immigrants

Living Conditions and culture

What was the origin of immigrants?

Emigration Patterns

• More immigrants came from central and southern Europe.

• Nativists discriminated against them.

How were they treated?

Discrimination

• Nativism is support for people born in the USA.

• Nativists did not like immigrants because they would work for lower pay.

• The Chinese Exclusion Act and the Gentlemen’s Agreement limited the number of immigrants coming from Asia due to nativist beliefs.

Where did they settle?

Ethnic Neighborhoods

• Immigrants settled in “ethnic neighborhoods” (China Town, Little Italy, etc.).

• They built churches and cemeteries, established social clubs, set up health care and elderly care, and published newspapers in their native language to keep people informed.

Cliff Dwellers by George Bellows

What were their living conditions?

Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives

Living Conditions

• Most immigrants lived in urban slums, called tenements.

• Tenements were overcrowded apartments with open sewers, no running water, little air flow, fire hazards, and disease ridden pests.

What was their relationship with political machines?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns-qtoxnAS8

Immigrants and Political Machines

• Machines helped immigrants gains citizenship, find places to live, and get jobs.

• Immigrants gave votes in return.

Political Machines and Bosses

City Boss: controlled city jobs, courts, and agencies

Ward Boss: secured votes in a precinctPrecinct worker/captain: controlled a

block or neighborhood.

“Can the law reachhim?”

•2 am: Aroused from sleep…went…to the police station to bail out a saloon-keeper who had been arrested for violating the excise law, Furnished bail…

•6 am: Awakened by fire engines…Hastened to the scene of the fire…Found several tenants who had been burned out, took them to a hotel, supplied them with clothes, fed them, and arranged temporary quarters for them…

•8:30 am: Went to the police court…Secured the discharge of four by a timely word with the judge, and paid the fines of two.

Diary of a Precinct Captain

Diary…

• 9 am: Appeared in the Municipal District Court…Paid the rent of a poor family about to be dispossessed and gave them a dollar for food.

• 11 am: …spent nearly three hours fixing things for the four men (who wanted jobs).

• 3 pm: Attended the funeral of an Italian…Hurried back to make… the funeral of a Hebrew constituent.

• 7 pm: Went to district headquarters and presided over a meeting of election district captains.

Diary…

• 8 pm: Went to a church fair. Took chances on everything…

• 9 pm: At the club-house again, Spent $10 on tickets for a church excursion… Listened to the complaints of a dozen push-cart peddlers and promised to see about their problems.

• 10:30 pm: Attended a Hebrew wedding reception and a dance…

• 12 am: In bed

Scandal in Political Machines•Fraud

–Padded voter registration lists

–Inflated bills for kickbacks

–Accepted bribes to allow illegal activities

–Police were swayed

•The Tweed Ring

–It was led by William Marcy Tweed, a democrat.

–Thomas Nast drew cartoons exposing their illegal practices

–Tweed was convicted and sentenced to 12 years.

Thomas Nast

• He was a political cartoonist for the New York Times and Harper’s Weekly

• He drew cartoons showing the corruption of the Tweed Ring

• He was offered $50,000 from Tweed not to run a particular cartoon, but he refused the offer

The brains that achieved the Tammany Victory at the

Rochester Democratic convention

Boss Tweed’s Demise

• Boss Tweed was convicted of fraud and extortion and sentenced to 12 years in jail.

• He escaped to Cuba, then Spain.

• In Spain he was recognized due to Nast’s cartoons.

• He was returned to the USA and died in prison.

• Boss Tweed’s City Hall– Construction of City

Hall in New York = $145 million

– Funding for NY state schools = $88 million

– Purchase of Alaska from Russia by the US = $7.2 million

Working Conditions

Working Conditions

• Whole families tended to work since wages were low and one person could not support the entire family.

• People worked 12 hours a day, six days a week.• Women worked simple machines and had little

chance of advancing.• Children as young as five worked in the factories

instead of going to school. • African Americans worked in factories, but were

resented by others because they worked for the lowest pay and took jobs from others.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

• March 25, 1911

• Fire killed 146 people

• People could not exit because exit doors to the factory were locked to stop workers from stealing

• Led to a push for improved working conditions (sprinklers, in this case)

Sweatshops

• Sweatshops were makeshift factories set up in small apartments or unused buildings

• Workers were paid by production, not hourly wages.

• Sweatshops were usually had little light or ventilation and were unsafe.

• Most workers were immigrants who worked long hours for little pay.

Early Labor Unions

• Unions are organizations of workers formed to protect the interests of its members.

• There are two types of unions– Craft Unions are opened to skilled workers who

practice a specific craft – Trade unions are opened to less skilled workers

The Knights of Labor

• Formed in 1869

• Included men, women, and African Americans

• Fought for equal pay for equal work, the 8 hour workday, and an end to child labor

• Created Labor Day

• Unskilled labor

The American Federation of Labor

• Led by Samuel Gompers

• Was a craft union (skilled workers)

• Used strikes and boycotts, collective bargaining, arbitration, and mediation to bring change

• Pushed for the closed shop where factories could hire only union members

American Railway Union

• Led by Eugene V. Debs– Socialist who wanted

government ownership and control of businesses

– Ran for president but never won

• This union led the Pullman Strike

Employer Response to Unions

• Yellow dog contracts said if workers wanted to be hired they could not join labor unions.

• Blacklists were lists of workers who belonged to unions that employers would not hire.

• Lockouts did not allow workers who went on strike to return to work after the strike was over.

• Scabs took the jobs of striking workers (A-A and recent immigrants)

• Injunctions were court orders that forbade strikes.

The Great Strike of 1877

• Railroad workers became upset by a wage cut and protested.

• President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops two separate times.

• It showed that the government was in support of the employers, not the union members

                          

                   

The Haymarket Riot

• National demonstration in support of the 8 hour workday

• Chicago• Radicals exploded a bomb

that killed or wounded several police officers

• A riot broke out and gunfire killed both policemen and striking workers

• It turned public opinion against unions

Homestead Strike

• Carnegie Steel plant in Pennsylvania

• “Pinkertons” were hired by owners to put down a strike

• A shootout left several people dead or wounded

• Striking workers were seen as creator of violence

Pullman Strike

• George Pullman fired laid off workers and fired 3 labor representatives in his railroad car plant

• He closed his plant and refused to meet with union leaders

• Union leaders called for a nationwide boycott of Pullman cars

• President Cleveland forced the workers to end the boycott and strike.