Immigration & the Political Machine

Immigration

• Push FactorReason(s) to leave ones birth country to live in a foreign country

• Pull factors– Reason(s) a foreign

country inspires people from their home country

Get out

Come here

Steerage• Why travel in these

conditions?• Difficult & Expensive to

get to US• What was the journey like• Travel was basic, cheap,

crowded, miserable• Filthy cramped living

conditions.• Trip took 7 to 21 days• RATS-LICE-Disease-Death

Ellis Island• Processing center for immigrants New York harbor• Frantic pace, Lost Identities, Health Inspections

How the Political Machine WorkedPolitical Machine

supplies jobs, food, clothes,

housing

Votes for the party boss to

remain in power

Party boss wins election

so he can continue his

corrupt politics

Urban Politics• Cities grow faster than government• Political Machine– Informal political group– Gain & keep power– Got things for the working class.

• Jobs, homes, food, clothes, heat, protection, etc…– Positive note

• Provided necessary services & helped assimilate the new city dwellers.

• Party Boss received votes for Providing “things”– Once elected used political power for greed.

• Grafts=getting money through dishonest or questionable means.• Bribes

Tammany HallWilliam “Boss” Tweed• Tweed Courthouse• One of the most

corrupt politicians in history– Grossly overpaid

contractors for work• 13 million.• 180,000(2.5mil) for 3

tables & 40 chairs.• Imprisoned for

corruption. Died.

• Thomas Nast Political cartoons exposed corruption

Urbanization: Ethnic Cities

Positives• Lived with similar

people who shared– Language– Customs– Culture

• Sense of Security• Sense of Belonging

Negatives• Slow to assimilate to

America culture– Segregation led to violence

• Irish vs. Italians• Polish vs. Russians

• Slow to learn ENGLISH– Cant communicate– Hard to find

• a job• Basic needs

Urbanization

• Immigrants Lacked– Money• Cant buy land or

farms– Education• Forced to stay in

cities.– Long Hours– Little Pay– Poor Working

conditions

Immigration

E. & S. European

Asians

Latin America

European

Old Immigrants N & W Europe

New Immigrants S & E Europe

Nativist- English/Protestant descent • Extreme dislike of foreigners• Focused on

• Jews• Catholics• E. Europeans• Asians

• Immigrants• Worked for less money• Were easily replaceable• Had Communist & Anarchist

ideas

We were here first…Protect the American Worker

Immigrants = revolution, communism,Anarchy

• Communism ---> classless society• People control

everything• Inspires

Revolution

• Anarchist• No government • Inspires

Revolution

MARXIST

ANARCHISTS

Nativism

• Labor Unions anti-immigration

• Anti-Immigration Org• American Protective

Association• Workingman’s Party of

California • Chinese Exclusion Acts• Banned for 10 years• Chinese in US could not

become citizens

Urban American Social Issues• Immigration• Urbanization• Gilded Age• Social Darwinism• Early Reform

Gilded Age• Coined by Mark Twain• Gilded = Covered in Gold – New Inventions– Skyscrapers– Electricity– Great wealth

• Covered– Poverty– Crime– Corruption– Gap between rich and poor

GILDED AGE

Urban Problems• 4 Major Problems:– Overcrowding– Crime/Violence– Sanitation– Political Corruption

Urbanization• Cities– Overcrowding– Plumbing– Running water– Electricity– Cultural Centers• Museums• Libraries• Theaters

Ethnic Cities• Gangs & Crime• 5 points

- Promotes hostilities between other ethnicities & natives.

Class Division

• High Society– Wealthiest Families– Lived in the heart

of the city.– Extravagant homes

• Moved to the outskirts to avoid overcrowding….This happens again in the 1940s and 50s

Class Division

• Middle Class– Doctors– Lawyers– Teachers– Architects

• “streetcar suburbs”

Class Division• Working Class– Tenements

• Unsanitary-diseases• Crowded- many families share

housing• Dangerous-crime, alcohol, gangs

Social Darwinism• Herbert Spencer– On the Origins of

Species by Means of Natural Selection”

– Natural Selection – plant and animal evolution (survival of the fittest) • Social, Political &

Economic issues– Laissez-faire • Rockefeller

– Standard Oil

– “I am rich because I am smarter and better.”

Individualism• Belief that despite

their origins, one could rise to as far as talent and commitment would take them.