Whitney continued with her presentation: With the panic of 1893, two major political parties divided because of economic interests. These parties were the Republicans and the Democrats. The issue was over which metal should be the nation's monetary system. Money was absolutely worthless without gold and/or silver to back it up. The Republicans wanted gold and the Democrats wanted silver. With more gold and silver to back up the money, the value of the dollar would increase.The "Cross of Gold" was a speech given by William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was the ultimate loser in presidential candidacy. He was a former Nebraska congressman who ran for the presidential election three times. Bryan was majorly against the gold standard that the republicans wanted to back up our monetary value. Bryan was a populist Democrat.Bryan's free-silver stand led Democrats to nominate their own candidate. McKinley won the presidential election. The western states supported Mckinley because they feared inflation with Bryan's policies. With McKinley in office, populism fell.Ch. 7.2Why did cities grow so quickly in the late 1800's and early 1900's? Cities grew very quickly because of the boom in immigration. Immigrants would usually stay in the cities where they worked. Some went out to building communities based on agriculture and close-knit ethnic customs. Advances in farming made it easier for fewer people to farm large amounts of land. Because of this, people moved more to the city.What problems did cities fact due to the rapid increase in population? Housing was a very big problem for the growing population. Immigrants tended to stay in apartments so that they would be close to work, and landlords would generally take care of the maintenance. Many apartments were made of wood, were extremely filthy, and were poorly taken care of.The water in the city was also very contaminated. People were getting sick, and attempts to cleanse the water were poor and did not do a very good job at all. Crime was also running rampant throughout the city. Thievery and drugs were a common problem. Whorehouses were a common site, and were scattered throughout the city. Large fires would sweep through the city and burn nearly everything in its path. Eventually, people began to catch on and they started constructing buildings with brick and metals.What did some people do to try to help the bad situation in the cities? People would try to let pigs run around to eat all of the trash that was piling up in allies and and the streets themselves. The trash would attract disease carrying rodents and insects. Police forces were created to take care of crime that was tearing society apart.Teams of people were put together to put out the fires that would destroy the city. A woman by the name of Jane Addams started settlement houses. These were places of refuge for the poor, sick, and illiterate. People could go to these houses for food, a place to sleep. Food was provided, and children could also be watched and taken care of when the parents were away trying to make ends meat.I learned that there were some great advances that came with the sprawling of cities, and that there were visionaries who just had to use some common sense to get through the tough times. I am really glad that water today is clean and we don't have trash piling up all over our streets.
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