[25], Violent confrontations between ethnic groups were strikingly common. They typically had strong neighborhood organizations, known as "political clubs", as well as one prominent leader often called "the boss". By issuing its own bonds, it was financially independent of either state; the bonds were paid off from tolls and fees, and not from taxes. They built elaborate networks of ticket agencies in Europe, offering low-cost one-way packages. [87] After 1970, both unions lost membership and merged in 1995. [63] Smith became governor in the 1920s but lost the presidential election in 1928, even though he did very well in Catholic strongholds. Mit unseren Newslettern erhalten Sie genau die Themen, die Sie interessieren. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) formed in 1900 and was a major player in the American Federation of Labor. The Liberal party was led for many years by Alex Rose, the leader of the hatter's union, a small garment industry union.[88][89]. The spirit of the progressive era infused New York politics, energizing the reformers with a condemnation of inefficiency, waste, and corruption. The city became known for innovation and elegance in architecture and culture, but also for gang violence, corruption, and poverty. In addition, the system operated training schools in music the arts, science, cooking, the needle trades, printing, and the like, with special schools for handicapped children and a large evening program for adults. [11][12] Seth Low, the president of Columbia University, was elected the reform mayor in 1901. [78], New York became the financial center of the United States before the Civil War, specializing in railroad securities. Via/ NYPL Digital Collections. The early years of the Great Depression further undermined the union. ", "The 1918 Influenza Epidemic in New York City: A Review of the Public Health Response", "When war made the city sizzle (book review of, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, I.N. New York's financial sector came to dominate the national and the world economies. The reform movement was strongest in the 1890s. Labor shortages during the war attracted African Americans from the Southeast, who headed north as part of the Great Migration. Fun-loving Tammany Mayor Jimmy Walker presided over a period of prosperity for the city, with the proliferation of the speakeasy during Prohibition. But the great period of European immigration which had only just passed its peak was halted abruptly by the Immigration Act of 1924 which severely limited further immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.
The wide range of schools included elementary, junior high schools, as well as comprehensive, academic, and technical senior high schools. One line of business catered to upscale tourists headed in both directions, with American and British lines in competition. Reformers passed laws in the state legislature against any emerging gambling venue. The favorite activities included games of chance such as cards, dice and numbers, and betting on sports events, chiefly horse racing. Different areas had distinct personalities to them and people who lived in different neighborhoods even began to speak with particular accents- having been influenced linguistically by Jewish, German, Italian, and other immigrant communities. [38] Jewish enrollment reached 40% at Columbia College in 1914; a quota system was installed to cut the proportion to 20%. The congestion at the port led experts to realize the need for a port authority to supervise the extremely complex system of bridges, highways, subways, and port facilities in the New York-New Jersey area. La Guardia dominated city politics as mayor, 1934 to 1945. After 1928, scandal engulfed City Hall. Boss … [81] John D. Rockefeller, of Standard Oil, expanded from a dominant position in oil to other industries as well as banking. [60] These elite establishments were illegal, and paid off the police and politicians as needed. Panhandlers -or beggars as they were known back then- held out baskets hoping passersby would be kind to them. With the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York became a powerful player under its dynamic president Benjamin Strong. He reorganized the police force, defeated the still-powerful Tammany Hall machine, and reestablished the merit system in place of patronage jobs. The most famous racing venue was Belmont Park, a complex of five race courses, a 12,000 seat grandstand and multiple stables, centered around a lavish clubhouse. Tammany was back in 1904 with a prestigious reformer, George B. McClellan Jr., the son of the famous Civil War general and an experienced politician in his own right. There was fear of German sabotage, especially in the aftermath of the Black Tom explosion in 1916. Nevins, Allan, and John Allen Krout, eds. There were massive building projects including highways, bridges, public housing, new schools, and expansion of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Some historians argue that the Italians were becoming modernized by American culture; their families became less patriarchal and permitted more individualistic careerism for women. [10] Republican local organizations were much weaker, but they played key roles in forming reform coalitions. New York City (AE: [nuːˈjɔɹk ˈsɪɾi], kurz: New York, deutsch veraltet: Neuyork oder Newyork, Abkürzung: NYC) ist eine Weltstadt an der Ostküste der Vereinigten Staaten.Sie liegt im Bundesstaat New York und ist mit rund 8,4 Millionen Einwohnern die bevölkerungsreichste Stadt der Vereinigten Staaten.. 1928, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_New_York_City_(1898–1945)&oldid=979138691, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Gurock, Jeffrey S. "Writing New York's Twentieth Century Jewish History: A Five Borough Journey,". Broad Street bustling with activity, 1905. The world-famous Grand Central Terminal opened as the world's largest train station on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier terminal on the site. [35], Fordham University took the lead among the Catholic colleges, adding a medical school, a law school, a business school, and other units. During this time, New York City became known for its daring and impressive architecture, including notably the skyscrapers which transformed the skyline. Much larger numbers arrived during the era of World War I as the Great Migration brought in blacks to fill more jobs at a time when immigration was suspended. New York boasted the nation's strongest financial system, a large upscale market for luxury goods, and a flourishing high culture based on many philanthropists, museums, galleries, universities, artists, writers, and publications.
The New York Times had shrunk to almost nothing by the 1890s. [39], By the turn of the 20th century, the city had 15 to 20 daily newspapers, and many weeklies. The port facilities again played their role in shipping supplies and soldiers to Europe. [90] The great majority of travelers from Europe came through New York City, and the immigrants did their paperwork at Ellis Island. They sponsored the Harlem Renaissance of literature and culture celebrating the black experience. New York City dominated the national industry, with Chicago and Los Angeles trailing far behind. After enthusiastically supporting Franklin Roosevelt for president in 1932, he broke with Franklin D. Roosevelt, moved to the right, and became a critic of the New Deal, using his national magazines and New York Journal to confront Roosevelt's agenda.[44]. When the Communists infiltrated the Party in 1944, the ILGWU broke away and formed the Liberal Party of New York. In the upper class, gambling was handled discreetly in the expensive private clubs, the most famous of which was operated by Richard Canfield who operated the Saratoga Club. It originated in the nineteenth-century "rag trade" of Jewish tailors, cutters, pressers, peddlers, and shopkeepers. It grew rapidly in its first two decades and took credit for abolishing sewing work in the tenements, establishing a six-day, 54-hour week, writing union contracts that gave preference to ILGWU members applying for a job, and setting up arbitration machinery. [37], The city's Protestant elites sent their young men to university-preparatory schools in New England and then to Ivy League colleges, and their young women to the Seven Sisters colleges or to finishing schools. The mid-to-late century were hard times, as the Bronx declined in the 1950s through the '70s from a predominantly moderate-income to a predominantly lower-income area with high rates of violent crime and poverty. Coupled with the harshness of the Great Depression, this gave an opening to the reformers.
Not only did the increasing population mean that there was always something to buy or sell in the Big Apple, but the ports of New York had a steady flow of both imports and exports. Membership included civic-minded, well-educated middle-class men and women, usually with expert skills in a profession or business, who deeply distrusted the corruption of the machines. Dock workers loading cotton, 1906. The 1939 New York World's Fair, marking the 150th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration in Federal Hall, was a high point of technological optimism, meant to mark the end of the Depression. He defeated a corrupt Democratic machine, presided during the Depression and world war, made the city the model for New Deal welfare and public works programs, and championed immigrants and ethnic minorities. Instead, Democratic machines flourished in each of the boroughs, with Tammany Hall in Manhattan the most prominent. Immigrants headed to other cities typically held prepaid tickets paid by their relatives who had already established themselves in the New World. [15] Tammany Hall went along, under the new leadership of Charles Francis Murphy. [54] Horses were used for transportation in 1900, as they had been throughout the history of the city. [79][80] There were thousands of successful bankers and financiers; a central figure was J.P. Morgan, whose House of Morgan set up national financing programs for the steel, agricultural implements, shipping, and other industries. The population was highly diverse in terms of ethnicity, race, religion and class. The reformers were never unified; they operated through a complex network of independent civic reform groups, each focusing its lobbying efforts on its own particular reform agenda. The union was much larger and stronger than the hundreds of small shops with which it dealt. The Democratic political machines in the boroughs generally controlled politics. During the rush hour, he made a series of bad mistakes, lost control on a downhill slope, and was racing at high speed when he crashed at a sharp curve outside of Prospect Park station. ", Edward T. O'Donnell, "Hibernians Versus Hebrews? Via/ Library of Congress. In the years leading up the the First World War New York was rapidly modernizing. The Malbone Street Wreck killed 93 of the 650 passengers and seriously injured over hundred more. Passenger steamships also carried steerage passengers at low rates. Pedestrian promenade on the Brooklyn Bridge, 1909.