The Conflict Between Urban And Rural America

1
The Conflict Between UrbanAnd Rural America

• History 17B
• Lecture 4

2
The Agrarian Myth

• American democracy has been nourished from its
  agrarian roots.
• The city represents corruption, filth, poverty,
  hell on earth.

• Farmers wielded the most influence (cultural and
  political) until industrialization.
• City seen as a rival.

3
The Rise of the Industrial City

• Advances in steam and electricity
• Infrastructure
• Communication (the telephone)
• Health and sewage systems
• Transportation
• Trolley cars and trains.
• Skyscrapers
• City moves up rather than out.

4
Movement to the Cities

• Population Rise
• 1870 20 of Americans were urban
• 1900 33 of Americans were urban
• 1870 19 cities with 100,000
• 1900 38 cities with 100,000
• Political/cultural influence shifts.

• Who was coming?
• Rural migrants and African Americans thrown off
  farms by mechanization.
• Millions of immigrants.

5
Immigrants

• Old Immigrants
• Before 1860s
• Western and Northern Europeans
• German, Irish, Scandinavians, Chinese
• White, Protestant, and skilled immigrants
  eventually blended in (so did Catholic Irish over
  time).

6
New Immigrants

• Southern and Eastern European
• Less skilled, less educated, agrarian
• Catholic and Jewish coming to a (mostly)
  Protestant nation.
• Unfamiliar with republican institutions.

7
New Immigrants

• Japanese
• Replace Chinese workers excluded by 1882 Act.
• Exclusion movement in San Francisco 1905

• Chinese
• Prevented from naturalized citizenship.
• San Francisco Earthquake (1906)
• New influx of Chinese immigrants.
• Paper sons

8
New Immigrants

• Why did they come?
• Famine, disease, persecution, new opportunities
• 1877-1880 6 million come
• 1890-1920 30 million more

9
Living in the City
Dumbbell Apartment

• Living conditions were crowded, unsanitary,
  disease ridden, with criminal activity.

10
Ethnic Neighborhoods

• Ethnic groups congregated together in same
  neighborhoods.
• Immigrants expressed culture through newspapers,
  theaters, church groups, and associations.
• Association groups fostered assimilation into
  American society.

11
Leisure in the City

• High Culture Leisure
• Opera houses, museums, parks, libraries.

Coney Island

• Working class preferred amusement parks.
• Coney Island provided relief from monotony of
  work.

12
Leisure in the City

• Social space for women
• A place to escape parental authority and social
  constraints.
• Allowed for dating, dancing, treating, and
  flirting.

13
Machine Politics

• Political and structural organization.
• Democratic Party accommodates immigrants.
• Tammany Hall and honest graft.

• Centralized political decision making.
• Responded to needs of urban poor in exchange for
  votes.

14
Populism

• A passionate rural reform movement against
  entrenched powerful interests.

15
Falling Farm Prices

• Upset at railroad price gouging and falling farm
  prices.
• Corn Prices (per bushel)
• 1870 - 45 cents
• 1890 30 cents
• Wheat Prices (per bushel)
• 1870 1.00
• 1890 60 cents

16
City as Scapegoat

• Farmers embraced Agrarian Myth
• Guardians of morality, civic virtue, religious
  principals.
• Resentment of status, wealth, and influence of
  the city.
• Psychic Crisis
• Populists accused urban elites of conspiracy to
  destroy rural America.

17
Peoples (Populist) Party

• Populist Party formed in 1892 to compete
  nationally.
• Platform
• Nationalize transportation and communication.
• Graduated income tax and currency reform.
• Labor reform.
• Embrace initiatives and recalls.
• Immigration restriction.

18
Free Silver

• Why controversial?
• Farmers want inflation
• Higher farm prices would help pay off debts.
• Gold standard supporters fear harmful effects of
  inflation.

• Expand money supply through coinage of silver.
• William Jennings Bryans Cross of Gold speech

19
Election of 1896

• Democrat Bryan vs. Republican McKinley.
• Democrats subsume Populist issues as party fades.

Limited electoral success in 1892 at state and
national level.
20
Conclusion

• New gold deposits at end of century expands money
  supply.
• Agrarian radicalism wanes.
• Agrarian myth continues to live on.
• Citys influence would continue to grow, creating
  more conflict.