1900-1910 I. [antikvár]

Introduction At the outgoing of the old and the incoming of the new century you begin the last session of the Fifty-sixth Congress with evidences on every hand of individual and national prosperity and with proof of the growing strength and increasing power for good of Republican institutions. PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY TO THE CONGRESS, DECEMBER 3,1900 When President McKinley proudly addressed the Congress at the turn of the century, America was a country very different from the colossus it was to become. The statistics of the period (imperfect though they were in those non-computerized times) illustrate the contrast dramatically. In 1900 there were only 45 states—despite the optimistic 48-star flag on page 19. The total U.S. population was 76,094,000—barely two fifths what it would be six decades later. The average American worker earned 22i an hour. Automobiles were selling for about $1,550 each; and the truck and bus were still to be invented. In any case, fewer than 150 miles of paved highway existed in the whole United States. Keeping up with the Joneses had not yet become a national religion. Only about 18 people in every 1,000 owned a telephone, and there was still no such thing as a radio or an electric ice box or most of the other symbols of modern domestic consumership. People had other, more fundamental things to worry about. Diphtheria, typhoid and malaria were among the leading causes of death. A cold might easily develop into pneumonia, and more often than not, pneumonia was fatal. The most crowded occupation in the United States in 1900 was agriculture, for nearly 11 million people were farmers. But times were changing. Factory employment was already over six million and climbing fast. Nearly half a million immigrants poured into the country in 1900; within five years the annual total would be over a million. These newcomers were bringing change with them, and by their ways and their sheer numbers, too, they would help to cause change. But in 1900, most of the changes had not yet taken hold. Life across the predominantly rural countryside was still relatively simple and, as President McKinley noted in his Congressional message, quite good. For almost two full generations there had been no major wars. This, too, seemed quite proper. The business of America was peace—peace and prosperity. And it was a fact that in this simple time even the U.S. Government was prosperous: in 1900 the Treasury showed a surplus of $46,380,000 in income over expenditures. This happy circumstance would occur again from time to time until 1960 (page 9) when President Dwight D. Eisenhower proudly balanced the U.S. national budget for the last time—while standing in a hole of gross debt so deep that the achievement was barely visible.