Political Machines free essay sample

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 did nothing that helped the city’s long-term besides bringing fourth greed, violence, and corruption between themselves. When the U. S industrialized, the urban population grew as much as these factories, corporations, and industries did. We will write a custom essay sample on Political Machines or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 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 â€Å"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 â€Å"Why the Ward Boss Rules† it states how easy it can be for these ward bosses, people in control of city votes, to buy out these judges so they can get charged for small crimes when arrested, but really their serious ones. As well as the ones abiding a certain topic, there are always the ones who contradict it. When the economic structure brought in these â€Å"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 â€Å"leaders† to gain what they wanted too especially knowing that many people in this society were ignorant to understand the value of their purposes, or simply there value of contributing to their purposes. For Example in Document 1, paragraph 4, it states â€Å"They helped immigrants to gain citizenship†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Many of the jobs for public-works projects were distributed by members of the political machine to their supporters.† meaning that they gave out great help to these people, and portrayed these bosses as social, political, politicians. George Washington Plunkitt, a member of Tammany Hall, also stated in Document 7 that what they do for the people is philanthropy, and that the poor are the most grateful people in the world, and they have a lot o f poor friends so everybody they know will eventually vote for their leader in elections. Which is relevant that these â€Å"leaders† provide a benefit for these people and they get a benefit out of it. And their gaining millions for doing this. In the real-world of where we live in, when a certain structure gets out of control with the amount of power they have, there is always a new form of power created to destroy, or stabilize it into an equal state. Besides the rise of political machines, also came the rise of Reformers. Reformers did exactly what political machines did. They tried to help the needs of the poor and they tried to fix the social problems that were affecting these cities. But without all the greed and corruption of course, reformers worked in a more civilized manner. Political machines started to crumble in this society when certain reformers specialized in what these â€Å"leaders† were doing to these city’s. They made political cartoons to represent what was going on. For instance in Document 3 titled, ‘Twas Him, the famous reformer Thomas Nast brought down the Tammany Hall political machine with his very detailed political cartoon, where it shows Boss Tweed and all of the other corrupt workers, pointing around and not admitting as to who stole the peoples money. Not only did it grab the peoples attention but also the governments. Progressives came into the picture when they thought it was best for the government to take more serious actions to the social problems that were created. As soon as the reformers did what they needed to do the structure of political machines slowly started to fade away. For example in Document 2, paragraph 2-3, it states â€Å"municipal government were another innovation made by reformers† and â€Å"Reformers advocated†¦.  issuing secret ballots printed by the state† meaning that if by creating municipal governments it can cause the power of these bosses to spread out to others and, that if they issue private ballot boxes, then no immigrant has to be scared in voting, and they could naturally vote for whoever they wanted. In conclusion these political machines; corruption, greed, and self interest did nothing to contribute a good cause to these people. Instead they were lied too, stolen from, a nd some lived in fear. It was a common good to their wealth. Its quite ironic how this era of industrialization came to unfold, I consider it a ladder. The first section was the cause which was the immigrants, the second section was the effect which was the political machines, and the third section was the solution which was the reformers. It had its own steps to leading to a better society. Imagine if our world never had a solution, like the reformers in this example. The high extent of power within these political machines are all solved because of a set of people who actually did something to stop this. I’ma apply this to the dictators back in the days. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini all rose to power, because they had the perfect opportunity for it, and its what they wanted, if there was never a solution or someone brave enough to do something about it, then imagine how corrupt our world would’ve been, under the hands of one and all mighty ruler. Doesn’t sound right does it? Well yeah life does need solutions, and in order to arrange that solution, there is an effect and a cause right behind that.