During the period 1875 to 1906, urbanization had a negative influence on American Society.  Using the documents and your knowledge of the time period, assess the validity of this statement.

Document A
The Chicago Tribune...on the Pullman Strike (1894)

Dictator Debs"..."This man Debs is engaged in a conspiracy against the commerce and industries of the nation and the rights of the people. He is rushing on with the fury of a maniac...His object is the subordination of the machinery of civilization to his treasonable ambitions and his insolent and desperate arrogance."

Document B
Source: James A. Garfield, Inaugural Address (March 4, 1881)

"The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by proclaiming "liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof."

 "The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people.... The influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years...."The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have "followed the light as God gave them to see the light." They are rapidly laying the material foundations of self-support, widening their circle of intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws.

Document C
Source:  Anti McKinley Cartoon, 1896

Document D
How The Other Half Lives:  Studies among the tenements of New York.  Jacob Riis, 1890

There was just one excuse for the early tenement house builders, and their successors may plead it with nearly as good right for what it is worth. "Such," says an official report, "is the lack of houseroom in the city that any kind of tenement can be immediately crowded with lodgers, if there is space offered." Thousands were living in cellars. There were three hundred underground lodging-houses in the city when the Health Department was organized. Some fifteen years before that the old Baptist Church in Mulberry Street, just off Chatham Street, had been sold, and the rear half of the frame structure had been converted into tenements that with their swarming population became the scandal even of that reckless age. The wretched pile harbored no less than forty families, and the annual rate of deaths to the population was officially stated to be 75 in 1,000. These tenements were an extreme type of very many, for the big barracks had by this time spread east and west and far up the island into the sparsely settled wards.

Document E
Source:  Supreme Court Justice John Harlan, Plessy v Ferguson, 1896

"Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law...In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case...The present decision, it may well be apprehended, will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible by means of state enactments, to adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution."

Document F
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Document G
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Pullman rejected all those who considered him to be a benefactor or a philanthropist in his vision of the town. He described his intentions in practical business terms:

Document H
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Document I
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Essay

During the period 1875-1906 Urbanization had a negative effect on the American Society. Access the validity of this statement.

In the late nineteenth century the United States was becoming an urban nation. Thousands of people moved into the cities which caused significant economic and social changes. While some of the movements had a positive impact, the great majority of these movements had a negative effect on society.

Economically, urbanization played a major role in developing American society. Many immigrants (As shown in Doc. 9), African Americans and rural farmers were moving into the cities. Because of this influx, many institutions such as William M. Tweed’s Tammany Hall (the boss system) and big business corporations came into power. The concentration of wealth and power with "robber barons" like Rockefeller, Swift, Morgan, Carnegie and Pullman had a negative effect with the people and the economy by the forming of monopolies. To counteract these organizations many legislative acts were passed to try and change what urbanization did to the economy: Interstate Commerce Act 1887, Sherman Antitrust Act, McKinley Tariff, Pure Food and Drug Act, and Federal Bankruptcy Act, etc. Despite all of this legislation, many people felt that President William McKinley wasn’t doing enough to help them in their struggle (As shown in Doc 3). One Pullman employee declared "We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell (Doc. 6)." Labor unions such as the AFL under Samuel Gompers and Adolph Strasser, the Knights of Labor, and the National Labor Union all pushed for reforms in labor contracts and corporations. When they were unable to achieve their demands, strikes and rioting became a common occurrence. Strikes such as The Pullman strike, Homestead Strike, and the Anthracite Coal Strike often lead to mass destruction of rail-roads, equipment property, and even human life. The reasoning behind these strikes can be seen through the following quote; "This man…is engaged in a conspiracy against the commerce and industries of the nation and the rights of the people. He is rushing on with the fury of a maniac...His object is the subordination of the machinery of civilization to his treasonable ambitions and his insolent and desperate arrogance (Doc. 1)." Urbanization caused an inevitable growth of business which created great economic tension which had a negative impression on the economy.

As well as causing negative effects on the economy, urbanization had a negative influence on the American Society. During these years, while a small percent of the people was prosperous the rest of the population was, according to Theodore Roosevelt (in later years) "the forgotten man at the bottom of the {social} pyramid." There was a great overpopulation in the cities causing the rise of tenements, urban immigrant ghettos, great fires such as the Chicago fire of 1871, and disease. Immigration contributed greatly to this overpopulation and also caused nervous tensions between groups of people (mainly typical white Americans-W.A.S.P) who tried to force these immigrants out (According to Doc 8). "Thousands were living in cellars. There were three hundred underground lodging houses in the city when the Health Department was organized…these tenements were an extreme type of very many, for the big barracks had by this time spread east and west and far up the island into sparsely settled wards (Doc 4)." Groups such as women and blacks were not only victims of overcrowding, but of social injustice as well. They were not permitted to be a part of such well-know organizations as the AFL and they were denied the vote. Outraged, women lashed back, forming their own unions such as the WCTU and doing socially unacceptable things like smoking and drinking (As shown in Doc 7). Blacks were severely hampered socially by things like the Plessy v Ferguson case where it was decided by the Supreme Court that "separate is equal" in regards to segregation. One Justice speaking out against the ruling stated, "In respect of Civil Rights, all citizens are equal before the law…the present decision…would not only stimulate aggressions…upon the admitted rights of colored citizens but will encourage the belief that it is possible by means of stated enactment’s, to adapt the recent amendments of the constitution (Doc 5). The justice here is referring to the sixteenth amendment which gave blacks the right to vote and had been circumvented by Jim Crow laws in the South. Even President Garfield spoke out on the injustice of this decision. "The elevation of the Negro race from the slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787 (Doc 2)." All of these groups suffered, whether it be from the social injustice, or their living conditions because of urbanization.

America, a society with little experience of great cities found urbanization greatly disturbing yet also slightly attractive. This urbanization had a great effect on how American society is today—even though at the time it was an overwhelmingly negative experience.