The Challenges of the Era of Industrialization (1865-1898) Flashcards
Impact of mechanical reapers and the combine harvester
Identify:
- On economy
- Effect on class division
Replaced hand-held tools to harvest crops. This expanded agricultural output and reduced the man-hours needed for agriculture, so production of corn and wheat soared.
However, the presence of machinery also made the price of corn and wheat plummet. Most small-scale farmers could not afford the large-scale mechanized operations, so went out of business, unable to compete with large farms.
Frustrations of Farmers Post-Civil War
Identify:
- 3 systematic issues affecting farmers
- Railroad companies were overcharging farmers for carrying their produce to Chicago and other destinations.
- Tight supply of currency in the US made it difficult for farmers to pay off debts and drove down commodity prices
- Banks foreclosed on farms
Greenback Party
Formed following the Panic of 1873. It advocated for issuing paper money not backed by gold or silver (as done briefly in the Civil War). This would result in higher prices for crops. The party was disbanded after receiving a million votes in the 1878 congressional elections.
Panic of 1873 & Panic of 1893 on Views on Paper Currency
People called for expanding the money supply and the issuing of paper money not backed by gold or silver. This would have benefitted farmers, who would have received higher prices.
The Grange
A farmers’ organization that pushed for state laws to protect farmers’ interest. It was founded in 1867 and led the fight in the Midwest to regulate railroad rates and make certain corporate practices illegal.
Granger Laws
Laws advocated by the Grange. These involved:
- Regulating railroad rates
- Making certain corporate practices illegal
Munn v. Illinois
1877 decision that upheld the Granger Laws, asserting it was within the government’s permissible powers to regulate private industry.
Wabash v. Illionis
1886 decision that reversed Munn v. Illinois. It ruled that individual states could not regulate railroads because they cross state lines.
Conflict in New Mexico in the 1880’s and 1890’s
Newcomers had been migrating to this area and squatting. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave these squatters a degree of legitimacy in the eyes of the federal government.
Indigenous and Hispano population lost more than 90 percent of their traditional lands and began organizing resistance.
Las Gorras Blancas
Raided settler-held land in New Mexico. They were named after the white caps they wore. Ultimately, they failed in regaining their lost land.
Las Manos Negras
The Black Hands. Raided settler-held land in New Mexico. Ultimately, they failed in regaining their lost land.
United People’s Party
Populist party formed by members of Las Gorras Blancas. It ran for New Mexico legislature in 1890, but failed to regain lands.
Pacific Railway Act of 1862
Accelerated the process of expanding railroad networks by giving companies wide swaths of land. Land grants were given directly to the corporations, rather than the states, which generated large revenue for the companies.
Western Union (Jay Gould)
Controlled the telegraph industry starting 1879.
Alexander Graham Bell
In 1876, he was granted the patent for the telephone.
Timber Culture Act
- Allowed homesteaders to receive additional lands if they agreed to plant trees on a portion of it.
Desert Land Act
- It offered discounted price for land if recipients agreed to irrigate the land.
Pacific Railroad
First transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah (1869).
Nevada’s Comstock Lode
Discovered major silver deposits here in 1859. It led to the creation of a major boom town, Virginia city.
Pike’s Peak Country
Gold discovered here in 1858, leading to an influx of people, who established cities such as Denver City and Boulder City.
Denver City and Boulder City
Established as boomtowns following the discovery of gold at Pike’s Peak Country. These led to the rapid establishment of the Colorado Territory.
Process of Mining Operations in the West
- Prospectors hurry to the area. Most do not cash out.
- Deposits along surface are quickly found by placer mining.
- Heavy machinery too expensive for placer miners is brought in, funded by large mining firms.
- Operations traded on international markets, wage workers replace prospectors.
Foreign Miners’ License Tax
- It aimed to prevent Chinese immigrants from mining. Laws such like these pushed Chinese immigrants away from mining and toward other jobs, often doing jobs that other avoided, such as completing the first transcontinental railroad.
The People of the State of California v. George W. Hall
1854 California decision that ruled that Chinese Americans could not testify against whites, making it virtually impossible to persecute crimes of white violence against Chinese-Americans.
Chinese Californians following Panic of 1873
Scapegoated as the cause of the crisis.
Workingmen’s Party
Formed in 1876. It argued that Chinese laborers depressed wages and argued for legislating excluding Chinese immigrants from the US. This proved to be successful.
Chinse Exclusion Act
1882 act that represents the first discriminatory federal law targeted at a particular national group. It banned Chinese immigration with the exception of a small number of job categories for ten years. It was renewed in 1902 and made permanent, before being repealed in 1943.
Cowboys
Drove large herds of cattle across open plains in the Great Plains. Many were African American or Mexican. They herded cattle to seasonal grazing areas, then to railroad stops, where they would be shipped to Chicago for slaughter.
Barbed Wire on Grazing
Ended open-range grazing, as large ranchers began to enclose large areas with barbed wire.
Sodbusters
Nickname for early pioneers drawn to the Great Plains. The name comes from how they needed to cut through a thick layer of sod to get the soil needed for farming. Many used this sod to build their homes.
Family Farms and Large-Scale Agribusiness
Most farmers obtained land not from the government through the Homestead Act. Instead, they bought it from railroads or speculators. Family farms gave way to large-scale agribusiness, since land ownership proved to be beyond the means of many people.
Red Cloud’s War
1866-1868. Occurred between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho against US troops. It was in response to the wave of settlers brought to the Great Plains region following railroad lines and the Homestead Act, who often killed buffalo. The fighting occurred in Wyoming and Montana territories.
Fetterman’s Massacre
Major defeat of US forces in Red Cloud’s War.
Second Treaty of Fort Laramie
US allowed the Lakota to maintain disputed territory and closed the Bozeman Trail.
Indian Peace Commission
1867 Congressional attempt to end warring on the Great Plains. They met in St. Louis, Missouri in 1867-68. Although several treaties were negotiated, Congress did not fund nor enforce agreements. The primary goal was to assimilate the Native groups, and the commission was seen as a failure, since fighting continued.
Black Hills (Dakota Territory)
Gold was discovered in 1874. It brought a wave of settlers to the region, resulting in the Great Sioux War.
Great Sioux War
1876 war between Sioux and Cheyenne against American forces. It resulted in the confinement of the Lakota Sioux to reservations. It was a major turning point int he campaign of the government in controlling autonomous American Indigenous tribes of the Great Plains.
Battle of the Little Big Horn
Major defeat of Americans in Great Sioux War.
Custer’s Last Stand
225 men and General George Custer died in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
General Philip Sheridan
Defeated Native forces in the Great Sioux War following Custer’s Last Stand.
Peace Policy (Ulysses S. Grant)
- He announced that he wanted peace with American Indigenous, mostly through assimilation. It called for the moving away from reservations and to individual ownership of plots of land.
A Century of Dishonor (Helen Hunt Jackson)
1882 book that chronicled US abuse against native peoples. She sent a copy to each member of Congress. Historians place her in the context of gender norms in her era, where middle class white women were expected to civilize people.
Dawes Severalty Act
- It abandoned the reservation system and divided tribal lands into individually owned plots with the goal of assimilation. This proved damaging.
Indian Boarding Schools (Bureau of Indian Affairs)
Established in the lase 1870’s to assimilate Indigenous children into white culture.
Carlisle Institute
Model for other Indian Boarding Schools.
Colonel Richard Henry Pratt
Head of the Carlisle Institude for 25 years.
“Kill the Indian in him, and save the man”
Colonel Richard Henry Pratt. It reflected the goals of Indian boarding schools.
Ghost Dance
Developed following the losses suffered in the 1870’s and 1880’s by Indigenous groups. It resulted in a spiritual revival that had a profound effect on Indigenous groups going into the twentieth century, emphasizing cooperation among tribes and clean living and honesty.
Wovoka
Developed the Ghost Dance movement.
Wounded Knee Creek Massacre
Closing act of the Indian Wars. Lakota Sioux Indigenous were killed when US troops opened fire on them, and more than 200 died.
New South
Promise that the South would shift away from agriculture and into a mixed-economy of both industrialization and agriculture. Well into the 20th century, however, the South remained in poverty and underdeveloped.
Henry Grady
Atlanta Journalist who called for a New South.
Plessy v. Ferguson
1896 decision that ruled that racial segregation did not violate the equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment. This was a major setback for opponents of the Jim Crow laws.
Separate But Equal Doctrine
Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. They ruled that segregation was allowed, as long as both faculties were of the same quality; thus, they argued the equal protection of the laws clause was not violated.
Ida B. Wells
Sued the Memphis and Charleston Railroad for denying her a seat in the ladies’ car. She ultimately lost the case on appeal. She wrote against lynching after 3 of her friends were lynched. She challenged Southern assertions that sexual assault of white women by black men was common.
Booker T. Washington
Encouraged African Americans to gain training in vocational skills. He became the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute ion 1881, and argued for cooperation with supportive whites and self improvement, since he believed that confrontations with whites would only end poorly.
Steel Production in the US
Was key to the industrialization of the US. It was used extensively in the railroad system, and was much better than iron.
Bessemer Process
Greatly reduced the cost of steel and made it more readily available for industrial use.
Anthracite
A hard coal used for fuel. It was eventually replaced by bituminous.
Bituminous
A soft coal that replaced anthracite.
George Bissell
Demonstrated that oil could be refined and used in the 1850’s. It was primarily used to lubricate machinery.
Edwin Drake
Employee of Bissell who established the first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
Managerial Revolution
Large corporations separated top executives from managers. It included modern cost-accounting procedures and the division of responsibilities.
Atlantic and Pacific (A & P) Tea Company
Grocery chain that represented the supplementation and/or replacement of small scale locally owned stories.
F. W. Woolworth
Dry goods chain that represented the supplementation and/or replacement of small scale locally owned stories.
Wanamaker’s, Macy’s
Department stores catered to middle-class residents
Sears, Roebuck, Montgomery Ward
Printed mail-order catalogs of products they sold to encourage sales through installment payment plans.
Immigration in the Gilded Age
Identify:
- Recruitment process
Shifted from northern and western Europe to southern and easter Europe, Mexico, and China (until Chinese exclusion act).
Employers would often hire recruiters to entice Europeans by paying for the passage of the immigrants. However, this money would later be deducted from their wages. This was made illegal in 1885.
Three Major Industries of the Gilded Age
Railroads, Steel, Oil
Andrew Carnegie
Came to dominate the steel industry by investing in all aspects of stell production.
Carnegie Steel Company
Controlled mills where steel was made, coal mines that supplied the necessary coal for steel production, and the iron ore. It controlled transportation lines as well. This was an example of vertical integration.
Vertical Integration
Type of organization where all key aspects of a business are performed by a particular company.
Horizontal Integration
Merging of companies that create same/similar products. This can lead to a monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market.
Formation of Monopolies
Created by horizontal integration. A method commonly used was by establishing trusts, where trustees from several companies of an industry come together and act together rather than in competition.
John D. Rockefeller
Organized the oil trust Standard Oil.
Collis P. Huntington
Railroad magnate.
Mark Hanna
Coal and iron perchance who became a leading senate from Ohio.
Philip Armour
Owned a meat processing giant in Chicago.
Stephen Elkins
Magnate in mining, railroads, and politics.
JP Morgan
Financier who parlayed leverage through the control of various industry, including railroads, to dominate the US economy.
Foreign Trade in the Gilded Age
Rapidly expanded. Several companies, such as Standard oil, Eastman Kodak, and American Tobacco had established branches in other countries.
Panic of 1893
Incentivized businessmen to seek international market.
The Significance of the Frontier in American History (Frederick Jackson Turner)
1893 essay that argued that the West was essential for American economic growth. This was very influential.
The Theory of the Leisure Class (Thorstein Veblen)
1899 book that coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption” to describe the lavishness of the wealthy.
Panics of 1873 and 1893
Resulted in wage cuts, despite already low wages (was not considered enough for a minimum degree of comfort).
De-skilling
Mass-production meant that workers were typically only delegated to a specific task that did not require much training nor skill. It led to a loss of pride in one’s work and also to unsafe and unsanitary control.
Main Grievance of Wage Workers in the Gilded Age
Loss of control over one’s work.
Labor Battles of the Gilded Age
Almost always won by management, due to support from government and courts. many poor working-class men were also willing to serve as strikebreakers.
Knights of Labor
Union founded in 1869. It welcomed all members, and had a broad agenda that included:
- Better wages and hours
- Better safety rules
- Ending child labor
By 1886, they had about 800K members, but experienced a sharp decline in the 90’s.
Decline of the Knights of Labor
Ethnic, linguistic, and racial barriers among members made united action difficult. The centralized and autocratic governing structure within the Knights of Labor prevented new leadership from expanding the organization. Government repression following the Haymarket Bombing also weakened the organization.
Terrence V. Powderly
Led the Knights of Labor in the late 1880’s.
Great Railroad Strike
Identify:
- Response of Hayes
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) had cut 10 percent of its wages, exasperating the wage cuts following the Panic of 1873. Railroad workers in West Virginia went on strike. More than 100K railroad workers and half a million other workers went on strike, with some protests turning violent.
Hayes called out federal troops, and many believed a second civil war was unfolding.
Haymarket Incident
1886 strike at McCormick Reaper Works. Unskilled workers were cut and their jobs given to scabs. The strikers called for a rally on May 4th in Haymarket Square, where a bomb exploded in the police ranks. The police opened fire on the rally. 8 strikers were convicted on poor evidence, with 4 being executed. Many Americans shied away from the violence, diminishing the popularity of the Knights of Labor.
May Day Rally
Striking workers demanded 8 hour day. Several scabs were attacked by the striking workers.
Scabs
Replacement workers for striking workers.
American Federation of Labor
Formed in 1886. It only included skilled workers who were not African American or women. It did not engage in any political activities. It was known as a craft union.
Bread and Butter Union
Only goal is to get higher ways and better conditions, without pushing for broader social reform.
Samuel Compers
Cigar maker who created the AFL.
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
Craft Union under the AFL. The union was broken by Carnegie, who refused to renew it’s contract, starting the Homestead Strike.
Craft Union vs. Industry Union
Craft Union organizes by skill (AFL), while Industry Unions were organized by industry (Knights of Labor).
Homestead Strike
1892 strike following the refusal of Carnegie to renew Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers contract. The plant was left with anti-union Henry Clay Frick, who built a fence around the plant and brought in scabs and Pinkerton guards. A battle ensued between the Pinks and the workers; the workers temporarily were victorious and took the plant. However, the plant was taken back by 8K national guard troops. When Frick reopened the plant, there were no union workers, a devastating blow to organized labor.
Henry Clay Frick
Anti-Union man who was managing the Homestead steelworks during the Homestead Strike.
Pullman Strike
Occurred after the Panic of 1893, when wages were cut. The company owned all the housing, and rent was taken directly out of wages. However, during the wage cuts, rent was not. This was appealed to the ARU, who led a strike. Cleveland brought federal troops to stop the strike, and the Supreme Court upheld the use of force.
Eugene V. Debs
Led the American Railway Union during the Pullman Strike.
In re Debs
Upheld the government’s decision in stopping the Pullman strike using force.
New Immigrants
Label of the 20M people who immigrated to the US in the Gilded Age, mostly from southern and eastern europe.
Exoduster Movement
40K African Americans who left the South in the late 1870’s to settle in Kansas.
Colored Relief Board
Helped Exodusters make it to Kansas.
Kansas Freedmen’s Aid Society
Helped Exodusters make it to Kansas.
Bifurcation in the Gilded Age
Working-class districts and wealthy enclaves developed. The middle class and the wealthy moved away from industrial zones. The conditions in which people lived reflected their class status.
Tenement Housing
Working class and poor were often crammed into this in slumlike neighborhoods.
Lower East Side of New York
Densest neighborhood in the world in the late 1800’s. There was a lack of ventilation and light, as well as a lack basic municipal services.
How the Other Half Lives (Jacob Riis)
Took photographs of the conditions in which the poor lived to draw people’s attention to it.
Saloons
Seen as part social hall, part political club, and part community hubs. Attacks against saloons and alcohol consumption in general was seen as an attack on working-class immigrant culture.
Jewish Daily Forward (Forverts)
Yiddish language newspaper that arose from the pulls of assimilation on one hand and ethnic solidarity on the other.
Il Progresso Italo-Americano
Italian language newspaper that arose from the pulls of assimilation on one hand and ethnic solidarity on the other.
Birds of Passage
Immigrants, mostly young men, who worked in the US for part of the year and spent the other part in their home country.
Henry Cabot Lodge and Madison Grant
Conservative protestant figures who feared that Anglo-Saxon Americans were committing “race suicide” by allowing “inferior” races to enter American in large numbers.
Free Labor in the Gilded Age
As unskilled workers were flooding into the factory system, it became increasingly clear that they could not become independent entrepreneurs.
Social Darwinism
Attempted to defend the new industrial order of the late 1800’s. They argued that laissez-faire policies would help promote natural selection; inequalities of wealth were simply survival of the fittest.
William Graham Sumner
Popularized social darwinism in the US in the late 1800’s.
Ragged Dick (Horatio Alger)
Told stories of a poor boy who achieved success in the world, despite not reflecting the situation in the Gilded Age.
Dime Novels
Books as cheap as ten cents.
Settlement Houses
Offered classes, set up employment bureaus, provided childcare facilities, and helped victims of domestic abuse. These were often run by women, and more than 400 had opened by 1911.
Hull House (Jane Addams)
Challenged prevailing social expectations around gender and family life.
Twenty Years at Hull-House (Jane Addams)
Autobiography of Jane Addams, who is considered one of the founders of social work in the US.
White Collar Employees
Essential to industrial capitalism. They saw their wages rise faster than the working class (blue collar), and their average workday was shorter.
Secretarial Work
Changed in the Gilded Age from a traditionally men’s occupation to women’s, as they began to become literate and learn to use the typewriter.
Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (Herman Melville)
1853 short story about an office clerk who suddenly refuses to perform his duties, reflecting how secretarial work was seen as a men’s occupation pre-Civil War.
Coney Island
Successful large-scale amusement park.
“Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show
Started 1883, and was a very successful entertainment in Coney island. It mythologized the Old West.
P.T. Barnum
Created the most popular circus of the era, labeling it the Greatest Show on Earth.
New York World (Joseph Pulitzer)
Newspaper that gained readership through exaggerated, sensationalistic coverage of events.
New York Journal (William Randolph Hearst)
Newspaper that gained readership through exaggerated, sensationalistic coverage of events.
Yellow Journalism
The use of exaggeration, sensationism, etc. in reporting
Muckracking Journalism
Journalism that exposed wrongdoing of government officials and showed the negative side of industrialization.
Robert Koch
Put forward germ theory.
New York’s Central Park
Most important park project of the nineteenth century (1858). It’s design was contradictory; while it sought to create a park where different classes could congregate and enjoy nature, it was built far from the working-class district. People also believed it to be more about social control than enjoyment.
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
Designed the New York Central Park.
Brooklyn’s Prospect Park
Designed by Olmsted after designing the central park.
Chicago World’s Fair
Designed by Olmsted after designing the central park.
Wealth (Andrew Carnegie)
Asserted that the rich had the duty to live responsible, modest lives and give back to society.
Gospel of Wealth
Asserted that successful entrepreneurs should distribute their wealth so that it could be put to good use, rather than wasted. He did this since he believed in a laissez-faire approach to social problems; if millionaires could take action of behalf of the community, the government would not have to.
Progress and Poverty (Henry George)
1879 book that criticized the vast resources, especially land, controlled by the elite.
Single Tax (Progress and Poverty)
Argued that all taxes should be eliminated except one on land. It would have made the tax high to eliminate land accumulation and speculation, and make land “common property”.
Socialist Party of America
Founded in 1901 by Eugene V. Debs following the Pullman Strike.
Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (Edward Bellamy)
1888 book that imagined a man who falls asleep in 1887 and wakes up in 2000 in a socialist utopia where all the inequities and poverty of the Gilded Age are gone.
Coxey’s Army
Group of workers who in 1894 marched across the US to demand action to address the economic crisis following the Panic of 1893. Cleveland ignored them.
Women’s Clubs
Arose in challenge of the cult of domesticity. It discussed poverty, working conditions, and pollution.
General Federation of Women’s Clubs
Umbrella organization of women’s club, organized in 1890.
Maternalism (General Federation of Women’s Clubs)
Used to describe the dual role of women as mothers and social activists.
Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
Mass organization that influenced the populist and the Progressive movements.
Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois
1886 decision that limited the ability of states to regulate railroads, asserting that states could not impose “direct” burdens on interstate commerce.
Interstate Commerce Commission
Created by the federal government in 1887 to regulate railroads following Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois. It was underfunded and ineffective.
Sherman Antitrust Act
- It was the first attempt by Congress to keep monopolistic practices. It made it illegal for firms to engage in practices that are designed to establish a monopoly, and also made it illegal for firms to make agreements with each other to limit competition.
United States v. E.C. Knight Company
1895 decision that limited the scope of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Populist Party
Harnessed the growing discontent following the Panic of 1893 and gave a voice to a radical program that called for increased democracy, graduated income tax, regulation of the railroads, and currency reform. They insisted that the amount of currency in circulation was insufficient.
They proved to be one of the most successful third parties in the nineteenth century, but was short lived.
Crime of ‘73
Populist Party’s description of the 1873 Congress act that tied the US to the gold standard.
Free and Unlimited Coinage of Silver
Rallying cry of the Populists
Omaha Platform
The populist program.
Election of 1896
William Jennings Bryan (D) v. William McKinley (R). The defeat of Bryan led to the demise of the Populists.
After the election, Republicans came to dominate national politics until the New Deal era.
Cross of Gold (William Jennings Bryan)
Speech that endorsed the call for unrestricted silver currency, breaking with conservative members of the Democratic party. He promised to not let the American people be crucified “upon a cross of gold”, and received the support of the Populist Party.
William McKinley (Election)
Promised to keep the country on the gold standard to appeal to banking and business interests.
Party System in the Gilded Age
Republican: Aligned with pro-business - dominated the North. Called for higher tariffs
Democratic: Championed the “little guy” - dominated the South. Called for lower tariffs.
Both parties failed to address the pressing issues of the day, such as child labor, workplace safety, abuses of railroad companies, African American rights, women’s right, or American Indigenous groups.
Neither party dominated national politics during the last decades of the 19th century.
Forgotten Presidents
Refer to the presidents of the Gilded Age, who are often overshadowed in people’s memory by industrial powerhouses, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt II, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie.
Criticism of Ulysses S. Grant
His presidency was marked with corruption, and was not decisive on Reconstruction. He rewarded friends, army contacts, and party loyalists with jobs. Many members of his administration was charged with corruption.
Civil-Service Reform
Major issue in the late nineteenth century. Attempts were made to remove nepotism and cronyism from government hiring practices.
Mugwumps
Label of reform-minded Republicans by their opponents.
Stalwarts
Nickname for those who did not want to abandon the corruption of the Grant administration.
Half-Breeds
Used to describe those loyal to the Republican leadership, but wanted reform.
Rutherford B. Hayes Relation to Republican Factions
Disliked by Mugwumps, Stalwarts, and Half-breeds. Therefore, he chose not to run for reelection in 1880.
Pendleton Act
Identify:
- Event that triggered it’s passing
Passed in 1883 to set up a merit-based federal civil service that is still applicable today. It was passed following the assassination of James A. Garfield.
Charles J. Guiteau
Passed over for a government job, despite working for the Garfield campaign. He assassinated Garfield, which influenced the passing of the Pendleton Act.
Chester Arthur on Tariffs
Broke with Republican orthodoxy and looked into lowering the tariff, but ultimately little was done.
Benjamin Harrison on Tariffs
Imposed the highest tariff in US history in 1890, following an election where he was funded by business interests.
Mint Act of 1792 in the Gilded Age
Originally allowed the coinage of gold and silver. However, in 1873, Congress changed the policy, allowing only for the coinage of gold. This could not keep up with the growing economy, making it hard for farmers since it depressed the price they received for goods. However, the situation was beneficial to bankers, who wanted a relatively stable currency.
Political Machines
Major cities were dominated by smooth-running organizations whose purpose was to achieve and maintain political power. Political ideology was not of concern to these electoral contests.
Tammany Hill
Headquarters of Democratic political machine.
William Marcy “Boss” Tweed
Most famous Tammany chief. He was known for corruption. His corrupt projects were popular with immigrants, who gained thousands of jobs as a result.
Thomas Nast
Exposed Tweed’s corrupt schemes.
Mann Act
1910 act by progressive reformers to prohibit the transport of women across state lines for the purposes of prostitution.
