unit 4 Flashcards
(70 cards)
ellis island
tiny island in NY harbor, goes through medical exam
new v old immigration
new: bw 1865-1914, 25 million europeans immigrated form italy, greece, austria-hungary, russia and serbia, germany (largest)(SE europeans). Mostly men. immigrated bc america had jobs, to escape poverty, social class restrictions, avoid forced military service, high food prices, religious persecution, population pressure, and moving was easy old: N,W europe--England. english, scotch, irish, dutch, german, swedish, african. to come to freedom, escape political turmoil, religious freedom, economy. faced nativism when coming to america. constructed RR, farming techniques, education traditions
tenements
apartment buildings with many living in 1 room
angel island
chinese immigration: country suffering from severe unemployment, poverty, and famine. demand for RR workers, led to immigration–they became servants, skilled traders, and merchants.
japanese: economic problems
nativism
extreme dislike of immigrants by native born people
surfaced during irish immigrations-feelings against jews, europeans
feared CATHOLICS would swamp mostly protestant US
labor unions opposed bc they undermined american workers bc of low wages and being strikebreakers
anti immigrant associations
american protective association-henry bowers, anticatholic
-irish suffered most: they were illiterate miners, dockhands, ditch diggers, factory workers, cooks, servants, and mill workers
chinese exclusion act
banned chinese immigrants for 10 years and prevented the chinese already in the US from becoming citizens, not repealed until 1943
asian segregation
SF board of edu. decalred all chinese, japanese, and korean children attend “oriental school”
- caused an international incident-japan took great offense
- T. Roos. proposed to limit japanese immigrants if schools wouldnt segregate, called “gentlemans agreement”
the literacy debate
admitting immigration into US w literacy test, in any language
- taft and wilson vetoed
- passed 1917
- purpose to reduce immigration from SE european nations
urbanization
- population grew form 10 mil-30 mil
- immigrants worked long hours in factories
- offered running water, lights, entertainment, plumbing
- buildings: skyscrapers: Louis Sullivan
- transportation: horse car, cable cars, trolley, RR, subways(boston and NY)
urban problems
crime, pollution, sewage, poverty, disease
machine politics
the political machine: informal political group designed to gain and keep power
- cities had grown much faster than their governments
- provided: jobs, housing, food, heat, police in exchange for votes
- run by party bosses
graft and fraud
graft: getting money through dishonest or questionable means
- george plunkitt: one of NYC most powerful pb’s, defended “honest graft”
- accepted bribes from contractors, sold permits to friends to access public utilities
- gave jobs in exchange for votes
Tammany Hall
- NYC democratic politcal machine
- William “Boss” Tweed: leader, most notorious, arrested, prison
- city machines often controlled all city services including police
pro con to political machines
pro: provided necessary services, helped city dwellers assimilate
con: corrupt
social darwinism
new inventions, expanded cities, masses of workers, skyscrapers
- Mark Twain and Charles Warner called it the Gilded Age
- reinforced darwins ideas of individualism
- Herbert Spencer: british philosopher, used darwins ideas of evolution and natural selection, argued survival of fittest, paralled laissez-faire. wrote origen of species by means of natural selection
- individualism: no matter how humble their origen, anyone could rise in society
darwinism and the church
rejected darwin bc it contradicted bibles account of creation
Andrew Carnegies Gospel of Wealth
- said wealthy americans should engage in philanthrophy to use their money for better conditions for poor
- schools, hospitals, public libraries
pop culture
industrialization improved living: entertainment, recreation
- the saloon: social gathering, drinks, toilets, water for the horses, newspapers, political center, politcal machines
- amusemnt parks: Ny Coney Island, pro basketball, tennis, golf, etc.
- vaudeville: animal acts, acrobats, dancers
- ragtime: african music, saloon pianists, banjo players. Scott joplin “The Maple leaf rag” aka “king of ragtime”
civil service reform
- believed the spoils system was corrupt (jackson started)
- rutherford b hayes tried to end patronage by firing officials who had been given jobs by spoils.
- divided the rep party into 2: stalwards (supported patronage) halfbreeds (opposed)
- garfield (halfbreed) arthur (stalwart) VP, elected
pendleton act
required some jobs be filled by competitive written exams: professional civil service
election of 1884
cleveland elected-supported civil service, but he choose a middle course not of jobs and civil service
interstate commerce act ICC
- converned w power of large corps
- laws regulating RR rates
- said states could not regulate RR rates for traffic bw states, only fed gov could regulate interstate commerce
- created interstate commerce commission: limited RR rates, forbade rebates to high volume users, illegal to charger higher rates for short hauls
- not very effective- relied on courts to enforce its ruling
the mckinley tariff
- reps controlled both houses and White House
- mckinley passed tariff that cut tobacco taxes and tariff rates on raw sugar, but greatly increased rates on other goods