Political Machines In The 1800s

Political Machines

In the 1800’s the process of industrialization began in the U.S. The creation of many new inventions and the economic structure of this era made this possible. This caused millions of people to migrate to the United States from different country’s in search of better paying jobs, and a better living standard. The excessive growth of people in city’s and the diversity between rich and poor in this society were the main benefactors to the rise of political machines. This organization of politicians started by controlling the under-developed government’s, the people, and later this city‘s. Would you say that their practices had a negative affect on these city’s? Well of course they did. By the end of the 1900’s they
With these great opportunities of money, came great responsibilities of city management. It became too much for one person to run these city’s, so political machines were created to take the place of an under-developed government. Political machines had the power to provide necessities like; shelter, food, and, work to the poor immigrants in these city’s and, all they wanted in return were votes. The bosses that were in control of the political machines wanted votes because if they won in elections they would gain a lot more power and it would lead to a lot more money. When all these immigrants were bought with the basic needs of surviving, they would go and do what they were told which was to vote for their leader, and if they didn’t they would pay. For example: in document 1, second to last paragraph, it states “Political machines could be greedy and vindictive and often stole millions from the tax-payers in a form of graft.” Which in this case it was a form of collecting money, through an illegal way. After they have gotten the power they needed, and they have controlled the people by using intimidation and violence, all that was left was the city’s. So, these political machines ended up buying and bribing city officials like judges, police, and workers for their own personal benefits. In Document 4, titled “Why the Ward Boss Rules” it states how easy
When the economic structure brought in these “leaders” to the people of the city’s there were the immigrants who really liked the political machines because of all the help they were provided with. But then their were the ones that ended up figuring out that the help they were receiving came from self-interest and they despised being controlled that led to the bosses personal use. It was really easy for these “leaders” to gain what they wanted too especially knowing that many people in this society were ignorant to understand the value of