods

Restrictions on Immigration Melting pot- mixture of people of different

cultures and races who blend together by abandoning their native language and customs.

Many immigrants did not give up their cultural identity which led to a rise of anti-immigration sentiment.

Nativism- favoring the interest of native-born people over foreign-born people.

Nativism has existed for years. Pre-civil war nativism was directed towards Germans and Irish. After the Civil war it was directed Eastern Europeans (Slavs), Catholics, and Jews.

Restrictions on Immigration In the west, westerns resented Chinese

immigrants. Nativism was a present force in labor.

Immigrants were resented for taking jobs from “native” Americans, doing jobs for lower wages and for being scabs.

One result of nativism was the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned Chinese immigration to the US for ten years. (it was extended for many years and the ban was not lifted until 1943.)

Urbanization

Urbanization- growth of cities Cities developed as a result of

geographic factories first as centers of trade than as transportation hubs and finally as centers of industrial production.

Cities were able to grow both outward and skyward with the invention of the elevator, steel girders, suspension bridges, electric trolley cars, and subways.

Urbanization continued

Cities grew as people immigrated from abroad and migrated from the farm to city.

African American migration from the South intensified as a result of poor cotton yields, discrimination from Jim Crow laws, intimidation and lynching.

As farm prices fell, farmers moved to the city for better job opportunities.

New Buildings: Skyscrapers

Urban problems

Crowded cities led to many problems with housing, sanitation, transportation, water, crime and fire.

Tenements-multifamily urban dwelling, usually overcrowded and unsanitary

Mass transit- transportation designed to move large numbers of people along fixed routes.

Tenement Housing

Jacob Riis- “How the Other Half Lives”

Settlement houses

With the amount of people in the city, it was a struggle for city governments to fix up the cities.

Reformers emerged to try and alleviate urban poverty.

Jane Addams was famous for her settlement houses- community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to people in the area.

The Hull House established by Jane Addams tried to aid immigrants in their assimilation into American culture.

SettlementHousing

Emergence of political machines

Population boom in cities and the different problems in the urban areas left cities susceptible to a new power structure, the political machine, and a new politician, the city boss.

Political machine- an organized group that controls a political party in a city and offers services to voters and businesses in exchange for political and financial support

Political bosses can often be seen as the mayor of a city. Even though many were corrupt and used graft (illegal use of political influence for personal again) and bribery, they often helped immigrants and improved cities.

Immigrants supported political bosses because they helped the immigrants find jobs and helped them through the hard times.

Boss Tweed

William Tweed known as Boss Tweed

Head of democratic political machine in New York city

Led Tweed Ring-- a group of corrupt politicians– in defrauding the city.

One scheme was a graft that got Tweed and his followers 10 million $$

Life at the turn of the 20th Century

New Technologies Airplanes▪ Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1903 fly Kitty Hawk in OH

Kodak Camera▪ George Eastman develops the Kodak camera for personal use

New pastimes Biking and Tennis▪ Become leisure sports

Professional baseball▪ Baseball becomes America's pastime in 1845 with the first World series in

1903 Newspapers▪ Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst began to sensationalize

headlines Popular fiction▪ As literacy rose, more people wanted something fun to read ▪ Mark Twain becomes big with his hit The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Images of Life at the turn of the 20th Century

Expanding Public education States begin passing laws requiring school attendance

for children 8-14 High Schools develop out of the need for workers with

more technical and managerial skills Higher Education expands African American are segregated in schools and begin to

open their own Colleges and Universities Booker T. Washington▪ Believed racism will end once blacks acquire labor skills▪ Founded Tuskegee University in AL

W.E.B. Du Bois▪ Du Bois disagreed with Washington believing blacks should have any

education that fit their talents and promoted the “talented tenth” ▪ Founded the National Association of Advancement for Colored people

(NAACP)

Progressive Era

Progressive movement developed in response to the problems of the city and the work place in the late 19th century

It was essentially a movement of the middle class who objected to paying taxes to corrupt city governments and who desired better city services.

Muckraker- one of the magazine journalists who exposed the corrupt side of businesses and public life in the early 1900s.

The muckrakers pointed out the corruption of machine politics, power of monopolists and the plight of the worker and the immigrant.

Progressive Movement continued

The movement started at the city and state level with progressive mayors and governors

Reforms: Child labor reform Efficiency– the assembly line is invented by

Henry Ford Prohibition (banning of alcohol) groups form Limit work hours 17th amendment: Senators elected by the

popular vote

Women and reform

Women began to have an opportunity for higher education at new women’s colleges and universities plus there was new job opportunities

Women’s suffrage movement intensified It was the movement out west that had the greatest

impact on women gaining the right to vote Women were frustrated with the problems of city life

and the workplace Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton formed the

national women Suffrage association African American women founded the national

association of Colored Women

Women's Reform Movement

Susan B. Anthony

Elizabeth Stanton

Progressivism at the National Level:Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was considered the first progressive president

He gave support to the rights of workers when he used his office as a ‘bully pulpit’ meaning that he used his presidency to influence the news media and shape legislation

Reform under Teddy Roosevelt Square deal- the term to describe the various

progressive reforms sponsored by the Roosevelt administration Supported government regulation of corporation; applied

the Sherman anti-trust act Required negotiates between coal mine owners and their

workers to avoid a strike Enhanced the powers of the Interstate commerce act

over railroads Protected consumers with the passage of the Pure Food

and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act (special thanks to Upton Sinclair for his muckraking novel The Jungle)

Promoted environmental conservation

Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

Progressivism at the National Level: Taft

William Taft became president after Roosevelt

He was not a strong president nor did he follow the Progressive movement aggressively

The Republican party splintered under his leadership over the issues of progressives who wanted change and conservation and those who did not

Split of the Republican Party Roosevelt decided to run for a third

unprecedented turn under the Progressive (Bull Moose) party

This act split the Republican party Thus allowing for Democratic candidate Woodrow

Wilson to win the presidency in 1912 Wilson pushed for key anti-trust measures with the

Clayton-Anti trust Act and the Federal trade commission

Federal reserve system- national banking system that controls the US money supply and the availability of credit in the country

Federal Reserve system