Industrial America

Urbanization and Its Challenges in the Gilded Age

• The Gilded Age city was viewed with both promise and skepticism.
  • It was seen as a place of opportunity with skyscrapers and electric lighting.
  • Also viewed as a place of squalor, corruption, and immigration issues.
• The negative aspects of city life often overshadowed the positive in public discourse.

Key Questions

• What problems were associated with urbanization?
• How did reformers attempt to solve these issues?
  • Some attributed problems to immigrants and advocated for restricting immigration (nativism).
  • Others sought to reform city services for cleanliness and safety.
  • Some focused on making cities more aesthetically pleasing with parks and green spaces.
  • Political and workplace reform were also areas of discussion.
• How did leisure activities reflect economic and social changes?
  • The distinction between work and leisure time became more defined, leading to new urban entertainments.
  • A national popular culture began to emerge, with shared pastimes and celebrities.
• What led to the rise of populism, what was their platform?
  • Lack of political solutions to urban and industrial problems led to the rise of the People's Party (Populist Party).

The Brooklyn Bridge: Symbolism and Reality

• The opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 symbolized American technological progress.
  • President Chester Arthur attended the opening.
  • The bridge was made of steel, crucial for industrial capitalism.
• Designed by John Roebling, blending steel with Gothic stone towers.
  • This symbolized the evolution from medieval to modern and the shift of power from Europe to America.
• Constructed by immigrants, connecting New York (largest city) and Brooklyn (third largest).
• Emily Roebling took over as chief engineer after her husband Washington Roebling fell ill.

The Underlying Problems

• The bridge's glamour masked issues like crime, poverty, and disease in immigrant neighborhoods.
• Worker discontent arose due to exploitation and unresponsive government, leading to the rise of populism among farmers.

Urban Population Growth

• Urban population doubled from 20% in 1860 to 40% in 1900.
• Cities with over 100,000 people grew from 9 in 1860 to 38 in 1900.
• Major cities spanned the country but were largest in the Northeast (New York, Philadelphia, Boston).

Push and Pull Factors

• Mechanization reduced the need for farm labor, pushing people to cities.
• African Americans migrated north to escape racism, starting the Great Migration (7 million from 1870 onward).
• New opportunities in cities attracted immigrants and migrants.

Immigration's Role

• 28 million immigrants arrived between 1860 and 1920.
• Immigration came from Southern and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
• Motivations included poverty, warfare, persecution, and the promise of economic opportunity.
• By 1910, foreign-born individuals made up 15% of the U.S. population, higher in cities like New York.

Ethnic Enclaves

• Urban ethnic enclaves developed due to hostility and for mutual support.
• Offered a sense of home, language, community, and assistance with jobs and unions.
• Diverse neighborhoods also emerged, with interethnic exchange.

Urban Problems and Reform Efforts

• Cities were associated with slums, poverty, disease, and crime.
• Slums featured crowded tenements, poor sanitation, and rampant disease.

Tenement Housing

• One ward in New York had a population density of 334,000 per square mile.
• Tenements were small, poorly lit, and had high disease rates.
• Low wages forced women and children into dangerous jobs.
• Horse-related waste contributed to unclean water, leading to diseases.
  • $120,000$ horses in New York City produced $6,000,000$ pounds of manure daily.
• High rents led to overcrowding and evictions.

Crime and Vice

• Prostitution was the second most common trade in New York City.
• High densities of young, single men and economic hardships contributed to crime.

Political Machines

• Political machines, associated with corruption, mobilized voters and developed relationships with businesses.
• Tammany Hall (Boss Tweed) in New York City controlled the city through patronage and intimidation.
• Machines gained support by providing jobs, services, and pushing back against nativism.
• They also engaged in voter fraud and intimidation.
• Voting became universal for white men in the 1820s and 1830s.

Nativism and Immigration Restriction

• Many Americans viewed immigrants as the cause of urban problems.
• Nativists sought to restrict immigration, viewing new immigrants as dirty, radical, and un-American.
• The first wave of xenophobia targeted Irish and German immigrants and Catholics (Know-Nothings).
• The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned immigration based on race.
• American Protective Association (founded 1887) sought to ban Catholic immigration.
• Immigration Restriction League (founded 1894) advocated for literacy tests.
• The Immigration Act of 1891 brought enforcement of immigration laws under federal control.
• Ellis Island was constructed in 1892 to screen immigrants for diseases and political beliefs.

Urban Reform Efforts

• Reforms aimed to make cities safer, cleaner, and more desirable.
• Police and fire departments were professionalized.
• Public health initiatives focused on sanitation, waste removal, and disease prevention.
• Public schools were established to assimilate immigrants and teach American values.
• The Pledge of Allegiance became standard practice in schools.

Settlement House Movement

• Settlement houses like Jane Addams' Hull House in Chicago (1889) provided classes, English lessons, and support for immigrants.
• They also encouraged union participation.

Challenging Social Darwinism

• Jacob Riis challenged the idea that poverty was a moral failing with his photojournalism in "How the Other Half Lives" (1890).
• He portrayed the urban poor as hardworking and their poverty as due to external factors.

City Beautiful Movement

• The City Beautiful movement, led by Frederick Law Olmsted, aimed to solve urban problems through better planning.
• Advocated for large parks, public squares, and neoclassical architecture.
• The Chicago World's Exhibition of 1893 showcased an example of a beautiful city (White City).

Rise of National Popular Culture

• Industrialization and new technologies led to a nationalized urban culture.

Middle-Class Influence

• New transportation enabled suburban growth for wealthier Americans.
• Middle-class women hired domestic workers, allowing them to engage in new consumption patterns.
• They also pursued education and social club work.
• Standardized time regulation created distinctions between work and leisure.

New Leisure Activities

• Amusement parks and major sporting events became popular forms of entertainment.
• Baseball was the most important spectator sport, with athletes becoming national celebrities like Mike Kelly.
• Other sports included college football, horse racing, and professional boxing.

Cultural Developments

• A celebrity culture developed around athletes, socialites, musicians, and theatrical figures.
• Musical comedy and vaudeville, pioneered by Jewish immigrants, became popular (e.g., George Cohen, Irving Berlin).
• Burlesque catered to a more adult, male audience.
• Sheet music industry in New York City spread musical culture.

Political Developments and Populism

• High political participation during the Gilded Age was not matched by tangible action at the federal level.

Frustration with Major Parties

• Voters were turned off by Democratic and Republican establishments.
• Partisanship and corporate control limited government action.
• The Republican Party became associated with big business and high tariffs.

Key Political Issues

• Corporate power and consolidation.
• Currency: gold standard vs. bimetallism (free silver).

The Gold Standard

• The gold standard limited the money supply, benefiting big business.
• Farmers and laborers wanted a currency backed by both gold and silver (bimetallism) to increase inflation and ease debt.

Rise of Farmers' Alliances

• Farmers' alliances grew in response to railroad power, advocating for regulation and nationalization.
• Northern and Southern Farmers Alliances merged in 1889, forming the backbone of the Populist Party.
• Farmers' Alliances had 5 million members in 1890.
• They were a very successful movement.

The Populist Party

• In 1892, the Farmers' Alliances formed the Populist Party to unite farmers, industrial workers, and reformers.

Populist Party Platform

• Economic reforms: curbing big business power.
• Democratic reforms: direct election of senators, graduated income tax, initiative and referendum.
• Breaking up monopolies.
• Nationalizing railroads and telegraphs.

1892 Election

• In the 1892 election saw 1,500 Populists elected around the country.
• The Republican Party portrayed the Populist Party as a radical organization.

Economic Hardship

• The Homestead Strike illustrated the exploitation of workers.
• The Panic of 1893 led to the collapse of farms, banks, and railroads, with unemployment reaching 20%."
• A shift toward greater federal action in the United States
• An effort to put Unemployed Americans back to work

Coxey's Army

• Coxey's Army marched to Washington D.C. from Ohio to demand government intervention and public works.
• Coxey's Army advocated an end to laissez faire governance
• Federal intervention for to the economic unrest of average Americans

Shift in Power

• The U.S. government was bailed out by private bankers such as JPMorgan, who held more power than the government treasury.

1896 Election

• Fueled by economic unrest, the Populist Party experienced rapid growth leading up to the 1896 election.

Democratic Party Embraces Populism

• The Democratic party was founded in the eighteen twenties through Andrew Jackson as a working man's party.
• The Democratic Party adopted the free-silver platform and nominated William Jennings Bryan.

William Jennings Bryan

• Brian delivered the "Cross of Gold" speech, advocating for the American workers
• Bryan's campaign did not work and Republican William McKinley went on to win the presidency

Populist Legacy

• Even though both Brian and the Populist movement faded, their major ideas forever changed the United States

Lasting Reforms

• Introduced new ideas:
  • The direct election of senators
  • The graduated progressive income tax
  • The initiative and referendum

Party System Realignment

• The 1896 election marks a fundamental realignment of the two-party system

Republican

• Republican Party:
  • Advertising itself as the party of economic prosperity
  • Advertising itself as the party of business
  • Advertising itself as the party of a kind of very hawkish international foreign policy
  • Became the party of the Midwest and the Northeast

Democratic

• Democratic Party:
  • West and South
  • Retaining the populist belief that the government needed to do more to secure the well-being of the common worker