The changing poverty and what it means for people.

How expansion affects the rest of the world.Immigrants and racial tensions, and how that

shaped America.

Things to Think About

The book “How the Other Half Lives” by Jacob Riis shocked many Americans.

Some 136,000 families are begging for food over previous 8 years.

¾ of population live in tenements, and the conditions are horrible.

This crowding causes spread of disease, and pauperism.

The settlement house or community center was started in the 1890s.

Chapter 19

What to do with the "Other Half"In 1889 Hull House

opens in Chicago, and is run by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.

Hull house offered education to young and old.

Also activists challenged city bosses on issues like child labor, health and safety of factories, etc.

The "Other Half" continuedSome settlements are

church sponsored, and some not.

Many workers in settlements become advocates for reform.

Social Gospel began to bring attention to problems.

For Catholics the papal encyclical urged attention to problems of workers.

Benjamin Harrison led Republicans to victory in 1888.

Republican majority in congress set to get things done.

Laws for coinage, restraint of trade, protection of African voting rights, etc.

Introduction of the filibuster-where opponents can literally talk a bill to death.

In order to elections bill and tariffs bill were compromised to get them passed.

Nativism became more prevalant.Crusade against Catholics intensified.

Legislation ctd.

ImmigrationSome parts of the

Midwest only English could be taught.

Immigration looked at as a threat to jobs and wages.

Immigration shifts from Northwest Europe, to Southern Europe.

New immigrants seen as less desirable than old immigrants.

Anxiety about older immigrants having fewer children were rampant.

1891 Henry Cabot Lodge pushed a literacy test into Congress.

Businesses opposed because it would cut supply of labor.

Passed in 1897 and 1917, but both met with a Presidential veto.

Immigration ctd.

Grew out of Southern and western farmers.Farmers depend on the R.R., but worry about

growing markets.Grain prices fall after the Civil War because

production grows faster than population.Farmers worry about commodity markets

because they get the prices they get regardless.As they raise more and more, prices fall, and

they can never get ahead.The R.R. also worries the farmers because of

prices, free rides, and the “big business” aspect.

Populists

These farmer’s alliances built things like grain elevators in order to control the movement of their grain.

In the 1889-1990 grain year, farmers in the midwest found it cheaper to burn corn than to buy fuel.

Three things defined the Populists:AntimonopolismGovernment action on behalf of farmers and

workers.Increased popular control of the government.Suggested that crops could be collateral for

loans.

Farmer's Alliances

Democrats swept to power in 1892, and almost immediately faced crisis.

Reading Railroad declaired bankruptcy and a financial panic set in.

Many businesses failed in 1893 and plants shut down in large numbers.

British had called back some investments from U.S.

McKinley Tariff had also caused a decline in the gold reserves.

Railroad building declined to half.

Why a depression?

Many men and some women left home to find work.

Riding in boxcars to find work, but there was none.

Jacob S. Coxey tries to start a march on Washington, and many try to support it, but it fails.

At Carnegie’s Steel plant the union balks at major cuts in wages.

Locks them out, and brings in replacements.They fight with those coming in.The government is called, and the protestors

are defeated.

How to manage?

Industrial unions united based on working for the company, not skilled or unskilled.

A similar problem happens with the R.R. cars.As depression subsided mergers…emerged.J.P. Morgan bought Carnegie out after

Carnegie had brought in the last of his vertical integration.

He had started making wire, barrels, and tubes.

These were supposed to hold down overproduction.

Unions have power…or not?

By custom or by law most areas of the south are segregated.

Civil Rights cases of 1883 ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional.

States should be equal before the law, but not individuals.

In 1890 Mississippi created a poll tax, literacy test, and other requirements which did not mention race.

Booker T. Washington-Former slave, janitor, student, and teacher.

Advocated that blacks accept these laws for the time being.

Racial Problems

Southern whites did not oppose him because they liked what he had to say.

Northern whites were glad the south could work out its’ racial problems alone.

Many other states started to redefine the rights of blacks.

Louisiana in 1898 added the grandfather clause-this allowed many illiterate whites to vote, but not blacks.

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson said that separate R.R. cars were all right, as long as they were equal.

As these laws arose, so did the number of lynchings.

Racial Problems ctd.

Bryan vs. McKinleySilver vs. Gold-Republicans back gold, but

McKinley wants to focus on the tariff. Bryan focuses on silver, and on making the

masses prosperous.Bryan a Democrat had stolen the thunder of

the Populists.After the election Republicans have the

majority again.Democrats move toward an idea that an

active govt. can minimize monopolies, and business power.

Politics

1900 The Gold Standard Act makes gold the standard for all currency.

1890s newspapers also were on the rise.Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote about the sea and

how it was important in power and diplomacy.Stressed the need to extend American power

beyond our boundaries.“White man’s burden” is part of the culture.Imperialism affects America.Battles for Cuba, Hawaii, and Philippines.

Important steps and World Affairs

Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders are a Volunteer Cavalry for Spanish-American war.

Treaty of Paris works out problems between Spain and America.

Spain makes Cuba free, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to U.S.

Sells Philippines to U.S. for $20 million.U.S. is looking for new markets for their over

production.U.S. starts to question it’s role in world

affairs.

World Affairs ctd.

Eventually areas acquired are granted rights as citizens, but not U.S. citizens.

The powerful countries start to fight for trade in China.

China wants autonomy, and is supported by U.S. in Boxer Rebellion.

Citizenship