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Working Americans Vol. 2: The Middle Class

1909 Economic Profile

Income, Standard Jobs

Average of all Industries, Excluding Farm Labor $594 Average of all Industries, Including Farm Labor $544 Bituminous Coal Mining $751 Building Trades, Union Workers $1,086 Clerical Workers in Manufacturing and Steam Railroads $1,136 Domestics $420 Farm Labor $328 Federal Employees, Executive Departments $1,106 Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate $1,263 Gas and Electricity Workers $618 Lower-Skilled Labor $443 Manufacturing, Payroll $469 Manufacturing, Union Workers $1,020 Medical/Health Services Workers $326 Ministers $831 Nonprofit Organization Workers $741 Postal Employees $948 Public School Teachers $476 State and Local Government Workers $696 Steam Railroads, Wage Earners $644 Street Railways Workers $671 Telegraph Industry Workers $622 Telephone Industry Workers $430 Wholesale and Retail Trade Workers $561

“Thinks Concrete Schools Cheaper, Speaker Tells Cement Users Savings of 30 Percent Is Easily Made,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 14, 1909:

“Concrete factories and schools can be erected for 30 percent less cost than other forms of fireproof construction, according to Emil G. Perrot of Philadelphia, who declared last night before the cement users’ convention that the lives of thousands of men, women, and children are now endangered through the use of wood in factory and school construction.

‘Concrete is now being used extensively for factory buildings,’ said Mr. Perrot. ‘Factory owners realize the great savings in maintenance, reduction of fire insurance, and the elimination of the great dangers and losses from fire.’ ”

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Selected Prices

Arnica Jelly Sunburn Remedy, per Tube $0.25 Baking Powder, Good Luck Brand, per Pound $0.10 Bed, Iron with Corner Posts Made of Steel Tubing $1.89 Caster Oil Tablets, per Box $0.10 Cleaner, Old Dutch, per Can $0.10 Coca-Cola Drink by Glass $0.05 Cold Cream, per Tube $0.10 Corset, High Bust Effect $1.00 Face Powder, Lablache, per Box $0.50 Home Lessons In Spanish, French, Italian, German, per Language $5.00 Mantel Clock, Case Imitates Black Italian Marble $5.05 Nestor Cigarettes, Pack of 10, Imported $0.40 Night Dresses, Handmade $7.25 Records, Wax-Cylinder, Standard Size $0.18 Sewing Basket, to Include Scissors, Bodkins, Pen Knife, and Knitting and Crocheting Needles $7.50-$35.00 Sewing Machine with Seven Drawers $16.45 Silk Stockings, French, per Pair $4.50 Stereoscopic Views, 100 Views of St. Louis World’s Fair $0.85 Washing Machine $5.15 Woman’s Coat, for Fall and Winter, Broadcloth $40.00 Woman’s Shoes, of Conora Coltskin $1.39
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Cleveland, A Concise History, 1796–1996, “The Progressive Years, 1900–1914”:

“Under [Cleveland Mayor Tom L.] Johnson’s leadership, the city embarked on a host of progressive projects and reforms. ‘When he was mayor of Cleveland,’ one historian later wrote of Johnson, ‘the people for the first time learned that they really owned the parks.’ Johnson ordered down all ‘Keep off the grass’ signs. Mirroring park reform efforts nationwide, he provided playgrounds in the most crowded districts of the city. He built baseball diamonds and basketball and tennis courts, sponsored Sunday band concerts in the parks and ice skating competitions for children, and built public bathhouses in the poorest neighborhoods. He instituted reforms in the city police force and built a model workhouse and reformatory on farmland outside the city. Johnson relentlessly challenged the streetcar monopoly he himself once sought to control.”

“Everyday Philosophy,” by William J. Burtscher, The Taylor-Trotwood Magazine, June 1908:

“If love were not blind some men would never get a wife.

The hotter the cup of coffee, the more steamulating it is.

Count what you have, and what you have not count on getting.

Some men are very much like the cedar tree— green all year.

Trust is honesty got into the mouth; honest is truth got into the hands.

Some people blow in their money at the expense of blowing out their morals.

If we hate somebody in any degree, we cannot love anybody in the right degree.

Trouble generally comes to a man without price, but charges heavily for leaving.

Clothes make the man in the end when there is a man in the clothes to begin with.

There are men who write as thoughts come to them, and turn out paragraphs. Others go after thoughts and write volumes.

There are men who worship the dollar and then seem to think that other people ought to worship them for possessing the dollar.

When a lazy man does not know what to do next, he keeps on doing what he has been doing all along, thus preserving his reputation as an idler.

It is possible for an author to borrow so extensively that when he gets his article finished, about all he can claim as absolutely his own is the paper upon which it is written.”

“Franklin 1910 automobiles will average 2,500 miles without tire puncture. It is not necessary to carry extra tires,” advertisement, 1910:

“Do you realize that only one percent of the roads in this country are macadam, that the rest are ordinary dirt roads?

Do you want an automobile that is comfortable only on macadam roads or on all roads?

Franklins, with their four full-elliptic springs and laminated-wood chassis frame, are always comfortable. And because of their lightweight and easy riding they make better time than automobiles of even greater horsepower.

Franklins are easy on tires. Besides, we use extra large tires—larger than used on water-cooled automobiles of much greater weight…. The tires are so large in proportion to the weight of the automobile that the usual tire troubles are avoided. It is almost impossible to get stone bruises, as the tires cannot be driven against the rims. With ordinary use they will give 8,000 to 10,000 miles’ service.”

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Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"1909 Economic Profile." Working Americans Vol. 2: The Middle Class, edited by Scott Derks, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA2_0027.
APA 7th
1909 Economic Profile. Working Americans Vol. 2: The Middle Class, In S. Derks (Ed.), Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA2_0027.
CMOS 17th
"1909 Economic Profile." Working Americans Vol. 2: The Middle Class, Edited by Scott Derks. Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA2_0027.