Josh Volk & Vienna Bai

XVIII. Urban Society

a. Lure of the city

i. Population: 40% in cities by 1900, 50% or more by 1920
ii. Cities were where industrialization was happening.
b. Immigration
i. Total population = 23 million in 1850, 76 million in 1900. (25 million
immigrants arrived between 1850-1910)
ii. Push Factors ( Reason why immigrants left their old countries)
 Poor European farm workers due to industrialization
 Overcrowded European cities
 High Unemployment rates in Europe.
 Religious Persecution
iii. Pull Factors (What attracted immigrants to America)
 Political and religious freedom in US.
 Economic opportunities in the West.
 Industrial Jobs.
 Inexpensive travel (steerage).
iv. Old Immigrants: Irish and German. New Immigrants: Southern and Eastern
European.
v. 25% were “birds of passage” or reimmigrants (Italians).
c. City Problems
i. From walking to streetcar cities, made commuting possible; wealthy fight =
hoods.
ii. Slums
 4000 a city block
 Cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis
 Hoods maintained own language, church/temple, newspapers, schools,
and social clubs.
 Hoods lead to city beautification projects.
iii. Machine Politics
 (people expected churches, private charities, and ethnic communities
to provide services for the poor; in reality, political bosses did it)
 Political machines – Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed NYC
 They helped immigrants find jobs, and apartments in return for votes.
 Stole millions from taxpayers in the form of graft and fraud.
1. Ex: 65% of NYC public building funds ended up in the pockets
of Boss Tweed.
d. Awakening Conscience; reforms
i. Henry George, Progress and Poverty (Looked at laissez-faire economics)
ii. Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (Envisioned a 2000 America that had
adopted Socialism)
iii. Jane Adams Hull House (Difference with this house was that in order to work
there, you had to live there with the people you were helping)
 Charitable middle-class organizations; urban reforms ran by women
 Lobbied local gov’t for sanitation codes, public schools
 Community centers, day care, playgrounds
 English lessons provided
iv. Social Gospel (Good Christians help out other Christians, to be a good person
you must help others)
v. Religion
 Religion became increasingly important as immigrants flooded cities.
 Salvation Army
 YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association)
vi. Temperance and Morality
 Excessive drinking in factories was blamed for poverty.
 Pub Politics
 WCTU 1874 (Women’s Christian Temperance Union)
 Anti- Saloon League 1893
 Carry A. Nation
 Comstock Law – Prohibited mailing obscene, lewd material and
photos
 Margret Sanger
vii. Gov’t structural reform
 Pendleton Act: end of Spoils system, created civil service commission
to oversee examination for potential gov’t employees