AMERICA 1900-1910 -- 'THE COCKSURE ERA' (Part 2)

SEIFERT

Posted By: David (email)
Date: 3/7/2004 at 21:04:48

'AMERICA 1900-1910'

'The Cocksure Era'

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Though no single fact could sum up America's past and present, the one that came closest was a casual item, appearing in the Census Bureau report for 1900, that brought brief fame to the small town of Columbus, Indiana. According to the report, the geographic center of population was now located near Columbus - a move of about 475 miles west since 1800. Implicit in the item were vast and ever-shifting patterns of migration: the arrival and dispersal of l9 million immigrants; the conquest of the western frontier; the rise of big cities where once had stood forests and prairies; the rise and decline of innumerable small towns -- and, no less significant, the survival of countless towns and villages virtually unchanged in size and character, ideals and biases. In progressing from the good old days to complex modern times, America was changing faster than its people knew, but it was also remaining much the same.

Clearly each community, whether rural or urban, was a special case, subject to a unique combination of forces. Old boom towns such as Creede, Colorado, petered out along with their payloads, while a corona of new towns in Minnesota attested to the discovery of the Mesabi iron-ore range. The commercial success of furniture factories in Grand Rapids, Michigan, cut into the business of country cabinetmakers as far east as Litchfield, Connecticut; the displaced rural artisans drifted into the cities to seek new work. But the most far-reaching influence on the pattern of settlement was the railroads.

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"God has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world. This is the divine mission of America, and it holds for us all the profit, all the glory, all the happiness possible to man. We are trustees of the world's progress, guardians of its righteous peace."

-- Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana.

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For countless communities, the route of a railroad made the difference between growth and decay. Along the 193,368 miles of track that criss crossed America in 1900, hundreds of hamlets survived or were jerry-built in the middle of nowhere, because they were needed to service the panting locomotives, which had to take on water every 40 miles or so. These forlorn way stations gave birth to some particularly graphic American slang: "tank town," "whistle stop," "jerkwater." On the other hand, many thriving inland ports, such as Little Falls on the Erie Canal and Paducah on the Ohio River, saw their dreams of greatness crushed, and were reduced to provincial towns, as manufacturers shifted their shipments from barge and steamboat to the faster rail freights. Even celebrated ports on the Mississippi were affected; Cairo and Hannibal and other towns suffered population losses traceable in large degree to the rise of St. Louis as a major railroad center. The decline of the Miss!
issippi traffic was sudden and steep. The lifetime of one former river-pilot Mark Twain, embraced both the heyday and the twilight of the palatial stern-wheeler. "A strangely short life," said the author sadly, "for so magnificent a creature."

To Be Continued . . .

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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
February 22, 2004