The largest decline in German immigration prior to 1915 was in — B. 1911 C. 1912 D. 1913

TEKS 4 (A) evaluate the impact of Progressive Era reforms including initiative, referendum, recall, and the passage of the 16th and 17th amendments;

Politics of the Gilded Age 1869-1896

Political Machine Political Machines—organized group that controlled a political party in a city and in return for supporting it offered services and business opportunities City Boss Controlled the activities of the party throughout the city Ward Boss Worked to secure the vote in all the precincts Helped the poor and performed favors to secure votes Precinct workers and captains They tried to gain voters’ support on city blocks or a neighborhood

Machine Politics Bosses were not necessarily evil. Many performed very useful and valuable services for their communities Roscoe Conking of NY built parks, sewer systems, and waterworks, he gave money to schools, hospitals, and orphanages. The machines won loyal support from immigrants for providing services After 1890 most these came from southern and eastern europe

Graft and Scandal Graft—illegal use of political influence for personal gain Since political machines controlled city government, they determined which companies received contracts to provide city services or complete projects—bribes helped secure contracts The political machines enriched themselves with kickbacks, or illegal payments for their services

Boss Tweed William M. Tweed, aka Boss Tweed Headed Tammany Hall NYC’s powerful Democratic machine from 1869-1871 He made a fortune from the bribes and kickbacks that he demanded in exchange of city contracts

Boss Tweed Thomas Nast a political cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly helped cause a moral outcry. The Tweed ring was broken and in 1871 he was indicted on 120 counts of fraud and sentenced to 12 years in jail. Nast is credited with the Republican elephant, Democratic Donkey, Tameny Hall tiger, Santa Claus Boss Tweed Confessed to everything thinkning he would get immunity…only one convicted He only served one year, during a 2nd sentence he escapes flees to Spain, where is is recognized based on one of Nast’s cartoons!!!

Political Reform Patronage- giving government jobs to those who helped candidate get elected This was most obvious in the federal civil service , or government administration Reformers argues that the federal government should promote employees based on ability In 1876 President Rutherford B. Hayes created a commission to investigate the nation’s customs houses and fired two top officials based on the report

Political Reform 1881 President James A Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau 1883 Pendleton Act created the Civil Service System, jobs in government administration, jobs to go to the most qualified through a merit system

Tariffs Republican business interests were big supporters of Tariffs or taxes on an imported goods, to protect their business interests Grover Cleveland, Democrat, tried unsuccessfully to lower the tariff His successor, Benjamin Harrison, got the McKinley Tariff of 1890 passed, which raised the tariff to the highest level yet, 48.4% When Cleveland was returned to the White House in 1892, he tried again to lower the tariff