THIS USER ASKED ๐
Why were the tenement apartments crowded?
THIS IS THE BEST ANSWER ๐
Lack of money
Explanation:
Immigrants in the early 20th century came largely without money. They moved into an apartment and would immediately fly as much space as they could. They did this because their wages were low and unreliable. Most immigrants took jobs in factories that had almost no labor laws. People were broken from being a moment late, literally. They were affected by seasonal changes in manufacturing.
In 1910, the average factory worker earned only $ 7 a week, a woman $ 5 a week and a child (12-16) $ 4 a week.
Immigrants who were mostly unskilled laborers were not united because the AFL would only accept skilled labor and only men, no women. Immigrants did not have the power to strike or complain about wages, working conditions, etc. The owners of the mill knew about this and took advantage of it by paying them a hungry wage. And so in order to survive on the immigrants they had no choice but to get together in the tenements and help each other in that way.
In a study of tenements in Lawrence Massachusetts in 1910 I found 3 – story tenements with 75 or more people living in one building. Today, the same building was thought to be crowded with 25 people.
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