Chapter 7/Section 1

The New Immigrants

Key Idea

New immigrants from southern and easternEurope, Asia, and Mexico face cultureshock, prejudice, and opportunity in the United States.

Between 1870 and 1920, about 20 millionEuropeans immigrated to the United States.

  • Many came from eastern and southernEurope—the new immigrants.
  • They left religiouspersecution and economic hardship in search of political freedom.
  • Others came from China and Mexico.

Most immigrants traveled by steamship, ridingin steerage—the cargo holds below the ship’swaterline.

  • Conditions were cramped, unclean, and bred disease.
  • Those who arrived in New York wereprocessed at Ellis Island.
  • Those who arrived on the West coastwere processed at Angel Island near San Francisco.

Once in the United States, immigrants felt confusedand worried by the new culture— called culture shock.

  • Many settledin communities with other immigrants from thesame country.

While immigrants were arriving in great numbers,anti-immigration feelings spread among someAmericans.

  • In1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The United States andJapan reached a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in 1907, which kept Japanese immigration numbers low.

Chapter 7/Section 2

The Problems ofUrbanization

Key Idea

The rapid growth of cities creates many problems: providing adequate housing, transportation, waterand sanitation, and fighting fire and crime. The searchfor solutions begins.

Most of the new immigrants moved to thenation’s cities to get work in the growingindustrial economy.

  • By 1910,immigrants made up more than half of the populationsof 18 different cities.

Urbanizationwas the process of people moving from the countryside into the cities.

  • Overcrowdingresulted.
  • Efficient machines increased farm production and cost farm jobs.
  • About 200,000 African Americans left the South for Northerncities.

The growing cities had many problems.

  • Row houses conserved space by sharing walls with other buildings.
  • Dumbbell tenements were single family homes converted into multi-familyapartments
  • Conditions were often crowded and full of filth and disease.

City officials also had difficulty obtainingenough clean water.

  • Removing waste and garbagewas a problem.

By 1900, most cities had full-time professionalfire departments.

  • Both Chicago and San Francisco suffereddevastating fires.
  • Another problem was crime.

Some social reformers pushed to improve life inthe cities.

  • The Social Gospel movement held thatChristians had a duty to try to reform conditions.
  • Some reformers (like Jane Addams) created settlement houses which aimed to help the poor and immigrants.

Chapter 7/Section 3

The Emergence of thePolitical Machine

Key Idea

The political machine emerges as citiesattempt to deal with the problems of rapid urbanization.

The large populations of cities provided anopportunity for a new political force—thepolitical machine.

  • A machinewas a group that controlled a political party and was run by a boss.
  • By givingvoters services they needed, the machine wontheir votes and controlled city government.

The city boss controlled the whole machine—and the city government.

  • Bosses controlled jobs and city agencies.
  • They controlled the money tofund construction projects.
  • Many bosses camefrom immigrant families and understoodimmigrants’ concerns.

As political machines gained power, someindividuals became corrupt.

  • Some used illegalmethods to win elections and others abused power tobecome wealthy.
  • The Tweed Ringof New York’s Tammany Hall was one of the most famous examplesof corruption among city officials.

Chapter 7/Section 4

Politics in the Gilded Age

Key Idea

Local and national political corruption duringthe Gilded Age leads to a call for reform.

Corruption reached national politics.

  • Fordecades, presidents had given jobs to loyalparty workers in what was called patronage or the spoils system.
  • As a result, some workers were not qualified fortheir jobs.
  • Reformers proposed a civil service system in which governmentjobs would go only to those who proved theywere qualified.
  • A group that opposed this reform was the Stalwarts
  • Those who supported it became known as Mugwumps
  • President James Garfield was assassinated by a deranged Stalwart.
  • His successor, ChesterArthur, pushed through the Pendleton Act of 1883.
  • It created the Civil Service Commission to givegovernment jobs based on merit, not politics.

Another issue was how high to make the tariff,or tax on imported goods.

  • Business leaders andRepublicans like presidents Benjamin Harrisonand William McKinley wanted high tariffs so they could cutforeign competition.
  • Democrats—like President Grover Cleveland—favored low tariffs to reduce prices on goods.