8.12.8

Identify the characteristics and impact of Grangerism and Populism.
            Immigrants played an enormous role in the growth of cities. In major urban centers, they sometimes made up 80% or more of the population in 1890.
            The industrialization of American had changed work on farms. New farm machinery made it possible to produce crops using fewer workers. In addition, women in rural areas no longer had to make clothing and household goods. These items, bought from stores, could free up time that would otherwise be taken up by these chores. This made moving to the city easier.
            However, life in the city was dominated by money. Poor immigrants, who had few of it, were left in the economic gutters. This formed urban crime. Orphaned and homeless children sometimes stole and did other minor crimes to survive. Gangsters roaming the ghettos of urban America did more serious crimes, extending to torture and murder. Jacob Riis, a NYC journalist, reported that “The gang is an institution of New York. The police deny its existence while nursing the bruises it receives with it in nightly battles against it. The gang is the ripe fruit of tenement house living. It was born there.”
            In the mid 1880’s, the pattern of immigration, which led to the crime and poverty crisis in the cities, began to change. Large groups of new immigrants, from south and east Europe, began flooding into the country. These people did not speak English, had a Catholic religion or were Jewish, and because of this they could not be easily assimilated into American society. They dwelt in racial ghettos and urban slums, apart from the natives.
            After 1900, immigration from Mexico, China, and Japan began to increase. They also shared the same problems as the European immigrants.
            The people came here for two reasons. One was that there were difficult times in their home nations and the second was the rise of opportunity in the U.S.
            The flood of immigrants was not welcome by all. There were great movements of Anti-Immigrationists during the late 1890’s. They believed that immigrants would lower wages for everyone, because employers would hire immigrants for lower wages, and this drove down general wages. Ethnic, religious, and racial differences contributed to the tension. Some Americans believed that the new immigrants did not fit into society. People found it easy to blame immigrants, who could not vote and were often unemployed, for the rise of urban crime.
            However, immigrants provided great help to America. They worked in the country’s factories, under minimal wages, and that resulted in economic growth. At the same time, the new immigrants and their children helped shape American Society. While becoming part of society around them, they enriched society with their own customs.


More Information:

   1.    http://www.publiceye.org/

   2.    http://www.populist.com/

   3.    http://www.clevelandstatecc.edu/