IRISH-AMERICAN-L Archives

From: "Jean R." <>
Subject: [IRISH-AMER] America 1910-1914 - Immigration RestrictionLeague/TB/Reforms/Henry FORD/Pres. WILSON/"MotherJONES/Buster KEATON
Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 10:42:34 -0700

SNIPPET: In the late 19th century, a group of Harvard alumni, mainly lawyers
and scholars, had founded the Immigration Restriction League. It was the
first official anti-immigrant organization, and one of its central tenets
appears to have been the superiority of the white race. Its practical goal
was to push the federal government to create legislation that would limit
the number of new immigrants to the United States. But the first decade of
the new century saw the influx of unprecedented numbers of newcomers, with
nearly 9 million admitted between 1901 and 1910. In an effort to drum up
fresh enthusiasm for its cause, the IRL's executive committee secretary,
Prescott F. HALL, sent out form letters to many notables of the day, finding
support from, among others, the presidents of Stanford and Harvard; the
publisher Henry HOLT and Alexander Graham BELL.

1910: At the beginning of the century, some states required sterilization of
the mentally ill, and mental hospitals employed all sorts of would-be cures,
from insulin doses and hydrotherapy to lumbar punctures and physical
restraints. A Boston-based psychiatrist, Dr. L. Vernon BRIGGS (1863-1941)
tirelessly lobbied the Massachusetts legislature to enact groundbreaking
bills that decreased the use of physical restraints and introduced the idea
of occupational therapy. (BRIGGS would also be largely responsible for the
creation of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital in 1912 and later for the
enactment of the Briggs Law, requiring psychiatric evaluation for certain
criminals.) In 1910, almost 50 million Americans live in rural areas, about
42 million in cities. The United States population is 91,972,266. The
country is home to 2,433 daily newspapers. Roughly 4% of Americans have a
college diploma. Norfolk, VA, buys the state's first motor-powered fire
truck. Residents of Chicago board up their windows, coal miners refuse to go
below ground, suicide rates climb, and people take "comet pills" to protect
against supposedly deadly gas -- all because the tail of Halley's comet
passes within 400,000 kilometers of the Earth! The brilliant comet was named
for the English astronomer Edmund HALLEY. Also in 1910, the Boy Scouts and
electric washing machines appear.

1911: A hundred people die this year in aviation accidents. Acclaimed
American novelist, Edith WHARTON (1862-1937) publishes "Ethan Frome." (In
1920, she would be the first woman to win a Pulitzer prize for the "Age of
Innocence.") In 1911 "Photoplay" is the first fan magazine. Declaring both
organizations guilty of restraint of trade, the Supreme Court breaks up
Standard Oil and American Tobacco. At the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in
NYC, 146 workers, mostly immigrant women and children, die when trapped by
fire.

1912: At 19, Gershun "Gus" COHEN, an out-of-work printer from Whitechapel,
England, was headed for America to seek his fortune. He borrowed the money
to buy a third-class ticket on the "Adriatic" but discovered at the pier
that he would be able to sail on the maiden voyage of the "Titanic" instead.
When the great ship sank, Cohen was picked up by the rescue ship "Carpathia"
after hours of bailing water from his leaky lifeboat. In 1912 Woodrow WILSON
is elected president. Slang thrives: "Sure!" "It's a cinch!" "You look
flossy!" Mack SENNETT starts the Keystone studios, soon to be home of Buster
KEATON, Charlie CHAPLIN, and the Keystone Kops. Seeking decent wages as well
as humane treatment, mill workers in Lawrence, MA, stage the "Bread and
Roses" strike; James OPPENHEIMER writes: "Our lives shall not be sweated
from birth until life closes. Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread
but give us roses." (In 1912, the average pay for textile workers in
Lawrence was 16 cents an hour.) Led by the feisty Mary (Harris) JONES
("Mother Jones") who was born into a poor farming family in rural Cork, and
Bill HAYWOOD, the International Workers of the World (IWW) kept strikers
organized and gained new momentum in the NE. (By the late 1890s, short in
stature, admired by workers and hated by employers, Jones had become one of
the most influential figures in the labor movement. She attributed her
fearlessness and radicalism to her Irish heritage.) Life Savers are invented
by a Cleveland chocolate maker who wants to sell something sweet that won't
melt in the summer heat. In Wytheville, VA, a powerful, clannish patriarch
named Floyd ALLEN is found guilty of assault and sentenced to one year in
prison. In the courtroom, he declares: "Gentleman, I ain't goin'," and his
son and other members of the family promptly shoot five people to death,
including the judge, the prosecutor, and a member of the jury.

1913: Harry HOUDINI (1874-1926), whose real name was Ehrich WEISS, was
probably the most famous American magician of the century, and with his
breathtaking ability to escape from jails, handcuffs, strait-jackets, and
milk cans, one of the greatest showmen, announces to Managers in the United
Kingdom by Registered Post his newest trick and encloses colored
illustration. His water-torture cell, which he introduced while on a British
tour, required that he be suspended by manacled ankles and lowered, head
first, into a full tank of water. WEISS was born the son of a rabbi in
Budapest, Hungary. He took the stage name from Jean Eugene Robert HOUDIN
(1805-1871), the great French magician, and later made HOUDINI his legal
name. Also in 1913 Floyd ALLEN and his son Claude are electrocuted in
Richmond, VA, 11 minutes apart. Federal income tax is permitted by the
Sixteenth Amendment. The (Henry) FORD Motor Company is now producing a
complete Model T every 93 minutes. At the International Exhibition of Modern
Art, better know as the Armory Show, more than 300,000 visitors pay to be
inspired, shocked, and/or mystified by the 1,300 paintings and sculptures
created by European artists, including PICASSO,DUCHAMP and MATISSE.
According to the Chicago Court of Domestic Relations, 46% of unhappy homes
are caused by drinking, 14% by "immorality," 12% by disease, 11% by "ill
temper and abuse," and 7% by "intemperance of parents." On the day before
President WILSON's inauguration, 5,000 suffragettes march down Pennsylvania
Avenue, demanding the right to vote.

1914: Located in the Catskills and designed for charity patients only,
Otisville was NYC's municipal tuberculosis sanatorium. The notice below,
despite the severity of its tone, would have been received with enormous
relief. However, it was not until 1944, with the discovery of streptomycin,
that a true treatment for the "White Plaque" would be developed. "Notice to
Accepted Candidates for Otisville Sanatorium. Read this Notice Carefully -
You have been accepted as a suitable case for treatment at Otisville
Sanatorium. Your name has been placed on a waiting list. When a vacancy
occurs you will be notified to present yourself at the Admission Bureau, 426
First Avenue, Borough of Manhattan, for Admission. If under the influence of
liquor or smelling of the same you will be rejected. You must not take
liquor with you. All patients who have been accepted must supply themselves
with a complete outfit of articles described in this circular. These outfits
should be packed in a suit case or bundle. They will be inspected at the
Admission Bureau on the day you start for Otisville Sanatorium. Do not bring
a trunk. " Headlines -- Leo M. FRANK, a 28-year-old NY Jew living in
Atlanta, GA, when he was arrested for the murder of a 14-year-old employee
of the National Pencil Co. named Mary PHAGAN. Frank, who had been the
factory's superintendent, was convicted and sentenced to death. After
receiving an estimated 100,000 appeals, many from citizens and from
newspapers that saw the case as one of rampant anti-Semitism, Governor John
M. SLATON commuted Frank's sentence from death by hanging to life
imprisonment. Yet, within a year Frank would be dragged from his jail cell
and lynched. In December of 1914, Walter Hines PAGE (1855-1918), who had
been an editor of "Forum" and "The Atlantic Monthly" and a founder of the
Doubleday publishing company before being appointment ambassador to Britain
by President Woodrow WILSON (1856-1924), wrote a letter to his son, Frank,
expressing his conviction that America must show its strength by entering
the "war to end all wars."

This thread:

• [IRISH-AMER] America 1910-1914 - Immigration RestrictionLeague/TB/Reforms/Henry FORD/Pres. WILSON/"MotherJONES/Buster KEATON by "Jean R." <>