How the growth of cities affected ideas of social welfare

Urban Challenges

Industrial Progress

“In our arts, labors and victories, we find scope for all our energies, rewards for all our ambitions, renown enough for all our love of fame.”

Speech at Exposition opening of Centennial Exposition, July 4, 1876

Living Like Kings

“Breakers,” the enormous Vanderbilt summer house, designed from an Italian palace and built with imported marble by craftsmen brought over from Europe.

The industrial millionaires lived lavishly, building homes like European palaces and spending enormous sums for parties, while their employees worked 10-12 hour days, 6 or 7 days each week. Many industries employed children as young as seven years old; factories made few provisions for safety.

Immigration

The massive numbers of immigrants, particularly from eastern and southern Europe, provided industry with a large labor force, but made wages even lower and unions difficult to organize. Immigration restrictions began in the 1870s with the “Chinese Exclusion Acts.”

The challenges of crisis

A sudden crisis could quickly underscore the limits of public assistance. In the 1870s, billions of locusts emerged by the western mountains and proceeded to destroy crops across the Midwest.

Devastation in Minnesota

The locusts overwhelmed fields in Minnesota, doing serious damage in almost every area. In the western and southwestern counties, nearly half of the wheat crops were destroyed and over half of the oat crops (largely used for feeding horse and cows). Many families were completely destitute, and farmers who were unable to pay taxes on their lands were in danger of losing their farms.

Government response

John Pillsbury, governor of Minnesota from 1876 to 1878, was part of the famous and wealthy Pillsbury family. He refused to recommend extensive aid programs to the state legislature, arguing that “hand-outs” would “undermine the moral fiber of the poor.” The legislature agreed on providing limited aid by delaying the collection of property taxes and providing grain seed to farmers for new planting. Farmers had to agree to pay for the seed (at the rate of $1 a bushel of seed) – the cost of seed to be a “lien upon my crop of grain, raised each year,” until the loan was repaid. Ten bushels of seed would raise (at most) 135 bushels of wheat, worth about $135.

Documenting need

Farmers applying for county aid under the poor laws had to swear a “pauper's oath” that they were “deserving of relief.” Four witnesses had to sign a note attesting to the applicants “character.” Several farmers stated that they were “made to feel like unsavory miscreants” during the process.

Case Work

Extent of direct aid

Most counties granted applicants for assistance about $2 to buy about 10 pounds of pork, some molasses, baking soda, and matches. In 1875 it cost about $200 to maintain a family of four.

Farmers organize

The hard times for farmers stimulated an era of rural organization. The Granger movement, the Farmers’ Alliances, and the Populist movement were all influenced by the high costs that farmers paid to grow and ship their grain, and the low prices they received for their harvests. Farmers’ Alliances called for regulation of railroad shipping costs, reduction of loan interests, and the formation of “rural cooperatives” that could allow farmers to operate their own grain elevators, creameries, and banks.

Critics called the farmers’ movements “socialistic” threats to “American freedoms,” but the farmers said they were simply protecting their own interests.

Populism and politics

In 1896, the Democratic Party (largely out of power since the Civil War) picked William Jennings Bryan, a Nebraska populist, as its presidential candidate. This temporary unification of the populist movement and the Democratic Party did not lead to victory – Bryan was defeated by William McKinley.

The 1896 election, however, was a turning point in the Democratic Party’s identity. As the 20th century began, Democratic candidates were increasingly identified with reform movements and a growing philosophy of having government actively intervening in social issues.

Labor and Industry

According to statistics gathered at Princeton University, wages for industrial workers rose 31% from 1860 to 1881, while prices rose 41%. This meant that workers had a harder time paying for things as time went on.

Strikes in 1877

A major collapse of credit in 1872 brought on a financial “panic” – a depression that slowed the pace of growth (the Northern Pacific Railroad stopped work on its route through Dakota Territory to the west). Many businesses began to cut wages in order to save money. This sparked strikes and violence in American industries.

“Year of Violence”

Workers struck for higher wages on many of the railroads and violent clashes ensued between strikers and “scab labor.” By sending Federal troops into one strike (to make certain that mail was delivered), President Hayes brought the Federal government into the labor-management dispute.

Labor and Political Issues

Both the strikers and business owners referred to the “Paris Commune” of 1871, when French workers called for a revolution against the state.

Owners warned that unions would “bring communism” to American society. Some strikers hoped that this would happen, but most union leaders condemned the idea of revolution.

Political MachinesMany cities had long been controlled by political machines that delivered votes to selected candidates in return for special favors. But reform groups (and some labor groups who wanted higher wages) blamed immigrant voters as the source of the machines’ power, and so sought to restrict immigration. The only result of this was in the 1870s, when the Congress yielded to public pressure and banned Chinese immigration for a number of years.

Power of the Press

The Press had become powerful in its own right – major newspapers and popular magazines (like Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News) could change national policies. Much as the politicians disliked the press, they also patronized it, to obtain public recognition and support.

Social Cooperation

The influence of Darwin had grown after 1870, to the point that the “survival of the fittest” idea was being used to celebrate the power held by the great industrial leaders (Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc.

In Illinois (a state that saw much labor-industry violence), the botanist Lester Ward argued in his book Dynamic Sociology (1883) that society could “guide” the development of peoples, rather than just permit them to compete.

The Legacy of Scientific Charity

In the first half of the 19th century, cities had begun to transform charity work, through 1)The creation of asylums, the idea of “scientific charity” and the “charity organization societies.”2)The need to develop greater urban efforts in public health.3)The (reluctant) recognition of labor unions4)After 1865, the need to integrate the former slaves with the Freedman’s Bureau, etc.

Jacob Riis

A talented writer , German immigrant Jacob Riis was a police reporter for a major NYC newspaper. Throughout the 1880s, he travelled the slums of NYC, recoding evidence of the effects of overcrowding, poverty, and the impact of rapid urban growth without any real government regulation. The sheds in this photo served as temporary homes, costing $1 a month.

Lack of Space

A street seller in New York could sleep in a tenement cellar for 5 cents a night, while seven cents rented a “cot” in a “lodging house”

Lack of Light and Space

Eastern Europeans (“Bohemians” or “bohunks”) worked and lived in the same, crowded, poorly lit tenement apartment as cigar makers. Thousands of widows did the same as seamstresses for the clothing trade – and kept their children out of school to work with them.

Education as Secondary

Some NYC reformers attempted to run “night schools” in tenement basements, church basements, or other sites, to provide education for children (especially the homeless ‘street arabs’) who worked 10-12 hours during the day. The city provided little, or no, assistance. Crime rates among young men (age 10-18) were high. Similar problems were found in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, etc.

Progressive MovementThe Progressive movement rose from the efforts of several middle-class groups who had tried in the late 1800s to “better society” by pushing through limitations on saloons (the WCTU), educate immigrant children (the settlement houses) or aid the poor (the Salvation Army). At first these groups accepted the American tradition of seeking these reforms through voluntary action, but increasingly they began to expect government to help push through reforms.

The Salvation army chapter of Brainerd Minnesota in 1891.

The Social Gospel

American churches became more and more involved in providing aid to the poor. Walter Rauschenbusch (left), a Baptist theologian, began to help German immigrants in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York. Drawing on the writings of socialists, he argued that church and government should become active in “reforming society” to provide aid to those who were in need.

Child Labor

The labor movement had made “child labor” a major issue. Children as young as six worked as many as 12 hours a day in a number of major industries. Continued problems with child labor and health prompted reformers like S. Josephine Baker to develop advances in nutrition and health care.

Settlement Houses

Jane Addams, a young woman from middle-class origins, helped create Hull House in Chicago in 1889. This settlement house was designed at first to help “new immigrants” learn English and “American ways,” but Addams and her associates quickly realized they had to provide help on child care, nutrition, employment, and other things to really help the poor. Eventually, they began to press for legislation to help the poor “get a fair chance” in society.

Hull House

Where the institutional movement of 1820-1860 tried to segregate the “failures” away from the rest of society, the settlement house movement aimed to create a site within the heart of urban poverty where reformers would live, work and try to better urban conditions. Copying ideas from Toynbee Hall in England, Hull House became famous . Its programs were copied in other parts of Chicago, and other cities.

Addam’s Talented Aides

Addams became the best known of the Hull House staff (largely because she wrote over two dozen books). But among the many others (including Julia Lathrop and Ellen Gates Starr) was Edith Abbott, who was like so many others a product of the rural Midwest (Nebraska) who wanted to help “reform” urban America. Abbott (with her sister Grace) worked at Hull House and wrote major studies of juvenile delinquency and women in the eary-20th century work force.

Birth Control

As a nurse, Margaret Sanger defied state and Federal laws to provide women with information on birth control (even churches that agreed with the ‘social gospel’ movement opposed birth control). Forced to flee to Europe in 1914, Sanger returned in two years to create the first birth control clinic in the U.S.

The Children’s Bureau

Originally part of the Department of Commerce, the Children’s Bureau was moved by Wilson to the Department of Labor in 1913. It’s director, Julia Lathrop, was a veteran of the Hull House reform movement and fought vigorously to obtain stronger child labor laws.

By 1918, most states had child labor laws, but hundreds of thousands of children were little affected by these laws because they worked in areas (small businesses, agriculture, etc.) that were not covered by the provisions for maximum hours or minimum wages. Wilson decided to push for more stringent child labor laws.

Psychology

G. Stanley Hall was one of the founders of American psychology practices and specialized in developed the “stages of development” theories in relation to children.

Florence KelleyFlorence Kelley, another associate of Hull House, became so frustrated in the effort to find a lawyer to argue cases for child labor regulations that she studied law herself, got a license to practice law in Illinois, and argued cases.

Illinois became one of the model states for laws that put limits on how children could be employed and how long they could work in a day.

Kelley also played a role in a key U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1908 to place 10-hour limit on a work day for women.

Sophonisba Breckinridge

One of the few “proto-social workers” who became involved in civil rights for minorities was Sophonisba Breckinridge, yet another Midwest reformer (Kentucky) who was the first woman to get a law degree from the University of Chicago. Active at Hull House, Breckinridge was one of the founders of the NAACP. She argued that every major city and every state should establish a bureau of “public welfare.”

The “Bully Pulpit”

Progressive reformers saw the Theodore Roosevelt as the one person who “represented all the people” (an idea that went back to the 1830s). Theodore Roosevelt accepted a number of the reform ideas of the progressive movement and used his office as a “bully pulpit” to urge reduction of child labor, regulation of trusts, conservation of natural resources, and efforts to reduce corruption in government. Only after he was elected in his own right in 1904 did he push for some of these reforms.

Narcotics in America

Jane Addams of Hull House wrote that opium addiction was widespread in Chicago. Teenaged children “stole from their parents, pawned their clothes and shoes, did any desperate thing to get ‘the dope’ as they called it.” Meanwhile, other narcotics were used in patent medicines and sold openly. A Federal Narcotics Act in 1909 was the first major attempt to stem this practice.

Cures for AddictionSeveral dubious cures for drug addiction were available from mail order businesses or from traveling salesmen who claimed to be physicians. Many of the cures contained other narcotics, and the user simply substituted one addiction for another.

It was estimated in 1900 that over 300,000 Americans were regular users of heroin, and at least twice that used opium.

Of course, Kopp’s Baby Friend cough syrup contained morphine – “for that good night’s sleep.”

Public Health

Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, shocked the public with its details about the lack of sanitation in the processing of food – the book led several cities to establish offices for food and restaurant inspection, and public health services to offer classes on sanitation in the preparation of food. Other cities spent money to improve the quality of drinking water.

The Federal Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 helped – in one example, Coca Cola had to remove cocaine from its product.

Crusading Journalism

The worst aspects of the industrial trusts became the subjects of book-length studies by journalists like Ida Tarbell, who wrote about Standard Oil, calling it the “octopus” that controlled the nation through its dominance of the drilling and distribution of oil.

Urban Corruption

In 1904, Lincoln Steffens, who had written a number of articles for McClure’s magazine, published The Shame of the Cities – an exposure of machine government and corrupt ties between elected officials and local crime. Many of the nation’s greatest cities – including Minneapolis – were embarrassed by the revelations.

Providing “Social Insurance”

Isaac Rubinow, a rather unique statistician for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. (having both an MD and a PhD in economics) argued that a “healthy society” needed some form of “social insurance” to guarantee order and peace, especially in the crowded cities.

His ideas were studied by Theodore Roosevelt, who used some of Rubinow’s language when he wrote the Progressive Party platform statement for the 1912 presidential election.

Triangle Fire TragedyOne example of a progressive reform was the reaction to the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. factory in New York in 1911 – 146 employees, mostly women, as young as 15, died in the fire because little had been done to provide fire escapes, etc. New York passed better fire regulation laws, some proposed by a social worker, Francis Perkins, who later became to first woman in a presidential cabinet.

Labor and the Women’s VoteOne way for women in settlement houses to have greater influence was by expanding the electorate, and so pushed for votes for women.

Contents of a leaflet for votes for women, about 1912, in New York:

•Why are you paid less than a man?

•Why do you work in a fire trap?

•Why are your hours so long?

•Why do you pay the most rent for the worst houses?

•Why do your children go into factories [to work]?

•Why don’t you get a square deal in the courts?

Because you are a woman and have no vote

Votes make the law.

Votes enforce the law.

The law controls conditions. Women who want better conditions MUST vote.

“Mental Hygiene”

The Swiss born psychiatrist Adolf Meyer altered the way mental patients (inmates, really) were treated at the Illinois Mental facility in Kankakee. He later took his ideas to the New York state hospital and then helped create a model clinic at Johns Hopkins.

Rejecting many of the ideas of Freud, Meyer believed that most problems were related to “social and environmental background” – he advocated therapy to help patients through “psychobiology.” He urged states to create offices devoted to “mental hygiene” in education and society.

Dollars for Child Care

In 1921, the U.S. Congress voted to provide some small amounts of matching funds for maternity health care and early childhood health care – this to lower the infant and child mortality rate.

The funding continued until 1929, when pressure from the AMA persuaded Congressional leaders to not renew the funding.

By that time, immigration was being severely curtailed – Congress had mandated a “quota system” keyed the 1890 census results. By 1924, the high tide of immigration to America had passed.

Emergence of the ProfessionIn 1898, 25 students attended a “Summer School Course in Philanthropic Work” in New York City. The courses, sponsored by the Charity Organization Society of NY, provided classes on urban poverty, industrial labor, and practical issues dealing with health, education, and home economics. The courses were repeated the following summer and then expanded. By 1920s, this first school of social work was closely affiliated with Columbia University. With instructors like John Dewey (left) Franz Boas, and Jane Addams, the program’s reputation grew, and idea of a social work education was taken up by other cities and schools.

Announcing the Profession

In 1915, Abraham Flexner, a prominent leader in medical education, gave a paper, “Is Social Work a Profession,” in which he noted: “The unselfish devotion of those who have chosen to give themselves to making the world a fitter place to live in can fill social work with the professional spirit.” Flexner believed that social work was destined to play a major role in the modern industrial state that the United States was rapidly becoming.

Social Work as a Profession

Slowly, social work emerged as a profession. This was encouraged by several things:

•The increasing complexity of society, especially the economy as prosperity was followed by hard times. Government’s role grows

•The growth of cities and urban problems, tied to increased immigration, “boss government,” slums, crime, and education.

•The tendency of Americans to create special “task forces” to deal with problems – the “can do” attitude for organization.

• The success of energetic and determined volunteers (like Jane Addams, etc.) and professionals (Meyer, etc.) who dominated “public welfare” issues of the progressive era.

•For an interesting web site related to this, seehttp://www.idbsu.edu/socwork/dhuff/history/central/core.htm