Most of the inventions we enjoy every day are just better-engineered versions of something invented between 1880 and 1920, a time that saw the introduction of electric lightbulbs, cars, airplanes, radios, telephones, typewriters, vacuum cleaners, cameras (for both still photos and movies), phonographs, X-ray images and assembly line mass production, among other things.
Electronic computers didn’t come around until the 1940s, but by the 1920s, people were so conditioned to the idea of invention and progress that it’s a safe bet few people from a century ago would be shocked to see the modern world.
Curious, intrigued and even excited, perhaps, but not shocked. They wouldn’t flinch at the droning of an airplane overhead, the ringing of a cell phone in our pockets or the constant babble from a radio or a podcast.
What might shock us about the past
So, what would shock them? Or, perhaps a better question, what would shock you if you could spend a few days in the New Year’s period of 1925-26?
Certainly, attitudes toward race would jar us. You almost can’t visit an old newspaper without encountering belittling labels and worn-out bigotries. Or, perhaps, we have merely become more adept at hiding those things. Women had just won the right to vote in the ‘20s, but a visitor from a century ago might be surprised to see how women’s place in society has changed, or perhaps in some ways by how it has not. Modern attitudes about a host of things might shock the most.
Putting such things to the side, however, a visitor from today might find a lot of familiar themes in the old days, and might learn some things as well.
Warnings about sports gambling
Take an editorial in the Deseret News on Dec. 31, 1925, headlined, “Professional football.”
“What is to become of football?” it began. “America’s best loved game has become a great money earning capitalist. Can it survive prosperity?”
Before you laugh, what followed were several paragraphs warning against allowing gambling to gain a foothold, saving the game from the “small coterie of ‘sure thing’ gamblers who have sucked the life from so many American sports.”
“Sports depend on honest rivalry,” the editorial said. “Lacking this, any sport will fail.”
It could have been written today, an age when electronic devices allow a constant stream of wagers on many aspects of professional sports, and where game-throwing scandals have become increasingly prevalent. Folks from a century ago might be disappointed by that.
People today, however, might find themselves afraid to venture out on New Year’s Eve 1925. Oh sure, crowds in Philadelphia were exuberant as the Liberty Bell was rung for the first time in 90 years. Revelers everywhere were being watched closely by plainclothes agents looking to arrest anyone pouring alcohol in the age of prohibition. Many of them, newspapers reported, were content to look the other way.
In Washington, it was reported that President Calvin Coolidge had gone to bed early.
New Year’s violence
But the Chicago Tribune reported that 10 people were injured and one was killed by stray bullets in that city. These were not evidence of gang activity, although Chicago had plenty of that at the time. They were fired by celebrants who thought reckless gunfire was a proper way to ring in the new year.
The Tribune reported how little 5-year-old Evelyn Harris was shot in the head as she leaned out the window of her home on South Dearborn Street. She died shortly thereafter. The paper mentioned nothing about any arrests.
So, yes, random crimes and stupidity were likely as prevalent then as today. But thoughtful wisdom was in evidence, as well.
“We are standing today at the beginning of this period of time, not knowing the things that shall befall us in the days and months of 1926,” a Deseret News editorial said. “It is well that we do not know. We prefer to have the uncertainty for the sake of our peace of mind and also for the beautiful surprises that may come to us at the turn of every road.”
The editorial continued in a hopeful tone, noting the new year would present opportunities.
“We are going to find opportunities in the midst of sorrow to be patient; in the midst of darkness to trust; in hours of discouragement to look to Him who is life and strength to all men. We shall have opportunities to consecrate the days to truth, to love and to the service of our fellowmen, thus developing in ourselves diviner qualities than we have hitherto had.”
The person who wrote that had no idea that a devastating Depression lurked a few years in the future, followed by another world war.
But history is often viewed best from a distance, and I have no doubt the author, were he transported to 2025 or ‘26, would see his day’s optimism for the future, generally speaking, as having been fulfilled. That must be our hope for the next hundred years, as well.