THE YEAR 1907
This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1907.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907:
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The average life expectancy in the U.S. Was 47 years old.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. Had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City
Cost eleven dollars.
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 people, California was only the 21st
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 per hour.
The average U.S. Worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
A dentist made $2,500 per year,
A veterinarian $1,500 per year,
And a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. Took place at HOME.
Ninety percent of all U.S. 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 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 hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
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 U.S. Adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
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."
There were about 230 reported Murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!
Now I sent it to you and others all over the United States ,
Possibly the world, in a matter of just Seconds !!!!!!!!!
PASS THIS ALONG!!!!!
Just Try to imagine.....
What it may be like
In another 100 years !!!!!!!
IT STAGGERS THE MIND!
This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1907.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907:
************************************
The average life expectancy in the U.S. Was 47 years old.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. Had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City
Cost eleven dollars.
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 people, California was only the 21st
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 per hour.
The average U.S. Worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
A dentist made $2,500 per year,
A veterinarian $1,500 per year,
And a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. Took place at HOME.
Ninety percent of all U.S. 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 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 hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
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 U.S. Adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
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."
There were about 230 reported Murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!
Now I sent it to you and others all over the United States ,
Possibly the world, in a matter of just Seconds !!!!!!!!!
PASS THIS ALONG!!!!!
Just Try to imagine.....
What it may be like
In another 100 years !!!!!!!
IT STAGGERS THE MIND!
posted by:
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SF Bay Area
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Re: good and bad of it
Sat, February 2, 2008 - 4:17 AMFifty years later was only slightly different in terms of take home pay and costs of consumer goods. If someone could pull up those figures it would show that the big leap has been in the last fifty years. -
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Re: good and bad of it
Sat, February 2, 2008 - 11:09 AMI disagree, I think the big leap was in the first 50.
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Re: good and bad of it
Tue, February 5, 2008 - 7:14 AMMost of that leap was inflation, not actual increases in wages.
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Re: good and bad of it
Sat, February 2, 2008 - 11:11 AMYou know I think a person going from 1900 to 1950 would find it much harder to understand and deal with the changes, than a person going from 1950 to 2000.
Patrick -
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Re: good and bad of it
Mon, February 4, 2008 - 4:15 AMMy father was born in 1907 and lived to 2002. He felt that the last 50 were more difficult because of the change in the social structure of the society, causing more dislocation of families and the change to an urbanized culture as opposed to the rural/small town culture.But then, we have become a fractured society today divided between the urban megalopolis and the more dispersed heartland.It seems likely that more than half the participants on this site are younger than those born before the 1950's and live on one of the coastal regions. -
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Re: good and bad of it
Mon, February 4, 2008 - 4:28 AM>You know I think a person going from 1900 to 1950 would find it much harder to understand and deal with the changes, than a person going from 1950 to 2000.
Living during the first half of the twentieth century was all about dealing with rapid change though--that's what modernism _was_. We look at it now mostly as impenetrable literature that English professors make us read for unknown reasons, or bright and globby art that breaks Academy rules. But it affected everything. Throw in two of the largest wars humanity had ever seen, a decade-long Depression, the coming of electricity, mass transportation, television, air travel, a large-scale shift from rural to urban living, large scale immigration, and you've got a pretty major cultural shift on your hands. People really did live through that, and a fair few are still around to describe what it was like.
All we've lived through, comparatively speaking, is the rise of the PC--and we didn't even need to leave our chair for that. -
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Re: good and bad of it
Mon, February 4, 2008 - 5:07 AMPequamo, I just read your post more than once too (reading more than once--a good thing!)
You're right. The post 1950 shifts probably affected more Americans at the family and individual level, when I think about it. If you're from a fairly rural area or small town and you stayed there, all the huge waves of the earlier part of the century could very well bypass you--but the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, plus the Vietnam War and a whole bunch of other stuff, were fairly unavoidable. The 60s were weird--happy revolution on the top, kind of ooky social collapse underneath. The death of a president, a pair of very inspirational political and spiritual leaders, innocent students and a whole lot of people overseas against their will, affected culture at the most basic level.
My father was born in 1934. I was born in 1960. He once said that like me, he was born in a pocket generation--between two major cultural shifts, and often mislabeled as belonging to one or the other, but never understood in its own time.
I'm beginning to see what he means. -
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Re: good and bad of it
Mon, February 4, 2008 - 5:38 AMIn the midwest, the manufacturing era lasted from the 1920s to the 1980s and the service economy didn't really start until the 1970s. Much of the changes brought by the computer were not a factor until the 1980s. Most of my friends and relatives lived within a 50 mile radius until the 1960s, were farmers or worked in light manufacturing(auto related).The local wealthy families were the Drs . dentists, lawyers and the owners of the major business of a small town, e.g.; grocery, auto dealer, bank owner or part owner(the local bank was not a chain), and some few light manufacturers.The picture of 'Mayberry' USA was typical of much of the central US until the 1960s.The 2nd world war did not change the structure of these communities until the end of the war and the returning vets were graduating from the educational programs provided by the GI Bill. It took a while for the country to get on it's feet and to build all those houses and adjust for the baby boom in schools.
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