|
|
EARLY 20TH CENTURY
In the beginning of the 20th century Philadelphia had taken on a poor reputation. People both inside and outside of the city commented that Philadelphia and its citizens were dull and contented with its lack of change. Harper's Magazine commented that "The one thing unforgivable in Philadelphia is to be new, to be different from what has been." Along with the city's "dullness" Philadelphia was known for its corruption. The Republican controlled political machine, run by Israel Durham, permeated all parts of city government. One official estimated that US$5 million was wasted every year from graft in the city's infrastructure programs. The majority of Philadelphians were staunchly Republican, but voter fraud and bribery were still common. Reformers had some success, the first in 1905 when election reforms such as the providing of personal voter registration and the establishment of primaries for all city offices was enacted. However, Philadelphians quickly became complacent and the reforms did not prevent control from the city's political bosses and the city government went back to its characteristic corruption. After 1907 Boss Durham retired and his successor, James McNichol, never controlled much outside North Philadelphia. The Vare brothers, George, Edwin, and William had created their own organization in South Philadelphia and, in the lack of central authority, Senator Boies Penrose took charge. Reformers saw success again in 1910 when infighting between McNichol and the Vares allowed reform candidate Rudolph Blankenburg to be elected mayor. During Blankenburg's time as mayor there were numerous cost-cutting measures and improvements to city services, but Blankenburg only served one term and the machine again gained control.
Center City Philadelphia in 1913.
The policies of Woodrow Wilson's administration reunited reformers with the city's Republican Party and World War I temporarily halted the reform movement. In 1917 the murder of George Eppley, a police officer defending City Council primary candidate James Carey, ignited the reformers again and led to the shrinking of the City Council from two houses to just one, and gave council members an annual salary. With the death of McNichol in 1917 and Penrose in 1921, William Vare became the city's political boss. In the 1920s the public flaunting of Prohibition laws, mob violence, and police involvement in illegal activities led Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick to appoint Brigadier General Smedley Butler of the U.S. Marine Corps as director of public safety. Butler cracked down on bars and speakeasies and tried to stop corruption within the police force, but political pressure made the job difficult and Butler saw little success. After two years, Butler left in January 1926 and most of his police reforms were repealed. On August 1, 1928 Boss Vare suffered a stroke and two weeks later a grand jury investigation into the city's mob violence and other crimes began. Numerous police officers were dismissed or arrested as a result of the investigation, but the investigation provided no permanent change. However 1928 was a turning point for the city's Republican Party when strong support for Presidential Democratic candidate Al Smith among some Philadelphians marked the city's first movement away from the Republican Party in the 20th century.
During this time Philadelphia continued to grow with immigrants coming from Eastern Europe and Italy and African Americans from the South. Foreign immigration was briefly interrupted by World War I when the city's factories, including the new U.S. Naval Yard at Hog Island, constructed ships, trains, and other items needed in the war effort. In September 1918 the influenza pandemic arrived at the Naval Yard and began to spread. Some days saw several hundred people die and by the time the pandemic began to subside in October, over 12,000 people had died. The rising popularity of automobiles led to widening of roads and creation of Northeast (Roosevelt) Boulevard in 1914, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 1918, the changing of many existing streets to one-way streets in the early 1920s, and the Delaware River (Benjamin Franklin) Bridge in 1926. Philadelphia began to modernize with the ever more frequent construction of steel and concrete skyscrapers, the wiring of old buildings for electricity and the city's first commercial radio station. Other projects included the city's first subway constructed in 1907, the less than successful Sesqui-Centennial Exposition in South Philadelphia, and the opening of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1928.
|
|
|
|
