A friend was selling his Detroit Lakes house so he gave me a ten-pound “doorstop” book titled “Chronicle of the 20th Century,” which is almost a daily record of what happened during that century. As an example, I looked up what happened of significance on the day I was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, March 2, 1932. That was the day Charles Lindbergh’s baby was kidnapped in New Jersey. He was born and raised in Little Falls. He still holds the record for being seen in personal appearances by millions of adoring people around the world after his record flight across the Atlantic in 1927.

The book was edited by Clifton Daniel, former editor of the New York Times, and perhaps better known as the man who married Margaret Truman, the only daughter of President Harry Truman and wife Bess. The book’s introduction was written by writer-historian Arthur Schlesinger, a confidante of President John Kennedy. A portion:

“The 20th Century is glorious and damned–a century of triumph and tragedy, of grandeur and misery, of vision and disaster. As it draws to a close, we the living may be forgiven for wondering what this century of ours will turn out to mean in the long panorama of human history. The 20th has been a chaotic century, filled with anguish and blood and atrocity; filled to with heroism, and hope and dream. If the human race escapes suicide, historians will record other legacies of the 20th Century. It has been a century of brilliant flowering in the arts–Picasso, Pasternak, O’Neill, Kipling, W.C. Fields, the Marx brothers, Gershwin, and the Beatles. Will we master the dangers of our century’s scientific and technological virtuosity? Do we have the intelligence and the resolution to find the means of saving the human race from extinction?”

The Headlines, The Stories, And Some Daily Incidents

The book contains headlines and stories from newspapers. Some were a bit shocking to me. Lack of government regulation caused many deaths in air, land, and sea transport. Other stories remind us of the difficulty of ending racial, sexual, social, and economic discrimination. Some samples:

** August 1, 1901 headline  Slavery Still Found In A Southern State
“The grand jury of Anderson County, Georgia, issued a report today containing shocking evidence that slavery is being practiced by three of the most prominent planters in the state.

A charge of false imprisonment was made against the planters, who reportedly had been confining in their stockades Negroes who had been sent there for some petty reason and never convicted of any legal offense. The Negroes were, in effect, undergoing a term of servitude under voluntary contracts they had signed in ignorance...The official report included details of illegal arrests, whippings, kidnappings and other acts of cruelty.”

The battle against slavery and for civil rights has been in some ways transcendent and in some ways disappointing. So the headline said slavery in the South was still around 38 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. An October 19, 2013 headline, 112 years after the 1901 headline, reported Slavery Still Exists In The World for an estimated 30 million people. The survey included 162 nations, including the United States. And, by the way, that’s 150 years after the freeing of the slaves in the Confederate states.

** August 23, 1903 headline   From Ocean To Ocean In 51 Days
“‘Thank the Lord it’s over,’ was the reaction of two exhausted men as they drove their Model F Packard into Columbus Circle in New York after two months and one day of grueling transcontinental driving from San Francisco, California. Their actual running time was 51 days, covering an average of 80 miles daily. The automobile had been christened by the Pacific by running its wheels in the ocean. Because of weather the car was not christened in the Atlantic. The drivers arrived in New York covered with mud. The Packard crossed the U.S. with just one mechanical problem–a front spring which was replaced. They had one flat tire. However, Nebraska farmers who had never seen an automobile threatened to chase them off with a shotgun if they didn’t leave quickly!”

In the rather short period of 51 years we made a lot of progress with autos and roads. In 1954 I was stationed at Quantico Marine Base, Virginia, and had five days leave to get married in Fargo at St. Mary’s Cathedral. I and a fellow Marine left Washington, D.C. on Saturday at 4 p.m. and pulled into Fargo on Sunday night at midnight, traveling about 1400 miles in 32 hours of constant driving. That’s an average of about 44 miles per hour. That really signaled progress.

** June 15, 1904 headline Ship Burns: 693 Die, Many Children
“A pleasure outing turned into an inferno today when fire consumed the steamer General Slocum. Thus far, 693 bodies have been recovered, with estimates of up to 1,000 dead. Most of the victims were women and children on their annual excursion party from St. Marks Lutheran Church in New York City. An hour later the dread cry of ‘Fire!’ It spread quickly as a sudden sheet of flame. As the blaze intensified women roasted to death in sight of their families, and many frenzied mothers threw their babies into the river. Survivors tell how old, worthless life preservers rotted away at their touch. By the time the boat reached shore it had burned to the waterline.”

We still have right-wing nutcases opposed to OSHA which enforces regulations regarding travel, construction and workplace accidents, , opposed to fire, safety, and traffic regulations, opposed to helmet and seatbelt laws, opposed to processing line speeds in meatpacking plants, and otherwise opposed to commonsense regulations as society becomes more complex. They seem to want the wind in their hair and restricted exits through windshields and doors. Well, God speed. It helps the gene pool.

** August 11, 1919 headline Man Who Gave Away Millions Is Gone
“Andrew Carnegie, the steel baron who gave away millions of dollars, died this morning  of bronchial pneumonia. Born in Scotland, the son of a poor weaver, Carnegie immigrated to America with his family, settling near Pittsburgh. He took a job as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill, became a telegraph messenger at age 14, and after a series of other jobs entered the steel business.  At the time of his death, his estate was estimated to exceed $500 million. During his lifetime, he poured about $350 million into various philanthropies, including a vast network of public libraries. He once said: ‘The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.’”

Carnegie, good soul that he was, evidently died in disgrace with his $500 million. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, collectively worth about a $100 billion, give or take, have said they want to give almost all of their money away to various projects and charities. Both have tried to sign up other billionaires to do the same. They both have been unremarkably unsuccessful.

Corky and I have some remnants of Carnegie’s wealth and philosophy. He said education was the key to success. He funded 1,689 public libraries in the United States, including one in Fargo. When the city demolished the library and built a new one, we bought some used furniture from it. Our family has enjoyed the pieces for years.

** August 11, 1928 Hoover Says U.S. Near End Of Poverty
“Predicting an end to poverty in America, Herbert Clark Hoover accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for president today, running on a platform slogan, ‘A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage.’  Facing a crowd of 70,000 cheering partisans in Stanford University Stadium, Hoover said confidently: ‘We in America today are nearer the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of the land.’  The Republican nominee also declared firmly that he was opposed to the repeal of the 18th Amendment, which outlawed liquor in America, and called for rigid enforcement of the Prohibition law.”

But Hoover’s optimistic predictions were shattered by the Wall Street banksters again as the stock market tanked and investors splattered themselves on New York sidewalks. He was also wrong about booze. The real victims of Wall Street greed and connivance needed a double bourbon to survive The Great Depression. Can you imagine a 21st Century Republican concerned about poverty in the United States? The last real Republican to utter a word about poverty and hunger was Senator Robert Dole of Kansas back in the 1990’s. Now the Republicans have taken Hoover’s chicken pot using it as a collection plate for billionaire campaign funds. And with 1.1 million homeless students in the U.S. living in old cars and vans there’s no need for garages.

** September 27, 1946 headline Prices Lead People To Eat Horse Meat
“New Yorkers are eating horse meat in increasing amounts, it was learned yesterday as supplies of standard meats stayed at a record low, black marketing spread and poultry prices soared to a $1.00 a pound. Ceiling prices on choice cuts of horse meat are 17 cents to 21 cents a pound. Former Mayor LaGuardia has called the eating of horses a sign of degeneration, while Health Commissioner Weinstein says horse meat is ‘as nutritious and as good as any other meat.’”

Meat diets vary around the world. Asians eat cats and dogs, Africans eat gorillas and elephants, New Guinea natives eat each other on important occasions, Libyans and Ethiopians eat locusts, goats, and grasshoppers, Eskimos eat blubber, Norwegians eat lutefisk to celebrate, and some Australians eat kangaroos and wombats. I enjoy squirrel stew and gravy but they are just elite rats.  Whatever turns your crank when your hungry. Remember Jeffrey Dahmer of Milwaukee?

** December 20, 1964 headline Basketball Career Loses To Education
“Bill Bradley, Princeton basketball star, has turned down a chance to turn pro to attend Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. The tall, lean collegian probably would have been first choice of the New York Knickerbockers in the draft next spring. Instead of commanding at least $20,000 as a pro, he has opted for the $2,500 annual stipend at Oxford. He said the ‘athletes retire at 30 with nothing more than a scrapbook of their clippings.’”
   Oh, how things have changed in sports.  Bradley was considered to be the best high school basketball player in the country, was offered scholarships from 75 major universities but decided to go to Princeton. After college, the Rhodes Scholarship, and Oxford, he played 12 years of professional basketball, ten years with the Knicks. After his retirement from the game he was elected to three terms in the U.S. Senate. $20,000 isn’t even pocket change today in the National Basketball Association. Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers is the highest paid player at $30,453,805 for the 2013-14 season. The Knicks pay Amar’e Stoudemire $21,679,893 this season. These two  will not run for the Senate in the future.

** June 24, 1983 headline  First American Woman Sally Ride’s In Space
“The space shuttle Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California today after a six-day mission that made Sally K. Ride the first American woman to go into space. The 32-year-old physicist was one of five crew members aboard Challenger as it made the seventh shuttle flight. During the mission, crew members deployed two satellites, from Canada and Indonesia. Using the shuttle’s robotic arm, Ride place a German satellite in orbit and then retrieved it. Challenger’s return was watched by 250,000 spectators, many wearing T-shirts that read ‘Rise Sally, Ride.’”

Before her first flight press conference, she was asked inane questions such as would flight affect her reproductive organs, would she would wear a bra and lipstick in space, did she cry a lot, and how she would deal with menstruation in space.  An expert in laser physics, Ride later said: ‘It’s too bad this is such a big deal. It’s too bad our society isn’t further along.’ Ride died of pancreatic cancer last year. She was the first American woman in space, and the youngest astronaut to go into space. She was also the first lesbian in space.