Summary:
The history of U.S. immigration from post-Civil War until the Depression.
American was a prosperous country with incredible economic growth between the end of Reconstruction and the Great Depression. It was during this time that "industrial expansion went into high gear because increasing manufacturing efficiencies enabled American firms to cut prices and yet earn profits for financing still better equipment (Henretta 488)." During this era, the manufacturing of steel, the construction of railroads, factories, and warehouses, and the growing demand for technological advancements, increased greatly. Philanthropists, such as Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, and John D. Rockefeller, took advantage of the situation they were in by investing large sums of capital into the growing economy. Carnegie constructed an enormous steel mill outside of Pittsburgh that became one of the worlds' largest. Mellon started the Union Trust Fund in Pittsburgh, which developed in its later years to one of the largest financial institutions in the country. Rockefeller, who was involved in the petroleum industry, built the Standard Oil Company. Philanthropists were not the only group of people funding the growth of Corporate America. "The federal government, mainly interested in encouraging interregional development, provided financial credit and land grants (Henretta 490)." As a whole, the American economy was growing at an incredible rate. It was due to this growth that countless immigrants from Europe made their way over the Atlantic, as well as African Americans migrating from the South, both with hopes of improving their own standards of life.
When Europe fell into its depression, many European peasants were struggling to live. It was not a struggle of providing good lives for their families, it was a struggle of providing lives in general. When word of the economic boom in America reached the European shores, many European farmers decided to pack up and set off for a better life in America. Farming in Europe was also advancing quickly, and due to Europe's population increase, many farmers were losing their jobs to more efficient machinery. The opening of jobs in America encouraged many to leave their country and pursue a new, happier, overall better life. However, after a long, hard trip to America, the only thing immigrants encountered was cold hatred.
Upon arrival in the United States, many foreign immigrants experienced extreme hatred at the hands of the Americans. In Out of this Furnace, Bell starts the book by telling the story of what might happen to Kracha if he wandered astray - ."..about trusting immigrants robbed and beaten their first day in America, about others who stepped off the ship and were never seen again, about husbands found in the alleys with their throats cut from ear to ear while their brides of a month vanished forever into houses of prostitution (Bell 4)." It was a common belief among Americans that immigrants brought disease, crime, pollution, and a thinner job market. Many Americans had an extremely ethnocentric view and they did not want their culture "contaminated" with that of foreign immigrants. So, when immigrants arrived, they were forced into poorly maintained ghettos, where the everyday life was put to the test because of crime, poor construction of buildings, and healthy living conditions.
African Americans were under the same pressure as European farmers. Once Reconstruction was put to a halt, some African Americans were granted a lot of land. Others were granted nothing. Those who were lucky enough to receive the land were faced with another problem: How were they supposed to maintain the land, grow a crop, and have a harvest if they had nothing to start with? African Americans were forced to borrow tools, seeds, and machinery, at horridly high interest rates, if they wished to be able to farm their land. Once the rent for the tools, along with interest, was collected, the farmer had barely enough left to make a living. If a bad harvest fell upon the hard working farmer, they would be in debt and never be able to work their way out. In order to pay off the debt, many farmers were tied into sharecropping contracts, a contract that held the ex-slaves to a job that would never be finished. African Americans looked at their "declared freedom" that came with the 13th Amendment and realized that they may no longer be formally called slaves, but they were in no way free. Their life in the South was no different than slavery. It consisted of work that never ended, along with little or no chance of making a profit. This is the main reason that Africans took part in the Great Migration and moved to the North. They wanted a chance to live their lives to the fullest, without regret or having someone hold them back.
When the African Americans arrived in the North, the life they lived was better than that in the South, but it was still, to no extent, what they wished it to be. African Americans, like immigrants, were forced into low-paying, full-time, extremely dangerous jobs. For both the immigrants and African Americans, it was not until several generations had lived and worked in the industry that their lives began to improve. The first generation families were forced to live in ghettos with others from their same area. It was also common for several different languages to be spoken within a few hundred feet of different families because immigrants and African Americans were forced to live wherever they could.
As more and more immigrants arrived from overseas, along with African Americans from the south, racial superiority among Americans continued to rise. The trickle effect, so to say, of discrimination was shifted continuously to the newest ethnicity arriving in America. In a way it was saying that until a new ethnic group arrives, the most recent arrival will be treated the poorest of all. This abuse was clearly evident in the jobs immigrants were forced to undertake. Many were forced into English-speaking factories where they could neither talk to other workers or management nor understand the warnings or instructions on machinery because they were written in English. In addition to the newest immigrants receiving poor treatment, was the high number of hours they were forced to work each day. It was common for an immigrant to work twelve hour days, seven days a week, and receive barely enough to live. One week they would work the day shift, the next would be the night shift.
First generation immigrants had no ability to afford luxuries. They were put through hell at their jobs and came out with nothing to show. It was common for several families of the same ethnicity to live together in a house to make the cost of living realistic to them. The life of a first generation immigrant, for the most part, never supplied the slightest bit of happiness. Thomas Bell's Out of This Furnace provided clear-cut examples of the ways immigrant families were forced to live and the dangers the faced on a daily basis. Upon coming to America, Kracha was set up with a job working on railroads in White Haven, Pennsylvania. Next, he moved to Homestead to work in a mill with his good friend, Dubik. After deciding he did not want to waste his life away at the mills, he attempts to become a butcher. After a few poor decisions, his business crashes and to help support the family, his wife must take other immigrants in to help with the cost of living.
While Kracha was working at the mill, he was a first hand witness to one of the most common danger while working at a factory. This danger was maintaining the blast furnaces. Blast furnaces had a tendency of exploding, especially as they became aged and poorly maintained because those in charge did not have the ability to properly maintain the furnaces. Kracha's best friend, Dubik, was killed during on of these frequent explosions. The saddest part is that the owners of the plant did little to improve the furnaces and were only setting up the workers to endure another explosion (Bell 54).
Throughout the novel, Bell describes the inequality of workers at the mills and the many hardships between wage and labor. There was also a major emphasis on the many fights and strikes occurring between the rich employers and the union workers. Unions were highly frowned upon by employers because they did not want to have to cut their profit by giving the workers better pay and better working conditions. On one occasion, Kracha was working under Henry Frick while Andrew Carnegie was on vacation. Frick tried to disassociate the union by bringing non-union workers to the mill. This in essence made the union pointless because the job was getting done with or without the workers.
Many immigrants got by on carrying hopes of being able to provide their children and their grandchildren with a place to live at no cost. There was no drastic improvement in the lives of immigrants until the second and third generations who, upon arrival, would live with their elder generation. This gave them the ability to save some of their salary which allowed for improvements in lifestyle. Kracha's daughter, Mary, fell in love with Mike Doberjack, a second generation immigrant, and they married. Mike's life was very similar to Kracha's - it consisted of countless hours of back-breaking work with little pay. Mike had always promised Mary a better life, and for a while, it looked like he was going to be able to keep his promise. Unfortunately, Mike was killed by a collapsing roof due to another furnace explosion, leaving his wife to support her and their three children. Mary and the family were paid five hundred dollars to compensate for Mike's death. However, this amount was barely enough to cover the funeral costs, and after the funeral, the family had nothing to show. It was apparent that the lives of these immigrants had not been improving in the slightest. Then, there was a change for the better.
Many of the improvements came at the hands of a president who pulled America from the depths of the Great Depression. Franklin Delanor Roosevelt ran for election against Herbert Hoover in the midst of the Great Depression. It was a landslide victory for Roosevelt even though most people did not know who he was. If anything, it was America's hatred for Hoover and their power to vote against him that put Roosevelt into office. Roosevelt knew the problems America's lower class was going through and he decided to tackle an agenda that would level out the economy and improve the lives of millions. Roosevelt, through a number of Alphabet Organizations, provided millions of jobs for jobless immigrants. To go with the jobs, immigrants began to join unions and were allowed to fight for fair prices. Their salaries were increased, their work load was decreased, and their lives started to look better. No longer did all of their money go to supporting a family - for the first time, they had spending money. They started to partake in recreational activities and enjoy the rising economy.
At this point in America's history, the immigrants' lives were looking better. Along with better working conditions, many immigrants began working towards the political aspect of the country. In a way, there was a subtle progression, starting with Kracha who thought he could receive no benefits from the government. Mike had his own political view, but he did not share it openly for fear of the consequences. Dobie, somewhat following Mike's political freedom, openly expressed his political views and who he intended on voting for. Mike's son and Kracha's grandson, Dobie, was part of a generation that reaped the benefits of the struggles of their forefathers. Dobie was much more of an American that those of past generations. He lived a luxurious life by taking advantage of time saving appliances, such as a washing machine, attending plays, and spending money quickly. Finally, after three generations of hard work, the life of immigrants in America was taking shape of the original view. It was only after the economic boom in the 1920's and the following depression, which made millions of Americans and immigrants suffer, that the nation once again reunited and worked for a better America.
WORK CITED
Bell, Thomas. Out of This Furnace. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976.
Henretta, James A., David Brody, and Lynn Dumenil. America - a Concise History Volume 2: Since 1865. Boston : Bedford/St. Martin, 2002.
This is the complete article, containing 2,070 words
(approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page).
