Monday -
Whay Did Cities Grow So Fast?
- Immigrants
- Farmers moved to the city
- African-Americans moved to the cities after the Civil War
- Citites offered more jobs and opportunitites
- Citites offered more entertainment/culture
5. Immigrants Provided Cheap Labor
6. Oil Boom
- Oil is what fueled the Industrial Revelution
7. Bessemer Process
Henry Bessemer had a cheaper way to make steel (Make our country)
8. Various Inventions
- Electric Light bulb (Work at night) Thomas Alva Edison
- Typewrighter (Start typing instead of writing) Christopher Sholes
Telephone (Communication) Alexander Graham Bell
9. Railroads
- Imported resources to the factories and exported finished products to the consumers.
10. Captains of Industry
- Pushed the Industrial Revolution to a new level
Why are Monopolies bad for consumers and small business'?
Book Definition:
The exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service
Student Friendly Definition:
When a company in a specific field tries to get rid of all their competition and control as close to 100% of the industry as possible
- Can lead to higher prices due to lack of competition
- Can lead to poorer products due to lack of competition
- Less choice for the consumer
- Can drive smaller businesses out of business leading to unemployment
- Leads to lack of Innovation
Sherman Anti-Trust Act -1890
- Mad it illegan to form a trust that interfered with free trae between states
- Trust = Monopoly
If Rockefeller were alive today, his estimated wealth would be $660 billion in today's money
This is 6-7 times that of Warren Buffet ($72.7 b) and Bill Gates ($79.2 b), surrently te two rishest men in the world
What are Labor Unions and Why are They Important for Workers?
- It is a union of laborers in a specific industry banding together to get better wages and conditions
- Power in numbers
- Labor unions were/are important because it gives a voice for workers and gets better wages and conditions for workers
Tuesday - Continued with Chapter 6 PowerPoint and Finished. Started Chapter 7 PowerPoint
Labor Unions:
- The folks who brought you the weekened
- Child Labor Laws, Overtime
- Minimun Wage, Injury Protectin
- Workmens Compesations Insurance
- Pension Security, Right to Organize...ETC
What did labor unions do to get better wages and conditions?
- Strikes - Picketing
- Sit-Ins
-Violence
Why did labor unions struggle to win strikes in the late 1800's and early 1900's?
- All power was in the hands of the owner
- Would simply fire workers and hire immigrants who needed work
- Immigrants had it better in US factories that in Europe
- Would hire strikebreakers to take the place of workers
- Would impose loukouts
- Would backlist workers
- Workers were called communists or socialists
- Everyone was against the labor unions/workers at first
-Owners, police, newspapers, government
Labor Day
- Was established as a Federal Holiday by President Grover Cleveland In 1894 after some workers died at the hands of the US Army during the Pullman Strike of 1894
- Cleavland and Congress passed it unanimously to appease labor unions.
Chapter 7
Why did/do immigrants come to the US?
Push-Pull Factors
- Famine
- Land Shortages
- Religious or political persecution
- War
- In debt or in trouble
More Opportunities-$$- The AMerican Dream
- Farming (Homestead Act), mining, working, on the railroad, cattle ranching, foactory work
- Reunite with family
- "Streets paved with gold"
Immigration Today
- Immigration is goes to another country
- Illegal immigration is when you don't have legal paperwork
- Immigrants came to the US for many reasons
- US citizens get upset because they take jobs and keep wages low
- Politicians ignored illegal imigration for the votes
- Birthright Citizenship- born in the US
- Anchor baby (negative)- coming to the US pregant and giving birth.
Nativism
- a policy of favoring native inhabitants as opposed to immigrants
- In favor of WASP
WASP
- People who came to the US first
- White
- Anglo
- Saxon
- Prodistent
Wednesday - Continued to talk about/ go over Chapter 7 PowerPoint
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses”
- This quote comes from Emma Lazarus’ poem, “New Colossus”
- She wrote the poem for a fundraiser auction to raise money for the pedestal which the Statue of Liberty now sits
- Between 1870 and 1920, 20 million Europeans came to US
- Discuss “old immigrants” vs “new immigrants”
Old (Came from northern or western Europe, were Protestant, were literate and skilled, came over as families, etc.)
New (Came from southern or eastern Europe, were not Protestant--Were Cathilic, Orthodox, Jewish, where illiterate and unskilled, came over as birds of passage)
Steps to America
-Step One-Leaving Home
- It was common for one person from a family to come to America first
- They would save to eventually bring others
- From 1900 to 1910, almost 95% of the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were joining either family or friends
- In 1901, between 40-65% came either on prepaid tickets or with money sent to them from the United States
-Step Two-On Board the Ship
- A ticket to America cost $30
- Three types of accommodations-first class, second class and steerage
- Only steerage passengers were processed at Ellis Island
- First and second class passengers were quickly “inspected” on board the ship
- Larger ships could hold from 1,500 to 2,000 immigrants, netting a profit of $45,000 to $60,000 for a single, one-way trip
- For many immigrants, the experience of steerage was a nightmare
- At one time, the average passenger mortality rate was 10 percent per voyage
- Conditions were extremely overcrowded, dark, unsanitary and foul-smelling
- In spite of the miserable conditions, the immigrants had faith in the future
- Crossing the Atlantic could take anywhere from a week to more than a month, depending on the ship and weather
- They would play cards, sing, dance and talk
-Step Three-Inspection
- Passengers were inspected for contagious diseases such as cholera, plague, smallpox, typhoid fever, yellow fever, scarlet fever, measles and diphtheria
- If immigrants had any of the diseases they would be deported
- Sick children age 12 or older were sent back to Europe alone
- In total, about 20 percent of those arriving at Ellis Island were detained for medical treatment or a legal hearing
- 80% were free to go after only a few hours
- Only 2% of the immigrants seeking refuge in America would fail to be admitted
-Step Four-Beyond Ellis or Angel Island
Watched Videdo
- Angle Island=Ellis Island (But West Coast, Asian Countries, darker skinned people, not trusted, harsher, not as nice.
- As they left Ellis Island, the next stop was the Money Exchange
- Cashiers exchanged paper money, from countries all over Europe, for American dollars
- Then it was off to New York City or the railroad ticket office to go anywhere in the country that they wanted
Thursday - Contiuted to go over the Chapter 7 PowerPoint. Did a short review of what we talked about yesterday.
Why were immigrants disliked in the US in the 1800's/early 1900's?
- Took jobs
- Kept wages low
- Different culture
- Racism
Chinese Exclusion Act - 1882
- Banned all Chinese immigration to the US from 1882_1902
- NoChinese
- Racism
- To work on the Transcontinenal Railroad
-Nialist see no value in life
Gentleman's Agreement- 1907
- Informal agreement between the United States and Japan
- The goal was to reduce tensions between the US and Japan-Discuss Russo-Japanese War and School segregation
- Japan agreed not to issue passports for Japanese citizens wishing to work in the continental United States
- The US agreed to:
- 1. Accept the presence of Japanese immigrants already living in the US and
- 2. Permit the immigration of wives, children and parents
- 3. End legal discrimination against Japanese-American children in California schools
Why did cities grow so fast?
- Immigrants
- Farmers moved to the city
- African-Americans moved to the cities
- Cities offered more jobs and opportunities
- Cities offered more entertainment
Problems in the City
- Cramped, old, dirty housing-tenements
- Lack of good transportation
- Lack of safe drinking water
- Disease was common
- Streets were filthy
- Crime
- Fires
- Poverty due to low pay at work
Problem:Cramped, Old, Dirty Housing-Tenements
Solutions:
-Cities put restrictions on building wood-frame structures in the center of the city-Why?
-Cities encouraged the construction of lower-income dwellings on the city’s outskirts-Why?
-The Tenement House Act of 1867 defined a tenement for the first time and set construction regulations
-Among these were the requirement of one toilet per 20 people
- Tenement House Law-1901
- Outlawed the construction of new tenements on 25-foot lots and mandated improved sanitary conditions, fire escapes and access to light
- Current tenements were updated and more than 200,000 new apartments were built over the next 15 years
- Most tenements were destroyed in the 1920’s and especially the 1930’s with FDR’s New Deal
- The first fully government-built public housing project opened in New York City in 1936
Thursday - Continued with the Chapter 7 PowerPoint
Problem: Lack of Good Transportation
- Solutions
- Electric Streetcars-late 1800’s, early 1900’s
- Automobiles
- There were 300 cars in the United States in 1895, 78,000 in 1905, 459,00 in 1910 and 1.7 million in 1914.
- Subways-New York City-1904
- Airplanes-1903-Wright Brothers
Problem:Lack of Safe Drinking Water
- Solutions
- In late 1800’s, scientists had proven that diseases were spread through unsafe drinking water
- In early 1900’s, chlorine was added to the water to help eliminate disease
- Federal regulation of drinking water quality began in 1914 which continued to strengthen over the decades
- Chlorine was added
Problems: Disease was Common and Streets were Filthy
- Solutions:
- Horses were replaced, eliminating the manure problem
- Added chlorine to water
- Introduction of indoor plumbing
- George A. Waring Jr.-New York City-1895
- Organized modern recycling, street sweeping and garbage collection
Problem: Crime
- Solutions:
- Organized Police Force
- Police became full time employees of the city-not volunteers
- In 1838-Boston established the first American police force
- New York City-1845
- Chicago-1851
- By the 1880s all major U.S. cities had municipal police forces in place
1911 - Fingerprints are first accepted by U.S. courts as a reliable means of identification
Problem: Fires
- Solutions:
- Already mentioned better building codes
- Full time, paid firefighters
- In 1853, Cincinnati became the first full-time, paid fire fighters in the US
Problem: Poverty due to low pay at work
- Solution:
- Labor Unions
- Minimum wage laws
- Shorter hours
- Child labor laws
Boss Tweed
- There was a lot of corruption in gov’t
- Kickback system
- Granting favors to big business
- Spoils system/patronage
- Political boss hired/fired police
- Was the Boss of the Democratic political machine in New York City
- The building Tweed worked in was Tammany Hall
Political Machine
- A political organization, usually controlled by a single “boss”, that controlled votes and had administrative control of a city, county, or state
- These organizations provided social services and jobs to people(recent immigrants) in exchange for votes
- Very corrupt
- Came about due to the rapid increase of population in cities and poor government in the 1800’s
- Died out in the early 1900’s
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