Bellwork Trivia

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Bellwork Trivia

• Page 296
• 1-3

• January 7th, 1789
• The first U.S. Presidential election is held,
  only white men with property were allowed to vote

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The Gilded Age

• 1877-1890s
• Gilded Age covered with a thin layer of gold
• Referred to the state of the U.S. at the time
• A thin layer of prosperity was covering the
  political and social corruption, fraud, and
  immorality of politicians, business leaders, and
  government officials
• Population was growing rapidly, industry was
  expanding through out the country
• Abuse of powers, bribery, and corruption

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• Jay Gould- used corruption and bribery to rise to
  be the director of New Yorks Erie railroad
• Cornelius Vanderbilt-Owner of the New York
  Central Railroad bought a large number of Erie
  stock to have ownership of both railroads
• Gould issued 50,000 new shares of Erie stock so
  that Vanderbilt did not have majority ownership
• Then bribed government officials to make the new
  stock legal and prevent Vanderbilt from combining
  the two companies
• Gould now had complete control of Erie RR, he
  then send Erie money to his own private company
  to build new Erie lines, now work was ever done
  but Gould got rich from Eries money.
  Shareholders attempted to sue Gould, but he
  avoided punishment by bribing judges to rule in
  his favor

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Laissez Faire Economics

• Laissez Faire- French meaning allow to be, hands
  off
• A hands off approach to economics
• The government takes a limited role in regulating
  business
• The strongest and biggest businesses succeed
• Government should only provide a free market for
  goods and labor
• Americans supported this policy but supported
  government involvement when it benefitted
  themselves
• Wanted Gov. to place high tariffs on foreign
  goods
• This encouraged people to buy American goods
• Provide Land Grants and Subsidies
• Because of these policies, businesses supplied
  government officials with gifts and bribes to
  ensure help from government
• Central Pacific Railroad budgeted 500,000 a year
  for bribes

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Credit Mobilier Scandal

• Congress gave the Union Pacific Railroad company
  land and loans to build the 1st transcontinental
  rail line to the west
• Union Pacific hired an outside company (Credit
  Mobilier) to build the actual lines
• CM charged UP far more then the value of work
  that was actually completed
• This meant that tax money was flowing straight to
  shareholders of CM
• Federal Gov? Union Pacific? Credit Mobilier?
  Shareholders
• To ensure that congress kept funding the railroad
  even after it went grossly over budget CM gave
  shares of CM stock to government officials who
  agreed to support more funding

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Credit Mobilier Scandal

• Congress investigated CM 3 years after the
  completion of the transcontinental railroad
• Found the more then 30 Gov. officials received
  stock from CM
• Members of both political parties
• Future Pres. James Garfield
• VP Colfax
• Cousins of Pres. Grant

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Spoils System

• Elected officials appointed friends and
  supporters to government jobs, regardless of
  their qualifications, in exchange for help being
  elected
• During Gilded Age government was full of
  unqualified and dishonest people put in place by
  Spoils System
• Spoils System ensured that politicians were
  surrounded with Loyal people

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Opposing Political Parties

• Republicans
• Industrialist, bankers, Eastern Farmers
• Strongest in North and Mid-west
• Weak/Non-existent in South
• Wanted tight supply of money backed by gold
• Tariffs on imported goods, to protect U.S.
  Businesses
• Generous Pensions for Union Soldiers
• Gov. Aide to Railroads
• Blue Laws
• Sabbath, Alcohol, Dress, Cigarettes, Prohibition,
  Secular Amusements

• Democrats
• Less Privileged members of society
• Northern Urban Immigrants
• Laborers, Southern Planters, Western Farmers
• Concerned with interests of ordinary People
• Increased supply of money backed by silver
• Lower Tariffs on imported goods
• Increased Farm Prices
• Less Gov. Aide to big business (Railroads)
• Fewer Blue Laws

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Assignments

• Quiz 8.1
• Worksheet pg. 77
• Read pgs. 297-303

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• Bellwork
• Page 303
• 1-4

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Immigration

• Between 1865 and 1920 30 million immigrants
  entered the U.S.
• Fleeing from failing crops and farms
• Shortages of land
• Rising taxes
• Famine
• Religious or political persecution
• 1880s Russia had a wave of pogroms against Jews
• Czar limited places where Jews could live and
  work
• America offered freedom and many decided to
  immigrate
• Most immigrants traveled across the ocean in
  steerage
• Large open area beneath a ships deck

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Place of Origin Reasons for Immigration Experiences in The United States
Europe To find escape from religious persecution To find economic opportunities To escape political persecution Settled in cities in the East and Midwest Most entered through Ellis Island in New York Harbor Many settled in ethnic neighborhoods or ghettos
Asia To find economic opportunities Most Settled in Hawaii and California Worked on Railroads and Farms Many settled in ethnic neighborhoods or ghettos Faced official discrimination from Government
Mexico To escape civil war To find economic opportunities Most settled in Cal., Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico Worked on farms, ranches, mines, and railroads
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Chinese Excluded

• Railroad companies recruited nearly 250,000
  Chinese to work on Railroads
• Worked for Company until debt for passage and
  upkeep had been paid
• After debts were settled Chinese went to work in
  mining, farming, fishing, factory jobs, food
  preparation, laundering (dry cleaners)
• Chinese were viewed as mentally and physically
  inferior
• Labor unions were fighting to exclude Asian
  because they were willing to work for low wages
• Others claimed Chinese were not worthy of being
  Americans
• Tried to prove this with faulty scientific
  reasoning

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Chinese Exclusion Act

• Passed in 1882 the Act prohibited entry in to the
  U.S. by Chinese laborers
• Allowed those that had established U.S. residency
  to enter and leave as they wished

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Assignments

• Workbook page 78
• Read Pages 304-309

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Bellwork

• Page 309
• 1-4

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Rapid Growth of Cities

• Cities Adopt new building styles
• Skyscrapers
• Tenements
• New Methods of transportation allowed for the
  development of suburbs
• Horse drawn carriages on rail
• Eventually electric trolleys on the same rails
• Motorized methods of transportation
• Elevated Trains 1868-New York
• Cable Cars 1873-San Francisco
• Electric trolleys 1888-Richmond
• Subway Trains 1897-Boston
• Automobiles-invented in 1890s
• Mass production started around 1910

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Rapid Growth of Cities

• Cities grow upward as well as outward
• Before Civil War no building stood more then 5
  stories high
• Technologies such as Bessemer steel, elevators
  emerged to support the need to build higher

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Urban Living Conditions

• Tenement and apartment buildings replace houses
  in the cities
• Tenement-low cost apartment building designed to
  house as many people as possible
• A group of dirty or rundown tenements would
  quickly turn the area into a slum

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Poor Urban Living Conditions

• Conditions in the slums
• Poverty, overcrowding, and neglect of buildings
• Trees and Grass slowly disappeared
• Hundreds of people were crammed into spaces
  designed for a few families
• Soot from coal burning boilers and steam engines
  polluted the air, making it dark and foul
• Open Sewers attracted rats and disease-spreading
  vermin

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Life in the Slums

• Fires were constant threat
• With buildings so close, even a small fire could
  quickly consume a neighborhood or city
• Great Chicago Fire of 1871
• More than 18,000 buildings
• More then 100,000 people left homeless
• 200 Million in damages
• Contagious Disease thrived and spread quickly in
  overcrowded slums
• Yellow Fever, Cholera, Malaria, Tuberculosis,
  diphtheria, and typhoid
• Disease spread quickly in close, warm buildings
• Believed that 80 of Child Deaths were due to
  these preventable disease

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Dumbbell Tenement

• Architects designed new tenements to meet the
  demand of new laws requiring an outside window in
  every room
• Narrow middles gave each apartment a light and
  air shafts to each side of building
• Picture on page 307
• Trash collected at the bottom of the shafts, very
  little light or fresh air made its way into the
  apartments
• Contaminated water pipes that were shared between
  the entire building continued to spread disease

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• Read pgs. 308-315
• Outline 8-4

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Bellwork Trivia

• Page 315
• 1-4

• January 15, 1992
• Tim Berners-Lee (who invented the world wide web)
  released the first web browser software.

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Result of City Growth

• Rapidly growing cities created a need for
  Government to improve city services
• Police protections
• Fire Protection
• Transportation
• Sewage disposal
• Electric service
• Water Service
• Health Care
• In order to improve services, officials raised
  taxes

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Rise of Political Bosses

• Political Machines
• An unofficial city organization designed to keep
  a particular party or group in power
• Machines were usually lead by a single person, or
  boss
• Political Bosses sometimes held office, but
  mostly handpicked others to run and helped them
  get elected
• Handed out favors, services, or jobs in exchange
  for votes
• Individuals in the city that wanted a favor from
  the city would have to first pay the boss some
  money
• This is called a graft, it was a major source of
  income for Machines

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Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall

• The most notorious boss was William Marcy Tweed
  who controlled Tammany Hall, the club that
  controlled New York Citys Democratic Party
• Took over Treasury of NYC, added fake fees onto
  construction and supply contracts, stole many
  millions of dollars
• Brought down by Thomas Nast, a political
  cartoonist who exposed Tweeds methods to the
  public
• Tweed was convicted and later died in prison

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Ideas of Reform

• Reform movements aimed at controlling Immigration
  and Behavior/morality
• Settlement Houses
• Reformers settled into a house in the midst of a
  poor neighborhood
• Served as a community center and provided social
  services
• Hull House in Chicago
• Nativism
• Favoring Native Born American
• Example Chinese Exclusion Act
• Purity Crusaders
• Looked to control and end vices
• Drugs, gambling, alcohol, prostitution, etc.

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• Temperance Movement
• An organized attempt to achieve prohibition
• Elimination of Alcohol Consumption
• Social Gospel Movement
• Instead of blaming Immigrants for drinking,
  gambling and other vices churches tried to treat
  the problem that drove people to these activities
• While doing so they sought to apply the teachings
  of Jesus to Society
• Sociology
• Study of Societies

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Assignment

• Chapter 8 Review
• Page 316-317
• 1-22, 31, 32