- The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
- The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
- The average wage was 22 cents per hour.
- The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
- A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, A dentist 2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
- More than 95 percent of all births took place at home.
- Ninety percent of all doctors had no college education. Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and the government as "substandard."
- Sugar cost four cents a pound.
- Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
- Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
- Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
- Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
- Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
- The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30.
- Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
- There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
- Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." But in 1909 the US government followed Canada’s lead and passed its first federal legislation prohibiting narcotics (opium) which would begin a one hundred year war against illegal drugs that continues to this day.
The idea of day-trading, a floating currency or even an industry called tourism were not even concepts.
In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded in the US and at the time it would have been unimaginable that an Afro-American could ever become President, but almost to the day, one hundred years later, Barrack Obama will be sworn in as President of the United States.
That same year, was the first time Canadian football teams competed for a trophy called the Grey Cup. The competition would see the formation of the Canadian Football League. Within a month or so another major sport institution would be formed, the Montreal Canadians.
In 1909, the transportation revolution was in full swing, the Cunard liner "Lusitania" crossed the Atlantic in four days, 15 hours and 52 minutes. Construction began on the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and construction also begins on the giant passenger liner the RMS Titanic in Belfast.
In Japan, Michio Suzuki started a loom works and at the time not one person in this new company predicted that in 1954 they would make the first of many motorcycles.
In 1909 the Silver Dart made it’s first powered flight in Canada it was funded by the Aerial Experiment Association, founded by Alexander and Mabel Bell and would launch the aviation industry in this country; it was probably just a coincidence that in Germany the first anti-aircraft gun was invented at the same time. The Americans would bump commercial aviation up a notch as well when the Wright Brothers secured a million dollars to begin producing airplanes; they immediately sold a Military Flyer to the Signal Corps for $30,000.
Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the first woman to drive across the United States with three female companions, none of whom could drive a car. For 59 days she drove a Maxwell automobile 3,800 miles, from Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California. What’s amazing about this event is that after one hundred years Hollywood has never made a movie about it. Interestingly after the trip the California State Automobile Association produced its first road map. In 2008 it planned to stop production of paper maps and shift to digital technology.
In 1909 the counter-culture movement would emerge as Mohandas Gandhi returned to South Africa from a trip to England to lobby the government to help repeal the Registration Act. He founded a communal farm named "Tolstoy" to help support a few members of his Satyagrahi movement. At the same time the first Israeli kibbutz, Deganya Alef, a collective agricultural settlement, was founded in Palestine. At the time no one really new who Ghandi was and Jews in Palestine were a minority in an Arab country.
Also that year Maria Montessori authored her first book, “The Montessori Method,” to explain the origins and applications of her educational theories. At the first book signing someone suggested she should start a school.
In 1909, Guglielmo Marconi an Italian engineer, won the Nobel Prize for physics for his invention of wireless telegraphy known today as radio telegraph. In this same year Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter, becoming the first radio broadcaster.
The Boundary Waters Treaty was signed in 1909 between the United States and Canada providing mechanisms for resolving any dispute over any waters bordering the two countries. The treaty guarantees that any navigable waters be "free and open" and stands to this day.
The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was a regional world's fair held in Seattle in 1909, publicizing the development of the "Pacific Northwest" a new geographic label to brand this part of North America . Originally planned to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush. Japan and Canada were the only two countries which would erect entire buildings at the fair, but their presence was enough to validate the "Pacific" theme. Nearly 4 million people visited the fair.
One hundred years ago there was a discovery that entire financial sectors could be controlled by only a handful of people. In the US, a government commission reported that the tobacco industry was controlled by six men with 86 firms that were worth $450 million. At the same time J.P. Morgan acquired majority holdings in Equitable Life Co now known as AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company. This was the largest concentration of bank power to date. At the time no one really new what to do about this growing trend.
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In 1909 an artist by the name of Adolf Hitler painted a series of views around Linz, Austria, including the watercolor "Mountain Chapel". Art critics at the time suggested he should pick a different career.
That same year another artist named Picasso sculpted the head "Fernande," the first cubist sculpture. Art critics at the time suggested he should pick a different career.
A woman by the name of Florence Nightingale Graham reopened a 5th Ave beauty salon in New York City and developed her own Venetian line of beauty preparations. Following a failed partnership spawned by critics who suggested an American made Venetian cosmetic line would never sell, she became defiant and carried on under a new name “Elizabeth Arden”. That same time Coco Chanel opened her first shop, a millinery, in Paris.
In 2009, a new idea became law in the United States, US Federal taxes were imposed on corporate income. Congress also proposed the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which proposed a new idea called an "income tax" - it took nearly ten years until it was finally ratified in 1916.
Also that year, US federal copyright law was passed that allowed composers and music publishers to demand royalty payments for any public performance of copyrighted material. Protection was extended to player-piano rolls and the phonograph.
In 1909 the word “geriatric” was coined. Also, Wilhelm Johanssen a Danish botanist, coined the word "gene."
Also in 1909, Apache chief Geronimo died of pneumonia at age 80, while still in captivity at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, during that same time, “The Great White Fleet” returned to Norfolk, Virgina., from an around-the-world show of naval power making it the first US navel fleet to circle the globe.
Much can change in a century. Some things are gained, others lost. In fact most of the political visions that envelop our lives today came within this period, universal health care, minimum wage, consumer protection, public schools and environmental protection. We can thank the visionaries of the early 1900's for there direction; we could use a few of them reincarnated today, to get us all thinking about the next 100 years.
Have a very safe, healthy, prosperous and happy 2009.
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Don Elzer writes and comments about the future, current affairs, lifestyle and the natural world. He is a director of the Watershed Intelligence Network publishers of The Monster Guide, which can be found at www.themonsterguide.com
He can also be reached by email at: treks@uniserve.com
