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U.S. History – A Chapter 7

Immigrants

and

Urbanization

252 C

HAPTER 7

USA

WORLD

France

establishes

Indochina.

1893

Indian National

Congress forms.

1885

Porfirio Díaz

seizes power

in Mexico.

1876

Rutherford B.

Hayes is elected

president.

1877

James A.

Garfield is

elected

president.

1880

Chester

A. Arthur suc-

ceeds Garfield

after Garfield’s

assassination.

1881

Grover

Cleveland

is elected

president.

1884

Benjamin

Harrison is elected

president.

1888

Grover

Cleveland is

elected to a

second term.

1892

The intersection of Orchard and

Hester Streets on New York City’s

Lower East Side, 1905.

1880 1890

Berlin

Conference

meets to divide

Africa among

European nations.

1884

252-253-Chapter 7 10/21/02 4:59 PM Page 252

Page 1 of 2

Immigrants and Urbanization 253

INTERACT

WITH HISTORY

The year is 1880. New York City’s

swelling population has created a

housing crisis. Immigrant families

crowd into apartments that lack light,

ventilation, and sanitary facilities.

Children have nowhere to play except

in the streets and are often kept out of

school to work and help support their

families. You are a reformer who

wishes to help immigrants improve

their lives.

What would you

do to improve

conditions?

Examine the Issues

• How can immigrants gain access to

the services they need?

• What skills do newcomers need?

• How might immigrants respond to

help from an outsider?

Woodrow

Wilson is elected

president.

1912

Panama

Canal opens.

1914

Qing

dynasty in China

is overthrown.

1912

Oil is

discovered

in Persia.

1908

Workers revolt in

St. Petersburg, Russia.

1905

The

Commonwealth of

Australia is founded.

1901

Hawaii is

annexed by

the United

States.

1898

The

Wright Brothers

achieve the

first successful

airplane flight.

1903

The

appearance of

Halley’s comet

causes wide-

spread panic.

1910

McKinley

is reelected.

1900

William

McKinley

is elected

president.

1896

Visit the Chapter 7 links for more information

about Immigrants and Urbanization.

RESEARCH LINKS CLASSZONE.COM

1900 1910

252-253-Chapter 7 10/21/02 4:59 PM Page 253

Page 2 of 2

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

One American's Story

The New

Immigrants

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

Immigration from Europe,

Asia, the Caribbean, and

Mexico reached a new high

in the late 19th and early

20th centuries.

FROM CHINA TO

CHINATOWN

Fong See’s

American Dream

In 1871, 14-year-old Fong See came from China to

“Gold Mountain”—the United States. Fong See

stayed, worked at menial jobs, and saved enough

money to buy a business. Despite widespread

restrictions against the Chinese, he became a very

successful importer and was able to sponsor many

other Chinese who wanted to enter the United

States. Fong See had achieved the American dream.

However, as his great-granddaughter Lisa See recalls,

he was not satisﬁed.

A PERSONAL VOICE LISA SEE

“ He had been trying to achieve success ever since he had ﬁrst

set foot on the Gold Mountain. His dream was very ‘American.’ He

wanted to make money, have inﬂuence, be respected, have a wife and

children who loved him. In 1919, when he traveled to China, he could

look at his life and say he had achieved his dream. But once in China,

he suddenly saw his life in a different context. In America, was he really rich?

Could he live where he wanted? . . . Did Americans care what he thought?

. . . The answers played in his head—no, no, no.

”

—On Gold Mountain

Despite Fong See’s success, he could not, upon his death in 1957, be buried

next to his Caucasian wife because California cemeteries were still segregated.

Through the “Golden Door”

Millions of immigrants like Fong See entered the United States in the late 19th

and early 20th centuries, lured by the promise of a better life. Some of these immi-

grants sought to escape difﬁcult conditions—such as famine, land shortages, or

religious or political persecution. Others, known as “birds of passage,” intended

to immigrate temporarily to earn money, and then return to their homelands.

•Ellis Island

•Angel Island

•melting pot

•nativism

•Chinese

Exclusion Act

•Gentlemen’s

Agreement

This wave of immigration helped

make the United States the

diverse society it is today.

254 C

HAPTER 7

254-259-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:00 PM Page 254

Page 1 of 6

Background

From 1815 to

1848, a wave of

revolutions—

mostly sparked

by a desire for

constitutional

governments—

shook Europe. In

1830, for

example, the

Polish people rose

up against their

Russian rulers.

Immigrants and Urbanization 255

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER

Movement Where did the greatest number

of Italian immigrants settle?

Movement From which country did the

smallest percentage of immigrants come?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R28.

U.S. Immigration Patterns, as of 1900

Germany

26%

Other

25%

Ireland

16%

Scandinavia

11%

England

Italy 5%

Russia 4%

Poland 3.5%

Mexico

China 1.5% total

Japan

California

Texas

Illinois

332

129

114

Wisconsin

242

Ohio

204

New York

480

425

182

165

135

Pennsylvania

212

205

114

Massachusetts

249

Settlement ﬁgures in thousands

Skillbuilder

Answers

1. New York

2. Japan

EUROPEANS

Between 1870 and 1920, approximately 20 million Europeans

arrived in the United States. Before 1890, most immigrants came from countries

in western and northern Europe. Beginning in the 1890s, however, increasing

numbers came from southern and eastern Europe. In 1907 alone, about a million

people arrived from Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia.

Why did so many leave their homelands? Many of these new immigrants left

to escape religious persecution. Whole villages of Jews were driven out of Russia by

pogroms, organized attacks often encouraged by local authorities. Other Europeans

left because of rising population. Between 1800 and 1900, the population in

Europe doubled to nearly 400 million, resulting in a scarcity of land for farming.

Farmers competed with laborers for too few industrial jobs. In the United States,

jobs were supposedly plentiful. In addition, a spirit of reform and revolt had spread

across Europe in the 19th century. Inﬂuenced by political movements at home,

many young European men and women sought independent lives in America.

CHINESE AND JAPANESE

While waves of Europeans arrived on the shores of

the East Coast, Chinese immigrants came to the West Coast in smaller numbers.

Between 1851 and 1883, about 300,000 Chinese arrived. Many came to seek their

fortunes after the discovery of gold in 1848 sparked the California gold rush.

Chinese immigrants helped build the nation’s railroads, including the ﬁrst

transcontinental line. When the railroads were completed, they turned to farming,

mining, and domestic service. Some, like Fong See, started businesses. However,

Chinese immigration was sharply limited by a congressional act in 1882.

In 1884, the Japanese government allowed Hawaiian planters to recruit

Japanese workers, and a Japanese emigration boom began. The United States’

annexation of Hawaii in 1898 resulted in increased Japanese immigration to the

West Coast. Immigration continued to increase as word of comparatively high

American wages spread. The wave peaked in 1907, when 30,000 left Japan for the

United States. By 1920, more than 200,000 Japanese lived on the West Coast.

254-259-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:00 PM Page 255

Page 2 of 6

THE WEST INDIES AND MEXICO

Between 1880 and 1920, about 260,000

immigrants arrived in the eastern and southeastern United States from the West

Indies. They came from Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other islands. Many West

Indians left their homelands because jobs were scarce and the industrial boom in

the United States seemed to promise work for everyone.

Mexicans, too, immigrated to the United States to ﬁnd work, as well as to ﬂee

political turmoil. The 1902 National Reclamation Act, which encouraged the irri-

gation of arid land, created new farmland in Western states and drew Mexican

farm workers northward. After 1910, political and social upheavals in Mexico

prompted even more immigration. About 700,000 people—7 percent of the pop-

ulation of Mexico at the time—came to the U.S. over the next 20 years.

Life in the New Land

No matter what part of the globe immigrants came from, they faced many adjust-

ments to an alien—and often unfriendly—culture.

A DIFFICULT JOURNEY

By the 1870s, almost all immigrants traveled by

steamship. The trip across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe took approximately

one week, while the Paciﬁc crossing from Asia took nearly three weeks.

Many immigrants traveled in steerage, the cheapest accommodations in a

ship’s cargo holds. Rarely allowed on deck, immigrants were crowded together in

the gloom, unable to exercise or catch a breath of fresh air. They often had to

sleep in louse-infested bunks and share toilets with many other passengers. Under

these conditions, disease spread quickly, and some immigrants died before they

reached their destination. For those who survived, the ﬁrst glimpse of America

could be breathtaking.

A PERSONAL

VOICE ROSA CAVALLERI

“ America! . . . We were so near it seemed too much to believe. Everyone stood

silent—like in prayer. . . . Then we were entering the harbor. The land came so

near we could almost reach out and touch it. . . . Everyone was holding their

breath. Me too. . . . Some boats had bands playing on their decks and all of them

were tooting their horns to us and leaving white trails in the water behind them.

”

—quoted in Rosa: The Life of an Italian Immigrant

ELLIS ISLAND

After initial moments of excitement, the immigrants faced the

anxiety of not knowing whether they would be admitted to the United States.

They had to pass inspection at immigration stations, such as the one at Castle

Garden in New York, which was later moved to Ellis Island in New York Harbor.

About 20 percent of the immigrants at Ellis

Island were detained for a day or more before

being inspected. However, only about 2 per-

cent of those were denied entry.

The processing of immigrants on Ellis

Island was an ordeal that might take ﬁve

hours or more. First, they had to pass a

physical examination by a doctor. Anyone

with a serious health problem or a conta-

gious disease, such as tuberculosis, was

promptly sent home. Those who passed

the medical exam then reported to a gov-

ernment inspector. The inspector checked

documents and questioned immigrants

European

governments

used passports

to control the

number of

professionals and

young men of

military age who

left the country.

▼

Vocabular y

tuberculosis: a

bacterial infection,

characterized by

fever and

coughing, that

spreads easily

A. Answer

The desire to

escape condi-

tions such as

land shortages,

famine, and

political or reli-

gious persecu-

tion; the

prospect of

land, jobs, or

higher wages.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Causes

What reasons

did people from

other parts of the

world have for

immigrating to the

United States?

254-259-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:00 PM Page 256

Page 3 of 6

to determine whether they met the legal requirements for

entering the United States. The requirements included

proving they had never been convicted of a felony,

demonstrating that they were able to work, and showing

that they had some money (at least $25 after 1909). One

inspector, Edward Ferro, an Italian immigrant himself,

gave this glimpse of the process.

A PERSONAL

VOICE EDWARD FERRO

“ The language was a problem of course, but it was overcome by the use of inter-

preters. . . . It would happen sometimes that these interpreters—some of them—

were really softhearted people and hated to see people being deported, and they

would, at times, help the aliens by interpreting in such a manner as to beneﬁt the

alien and not the government.

”

—quoted in I Was Dreaming to Come to America

From 1892 to 1924, Ellis Island was the chief immigration station in the

United States. An estimated 17 million immigrants passed through its noisy,

bustling facilities.

ANGEL ISLAND

While European immigrants arriving on the East Coast passed

through Ellis Island, Asians—primarily Chinese—arriving on the West Coast

gained admission at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Between 1910 and 1940,

about 50,000 Chinese immigrants entered the United States through Angel

Island. Processing at Angel Island stood in contrast to the procedure at Ellis

Island. Immigrants endured harsh questioning and a long detention in ﬁlthy,

ramshackle buildings while they waited to ﬁnd out whether they would be admit-

ted or rejected.

COOPERATION FOR SURVIVAL

Once admitted to the country, immigrants faced

the challenges of ﬁnding a place to live, getting a job, and getting along in daily

life while trying to understand an unfamiliar language and culture. Many immi-

grants sought out people who shared their cultural values, practiced their religion,

Immigrants and Urbanization 257

Many immigrants, like these

arriving at Ellis Island, were

subjected to tests such as the

one below. To prove their mental

competence, they had to identify

the four faces looking left in 14

seconds. Can you do it?

▼

Vocabular y

felony: any one of

the most serious

crimes under the

law, including

murder, rape, and

burglary

MAIN IDEA

Identifying

Problems

What

difﬁculties did

immigrants face in

gaining admission

to the United

States?

B. Answer

Medical and

administrative

inspections

and, on Angel

Island, harsh

questioning and

detention.

254-259-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:00 PM Page 257

Page 4 of 6

and spoke their native language. The ethnic communities were life rafts for

immigrants. People pooled their money to build churches or synagogues. They

formed social clubs and aid societies. They founded orphanages and old people’s

homes, and established cemeteries. They even published newspapers in their own

languages.

Committed to their own cultures but also trying hard to grow into their new

identities, many immigrants came to think of themselves as “hyphenated”

Americans. As hard as they tried to ﬁt in, these new Polish- and Italian- and

Chinese-Americans felt increasing friction as they rubbed shoulders with people

born and raised in the United States. Native-born people often disliked the immi-

grants’ unfamiliar customs and languages, and viewed them as a threat to the

American way of life.

Immigration Restrictions

Many native-born Americans thought of their country as a melting pot, a mix-

ture of people of different cultures and races who blended together by abandon-

ing their native languages and customs. Many new immigrants, however, did not

wish to give up their cultural identities. As immigration increased, strong anti-

immigrant feelings emerged.

THE RISE OF NATIVISM

One response to the growth in immigration was

nativism, or overt favoritism toward native-born Americans. Nativism gave rise

to anti-immigrant groups and led to a demand for immigration restrictions.

Many nativists believed that Anglo-Saxons—the Germanic ancestors of the

English—were superior to other ethnic groups. These nativists did not object to

immigrants from the “right” countries. Prescott F. Hall, a founder in 1894 of the

Immigration Restriction League, identiﬁed desirable immigrants as “British,

German, and Scandinavian stock, historically free, energetic, progressive.” Nativists

thought that problems were caused by immigrants from the “wrong” countries—

“Slav, Latin, and Asiatic races, historically down-trodden . . . and stagnant.”

Nativists sometimes objected more to immigrants’ religious beliefs than to

their ethnic backgrounds. Many native-born Americans were Protestants and

thought that Roman Catholic and Jewish immigrants would undermine the

democratic institutions established by the

country’s Protestant founders. The American

Protective Association, a nativist group found-

ed in 1887, launched vicious anti-Catholic

attacks, and many colleges, businesses, and

social clubs refused to admit Jews.

In 1897, Congress—influenced by the

Immigration Restriction League—passed a

bill requiring a literacy test for immigrants.

Those who could not read 40 words in English

or their native language would be refused

entry. Although President Cleveland vetoed

the bill, it was a powerful statement of public

sentiment. In 1917, a similar bill would be

passed into law in spite of President Woodrow

Wilson’s veto.

ANTI-ASIAN SENTIMENT

Nativism also

found a foothold in the labor movement, par-

ticularly in the West, where native-born work-

ers feared that jobs would go to Chinese

Chinese

immigrants wait

outside the

hospital on Angel

Island in San

Francisco Bay,

1910.

▼

Vocabular y

synagogue: place

of meeting for

worship and

religious

instruction in the

Jewish faith

Vocabular y

progressive:

favoring

advancement

toward better

conditions or new

ideas

C. Answer

They helped one

another, forming

ethnic enclaves,

social clubs,

and aid soci-

eties.

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

How did

immigrants deal

with challenges

they faced?

254-259-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:00 PM Page 258

Page 5 of 6

immigrants, who would accept lower wages. The

depression of 1873 intensiﬁed anti-Chinese senti-

ment in California. Work was scarce, and labor

groups exerted political pressure on the govern-

ment to restrict Asian immigration. The founder of

the Workingmen’s Party, Denis Kearney, headed the

anti-Chinese movement in California. He made

hundreds of speeches throughout the state, each

ending with the message, “The Chinese must go!”

In 1882, Congress slammed the door on

Chinese immigration for ten years by passing the

Chinese Exclusion Act. This act banned entry to

all Chinese except students, teachers, merchants,

tourists, and government officials. In 1892,

Congress extended the law for another ten years. In

1902, Chinese immigration was restricted indeﬁ-

nitely; the law was not repealed until 1943.

THE GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENT

The fears that

had led to anti-Chinese agitation were extended to

Japanese and other Asian people in the early 1900s.

In 1906, the local board of education in San

Francisco segregated Japanese children by putting

them in separate schools. When Japan raised an

angry protest at this treatment of its emigrants,

President Theodore Roosevelt worked out a deal. Under the Gentlemen’s

Agreement of 1907–1908, Japan’s government agreed to limit emigration of

unskilled workers to the United States in exchange for the repeal of the San

Francisco segregation order.

Although doorways for immigrants had been all but closed to Asians on the

West Coast, cities in the East and the Midwest teemed with European immi-

grants—and with urban opportunities and challenges.

Immigrants and Urbanization 259

•Ellis Island

•Angel Island

•melting pot

•nativism

•Chinese Exclusion Act

•Gentlemen’s Agreement

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

Create a diagram such as the one

below. List two or more causes of

each effect.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS

Which group of immigrants do you

think faced the greatest challenges

in the United States? Why?

4. ANALYZING EFFECTS

What were the effects of the

massive inﬂux of immigrants to the

U.S. in the late 1800s?

5. EVALUATING

What arguments can you make

against nativism and anti-immigrant

feeling? Think About:

• the personal qualities of immi-

grants

• the reasons for anti-immigrant

feeling

• the contributions of immigrants

to the United States

▼

Fear and

resentment of

Chinese

immigrants

sometimes

resulted in mob

attacks, like the

one shown here.

Causes Effects

Immigrants

leave their

home countries.

Immigrants face

hardships in the

United States.

Some nativists

want to restrict

immigration.

254-259-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:00 PM Page 259

Page 6 of 6

262 C

HAPTER 7

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

One American's Story

The Challenges

of Urbanization

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

In 1870, at age 21, Jacob Riis left his native Denmark for

the United States. Riis found work as a police reporter, a job

that took him into some of New York City’s worst slums,

where he was shocked at the conditions in the overcrowd-

ed, airless, ﬁlthy tenements. Riis used his talents to expose

the hardships of New York City’s poor.

A PERSONAL VOICE JACOB RIIS

“ Be a little careful, please! The hall is dark and you might

stumble over the children pitching pennies back there. Not

that it would hurt them; kicks and cuffs are their daily

diet. They have little else. . . . Close [stuffy]? Yes! What

would you have? All the fresh air that ever enters these

stairs comes from the hall-door that is forever slamming. . . . Here is a door.

Listen! That short hacking cough, that tiny, helpless wail—what do they mean?

. . . The child is dying with measles. With half a chance it might have lived; but it

had none. That dark bedroom killed it.

”

—How the Other Half Lives

Making a living in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was not easy.

Natural and economic disasters had hit farmers hard in Europe and in the United

States, and the promise of industrial jobs drew millions of people to American

cities. The urban population exploded from 10 million to 54 million between

1870 and 1920. This growth revitalized the cities but also created serious prob-

lems that, as Riis observed, had a powerful impact on the new urban poor.

Urban Opportunities

The technological boom in the 19th century contributed to the growing indus-

trial strength of the United States. The result was rapid urbanization, or growth

of cities, mostly in the regions of the Northeast and Midwest.

•urbanization

•Americanization

movement

•tenement

•mass transit

•Social Gospel

movement

•settlement house

•Jane Addams

The rapid growth of cities

forced people to contend

with problems of housing,

transportation, water, and

sanitation.

Consequently, residents of U.S.

cities today enjoy vastly improved

living conditions.

▼

As many as 12

people slept in

rooms such as

this one in New

Yor k City,

photographed by

Jacob Riis around

1889.

262-266-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 262

Page 1 of 5

IMMIGRANTS SETTLE IN CITIES

Most of the immigrants who

streamed into the United States in

the late 19th century became city

dwellers because cities were the

cheapest and most convenient places

to live. Cities also offered unskilled

laborers steady jobs in mills and fac-

tories. By 1890, there were twice as

many Irish residents in New York City

as in Dublin, Ireland. By 1910, immi-

grant families made up more than

half the total population of 18 major

American cities.

The Americanization move-

ment was designed to assimilate

people of wide-ranging cultures into

the dominant culture. This social

campaign was sponsored by the gov-

ernment and by concerned citizens.

Schools and voluntary associations

provided programs to teach immi-

grants skills needed for citizenship,

such as English literacy and American

history and government. Subjects

such as cooking and social etiquette

were included in the curriculum to

help the newcomers learn the ways of

native-born Americans.

Despite these efforts, many immi-

grants did not wish to abandon their

traditions. Ethnic communities pro-

vided the social support of other

immigrants from the same country.

This enabled them to speak their own

language and practice their customs

and religion. However, these neigh-

borhoods soon became overcrowded,

a problem that was intensiﬁed by the

arrival of new transplants from

America’s rural areas.

MIGRATION FROM COUNTRY TO CITY

Rapid improvements in farming tech-

nology during the second half of the 19th century were good news for some farm-

ers but bad news for others. Inventions such as the McCormick reaper and the

steel plow made farming more efﬁcient but meant that fewer laborers were need-

ed to work the land. As more and more farms merged, many rural people moved

to cities to ﬁnd whatever work they could.

Many of the Southern farmers who lost their livelihoods were African

Americans. Between 1890 and 1910, about 200,000 African Americans moved north

and west, to cities such as Chicago and Detroit, in an effort to escape racial violence,

economic hardship, and political oppression. Many found conditions only some-

what better than those they had left behind. Segregation and discrimination were

often the reality in Northern cities. Job competition between blacks and white

immigrants caused further racial tension.

Immigrants and Urbanization 263

FPO

BRONX

MANHATTAN

BROOKLYN

QUEENS

Austro-Hungarian

German

Irish

Italian

Russian

Scandinavian

Nonresidential

Boundary between

Brooklyn and Queens

Ethnic enclaves of at

least 20% of population:

New York City, 1910

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER

Place What general pattern of settlement do you

notice?

Movement Which ethnic group settled in the

largest area of New York City?

Skillbuilder

Answers

1. Immigrants

often settled

near others of

similar back-

grounds.

2. Germans

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Motives

Why did native-

born Americans

start the

Americanization

movement?

A. Answer

To encourage

newcomers to

assimilate into

the dominant

culture.

262-266-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 263

Page 2 of 5

264 C

HAPTER 7

Vocabular y

chlorination: a

method of

purifying water by

mixing it with the

chemical chlorine

Urban Problems

As the urban population skyrocketed, city governments faced the problems of

how to provide residents with needed services and safe living conditions.

HOUSING

When the industrial age began, working-class families in cities had

two housing options. They could either buy a house on the outskirts of town,

where they would face transportation problems, or rent cramped rooms in a

boardinghouse in the central city. As the urban population increased, however,

new types of housing were designed. For example, row houses—single-family

dwellings that shared side walls with other similar houses—packed many single-

family residences onto a single block.

After working-class families left the central city, immigrants often took over

their old housing, sometimes with two or three families occupying a one-family

residence. As Jacob Riis pointed out, these multifamily urban dwellings, called

tenements, were overcrowded and unsanitary.

In 1879, to improve such slum conditions, New York City passed a law that set

minimum standards for plumbing and ventilation in apartments. Landlords began

building tenements with air shafts that provided an outside window for each

room. Since garbage was picked up infrequently, people sometimes dumped it into

the air shafts, where it attracted vermin. To keep out the stench, residents nailed

windows shut. Though established with good intent, these new tenements soon

became even worse places to live than the converted single-family residences.

TRANSPORTATION

Innovations in mass transit, transportation systems

designed to move large numbers of people along ﬁxed routes, enabled workers to

go to and from jobs more easily. Street cars were introduced in San Francisco in

1873 and electric subways in Boston in 1897. By the early 20th century, mass-

transit networks in many urban areas linked city neighborhoods to one another

and to outlying communities. Cities struggled to repair old transit systems and to

build new ones to meet the demand of expanding populations.

WATER

Cities also faced the problem of supplying safe drinking water. As the

urban population grew in the 1840s and 1850s, cities such as New York and

Cleveland built public waterworks to handle the increasing demand. As late as the

1860s, however, the residents of many cities had grossly inadequate piped water—

or none at all. Even in large cities like New York, homes seldom had indoor

plumbing, and residents had to collect water in pails from faucets on the street

and heat it for bathing. The necessity of

improving water quality to control dis-

eases such as cholera and typhoid fever

was obvious. To make city water safer, ﬁl-

tration was introduced in the 1870s and

chlorination in 1908. However, in the early

20th century, many city dwellers still had

no access to safe water.

SANITATION

As the cities grew, so did the

challenge of keeping them clean. Horse

manure piled up on the streets, sewage

ﬂowed through open gutters, and factories

spewed foul smoke into the air. Without

dependable trash collection, people

dumped their garbage on the streets.

Although private contractors called scav-

engers were hired to sweep the streets, col-

lect garbage, and clean outhouses, they

▼

Sanitation

problems in big

cities were

overwhelming. It

was not unusual

to see a dead

horse in the

street.

B. Answer

Transportation

difﬁculties,

overcrowding,

and unsanitary

conditions.

MAIN IDEA

Identifying

Problems

What housing

problems did

urban working-

class families

face?

262-266-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 264

Page 3 of 5

Immigrants and Urbanization 265

often did not do the jobs properly. By 1900, many cities had developed sewer lines

and created sanitation departments. However, the task of providing hygienic liv-

ing conditions was an ongoing challenge for urban leaders.

CRIME

As the populations of cities increased, pickpockets and thieves ﬂour-

ished. Although New York City organized the ﬁrst full-time, salaried police force

in 1844, it and most other city law enforcement units were too small to have

much impact on crime.

FIRE

The limited water supply in many cities contributed to another menace:

the spread of ﬁres. Major ﬁres occurred in almost every large American city dur-

ing the 1870s and 1880s. In addition to lacking water with which to combat

blazes, most cities were packed with wooden dwellings, which were like kindling

waiting to be ignited. The use of candles and kerosene heaters also posed a ﬁre

hazard. In San Francisco, deadly ﬁres often broke out during earthquakes. Jack

London described the ﬁres that raged after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

A PERSONAL VOICE JACK LONDON

“ On Wednesday morning at a quarter past ﬁve came the earthquake. A minute

later the ﬂames were leaping upward. In a dozen different quarters south of Market

Street, in the working-class ghetto, and in the factories, ﬁres started. There was

no opposing the ﬂames. . . . And the great water-mains had burst. All the shrewd

contrivances and safeguards of man had been thrown out of gear by thirty sec-

onds’ twitching of the earth-crust.

”

—“The Story of an Eye-witness”

At ﬁrst, most city ﬁreﬁghters were volunteers and not always available when

they were needed. Cincinnati, Ohio, tackled this problem when it established the

nation’s ﬁrst paid ﬁre department in 1853. By 1900, most cities had full-time pro-

fessional ﬁre departments. The introduction of a practical automatic ﬁre sprinkler

in 1874 and the replacement of wood as a building material with brick, stone, or

concrete also made cities safer.

C. Answer

Lack of clean

water and

inadequate san-

itation spread

disease.

FIRE: Enemy of the City

The Great Chicago Fire

October 8–10, 1871 The San Francisco Earthquake April 18, 1906

• The ﬁre burned for

over 24 hours.

• An estimated 300

people died.

• 100,000 were left

homeless.

• More than 3 square

miles of the city

center was

destroyed.

• Property loss was

estimated at $200

million.

• 17,500 buildings

were destroyed.

• The quake lasted

28 seconds; ﬁres

burned for 4 days.

• An estimated

1,000 people

died.

• Over 200,000 were

left homeless.

• Fire swept

through 5 square

miles of the city.

• Property loss was

estimated at

$500 million.

• 28,000 buildings

were destroyed.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Effects

How did

conditions in cities

affect people’s

health?

262-266-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 265

Page 4 of 5

•urbanization

•Americanization movement

•tenement

•mass transit

•Social Gospel movement

•settlement house

•Jane Addams

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

266 C

HAPTER 7

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

Re-create the spider map below on

your paper. List urban problems on

the vertical lines. Fill in details

about attempts that were made to

solve each problem.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. ANALYZING MOTIVES

Why did immigrants tend to group

together in cities?

4. EVALUATING

Which solution (or attempted

solution) to an urban problem

discussed in this section do you

think had the most impact? Why?

5. ANALYZING EFFECTS

What effects did the migration from

rural areas to the cities in the late

19th century have on urban society?

Think About:

• why people moved to cities

• the problems caused by rapid

urban growth

• the differences in the experi-

ences of whites and blacks

Solutions to

Urban Problems

Reformers Mobilize

As problems in cities mounted, concerned Americans

worked to ﬁnd solutions. Social welfare reformers targeted

their efforts at relieving urban poverty.

THE SETTLEMENT HOUSE MOVEMENT

An early reform

program, the Social Gospel movement, preached salva-

tion through service to the poor. Inspired by the message of

the Social Gospel movement, many 19th-century reformers

responded to the call to help the urban poor. In the late

1800s, a few reformers established settlement houses,

community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided

assistance to people in the area, especially immigrants.

Many settlement workers lived at the houses so that they

could learn ﬁrsthand about the problems caused by urban-

ization and help create solutions.

Run largely by middle-class, college-educated women,

settlement houses provided educational, cultural, and

social services. They provided classes in such subjects as

English, health, and painting, and offered college extension

courses. Settlement houses also sent visiting nurses into the

homes of the sick and provided whatever aid was needed to

secure “support for deserted women, insurance for bewil-

dered widows, damages for injured operators, furniture

from the clutches of the installment store.”

Settlement houses in the United States were founded by

Charles Stover and Stanton Coit in New York City in 1886.

Jane Addams—one of the most inﬂuential members of

the movement—and Ellen Gates Starr founded Chicago’s

Hull House in 1889. In 1890, Janie Porter Barrett founded

Locust Street Social Settlement in Hampton, Virginia—the

ﬁrst settlement house for African Americans. By 1910,

about 400 settlement houses were operating in cities across

the country. The settlement houses helped cultivate social

responsibility toward the urban poor.

JANE ADDAMS

1860–1935

During a trip to England, Jane

Addams visited Toynbee Hall, the

ﬁrst settlement house. Addams

believed that settlement houses

could be effective because there,

workers would “learn from life

itself” how to address urban

problems. She cofounded

Chicago’s Hull House in 1889.

Addams was also an antiwar

activist, a spokesperson for

racial justice, and an advocate for

quality-of-life issues, from infant

mortality to better care for the

aged. In 1931, she was a

co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Until the end of her life, Addams

insisted that she was just a “very

simple person.” But many familiar

with her accomplishments consid-

er her a source of inspiration.

262-266-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 266

Page 5 of 5

Immigrants and Urbanization 267

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

One American's Story

Politics in the

Gilded Age

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

•political machine

•graft

•Boss Tweed

•patronage

•civil service

•Rutherford B.

Hayes

•James A. Garﬁeld

•Chester A. Arthur

•Pendleton Civil

Service Act

•Grover Cleveland

•Benjamin

Harrison

Local and national political

corruption in the 19th

century led to calls for

reform.

Political reforms paved the way

for a more honest and efﬁcient

government in the 20th century

and beyond.

Mark Twain described the excesses of the late 19th centu-

ry in a satirical novel, The Gilded Age, a collaboration with

the writer Charles Dudley Warner. The title of the book

has since come to represent the period from the 1870s to

the 1890s. Twain mocks the greed and self-indulgence of

his characters, including Philip Sterling.

A PERSONAL VOICE

MARK TWAIN

AND CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER

“ There are many young men like him [Philip Sterling] in

American society, of his age, opportunities, education

and abilities, who have really been educated for nothing

and have let themselves drift, in the hope that they will

ﬁnd somehow, and by some sudden turn of good luck, the

golden road to fortune. . . . He saw people, all around

him, poor yesterday, rich to-day, who had come into sud-

den opulence by some means which they could not have

classiﬁed among any of the regular occupations of life.

”

—The Gilded Age

Twain’s characters ﬁnd that getting rich quick is more difﬁcult than they had

thought it would be. Investments turn out to be worthless; politicians’ bribes eat

up their savings. The glittering exterior of the age turns out to hide a corrupt

political core and a growing gap between the few rich and the many poor.

The Emergence of Political Machines

In the late 19th century, cities experienced rapid growth under inefﬁcient govern-

ment. In a climate inﬂuenced by dog-eat-dog Social Darwinism, cities were receptive

to a new power structure, the political machine, and a new politician, the city boss.

▼

A luxurious

apartment

building rises

behind a New

Yor k City shanty-

town in 1889.

267-271-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 267

Page 1 of 5

THE POLITICAL MACHINE

An organized group that controlled the activities of

a political party in a city, the political machine also offered services to voters

and businesses in exchange for political or ﬁnancial support. In the decades

after the Civil War, political machines gained control of local government in

Baltimore, New York, San Francisco, and other major cities.

The machine was organized like a pyramid. At the pyramid’s base were local

precinct workers and captains, who tried to gain voters’ support on a city block or

in a neighborhood and who reported to a ward boss. At election time, the ward boss

worked to secure the vote in all the precincts in the ward, or electoral district. Ward

bosses helped the poor and gained their votes by doing favors or providing services.

As Martin Lomasney, elected ward boss of Boston’s West End in 1885, explained,

“There’s got to be in every ward somebody that any bloke can come to . . . and get

help. Help, you understand; none of your law and your justice, but help.” At the

top of the pyramid was the city boss, who controlled the activities of the political

party throughout the city. Precinct captains, ward bosses, and the city boss worked

together to elect their candidates and guarantee the success of the machine.

THE ROLE OF THE POLITICAL BOSS

Whether or not the boss ofﬁcially served

as mayor, he controlled access to municipal jobs and business licenses, and

inﬂuenced the courts and other municipal agencies. Bosses like Roscoe

Conkling in New York used their power to build parks, sewer

systems, and waterworks, and gave money to

schools, hospitals, and orphanages. Bosses could

also provide government support for new busi-

nesses, a service for which they were often paid

extremely well.

It was not only money that motivated city

bosses. By solving urban problems, bosses could

reinforce voters’ loyalty, win additional political

support, and extend their inﬂuence.

IMMIGRANTS AND THE MACHINE

Many

precint captains and political bosses were ﬁrst-

generation or second-generation immigrants.

Few were educated beyond grammar school.

They entered politics early and worked their

way up from the bottom. They could speak to

immigrants in their own language and under-

stood the challenges that newcomers faced.

More important, the bosses were able to provide

solutions. The machines helped immigrants

with naturalization (attaining full citizenship),

housing, and jobs—the newcomers’ most pressing needs. In return, the immi-

grants provided what the political bosses needed—votes.

“Big Jim” Pendergast, an Irish-American saloonkeeper, worked his way up

from precinct captain to Democratic city boss in Kansas City by aiding Italian,

African-American, and Irish voters in his ward. By 1900, he controlled Missouri

state politics as well.

A PERSONAL VOICE JAMES PENDERGAST

“ I’ve been called a boss. All there is to it is having friends, doing things for peo-

ple, and then later on they’ll do things for you. . . . You can’t coerce people into

doing things for you—you can’t make them vote for you. I never coerced anybody

in my life. Wherever you see a man bulldozing anybody he don’t last long.

”

—quoted in The Pendergast Machine

268 C

HAPTER 7

▼

A corrupt 19th-

century boss robs

the city treasury

by easily cutting

government red

tape, or

bureaucracy.

A. Answer

Many local

precinct work-

ers and captains

formed the base

of the organiza-

tion. In the mid-

dle were a few

ward bosses.

At the top was

one city boss.

B. Answer

Because the

machines could

provide solu-

tions to the

immigrants’

most pressing

problems.

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

In what way

did the structure

of the political

machine resemble

a pyramid?

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Motives

Why did

immigrants

support political

machines?

267-271-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 268

Page 2 of 5

Analyzing

Municipal Graft and Scandal

While the well-oiled political machines provided city dwellers with services,

many political bosses fell victim to corruption as their inﬂuence grew.

ELECTION FRAUD AND GRAFT

When the loyalty of voters was not enough to

carry an election, some political machines turned to fraud. Using fake names,

party faithfuls cast as many votes as were needed to win.

Once a political machine got its candidates into ofﬁce, it could take advantage

of numerous opportunities for graft, the illegal use of political inﬂuence for per-

sonal gain. For example, by helping a person ﬁnd work on a construction project

for the city, a political machine could ask the worker to bill the city for more than

the actual cost of materials and labor. The worker then “kicked back” a portion of

the earnings to the machine. Taking these kickbacks, or illegal payments for their

services, enriched the political machines—and individual politicians.

Political machines also granted favors to businesses in return for cash and

accepted bribes to allow illegal activities, such as gambling, to ﬂourish. Politicians

were able to get away with shady dealings because the police rarely interfered.

Until about 1890, police forces were hired and ﬁred by political bosses.

THE TWEED RING SCANDAL

William M. Tweed, known as Boss Tweed,

became head of Tammany Hall, New York City’s powerful Democratic polit-

ical machine, in 1868. Between 1869 and 1871, Boss Tweed led the Tweed

Ring, a group of corrupt politicians, in defrauding the city.

One scheme, the construction of the New York County Courthouse,

involved extravagant graft. The project cost taxpayers $13 million, while

the actual construction cost was $3 million. The difference went into the

pockets of Tweed and his followers.

Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, helped arouse public outrage

against Tammany Hall’s graft, and the Tweed Ring was ﬁnally broken in 1871.

Tweed was indicted on 120 counts of fraud and extortion and was sentenced to

12 years in jail. His sentence was reduced to one year, but after leaving jail, Tweed

was quickly arrested on another charge. While serving a second sentence, Tweed

escaped. He was captured in Spain when ofﬁcials identiﬁed him from a Thomas

Nast cartoon. By that time, political corruption had become a national issue.

Vocabular y

extortion: illegal

use of one’s ofﬁcial

position to obtain

property or funds

▼

Boss Tweed, head

of Tammany Hall.

Immigrants and Urbanization 269

“THE TAMMANY TIGER LOOSE”

Political cartoonist Thomas Nast ridiculed Boss

Twee d and h is m ac hin e i n th e pa ges of Harper’s

Weekly. Nast’s work threatened Tweed, who reportedly

said, “I don’t care so much what the papers write

about me—my constituents can’t read; but . . . they

can see pictures!”

SKILLBUILDER

Analyzing Political Cartoons

Under the Tammany tiger’s victim is a torn paper

that reads “LAW.” What is its signiﬁcance?

Boss Tweed and his cronies, portrayed as

noblemen, watch from the stands on the left. The

cartoon’s caption reads “What are you going to do

about it?” What effect do you think Nast wanted

to have on his audience?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

267-271-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 269

Page 3 of 5

Civil Service Replaces Patronage

The desire for power and money that made local politics corrupt

in the industrial age also infected national politics.

PATRONAGE SPURS REFORM

Since the beginning of the

19th century, presidents had complained about the problem of

patronage, or the giving of government jobs to people who

had helped a candidate get elected. In Andrew Jackson’s admin-

istration, this policy was known as the spoils system. People

from cabinet members to workers who scrubbed the steps of the

Capitol owed their jobs to political connections. As might be

expected, some government employees were not qualiﬁed for

the positions they filled. Moreover, political appointees,

whether qualiﬁed or not, sometimes used their positions for per-

sonal gain.

Reformers began to press for the elimination of patronage

and the adoption of a merit system of hiring. Jobs in civil

service—government administration—should go to the most

qualiﬁed persons, reformers believed. It should not matter what

political views they held or who recommended them.

REFORM UNDER HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR

Civil

service reform made gradual progress under Presidents Hayes,

Garﬁeld, and Arthur. Republican president Rutherford B.

Hayes, elected in 1876, could not convince Congress to support

reform, so he used other means. Hayes named independents to

his cabinet. He also set up a commission to investigate the

nation’s customhouses, which were notoriously corrupt. On the

basis of the commission’s report, Hayes ﬁred two of the top ofﬁ-

cials of New York City’s customhouse, where jobs were con-

trolled by the Republican Party. These ﬁrings enraged the

Republican New York senator and political boss Roscoe

Conkling and his supporters, the Stalwarts.

When Hayes decided not to run for reelection in 1880, a free-

for-all broke out at the Republican convention, between the

Stalwarts—who opposed changes in the spoils system—and

reformers. Since neither Stalwarts nor reformers could win a

majority of delegates, the convention settled on an independent

presidential candidate, Ohio congressman James A. Garﬁeld.

To balance out Garﬁeld’s ties to reformers, the Republicans nom-

inated for vice-president Chester A. Arthur, one of Conkling’s

supporters. Despite Arthur’s inclusion on the ticket, Garﬁeld

angered the Stalwarts by giving reformers most of his patronage

jobs once he was elected.

On July 2, 1881, as President Garﬁeld walked through the

Washington, D.C., train station, he was shot two times by a men-

tally unbalanced lawyer named Charles Guiteau, whom Garﬁeld

had turned down for a job. The would-be assassin announced, “I

did it and I will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart and Arthur is now

president.” Garﬁeld ﬁnally died from his wounds on September

19. Despite his ties to the Stalwarts, Chester Arthur turned

reformer when he became president. His ﬁrst message to

Congress urged legislators to pass a civil service law.

The resulting Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883

authorized a bipartisan civil service commission to make

270 C

HAPTER 7

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES (1877–1881)

JAMES A. GARFIELD (1881)

CHESTER A. ARTHUR (1881–1885)

“ Nobody ever left the

presidency with less

regret . . . than I do.”

“ Assassination can

be no more guarded

against than death

by lightning.”

“ There doesn’t seem

to be anything else for

an ex-president to do

but . . . raise big

pumpkins.”

C. Answer

By allowing

people to be

hired for gov-

ernment jobs on

the basis of

political beliefs

rather than abili-

ty, and by pro-

viding opportu-

nities for misuse

of inﬂuence.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Causes

How did

patronage

contribute to

government

incompetence and

fraud?

267-271-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 270

Page 4 of 5

appointments to federal jobs through a merit system based on candidates’ perfor-

mance on an examination. By 1901, more than 40 percent of all federal jobs had

been classiﬁed as civil service positions, but the Pendleton Act had mixed conse-

quences. On the one hand, public administration became more honest and efﬁ-

cient. On the other hand, because ofﬁcials could no longer pressure employees for

campaign contributions, politicians turned to other sources for donations.

Business Buys Inﬂuence

With employees no longer a source of campaign contributions, politicians turned

to wealthy business owners. Therefore, the alliance between government and big

business became stronger than ever.

HARRISON, CLEVELAND, AND HIGH TARIFFS

Big business hoped the govern-

ment would preserve, or even raise, the tariffs that protected domestic industries

from foreign competition. The Democratic Party, however, opposed high tariffs

because they increased prices. In 1884, the Democratic Party won a presidential

election for the ﬁrst time in 28 years with candidate Grover Cleveland. As presi-

dent, Cleveland tried to lower tariff rates, but Congress refused to support him.

In 1888, Cleveland ran for reelection on a low-tariff platform against the for-

mer Indiana senator Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of President William

Henry Harrison. Harrison’s campaign was ﬁnanced by large contributions from

companies that wanted tariffs even higher than they were. Although Cleveland

won about 100,000 more popular votes than Harrison, Harrison took a majority

of the electoral votes and the presidency. Once in ofﬁce, he won passage of the

McKinley Tariff Act of 1890, which raised tariffs to their highest level yet.

In 1892, Cleveland was elected again—the only president to serve two non-

consecutive terms. He supported a bill for lowering the McKinley Tariff but

refused to sign it because it also provided for a federal income tax. The Wilson-

Gorman Tariff became law in 1894 without the president’s signature. In 1897,

William McKinley was inaugurated president and raised tariffs once again.

The attempt to reduce the tariff had failed, but the spirit of reform was not

dead. New developments in areas ranging from technology to mass culture would

help redeﬁne American society as the United States moved into the 20th century.

•political machine

•graft

•Boss Tweed

•patronage

•civil service

•Rutherford B. Hayes

•James A. Garﬁeld

•Chester A. Arthur

•Pendleton Civil Service Act

•Grover Cleveland

•Benjamin Harrison

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

Immigrants and Urbanization 271

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

In a chart like the one shown, list

examples of corruption in 19th-

century politics.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP

Reread the quotation from James

Pendergast on page 268. Explain

whether you agree or disagree that

machine politicians did not coerce

people.

4. ANALYZING CAUSES

Why do you think tariff reform

failed? Support your response with

evidence from the chapter.

5. HYPOTHESIZING

How do you think politics in the

United States would have been

different if the Pendleton Civil

Service Act had not been passed?

Think About:

• the act’s impact on federal

workers

• the act’s impact on political

fundraising

• Republican Party conﬂicts

D. Answer

Positive: More

competent and

honest federal

workers.

Negative: Closer

ties between

government and

big business.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Effects

What were the

positive and the

negative effects of

the Pendleton Civil

Service Act?

Corruption

267-271-Chapter 7 10/21/02 5:01 PM Page 271

Page 5 of 5

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