The Year 1904

The first page of Volume 1 of my essays notes that many of my essays are edited rewrites of material that, in fear of the information being lost to the future reader, I choose to save.  How often we remember reading an article in the distant past and regret not having saved it. 

This past week I received an unsolicited E-mail discussing some 1904 statistics.  In my closing comments, I will provide suitable credits, but for the moment, let’s discuss the statistics.  I will try to keep to the article as I received it, but on occasion, I will do some editing.

Just think what your grandparents encountered when they came to America, the land of opportunity at the turn of the century.  The only problem that I have with this opening statement is the reference to “grandparents.”  I think it dates the original article.  I am a grandparent, born in 1922.  I suspect the author was from an earlier generation in order to place the article’s grandparent at the turn of the century.

Maybe this will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!  The year is 1904 – over one hundred years ago.  What a difference a century makes!  Here are some of the U.S. statistics for 1904:

• The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years;
• Only 14% of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub;
• Only 8% of the homes had a telephone;
• To call Denver from New York City cost $11.00 for three minutes;
• There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S. and only 144 miles of paved roads;

• The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph;
• Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.  With a mere 1.4 million residents, California ranked as the 21^st most populous state in the Union;
• The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower;
• The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour;
• The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year;

• A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year;
• Comparable annual earnings:

                        Dentist $2,500     

                                Veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000

                                Mechanical Engineer ~ $5,000

• More that 95% of all births in the U.S. took place at home;
• Ninety percent of all physicians had no college education.  Instead they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and the government as “substandard”;
• Food costs were much lower, as represented by three basic items:

                                Sugar at four cents a pound

                                Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen

                                Coffee was fifteen cents a pound

• Most women washed their hair only once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo;
• Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason;\
• The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:

                                1.  Pneumonia and influenza

                                2.  Tuberculosis

                                3.  Diarrhea

                                4.  Heart disease

                                5.  Stroke

• The American flag had 45 stars.  Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska had yet to be admitted to the Union;
• The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was 30;
• Still to be invented were crossword puzzles, canned beer and iced tea;
• There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day;
• Two of ten U.S. adults couldn’t read or write.  Only 6% of all Americans had graduated high school;
• Eighteen percent of households in the U.s. had at least one full-time servant or domestic;
• Marijuana, heroin and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drug stores.  According to one pharmacist, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.”
• There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

Prepared from an E-mail received from one of my children, who re-transmitted the message received from “Madonna Bossa,” who re-transmitted from who-knows how many other previous senders, and edited by Leonard F. Cremona.

Usually anyone interested in reading a list of dry statistics, however interesting, such as has been related above, would be equally interested in information of a similar sort   Among the many essays that I have prepared are some that relate to today’s world as a comparison with the past and also with the future.  One particularly interesting essay

In AD 1000, Familiar Fears, prepared at the time of the 3^rd Millennium, is based upon research being conducted in the Charavines area of France.  It compares the fears of the populous as the year 1000 approached with “the end of the world” prophecies forecasted in 1999. 

December 2004

LFC