reason to their moving to America. They believe that they have the ability to start life anew in a new country and quite frankly, they may also think that the middle-class should just stop com-plaining since this is their country as well and they de-serve the same opportunities regardless of being a native or not.

Although the immigrants could pose the points of hav-ing rights protected by the Constitution and the ability to start life anew, the middle-class should have the upper hand since they are natives and by being born in Amer-ica, they are true Americans and they should be chosen above the new comers. They are accepting of the pro-tected rights but true nation-ality should be the deciding

The middle-class of America has diligently worked for decades without the fear of losing the opportunities that they at one time took for granted. However, now that immigration has become a prominent issue in this soci-ety, more and more jobs are being given to the immi-grants causing the middle-class to slowly sink into the lower-class of America.

The middle-class feels that if immigration contin-

ues, their lifestyle will be in danger of being overrun by immigrants from either Southern or Eastern Europe to Asia. The jobs that were once readily available to the people with only few aspirers to said occupations are now becoming a cut-throat com-petition resorting to the idea of Social Darwinism in the sense of survival of the fit-test. This means that the immigrants will fight just as hard, if not harder, than the natives to gain these jobs in hopes of a better life thus resulting in more of a want to learn the trade which could ultimately eliminate the native work force.

The immigrants could easily rebut this opinion by saying that they have every right to pursue what they want which is the primary

Background Information: A Chinese immigrant moved to the U.S. during the gold rush to make money and start a life for his family so that they could come to live here too, but then the act was passed. Dear Editor: Last week you wrote an arti-cle about the Chinese Exclu-

sion Act, and how it was a great thing and just what our country needs. Really?! You white American have no idea how hard life is! I bet you and your family live in a warm home together and have money to your name. I am a Chinese immigrant. I came here on a ship from my

poor town in China. We had no running water, no elec-tricity, and no money. Noth-ing. It is the definition of poor. I came here during the Gold Rush alone to try and make money for my family so that they could soon move here too in hopes of a brighter future. Then on that

Immigrants flow in and conquer.

factor between an American and an immigrant. Ulti-mately, although the immi-grants have the protected rights, it should not allow them to begin taking every job they apply for.

While this is a major problem for the future of American society, there have been several propositions to this dilemma. It is rumored that a prevention of Asians is underway. The name of the act is supposedly the Chinese Exclusion Act, although no details have been release. Hopefully the success of this act will lead to the passing of several more acts inhibiting the immigration of Europe-ans as well thus protecting the jobs and the lifestyles of the middle-class.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR 1-2

DEATH IN THE WHITE HOUSE 2

SEGREGATION RULED LEAGAL 3

TWEED RULES THE NATION 4

CARTOON ENTERTAINMENT 4-5

WOMEN ON THE RISE 5

OVITUARIES 7

Inside this issue:

1865-1901 A M E R I C A N R E P O R T E R S

The Gilded Times

dreaded day of May 8th this act was passed. This is sup-posed to be the land of op-portunity. I worked so hard, once I didn’t find gold and worked on the railroad. I spent long hours working in the extreme weather condi-tions for next to nothing. I was alone. All I wanted was for my family to be here in this wonderful place with me, but now that’s not even a possibility. Does it still seem like a perfect thing for our country? America, the land of

the free, is becoming so over run and corrupt. Does that make you happy? Are you proud of yourselves? I hope not. I hope that once you realize you are making these huge mistakes, you fix them. I hope that when you see how corrupt and wrong people are behaving, you try and patch up the mistakes because I love this country. I love what it stands for. I don’t want to believe that America can’t get out of this funk, because I can’t. So, about your article

talking about all the positive aspects of the Chinese Exclu-sion Act, before you write that article, consider the peo-ple who it has affected and hurt. Take both sides into consideration, and then really think about it. I am a Chinese immigrant, and this has ru-ined my life and my family.

Ming Lee

Ming Lee

culprit of this of-fense was assumed to be, and later identified as, Charles J. Guiteau. Mr. Guiteau was on the political scene several years prior to the assassina-tion. He claims that this at-tributed to him being men-tally deranged, which could possibly be verified by his office-seeking aspirations.

When President Garfield was found dead via the gun-shot wound, Guiteau was seized and was reported to say, “I am a Stalwart. Arthur is now President of the United States.” Sources say that soon-to-be-president Arthur was indeed a Stalwart and it is believed that the Stalwart party wanted to pos-sibly gain power through Chester Arthur.

When hearing about this

turn of events, several promi-

nent industrialists have been

heard praising this new presi-

dent. They say that because of

the limited coverage of federal

jobs, they feel that the politi-

cians will have to find a new

access to money, and they

hope that they will be the an-

swer to this problem. Not only

are the industrialists favoring

this change, but so are the im-

migrants. Although the exploi-

tation of these new and naïve

workers is evident, they are

happy just to have a job and

start a new life in this country.

On September 19, 1881, President James A. Garfield died as a result to a gunshot wound 11 weeks prior at a Washington railroad sta-tion. Charles J. Guiteau, who was rumored to be mentally deranged from his presiden-tial aspirations, was found guilty of murder and thus had to suffer the consequences of his actions, meaning he was hung. As a result of the loss of the 19th president of the United States, his vice-president, Chester A. Arthur, will assume the position as the Chief of State.

The trouble all began 11 weeks prior when President Garfield arrived in a Washing-ton railroad station. A while after the president was sighted at the railroad sta-tion, a gunshot was heard and spectators noticed that the president was shot. The

Page 2

The Gilded Times

Chinese Banned

From American

“IT IS BELIEVED

THAT THE

STALWART PARTY

WANTED TO

POSSIBLY GAIN

POWER

THROUGH

CHESTER

ARTHUR.”

that a state has the constitu-tional power to regulate com-panies operating only within its borders. The Louisiana Separate Car Act was deemed constitutional. The decision of the court was appealed first to the state supreme court in 1893 and then ap-pealed again to the U.S. Su-preme Court in 1896. By the time the case reached court Tourgée and his fellow committee mem-bers had finalized their strat-egy. They chose to argue the fact that Plessy was denied his equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and that it actu-ally violated the Thirteenth Amendment by bringing about the essential features of slavery by actually holding him there. Unfortunately for Tourgée, eight out of the nine justices were not convinced by his arguments involving the Thirteenth and Four-teenth Amendments. They said they were not applicable to the case because the amendments were concern-ing political equality, not so-cial equality. The law gives blacks political equal rights yes, but socially they were not considered equal at all. However, if one race be infe-rior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them on the same plane, so these jus-tices really have no means to what they declared. They cannot deem one race infe-rior to another. This decision of the

court to allow ‘separate but

equal’ has technically legal-

ized segregation within

American borders. Under this

decision, services, facilities,

and public announcements

will now be allowed to be

separated by race as long as

the quality of both groups’

facilities (supposedly) re-

mains equal. By confirming

‘separate but equal’, a lot of

responsibility and pressure is

placed in to the hands of the

states. States will have to

guarantee that separate edu-

cational programs are truly

equal among many terms,

including resources, reputa-

tion, and other measures.

Whether these facilities and

programs will truly remain

‘equal’ is doubtful. It’s quite

possible that this will simply

give the states and whites an

excuse to continue discrimi-

nation against the blacks.

There is certainly a tough war

to be fought ahead.

This year, 1896 the Plessy v. Ferguson case was concluded, and segregation was legally decided to be declared as ‘separate but equal’. Four years ago on June 7th, 1892 Homer Plessey was arrested. He was a small part of a group that had set out to challenge the Louisiana Separate Car Law. They were working to test the constitu-tionality of this Separate Car Law which stated that blacks and whites had to ride in separate train cars. Soon af-ter this group was formed in 1891, they appointed Albion Tourgée as their legal repre-sentative. After testing forced segregation in trains between states, it was found to be unconstitutional by the Lou-isiana district court. From there the committee went on to test the constitutionality of segregation on railroad cars operating solely with one single state. The committee completed this test using the test subject (the one who would violate the law) as someone who could techni-cally pass as white but had mixed blood. Using this kind of subject would allow Tour-gée to be able to question the arbitrariness of the law. A native of south Louisiana who could ‘pass’ as white, Homer Plessy, agreed to be the test subject. The plan involved the railroad conductor and a pri-vate detective who were in-structed to restrain Plessy until he got himself arrested. When Plessy appeared in court before the Louisiana district court, it was ruled

Page 3

The Gilded Times

“SEGREGATION

WAS LEGALLY

DECIDED TO BE

DECLARED AS

‘SEPARATE BUT

EQUAL’.”

Picture Above: Segregation

was suppose to be equal but

there was still much dis-

crimination and unfairness

towards blacks.

The Gilded Times

As many of you know, politics can sometimes become saturated with crooks and thieves, and such is the case today. Burly “Boss” Tweed has corrupted our local government to its core. By bribing politicians and many others he has been able to infiltrate almost every layer of higher authority and has even been able to rig several elections. Doing so has allowed “Boss” Tweed to allegedly make as much as $200 million dollars from our fair city. Boss Tweed has been able to scam the system and maintain power over anyone who tries to oppose him

though money and stature. A newspaper has recently published several stories with evidence revealing all of the corruption caused by Burly “Boss” Tweed. Not to be out-done Boss Tweed bribed the newspaper with $5 million dollars to not publish the story People who have pro-tested publicly against “Boss tweed has found their tax assessments mysteriously raised. A local cartoonist even started to publish very unflat-tering cartoons railing on the local criminal. The cartoonist, Thomas Nast, has been pub-lishing several political car-toons that depict the criminal

as above the law. Thomas Nast successfully brought the Tweed Ring to the attention of everyday middle class per-son with his clever cartoons. Tweed was exceptionally an-gry about this because not only did people who read the news paper learn of his dirty deeds but even illiterate peo-ple could look at the cartoons and understand that Boss Tweed was a bad man. The publicity given to the issue by media of all types has suc-cessfully brought the Tweed Ring out of the shadows of its operation and into the light of the public.

Page 4

Picture Above: ‘Boss’ Tweed took advantage of his power and influence and manipu-lated many people including the government.

Page 5

The Gilded Times

You think a factory worker’s life is hard? You think being a freed slave with new free-doms is hard? Try being a woman. Try being discrimi-nated against everyday as the weaker sex. Because you were born a woman, men want you to fit the role of house cleaner and child bearer. You are good for watching the kids during the day and cleaning the house then cooking the meals, and taking care of your husband’s every whim. You are only smart when it comes to reci-pes and home-making, and that is the only thing you will do in life. You cannot vote. You have no say. Your dreams of having a career are outra-geous. During this day and age, when you think of someone

being suppressed, your thoughts go to an African American freed from slavery or an immigrant who is trying to find opportunity. You don’t automatically think of a woman. This is the largest group of people who are be-ing discriminated against. Not only do you have white women with no rights, but when you move to immigrant women and then to African American women the rights of these people just decrease and diminish. Not all women want to be-come a homemaker, and they are taking a stand. Women like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Ida B. Wells were step-ping up for the fight of all women. Even organizations such as the National Ameri-can Woman Suffrage Associa-

tion were formed to try and take a stand. The nation real-ized how treating the African Americans the way that we had was morally wrong. Now they need to realize how we are treating our women is wrong as well. They are peo-ple. The women do everything

with little in return. They live

monotonous lives, and its

time for a change. Women

are just as, if not smarter, and

its time we use their abilities

to better our country. So do

you still think being a factory

worker or miner is hard?

Maybe physically it can be

demanding, but in reality its

nothing compared to the tri-

als that women face on a day

to day basis.

“NOT ALL

WOMEN WANT

TO BECOME A

HOMEMAKER,

AND THEY ARE

TAKING A

STAND.”

Picture Above: Women

march and fight for their

rights as human beings

equal to men.

Page 6

The Gilded Times

A recent rise in immigra-tion is changing the face of America as we know it. Since the early 1850’s more than 5 million European immigrants have set foot in our country and called it their home. They have been able to easily ad-just to our ways of life and become successful. The pre-dominantly German, British, and Scandinavian immigrants have been able to adapt eas-ily as farmers and many other occupations that they were familiar with. However, re-cently in the 1880’s, the areas from which the immigrants pouring into our country come from have shifted more to the southern regions of Europe. We are seeing more and more immigrants from countries like Croatia, Slova-kia, Italy, and Poland. A larger majority of than these immi-grants than ever before are illiterate and impoverished. The percentage of these poor illiterate immigrants coming into our country is raising yearly and because of this we are seeing the growing exis-tence of cities like “little Italy” and “little Poland”. These cities are large populations of immigrants from other coun-tries that retain much of the culture and language from the motherland countries. These impoverished immi-grants, who are now coming in by the thousands daily, prefer to take up already scarce space in factory and other industrial jobs. The large growth in immigrant

population has cause outcry from groups such as the American Protective Associa-tion which are against many of the changes that com e with such a demographic fluc-tuation. Such drastic increase in an immigrant population has resulted in the passing of several laws such as the Chi-nese Exclusion Act. The per-centage of illiterate impover-ished immigrants from south Europe is increasing yearly and will exceed 66% within the next decade.

Picture Above: Hundreds and hundreds of immi-

grants flow through American gates in order to gain

wealth and a ‘better life’.

Across

2. The twenty-third

president who was

only five feet six

inches tall.

4. A southern democ-

rat who had to take

over and become the

seventeen president,

when his predecessor

was assassinated in a

theater.

8. The twenty-fifth

president who was

elected during the

debate over silver

vs. gold.

10. The sixteenth

president who was in

office during the

civil war.

Down

1. Both the twenty-

second and twenty-four president.

3. The ninteenth president who retired after one term and died

in 1893.

5. The first president, and a noble leader in revolutionary

war.

6. President in 1881 and only served one year because he was

assassinated as a result of the corrupt spoils system.

7. The president from 1869-1877, and was a symbol of Union

victory.

Page 7

The Gilded Times

Thomas Edward Watson died yesterday, Sep-tember 26, 1922 of a cerebral hemorrhage in his native state, Georgia. Watson was born in Thomson, Georgia in 1865.

Watson from the beginning was a man behind the farmers. He began to sup-port the Farmers' Alli-ance platform during his years as Congressman, and was elected to the United States House of Representa-tives as an Alliance Democrat in 1890. The Farmers' Alli-ance was an organized agrar-ian economic movement amongst U.S. farmers that began ten years before he was in office in the 1880s. One of the aspirations of the group was to end the unfa-vorable effects of the crop-lien system that were affect-ing the farmers after the Civil War. The Alliance was de-signed to promote higher product prices through action taken groups of individual farmers. Watson was fully behind this alliance through-out his governmental influen-tial years. While Watson was in Con-

gress, he was the only Southern Alliance De-mocrat to abandon the De-mocratic caucus; instead he chose to attend the f i r s t P o p u l i s t Party congressional caucus. At that meeting, he was nominated for Speaker of the H o u s e b y t h e eight Western Populist Con-gressmen. Watson was a cru-cial part in the founding of the Georgia Populist Party in early 1892. The Populist Party advocated the public owner-ship of the railroads, steam-ship lines and telephone and telegraph systems. It also supported the free and unlimited coinage of silver, the abolition of national banks, a system of graduated income tax and the direct election of United States Senators. As a Populist, Wat-son tried to unite the agrari-ans across class lines, over-coming racial divides. He also supported the right of African American men to vote.

Watson served in the House of Representatives from 1891 until March 1893. After being defeated he re-

turned to work as a lawyer in Thomson, Georgia. He also served as editor of the People's Party Paper. He was involved with the people as a Governmental official from the Farmers to the Afri-can Americans and fully rep-resented all the people.

The funeral memo-rial service will be held in on September 30 in his home-town of Thomson, Georgia at 3pm at a local church. A statue will be built in a local park as a memorial of his ser-vice to the farmers and to all the people his hard work benefitted.

Thomas Edward Watson

(1865-1922)

The

Gilded

Times