Immigration and city growth, 1880–1920

Grade 11 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   The 1882 law and what followed (cards A to C). Card A: "How long should the ban last?, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Before the 1882 law, Congress passed a bill that would have closed Chinese labor immigration for twenty years and barred Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens. President Chester A. Arthur vetoed it. The House of Representatives' history office reports that business interests pushed back and that Arthur hinted a shorter ban would be acceptable. A new bill, closing Chinese immigration for ten years, was approved within months. Card B: "The Chinese Exclusion Act, sections 14 and 15". Who made it: Congress of the United States. When: May 6, 1882. Where: Washington. For whom: courts, customs officers and the public. Why: to bar Chinese immigrants from citizenship and to define "laborers". Excerpt (Chinese Exclusion Act, chapter 126 (22 Stat. 58); Statutes at Large, vol. 22, 1883, p. 61): "Sec. 14. That hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship; and all laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. Sec. 15. That the words "Chinese laborers", wherever used in this act, shall be construed to mean both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining." Card C: "Census counts of people born in China, in brief". Who made it: the US Census Bureau, tables published in 1999. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to count the foreign-born population. Summary in our words, not a quotation: The Census counted 104,468 people born in China who were living in the United States in 1880, 106,688 in 1890, 81,534 in 1900, 56,756 in 1910 and 43,560 in 1920. Before 1980 the count includes Taiwan. Source: Census Bureau, Working Paper 29 (1999), Table 4.

2. 1.

   Ari checks the cards. Card A describes a vetoed bill and card B gives sections of the 1882 act. Which part of the vetoed bill survived into the act?

   • The twenty-year labor ban, which Arthur accepted once business interests approved it.
   • The bar on naturalization; the labor ban was cut from twenty years to ten.
   • Neither part, since a new bill after a veto starts again with no terms from the old one.
   • The permission for state courts to admit Chinese to citizenship, kept as a compromise.
3. 2.

   A student says: "Card C shows the 1882 law caused the fall in China-born residents." What can Bo say?

   • The count fell at each census after 1880, so the law's effect began at once in 1882.
   • The table shows the law caused the fall, since the drop followed the law.
   • The table says nothing, since a census count of people cannot be changed by a law on arrivals.
   • The count fell after 1890, which fits the law, but deaths and departures also lower a count.
4. 3.

   A student says: "The 1882 law cut the China-born population by 59 percent from 1890 to 1920." What does Esme make of it?

   • The fall from 106,688 to 43,560 is about 59 percent, but the table cannot say how much came from the law.
   • The fall is about 59 percent and the law's effect is shown, since the count rose in the years before the law.
   • The fall should be measured from 1880, which gives a much smaller fall than the student found.
   • The fall is about 41 percent, found by dividing 1920 by 1890, so the law's effect was smaller.

5. Use this

   Two reformers on the city (cards A and B). Card A: "Jane Addams on her Chicago ward". Who made it: Jane Addams. When: 1910. Where: Chicago. For whom: readers of her book. Why: to describe the ward around Hull-House, looking back. Excerpt (Twenty Years at Hull-House, chapter V; Twenty Years at Hull-House, 1910, pp. 98-99): "The streets are inexpressibly dirty, the number of schools inadequate, sanitary legislation [health laws] unenforced, the street lighting bad, the paving miserable and altogether lacking in the alleys and smaller streets, and the stables foul beyond description. Hundreds of houses are unconnected with the street sewer. The older and richer inhabitants seem anxious to move away as rapidly as they can afford it. They make room for newly arrived immigrants who are densely ignorant of civic duties." Card B: "Robert W. de Forest on how the new law worked". Who made it: Robert W. de Forest, chairman of the 1900 state commission. When: 1903. Where: New York. For whom: readers of the book. Why: to report on how the 1901 law had worked. Excerpt (The Tenement House Problem, Introduction; The Tenement House Problem, vol. 1, 1903, p. xvi): "The new-law houses have been an unqualified success. Builders and owners who were at first bitterly opposed to the law are now outspoken in its approval, and many of them state that the new houses are more remunerative [profitable] than the old ones."

6. 4.

   Addams calls the newcomers "densely ignorant of civic duties." How should Jun use card A?

   • As good evidence of the ward's conditions, but a weak measure of newcomers' civic knowledge.
   • As a count of the ward's residents, since she writes of hundreds of houses and many streets.
   • As a neutral measure of immigrant civic knowledge, since she lived in the ward and saw it daily.
   • As evidence about immigrants in American cities generally, since the ward stood for the nation.
7. 5.

   Card B says new-law houses were "an unqualified success" and that opposed builders now approve. What would make Kira trust it more?

   • Learning that de Forest chaired the commission and so knew the law well from the inside.
   • Finding that the book was printed in 1903, two years after the law took effect in New York.
   • A second source, such as city records of rents and builders' accounts, that agrees with him.
   • Seeing that he used strong words like unqualified success to describe the results he saw.
8. 6.

   Card A is from Chicago and card B from New York. What can Luz conclude from using both?

   • That tenements and poor streets were the same problem everywhere, since both authors describe housing.
   • Reformers in two cities pushed for change, but two accounts cannot show how typical either city was.
   • That reform worked in New York and failed in Chicago, since the cards differ in tone.
   • That Addams and de Forest disagreed, since one describes problems and the other success.

9. Use this

   New York and Brooklyn. Card A: Table "New York and Brooklyn", columns City | 1880 | 1920: New York | 1,206,299 | 5,620,048; Brooklyn | 566,663 | part of New York. Data: US Census Bureau, Working Paper 27 (1998), Tables 11 and 15 and its notes on individual places. The Census notes that New York annexed Brooklyn in 1898.

10. 7.

    New York's count rose from 1,206,299 in 1880 to 5,620,048 in 1920, and Brooklyn was annexed in 1898. How should Noah compare fairly?

    • Add Brooklyn's 566,663 to the 1880 count, getting 1,772,962, and compare that with 5,620,048.
    • Drop Brooklyn and compare the rest of the city alone, because the 1920 count is unclear.
    • Compare 1,206,299 with 5,620,048 directly, since both are counts for the city called New York.
    • Subtract Brooklyn's 566,663 from the 1920 count, since Brooklyn was not New York in 1880.

11. Use this

    Foreign-born people, 1900 to 1920. Card A: Table "People born abroad living in the United States", columns Census year | Foreign-born people | Share of all people (percent): 1900 | 10,341,276 | 13.6; 1910 | 13,515,886 | 14.7; 1920 | 13,920,692 | 13.2. Data: US Census Bureau, Working Paper 29 (1999), Table 12. Shares are the Census Bureau's.

12. 8.

    A student says: "Immigration slowed after 1910, because the foreign-born count barely changed by 1920." What can Pia say?

    • The share fell, so the claim is true, since a lower share means fewer people arrived that decade.
    • The count fell after 1910, so fewer people were arriving, since the share fell from 14.7 to 13.2.
    • The count rose about 30 percent, so immigration sped up, since the gain was 404,806.
    • The count rose by 404,806 while its share fell; it counts residents, not yearly arrivals.
14. 9.

    The 1917 law required immigrants over 16 to show they could read "in any language." What did the test measure, Ren asks?

    • Skill at the work immigrants planned to do, which the law checked on arrival.
    • Reading in the immigrant's own language, so it screened for schooling rather than English.
    • Reading by immigrants over 16, which screened mostly those from Asia, where schooling was scarce.
    • Reading and writing in English or the immigrant's own language, so it screened for schooling and English both.
15. 10.

    Congress passed the 1917 act over President Wilson's veto. What does the override tell Tala about Congress?

    Use the picture in question 9.

    • Public opinion was divided evenly, since a veto fight means the sides were equal.
    • Wilson changed his position after the vote, so the override shows he accepted the act in the end.
    • It had enough votes to pass the act again over a veto, which takes two thirds in each house.
    • A simple majority passed it again, since an override needs one more vote than the first vote.