Progressive Era (the United States)
(1896 to 1916)
What happened?
In the Progressive Era, the United States of America developed into an international superpower. During this era, the US struggled with the aftermath of the Civil War. In the meantime, they acquired overseas territories as well and industrialized. During the Progressive Era political leaders like the Republican Theodore Roosevelt and the Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
Across the United States was a widespread social activism and political reformation going on. The progressive reformers were typically middle-class society women or Christian ministers. This Progressive movement was addressing problems caused by industrialization, immigration, urbanization, and political corruption.
Industrialization raised standards of living for many but had a dark side. Corporate bosses, called ‘robber barons’, pursued unfair business at eliminating competition. Factory workers were recent immigrants and had to work and live in perilous conditions. Corruption enriched politicians at the expense of the working class. Social reformers were primarily middle-class citizens who targeted politician and their bosses. Taking down those corrupt representatives in office was a big step towards direct democracy. Regulation of monopolies and corporations sought to promote equal competition. They also fought for new government roles and regulations to carry out those roles.
The Progressive movement supported prohibition of alcoholic beverages. That way they could destroy the political power of local bosses based in saloons. The legal right of women gets promoted to bring a better female vote. A third idea was to reduce or eliminate the waste in every sector with scientific, medical, and engineering solutions for getting more modernizing. Many activists joined efforts to transform local government, public education, finance, medicine, industry, insurance, and other things.
At the beginning the Progressive movement operated at the local level, but later expanded to the state and even national levels. The supporters were found at the middle class of the population. Many people like lawyers, teachers, businessmen, physicians supported the movement. They closely followed advancements in Western Europe while adapting. A major transformation was the banking system by creating the Federal Reserve System (= the Central Banking system of the United States). The helped founding the arrival of cooperative banking in the US with the first credit union.
Envelope Standard Mail Order. Found: Wooster, Ohio, US (JN0099-0)
Folded Insert with Fabric Sample. Found: Wooster, Ohio, US (JN0099-5)
Catalog Colored Pages. Found: Wooster, Ohio, US (JN0099-7)
Mail Order Company
± 1900
Phenomenon of mail order companies started at the end of the 19th century with first companies as an alternative to more expensive shops in the countryside. We have an antique standard mail order catalog with envelope in collection, with 80 pages of clothing, 16 pages of jewelry, and 3 folded inserts.
Founding of Wehkamp’s Factory Office in 1952 by Herman Wehkamp, teacher in Slagharen, was the first in the Netherlands.
We find the cause immediately after WWII. A great demand for goods arose. Such a company allows remote control without major investments. The advantage is backed by a money-back guarantee. Lending was also offered. What could you buy? Textiles, linen, household items, books, watches, correspondence courses, flower bulbs, etc.
The disadvantage in such purchases was debts with all the repayment problems. The first catalog (previously advertisements in the magazines) was published in 1956.
Its own website was created in 1995 and replaced partly the well-known heavy catalog.
Customer Letter. Found: Wooster, Ohio, US (JN0099-3)
Special Offering. Found: Wooster, Ohio, US (JN0099-6)
Purchase Order. Found: Wooster, Ohio, US (JN0099-4)
Catalog Pages Of Jewelry. Found: Wooster, Ohio, US (JN0099-2)
Catalog Pages Of Shoes. Found: Wooster, Ohio, US (JN0099-1)
Chewing Gum
± 1901
In Sweden during the Stone Age about 7.000 BC, people chewed. The user's teeth marks on a birch resin lump are clearly visible. Probably it was chewed for its mild stimulation effect. The ancient Greeks also chewed resin in Classical Antiquity.
The story of modern chewing gum begins with the Aztec people in the 16th century. They chewed the dried sapodilla juice. When damaged, this tree produces a milky syrup that protects the wound. This chewy stuff was called chicle, which means "sticky stuff". The chewing of chicle (as it was called by the Europeans) caused a fresh mouth and happened a lot. It did not have such a good reputation. Only children and unmarried women (= suspected of easy morals) could use it in public. Chewing chicle by men was strongly disapproved (= considered homosexuality).
Some Native American tribes in the Northeast chewed the resin from the pine. Western newcomers in Philadelphia of the United States adopted that habit in 1836. Native American custom inspired John Curtis in 1848 to make the first commercial chewing gum. He used the same raw material as the Indians, "spruce" (pine resin). By the year 1851, you see people chewing everywhere. Men, women, and children in Philadelphia.
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexican general and dictator, asked the American Thomas Adams to investigate whether chicle could be used as an alternative to latex as a raw material for rubber. Due to the development of many new applications, there was a chronic shortage of this material. It came to nothing. Mindful of the success of the "spruce gum", he was prompted to use chicle for a new kind of chewing gum. "Adams New York No. 1", a new type of chewing gum made from pure chicle in 1871, was the result.
William Wrigley Jr. followed in the footsteps of Thomas Adams. First, he sold baking powder. He noticed that the accompanying gift item was more in demand, and he quickly switched. About 1900 Wrigley's Gum was available coast to coast and unstoppable as chewing gum. The widespread chewing was like "a vulgar luxury testifying to poor upbringing", according to the New York Sun. A complaint that resonates to our time (2021).
The famous brand "chiclets" entered the market in 1906. Adams had long become a rich man. Chewing gum was part of the American soldier's ration. It made them relax and perform better. They brought chewing gum to Europe during WWI.
Chewing gum had been widely used as a seasickness remedy for the troops in the landing boats off the coast of Normandy during WWII. There was a shortage of chewing gum. Wrigley Jr. decided in 1944 to make the entire production available to the troops and took the chewing gum from the civilian market. He tried to keep the public's attention through ad campaign "Remember this wrapper".
During the liberation in 1945, the gum was distributed en masse by the Americans in Europe. By 1946 Wrigley's Gum was again for sale everywhere. The gum has kept his name and even the smallest shopkeepers still talk about “sjoewinggum’. A Belgian newspaper stated in 1949 that Belgium had bought 7.000 kilos of chewing gum with Marshall money (= American aid for the recovery of Europe). Misunderstanding? The Belgian Navy had ordered gum resin, unaware that chewing gum was delivered there. The amount was refunded.
Postcard Traffic Jam of Horse Carts. Found: Redding, California, US (JN0116)
Traffic Jam
± 1907 to ± 1915
The word traffic jam appears in the novel "Eline Vere", of the Dutch writer Louis Couperus in 1889, and refers to a line of waiting horse-drawn carriages.
Politician Cornelis Lely debates in 1906 the new phenomenon automobilism. Mostly transport by water and by train was used. Roads were at the time nothing more than a cart track. The car is the means of transport of the future, Lely claims. He wants to make a plan as soon as possible for a national network of main roads suitable for car traffic for speeds of 60 to 80 km. Before WWI, it was thought that humans in the future, would travel by air, for greater distances.
In the Netherlands, new paved roads were built in the 1950s. Also steel bridges and the ferry boats brought horse and carriage across the river. The car became more common. Goods were increasenly transported by trucks. Not only father, but also mother and later son or daughter got a car. People increasingly started to work outside their home, which resulted in a sharp increase in commuting. People used the car for more purposes, like going to the store, a family visit or a day out.
The first traffic jam in the Netherlands due to different traffic flows of day trippers happened in 1955. It was an attraction and kind of exciting. A long line of stationary cars, just like in admired America, where traffic jams had been commonplace for years. Only now the Netherlands are really counting
The first traffic jam in Belgium was when Expo 58 completely jammed traffic around Brussels. Amùost an attraction, Brussels would have the most traffic jams in Europe.
During the 1960s, the number of road fatalities rose to over 3.250 in Belgium and the Netherlands alone. The first live traffic information was held in the radio program "Auto in AVRO" in 1978 in the Netherlands.
They tried to solve the congestion problem by building more roads, until the 1980s. Finding alternative ways to combat congestion, caused by the large amount of traffic, under the influence of the heavy environmental burden.
The carpool lane, road section only for vehicles with several occupants, was a new idea in 1993. The plan did not get approved. In The kilometer charge, in 2011, was to be introduced, a change of government threw a spanner in the works.
So what solutions are there? Road pricing is inevitable. A change of mentality: automobiles have a good reason to be in a traffic jam, they have the traffic jam time all to themselves. They shave, read something, make phone calls, etc. The 'traffic jam flirt' with the stationary road user. And traffic jams as an attitude to life, using the time to make important decisions.
Postcard Arts & Crafts, Roses Poem. Found: Clearwater, Florida, US (JN0691)
Mother's Day
± 1910
We often think that traditions are old. That they arose spontaneously from folk history. Usually, they are not. Anne Jarvis (1864-1948), an American woman, had great admiration for her mother. She wanted to turn her mother's death anniversary into a monument in honor of all mothers who inconspicuously effaced themselves every day dear to family and society. Jarvis' initiative was enthusiastically received in 1905, not least by the support of the middle class.
The American example also attracted attention in Europe. Frans Van Kuyck, Antwerp artist and council members, campaigned in 1913 for the introduction of 'Mother's Day', in honor of the mother. Mother was “the central linchpin in education,” “bearer of the future of the country and the happiness of the people.” Mother's Day should go with flowers and cake. Orphans could honor married childless women of the upper class. He could count on the Bond “Antwerpen Vooruit,” which wrote to its members that the day would be a holiday, but also a fantastic opportunity for all shopkeepers to do good business. The first Mother's Day on August 15, putting them ahead of Europe. It fitted in nicely with the festivities in honor of The Assumption of Mary ('Mary’s Dag') and the Antwerp funfair.
In 1914, President Wilson declared Mother's Day a national holiday every second Sunday of May. Anne Jarvis was not pleased. She watched in horror as the commerce took hold of the party. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie. It would frustrate her for the rest of her days. She filed numerous lawsuits against the monetary exploitation of 'her' Mother's Day and wanted it abolished again. She spent the last years of her life bitter and needy in a nursing home, ironically and unbeknownst to her, at the expense of the florist's association.
In 1925, the Dutch Society for Horticulture and Botany financed the publication 'The book of Mothers', in which prominent Dutch people pleaded with fine words to celebrate Mother's Day in the Netherlands. The flower industry was called upon to fully cooperate in its success, emphasizing that this “repeated annually, will undoubtedly have a positive influence on the increase in consumption.”
There were also critical voices from the start. Middelburgse Courant, a Dutch newspaper, calls it "an unsympathetic American dish" and "banal sentimentality". News of the Day for the Dutch East Indies, published the following headlines “Exploitation of the highest love," "Keep away from the love of mothers." The Orthodox found it difficult to choose Sunday and saw in Mother's Day “the new enemy of the Sabbath.” The women's movement thought it was a sop: “flowers given to honor the mothers, while the crown is withheld from her, the right and the power to judge for themselves, such flowers become a scorn.”
In 1927, Paul Pastur, socialist leader, put Mother's Day in Wallonia on the map. The deviating Antwerp date led to friction. Let them decide as much as they want in Brussels, the Antwerp’s celebrate Mother's Day on Sainte Marie or Marie Ascension, being the fifteenth of August. That was already in place before the war and that can no longer be changed," wrote the Volksgazet, Antwerp newspaper. In large parts of the world, including the Netherlands and Belgium, Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday in May. Antwerp in Belgium is an exception.
Mother's Day (2022) is still celebrated worldwide. There is no industry that does not seize the day to boost turnover. They recommend an indoor skydive session for mother.
Postcard Daylight Saving Time. Found: South Portland, Maine, US (JN0489)
Daylight Saving Time
± 1915
Between 1776 and 1785, Benjamin Franklin resided as an envoy to the US in Paris, France. In 1784 he wrote a satirical article for the Journal de Paris under the title “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light”. He said he recently woke up around 6:00 am to find the room brightly lit by the sun shining through the shutters. Feigning surprise, he concluded that the sun gave plenty of light immediately after rising. Franklin then calculated that the Parisians could save a sum of money on candles by getting up at dawn for part of the year. To promote this, he proposed funny measures such as taxing each window shutter, limiting candle purchases, and firing cannons in the morning.
George Hudson, an entomologist, was the first, in New Zealand, to make a serious case for daylight saving time. In his article "On Seasonal Time" in 1898 he proposed to set the clocks forward 2 hours a year but was not approved.
The British William Willet wrote the pamphlet “On the Waste of Daylight”, in which he calculated that the introduction of daylight-saving time could bring the country at least 2,5 million pounds. The proposal was submitted to parliament without result. A remarkable and quintessentially British argument came from Lord Arthur J. Balfour (1848-1930): Suppose, on the night of the turning back of the clock, a rich noblewoman gave birth to twins, that one of the children ten minutes before the switching hour came into the world, the other a little after, the second infant would turn into the first-born, with dire consequences regarding titles and possessions.
In 1916, to save coal reserves, the “Sommerzeit” was introduced in the German Empire and the occupied territories in France and Belgium. The Netherlands followed a day later. Great Britain could not be left behind either.
In 1919 the “summer time” was introduced in Belgium, while the summer time or daylight saving time was also maintained in the Netherlands after the war. Much to the chagrin of many farmers. Their daily schedule was mainly regulated by the rhythm of nature. And how do you explain to a cow or crop that the clock has changed?
Some Dutch municipalities refused to introduce the measure. The daily newspaper “Het Volk” (“The People”) reported in 1922 that summer time was generally ignored in large parts of Friesland. Also, in orthodox church circles there was resistance to what was seen as going against God's order. Despite the grumbling, summer time in Belgium and the Netherlands lasted until then. After World War II, daylight saving time remained on hold.
The oil crisis in 1973 hit the world economy in dire straits. Daylight saving time was applied again in several countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium. The argument that it saved energy was increasingly questioned. Breakfast would disappear. People would stay up longer and get up less quickly. In a hurry if one was one would not have breakfast there. Many parents also grumbled. They found that daylight saving time disrupted their children's sleep schedule.
Daylight saving time is still used in some 70 countries in the 21st century. Its usefulness is more questionable. Studies show that the energy gain is small or zero. What was true a hundred years ago no longer seeming to apply to today's society.
The well-known Flemish weatherman, Frank Deboosere, made an appeal to abolish daylight saving time. Morning traffic jams drive longer in the dark. Evening traffic jams drive more in scorching ozone heat. Biological clocks are getting disrupted. He coined the word 'morning grey' and has been included in the dictionary “Dikke Van Dale” since 2015. In different countries there are groups of fanatical opponents. Belgium has the ‘Association against Summer Hours’.