Ideas for Reform
8-4 Notes
I.
II.
Helping the Needy
A. The Charity Organization Movement
1. 1882 – Josephine Shaw founded the New York Charity Organization
Society (COS).
2. Tried to help immigrants to adopt American, middle-class standards of
child-raising, cooking, and cleaning.
3. Kept detailed files on who they helped to determine who was worthy of
help.
B. The Social Gospel Movement
1. 1880s and 1890s – urban churches began to provide social services to the
poor.
2. The Social Gospel Movement sought to apply the teachings of Jesus
directly to society.
i. Focused on charity and justice
ii. Sought labor reforms
iii. Was joined by other religious organizations, including Jewish
Synagogues.
C. Settlement Movement
1. A settlement house became a kind of community center in a poor
neighborhood that offered social services.
i. The belief was that giving the poor money didn’t help them.
ii. Settlers had to live in the poor neighborhoods themselves to see
what would help the poor of that neighborhood.
2. Jane Addams opened Hull House in 1889.
3. Hull House offered:
i. Cultural events
ii. Classes
iii. Craft exhibits
iv. Child-care centers
v. Playgrounds
vi. Clubs
vii. Summer camps
viii.
Offices to help people to find jobs
ix. Offices to help with legal problems
x. Investigated economic, political, and social conditions of Chicago.
4. By 1910 there were more than 400 settlement houses in American cities.
Controlling Immigration and Behavior
A. Nativism – favoring native-born Americans over immigrants.
1. The American Protective Association (founded in 1887) targeted
immigrants and the Catholic Church.
i. They called for teaching only American culture and the English
language in schools.
ii. Demanded tighter rules on citizenship and employment of aliens.
iii. Members of this secret society took an oath to hire and vote for
only Protestants.
2. Nativists won a victory in 1885 when Congress repealed the Contract
Labor Act of 1864.
3. Nativists tended to be wealthy.
i. The Immigration Restriction League was formed in 1894 by
Harvard graduates.
ii. They wanted immigrants to have to pass literacy tests.
iii. Their main targets were immigrants from southern and eastern
Europe.
B. Prohibition
1. The temperance movement was an organized campaign to eliminate
alcohol consumption.
2. Three famous temperance groups:
i. The Prohibition Party (1869)
ii. Women’s Christian Temperance Movement (1874)
iii. The Anti-Saloon League
3. They believed that alcohol led to personal tragedies.
4. Carry Nation won fame by smashing illegal saloons with a hatchet in
Kansas.
5. Drinking was also opposed because of the links among saloons,
immigrants, and political bosses.
i. Immigrants used saloons as social clubs.
ii. Prohibitionists claimed saloons undermined public morals that
would make the U.S. un-American and un-Christian.
6. By 1890, 3 states (Maine, Kansas, and North Dakota) had become “dry”.
C. Purity Crusaders
1. Vice grew as cities grew.
2. Vice includes:
i. Drugs
ii. Gambling
iii. Prostitution
3. “Purity Crusaders” fought against vice and tried to clean up the cities.
4. 1873 – Anthony Comstock formed the New York Society for the
Suppression of Vice.
i. He won a passage of a law that prohibited the sending of obscene
material through the mail.
ii. Material deemed obscene included descriptions of methods to
prevent unwanted pregnancies.
iii. The Comstock Law slowed the distribution of information on birth
control.
5. Other purity crusaders attacked political machines.
i. They argued machines profited from vice.
ii. On occasion the successfully ran against the machines.