1. Chapter 15: Life at the Turn of the Century
Big Picture: In the late 1800s waves of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe settled in the cities. Government at all levels was plagued by corruption.

2. Chapter 15 Section 1: New Immigrants
Main Idea: A mew wave of immigrants came to the United States in the late 1800s, settling in cities and troubling some native- born Americans.

3. Changing Patterns of Immigration
Old Immigrants
New Immigrants
Arrived before 1800
Arrived between
Came from Northern and Western Europe and China.
Came from Southern and Eastern Europe
Sought voice in government, religious tolerance, and economic opportunity
Sought economic opportunity and religious tolerance.
Mainly Protestant Christians
Mainly Catholics, Jews, or Orthodox Christians
Culturally similar to original American settlers
Culturally different from original American settlers
Settled both in cities and in rural areas
Mostly settled in cities

4. Coming to America Medical Examination Immigration
Reasons for coming to America
Russian Jews fled to the US in search of religious freedom, threatened by violence against them in Eastern Europe.
Little economic opportunity in Southern and Eastern Europe.
Journey to America
Father or eldest son would come to America first to work and earn money to send back to family so they could come after.
US Immigration Law 1893: had to have identifying information, $30 in cash, and indicate whether they had ever been in prison, a poorhouse, or a mental institution.
Before boarding the ship to America Immigrants had to pass a medical examination.
Ellis Island in New York Harbor opened as a immigration checkpoint. Angel Island was the immigration station in San Francisco.
ID, $30, indicate if they had been in prison, poorhouse, or mental institution
Medical Examination
Immigration
AMERICA!!!

5. Coming to America Building Urban Communities
Immigrants were better off in America than they were in their own country.
Settled in crowded slums often with people of their same language and culture.
Built institutions to keep their culture alive.
Benevolent Societies formed amongst immigrants to help new immigrants obtain jobs, healthcare, or education or to help those hurt on the job.

6. Nativists Respond Nativists were those who opposed immigration.
Blamed immigrants for crime, poverty, and violence. Also believed that immigrants were taking jobs from native-born Americans.
Nativists in California wanted to ban the Chinese and the Japanese.
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): Banned Chinese immigration for ten years, those already in America could not become citizens. Renewed in 1892, banned Chinese immigration until further notice in 1902.
American government began segregating Japanese children from white children, Japanese and Americans agreed to the Gentlemen’s Agreement.
Agreed that Japan would prevent unskilled laborers from immigrating to the US, US would desegregate schools with Japanese children.

7. Nativists claimed that they could not adjust to American life because they were poor, illiterate, and non-Protestant.
Nativists petitioned for a literacy test or a test that determined whether the test takers could read English, passed by Congress in 1917.
Some groups did help immigrants adjust to society and helped them pass their citizenship exams.

8. Chapter 15 Section 2: Urban Life
Main Idea: In cities in the late 1800s, people in the upper, middle, and lower classes lived different kinds of lives because of their different economic situations.

9. American Cities Change
In the late 1800s, cities began to run out of buildable space.
Began to build up instead of out.
Mass transit allowed upper and middle class to live outside of the cities and commute to work, the poor could not afford to live outside of city.
People were fearful of loss of green spaces in cities.
Frederick Law Olmstead designed city parks to provide green spaces in the cities.

10. Class Differences The Wealthy
Richest Americans in late 1800s did not come from “old money” but instead made their money in industry and business.
Made a spectacle of their wealth, late 1800s became known as the Gilded Age.
Spent a lot of money on housing, often had an additional summer home.
Women were encouraged to be a homemaker. Her job was to organize, decorate, entertain, supervise servants, and provide moral and social guidance to her family.

11. Middle Class Working Class
Growth of industry led to increase in middle class.
Some women able to work outside of the home, once married they became homemakers.
Since there was less time spent on housework gave middle class women more time for activities.
Became activists and joined social clubs.
Working Class
Large numbers of immigrants allowed employers to keep wages low.
Working class crowded into run-down apartments called tenements.
Very unsanitary.
Housekeeping was laborious in tenements.
No running water.
In addition to housekeeping women worked low wage jobs.

12. The Settlement House Movement
Settlement Houses or houses where immigrants could be taught skills such as English or job skills to help themselves out of poverty. Also provided social activities such as clubs and sports.
The first settlement house was founded by Jane Addams, called Hull House.
Settlement house workers often middle class, college educated women who lived amongst the people they served.
Gave women opportunities to lead.
Many settlement workers believed in the Social Gospel.
Social Gospel was a belief that religious faith should be expressed through good works. Moral obligation of the church to help solve society’s problems.
Criticized by Social Darwinists.

13. Chapter 15 Section 3: Politics in the Gilded Age
Main idea: Political Corruption was common in the late 1800s, but reformers began fighting for changes to make government more honest.

14. Political Machines
Problems before the Civil War only needed part-time politicians, post-Civil War America had problems that needed full time politicians.
Political Machines: informal group of politicians who controlled the local government, often resorted to corruption to solve societies problems.
Gained immigrants votes by helping them gain citizenship, giving them aid, and helping them find jobs.
Some immigrants became a part of the political machine in their area.
Political machines used illegal tactics, such as favors for votes and bribing other leaders, to maintain control.

15. The most notorious political machine was Tammany Hall, in New York City.
Tammany Hall ran by William Marcy Tweed.
Tweed organized city funds to be funneled into his friends and his pockets.
Exposed by Thomas Nast of Harper’s Weekly for his corruption.
Convicted for fraud and extortion in 1873.

17. Federal Corruption Scandals of the Grant Administration
Ulysses S. Grant became president in 1869, his presidency was scarred by the Crédit Mobilier Scandal.
Union Pacific Railroad set up construction company called Crédit Mobilier to build part of the transcontinental railroad.
Charged American public $23 million more than it cost to build it, money went to Union Pacific directors and stockholders.
Another scandal called the Whiskey Ring erupted in when the treasury secretary had diverted tax collections into private accounts.
Whiskey producers paid bribes to government officials in exchange of money from liquor taxes.

18. President Hayes and Reform
Scandals moved reformers to action, wanted to end spoils system, or the practice of filling government jobs with the winning party’s supporters.
Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1877, issued an executive order that prohibited government employees from managing political parties or campaigns.
Roscoe Conkling a political boss and a republican from New York wanted to continue spoils system, created a group called the Stalwarts.
Hayes did not run for a second term, Republicans nominated James A. Garfield.

19. Garfield’s Short Presidency
Garfield won the election but was shot by Charles Guiteau four months into his term.
Charles Guiteau had been denied a job in Garfield’s Administration.
Vice President Chester A. Arthur took over and vowed to get rid of the spoils system.
Pendleton Civil Service Act: Promotions must be based on merit not political connections.
Applied to only 10% of the federal government, but was the first step in reducing corruption.

20. The Populists Movement
The National Grange
Crop prices began to fall in late 1800s, farmer’s fell into extreme debt buying new equipment to make more money, oversupply of farm products caused prices to fall farther.
Farmers organized to provide aid and assistance to individual farmers, local groups merged to create national organization called National Grange.
Early goal of National Grange was to assist farmers, in order to help farmers most they needed to campaign for political reform.
Grange’s first victory was to regulate railroad rates in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Railroad challenged the laws in court.

21. Munn v. Illinois: Court declared state legislatures had the right to regulate businesses that involved public interest.
Wabash v. Illinois: Court declared that the federal government had the right to regulate railroad traffic across state borders.
Led to the Interstate Commerce Act that made railroad rates fair for all customers by requiring the rates to be “reasonable and just.” Also created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) but did not give them the right to enforce the laws.

22. The Alliance Movement
Other farmer’s movements formed throughout the US, combined to form the Farmers’ Alliance.
Began as a way to help farmers with practical needs and aid, then also began lobbying for reform.
In the South the Southern Alliance only allowed white farmers, African American farmers formed their own Alliance which also fought prejudice.

23. Farmers’ Alliance wanted to expand the money supply to inflate prices.
US Government switched to the Gold Standard in 1873, all paper money must be backed up by gold.
The money in circulation must match the amount of gold in the treasury.
Farmers’ Alliance pushed for money to be linked back to the gold and silver standard, but it didn’t have much of an impact on the money supply.
Alliance members became very politically active and had great success helping officials into office.

24. The Populist Party
Alliance leaders decided to start a national political party – Populist Party.
Supported National Grange and Farmers’ Alliance demands: Income tax, bank regulation, government ownership of railroad and telegraph companies, and free (unlimited) coinage of silver.
Their presidential candidate didn’t win the election but they won several seats in Congress.

25. Panic of 1893
In May 1893 one of the leading railroad companies failed triggering the Panic of 1893
During the panic investors pulled out of the stock market, caused a national depression.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the government to pay for silver purchases with paper money redeemable in either gold or silver.
Silver decreased in value so people rushed to exchange their paper money for gold instead.
President Cleveland begged Congress to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, the country went back to the gold standard.

26. The Election of 1896
Republicans nominated William McKinley (pro-Gold Standard), Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan (pro-Silver and Gold Standard).
President Cleveland lost his popularity with the Panic of 1893.
Populists pulled for William Jennings Bryan because he was pro-silver.
William McKinley won due to support from business leaders.
Populist politics are designed to represent the “popular interest” of the people rather than special interest groups. Politicians still use this tactic today.

27. Chapter 15 Section 4: Segregation and Discrimination
Main Idea: The united states in the late 1800s was a place of great change – and a place in need of even greater change.

28. Legalized Discrimination
Restricting the Right to Vote
By the end of Reconstruction white Democrats had power over the southern state legislatures, they tried to make sure blacks could not vote.
Poll Tax: pay to vote.
Literacy test: must prove you could read to vote.
Grandfather clause: A man could vote if he, his father, or his grandfather had been eligible to vote before January 1, 1867.

29. Legalized Segregation
Jim Crow Laws passed to legalize the separation of blacks and whites.
Blacks wanted equal rights under the Equal Rights Act of 1875, the Equal Rights Act was declared unconstitutional. 14th Amendment only applied to State governments.
Plessy v. Ferguson a case in which an African American male sued a train company for denying him his rights under the 14th Amendment.
Court ruled “Separate but Equal,” legalized the practice of segregation for nearly 60 years.
Informal Discrimination
Laws were not the only source of racial discrimination, there were also strict rules of behavior called racial etiquette.
Consequence for disobeying racial etiquette was lynching.

30. Prominent Black Leaders
W.E.B. Du Bois
believed that blacks should speak out against discrimination and strive for full rights
Blacks should be lifted up by the “talented tenth,” or the most educated leaders.
Founded the NAACP
Booker T. Washington
believed that blacks should accept segregation for the current time
Advocated for blacks to learn skills to rise above discrimination.

31. Others Suffer Discrimination
Mexican Americans encountered discrimination in the work place because they could not speak English well, stuck in a system called debt peonage or when you must pay back your debts before you can leave your job.
Japanese and Chinese Americans were forced to live in segregated neighborhoods and go to segregated schools.
Efforts were made to “Americanize” Native Americans.
Native Americans on reservations had few opportunities and were excluded from political activity.
Not considered citizens until Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.