Predictions of the Future 100 Years Ago

100 years ago people made many predictions of what life would be like today, some of which were accurate while others were completely wrong.

John Elfreth Watkins Jr predictions:

1.  There Will Be No Street Cars in Our Large Cities. All hurry traffic will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with “moving-sidewalk” stairways leading to the top. These underground or overhead streets will teem with capacious automobile passenger coaches and freight with cushioned wheels. Subways or trestles will be reserved for express trains.  Cities, therefore, will be free from all noises.

2. Gymnastics will begin in the nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen the muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in the schools. Every school, college and community will have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have public gymnasiums. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling

3.  There will be air-ships, but they will not successfully compete with surface cars and water vessels for passenger or freight traffic. They will be maintained as deadly war-vessels by all military nations. Some will transport men and goods. Others will be used by scientists making observations at great heights above the earth.

4.   Peas as Large as Beets.  Peas and beans will be as large as beets are to-day.  Sugar cane will produce twice as much sugar as the sugar beet now does.  Cane will once more be the chief source of our sugar supply.  The milkweed will have been developed into a rubber plant.  Cheap native rubber will be harvested by machinery all over this country.  Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox.  The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth.

5. There will be no wild animals except in menageries. Rats and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will have become practically extinct. A few of high breed will be kept by the rich for racing, hunting and exercise. The automobile will have driven out the horse. Cattle and sheep will have no horns. They will be unable to run faster than the fattened hog of today. A century ago the wild hog could outrun a horse. Food animals will be bred to expend practically all of their life energy in producing meat, milk, wool and other by-products. Horns, bones, muscles and lungs will have been neglected.

The prediction of exercise being mandatory in schools was accurate, but people that can not walk ten miles are not regarded as weaklings due to obesity rates rising.  Therefore the prediction of a healthier more fit America was more of a dream of an ideal future rather than an actual prediction.  While subways are a common use of transportation in big cities street cars are still used.  The prediction of vegetables becoming larger was accurate we still have not found a way for plants to live off of air and enrich the soil.  Most of these predictions predict a better future with larger food supplies, healthier people, and cleaner more efficient cities.
I predict that in the future it will become increasingly harder to find jobs, due to a growing population cities will continue to become more crowded, and low paying jobs will require a higher level of education.

Farm

plane

http://theashleylawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/new-york-subway-system.jpg

Urbanization and Organized Crime

During the late 19th and early 20th century people in America were moving from small towns and rural areas to large cities.  These cities grew rapidly due to large amounts of immigration, and this created poor living conditions and crowded spaces.  Crime became a way for immigrants to make money and they quickly formed large organizations.  Without a developed police force and corrupt politicians gangs during this time were able to grow in size and power rapidly.  The rapid urbanization in America lead to the development of organized crime which in return had a significant impact on urban life.
Organized crime was not created during this time period but did change drastically.  Prior to 1870 smaller gangs such as the Whyos.  The Whyos were mostly made up of petty thieves and would commit crimes such as punching someone for two dollars, breaking a bone for ten dollars, or even killing someone for one hundred dollars.  The whyos finally dissolved around 1890.  During the late 19th century large waves of immigrants were moving to the cities and creating gangs.  These gangs were much more organized and were able to absorb the smaller gangs that had existed previously.  NationalGangCenter.gov compared the development of gangs during this time period to the progress of commerce.  Changing from individual stores to large stores with many different items available.  Gangs such as the five points gang and the Monk Eastman Gang from New York quickly became powerful and were involved in counterfeiting, drug trade, prostitution, and racketeering.  Antonio Vaccerelli "Paul Kelly" was the leader of the five points gang, Kelly grew his gang by creating youth groups as a front for getting kids involved with the gang.  Monk Eastman leader of the Jewish gang in New York trained kids as pick pockets at the age of 10.   These gangs were very organized and able to commit crimes on a much larger scale.
The Gangs also affected the politics and social landscape of cities.  Both Eastman and Kelly wanted protection from the law in New York, so they began working with the corrupt politicians in Tammany Hall including Boss Tweed.  With Backing from both of the largest gangs in New York the Tammany Hall political machine was very powerful.  The gangs would have members at the polls to intimidate people into voting a certain way, they would also stuff the ballot boxes with fake votes.  According to Historical Crimes by Wallace Edwards it was not uncommon for there to be three times the number of votes in the five points district than there were registered voters.  In return the gangs were able to commit crimes without prosecution.  Paul Kelly was arrested and should have gotten twenty years in prison but by the time of the trial his case had been manipulated so greatly that he only got 9 months.  While sentencing Kelly recorder Goff said " You should have been convicted of highway robbery.  Instead you were only convicted of assault."  This partnership between the gangs and politicians helped shape city politics and urban life during this time period.
The way people viewed certain groups of immigrants was shaped by gang violence during this time period.  In Los Angeles the Chinese immigrants had created gangs of their own called tongs.  The Hip Sing tong and the On Leong tong were the most powerful tongs at the time.  They would often fight for control over opium dens and brothels.  The Hip Sing Tong had paid off most of the police force and the On Leong tong had political ties because they had rigged election of the district attorney.  In 1900 a shootout started between the gangs in a tenement a woman and two children were injured, the police wrote this off as a gambling dispute and the woman and children were just collateral damage.  The LA Herald, a Los Angeles newspaper, posted on July 19 1907 that seven men had recieved threats stating that tong wars were imminent, the newspaper claimed that the gangs had brought in the dreaded "Hatchet Men" and it said that any Chinese person found bearing arms could be arrested.  The Chinese gang violence furthered the anti Chinese sentiment that already existed in this time period.
The rapid growth of cities between 1870 and 1915 lead to the development of large organized crime groups which eventually impacted city politics and the way people viewed immigrants.  The large organized gangs created during this time period are similar to gangs in America today.  The impact of gangs on cities during this time period helped shape urban life into what it is today.


Sources:

Absolute Crime

 Information on political impact

National Gang Center

Information on development of gangs

New York daily news

information on chinese gangs

tammany's control of new york

information on monk eastman gang and paul kelly

online textbook

Background information on urban life

Los Angeles Herald 

Primary source on tong wars (July 19, 1907)

Paul Kelly

Tammany Hall

Chinese Gangsters

tenement housing

Monk Eastman

Philanthropy Bibliography

Sources

"J.K. Rowling - Philanthropic People." Philanthropic People. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.            

  <http://www.philanthropicpeople.com/profiles/j-k-rowling/>.

"J.K. Rowling OBE." J.K. Rowling OBE | Philanthropy Impact. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016. <http://www.philanthropy-impact.org/inspiration/personal-stories/jk-rowling-obe>.

N.p., n.d. Web. <https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/child-welfare-2/80-orphans-families-j-k-rowlings-lumos-raising-awareness-orphanages/12898>.

"About." About | Lumos. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016. <https://wearelumos.org/about>.

Book Cover

I added the part about the tycoons to show the significance of this time period to history.  The train shows the importance of railroads during this time.  The picture of Ford's Factory shows the massive amount of workers available to the companies.

SCM cocoa production

Today I learned more about supply chain management.  The cocoa farmers in Africa live in poverty because they are at the bottom of the supply chain.  Even though the demand for cocoa is rising each year the cocoa farmers are making less money each year. When a farm begins to fail the families are not able to get new trees or heal the ones they have because their profit keeps falling.  This leads to the farmers abandoning their farms and moving into the cities most of which are not ready to take on the rise in population.  The farmers use their children as free labor to help on the farm because of this they are not able to get an education and they will have no choice but to run the failing family farm.  Big chocolate companies are now setting up schools for the children and paying higher prices for beans that have not been involved in child labor.  Nestle is now making efforts to track their entire supply chain of all of the 12 main ingredients of chocolate.  By 2016 they plan to track 50 % of the supply of the 12 main ingredients.

Smoke Signals

In the film Smoke Signals the characters are heavily influenced by Native American history and Native American Stereotypes.  One way that they are shaped by this is by struggling with the stereotypes and history of their people, but they also are able to find power and meaning in their history and traditions.

Victor and Thomas were affected by Indian stereotypes created by white people.  They used these stereotypes to shape themselves into the Indians America wanted to see.  In an attempt to look tough like Victor thought an Indian should Thomas takes out his braids while off the reservation and also changes out of his suit.  Victor told him he had to look tough or the white people will not respect him.  He told Thomas to look as if he had just killed a buffalo, but the tribe they were from was made up of fisherman.  Victor thought it would be more important to fit the American stereotype of an Indian rather than show the actual history of his tribe.  These stereotypes helped shape who Victor and Thomas' cultural identity without even staying true to the history of their tribe.

The characters were able to find comfort in participating in Indian rituals.  Victor and Arnold participated in the Indian ritual of cutting your hair while mourning.  Victor cut his hair while mourning Arnold's death and eventually comes to terms with his relationship with Arnold.  Arnold cut his hair after causing the fire that killed Thomas' parents, but many years later he still kept his hair short because he was never able to forgive himself for what he had done.  Victor also took Arnold's ashes the river and spread them which demonstrated the Indians strong connection with nature.  Through letting Thomas participate in the spreading of Arnold's ashes Victor gave Thomas a sense of pride and belonging to the tribe.  Another way the Indians used their rituals was the communal feasts they had where Victor's mom would cook frye bread for the whole community.  This was a way of preserving the Indian communal lifestyle that was destroyed by the whites. The rituals that the Indians struggled to preserve brought a sense of pride and peace to the Indian community in the movie.

The Indians in Smoke Signals were made in to what they are today through a combination of struggle and pride with their culture.  They were able to find comfort and joy in the traditions of their community, but also have to struggle with the burden of stereotypes and the struggle of their people.

                                                                                                                                    Wyatt Robinson

The Swastika in Native American Culture

The Swastika was used by Native Americans long before the Nazis adopted the symbol.  The Native Americans often reffered to it as whirling log and it had a meaning of prosperity and positivity.  It was very popular with the mound builders who lived along the Mississippi River and in the Ohio valley.

Sources
Swastika in Native American Culture
native american jewelry