Responses to Immigration
·    Restrictive Covenants:  sometimes urban ghettos resulted from RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS – agreements among homeowners not to sell real estate to certain ethnic groups
·    REFORMERS: used newspapers to promote the understanding & increase the visibility of the conditions in Tenements
·    “Today 3/4ths of NYC’s people live n tenements…We know now that there is no way out; that the system that was the evil offspring of public neglect and private greed has come to stay, a storm center forever of our civilization.  Nothing is left but to make the best of a bad bargain.”
·    Using photography – these conditions were publicized – in lectures & books
·    As a result of efforts such as these – NY State passed the first, meaningful, laws to improve tenements

Growth of Cities
·    As some left the cities to escape the urban decay – some cities like Chicago (Gold Coast) & Boston (Beacon Hill) & San Francisco (Nob Hill) – preserved areas for the wealthy near the city’s center
·    Rapid Growth put pressure on city officials to improve police and fire protection – transportation, sewage, water, electric, etc.
·    To deliver…Cities raised taxes and set up offices to deal with these needs
·    Increased revenue brought more power to city governments
·    Competition for government offices became intense
·    Some represented middle & upper class – others represented the newer immigrants
·    Out of these political clashes rose – the POLITICAL MACHINE
·    Political Machines = unofficial city organizations designed to keep a particular political party in office headed by a single “boss”
·    Likely this “boss” held office & hand-picked others to run for office – helping them win
·    Political Machines worked through favors, using an army of ward leaders, each whom managed a city district – handing out jobs & contracts to residents in their ward
·    In return, those residents supported the machine’s candidate
·    Individuals or companies wanting a favor got it by paying some money to the machine = GRAFT = use of one’s job to gain profit
·    Many blamed the success of Political Machines on the large number of immigrants
·    They said immigrants had little experience with Democracy and were poorly educated – taken advantage of by corrupt politicians
·    They helped the poor when industry did not