United States in the 1910s

The United States saw tremendous change during the 1910s. Population shifts, notably of African Americans leaving the South, significantly altered urban areas. Early in the decade, the nation enjoyed considerable wealth thanks to a robust manufacturing industry that exported goods around the world. Those far from urban centers were slowly seeing improvements in their living standards as the electrical grid expanded. The nation entered the First World War (1914–1918), which led to labor and goods shortages and called for economy and sacrifice among civilians. Concurrent with the war was a pandemic of influenza, which swept through the country in several waves and killed far more people than died fighting in the war. National tragedies including the sinking of the HMS Titanic and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire galvanized the nation to improve safety for travelers on the seas and factory workers. Other significant issues included the passage of four amendments, including granting women the power to vote. The decade is also known for great strides in industry, such as the establishment of commercial aviation.

Society

The population of the United States increased 21 percent in the decade between 1900 and 1910, reaching more than 92 million people, and grew another 15 percent by 1920 to 106 million. Three urban areas had populations greater than one million: New York City (4.7 million); Chicago, Illinois (2.1 million); and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1.5 million). This decade saw many young people moving from farms to urban areas in search of work, and women increasingly working outside the home. This growing working class often had more disposable income to devote to entertainment and fashion. Fashion news was disseminated by more magazines, and manufacturers began to target women as consumers.

The Great Migration, the phenomenon of Black Americans moving out of the Jim Crow South, affected many Northern cities, notably major rail hubs including New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. This migration, which began about 1916, increased with the United States’ entry into World War I, when immigration largely stopped. The conflict also caused severe labor shortages as white men joined the military, so some manufacturers recruited African American workers in Southern states. The Great Migration had a significant impact on Detroit, Michigan. The city was the ninth most-populous urban area in 1910, but by the end of the decade was the fourth largest, having seen population growth from 465,766 to 993,678. Much of this growth was due to immigration, with increasing numbers of Polish, German, and Canadian residents, but the Black population was showing a steady increase as well. At the start of the decade, Detroit was home to 5,741 African Americans, but by 1920 the number had grown to 40,838 and a Black middle class was well established. Auto manufacturing played a part in the city’s growth, especially after Henry Ford introduced the assembly line manufacturing process in 1913. Ford, Packard, and General Motors had already opened factories in Detroit before 1910, and Chevrolet built its first factory in Detroit in 1911. By the close of the decade, some researchers estimate that one million African Americans had left the South, and through the 1920s Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and other major cities saw tremendous growth of their Black populations.

The decade was notable for the influenza pandemic of 1918–1920. Globally, at least forty million people, or 2.1 percent of the world’s population, are believed to have died during the pandemic, which was most deadly among healthy young adults. In the United States, the first of three waves appeared in early 1918. The second wave, from September 1918 to January 1919, saw the most casualties. The third wave began in February 1919 and lasted through the year. The flu killed 550,000 people in the United States, or 0.5 percent of the population. However, the death rate varied considerably between cities. Cities that closed schools, prohibited public gatherings, and took other steps to slow the spread of contagion, such as requiring face masks, fared better than those that did not. The impact of the pandemic on society is difficult to gauge, in large part because it occurred during a global war. Researchers say that half of the more than one hundred thousand American service members who died during the war succumbed to disease.

Several organizations that had a tremendous impact on the nation were founded in this decade. The Boy Scouts of America were incorporated in 1910, and the Girl Scouts of America followed about two years later. The Scout movement developed to improve youth health, build character, and foster moral development. Its tenets included physical activity and skills development, and it espoused a generally Christian worldview. Both organizations are patterned after British scouting organizations.

The sinking of the HMS Titanic in 1912 has resonated for more than a century. The White Star ship, which was outfitted luxuriously for first-class passengers, was hyped as unsinkable. It left England on its maiden voyage to New York on April 10 carrying a reported 2,240 people including celebrities, dignitaries, important officials, and wealthy individuals in First Class. About 11:30 p.m. on April 14, an iceberg cut a 300-foot gash in the hull, and soon the bow began to dip as seawater poured in. The number of lifeboats, which were designed to carry sixty-five people, was inadequate, and many of the boats cast off with fewer than half the seats filled. About three hours after it grazed the iceberg, the Titanic sank. An estimated 706 people survived. Rescuers telegraphed the news, and the media immediately reported on the tragedy. The emotional toll was enormous. The ship carried passengers and crew from multiple countries, and the impact was felt around the world. Investigations were carried out on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and in the aftermath, new legislation was enacted. Ships were required to have enough lifeboats for everyone aboard, and an international ice patrol was created to improve safety. The Radio Act of 1912 required ships’ radios to be staffed around the clock and restricted amateurs’ use of frequencies used by ships. The United States adopted SOS, which had long been in use by some countries, as its standard distress call.

Politics and Government

Two million Americans served in World War I, an event that came to define the decade. It was called the Great War and the War to End All Wars. The cause of the fighting originated in southeast Europe, notably in the Balkans, which had experienced political instability for many years. This volatility threatened alliances in the Ottoman Empire and Russia as well as others in European countries. The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Bosnia in 1914 by a Serbian nationalist allowed Austria-Hungary to go to war against Serbia. Russia supported Serbia and was allied with France, while Germany secretly supported Austria-Hungary. Soon Russia, Belgium, France, and Great Britain had sided with Serbia, and World War I had begun. The United States was not immediately involved. President Woodrow Wilson was content to allow trade between American companies and European countries on both sides to continue. However, German submarines increasingly attacked neutral ships, and in 1915 sank US commercial and passenger vessels. Other ships were sunk by German mines. The sinking of the British liner Lusitania, which was carrying hundreds of American passengers, in May 1915 created intense public pressure, and after Germany sank several more US commercial ships, Wilson lobbied Congress to declare war against Germany. Congress approved, and in April 1917 the United States formally entered World War I. The arrival in Europe in June of fresh troops and supplies from the United States galvanized the Allies, and the war ended about sixteen months later. About fifty thousand American troops died in the war. WWI saw horrific warfare due to improved weaponry. As the war progressed, planes became an important tool of combat and were used in reconnaissance missions and to drop bombs. Machine guns and tanks also were introduced as weapons of war. Not incidentally, movement of troops around the globe contributed to the spread of influenza.

The 1912 election that sent Wilson to the White House was a hard-fought contest that pitted four major candidates against one another. Republican Theodore Roosevelt, who had served as president from 1901 to 1909, had supported his friend William Howard Taft in his successful bid for the top job, but was unhappy with Taft’s performance and decided to run against him. When the conservative-dominated Republican Party awarded the nomination to Taft, Roosevelt and his supporters walked out and formed the Progressive Party. The Democratic Party nominated Wilson, then governor of New Jersey, while the Socialist Party put forth Eugene Debs, a trade unionist and activist. Roosevelt supported progressive issues such as conservation, women’s suffrage, workplace safety, and minimum-wage laws and government regulation to achieve these goals. Wilson vowed to destroy monopolies and reduce tariffs. The Republican divide allowed Wilson to win. Just as significant was the effect on the Republican Party, which going forward was controlled by conservatives.

Wilson pushed through some of his reforms, including reform of the federal banking system through the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 and the Workmen’s Compensation Act in 1916. The decade saw the passage of four constitutional amendments. The Sixteenth Amendment (1913) legalized the federal income tax. The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) established the direct election of US Senators. The Eighteenth Amendment (1919) banned most alcoholic beverage sales and transportation, ushering in the era of Prohibition. The Nineteenth Amendment, passed in 1919 but not ratified until 1920, gave women the right to vote. Other legislation affected residents of specific areas. New Mexico and Arizona became the forty-seventh and forty-eighth states in 1912, while residents of Puerto Rico received US citizenship with passage of the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917. Other government acts include the creation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1914 and the US Coast Guard in 1915.

Gender and Race

US involvement in World War I brought increased opportunity for Black Americans. Jobs previously closed to Black workers were opened to them due to the labor shortage caused by white men serving in the military. While Black men found work in factories, slaughterhouses, and similar industries, Black women had to compete for scarce work in domestic servitude. Migrants to Northern cities largely were forced to live in segregated neighborhoods, which grew increasingly crowded and expensive. This created situations in cities where African Americans created communities such as Harlem, which had been an all-white neighborhood, and by 1920 housed about two hundred thousand Black residents.

The decade also saw some of the country’s worst race riots. Factors leading to these conflicts included the return of war veterans, who in many cases were rehired and Black workers fired, and anger in the African American community when Black veterans were denied housing and equality under the law. The white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan also increased its activities, including lynching dozens of people in 1918 and 1919. Notable was the Chicago race riot of 1919, which lasted a week. It was sparked by the death of an African American teenager in July. The Chicago beaches were unofficially segregated, and when the teen was swimming in Lake Michigan with friends, he crossed the barrier from the Black to the white beach. A mob of white men threw stones at him, and he drowned after being struck. Police refused to arrest a white man identified by witnesses as the person responsible for the teen’s death. Rioting between Black and white Chicagoans left thirty-eight people, including twenty-three Black people, dead and more than five hundred others hurt. Rioters also set fire to property, leaving at least one thousand Black families homeless. Some historians see the riots of this era as the beginning of greater willingness among African Americans to fight against injustice and oppression.

More than 350,000 Black soldiers served in World War I. The US military had four all-Black regiments that had previously seen combat but were not deployed to Europe to fight because military leaders believed that white troops would not fight beside Black soldiers. Instead, they were used in segregated labor battalions. They unloaded ships and transported supplies, dug trenches, cooked, and interred soldiers, among other tasks. In 1917, the US military formed two Black combat units, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions. The 93 Division’s 369 regiment fought with French soldiers and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for heroism.

Native American athlete Jim Thorpe became a sensation at the 1912 Olympic Games in Sweden. Thorpe had been a standout in high school football and track. He won Olympic gold medals in pentathlon and decathlon. He went on to play professional baseball with the New York Giants and other teams and helped get a professional football league that eventually became the National Football League (NFL) off the ground. He also played pro football.

Popular Culture

In 1910, Halley’s Comet approached Earth on its seventy-six-year orbit, and astronomers concluded that Earth would pass through its tail. Researchers reported that a deadly poison, cyanogen, was present in the comet’s tale. A French astronomer announced that the cyanogen gas could kill all life on Earth, or the hydrogen in the tail would ignite and turn the planet to ash. This news sparked panic as May 19, the day Earth would be in its tail, approached. People in the United States and elsewhere cowered indoors, succumbed to religious cult leadership, or committed suicide. Some bought goods on credit and refused to pay their bills in anticipation of the world’s end, and many churches reported increased attendance as the day neared. Though the comet passed harmlessly as it had done many times before, the United States saw one casualty associated with the celestial event. Humorist Mark Twain had quipped the year before that he had been born when Halley’s Comet last visited Earth in 1835 and believed that he would leave Earth when it returned. He died on April 21, 1910, a day after the comet emerged from the far side of the Sun.

Magazines had been a popular form of entertainment for some time. The Saturday Evening Post, for example, enjoyed wide readership, and illustrator Norman Rockwell, closely associated with the publication, was arguably the nation’s favorite artist. During the 1910s, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and others were launched to serve various interests. Boys’ Life, an existing magazine, was purchased by the Boy Scouts of America and became an official publication. During this decade Americans became crazy about crossword puzzles, the first of which was created in 1913.

The early moving pictures remained popular into the 1910s, but filmmakers were rapidly developing the medium for long-form storytelling. Production values were improving and led to higher quality images, and ornate movie houses were constructed to draw viewers, notably the growing middle class. This period gave birth to the movie star, a phenomenon fostered by the studios when they began releasing publicity stills of actors and actresses in 1910. The first US fan magazine was founded the following year. Studios also began consolidating in Hollywood in 1910, and within two years the municipality boasted fifteen film companies. A major technical advance debuted in 1912: the motorized camera. Until this time, operators had to hand-crank the cameras as they filmed.

A significant contribution of Black Americans emerged on the world stage during this decade. Jazz music, a staple in its birthplace of New Orleans, Louisiana, was recorded for the first time in 1917, albeit by white musicians. Musician James Reese Europe led an infantry band during World War I and introduced jazz to British and French soldiers. From there, it spread across Europe and beyond. Throughout the early twentieth century, many Black musicians moved North in search of better opportunities, taking the distinctive music with them.

Economy

The decade saw upheaval among the working class as labor unions demanded better conditions and wages. A tragedy in New York City in 1911 gained international attention and led to some reforms in industry. One hundred and forty-six workers, mostly women, died in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory, which occupied the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of a building. Most of the deaths were preventable, occurring because safety measures were inadequate or nonexistent. One of the two stairways that led to the street was locked from the outside to prevent workers from stealing, while the door to the other opened inward, and could not be opened when panicked workers rushed to it. Other stairwells in the building also led to locked doors, where many workers burned to death. Others jumped into an elevator shaft or out of the windows to escape death by burning. Many died of smoke inhalation. The company was paid $400 per death by its insurer but paid just $75 in compensation to each victim’s family. The city investigated the tragedy and did pass legislation, notably a fire prevention law. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company employees, mostly teenage immigrants who spoke little or no English, had worked twelve-hour days, seven days a week for $15 a week. This was not uncommon in manufacturing early in the twentieth century. In the wake of the tragedy, organized labor worked with some progressive politicians for reform. The nation recognized, likely for the first time, that the government had a duty to ensure worker safety.

By the close of the decade, the power of labor unions was shaky. The United States emerged from the war with a strong nationalist bent, and many who saw Russia become a socialist state feared socialists would try to take over government or private business. During the war, to maintain production, labor leaders had struck deals with the government and industry leaders to improve working conditions in return for a promise not to go on strike. Industries abandoned improvements such as the eight-hour working day when the war ended. Instead of discussing labor disputes, employers such as US Steel, the nation’s largest employer, went back to hiring guards to harass organizers and workers. In September 1919, the steelworker unions went on strike, paralyzing the industry and disrupting manufacturing. Company leaders accused workers of being socialists and pitted members of various ethnic groups against one another and immigrants against native-worn workers. They hired Black workers to replace striking workers. Law enforcement beat and arrested picketers. The negative publicity, machinations behind the scene, and infighting broke the strike plant by plant until the unions gave in. In addition to how workers’ rights were denied and their power undermined, the racial animosity stoked by industry leaders increased racism and helped the Ku Klux Klan thrive in many steel towns.

Science and Technology

Aviators had begun participating in air meets, where they demonstrated their machines, in 1909 in Europe. However, the premier American experts, Wilbur and Orville Wright, had refused to join such events. This changed when a French pilot became the celebrated hero of the first air meet in the United States in January 1910. The Wrights, who found the daredevil performances typical of such events distasteful, nevertheless quickly organized and trained a team. Within a few months, they sent the pilots off to exhibit their airplanes in competitions at meets across the country. The Wright brothers remained involved in the airshow circuit for only a few years, abandoning the venues after several fatal accidents involving their pilots. However, the American public was captivated by flight, and commercial flight in the United States began in 1914.

Some advances that remain staples of American households emerged in the decade. The modern electric refrigerator was introduced in 1914, while Corning Glass Works in New York created Pyrex, a new type of glass, in 1915. The first transcontinental phone call, made between New York and California, was placed on January 25, 1915.

About the Author

Josephine Campbell earned her BA in psychology and communications from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She worked in journalism for twenty years.

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