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Difficulty: MediumImmigration, Urbanization, and Social Culture

"The massive influx of foreign laborers, who are unfamiliar with our political institutions and accustomed to a much lower standard of living, has worked to the great detriment of the American workingman. These immigrants are frequently used by large corporations to break strikes, reduce wages, and impede the progress of trade unions. If we are to preserve the dignity of labor and the standard of American citizenship, we must place reasonable restrictions on this unrestricted flow of immigration."

—Adapted from Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, address to the AFL Convention, 1891

The sentiments expressed in the excerpt were most directly a reaction to which of the following Gilded Age developments?

  1. A
    The federal government's enforcement of laissez-faire policies that banned corporations from hiring foreign labor
  2. B
    The emergence of the Progressive movement's efforts to assimilate immigrants through settlement houses
  3. The shifting origin of new immigrants from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern EuropeAnswer
  4. D
    The transition from hereditary chattel slavery to sharecropping in northern industrial cities

Answer

The shifting origin of new immigrants from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe
The correct answer is correct because the late nineteenth century witnessed a major demographic transition known as 'New Immigration,' during which the majority of arrivals came from Southern and Eastern Europe rather than Western Europe. Because these new immigrants were often impoverished and desperate for work, they took low-paying, unskilled industrial jobs. Organized labor groups like the American Federation of Labor viewed them as competition that depressed wages and undermined strike efforts, leading to labor-supported nativist demands for immigration restriction.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus author and date.
The excerpt is from Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor, in 1891.
This establishes the historical context of organized labor's perspective on immigration during the height of the Gilded Age.
2
Identify the core argument of the passage.
The passage argues that unrestricted foreign labor lowers wages, breaks strikes, harms American unionization, and requires federal restriction.
Understanding the labor union arguments helps connect the text to broader economic and demographic trends of the period.
3
Evaluate the historical developments that prompted this reaction.
The Gilded Age witnessed the rise of 'New Immigration' from Southern and Eastern Europe, who took unskilled industrial jobs and were perceived by existing unions as a threat to wages and labor organization.
Connecting the anxieties of organized labor with the demographic shift in the origin of Gilded Age immigrants yields the correct answer.

Key Concept

New Immigration and Nativism in the Gilded Age
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Topics

Immigration, Urbanization, and Social Culture

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