Urban America

• ellis Island is where most Europeans passed through to get to US and were allowed to enter within hours
• angel island is where most of the Chinese immigrants passed through and were held there for weeks and even months
• the "new" immigration consisted of people from Italy, Greece, austria-hungary, Russia, and serbia
• nativism is a hostility towards foreigners in a native-born area
• the American protective association (APA) was a group who disliked catholic people and was founded by Henry Bowers
• the workingman's party of california blamed Chinese people for making wages low and jobs scarce, wanted Chinese to leave
• chinese exclusion act, 1882 was an act that restricted Chinese immigrants from coming to the US for 10 years
• immigration act, 1882 prohibited all immigration of Chinese immigrants from every part of china
• frank j. sprague was the first to develop the electrical trolley cart and the US first electrical trolley cart line opened in Richmond, Virginia
• political machines are corrupt organizations that control political parties in cities
• party bosses are leaders of the machine that grab votes for their party, to help the lower class and immigrants
• graft is the acquisition of money in dishonest ways, such as bribing a politician
• tammany hall was the name of the New York Democratic political machine
• william tweed was the boss of tammany hall and was a corrupt politician who got sentenced to prison
• the gilded age involved rapid urbanization and immigration; allowed for the weak to cease to exist and let the rich take over
• individualism is the belief that no matter what a person's background is, they can be successful through effort
• horatio Alger came up with the quote "rags to riches" as to imply individualism
• social darwinism is the idea that humans are naturally competitive and that the fittest will survive
• Herbert Spencer applied Darwin's theory of natural selection to society and William graham Sumner came up with the phrase "survival of the fittest"
• philanthropy is charitable donations to public causes
• Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth is a book that argued the wealthy have an obligation to give something back to society
• naturalism is the belief that some people fail in life because circumstances are beyond their control; realism and literature
• the salvation army offered practical aid and religious counseling to the urban poor
• YMCA tried to help industrial workers and the urban poor by organizing activies for them; Dwight moody, Chicago YMCA, thought that helping the poor was by redeeming their souls
• patronage is the practice of rewarding political supporters with government jobs similar to the spoils system
• Pendleton Act is was a system created to give federal jobs to those who were chose based upon competitive exams
• Rutherfor B. Hayes became the president and tried to end patronage by firing officials, this led to a split in the Republican Party; the Stalwarts and Halfbreeds
• james garfield was voted the next president, after B. Hayes, by the halfbreeds
• Chester A. Arthur was voted for vice president by the Stalwarts
• later on Grover Cleveland was voted president, before he was the governor of New York, and had a reputation for honesty
• the Mckinley Tariff was intended to protect American industries from foreign competition, instead triggered a steep rise in prices for goods
• the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed to curb the power of the large business combinations known as trusts; prohibited any conspiracy of trade or commerce among the states
• populism was a movement to increase farmers' political power and work for legislation in their interest
• greenbacks is a unit of paper currency first issued by the federal government during the civil war
• inflation is the ongoing increase in prices and decrease in the value of money
• a bond is a note issued by the government that promises to pay off a loan with interest
• deflation is the ongoing decrease in prices and an increase in the value of money
• the graduation income tax is a tax on the net income of an individual, which taxes different income levels at different rates
• poll tax is a fixed tax per person that has to be paid before a person could vote
• segretation is the separation or isolation of a race, class, or group