The Immigrant Experience
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-toss to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
-Emma Lazarus
Needs of the Immigrant:
Citizenship, Housing, Work
And who’s waiting for the immigrant?
The Political Machine
Def - An organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in the city.
The machine also offered services to voters and businesses in exchange for political and financial support
The Machine Structure
Boss - Controlled party in the city
Ward Boss - Helped the poor, did favors
Precinct Workers - Got support block by block, many were immigrants
Corruption of the Machine
1. Election Fraud - vote early, vote often
2. Graft
a. Definition – illegal use of political influence for personal gain
b. Kickback – Illegal payment for services
c. Bribery – payment to law enforcement to allow illegal activities to occur
d. Insider information influenced political decisions
Assimilation/Rise of Nativism
• Assimilation
Review Dawes Act
Settlement House Movement
Jane Addams
Social Gospel Movement
• Nativism
Definition . . .
• Anti-Asian Sentiment
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
Gentleman’s Agreement 1907-1908
National Politics
The desire for power and money that made local politics corrupt in the industrial age also infected national
politics.
Patronage, or the giving of government jobs to people who had helped a candidate get elected, had
been part of the American system for much of the 1800s. Under Andrew Jackson, patronage was known
as the spoils system.
During the Gilded Age, reformers wanted to eliminate patronage and award jobs based on merit.
President James Garfield used the patronage system when he was elected in 1880. His assassination in
1881 opened the door to reform.
Pendleton Civil Service Act 1883
Created a bipartisan commission to make appointments to federal jobs through a merit system based on
a candidates’ performance on an examination
A Couple other National Issues
• Interstate Commerce Act 1887
Required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just"
Interstate Commerce Commission
Empowered – limited - to investigate and prosecute railroads and other transportation companies
• Sherman Anti-trust Act 1890
Ida Tarbell, exposé
Trusts illegal
• Laws were Ineffective because of . . .