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1 PUBLISHER: Leslie Mackenzie EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Laura Mars EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Jennifer Bossert PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kristen Hayes MARKETING DIRECTOR: Jessica Moody COMPOSITION: David Garoogian Grey House Publishing, Inc Route 22 Amenia, NY FAX While every effort has been made to ensure the reliability of the information presented in this publication, Grey House Publishing neither guarantees the accuracy of the data contained herein nor assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions or discrepancies. Grey House accepts no payment for listing; inclusion in the publication of any organization, agency, institution, publication, service or individual does not imply endorsement of the editors or publisher. Errors brought to the attention of the publisher and verified to the satisfaction of the publisher will be corrected in future editions. Except by express prior written permission of the Copyright Proprietor no part of this work may be copied by any means of publication or communication now known or developed hereafter including, but not limited to, use in any directory or compilation or other print publication, in any information storage and retrieval system, in any other electronic device, or in any visual or audio-visual device or product. This publication is an original and creative work, copyrighted by Grey House Publishing, Inc. and is fully protected by all applicable copyright laws, as well as by laws covering misappropriation, trade secrets and unfair competition. Grey House has added value to the underlying factual material through one or more of the following efforts: unique and original selection; expression; arrangement; coordination; and classification. Copyright 2017 Grey House Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the USA Publisher's Cataloging-In-Publication Data (Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.) Names: Based on (work) Derks, Scott. Working Americans. Grey House Publishing, Inc. Title: This is who we were. In the 1900s / [edited by] Grey House Publishing. Other Titles: In the 1900s Description: [First edition]. Amenia, NY : Grey House Publishing, [2017] Edition statement supplied by publisher. Based on material from Grey House Publishing's Working Americans Series by Scott Derks. Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: ISBN (hardcover) Subjects: LCSH: United States Economic conditions United States Social conditions United States Civilization United States History Nineteen hundreds (Decade) Classification: LCC HC106.T DDC dc23

2 1900: Marguerite Globman, Inventor of the Streetcar Fender After the frustration of designing a sewing pin that she discovered had been patented before she was born, Marguerite Globman decided to invent something totally different that would save lives a streetcar fender. Life at Home Marguerite Globman was beside herself with anger. It was bad enough that she had to acknowledge that she was wrong, but to realize that her insufferable aunt might be right was downright infuriating. Five years earlier, in a moment of exuberance Marguerite had announced to the world that she had invented a streetcar fender capable of preventing hundreds of deaths in New York City when pedestrians were hit by the electric cars. Her aunt Sarah had told her to get a patent then she could talk. But when the newspaper reporter arrived to talk about her invention, he was so nice, she had no choice but to tell her story. Now, every time she turned around, someone was claiming credit for her streetcar fender; some were even making money off her idea. Worst of all, daily she had to hear Aunt Sarah remind her of her impetuous foible and what it had cost the family. Her brother, who had assisted in the invention, insisted that no one stole anything; the idea was in the air, catchable by anyone and everyone. Besides, a similar basket-like fender, created in San Francisco in 1894, was used by the pair as a prototype to design their own New York City version. Still, she stood by what she had said in the paper, My faith in it has not been shaken, and until every car in the United States is using a fender different from mine I shall not give up hope. Now 25 years old, Marguerite still lived with her family on 63rd St. where she was born and Marguerite Globman invented a streetcar fender. raised by first-generation German immigrants. 1

3 Like many Jewish immigrants, her father started as a merchant a peddler of kitchen goods but had managed in America so well he now operated his own women s clothing store. Marguerite spent most of her time caring for her invalid mother and advising her father on the latest young taste in high-fashion gowns, the latest trends in shirtwaist garments, and any fashion fads regarding the current bicycle phenomenon. Marguerite s first invention grew out of her knowledge of clothing an improvement on the straight pin, used so prodigiously in sewing. I was sewing one day and a pin I was using annoyed me by slipping out, Marguerite explained. So she thought to herself, What a good thing it would be if there were only pins that would always stay firmly in place. One reason dresses fit badly was pin slippage during the trying-on process and thus the stitches were taken in the wrong place. I decided to invent something that would be a blessing to dressmakers, Marguerite said. So she carefully observed her pins, noticing that when there were waves or corrugations just below the head, the possibility of slipping was reduced. I sent a model into Washington, and they sent me back the description of the pin exactly like mine which had been patented before I was born. The pin invention had never been put on the market. The only thing that inventor did with his patent was to keep me from getting mine. After that she was determined to invent something else. Her grandfather had been an inventor and her mother had shown herself, despite being an invalid, to be an excellent businesswomen. Marguerite said, One of my brothers was around a great many places, and I said to him one day to keep a good lookout, and if you see anything that is needed anywhere, come home and tell me and I will invent it. Then one day he came home and suggested that Marguerite invent a streetcar fender; He thought those were needed more than anything else fenders that would safely catch people and prevent them from being struck by the wheels of the streetcar. With the help of her other brother, she began work immediately and Marguerite s well-traveled brother suggested the need for streetcar fenders. Better dressmaking pins were Marguerite s first invention. explored various ideas for more than a year. 2

4 Life at Work Marguerite Globman s design for a streetcar fender first captured public attention when she appeared before the Board of Aldermen at their fender inspection meeting. There she demonstrated a scale model of her idea that was capable of collecting a small sandbag with its fender. While readily acknowledging that she had never had any interest in or knowledge of mechanical affairs, Marguerite, along with her scale model, made quite an impression. She and her brother had spent more than a year drawing probable car fenders on paper in search of ways to reduce the rising number of fatalities on the crowded streets of New York. Everyone fully understood how angry the public was concerning streetcar accidents; newspapers carried stories almost daily on tragic deaths. More than 300 people had died from streetcar accidents that year alone. Although Marguerite and her brother understood little about mechanics, they were able to draw their idea well enough to submit a patent application. We never made any special study of cars, Marguerite told the Board of Aldermen. I used to stand on a corner and watch the trolleys go around the corner, and I stooped down and looked under the car to see just how they worked. She used an umbrella to mark the distance from the inside of the trolley car track to the top of the pavement. I don t know if people thought I was crazy but I didn t care. Streetcar fatalities were commonplace in New York City. 3

5 Marguerite told the Aldermen, Our fender is the only one exhibited that follows the track going around a curve. That is a necessary point, I think. The fender also was designed to be adjustable so that it was used to project several feet as desired by circumstance. The small demonstration model she brought to the meeting showed how the fender would pick up obstructions on any track. The committee was impressed by her ingenuity and initiative, even though her patent application had yet to be approved. A great many people tried to discourage me, Marguerite told the newspaper. People who have invented different things themselves with which they have not been successful. But as I said I shall not be discouraged or lose faith in my fender until there is actually no hope for it. Since the 1880s, many would-be inventors Marguerite created a working model of her fender. had been attempting to improve upon the electric trolley car system. With the rise of factories and a flood of immigrants, America s cities were growing very rapidly and no one was sure whether electricity or compressed air was the real answer to the city transportation dilemma. Compressed air, which could be generated at central stations by means of water turbines or steam engines, could be distributed great distances, making it attractive to design engineers. In 1889, Washington, DC in an attempt to avoid overhead electrical lines experimented with a compressed air-powered trolley car system whose theoretical potential vastly outstripped the working model. In places like Wichita, Kansas, the city fathers were engaged in heated arguments between those who wanted the proposed Arkansas River bridge to be wide enough to carry the streetcar tracks, and those who claimed the streetcars would frighten the horses. Among the half million-plus patents that had been issued since the Patent Act of 1836, several had transformed the age: Charles Goodyear s 1839 patent for the vulcanization of rubber, Elias Howe s patent for the sewing machine in 1846, Alexander Graham Bell s 1876 patent for the telephone, and Thomas Edison s 1880 patent for the carbon filament that served as the cornerstone of the electrical lighting system. Each patent had been a catalyst to tremendous change because an inventive idea had found the capital needed to produce it and the marketing thrust to make it popular. Each patent had made its inventors wealthy. But most of the thousands of patents granted annually were simply minor modifications to existing ideas; some were impractical, irrelevant and unnecessary. Life in the Community: New York City In the 1880s, when horse-drawn trolleys provided the main form of transportation in New York City, pedestrians literally watched their step. Horses could produce 20 to 30 pounds of manure a day. 4

6 New Yorkers waiting for the streetcar. Multiply that by a couple of thousand horses, and electric streetcars became a welcome change for walker and rider alike. By the 1890s, electric streetcars had replaced horsedrawn vehicles. Ironically, paved streets came about late in the nineteenth century at the urging of bicyclists. In early 1900, Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn to provide transportation in a crowded city and encourage immigrants to settle more broadly throughout the boroughs. During the nineteenth century, New York had grown from an oversized seaport town into a giant industrial and commercial metropolis: the largest city in the United States and the second-largest in the world. In the course of the city s metamorphosis from town to metropolis, the native-born business elite who had controlled New York s politics since the American Revolution surrendered power to new political leaders drawn from the immigrant groups, particularly the Irish, who swelled the city s population in the first half of the century. Through Tammany Hall, as their seat of power, these new leaders gave the city a government that served a broad spectrum of special interests. Tammany quickly became a byword for bossism, corruption, payroll padding, and favoritism. By the turn of the century, New York had become too large and complex a city to allow for this state of affairs. The city required efficient and active government and officials whose first concern was not political patronage but rather the provision of urgently needed public works and services. When the business elite attempted to regain control of the city, public transportation was a priority. 5

7 The increase in New York s population, particularly from , was largely fueled by immigration from the poorest rural areas of Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe. The new immigrants customarily settled and tried to remain in the overcrowded areas of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where they lived in densely packed ghettoes. The solution, business leaders believed, was to focus on rapid transit that would disperse the immigrant population to the relatively undeveloped northern part of the city. In these surroundings, the immigrants would slowly become more like New Yorkers and reject corrupt city politics. Immigrants arriving in New York. 6

8 Section Four: All Around Us This Is Who We Were In The 1900s 216

9 Section Five: Census Data This Is Who We Were In The 1900s 248

10 Section Five: Census Data 327

11 Section Five: Census Data This Is Who We Were In The 1900s 374

12 Section Five: Census Data AK Figure Total Population by State: 1900, 1950, and 2000 HI WA OR NV CA ID MT WY UT CO AZ NM 1900 ND MN SD NE IA KS MO OK AR TX LA WI IL MS MI IN OH KY TN WV PA SC AL GA VA NC VT NH ME NY MA CT RI NJ DE MD DC Total population (in millions) 10 or more 5 to 10 1 to 5 Less than 1 FL AK 1950 NV CA HI WA OR ID MT WY UT CO AZ NM ND MN SD NE IA KS MO OK AR TX LA WI IL MS MI IN OH KY TN WV PA SC AL GA VA NC VT NH ME NY MA CT RI NJ DE MD DC FL AK NV CA HI WA OR ID MT WY UT CO AZ NM 2000 ND MN SD NE IA KS MO OK AR TX LA WI MI IL OH MS IN KY TN WV PA VA NC SC AL GA FL VT NH ME NY MA CT RI NJ DE MD DC Source: U.S. Census Bureau, decennial census of population, 1900, 1950, and

13 Section Five: Census Data Table 7. Population by Broad Age Group for the United States, Regions, and States: 1900 to 2000 Con. Part B. Population 15 to 64 Years [For information on nonsampling error and definitions, see source] Area United States. 46,588,508 58,354,551 67,016,264 79,990,343 89,677,880 97,945, ,977, ,246, ,706, ,900, ,176,778 Region Northeast ,723,676 17,224,115 19,434,126 23,125,132 25,445,473 26,662,780 27,430,563 30,491,186 32,680,921 33,815,724 35,320,314 Midwest... 16,279,011 19,270,935 21,978,395 25,401,122 27,517,384 28,870,306 30,319,767 34,345,288 38,561,854 38,767,808 42,328,597 South ,911,389 17,165,418 19,659,374 23,392,905 27,022,430 29,633,036 32,448,141 38,627,239 49,429,548 56,277,007 66,503,262 West... 2,674,432 4,694,083 5,944,369 8,071,184 9,692,593 12,779,179 16,778,951 21,782,659 29,033,716 35,039,632 42,024,605 State Alabama... 1,014,995 1,218,923 1,344,804 1,596,704 1,780,594 1,862,728 1,897,041 2,098,046 2,515,215 2,641,303 2,935,713 Alaska... (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) 140, , , , ,210 Arizona... 77, , , , , , ,140 1,071,895 1,766,330 2,353,498 3,312,327 Arkansas , ,960 1,017,658 1,132,554 1,238,012 1,150,689 1,022,241 1,144,700 1,432,510 1,484,852 1,737,637 California... 1,008,202 1,700,129 2,401,859 4,002,500 4,984,839 7,091,646 9,577,305 12,627,666 16,098,885 20,025,429 22,492,307 Colorado , , , , , ,416 1,026,729 1,375,150 1,986,862 2,231,572 2,967,758 Connecticut , , ,876 1,067,172 1,217,981 1,353,590 1,545,345 1,889,362 2,095,483 2,209,476 2,226,307 Delaware , , , , , , , , , , ,256 District of Columbia. 197, , , , , , , , , , ,222 Florida , , , ,932 1,290,668 1,808,028 2,931,617 4,050,170 6,181,977 8,156,426 10,140,216 Georgia... 1,226,736 1,485,021 1,679,867 1,784,210 2,007,822 2,135,936 2,328,706 2,849,173 3,615,010 4,377,845 5,582,685 Hawaii... (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) 385, , , , ,687 Idaho... 97, , , , , , , , , , ,030 Illinois... 3,030,932 3,714,530 4,283,042 5,221,401 5,621,277 5,865,339 6,104,817 6,850,092 7,553,394 7,512,829 8,207,764 Indiana.... 1,580,234 1,751,856 1,894,289 2,106,442 2,317,212 2,519,801 2,735,411 3,169,257 3,598,195 3,632,331 4,017,750 Iowa.... 1,361,103 1,408,558 1,537,525 1,586,398 1,686,651 1,642,207 1,572,000 1,667,330 1,861,855 1,743,891 1,888,548 Kansas ,328 1,061,521 1,109,930 1,208,341 1,204,427 1,211,932 1,266,030 1,365,399 1,532,161 1,571,159 1,743,889 Kentucky... 1,254,131 1,372,518 1,450,507 1,581,744 1,792,294 1,801,120 1,766,076 1,959,544 2,377,062 2,426,836 2,712,336 Louisiana , ,066 1,083,071 1,318,582 1,542,438 1,661,737 1,867,439 2,178,160 2,722,327 2,715,512 2,949,963 Maine , , , , , , , , , , ,521 Maryland , , ,123 1,074,850 1,263,881 1,553,635 1,881,577 2,464,030 2,899,598 3,276,631 3,560,333 Massachusetts.... 1,885,083 2,279,274 2,563,652 2,845,071 3,007,321 3,113,002 3,096,136 3,485,162 3,837,225 4,058,540 4,229,559 Michigan... 1,523,962 1,817,806 2,374,449 3,178,679 3,611,096 4,165,598 4,593,214 5,414,582 6,135,713 6,125,665 6,555,228 Minnesota... 1,042,720 1,323,178 1,529,752 1,657,965 1,890,531 1,889,454 1,938,148 2,246,625 2,659,484 2,832,228 3,264,730 Mississippi ,558 1,014,592 1,032,669 1,219,532 1,355,847 1,286,089 1,207,842 1,294,787 1,570,678 1,631,344 1,861,109 Missouri... 1,903,512 2,112,659 2,212,937 2,411,996 2,573,276 2,561,052 2,551,434 2,825,418 3,176,822 3,290,817 3,658,956 Montana , , , , , , , , , , ,116 Nebraska , , , , , , , ,548 1,002, ,927 1,109,641 Nevada... 28,853 61,242 54,407 64,159 78, , , , , ,415 1,344,996 New Hampshire , , , , , , , , , , ,339 New Jersey... 1,222,755 1,689,408 2,066,968 2,742,659 3,006,582 3,320,064 3,757,579 4,478,892 4,927,475 5,191,499 5,542,323 New Mexico , , , , , , , , , ,438 1,187,713 NewYork... 4,798,984 6,195,752 6,995,306 8,757,856 9,779,490 10,219,805 10,467,643 11,398,793 11,670,441 12,052,786 12,604,398 North Carolina... 1,040,395 1,231,275 1,423,891 1,851,926 2,253,864 2,524,909 2,722,881 3,215,276 3,944,593 4,488,880 5,426,836 North Dakota , , , , , , , , , , ,876 Ohio.... 2,658,540 3,155,032 3,792,778 4,403,470 4,789,023 5,184,058 5,730,737 6,546,634 7,132,915 7,093,048 7,446,296 Oklahoma , ,245 1,198,461 1,489,700 1,508,617 1,400,048 1,381,734 1,570,962 1,955,609 2,018,835 2,261,797 Oregon , , , , , ,669 1,039,745 1,294,897 1,739,891 1,838,436 2,283,645 Pennsylvania... 3,987,374 4,959,478 5,515,655 6,232,944 6,827,126 6,981,934 6,895,751 7,344,287 7,848,462 7,712,017 7,942,291 Rhode Island , , , , , , , , , , ,746 South Carolina , , ,565 1,012,375 1,177,805 1,266,075 1,381,867 1,611,847 2,076,154 2,323,636 2,686,278 South Dakota , , , , , , , , , , ,695 Tennessee... 1,162,962 1,290,757 1,390,982 1,625,261 1,888,060 2,067,400 2,130,208 2,442,981 3,027,576 3,248,486 3,820,124 Texas.... 1,694,573 2,273,275 2,837,979 3,711,934 4,270,762 4,950,998 5,662,052 6,876,203 9,339,092 11,189,354 13,869,284 Utah , , , , , , , , ,987 1,035,739 1,448,248 Vermont , , , , , , , , , , ,830 Virginia... 1,066,930 1,210,976 1,379,829 1,485,350 1,755,997 2,138,656 2,409,313 2,959,140 3,662,253 4,256,841 4,833,161 Washington , , ,378 1,070,653 1,225,349 1,540,751 1,681,975 2,129,377 2,776,465 3,215,869 3,976,922 West Virginia , , ,322 1,034,711 1,206,642 1,230,550 1,089,427 1,076,005 1,255,902 1,163,234 1,202,312 Wisconsin... 1,223,096 1,462,660 1,666,599 1,896,252 2,113,173 2,198,085 2,279,938 2,627,277 3,057,579 3,149,928 3,536,224 Wyoming... 62, , , , , , , , , , ,646 See footnotes at end of table. 527

14 FURTHER READING Anderson, Jervis. This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Aycock, Colleen, and Mark Scott, eds. The First Black Boxing Champions: Essays on Fighters from the 1800s to the 1920s. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, Benson, Susan Porter. Counter Cultures: Saleswomen, Managers, and Customers in American Department Stores, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, Binder, Frederick M., and David M. Reimers. All the Nations under Heaven: An Ethnic and Racial History of New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, Blake, Angela M. How New York Became American, Johns Hopkins University Press, Bradley, Patricia. Making American Culture: A Social History, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Briggs, John W. An Italian Passage: Immigrants to Three American Cities, New Haven: Yale University Press, Brundage, W. Fitzhugh, ed. Beyond Blackface: African American and the Creation of American Popular Culture, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Cooper, Patricia A. Once a Cigar Maker: Men, Women, and Work Culture in American Cigar Factories, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, Crafton, Donald. Before Mickey: The Animated Film, University of Chicago Press, Crunden, Robert M. American Salons: Encounters with European Modernism, New York: Oxford University Press, Ernst, Daniel R., Tocqueville s Nightmare: The Administrative State Emerges in America, New York: Oxford University Press, Ewen, Elizabeth. Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life and Culture on the Lower East Side, New York: Monthly Review Press, Flink, James J. The Automobile Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Gidlow, Liette. The Big Vote: Gender, Consumer Culture, and the Politics of Exclusion, 1890s-1920s. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Gjerde, Jon. The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Horowitz, Daniel. The Morality of Spending: Attitudes toward the Consumer Society in America, ; reprint, Chicago: Ivan Dee, Jacobs, Lewis. The Rise of the American Film: A Critical History. 1939; reprint, New York: Teachers College Press, Keil, Hartmut, ed. German Workers Culture in the United States, 1850 to Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, Langhorne, Richard. The Collapse of the Concert of Europe: International Politics, New York: St. Martin s Press, Lears, T. Jackson. No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Mencken, H. L. The American Language, 2d ed., rev. and enl. New York: Knopf,