By: Zoila Flores

Benjamin Rojas

Toward An Urban Society

New comers came from rural America, Europe, Latin American, and Asia. 1900-Black Communities grew larger

Thousands moved from rural areas to the cities and that grew even larger during WWI.

Overcrowded City

Between 1860-1910 Rural population double Cities increased sevenfold

Her Story Went to the side of a 15 year old

polish girl. This polish girl had taken poison

because she had just found out she was pregnant.

Found where she lived and saw the overcrowding.

Found her in the last room and thoughtShould she even try to bring her

back “to this misery and hopelessness of the life she was living in the awful place”?

Harriet Vittum

http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/oct06/campaign.html

Settlement house worker in Chicago.

Responded to the challenges in the cities.

“We live in great cities, Each successive year finds a stronger and more irresistible current sweeping in towards the centers of life.” by Reverend Samuel Lane Loomis 1887

Population grew greater than one million in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia in 1900.

Lure of the City

The City- Symbol of a New America

Newcomers created new cities almost overnight.

Building made of masonry only went up 12 stories.

Steel frames allowed to build higher.

Home Insurance building – first metal-frame structure.

Skyscrapers and Suburbs

Streetcar Systems extended the traveling radius.

Electric elevators carried people up the new skyscrapers.

John Root

Office tower = symbol of society.

Developed a plain, stripped-down style, bold in mass and form- keynote of modern architecture.

“the ideas of modern business life: simplicity, stability, breadth, dignity.”

Worked on the Chicago Auditorium – one of the last masonry buildings.

Discard “books, rules, precedents.”

Design “Form follows function.” Talented disciple Frank Lloyd

Wright.

Architect movement

Louis H. Sullivan

Leaders of the new architect movement Attracted by the chance to rebuild Chicago after the great fire.

James E. Ware designed the “dumbbell tenement.”

7-8 stories high 34 rooms on a 25ft x 100ft 4 apt on a floor

Tenements and Overrowding A whole family might live in a

room

Unsanitary conditions – tuberculosis.

Cities – “The stench is something terrible”

Cities dumped wastes into nearby water.

Factories polluted the air.

Most came from Europe Unemployment, food shortages,

threats of war. Often knew a friend or relative. Italians came to escape cholera

epidemic, Jew sough refuge from anti-Semitic massacres.

Stranger in New Land

1877-1890 more than 6.3 million enter the U.S. 1882 alone had 789,000 new immigrants Industrial Relocation Office - established to relieve overcrowding.

Opened up Galveston, Texas as a port of entry. “It seemed quite advance compared to our home in Khelm, There was a

sense of safety and hope that we had never felt in Poland.” –Polish Girl

A Midwestern anti-Catholic Organization Worked to limit or end immigration Could they be assimilated? Did they share “American”

values?

Anti Organizations

Sneering epithets Wop and dago – Italians

Bohunk – Bahemians, Hungarians, Slavs Greaseball

Anti-Catholic and anti-Semitism Demanded Literacy tests for immigrants Congress pass law, President Cleveland vetoed

it.

American Protective Association 1890

The Immigration Restriction League 1894

Industrial capitalism-the world of factories and foremen and grimy machines. Tested immigrants and place an enormous strain on families.

Found new freedom and new confinements, a different language and a novel set of customs and expectations. Found remarkable ways to adapt.

Major cities had dozens of foreign newspapers. News of events in the homeland and local ethnic leaders. Lithuanian Newspaper came out in the U.S. first. How to vote and become citizens, gave tips on adjusting.

Ethnic Theaters Swedes, Poles, Czechs, and German Yiddish(Jewish) Theater most famous.

Immigrants

Our of several entrance to the U.S. 7 out of 10 entered through New York.

Entrance was Manhattan Island then moved to Ellis Island

Wooden structure in 1892 then red brick building in 1900.

Small city had Dormitories A hospital A post office Showers that could bath 8 thousands a day.

Registration took 30 seconds. New tasks

Keep out people some American considered undesirable.

Ellis Island 1892-1954

Factories- food and the new invented Cash register.

“We are in a period, when old questions are settled, and the new ones are not yet brought forward.”– President Rutherford B. Hayes

Meals tended to be heavy. Breakfast – steak, eggs, fish, potatoes,

toast and coffee. Newfangled Icebox Medical Science at the midst of a major

Revolution

Social and Cultural Change

Code of Victorian morality – from British queen Strict standards of dress, manners, and

secual behavior. Obeyed and disobeyed

Children – seen not heard, spoke when spoken to

Older boys and girls were chaperoned Played post office and spin the bottle Puffed cigarettes

Maners and Mores

Popular Games Cards, dominoes, backgammon,

chess, and checkers. Author cards – required knowledge

of books, authors and noted quotations.

Stereopticon “Magic Lantern”

Leisure and Entertainment

Classical Music flourished. Traveling Circuses Fairs Balloon ascensions

Bicycle tournaments Football/Baseball contests Horse Races

Families rarely worked together, Separated at dawn and returned at night ready to sleep.

Changes in Family Life

“My Boy”I have a little boy at home,A pretty little son:I think sometimes the world is mine.In him, my only one….

Ere dawn my labor dreves me forth:Tis night when I am free”A stranger am I to my child:And stranger my child to me.

Self-sufficient working women Factory, telephone exchange or

business office. Worked out of necessity rather

than choice Female operators – “hello girls” Fought to vote, lobbied for equal

pay, and sought self-fulfillment. Edward Bliss Foote

Parents- recognize awakening feeling in children

Susan B. Anthony Veteran of many reform

campaigns

Changing Views

Schooling became important – required attendance until age of 14 Average adult only had 5 yrs. Reading, mathematics, values, obedience and attentiveness to the clock. Many children dropped out of school early

Helen Todd – factory inspector

Educating

“they hits ye if yer don’t learn, and they hits ye if ye whisper, and they hits ye if ye have a string in yer pocket, and they hits ye if yer seat squeaks, and they hits ye if ye don’t stan’ up in time, and they hits ye if yer late, an they hits ye if ye ferget the page.”

Henry George – leading reformer “Nothing! You and I can do nothing at all…. We can only

wait for evolution, Perhaps in a four or five thousand years evolution may carried men beyond this state of things.”

Herbert Spencer – English social philosopher “survival of the fittest” “If they are sufficiently complete to live, they do live, and

it is well they should live. If they are not sufficiently complete to live, they die, and if is best they should die.”

William Summer – professor of political and social science “It is the greatest folly of which a man can be capable to

sit down with a slate and pencil to plan out a new social world.”

Stirring of Reform

The book jolted traditional thought. “it was responsible for starting along

new lines of thinking an amazing number of men and women”

“The fierce struggle of our civilized life.”

“Single Tax” on increment, replacing all other taxes Simplistic and unappealing

Progress and Poverty

Clarence Darrow Criminals were made and not born. “the unjust condition of human life.” – poverty lay at the root of

crime Richard T. Ely

The “younger” economics, must no longer be “a tool” in the had of the greedy.

American Economic Association Linked economics to social problems and urged government

intervention. Edward Bellamy

Dreamed of a cooperative society in which poverty, greed and chime no longer existed

Walter Rauschenbusch “human virtue cracking and crushing all around”

Social Thought

Formed in to slums by social reformers. Went to live there to experience the

problems they were trying to solve. Jane Addams-Hull House in Chicago

Offering classes Infant welfare clinic and free medical Installed showers Opened a reading house A dozen building

Robert A. Woods-South End House in Boston Lillian Wald-Henry Street Settlement in New

York

Settlement Houses

Kelly - chief factory inspector - worked even harder to end child labor

Churches, charity organization Did what they could, but limited resources.

Professional social workers “case workers” Collected data

Income, housing, jobs, health, habits.Number of rooms, occupants, and building

situations. Walter Wyckoff

“an experiment in reality” “I am vastly ignorant of labor problems and am

trying to learn by experience” Worked – ditch digger, farmhand, and logger.

Social Welfare