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.