ny Hall was one of the famous political machines of the time. Kickbacks and bribes were only part of the corruption that existed during this period and the machine kept very tight control of its ward in one way or another. The immigrants accepted this as a way of life and in many cases, it was a positive feature for them. The ward politics had a way of protecting the immigrants in a world that was foreign to them.Because immigrants were arriving so quickly and in such high numbers, the United States was forced to pass a number of new laws. The first of these was the Immigration Act of 1921. This new Act restricted immigration to 3% of the current population.The urban culture was shaped by the influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Many of these immigrants moved to American cities and their culture and customs began to shape the cities that they dominated. The immigrants quickly found jobs when they came to the United States and those jobs determined where they would live. They picked these communities so that they would not have far to travel to get to work. Additionally, when they did settle down, they stayed in areas that resembled their own culture and way of life. Because of these ethnic groupings, institutions supporting their needs were developed. Ethnic newspapers were printed, saloons and theaters were built and mini societies were formed to support the native born immigrants. The immigrants presented a new source of literature. Museums, libraries, opera companies and symphony orchestras were among the contributing factors of this new culture. This culture was not always accepted by native-born Americans and other cultures. There were strong feelings of prejudice against the immigrants that often led to violence and terror. The urban culture often represented a source of fear and frustration to the people of the foreign lands because there were so far away from their homeland. In spite of these f...
