Thursday Jan 22

Today first period had their mid-term.
Fifth period had a study hall to study for their mid-term which is tomorrow.
Good luck tomorrow everyone!

1/15/09

• Progressivists: rid politics of corruption; tame the power of the big corporations or "trusts"; inject more liberty into American life; fought against prostitution; appeared in city politics; agree for activist government to right political, economic, and social wrongs by taxing income, regulating industry, protect the environment, and provide social welfare; emerged from young middle class Americans, who were mostly Protetant; felt alientated from society by the immorality and corruption in politics and the gap between the rich and poor
• Social Gospel: philosophy of the progressives; believed social darwinism was wrong; muckrakers began to investigate social conditions; Jacob Riis-NYC slums, How the Other Half Lives, Lincoln Stefans-Baltimore's political corruption
• Popular Magazines: McClounresm Cosmopolitan, Colliers, Lady's Home Journal, The Harper, The Atlantic Monthly; The Jungle was written by Upton Sinclair about the meat-packing industry and its horrible conditions
• Ashcan School: painted realistic scenery of the United States
• Settlement Houses: Jane Adams opens Hullhouse in New York, offering social services, aid to women without jobs, daycare, small savings banks, employment bureaus, taught English,health clinic, social center, entertainment
• Cultural Conservatism; Socialists find things in common with progressives, as do the progressives with the socialists; socialists coming from nondemocratic, noncapitalistic countries; Jane Adams works to reform prostitution and alcohol abuse; WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) and Anti-Saloon leagure get 16 states to pass prohibition laws and 18th amendment; saloons can be used to cash paychecks, "cafeterias", places for socializing; Mann Act- federal act prohibited transportation of a woman over state lines
• Socialist Politcal Party; "seriously" around until about 1915; took hold in cities; mayors of cities were sometimes socialist; Upton Sinclair was a socialist; government passed Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) and the Meat Inspection Act (1906) after investigations into The Jungle's nonfiction base
• Eugene Debbs run for president as a socialist; believed government could control economy; progressives liked him until they found him and socialists to be too radical, the progressives wanted to tames, not control; socialists wanted to eliminate capitalism

Wednesday January 21

Today we chose groups for the Newspaper project due on February 3rd that includes 8-10 people. After that we had a study hall since first period has their exam tomorrow and fifth period has their exam on Friday.

AP blog. Wednesday.

Today we talked about current issues which ended up being mostly about Obama. Then Mr. Gottschalk gave the class the rest of the period to review for the AP exam tomorrow. We were allowed to discuss issues relating to AP American History, and study our textbooks, notes, and any other outside information that would help as well as making sure we knew the terms in the study guides we were given in class previously.

Friday, January 16, 2009

On Friday we talked in class about Bush's farewell speech, took notes, and then Mr. Gottschalk gave some of us our Ch. 17-20 Tests back (some were not graded). Here are the notes that we got through so far:

• The Progressives wanted to rid corruption from cities. Enacted a commission plan and city management plan
  
• The Progressives changed state reform
• The 17th Amendment stated that Senator selection in each state was to be decided by popular vote
• Recall: Can be done if a politician is elected and people think he is doing a poor job in office
• Australian ballot: First time a secret ballot was used. Made voter's selection private. System began to be used by the U.S.
• 15th Amendment: Stated that government could not reject a citizen from voting based on race. Literacy tests were given to steal the right to vote away from African Americans anyways. The tests were made easier for whites and made harder for African Americans. Property qualifications (you must own land to vote) and poll taxes (you must pay a tax to be able to vote) made it even harder for African Americans to actually be able to vote. If your grandfather could vote in 1860, you didn't have to take the literacy tests. Obviously, no African Americans alive then could vote so African Americans were still denied the right to vote
• W.E.B. Du Bois was an African American Progressive. He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He believed the 15th Amendment was wrong and along with Jane Adams, John Dewey, and others established the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• This reenergizes the want to give the vote to women also. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National Women's Suffrage Association
• Failure of Booker T. Washington's accommodationism
• W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells founded Niagara movement for African American equality.
• Legal Redress Committee and National Urban League created. Readdressed the issue of racial equality at a time when many whites had accepted segregation and discrimination as normal.
• 1848: All women and men created equal
• 1890: Women stated that they had a higher set of morals than men and should be able to vote, like men
• 19th Amendment: (ratified in 1920) States that the right to vote will not be based on gender

Thursday 1/15/09

sorry this took so long to post

• Progressivism = reform movement

- Progressivism emerged first and most strongly among young, mainly Protestant, middle-class Americans who felt alienated from their society: they abondoned the expected path that involved becoming ministers, missionaries, or serving their church in some other way, but never lost their zeal for righting moral wrongs and for uplifting the human spirit ->They became "ministers of reform," upset by the immorality and corruption in American politics, and by the gap that separated the rich and the poor.

- Progressives wanted to rid politics of corruption, tame power of the "trusts," and in process, inject more liberty into American life; fought against prostitution, gambling, drinking, and other forms of vice

- 1st appeared in city politics- agree that there is a need for an activist government to right political, economic, and social wrongs by taxing income, regulating industry, protect consumers from fraud, empowering workers, safeguarding environment, and providing social welfare

• Muckrackers: investigative journalists committed to exposing corruption

- Well- known: Jacob Riis-looked at the living conditions in the New York City slums (How the Other Half Lives); Ida Tarbell-revealed the shady practices by which John D. Rockefeller had transofrmed his Standard Oil Company into a monoply; Lincoln Steffens-unraveled the webs of bribery and corruption that were strangling local governments in the nation's great cities

- Magazines = popular: Upton Sinclair gets The Jungle known through magazine

- Ashcan school: a group of painters who sought to create a distinctly American and "realist" style

- Settlement houses- established by middle-class reformers, intended to help the largely immigrant poor cope with the harsh conditions of city life

- Jane Addams: founder of settlement house movement; Hull House-nation's first settlement house

- Socialism=transfer of control over industry from a few industrialists to the laboring masses -> impossible for wealthy elites to control society

- Socialist Party of America=political force during first 16 years of the century

• Municipal Reform-many corporations used their monopoly power to charge exorbitant fares and rates that they won from bribing political machine officials

- Progressives worked for reforms that would strip machines of power: City Commission Plan-municipal power shifted from the mayor and his aldermen to 5 city commissioners, each responsible for a different department of city government; City Manager Plan- a "chief executive," appointed by the commissioners, would curtail rivalries between commissioners and ensure that no ouside influences interfered with the expert, businesslike management of the city

• Political Reform in the states: progressives introduced reforms designed to undermine the power of party bosses, restore sovereignty to "the people," and encourage, honest, talented individuals to enter politics

- direct primary: a mechanism that enabled voters to choose party candidates; 17th Amendment (1912) allows citizens to vote for senators

- initiative: allowed reformers to put before voters in general elections legislation that state legislatures had yet to approve

- referendum: gave voters the right in general elections to repeal an unpopular act that a state legislature had passed

- recall: a device that allowed voters to remove from office any public servant who had betrayed his trust

- Australian (secret) ballot: required voters to vote in private; required the government, rather than political parties, to pring the ballots and supervise the voting

- Personal registration laws: allowed prospective voters to register to vote only if they appeared at a designated government office with proper identification

• Disfranchisement: progressives promoted election laws expressly designed to keep noncitizen immigrants from voting; Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization made it more difficult to become a citizen

- South: any citizen who failed a reading test, could not sign his name, did not own a minimum amoung of property, or could not pay a poll tax, lost his right to vote -> National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): interracial political organization that made black equality its primary goal

• Woman Suffrage: success in sparesly populated western states because of the conviction that women's supposedly gentler and more nurturing nature would tame and civilize the rawness of the frontier; 19th Amendment (1920)

*Many Progressive Era suffragists were little troubled by racial discrimination and injustice- believed that Americans of color lacked moral strength and thus did not deserve the franchise

by: Natalie I.

January 14 - Chapters 17-20 test

Today we recieved our DBQ documents and took the chapter 17-20 test.

Friday 1/9/09

sorry it took me so long to put this up, i havent been able to figure out my login info lol.
All we did friday was watch a video in class.

Today we finished up our Immigrants, Robber Barons, and Urban Bosses project presentations. Everyone did a great job! =)

Don't forget to study tonight for the Chapter 17-20 Test tomorrow. Don't come to school unaware and unprepared!

JAN. 12, 2009

IMMIGRANTS, ROBBER BARONS, AND URBAN BOSSES: ANDREW CARNEGIE AND GEORGE WASHINGTON PLUNKITT WAS DUE TODAY!

Each group presentation should be about eight minutes long based on the validity of the statement below.


In many ways, the moral and ethical standards of these urban bosses were equal to those of philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie or many progressive reformers. Or to put it another way, Andrew Carnegie gave millions to build libraries, fund colleges, and promote world peace, yet he would not pay his workers a living wage or allow them to join unions. Tammany boss George Washington Plunkitt practiced and became wealthy through “honest graft,” yet he saw making the daily life of his constituents better as part of his job.

Don't forget to include an annotated bibliography to turn into Mr. Gottschalk!

We also have our chapter 17-20 test on Wednesday.
Don't forget to study!!

1/8/09 Sorry it's late...

1/8/09

-In 1911 most workers still had no real protection.

 

African American Labor & Community

-Remained predominantly rural and southern.

-Most were share croppers and tenant farmers.

-Blacks could be taken advantage of.

-Most sharecroppers were mired in poverty and debt.

-White landowners forced sharecroppers to accept artificially low prices for their crops and charged high prices for speed, tools, and groceries.

-Some African Americans migrated to the industrial areas of the south.

-Some went North and worked on fringe of economy (janitors, etc.)

-In South, blacks endured hardships like being marched to work and paid only once a month.

 

-Jim Crow Laws passed in every South Legislature in the 1890s. Legalized rigid segregation/separation of blacks and whites.

 

-North States didn’t have Jim Crow laws, but there was prejudice.

 

-Long established blacks found themselves rifted outta jobs by European immigrants which destroyed the black middle class in the North.

 

-North blacks were very resourceful.

-They built black churches and political organizations and businesses.

 

-Booker T. Washington argued that blacks should devote themselves to self-help and self-sufficiency as a first priority.

 

-Black Communities often were small and poor.

 

Workers and Conditions

-Most factory workers were in a fragile economic condition.

-Only hope was in organizing unions powerful enough to force employers to yield to demands.

-Knights of Labor Union failed.

-Federal and state governments shown themselves used military force to break strikes.

-Courts countlessly found unions in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

-The environment made major labor organizations more timid and conserved (American Federation of Labor)

-Prior to 1916 no fed laws protected the right of workers to organize to bargain with unions.

-The AFL put most of its efforts into organizing craft of skills.

-Employers negotiated contracts, or trade agreements, with craft unions that stipulated the wages of workers, the hours they could work & the rules.

-AFL withdrew from political activism.

-President = Samuel Compers (Limited Success)

-2 Million members, yet distanced itself from unskilled or semi skilled workers.

-AFL = very prejudice.

 

-AFL became unable to support semi-skilled and unskilled workers.

-These unions turned to other organizations.

-Most important was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

 

-IWW rejected the principle of one big union.

-IWW refused to sign collective bargaining with employers.

-Too radical to hold a mass membership.

-They organized the poorest and most isolated workers.

 

-In 1914, many Americans resented low wages and poor working conditions. Neither government or employers offered workers a mechanism for airing and peacefully resolving grievances.

 

Joys of the City

-Industrial workers crowded dance halls, amusement and baseball parks, acting and movie theaters.

 

The New Woman

-Most of 19^th century, the diea of “separate spheres” set up the tone for relations between sexes.

-Victorianism -> men and women didn’t intrude in eachother’s spheres.

 

-Revolt came from middle class men and women.

 

-Young, single, working class were among most influential rebels. Women’s employment doubled between 1880 and 1900. From 1900->1920 it increased 50%.

-Women took new types of jobs.

 

-Premarital sex increased.

 

-Margaret Sanger spurred a movement toward sexual equality. She lectured about birth control. Emma Goldman labeled marriage a type of prostitution and called for “free love”

-FEMINISM

 

-The Mann Act of 1910 -> made transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes a crime. Prevented prostitution.

Monday, January 12

Today, in class we began presentations of the robber baron/immigrants project. See fusion for the grading rubric.

Tuesday 1-6-09

i appologize for being so late with this

passed out the AP US History 1st Semester Exam Review Sheet
the exam -160 5 choice mult.choice questions
-topics of ^ are on the sheet
-if some dont make sense dont worry about it
-not scantron but mchoice.. answersheet..

Ch. 20 Industrial Society 1890-1920
Economic Growth after the Civil War and Reconstruction
corporations changing the face of America *(ch.20 builds heavily on ch.19)
Rutherford Hayes is pres. > end reconstruction, remove troops from South and turn to making $
things are getting bigger and more complicated. buisness management changes
1. electricity 2. gas engine
Slaters Mill was water powered -> steam power tech. -> now electric.
cities w/ mass transit (horsedrawn trolleys) move to electric trolleys
amusements - parks can be lit up at night, movie houses..
Henry Ford - Model T automobile 1 model/1 color but cheap and reliable.
auto business stimulates steelmaking, glass, rubber, gasoline refining, road construction/improvement, (gas)service stations
railroads are big time. transcontinental railroadS* covering US.
1 buisness now has buyers all over which allows those building products to be very large companies. Telegraph - contracts.. when its coming.. all done from 1000s of miles away.
mass production technique. faster, efficient. replacing SKILLED workers with machines that are run by unskilled workers.
with the ability to mass produce, pressure to sell. beginning of advertizing.
as mult. car models emerge.. buy this car.
many products being advertized
* beginning of buisness cycle
produce so much that it stocks up in warehouses.. fire workers... stop production till surplus is sold. Buisness look for ways to even out this cycle.
railroad buisness is cutthroat. dirty tricks used to put competitors out of buisness
farmers in west that are serviced by one line.. prices jacked up.
railroad pools.. coming together and dividing the market.
robber barons. large corporations
gov. called on to regulate monopolys
1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. supposed to break up monopolys but with poor enforcement capabilaties.. unsuccessful. courts actually use it to put constraints on workers
mergers - popular (several small companies made into 1) one of the 1st is James Duke - 5 cigg. companies into American Tobacco Comp. James Duke - from N.C. (Duke University)
gas- Standard Oil
Westinghouse
Carnigie - US steel
Armour
International Harvester
General Electric
Swift...
LARGE companies create changes in buisness techniques
so big, 1 owner cant manage
college ed. to buisness management
professional managers. push for mor scientific methods (scientific management)-term
they could make more $ if they made workers more efficient. Frederick Taylor - time/motion studies. watch workers.. when they take breaks.. wasted movement.. and reduce
product was a repetitive.. assembly line. the belt would bring the thing to the worker.. no movement. accident rate up but more efficient. workers dont like it.
Henry Ford tries this method and workers quit. pay raise to keep job.. $5 a day. 2x industry av.
Newport RI - mansions - huge= summer cottages for robber barrons
scrutinized for thier lavish lifestyles. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Leland Stanford - lack of concern for workers causes worker unrest. some have 2nd thoughts on Social Darwinism (fittest are the wealthy)
Andrew Carnigie has so much $ that he doesnt know what to do with it. some develop a sense of conscience.
Gospel of Wealth - deserve thier wealth - theyre wealthy bc theyre the best. - no incentive to help others. wrestles with this idea.. wants to help communities not individuals. Carnigie builds libraries. John Rockefeller - University of Chicago - Rockefeller Foundation funds research institutes
this wasnt totally bc of a change of heart.. there was a push for these rich guys to start helping people.. called the muckrakers.. look into the monopolists actions/ spending habits. Ida Tarbell does Standard Oil for example.

Reaally late...

On Monday, January 5th, Mr. Gottschalk handed back our DBQ essays and showed us the events that should have been used in the DBQ's and how they corresponded to the documents.

January 8, 2009

African American Labor & Community

Unlike immigrant african americans remained predominatley rural and southern.

• Most were sharecroppers and avid tenant farmers
• African-americans were easily taken advantage of

White landowners forced sharecroppers to accept artificially low prices for their crops and charged high prices for seeds, tools and groceries.

- most sharecroppers were mired in poverty and debt

Some African-americans migrated to the industrial areas of the south to work in iron and coal mines and furniture and cigarett manufacturing. Also as rail road track layers, longshoremen, and as steel workers.

Some African Americans went North to work on the fringe of the industry as janitors, elevator operators, teamsters, longshoremen and servants.

In Southern industry Black's endures hardships and indignitites like being marched to work and being paid only once a month. JIM CROW LAWS (be sure you know the difference b/w these JCL and Black codes!) which lasted 60 yrs. were passed in every southern legeslature in the 1890's. Legalized rigid segregation/serperation of black and whites. The north didnt have Jim Crow Laws, however they did experience extreme cases of prejiduce.

- Industrialist hired european immigrants over migrant blacks.

-even when whites were on strike were they offered work

-european immigrants pushed blacks out of their established jobs, which destroyed black middle class

- residentila areas became more heavily segregated.

northern blacks proved to be very resourceful

- they built black churches, estates agencies, funeral homes, grocery stores, newspapers, resteraunts etc...

(Booker T Washington argued that blacks should devout themselves to self help and self suffiency as first priority)

Community building was more difficult for blacks they were often poor and smaller.

Workers and Unions

-early decades of 20th century factory workers were in fragile economic condition. There only hope lay within unions powerful enough to wrest wage concessions with reluctant employers. Knights of Labor-failes. Federal and state gov. had shown themselves willing to use military force to break them apart. The court repeatledly found unions in violation of the Sherman Anti-TRust Act. Prior to 1916 no federal laws protected the right of workers to organize or required employers to bargain with workers.

The environment made the major labor organizations of the day- AMerican federation of Labor- more timid and conservative. Poured most effort into organizing craft or skilled workers like carpenters, plumbers, painters and machanics.

Employers negotiated contracts and trade agreemants with craft unions that stipulated the wages of workers, the hours they would work and the rules under which new workers could join the trade.

The AFL withdrew from political activism. It's "business Unionism" took most of its force from Samuel Gompers. Still the AFL had limited sucess.

It's 2 million members were only a small portion of the work force and it had distanced itself from unskilled and semi-skilled workers.

Gompers allowed the united mine workers and the international ladies garmet workers union who represented unskilled and semi skilled workers to participate in the AFL.

AFL craftsmen were generally prejudiced against the "new immigrants" from southern and easter europe, and african americans.

jan.7 notes :]

January 7, 2009

This morning was absolutely miserable due to the large amount of rain. In class today, we took notes which were a continuation from those taken yesterday.

Rich Industrialists:

• they looked to keep money and income for themselves.
• eventually, they aided the community (generally once they were ready to retire).
• Carnegie advocated a "Gospel of Wealth". he began the trend of donating money to the community (and not individuals).
• they are the driving force behind industrialization.

Obsession with Physical and Racial Fitness;

• the 1890s were a time of heightened enthusiasms for competitive sports, physical fitness, and outdoor recreation.
• ^ college football became important
• ^ women got involved in sports and began dressing accordingly
• this enthusiasm for sports was in part a reaction the the regimentation of industrial society
• racialist thinking received "scientific" sanction.
• ^ many intellectuals believed society developed according to Darwin's "survival of the fittest."
• ^ if this were the case then the wealth of the industrialist made anglo-saxons the fittest compared to the immigrants.

Immigration:

• 1880 - 1914 - new immigrants came from eastern and southern Europe (italians, russian and polish jews, hungarians, slavs, greeks, turks, and others)
• old immigrants had been from Great Britain, Scandanavia, and Germany; they were considered racially fit.
• new immigrants spoke new languages, were Catholic, Greek orthodox, or Jews, were rural peasants unused to the city atmosphere, and come from countries with limited democratic experience
• ^ most came because of economic hardship
• ^ most came intending to find work, save, and return home
• ^ while in 1880, there were some Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Mexican and French Canadian immigration. the U.S. refused to admit Chinese immigrants after 1882 (the Chinese Exclusion Act) and Japanese males (Gentlemen's agreement) after 1907.
• most immigrants were European,
• ^ between 1900 and 1910 immigrants made up of 70% of the workforce.
• ^ they took the hardest, least desirable jobs: building railroads, minding coal, making steel, packing meat at slaughterhouses (upton sinclair, a muckraker, wrote the Jungle), garment making sweat shop work.
• working conditions were difficult.
• ^ few states restricted child labor (over 25% of boys and 10% of girls between 10-15 were employed)
• ^ injuries were common.
• ^ fire at the Triange Shirtwaist Company in New York; 146 workers died; mostly young women and teenagers because they were on the upper stories; no fire escapes; doors locked on each floor.
• ^ work weeks averaged 60 hours; six ten hour days.
• living conditions weren't much better.

Corrupt City Governments & Organized Crime Grew:

• a contractor eager to win a citycontract would find it necessary to "pay off" government officials who could award the contract. this is "graft."
• holding office paid so well that politicians built political organizations called "machines" to guarentee their re-election. contracts went to those who offered the most graft. the head of the machine, usually the mayor, was known as a "boss."
• the machines used word bosses to win the loyalty of city-dwellers - particularly immigrants by helping them find jobs, homes, and sometimes food or clothing.
• organized crime often came in the form of gansters who threatened small manufacturers and contractors with violence and economic ruin if they did not pay for "protection."

After these notes, we watched a powerful video about the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York. This event greatly changed the attitude in the country.

the endddd , (by lindsay bakum).

Notes for 1/7/09

Today we took some notes and watched a really depressing movie about the shirtwaist factory fire.
Robber Baron recap
They were both good and bad.

• Good- helped economy grow exponentially and led to innovation in technology in their respective areas. Donated large sums of money to philanthropist type charities; ie schools, libraries concert halls etc. they believed in helping the community not the individual. Believed they deserved their wealth but should give back to community.

• The Bad: they had horrible conditions for their workers. They controlled monopolies that didn't wouldn't let any type of competition in the market which hurt consumers if they raised prices.

Brief 1890's review
sports

• College football especially gained new crowds and the ivy league dominated the field.
• The general consensus about sports were that they were only for the rich.
• No one else had time because they were to busy trying to survive and have food for their family.

Racism
New thought in concept of racism.

• WASP's-(White Anglo Saxon Protestants) and germans aka the old immigrants wanted to prove they were physically superior to blacks and new immigrants.
• racial stereotyping also recieved scientific sanction and followed the idea of social darwinism.
• The basic idea was the people who were doing well deserved it and were more "fit" to be superior

Immigration

• Two groups of immigrants could be seen.

Old

• (pre civil war)- England, Ireland, Germany Scandinavia
• were mostly protestant (except irish)

New

• Italians (majority) Russians, Polish Jews, Hungarians, Slavs, Greeks and Turks
• new immigrants spoke many new languages that hadn't been heard in the U.S. before
• they were mostly greek orthodox or jewish, Italians were Roman Catholic
• Were mostly rural peasants who were not used to big cities and had little experience with democracy
• Came to work, save money and go back to old country to have better life

Other Immigrants

• in 1880 there were Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Mexican and French Canadian immigrants
• Towards turn of the century U.S. citizens start disliking the other immigrants
• discontent is so great that Chinese exclusion act of 1882 refuses any new Chinese immigrants.
• Disputes between Japanese and San Fransisco gov causes gentlemens agreement in 1907 which bans any further male Japanese from entering U.S.
• Most Chinese and Japanese immigrants worked railway
  
• majority of immigrants were male who had come to work and eventually bring a wife or family to U.S.
  
• The exclusion acts (above) ended these hopes

Random fact

• San Fransisco gov. threw Chinese and Japanese kids out of public schools due to an argument that led to the gentlemens agreement act.
  

Immigrants and the workforce

• Most immigrants were European
• between 1900-1910 made up 70% workforce.
• took the hardest least desirable jobs
• railroad building, coal mining, steel mills, meatpacking, all were basically sweatshops
• had bad working conditions
• few states had restricted child labor laws so 25% boys and 10% girls ages 10-15 were put to work
• injuries were common
• triangle shirtwaist Co. factory burned in New York killing 146 mostly young women workers
• it didn't have any functioning fire escapes
• the doors were locked from the outside supposedly to keep out union organizers but were really to make sure the workers didn't cut their workday short
• workdays were 10 hours and workweek was 60 hours
• had poor living conditions

Corruption and Crime of big cities

• government officials who wanted to be reelected would create political machines to assure their win
• head of political machine was the "boss"
• almost all were corrupt
• Tweed boss and his inner circle was a good example
• machines used ward bosses to win loyalty of city dwellers and new immigrants for their party. usually gave food, clothes, job or house in exchange for their vote.
• contractors who wanted a city contract could pay off government officials to get contract,
• called a graft

Organized crime

• organized crime was mostly gangster activity
• they threatened small manufacturers and contractors with violence and ruin if they didn't pay for "protection"

Black Labor

• Unlike immigrants, they were predominantly rural workers

we stopped here and watched the movie, here are some key points

• March 25 1911 employees were trying to reach their quotas,
• 4:45, 15 minutes left in work day someone dropped a match or cigarette that fell on a pile of fabric on the 8th floor
  
• fire quickly erupted and spread
• the doors had been locked so their was no way to escape
• people were pushed against the doors and were crushed or died of smoke inhalation early
• others tried the fire escape.
  
• after about 10 people got on a fire escape it collapsed
  
• the 10th floor got out with the help of a nearby building
• many on lower floors made it out by elevator
• by 4:55 all elevators stopped working with 200 people trapped inside
• the fire department had a quick response time with the most advanced equipment in the country but it was useles
• the water pressure failed to put the fire out quickly and the ladders only reached the 6th floor
• people began jumping out of windows to their deaths.
  
• 146 mostly young women died
• the event was over in 30 minutes
  
• the fire department found 19 engagement rings on the floor when they checked the next day
• it took 3 days to identify all the bodies and 7 were so badly burned no one could identify them
• a special service was held for them and 120,000 people joined the procession in the rain while many others watched on the sidewalk
• it had been one of the worst industrial accidents ever
• led to strict codes for safety
  

history on monday, jan 5

sorry it's late and a little pointless, but here's what we did on Monday:
we reviewed our tests and went over questions that we had, then we talked about the robber barons project and got our groups for that.
it's due next monday, so you should start researching stuff
after that, we talked for the rest of the time about our DBQ's, which he handed back. He spent a lot of time reminding us to:
1) cover the entire time frame, don't just start at the end or just do the beginning
2) You don't have to analyze the documents like you did in World History, the apush DBQ's are different, they depend more on outside knowledge.
3) USE OUTSIDE INFORMATION! this is the most important one. You should be able to recognize things in the given time period that were important and find how they can be tied to a few documents. All you have to use the documents for is to reinforce your idea of (insert outside information here). You also don't have to use all the documents, and stay away from the sentence, "Document A says:"
that's about it, sorry again it's a day late, i forget things alot