Pittsburgh in The 1920s
America experienced a lot of economic, and cultural diversions during the 1920s. Pittsburgh, found in Pennsylvania has played an essential role in the growth of United States culture, and economy. Despite many growth challenges, Pittsburgh was the most vibrant city in the 1920s. Pittsburgh grew to become the biggest busy city, with a lot of manufacturing companies due to its strategic position, leading to the creation of job opportunities, and businesses. Despite the growth, Pittsburgh faced a lot of challenges which included, clashes between the creamy Whites and the lower class Americans from different races class.
Background
During the early 1920s, Pittsburgh was a typical city occupied by a controllable amount of people. Pittsburgh was situated between river Allegheny, and river Monongahela, which attracted the settlement of the British, and French who were seeking colonies. Pittsburgh’s location contributed to the situation of manufacturing companies, and processing plants in Pittsburgh by the 19th century.
Pittsburgh was connected to rest of the country its waterways, which had one of the biggest harbors covering a distance of 27 miles, and the railway which facilitated transport system. During the civil war in America, many Black-Americans migrated to Pittsburgh, which led to increased population, there were also German, and Scottish immigrants. Inter-mixture between the immigrants came with a different culture, professionalism, and provided enough labor, which facilitated the development of Pittsburgh in the 1920s.
Industry and Economy
During the civil war, Pittsburgh was already a busy town; what happened during the 1920s was just a continuous development of the city. Pittsburgh was manufacturing glass and trading them during the industrial revolution. In the 1920s many industries started popping up, producing goods in quantity.
During the civil war, glass was manufactured by small companies by use of blowing methods, this type of plan started facing competition from large processing companies, which were established in the outskirts of the city, neighboring cities started as well the use of large processing plants as well. The outward expansion also led to the establishment of steel processing industries, and aluminum companies.
Outward expansion took place to create an ample environment for the workers and create space for proper working condition (Ruck, 1987). Banks funded developments in the outskirts in hopes of providing additional services such as sanitary, and spacious environment for accommodation which could lead to prevention of unionization. Another intention for expansion was to combine, production and industrial operations. Allegheny County had a section that was reserved for fossil fuels, which was usually mined to provide a source of energy for the companies, and other uses. The area was reserved close to the river bank, and railway to enable easy shipping of completed goods.
In the 1920s an advancement in the fields of engineering, and machinery paved the way for large scale production of different goods from different companies that were being produced in low quantities by craftsmen (Spratt, 1992). Industrial development during the 1920s also led to the improvement of trade. Pittsburgh started expanding by building industries outside the city center. Pittsburgh was importing the requirement of for expansion of the city, its location between the two rivers enabled easy access to gravel, and sand which was necessary for glass making, and concrete.
Sand from river Allegheny was believed to be the best for the building process, while sand from river Monongahela was thought to be the best for floor, and furnace construction in industries. Four million tons of sand got mined from the two rivers annually. However, some of the sand was ferried across the two rivers to other cities for different purposes. Pittsburgh underwent industrial development in the 1920s which led to the construction of new processing plants in the outskirts of the town (Ruck, 1987). Despite progress in Pittsburgh, an estimation of around 30% of the growth took place in the neighboring cities.
Before the 1900s, primary production in companies was steel, and iron which was also done by small scale craftsmen. Early 1920s plants in Pittsburgh wanted to compete with large industries outside the city, which led to the shift of focus from the companies. These plants lacked enough capital and supply chain control like the big manufacturing companies. These plants had to shift to craft work so that they would manufacture quantity goods without overstraining in terms of capital and human resources.
Plants started manufacturing simple items, like electrical cables, and appliances. Through this idea, the small industries were also able to make a profit using the concept of industrialization, which seemed to favor the big companies only. Management and workers relationship was open and transparent. Workers were treated equally and paid the same amount of money, unlike in the large plants where management and workers had relationships outside work which initiated competitive wages among employees, and the skilled people were given low paying jobs.
People and Culture
Pittsburgh also underwent cultural diversion during the 1920s. Pittsburgh was occupied by immigrants from North, East, West, and South of Europe (Kiesling& Wisnosky, 2003). Italy registered the highest number of immigrants tallying to around 15,000 people. Poles were also migrating to Pittsburgh but not in large numbers like the Italians.
Immigration of Poles led to the birth of Polish-Americans, also due to the proximity to the Polish Hills, and South Side neighborhoods led to the birth of Americans who had polish influence (Kiesling& Wisnosky, 2003). Hungarians and Czechoslovaks also migrated to Pittsburgh after the fall of Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. A few immigrants from Finland were also recorded after the First World War and the Russian Revolution. Immigrants from Finland were skilled laborers and great tradesmen.
During the 1920s, a lot of Black-Americans moved to Pittsburgh, by 1929 the city recorded a total of 153000 immigrants who started to limit the growth of Pittsburgh due to dense population which had already expanded more than seven times its level in 1860 (Gottlieb, 1996). Cultural changes are experienced much in the 1920s due to a mixture of people from different religions in the city. Before immigration began, local inhabitants were Presbyterians, and they were mainly Protestants. Many immigrants from Europe belonged to the Catholic dominion. Jews settled in Polish Hill, where they constructed religious and social centers.
The Catholic community constructed larger churches and attracted many people from small old houses. The Greek population was also growing in numbers. Hence they requested the Holy Synod of Greece for additional of more Orthodox priests (Ruck, 1987). Greeks established a new church in Oakland, which later formed a harmonic choir. A large settlement of both Jewish and Christian communities led to the development of local fashion. Immigrants imported food from other neighboring cities who practiced farming through the aid of the two rivers which facilitated means of transport
Strip District had the leading meat processing facilities, whereby immigrants would come to purchase meat from here. Also, markets were constructed in the city, whereby fresh fruits and vegetables were sold (Spratt, 1992). The Hill District was the home of music in Pittsburgh, especially jazz music where prominent musicians would come to perform their recordings. In the mid-1920s, educational institutions were being constructed. Most of the schools were constructed learning purposes.
Challenges
Pittsburgh did not just have smooth growth; it had to overcome a lot of problems to grow to a thriving city. One of the biggest challenges was the division of classes (Ruck, 1987). There was the upper-class White people, which majorly were the Scotch-Irish people. The division was mainly physical separation, where a specific community would not interact with another village, and lived separate ways. The division was also seen in factories where certain people worked for a company because a person from their community owned it, and specific communities would not seek employment from that company.
Many upper-class residents belonged to the Republican Party, which played a significant role in providing jobs to immigrants to strengthen their political backgrounds (Spratt, 1992). Republican Party helped reduce attempts at overtly anti-immigrant, and racist legislation that was facing other American cities at that time. Unions and labor reforms bore no fruits since the wealthy residents never believed in communists and socialist, while the low class complained of poor working conditions, and low wages.
Growth of industries also led to environmental pollution. Companies constructed in Allegheny County turned the river to be a dumping site for their waste materials (Kiesling& Wisnosky, 2003). Civil war weapons were also found buried inside the river by people who were mining sand. The guns were believed to contain poisonous compounds, which was harmful to human health, this meant that water was safe for consumption for people who lived up the stream, from Pittsburg down the river, water was considered highly poisonous and not safe for human use.
Steel and iron industries were continuously dumping waste in the river, where other companies which depended on fresh water from the river for their activities had to shift and look for other sources since the river was already contaminated (Gottlieb, 1996). Air pollution was also becoming too much during the 1920s, residents of Pittsburgh had to go down the streets to find fresh air during the day. People had started to raise concerns about health conditions of the community, and were calling for industrial output regulations which were never listened to. Presence of coal in Pittsburgh also contributed a lot to air pollution. Coal was the most significant source of smoke in the city which came from the manufacture of glass, iron and other commodities. The high amount of smog produced prevented even distribution of wind. Fog destroyed the lungs, which lead to deaths of people, and others were hospitalized.
Deaths and hospitalization of people raised a lot of concern across the country, whereby communists filled cases in court against the companies, but all was in vain because the closing of the industries meant that people were to stay jobless. The government moved a job vs. environment motion, and many people were not willing to abandon their job; hence they opted to protect their job
Conclusion
Pittsburgh was a growing city during the 1920s, irrespective of the progress, Pittsburgh also faced a lot of challenges. Improvement in the field of engineering and production facilitated industrial development. Small companies in the city benefited a lot from industrial development as well as the large companies at the outskirts of the town. Although there was competition between both the large, and the small companies the city government did not bother to use the wealth acquired during the industrial development to better Pittsburgh economy, which would help sustain its livelihood during the Great Depression.
Pittsburgh was already experiencing cultural diversity during the 1920s where social, religious, and educational aspects were significantly expanded. The cultural diversion was greatly facilitated by a high number of immigrants who came from neighboring cities, and outside the continent as well.
Pittsburgh also faced challenges as communities divided themselves into different classes, and races. Water and air pollution was also a significant setback during the industrial development in the 1920s. Pittsburgh was a city which experienced a lot of growth during the 1920s, but its residents had a different view due to many changes introduced in the city, and its culture.
References
Gottlieb, P. (1996). Making Their Own Way: Southern Blacks’ Migration to Pittsburgh, 1916-30 (Vol. 82). University of Illinois Press.
Ruck, R. (1987). Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh(Vol. 125). University of Illinois Press.
Kiesling, S. F., & Wisnosky, M. (2003). Competing norms, heritage prestige, and/aw/- monophthongization in Pittsburgh. poster presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV), 32.
Spratt, M. A. (1992). The Pittsburgh YMCA and Industrial Democracy in the 1920s. Pennsylvania History, 59(1), 5-20.