Municipal Reform in Atlantic City and Jersey City

Central issues, problems or questions: How and why did progressive reformers attempt to combat and improve social services in New Jersey’s cities?

Significance: This lesson explores how progressive reformers sought to abolish political corruption in Atlantic City and to improve the delivery of social services in Jersey City.

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Social Studies: 6.4 (United States and New Jersey History). High School: I-2 (Discuss the rise of the Progressive Movement).

Objectives: After reading and analyzing primary source documents and listening to portions of a radio documentary or online lecture, students will be able to: • Analyze progressive reformers’ attempts to replace urban bosses by providing services to the urban poor, especially recent immigrants. • Assess the effectiveness of reforms designed to combat political corruption.

Abstract: Middle school students will learn about Whittier House social settlement and the work of Catholic nuns and then decide which institution was best suited to assist Jersey City residents. After learning about political bosses in Atlantic City and Jersey City, high school students will write a short letter to the editor of the Newark Evening News in response to a cartoon depicting Governor ’s campaign against machine politics.

Duration: Two 45-minute class periods.

Sources

Secondary Sources

Barbara Petrick online lecture: “New Jersey Settlement Houses and Urban Reform,” July 2005; available in the “Municipal Reform” section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org.

1 Martin Paulsson online lecture: “The Social Anxieties of Progressive Reform,” July 2005; available in the “Municipal Reform” section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org.

Martin Paulsson, The Social Anxieties of Progressive Reform: Atlantic City, 1854-1920, (, 1994).

Ella Handen, “Social Service Stations: New Jersey Settlement Houses Founded in the Progressive Era,” New Jersey History 108 (1990): 1-29.

Ella Handen, “In Liberty’s Shadow: Cornelia Bradford and Whittier House,” New Jersey History 100 (1982): 49-69.

The Life and Times of Frank Hague, co-produced by New Jersey Network and the New Jersey Historical Commission, 2001.

Primary Sources

Cornelia Bradford’s Report on Whittier House Activities in 1907. http://nj-history.org/proRef/munRef/pdf/munRefDoc1.pdf

“More Arrests Stir Atlantic City Talk,” New York Times, 30 July 1911. http://nj-history.org/proRef/munRef/pdf/munRefDoc2.pdf

“Plenty for Both,” Newark Evening News, 10 October 1910. http://nj-history.org/proRef/munRef/pdf/munRefDoc3.pdf

Materials: Teachers will need copies of primary source documents and worksheets along with access to a computer with speakers and, for the high school lesson, a LCD projector.

Background: A pioneer in urban reform, Cornelia Foster Bradford was born in 1847 in New York and later moved with her family to the rapidly industrializing mining town of Chester, New Jersey. A direct descendant of Plymouth colony founder James Bradford, Cornelia grew up in a religious and reform-minded household. Cornelia enjoyed the benefits of a college education, but like other women of her class and education was without a vocation until she became involved in the settlement house movement. The idea of establishing social service centers in urban slums originated in Great Britain and spread to the United States. At Toynbee Hall and other British settlement houses, visitors like Cornelia Bradford saw how charity workers lived among and listened to the people they sought to serve.

Bradford was one of the earliest residents of Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago, and in December 1893, she established New Jersey’s first social

2 settlement, Whittier House, in Jersey City’s poor and immigrant-packed First Ward. The year 1893 marked the beginning of a major economic depression that produced high rates of unemployment, hunger, and sickness in Jersey City and throughout the United States. As headworker of Whittier House, Bradford sought to address her neighbors’ needs as well as to inculcate “American” (read middle- class Protestant) habits and values among the largely Catholic and Jewish immigrants living in the First Ward. Whittier House residents provided their neighbors with liberal arts and vocational courses, legal advice, first aid, and recreational facilities. The Jersey City social workers in standard progressive fashion also studied and combated perceived social problems—such as child labor and poor housing conditions—by publicizing their findings and proposing increased government oversight.

Although Woodrow Wilson received the support of James Smith, New Jersey’s Democratic boss, in his 1910 gubernatorial campaign, Wilson promised to combat political bosses and organized graft if elected. Soon after he took office, Governor Wilson turned his attention to Atlantic City, long considered a hotbed of vice and political corruption. Under the leadership of “Boss” in 1910, the city’s Republican machine committed all manner of electoral fraud to prevent Wilson’s election. Although Kuehnle evaded conviction on charges of electoral fraud, he was later fined and imprisoned for “conflict of interest” as chairman of the water commission. But the fight against Atlantic City’s Republican machine was not simply an attempt to purify government. Rather, reformers sought to enforce moral standards (such as Sunday closing laws), and Democrats attempted to break the Republican Party’s political hold on the city.

One of Wilson’s major achievements as was the passage of the Walsh Act, a law designed to undermine political bosses by replacing the mayor-aldermen form of municipal government with a city commission. Atlantic City adopted the commission form of government, as did Jersey City. Despite reformers’ intentions, the city commission failed to eliminate political corruption. In fact, one of the most powerful political bosses in New Jersey history came to power as a commissioner. Frank Hague supported some of the causes dear to progressive reformers, including government regulation of transportation and public utilities and the abolition of prostitution. However, he used the commission form of government to build a strong political machine.

Key Words: Reform Assimilation Prohibition Temperance Machine Politics Political Boss Graft

3 Saloon Vice Settlement House

Key People: Woodrow Wilson Cornelia Foster Bradford Louis Kuehnle Frank Hague

Middle School Procedures

For homework the night before this lesson, students should read the section of their textbook on progressive reformers and urban poverty. The teacher should begin the lesson by asking students to describe how progressive reformers, especially settlement house workers, sought to solve the problems of the city. The teacher should write some key words on the chalkboard and ask students to define the terms: Progressivism, reform, saloon, temperance, tenement, settlement house. The teacher should then play the audio segment from the radio documentary The Life and Times of Frank Hague on the Horseshoe District in Jersey City’s Second Ward, available in the “Municipal Reform” section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org.

After listening to the segment, the teacher should lead a discussion based on the following questions: • How did the Horseshoe District get its name? • What is a gerrymander? How was it used in Jersey City? • Who lived in the Horseshoe? • What was the motto of the Horseshoe? What attitude did this motto reflect?

The teacher should then give a brief lecture on the life of Cornelia Bradford and the founding of Whittier House in Jersey City (based on Barbara Petrick’s online lecture, available in the “Municipal Reform” section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org). The teacher should explain that Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago was a model for Whittier House. Afterwards, the teacher should hand out Cornelia Bradford’s report on Whittier House activities in 1907. http://nj-history.org/proRef/munRef/pdf/munRefDoc1.pdf Students should read this document for homework and answer worksheet questions about it. http://nj-history.org/proRef/munRef/pdf/munRefMSWS.pdf

On the following day, the teacher should lead a discussion of student responses to the worksheet questions and then play the segment on social services provided by Catholic nuns from Barbara Petrick’s online lecture, available in the

4 “Municipal Reform” section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org. For homework that night, the teacher should assign students to write a short essay on the question: Which institution was better suited to assist immigrants living in Jersey City, the Catholic Church or the settlement house?

High School Procedures

For homework the night before this lesson, students should read the section of their textbook on progressive reformers and machine politics. The teacher should begin the class by quizzing students on what they learned about political bosses and machine politics. Afterwards, the teacher should play an audio segment from The Life and Times of Frank Hague about the inner workings of “the organization,” available in the “Municipal Reform” section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org. After listening to the audio segment, the teacher should lead a discussion focusing on the following questions: • How did Frank Hague gain his reputation as a reformer and “robin hood”? • How did Hague finance his patronage system? • What is the difference between a “political machine” and an “organization”? How meaningful is this distinction? • How did the Hague organization work? • What was the ward leader’s role? • How did the ward leader “deliver the vote”? • What was the “3 percent” or “rice pudding”? What were the consequences of not paying the “3 percent”? • From the point of view of Hague’s Irish American constituents, was the political organization better or worse than municipal reform?

The teacher should then tell students that political bossism was not exclusive to the Democratic Party. In Atlantic City, Republican “boss” Louis Kuehnle ran a political machine with the support of African Americans who worked in the hotels. The teacher should ask students to speculate about why African American voters might prefer a Republican to a Democrat. If the students are unsure, the teacher should explain that during this period African Americans tended to vote Republican, because they viewed the Democratic Party as the party of slavery and segregation. The teacher should also note that Woodrow Wilson was born and raised in the South and that as president of Princeton, he opposed admission of African American students. Then the teacher should distribute the New York Times article on Wilson’s efforts to combat political corruption in Atlantic City. http://nj-history.org/proRef/munRef/pdf/munRefDoc2.pdf Students should fill out a worksheet on the document for homework. http://nj-history.org/proRef/munRef/pdf/munRefHSWS.pdf

5 On the following day the teacher should begin class with a discussion of students’ answers to the homework questions. Then the teacher should deliver a brief lecture on Wilson’s attempts to solve the problem of political corruption by establishing the commission form of municipal government. The teacher should explain that under this new system of government, pioneered in Galveston, Texas, after a devastating hurricane, voters elected commissioners of police, fire, public works, etc. in citywide elections. Progressive reformers believed that this form of government would eliminate political bosses who thrived under the mayor-aldermen system. In 1911, Wilson pushed the New Jersey legislature to pass the Walsh Act, which permitted cities to adopt the commission form of government. However, Jersey City political boss Frank Hague’s career proves that commission government was equally prone to political corruption. The teacher should then play an audio segment on Frank Hague and the Walsh Act from The Life and Times of Frank Hague, available in the “Municipal Reform” section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org. Afterwards, the teacher should ask students: • Why, according to historian Thomas Fleming, did “every Irish American despise Woodrow Wilson”? • How was the Walsh Act supposed to eliminate political corruption in New Jersey cities? Was it effective? Why or why not? • How was Frank Hague able to portray himself as a reformer?

Then the teacher should use a LCD projector to show students the political cartoon, “Plenty for Both,” published during Woodrow Wilson’s campaign to become governor of New Jersey. http://nj-history.org/proRef/munRef/pdf/munRefDoc3.pdf The teacher should ask students to describe the figures and words in the cartoon: • What do the donkey and elephant represent? • How is Woodrow Wilson depicted? • Do you think the Newark Evening News supported Wilson’s campaign for governor? Why or why not?

For homework that night, students will write a letter to the editors of the Newark Evening News from the perspective of either a supporter or a critic of Woodrow Wilson and his campaign against municipal corruption. The letter should respond to the cartoon representation of the gubernatorial candidate.

Connections: The teacher might use this lesson to spark a discussion of current cases of political corruption in state and municipal government and of attempts to reform New Jersey politics. The teacher might ask students to consider what happens when one political party dominates municipal or country government over an extended period of time and politicians do not have to worry about re-election.

6