Chicago History | Summer 1995

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CHICAGO HISTORY The Magazine of the Chicago Historical Society

Chi cago Historical Society OFFICERS Philip W. Hummer, Chair Sharon Gist Gilliam, Treasurer Rich ard M.Jaffee, Vice Chair R. Eden Martin, Secretmy Cha rles T. Brumbac k, Vice Chair Phi lip D. Block III, Immediate Past Chair Doug las Greenberg, Presidentand Director Lerone Bennett Jr. Ph ilip D. Block III Laurence Booth Charles T. Brumback Robert . Burt Miche lle L. Collins Mrs. Gary C. Comer J ohn W. Crogha n Stewart S. Dixon Michael H. Ebner

TRUSTEES Sharon Gist Gilliam Phi lip W. Hummer Richard M. Jaffee Edgar D. Jannotta Barbara Levy l{jpper W. Pau l Krauss Fred A. Krehbiel Joseph H. Levy Jr. Mrs. Jo hn J. Louis Jr. R. Eden Martin

Wayne A. McCoy Robert Meers Mrs. ewton . Minow Potter Palmer MargariLa Perez Arthur F. Quern Gordon I. Sega l Edward Byron SrniLh Jr. Mrs. Thomas J. Tausche Jame R. Thompson

LIFE TR STEES Bowen Blair Philip E. Kelley Mrs. Frank D. Mayer John McCutcheon Andrew Mc ally Ill Bryan S. Reid Jr. Gardner H. Stern Dempsey J. Travi HONORARY TRUSTEES Richard M. Daley, Mayor, City of Chicago John W. Roger Jr., President, ChicagoPark District The Chicago Historical SocieLy is a privately endowed, independenL imLinnion devoted Lo colleCLing, interpreting, and presenting the 1-ich multicultural histo11 of Chicago and Illinois, as well as ~elened areas of American h istory. to the public through exhibiLions, programs, research colleniom, and publicaLiom. It musL look to its members and friend for continuing financial supporl. ConLribuLions LOthe Hi\Lorical Societv arc taxded uct ible, and appropriate recogniL ion is accorded major gifts.

The Ch icago Historical Society gratefully acknowledge the Historica l Society's activiLies.

the Chicago Pa1-k District's genernw, support of all of

Me mbership Benefits include free admis ion to the Hist01¡ical Society, invitations to special e\'en1s, C/11cngo Historymagazine, Past Times, and discounts on all special programs and Museum tore pmchases . Familv/ Dual ¡35; Student/Senior Family 30; Individual 30; Studem /Senior JndiYidual 25.

Hours The Museum is open daily from 9:30 \.\1. to --l:30 l'.\t.; Sunday from 12:00 '\OO'\ Lo 5:00 l'.\1. The Library and the Archives and Manuscripts Co llection are open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 A.~1. to 4 :30 P.M. All other research collections are open by appointment. The CHS is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's days.

Education and Public Program s Guided tours, slide leclures, gallery ta lks, craft demonsLrat ions, and a variety of specia l programs for all ages, from preschool through enior citizen, are offered.

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Chicago Historical Society

Clark Street at North Avenue

Chicago , Illinoi s 60614-6099

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CHICAGO HISTORY The Magazine of the Chicago Historical Society

EDITOR R OSEMARY

K. ADAMS

Summer 1995 Volum e xxrv, u m ber

2

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT S LYDIA

B.

F I ELD

L ESLEY A. MART I N

DESIGNER J EN \/ I FER M I N DEL

CONTE

TS

PHOTOGRAPHY J O H N ALDER

·o

J AY CRAWFORD

Co pyright 1995 by th e Chi cago Hi tori cal Soc ictr Cla rk Str ee t at No rth Avenu e Chicago, IL 606 14-6099

4

A Profitable Partnership R. T RI PP EVANS

22 The Romance of Transit

ISSN 0272-85 40 Articl es app earin g in th is jo urnal are abstracted and ind exe d in Hislonrnl 1l b1t mt/1 a nd Amn,ca: I hl/ 01)' r,nd Lijr.

Footnot ed manu script s of th e articl es app earin g in th i, issue are <H"ailable from the

Chi cago I Iis101ical Socicti·s Public a tions Oflice.

Front cover: Po.I/Prde.11r11ed for the CluragoRap,d 1'11111 ,,il Com/NIii_\by Osmr Rahe IJ,111 .1011.

Cf/ S, / C/-ft-25405. Back co, c, : Po.,t<'Idrngnedfor !hr Cluwgo Ra/J1dTm11s,1Co111fit111;by 11.1/ie Rr,gr,11.

CHS, !Cf/ 1-06709.

38 Oppo site Sides of the Barricade J OHN F RANCH

58 Yesterda y's City

During its fJeakyears, the Kala Shop em/Jloyedas many as twenty-five silversmiths. This picture shows the studio at its 1914- 19 location,32 North Michigan Avenue.

4

A ProfitablePartnership R. Tripp Evans

In establishingthe Kala Shop, Clara Barck Wellesfused the idealsof the internationalArts and CraftsMovement with her own visionarypracticeof employing membersof two marginalizedgroups:womenand immigrants.

The Eng lish Arts and Crafts Movement found strange bedfellows in America. In Chicago, the movement was often paired with a sense of socia l progressivism, a natural alliance in a city known for its independent spirit and history of urban problem-solving . It was here in 1900 that Clara Barck (later Welles) estab lished the Kalo Shop, a commercial and artistic experiment that uniquely synthesized the city's progressive responses to the international movement. Although she apparently patterned her sma ll silver studio on an Eng lish model, Char les Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft (1888-1909), C lara Welles organized the shop's artistic production along unorthodox lines. ot only did he break the gender barrier that discouraged women from establishing large commercial studios, but she consistently emp loyed immi grant artisans, a group whose work had been marginalized within other Arts and Crafts circles.

Design at the Kalo Shop was primarily the responsibility of Welles and other women , while production was executed by men-often immigrants-mo t of whom were, like Welles , of Scandinavian origin . Successive generations of these men and women sustained the Kalo Shop for nearly seven decades, making it the longestsurviving silver studio of its kind in England or America. The metalwork produced by the shop is represented in public and private collections around the country, yet few know th e tory of the collaboration that produced this work.

At the turn of the century, Chicago provided fertile ground for \'entures associated with the Arts and Crall Movement. The cause, founded R. Tri/JPEvan,

1.1

in England by William Morris and John Rusk.in, had taken the city by storm, transferring the geographical center of the American branch of the movement from Boston to the Midwest.

Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who promoted the art and craft of the machine, enjoyed an int ernatio nal reputation at this time. Social crusader Jane Addams sought to sustain the native crafts of the city's immigrant population through her workshops at Hull-House. Between these two extremes lay an enormous proliferation of professional and an1ateur artisans who worked out of small studios or their own homes, supported by middle-class patrons who purchased their work.

During the movement's initial florescence in Chicago , Clara Barck enrolled in the department of decorative design at The A.rt Institute of Chicago. Little is known abo ut Barck's reaons for leaving her native Oregon, but the decision to pursue an artistic career in Chicago must have been a daring one for this daughter ofimmigi¡ant farmers. Perhaps like many of her classmates at the Art Institute , Barck was seeking an alternative to teaching or clerical work. The Art Institute's training programs for women were often re tricted to traditionally "female" crafts, such as china painting, embroidery, and basketry, yet they nonetheless provided women with opportunities for financial independence. Skills taught in the classroom were intended for commercia l use rather than for personal edification, and a the 1896 student magazine Brush and Pencil reported , "the e girls plunge into their work with an energy and a determined fierceness. "

a dortoml .1t11dmlm the hL1toryof art

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5

Chicago History, Summer 1995

Louis Millet, directorof the Art Instilute's department of decorativedesign, createdthis sealfor the 11111se11111 in 1891, which clearlyshows the influence of the Arts and CraftsMovement.

Barck received her degree in 1900 , joining the growing number of Art Institute alumnae with independent metalworking studios.

Among these women was Bessie Bennett, whose silver studio neighbored the Kalo Shop's eventual downtown location. Fellow students Hope McMaster, Clara Flinn, and Margery Woodworth opened the Tre'O Shop in Evanston, while sister Rose and Minnie Dolese formed the Vlilro Shop. Within the Fine A.rt Building on Michigan Avenue, an arts center that became a hub of the city's craft community, recent Art Institute alumnae Christia Reade and Jessie Preston also maintained successful studios.

The principal difference between all of these tudios and the Kato Shop was size. \!\lhile Barck 's classmates produced small articles for a re tricted clientele, she strove to enter the all-male arena of the large commercial concern. Barck undoubtedly knew of other women-controlled craft organizations practicing large-scale production, yet the majority of these groups were women's clubs that produced articles primarily for pleasure rather than for profit. A notable exception is Maria ichols's Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, a china -painting club that had evolved into a large and profitable concern. Even at Rookwood, however, William Watts Taylor managed 6

the business for ichols , and men designed much of the studio's work. By controlling her studio both artistically and administratively, Barck was truly a maverick . By turning a profit with her shop, she was exceptional among both her male and female peers.

The Kalo Shop first opened at 175 Dearborn Street in downtown Chicago, its name derived from the Greek word for "beautiful "-a choice that recalled William Morris's dictum "have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

During its fir t five years, the shop produced objects in a variety of media, including burnt leather, textiles, and copper. Barck employed several women in her studio during thi period, referred to as the "Kalo Girls," although their exact number and role within the shop are unclear. Presumably Barck produced most of the metalwork, and given her tight control of the shop in later yea rs, one can assume that she al o designed much of the work produced by others. In 1902 Kalo exhibited at the Art lnstitute's first annual Arts and Crafts Exhibition, an indication of Barck 's talent and the growing reputation of her studio.

Barck 's marriage co George Welles in 1905 altered the course of the Kato Shop. Welles, a successful coal merchant and amateur metalsmith, suggested that the studio produce metalwork exclusively. Clara Welle reincorporated her shop that year, transferring it headquarters from Dearborn Street LO the couple's siLeable home in the suburb of Park Ridge. Rechristened the Kalo Art Craft Community, the hop entered the most idealistic of its many phase .

With the expanding production of bowls, pitchers, and other holloware, Clara Welles began to hire a number of skilled silversmiths, nearly all candinavian immigrants or recent arrival. The silversmiths who came to Clara Welles's shop had served their apprenticeships in Scandinavia and were looking for journeymen positions at Kalo. At this time, trade unions in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, in order to alleviate the competition in their native countries, were helping pay the passage of young men emigrating to America. In an interview conducted by the Chicago Historical Society in 1976 , Robert Bower, a Kalo em-

A Profitable Partnership

ployee for nearly fifty years, explained usual hiring scenario:

the

Every monLh, I would say, for most of the early years there would be one or two chaps coming in looking for work . . .. Although they had served their apprenticeships they were a long way from a finished silversmith. It took years of our training and even if he were good, he'd have to learn to make it our way.

Mrs. Welles wanted perfection.

Although she was tapping a supply of workers that was qualified and hungry for work, Welles's reliance on this group was unusual for a time when many American employers feared hiring large groups of immigrants , especially those of the same regional origin. Nativists linked immigrants to the most radical forms of socialism, and in Chicago Scandinavian groups were erroneously associated with the anarchist movement that had taken root in the 1880s. Within the Arts and Crafts Movement attitudes toward immigrants ranged from hostility to condescension.

The Fine Arts Building featured an interior "Venetian Court" (lop) and murals on the tenthfloor painted by artistswith studios in the building.

From 1903 to I 907, the Kala ShojJ'sretail storewas one of11urnyarti:,/icenterprisesin the Fine Arts Building, a center/or Chirago'sA1ts and CrajisMovement. Above: Till' bwlding\ entrance.

Many leader of the cause, including Gustav Stickley , hired immigrants only as a way of "Americanizing" these foreigners. As the child of Scandinavian immigrants, Clara Welles must have understood immigrants' second-class status in the workplace; the makeup of her workshop indicates a clear interest in reaching a community with which she felt some kinship.

As an employer Clara Welles appears to have been a formidable, if benevolent, per onality.

Year after her death Bower remarked that 7

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A11111' Doughty's nnllll'nj1J1ennon many Kain working drml'ing1, surh as this rll'signjiir a f]()u,/.

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A Profitable Partnenhip

-his creamer and sugar bowl, created during the Kalo Shop's years in Park Ridge, shows the stylistic influence of \shbee's (;uild of Handicraft on earh ¡ Kalo design.

Chicago Histmy , Sumrner 1995

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Above: In the National Commercial Bank Building, the Kato ShojJfound its fir st, and very urban, location from 1900 to 1902 .

"She was a queen .... She walked straight as a stick . .. just glided along. " Her control of design was nearly absolute, although she sometimes allowed younger designers in the shop to make new pieces under careful supervision, correcting their drawings herself. Sadly , her instructions on workers' drawings are her only written legacy. Unlike her contemporaries within the Arts and Crafts Movement Clara

10

Welles never published anything about the mission of her shop and, for the most part, eschewed advertising. Through Bower's interview and the studio's financial archives, a complex and sometimes contradictory image of the woman emerges. She was progressive in hiring, yet conservative in the shop's organization. She apparently attempted to create an idealized community of workers , yet she was clearly interested in commercial success.

In its early years , Clara Welles's shop was conceived as both an artisans ' colony and as a business. On the grounds of her suburban home she combined design classes, an apprenticeship program, and communal activities with the production of salable metalwork. The routine of the Park Ridge years may have derived from Charles Ashbee ' communal experiment in the Cotswolds, for Clara Welles had been exposed to Ashbee 's work and philosoph y from Below: In contrast to the Kalo ShojJ'.1urban origim, the Welles home i11Park Ridge /Jrovided a semirural setting fo r studmt s and metal.smith.1 at the renamed Kalo Art CraJI Com1111111it y.

A Profitable Partnership

the time of her earliest training. She must have seen the silver made by his Guild of Handicraft in an 1898 show at the Art Institute and no doubt heard Ashbee speak there in the year of her graduation. Publications that Clara Welles would have known as a student, including The Art journal, International Studio, and House Beautiful discussed Ashbee's community extensively, while Oscar Lovell Triggs, Chicago 's most outspoken supporter of the Arts and Crafts Movement, extolled Ashbee in many of his writings.

The pr incipal differences between Ashbee's model and the Kalo workshop concern mission and membership. Whereas Ashbee sought to preserve native English craft traditions while providing the young men of London's East End with an alternative to industrial labor, Clara Welles's hiring practices supported immigrant craftsmanship while providing women with an alternative to domestic or clerical drudgery.

Given the influx of both immigrants and women into the American work force in this period, the makeup of the Kalo Shop might be perceived as a reflection of the available labor market. Clara Welles's almost exclusive reliance on these two groups, however, and the character of their employment al Kalo, were far in advance of most other American settlements that followed Ashbee 's lead.

Of these other utopian communities, William Price's Rose Valley settlement in Pennsylvania serves as the mosl useful contrast to Clara Welles 's experiment. The original group at Rose Valley included eight women, whose duties included flower tending, raising children, and chaperoning kindergarten crafts. The men

Clara Barck ll'e/le:,,l'f nl er, works with Miss L. Engle and Mn. C. l"l. Soden in her work.1hojJ, c. 1914.

-.,"11!!.HAPTERS IN THEHISTORY OF THE

ARTSAND CRAFTS 'MOVEMENT·

.§YOscar Lovell Trigg-s-:PHD ·

Publishud .by 'JneBobt?miaG-uitdp/tbe 7ndustrial Art League CHICAGO 'MDCCCCll

In this book, published only three years before Welles moved her workshop to Park Ridge, Oscar Lovell Triggs devoted a chaf1ter to Charles Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft, Welles's probable inspirationfor her community.

in this group designed the furniture and other hou ehold objects produced at Rose Valley, although the pieces were often executed by German immigrants from the surrounding area. Far from participating in the communal life of Rose Valley, these immigrants were never listed in its membership rolls, did not live in the settlement, and only participated in communal events a entertainers.

Jane Addams's efforts at Hull-House were more progressive than Price's, but in compar i on to Clara Welles her attitudes toward immigrants and women were somewhat conservative.

In attempting to improve the lot of Chicago's immigrant population, Addams reinforced traditional household roles for women, who were barred from instruction in the commercial arls at the settlement house. Male immigrants at Hull-House were trained in 11

Chicago History, Summer 1995

Decn,:t1lr ltt.h lSit~

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This orderfrom Anne Doughty include a desif;nfor a monogram to be used on a smoker's tray.

"appropriate" commercial crafts based on roman tic notions of their abilities, which apparently precluded white-collar work. As Addams later related in her memoirs Twenty Years at Hull-House: One evening a young Ru sian who, like too many of his countrymen, had made a desperaLe effon Lo fiL himself inLo a learned profession, and who had almost finished his course in a night law school ... sat clown at one of the benche and began to work , obviously a clever silversmith. His entire bearing registered the relief of one who abandon the effort he is not fitted for.

Clara Welles differed from her American counterparts in that her progre sivi m was founded upon fiscal reality. If her financial records are any indication, her goal was to create a viable business rather than a museum of handicraft or a quasi-religious order of artisan ; within the first two years at Park Ridge, she was able to report a tripling ofKalo's capital stock vaJue. She hired those who knew their job well, rather than rehabilitating or training those she simply wished to help. As a by-product of her efforts, she combined the forward-looking attitude of the Art In titute with the social spirit of Hull-House.

12

When the Art Institute discontinued its metalworking and jewelry classes, Clara Welles seized the opportunity lo provide instruction at Park Ridge. These classes, composed mostly of women, were offered out of the Welles home in conjunction with the commercial ilver production carried on there. Clara Welles taught some of the clas es herselr , while her silversmiths also served as instructors-including Matthias Hanek, a fellow Art Institute graduate of Scandinavian descent. Hanek also over aw Kalo's apprenticeship system, a program reserved for men who had received some previous training in metalworking. Welles 's emphasis on practical application extended to both systems of instruction, although it was principally these male apprentices, rather than the female students, who were offered emp loyment i.n the shop.

The fact that women were not generally hired as metalsmiths does not signify their absence from the workshop, although it does reflect a somewhat conservative division of labor within the studio. In the absence of any stated philosophy concerning her shop organiLation, one can only assume that \'\'elle regarded men as more ¡uited to the task of producing holloware than women. The gender division at Kalo belies the apparent liberalism of Welle 's hiring practice , yet there i no evidence to suggest that Welle valued production over de ign. Indeed, one could argue that the reverse was true at Kalo; in 1913 she paid an apprentice silversmith just sixteen dollars per week, while at least one of her female designers, perhap . mo,-e, er,ed as partial owners of her enterprise.

The identities and backgrounds of Kalo's female de ign team are not a well known a those of the shop's silversmith . From the time of the shop's initial expansion in 1905, however, it is clear that Welles wa hiring women as ft.dltime designers. Bower r fer to one of Lhese women simply a Miss Wright, and indicates that another designer, Anne P. Doughty, was also a hareholder in the shop. The majority of the Kalo Shop's existing worker's drawings are in Clara Welles's hand, although the surnames Wright and Doughty and several others, all in women's handwriting, also accompany design insu-uctions. It is unclear whether these women were graduate of the Art Institute or Kalo's

A Profitable Partnership

metalworking classes, but their role in the shop's production cannot be underestimated.

One of the reasons for the scant information concerning Kala's designers is the period's tendency-rather than Welles's-to value production over design. In the 1914 manual Art Metalwork with Inexpensive Equipment, a text illustrated with several Kalo pieces, Arthur Payne writes: The finished product is valued for itself, but it cannot be compared to the benefits received by the maker in

For I/I' ll' 11rd n 1, 11uh

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the exercise of forethought and patience , the aesthetic responses awakened , the necessary exercise of the imagination, .. . and, greatest of all , the joy of creating objects of beauty and utility.

Payne goes on lo dismis design as nothing more than "pretty drawings on paper." Although Payne's attitude was reflected in the writings of most of Welles's contemporaries, modern scholars tend to view design as the primary legacy of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Unfortunately in the case of the Kalo

thi; 1ih1er nerklaa, des1g11 er.1would create cletai/ecl working drawings.

13

The Kala Shop created muchjewelry, (!Speciallyduring TVor/dWar I whe11a smrcity ofsilver made it dijfiwlt to produce lc11geho!lowarej1ieces.

Chicago History, Summer 1995

This grou/1 of workersincludes ome of the im111igra11ts who worked at the Kato Shopfor many years. i.Rfllo right: Heinrich Eicher, Peter Berg, Yngve Olsso11,and an unidentified silversmith.

Shop, the stories of ils designers had been all but lost by the time the slUdio began to attract scholarly attention.

The year 1914 marked the dissolution of the Kalo Art Craft Community in Park Ridge, an event precipitated by Clara Welles's divorce. Moving her studio to new quarters at 32 North Michigan Avenue, she also opened a retail outlet in New York City. The hift from semirural Park Ridge to locations in downtown Chicago and New York meant an abrupt physical and ideological change for the shop. \,Vhile Kalo continued to produce handmade pieces of superb craftsmanship, from this point until its demise in 1970 the studio was solely a commercial enterprise, no longer a community of arti ans and students.

Kalo ' new phase coincided wilh the advent of World War I, during which time the shop faced scarcities of both silver and male workers. Daniel Pederson, later chief silversmith, was called away to war work, as were many other skilled metalworkers. Clara Welles turned her predicament into an opportunity, switching the shop's production to small items that could be manufactured by her team of 16

designers-women who were already responsible for making much of the firm 's jewelry.

Throughout lhe war Kalo wa run almost entirely by women; at this period more than any other, Clara Welle 's employment of a nontraditional group of workers ensured the survival or her enterprise.

The end of the war and the subsequent closing, in 1918 , of the ew York outlet brought the reestablishment of the former gender boundary between design and production . Although Clara Welles maintained this di tinction during peacetime, it i clear that she expected her female de igners to have some knowledge of production techniques-ju t as he expected her male silversmiths to have some background in design. As Bower points out, the men that she hired were far more than mere killed hands: Over there [in Scandinavia] when you had served your apprenticeship you went to night school and took up designing, so you weren't ju ¡t a hammerman, you could also design. And so we would take our pick of them.

A ProfitablePartnership On the top shelves of her showroom displays, Welles would exhibit virtuoso pieces made by her silversmiths. Workers with no talent or eye for good design were referred to as "shoemakers."

The designers' knowledge of metalworking and the workers' Lalent for design produced an especially creative partnership in this studio.

The relationship was formed gradually, for Bower explains that "When [Lhe Kalo Shop] started out I don't believe that their designs were as good as later on. They developed." This collaboration is reflected in the fact that no arlist at Kalo signed his or her work, as did mosl artisans of the Arts and Crafts period; finished products bear the shop's stamp alone. Reviewers for a contemporary de ign show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1937 hailed the Kalo Shop's work as "freshly creative," adding that "we could not Lrace ... so quickly the influences that had guided [these pieces'] conception." The product of a collective creativity, these pieces were no longer dependent upon the work of Ash bee's Guild or any other studio.

The design conlinuity that resulted from this collaboration was remarkable. Once perfected, a design was numbered, labeled, and filed to be reused at a later date, ensuring that all subsequenl work would be of equal quality to Lhe original. A customer who wrote to the shop in 1950 remarked Lliat: We have [Kalo] silver bowls at home that we received before 1920, and it is difficult to tell any difference between them and the bowls that you have in your shop today. Most other things have changed-automobiles, houses, and many other household articles. This would seem to indicate that the de igns we1-e so ca1-efully thought out and conceived that they have a permanent quality about them that is enduring and ageless.

By the time of her retirement in 1940 Clara Welles left behind a nearly airtight design canon. The designs of Kalo's lalcr years can be distinguished from hers only by the handwriting of the working in truclions.

In l 959 the !inn's entire stock was turned over to four or its employees-Bower and three of Lhe Scandinavians who had been with the

firm since the Park Ridge years: Yngve Olsson, Daniei Pederson, and Arne Myhre. While there had once been nearly twenty-five silversmiths at Kalo, this group executed most of the firm's orders for the shop's remaining years. The studio became something a Scandinavian old boys' club during this period; Renard Koehnemann, who worked with the Kalo silversmiths from 1948 to 1967 described the atmosphere among the employees as one of almost fraternal closeness.

Due to the enormous design inventory and large number of repeat orders, the role of designers at Kalo diminished-leaving the shop exclusively in the hands of its male metalworkers. Over the year , the smaJI circle of women designers at Kalo seems to have shrunk in proportion to the growing body of reproducible designs; at the time of Clara Welles's retirement, Kalo simply needed skilled workers who could work with these established patterns.

By separating the sexe within her shop and thereby separating the spheres of design and production, Clara Welles had sown the seeds of Kalo's eventual decline. The agelessness ofKalo silver so admired by its loyal customers seems in fact to have masked a kind of design impotence in the shop's later years.

In this latter phase of the shop, it became clear that Clara Welles's reliance on a single immigrant group held certain consequences for the studio as well. First, restrictive immigration laws following World War I had made it increasingly difficult for Scandinavian metalsmiths to enter the United States. Whereas new workers had arrived at the shop nearly every month in its early days, no more than one in every five years came looking for work by the 1930 . Another reason for the decline involved the postwar rise of Georg Jensen's firm in Denmark, a uccess story emblematic of the general revival in the Scandinavian silver industries.

The surplu of skilled workers that had existed in Chicago at the turn of the century had simply evaporated.

Not only were fewer immigrant metalsmiths seeking work with Clara Welles, but several of Kalo's mo t talented workers routinely left the shop to e tablish their own studios. The best known of these was Julius 0. Randahl, a Swede 17

Millicent N I{. ·kSOIi, /011 ,. . \ . land, behind ti . ~-/1111eKalo sal ' J I store 's rtd . _1estores ro1111/er 1 · t .\ t'Olllltn , Mid,.' ow/1011 in 19 '6 ., 1011/yafter !lie 10 2 . clo,ed !{!,an J ?? . . Avenu e,. where itJ 11•0 l l -Sou//, .

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Kidwrt . . In the l,ack'. . e111amuntil 11 l, an a/JjJren(. . f!,1011//d sit, H' l _ ue sdven111ith. . a /er

Chicago History, Summer 1995

Kalo piecesboreonly the shop's hallmark, not the mark of an individual silversmith, a suggestion of the enterprise's collaborative nature.

who left the shop in 1910 with Kalo instructor Matthias Hanek to form the Julmat. Randahl subsequently established the Randahl Shop ( 1911-50), supplementing his income by de signing commercially produced work for the Carson , Pirie, Scott & Co. depanment store. In the same year of Randahl and Hanck's departure from Kalo, young silversmith Emery W. Todd also left to found an independent studio, the T.C. Shop (1910-23). Although each of these men was an original designer in hi own right, their work retained an unmi takable resemblance to that of Clara Welle 's studio-a tribute to the soundness of her training and the strong stamp of her women designer .

The Kalo Shop continued to produce its stock-in-trade pieces until 1970, when the deaths of Pederson and Olsson dealt the shop its fatal blow . Although business had been steadily shrinking , Kalo had remained for many years America 's largest producer of handwrought silver. In a sense the firm had been an anachronism since the close of World War I, a date that marked the expiration of the Arts and Crafts Movement generally and that also signaled the end of Kala's most fertile period of design. The studios in the Fine Arts Building had been closed for decades by 1970, and The

20

Art Institute of Chicago had discontinued its annual Arts and Crafts Exhibitions in 1921.

Although Clara Welles 's venture eventually gave in to external and internal pressures, its lasting success contrasted with the fai lures of better-known studios such as Rose Valley and Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft. Founded at a time when many Americans feared the influence of immigrants and women in the workplace , the Kalo Shop offered these two groups opportunities for meaningful work. Its eventual decline derived not from Clara Welles's progressive hiring practices but rather from the gender stratification that she established within her studio. The partnership that she had created between designers and metalsmiths was fruitful only for as long as both groups remained interdependent. In these earlier years the Kalo Shop uniquely demonstrated that progress and profit were not mutually exclusive motives within the Arts and Crafts Movement.

1900

6OLDÂŁN

ANNIV!=RSARY

195 0

The shop celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1950, ten years after Clara Welles's retirement to California.

A Profitable Partnership For Further Reading Many scholars have ex plored th e Arts and Crafts Movem ent in th e Uni te d States. Wen dy Kapl an 's The Art That is Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875- 1920 (Bosto n : Littl e, Brown & Co mp any, 198 7) exa min es th e m ove ment thro ugh th e details of th e arti sts' wor ks. Eilee n Bor is's Art and Labor: R uskin, Morris, and the Craftsman Ideal in America (Phil adelphi a : Te mpl e Univers ity P1-ess, J 986) focuses on th e movem ent 's social idea ls and it successes and failur es in fulfillin g them . Sharo n Darlin g's ChicagoMetalsmiths (Chi cago : Chi cago Hi torical Society, 1977) pro vides a loo k at th e Kalo Shop in th e co nt ex t of th e history of metalworkin g in Chicago . In "Apartm e nt H ouses and Bun ga lows: Buildin g th e Flat City," (Chicago Histo1y, Win ter 1983-84) Wim de Wit d iscusses th e influ ence of th e Art s and Crafts Move m ent on housing in Chi cago.

T he Deco rative and Indu stri al Art s Departm ent of th e Chicago Hi sto rical Society has ex ten sive files on th e Kato Shop, and th e Print s and Ph otog raph s Departm ent holds many of th e shop 's workin g d,-awings.

Illustrations 4, CHS, Decorative and Indu stri al Arts Co llection ; 6, Art In stitute, Annual Report, 1892, CH S Library; 7, Book of the Fine Arts Building, [n.d. ], CH S library; 8, CHS, ICHi -253 1O; 9, CH S, Deco rative and In du stri al Arts Co llection, 1975.2 18a b; 10 top, CH S, ICHi -253 13; 10 bo tto m, CH S, Deco rative and In dust rial Art s collection ; 11 top , Chapters in the Histo1yof the Arts and Crafts 1\tlovement by Oscar Love ll T riggs ( 1902), CH S Libra ry; 1 1 bottom , CHS, D 63262; 12, CHS , lCJ-ii-253 08; 13, CH S, ICHi253 11; 14- 15, CH S, Deco rative and Indu str ial Art s Co llection, l 975.75a- d ; 16, CH S, Decorative and Indu strial Ar ts Co llect ion ; 18- 19, CH S, Deco ra tive and Indu strial Art s Collection ; 20 top, CH S, Deco rative and Indu stri al Art Co llection , 1976.3 h; 20 to p, CHS, Decor at ive and Indu stria l Art s Co llect ion 1976 .3h ; 20 bottom, CH S, Decorative and In dustri a l Art s Collec tion

21

Duringthe1920s , theChicago RapidTransitCompany commissioned thecity's finestgraphic artiststo produceadvertising posters thatencouraged Chicagoans to userapidtransitfor morethancommuting to work.

Theimages reproduced onthefollowing pages beckoned Chicagoans to thecity's parks , museums , andother urbanspots , aswellasto morebucolic - aswellassomeindustrial-destinations beyond thecity limits.

Thepostersreprinted herearefromtheChicago HistoricalSociety 's PrintsandPhotographs Collection .

I can save

This1922advertisement appealed to business commuters . Later postersencouraged Chicagoans to userapid transitfor recreational trips. ICHi-06695

22

a couple of da.ys in a.couple<ifhours Never mind the letter"'Ill take the

NORTH SHORE LINE

TheRomanceof Transit

Artists incorporatedseasonalthemesinto their designs.Thisad featuredthe autumnalvistasalongthe NorthShoreLine. ICHi-06694

23

Unlikemostof the advertisements , this posteractuallydepictedthe train that broughtwintersportenthusiaststo the OdgenDunesin Indiana.ICHi-06713.

OG[)lN [)UNE~

Sunday•·•• -January /2' ~y SOUTH SHORELINE

h

·Tt1.1tlimitPd trai11s or1tmlnl /i"om 01i1·aqo to .liiutl, lkt1d. l11d. /f'/11 11' Jl/i11oir f'r•ntml l!a11dolf}lt.ftn•1 .Ji11tio11.,1111/ ,111,n11/ foll 7Jumn 7?,oos1·1·1•/i Rd..53rd Ji .r,.Jnf .\/111,d !ii11 ,i11qlm1 1

/

OttoBrennemann probablydesignedthis football-themed advertisement.

ICHi-06706 .

24

TheRomanceof Transit

The steelmills of Gary, Indiana, werefeaturedin NormanErickson'ssomber design(left; ICHi-25302)as well as in Otto Brennemann 's romanticportrayalof America's industrialstrength(below;ICHi-25304).

~SOUTH SHORELINE Trains operated from Chicago over Illinois Central Railroad trom Randolph-VanBurcn-12th-43rd-S~rd-and 63rd Street Stations

25

BYTHE

ELEVATED

LINES

ArthurA. JohnsondepictedChicago 's NorthSidebeaches , with NavyPierin the background , in this sunnyimage.

Largerposters,suchasthis one, wereprintedin two piecesandpastedtogether.Theupperportionof this posteris missing. ICHi-06663 . ,

i

,. '

"¡' I

\

!..

t I' '

t I

OscarRabeHansondepictedthe gothiccharmsof the Universityof Chicago 's campus.This posteris also missingits upperportion.ICHi-06665.

26

BYTHE ELEVATED LINES

..

TheRomanceof Transit

OscarRabeHanson 's view of the Universityof Illinois's NearWestSidemedicalschoolin snowywintersetsit apartfrom the othercity images,whichusuallydepict warm-weather scenes.ICHi-16042.

Ull_W.€:ilS1')!9qf IIiLIQ01~

~ c:1too1 t<ir@eb1cttt€ • iyt~eELEVATED LINES

Hanson 's viewof Northwestern 's NearNorthSidecampus.

ICHi-16044.

27

PR..INGTI~E b y SOUTH

SHOR E L I N E

Fastlimited trains operated eledncally fromCHICAGOJ&-SOUTH BEND, IND. leavingILLINOIS CENTRAL RANDOLPH StreetStation and stoppinQ atVAN BUREN, ROOSEVELT ROAD, 53 rd., 63 ,d, and KEN SI NG.TON

lilt:~.-~,,... ........ .:,·. ,-;.":".•

. ,. ·,.

VISIT

-!

.

,,

THE

DUNES BEACHES

BY South Shore L(ne Tra,nsfrom Ch1caqooperated over the lllinois Centra' Railroad crom Randolph.Van Buren.12\h ..43 rd, 5?.rd ..& 6ilrd. St.Stations & Kensington.

28

TheRomanceof Transit

HOMEWARD BOUND

SOUTH SHORE LINE

'litAINs-CIIICNiO OP!RATID

CIVIR 'DB ILUNOIS CENTRAL AAILAOAD ~4&'Uil'l!Alll6ill!SIIIUl'S11'TIONS AND

Posterdesignevolvedwith the calendar;in thesefour images, variousartists drewon the pleasuresof the changingseasonsto enticeChicagoans to usepublic transportation. Leftto right: ICHi-25301, ICHi-25303 , ICHi-06707 , ICHi-25305 .

29

In this image, RoccoD. NavigatodepictedNorth MichiganAvenue, which was dubbed"Boul Mich" during the 1920s. ICHi14850.

30

TheRomanceof Transit

RoccoD. NavigatopresentedWackerDrivein a format similarto his "Baul Mich" poster. ICHi-24225.

31

Thesteepleof the Chicago Temple, a combination church/office building, soared aboveits Loop neighborsin RoccoD. Navigato's design.

ICHi-25406 .

32

TheRomanceof Transit

OscarRabeHansonhighlightedthe neogothicarchitectureof the city's churches.

ICHi- 16043.

33

-

.

L.

bythe

ELEVATED LINES WillardF. Elmsportrayedoneof the city's mostwell-knownandbelovedsymbols: anArt Institutelion. Theposteris missing its top piece. ICHi-06662 .

34

TheRomanceof Transit

Thissereneposterencouraged urbanites to visitthecity's parks.

ICHi-16041 .

35

WA/StHN(iTON PARK

BYTHE[LEVATED LIN[S 36

RoccoD. Navigatopresented WashingtonPark's lily pad lagoonin this 1923design.

ICHi-24224 .

TheRomance of Transit

••·"' I "r rr r [

t'

F'l'~ r- I ....

F I ,

•• .... .•.. ...

D

J

• : :• L• •m• l

taa

'!=: - - _

< ' ,j .,~

/,

Bythe 1920s, the German Building, originallythe German pavilionat the 1893World's ColumbianExposition,wasa popularJacksonParkrestaurant.

It wasdestroyedby fire in 1925.

ArthurA. Johnsondesignedthis poster. ICHi-16040 .

37

ChicagoHistory, Surnrner1995

Beginning with his acquisition of the North Chicago Street Railroad Company in March 1886, Charles Tyson Yerkes sought to gain control of Chicago's street railway system.

38

Opposite Sides of the Barricade John Franch

Daily News publisher VictorLawson led Chicago'spress in a bitter battle

against Charles Tyson Yerkes,the unscrupulous transit baron who sought completecontrol of the city'spublic transportation system.

In Theodore Dr eiser's n ove l Th e Titan, the ruthless Frank Cowperwood uses any means necessary to become master of Chicago's streetcar system. Charles Tyson Yerkes, the rea l life Cowperwood, was a titan whose shadow long loomed over the city. He greatly improved the North and the West Sides' transportation systems while at the same time loading them clown with a crushing debt largel y for his own personal gain. In his relentless pursuit of wealth, Yerkes nonch alantl y bought city councils, legislatures , judges , and juries. Like his fictional counterpart, Yerkes faced bitter opposition from the press as he struggled to power. Victor Lawson, publisher of the Chicago Daily News, led this opposition in a thirteen- year crusade against the streetcar entrepreneur.

He opposed Yerkes for a variety of reasons, some peuy and personal, some noble. Regardless, by portraying Yerkes in simple black-andwhite terms as a public menace, Lawson helped awaken a community that slept while its government was being subverted.

Business and religion were the two pillars of Victor Lawson's life. Born in Chicago in 1850 to orwegian parents, the tall , thin, handsome boy suffered an early setback when a evere eye condition thwarted an opportunity to study at Harvard. In 1872, Lawson inherited from his father a considerable fortune in real estate, including a four- tory building on Fifth Avenue (now Well Street) that was leased thr ee years later LO the twenty-sev en-

year-old Melville Stone, an ambitious journalist attempting to start up an independent penny newspaper called the Daily News.

Lawson soon became co-owner of the Daily News, and he quickly demonstrated great business acumen as he tried to boost circulation .

Hi s efforts were rewarded with a rapidly rising readership. According to an admirer of the publisher , Lawson 's rivals could not account for the commercial success of this devout Congregationalist, who refused to publish his paper on Sundays:

Jolin Franch i.1afreelance writer work111g on a biogra/Jhy of Charfe11)~011 )'ahe,.

Chicago Daily 1ews JmblisherVictorLaw~on11ehement ly oppoJedl'erkes¡often unscrupulousbusinesspractices.

39

ChicagoHistory, Summer 1995 Victor Fremont Lawson's competitors never understood him , and he took no pains to set them right.

Everlastingly they were judging him , and everlastingly they were going wrong. Two words served them in their vain efforts to resolve the great publishereditor: "religious" and "visionary ." He was a parson and a dreamer in journalism . He went to church too much, and was too self-communing, to be a newspaper promoter of any consequence .... And yet this fanatic went right on making a million dollars a year net for fifty years!

By 1885, the Daily News led newspaper sales in the city with a daily readership hovering near one hundred thousand. In addition, a new morning edition was holding its own. Faced with these pleasant facts, Lawson and his wife embarked on an extended tour of Europe.

While Lawson was away, Charles Tyson Yerkes first commanded Chicago headlines when he and several associates acquired control of the North Chicago City Railway Company in March 1886. With his silvery hair , immaculately groomed mustache, strong nose, and piercing blue eyes, the forty-eight-yearold Yerkes presented a striking portrait. Brilliant, arrogant, and utterly unscrupulous, he once declared: "I do things not from a sense of duty, but to satisfy myself. Ifl do not satisfy myself I lose confidence in myself. " Yerkes may have suffered a rare loss of confidence in 1871, when he was caught speculating in Philadelphia 's treasury funds. Following a widely publicized trial, he was found guilty of larceny and sentenced to prison for two years and nine months. Only seven months into his jail term, the governor pardoned Yerkes.

Once released, Yerkes moved west, eventually settling in Chicago in 1881. Shortly after his acquisition of the North Side streetcar company, Yerkes , anticipating negative publicity about his past, submitted a biographical profile to Joseph Medill's Chicago Tribune. Although the profile painted a highly favorable portrait, it alluded to the financier's troubles in Philadelphia.

Melville Stone of the Daily News noticed the allusion. Earlier, Stone had met "C harley" Yerkes in a private Pullman car on a train headed from Philadelphia to Chicago. TI1e entrepreneur and a group of friends "were going 40

Joseph Medill of the Chicago Tribune (above)and Herman Koh/saalof the Chicago Times-Hernld united with Lawson in a crusadeagainst Yerkes.Engraving by Century Publishingand Engraving Com/xmy, 1892.

to Chicago to make a raid on our traction lines ," according to Stone. "T here was no secret about their purpose," the editor continued. "How they expected to do up guileless Chicagoans was made plain." With the bitter memory of this encounter fresh in his mind , Stone sent Charles Faye, a young and resourceful reporter, to Philadelphia in search of further information on Yerkes' early career.

Faye presented the results of his finding in an article appearing on the front page of the June 9, 1886, Morning News entitled "Ex-Conv ict C. T. Yerkes." Faye did not print all of the material he dug up , including damaging material on the second Mrs. Yerkes, Mary Adelaide Moore. Yerkes had divorced his first wife in order to marry the youthful and beautiful Moore. Yerkes' threat to shoot Stone "at a convenient hour the next day" coupled with a warning that "he would expend a generous amount of time and trouble hunting his man " may have persuaded the editor not to publish this scandalous information.

The Daily News reflected Stone's hostility in its editorial po itions. When Yerkes attempted

OppositeSides of the Barricade

NEWS TRUST GAMINS1

"BOO HOO-HOOi

YERKES IS CALLING US NAMES!"

In November I 897, Yerkesbought the Daily Inter Ocean in an effortto combatjabbing editorialsfrom othernewspapers and in hopesof influencingpublic opinion. ThisJanua, y 30, 1898, Inter Ocean depictsKohlsaat, Medill, and l.Awson .1lmgingmud al Yerkesand Jal fly accusinghim of "co1porate greed,fraud , injustice,and the sale of people's rights."

41

ChicagoH istory, Summer 1995 "be lieved Ch icago wou ld be graLefu l" for the improvement he inlended to make on Lhe tunnel. He recalled, "We ll, the on ly reward I got was the accusation that I was attempt ing Lo steal the tunnel." The Daily N ews repeated ly opposed Yerkes' plans to modernize Chicago's antiquated streetcar system .

When Yerkes first arrived in Chicago in 1881, three streetcar compan ies furnished the transportation of tens of thousands of commuters dai ly. T h e orth Chicago City Railway Company , the Chicago West Division Railway Company, and the Chicago City Railway Company on the South Side , employed an age-o ld means of tran port-the hor e. Pulling a car with slotted wheels over a track , these so-called horsecars managed speeds of approx im ate ly four to six miles per hour. In add ition to being slow, horses were expensive to maintain and presented a ser ious health hazard , dropping over ten pounds of manure a day on the streets. In 1882, the Chicago City Railway Company introduced a cab le-car lin e on the South Side, bringing the benefits of modern , mechanized transportaLion to the city. Cable cars had none of the disadvantages of horsecar and could traYel over twice a · fa l.

Four years after the Soulh Side innovation , Yerkes as urned contro l of the orth Chicago City Railway Company and began converting a portion of the firm 's forty-live miles of horsecar track to cable. Unfortunate ly, the cab le had a habit of snapping in half, especia lly during rush hour. The Daily News devoted an inordinate amount of pace to the plight of the passengers stranded by "Yerkes' shoestring ." Coverage often descended to the level of character assassination: "The name of Yerkes has become like that ofan Apollyon, a grisly Lerror. Mothers frighten their chi ldr en into obedience by telling them if they don 't behave Yerkes will get them. The north siders are ripe for revolution. " The humorist Eugene Field often took potshots at Yerkes in hi Morning News column "Sharps and Flats," somet im es unfairly ridiculing the millionaire for failing to win the acceptance of Ch icago society. Char le Faye, who objected to Field 's "senseless matter, " later admitted that it was a mi take for the News to oppose Yerkes' cab le sy tern:

DO~'T W.\~TTllt (.\~lE (.\R~ Nor'h S de Resdentc; E~ner ence Fi..;rthcr T,0•1L C' \', t 1 he E.(tr.lord r a•y v '-<" ~ System

LOSS OF TIME A D DA GER TO LIFE.

T ne Propo ~.cd Onw

l ,ne HaileJ w th 8 ·1d Acc•dcn Th s

Del i~ 1t-A

'•

DliS

( 'I

tl

!

~ff

( tit from 111 eWor! 0.

BetweenYerkes'sCableand the Open Clark Street Bridge Business MenAre in Despair.

Duzl'n •

or ~urth

~hl1• .F1n11:, Compelletl to lloYe .Becaus e of the Bad Car Seniee.

The Daily News reported seemingly endless /Jroblems with Yerke ' cable-car system: "Don 't Want the Cable Cars .. (August 9, 1888) announ ced that a rnr had j11111ped the track at Illinois and LaSalle Streets and "Cut Off from the World" (AJ11 ·il 5, 1889) complained that business along Clark tree/ had fall en fr om _first- to fourth-rate since the cablehad startfd.

Lo secure permission from Lhe city council to extend a streetcar line through an old tunnel und er the Chicago River, Stone's newspapers fi..iriouslyrailed against the "tunnel grab," demanding that adequate compensation be paid to the city. Yerkes, who objected to the payment of this compensation, bitterly resented these newspaper attacks, later claiming that he 42

OppositeSides of the Barricade

Jfarrell, ~ itten /2ouse & C,--ippen,

INSTANTA NEOUSSAFETY BRAKE. '7

Easylo Operate.

"' "' "

"

Instantaneous Action. i.¡.....--..D

E e

.

:r a.

?

Simplein Const, uction.

SEND

FOR

CIRCULARS,

BLUE

PRINTS.

-f

F4! J

SlightJar to Passengers.

ETC .

HARRELL,RITTENHOUSE& CRIPPEN, 630 West Harrison Street Above:A Harrell, Riltenhouse & Crippenadvertisement for instantaneoussafety brakes.Safety of the new cable carswasa concernfor riders.

The Daily News morning issue kept jabbing away in Field's column about the north side street railway, and not only provoked and irritated Mr. Ye1-kes, but likewise provoked and irritated , with just cause, north side people who were anxious, not that the cable or other improvements should be hindered, but that they should be helped . It is of no consequence to the north side people that Mr. Yerkes or Mr. Jones , or Mr. Any-one-else happened to be at the head of the company building the cable-they wanted the cable, and the best improved way of getting to and from their homes.

In May 1888, Lawson bought Stone's ownership of the ChicagoDaily News. Preoccupied with the busines end of operation , Lawson exerted less editorial influence than did Stone.

He did , howeYer, continue the anti-Yerkes policy. He may have, in fact, inspired a series of hysterical anicles that appeared in April 1889, warning that there was going to be an "exodus" from the orth Side because of erratic cablecar sen ¡ice:

CHICAGO, ILL. The cable has blighted the north side. It has been the terror by night and pestilence by noonday .

Tears, prayers, entreaties have all been in vain. It grows worse clay by clay, and [on] May 1 [a traditional moving clay in Chicago] a long caravan wiJI move southward.

These articles expressed the fears of orth Side property-holders, including Lawson.

Lawson's economic interest was more directly threatened when Yerkes banned newsboys from his streetcars. The Daily News condemned this action, calling it the "New Yerkes Outrage." Clarence Darrow, then Chicago's assistant corporation counsel, was among tho e quoted in the News who criticized Yerkes ' order: "When I leave home in the morning I don't want to skirmish around over the suburbs looking for a newsboy ." He went on to suggest that Yerkes declared the ban because of a recent tvm-thousancl-clollar award to a newsboy injured by a streetcar.

Follow-up articles portrayed Yerkes as a heartless robber baron who threatened to deprive poor new boys of their meager living.

Objecting to this portrayal, Yerkes complained of unfair treatment in a letter to 43

Chicago History, Summer 1995

A North Chicago Street Railroad horsecar, 1859 . Replacing slow and costly horsecars, Yerkes helped Chicago build the world's longest cable-car and streetcar lines by 1900.

44

Opposite Sides o''J the B arncade .

45

ChicagoHistory, Summer 1995 Law on. A bitter correspondence between the two men ensued, Yerkes even charging that the slories of Daily News reporters were "changed by their superiors in such a manner as to inflict discredit on our work when nothing of that kind was suggested in Lheir repons." Denying this accusalion, Lawson explained why his papers were so hostile toward the magnate: I did not intimate that the Daily ews was not antagonistic to your "projects or improvements." On the contrary it i absolutely antagonistic to all street railroad "projects and improvements." ... The Daily News advocates genuine rapid transit for Chicago and is opposed to all halfway measures in that direction , and doubly opposed to them when they are only half well done at that. For this reason it considers any surface cable system running through the heart of a populous city a mistake, even when it is well managed, and when it is faulty , both as to construction and management, as is the case of your north side cable system , we consider ir not only a mistake but an outrarre on the rights of the public.

In his opposition to Yerkes, Lawson was not motivated purely by personal economic interest or by a prejudice against ex-convicts and cable cars. There was, in fact, a sinister ide to Yerkes' operations in Chicago. The financier and his Philadelphia backers issued enormous amounts of watered stock, burdened their firms with cripp lin g debt , and manipulated dummy construction companies to reap massive personal profits. Yerkes, however , was honest in his dishonesty. \'\Then an alderman demanded that he make known the contents of certain agreements and ordinances in order lo protect the city from "unscrupulous men " who might later gain control of the Lraction firm , Yerke frankly replied, "I Lhink Lhat the aITair of our companies will not fall into Lhe hands of men any more unscrupulous than we are."

Yerkes' unscrupulousness was nowhere more evident than in the Chicago City Council. Having the power to decide what streets, if any, a firm might use, the council could make or break a streetcar company.

Recognizing this fact, Yerkes forged a bipartisan coalilion in the council that gave him

46

whal he wanLed in return for campaign conlribulions and jobs for constiLUents. According to Walter Fisher , a Chicago reformer , the council "was corrupt before Yerkes, bul Lhe corruption was unorganized and unsyslemized; Yerkes organized sporadic grafl."

Alderman Salo Roth exposed this system of corruption and in the process gave lhe Daily News a big coop. lnjuly 1891 , Rolh was offered compensation to help override a mayoral velo or an ordinance soughl by Yerkes.

Instead of accepting the offer , Rolh enli led staIT from Lhe Daily News to devise a scheme to trap the boodlers. According to Lhe plan, the alderman agreed to vote to override lhe velo in exchange for a reward or $750. Roth depo iLecl Lhe bribe in a safe in the Daily New. building. In March 1892, a grand jury used this and olher evidence lo inclicl seven aldermen for conspiracy. The indictmenls were delivered despile the presence ofYerkes' men on the grand jury , a fact alluded to by lhe foreman: "I have lo avoid e\'eryLhing in regard to Mr. Yerkes because of certain conditions exisling in the presenL body. I suppose that on every grand jury there are men who work for his inlere t."All seven aldermen were evenlually acquiued.

Yerkes' invisible hand soon extended to the Illinoi legi lawre, as well, where it was commonly rumored Lhat votes could be bought al lower prices than those ofTered by Lhe Chicago City Council. In 1895, the magnate Lried to obtain ninely-nine-year franchi cs for bis streelcar lines from the legislature . Ile almosl succeeded, bul Governor John Peter Altgeld' veLO of the measure dashed Yerkes' hopes.

Yerke had reason to be hopeful, having offered the governor a one-million-dollar bribe to s11pporl Lhe franchise bill. The governor refused Lhe bribe and, when the legislature atlempted lo override his velo, he mu lcred all his political strength Lo defeat Lhis effon on Lhe tumulluous last night of the legislative session. A mea ure intended to suppress competition among elevated railroads was also vetoed. Yerkes had finally overcome his aversion Lo that mode of transit, which he now sought to monopolize.

Having achieved almost total contro l of the orth and the West Side streelcar lines by

OppositeSides of the Barricade

,\\R . YERKE.

··WHAT

A F-INE I OT OF 1-'IJBUC-WIHI fED

GENTI.EME~."

___ .,

~-

/

-

---

;.)

ThisJanuary 28, 1899, Chicago Record cartoonrevealshow Yerkes,using campaigncontributionsandjobsfor constituents, successfully luredalderrnminto his webof co1°ruption in orderto securehis wealth,power,and streetrailwayfranchises.

47

Chicago History, Surnmer 1995

1894, Yerkes found himself confronted with the threat of two elevated roads cutting across his West Side ten-itory. Acquiring possession of one of these roads, Yerkes also organized the Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company in order to shut out any potential competitors on the North Side. Forming an alliance with the remaining West Side road and the South Side Alley L, the entrepreneur began construction of the Loop, which still wraps Chicago's business district in a ribbon of steel. Before erecting the elevated platform, Yerke was required by law to obtain the consent of property owners along the proposed route, including Victor Lawson. Surprisingly, the newspaper publisher gave the Northwestern permission to build, accepting $1250 compensation. In a letter to his sister, Lawson explained his decision:

At first thought it seems an undesirable thing to have an elevated road on the street. But I rather think that, on the whole, it is more likely to improve the property than damage it, because it will be possible for people to board a car anywhere in the outskirts of Chicago-North, South or West, and for a single fare be landed at the corner of Fifth Avenue [Wells Street] and Madison Street , within a few feet of our property.

Lawson was not going to oppo e "genuine rapid transit," even though Yerkes was promoting it.

In 1897, opposition to Yerkes was rekindled when he once again sought longer franchises from the legislature. Chicago's major newspaper publishers including Lawson, Joseph Medill of the Chicago Tribune, aud Herman Kohlsaat of the Chicago Times-Herald,

Although elevated train service in Chicago began in 1892, service to the city's business district did not begin until 189 5, when Yerkes' Union Elevated Railroad Company began its constniction of the "Loop." Above: 1893 construction of the elevated at Lake Street and Rockwell. Photograph by Chicago Transit Authority .

48

Opposite Sides of the Barricade

fn Febmary1899, Yerkesformed the ChicagoConsoli-

datedTraction Companyto combinehis multi/Jlestreetcar interests.Above: Certificateverifying Yerkes'ownershijJof the ChicagoElectricTransit Com/Jany(1896).

were united in their opposition. Carter Harrison Jr., the newly elected mayor of Chicago, and the Municipal Voters League, a reform group, strongly supported the press. Hoping to head off an approaching storm of public opinion, Yerkes gave Lawson advance warning of his legislative plans in a January letter. It was a vain effort, though, the storm breaking with a fury few could have foreseen. Arousing an already hostile public, the press succeeded in defeating the franchise measure known as the Humphrey Bill.

Yerkes was not one to accept defeat. "I would not have been the man that I am today if they [the newspapers] had not put energy, and heart, and courage into me by giving me good reason to fight back," he later told a reporter.

"A reasonable capacity for combativeness is one of the requisites for success." Demonstrating such a capacity, Yerkes compelled Charles Allen, a legislator from Hoopeston, Illinois, to introduce a substitute bill giving local councils the power to grant fifty-year franchise .

Learning of this new move, a frantic Lawson bombarded the legislature with telegrams: "Chicago needs your help in the pre ent emergency as against the danger and tricket)' behind the Allen bill." De pite renewed press opposition, the Allen Bill breezed through the General Assembly and was signed into law by Governor John Tanner, who Lawson dismissed as a "common bar-room loafer." Yerkes then turned to the Chicago City Council, where he had to apply for the fifty-year franchises as they

were permitted under the Allen Law. Lawson resolved to beat the magnate on the latter' own turf by "having a back fire built in each ward for the benefit of the local alderman." In other words, the publisher planned to launch an editorial assault against corrupt aldermen. "It seems to me desirable not only to create public opinion but to Cl)'Stalize it in any way that will make the dishonest alderman afraid to oppose their own immediate constituents."

In November 1897, Yerkes obtained control of the Daily Inter Ocean, a newspaper with a meager circulation, in hopes of influencing public opinion. He appointed George Wheeler Hinman, formerly of the New York Sun, editor.

The Sun had waged a losing battle against Lawson's Associated Press, and as a result Hinman shared Yerkes' hostility toward the Daily News publisher. The Inter Ocean editor attacked Lawson and Joseph Medill of the Tribune, accusing them of paying low rents on lea eel Board of Education property. Hinman even hired a Mr. Yount, a disgruntled ex-Daily News reporter, to uncover evidence of embezzlement in a Lawson-sponsored fund for sick babies. Yerkes himself instigated this inquiry, believing that "Lawson and his man Faye may easily be proven dishonest in their conduct of the Fresh Air Fund Charity." The cynical financier thought that every man was "out for the stuff."

Charles Faye, now managing editor of the News, was anxious to respond to the Inter Ocean's accusations, but Lawson, who was on vacation in Europe, prevented him. Faye reminded his boss of the information that he had unearthed about Yerkes almost twelve years earlier: While you were in Europe in 1885-1 think-I did up Yerkes for about twenty columns of nonpareil, going from New York to Philadelphia every day for two weeks to get the material. It wa printed in The Morning News-not all of it, and what Mr. Stone left out is still news and I can recall it. Well knowing your aversion to mud-slinging I imagine we will not enter such a campaign. If we did print the suppressed matter, and could get a ew York paper to copy it, the present Mrs. Charles T. Yerke would be done for, sure enough.

49

ChicagoHistory, Summer 1995

This 1899 North ChicagoStreet Railroad Company reportlo the public sought lo convince Chicago'scomnwters that cablecars provided thefastest, afest, and most modern means of transportation.

50

OppositeSide. of the Barricade Lawson, however , would not revert to such an attack. He believed that it was not worthwhile "to join personal issues with a graduate of the state's prison and with a man of Yerkes well known personal character." Melville Stone, now managing editor of the Associated Press , however , could not resist the Inter Ocean' taunt "Why Don't You Come On?" Like Lawson, Stone was under continuous fire from Yerkes' newspaper. In December J 897, an Int er Ocean article charged that the Associated Press, with Stone's compliance, had sent fake dispatches . A few days after the appearance of this story, Stone asked Faye to consider publishing an editorial that he had written. His editorial "The Northwestern Elevated Bandits ," printed on December 31, sent shock waves through the local investmenL community. In August 1896, Yerkes, who had been unable Loraise sufficient funds, pulled the plug on the construction of the orthwe tern Elevated. early a year and a half later , the road was still incomplete and, facing a deadline imposed by the city council, in danger of forfeiting its right to occupy Wells and other streets. Yerkes was seeking an extension of the orthwestern "L" ordinance from the council, when Stone published his editorial. It began: 'T he extension of time for the construction of the Northwestern Elevated road is another move in the game of 0eecing the public of America and Europe. The enterprise is, and must be for years to come, a financial failure."

The next day, the Int er Ocean responded:

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TheJa nuary 9, 1898, Inter Ocean announced that Mayor Harrison signed an ordinancethat granted an extension of timefor the completionof the Northwestern Elevated, "therebyexJ1ressinghis confidencein the businessmen of Chicagowho have investedtheir money in that ente1prise."

"Stone is now doing special work on the editorial columns of his old partner's papers, both daily, and if Lawson does not hurry home he will wreck them."

On January 9, 1898, Victor Lawson, preparing to sail up the Nile, received a shocking telegram from Faye: Ye1-kes ued libel five hundred thousand pure bluff staLement

Gn1na/ ofJice.1 of the North Chimgo Street Railmad

Cv111/){/ny al 444 North Clark Street.

The Northwestern Elevated had filed a fivehundred-thousand-dollar libel suit against the Daily News, charging that it was "g reatly injured in its aid good name , reputation, credit, and busine s," by Stone's editorial. In a story detailing the libel suit, the Inter Ocean included a list of orthwestern's investors containing luminaries such as Mar hall Field, Philip D. Armour, and, embarra ingly, Charles Denni , 51

Chicago History, Surnrner 1995

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@ In December 1897, despite opposition frorn the press, the city council approved an extension that would allow Yerkes to prolong the construction of the Northwestern elevated line . Pictured here is a 1895 jJlan for the elevated tracks at Lake Street and Fifth Aveniie (now Wells Street).

52

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the managing editor of Lawson's morning newspaper, now named the Record. When Yerkes' new paper quoted the number of prominent businessmen who supported the libel suit, Faye sent out News reporter who succeeded in obtaining retractions from most of those quoted. News lawyer Azel Hatch did not think Yerkes intended to bring the suit to trial.

He explained: "The manner in which the Inter Ocean is exploiting the suit indicates that one purpose is advertising. Another apparent purpose is the attempt to silence the newspapers when Mr. Yerkes makes application for the extension of the franchises of the several street railroad companies in which he i interested."

Lawson was determined to prevent Yerkes from obtaining fifty-year franchises. In order to defeat the streetcar magnate in the council, enough honest alderman to sustain a mayoral veto had to be elected in April. With this goal in mind, Lawson cabled Dennis to contribute in his behalf between one thousand and five thousand dollars to the Municipal Voters League (MVL). Dennis and Faye provided strong editorial support to the MVL. Faye explained his support to his boss: 54

lL seems to me that aldermanic revolution is in the air, and that this much tired city will be blessed with an honest majority in the next council. ... r belieYe that Yerkes is nearly at the end of his string, and unle s he can extend hi rranchiscs, float ino-eased bonded indebtedness, dump hi\ holdings on the market and return Lo ew York with a bag of millions, that this great misguided fellow will go down in the ruin of the sick structure he has built about himself.

According to Dennis's count, the April elections brought thirty honest alderman to the council.

On December 5, 1898, William Lymon, an alerman who was friendly with Yerkes, ubrnitted a fifty-year-Franchi e ordinance to the council. Public opposition to the measure was tremendou ; Mayor Harrison even remarked that he would "not be surprised to see ome hanging done in the streets of Chicago."

Lawson, away on the East Coast, sent Faye an explicit order, scribbled with blue crayon on scrap paper: " o franchise of any kind under the boodle Allen Law ....

No 50 year term under any conditions."

The franchise war came to a dramatic close

OppositeSides of the Barricade on December 19. The galleries overlooking the city council chamber were packed with boisterous citizens, a few dangling nooses over the railing. A large, noisy crowd, complete with brass band, bustled outside city hall . Everyone present that night probably shared the same thought: would Charles Tyson Yerkes get what he wanted from the council, as he so often had in the past? The answer came quickly. During roll call, a reform alderman motioned that all street railway measures be transferred to the Committee on City Hall, where Johnny Powers, the council 's leader, had banished a group of reformers. The motion narrowly prevailed by a 32-31 vote. Yerkes had lost; his ordinance would never emerge from the committee.

Only a few days after Yerkes' defeat, Edward Price Bell, a twenty-nine-year-old Record reporter, began an arduous investigation that nearly brought the streetcar magnate before a grand jury. Bell attempted to discover why there were so many hung juries in trials involving personal injury suits against street railroads. This inquiry led him from opium dens to brothels in search of ex-jurors with stories to tell. With the aid of a band of undercover

police officer known as "the ight-Oying Squad," the journalist unearthed enough evidence to secure the indictment of James Lynch, an ex-bailiff who was suspected of bribing jurors on behalf of the Yerkes-controlled West Chicago Street Railroad Company. News of the indictment appeared on the front page of the Record on December 31, 1898.

The grand jury investigating the bribery charges explored the possibility of questioning Yerkes, but the financier managed to elude the witness stand, as did the indicted bailiff, who disappeared after being freed on bond. Despite these apparent victories, the tide had turned against Yerkes and his methods. Signaling this change, a jury found the West Chicago Street Railroad Company liable for twenty thousand dollars in damages in a retrial of a case involving a young girl badly injured by a streetcar.

In July 1899, Bell with Lawson's blessings, embarked upon a month-long odyssey across the state, to gather facts for an expose on corruption in the legislature. He confirmed what a legislator had told him, that representative government was a fiction in Springfield, thanks

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55

ChicagoHistory, Summer 1995 largely to the Machiavellian means used by men such as Yerkes. Preying on human weaknesses, corporate interests resorted to bribery and, in some cases, used what Bell called "moral terrorism" to obtain votes for desired legislation. The latter involved the blackmail of lawmakers, often family men, seduced by "professional vamps, both beautiful and clever," in the employ of corporations.

Having failed to gain fifty-year franchises, unable to unseat Mayor Harrison , and plagued

by Bell's investigative reports, Yerkes began to sell his streetcar holdings, making a gradual withdrawal from the city of Chicago. In July 1900, Yerkes moved to London where a new career as a developer of underground railways awaited him. Ironically, Edward Price Bell was transferred to the Record's London office only a few months earlier. Accepting an invitation to meet Yerkes, Bell was understandably nervous as he made his way to the financier's opulent Savoy Court apartment. The reporter found Yerkes in good spirits, though, with no trace of hostility in his manner.

The magnate began the interview by saying, agreeably, "Mr. Bell, you are the man who drove me out of the state of Illinois. " Bell disagreed, as erting that the credit belonged to the Record.Yerkes shook his head, "Futility had marked everything the Recordsaid and did concerning me prior to your work." The journalist countered, "Well, let us say then that the facts drove you out." Yerkes agreed and then went on to explain his actions in Illinois : What I wish to say to you is that I am no more a depraved or dishonest person than you are or Mr. Lawson is. Mr. Lawson is a splendid man of immense ability . Kindly report lo him briefly on what, I suppose, might be termed my apologia or pleading olT. I was fighting the Devil in Illinois , and I fought him with fire . But for the fire , he would have destroyed the properties for which I was responsible Lo thousands of innocent people who had put their savings into street railway securities.

Charles Tyson Yerkes died on December 29, 1905 , his London projects unfinished ; Victor

The boilerroom at the Van Buren and J effersonStreetsstation. The Van Buren Street cablejJlant was built in early 1894 tofurnish jJowerto the city'ssouthwestcablelines, which provided se111ice lo a growing number of people living in the remotereachesof the city.

56

OppositeSides of the Barricade Lawson remained in control of the Daily News until his death on August 19, 1925. A dozen years after Yerkes acquired a ramshackle horsecar company, Chicago was crisscrossed by a grid of trolley tracks more extensive than that of any other city in the nation. "In reply to the years of newspaper criticism I have endured I will say one thing-it is this: There is nothing I have done so far as what they criticize is concerned, that I am sorry for," Yerkes once declared. "My bitterest enemies would not have transportation systems of Chicago put back to what they were when I found them. " Even Melville Stone, one of these enemies, admitted years later in his autobiography, that Yerkes "rea lly did a great service in improving the transit facilities of the city." Ironically though, the financier sabotaged the very streetcar system he built. It took Chicago over twenty-five years to unravel the "tract ion tangle" largely caused by Yerkes' frenzied business practices.

At the close of his meeting with Edward Price Bell , Yerkes instructed the reporter to "Tell Mr. Lawson I did what I think he would have done: the best I could under the circumstances. He and I were merely on opposite sides of the barricade. " When later informed of Yerkes' statement, Lawson broke into a smile. "Possibly," the publisher replied, "But it surely was a good thing we all were not on Mr. Yerkes's side of the barricade."

For Further Reading The press strongly opposed Charles Tyson Yerkes' control of Chicago's street railway system . Daily News editor Melville E. Stone provides a first-hand account of the opposition in his autobiography Fifty Yearsajoumalisl (Garden City, New York: Doubleday , Paige & Company, 1921 ). Charles Henry Dennis 's VictorLawson: His Time and His Work (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1935) explores the life of Victor Lawson.

Theodore Dreiser provides a fictional account of Yerkes in his novel TIU'Titan (New York: John Lane Company, 1914).

Chicago'sLoop elevatedstructure, seen here in 1897, ran above Lake, Wells, Van Buren, and Wabash Streets and formed a rectangle that allowed trains from the North, South, and West Sides' residentialareas to circle the city's businessdistrict.

Illustrations 38, CHS, lCHi-23429; 39, CHS, ICHi -17161; 40, CHS, ICHi-21972; 41, from Daily Inter Ocean Qanuary 30, 1898), CHS Library; 42 top, from ChicagoDaily News (August 9, 1888) , CHS Library; 42 bottom, from ChicagoDaily News (April 5, 1889), CHS Library; 43, from Yerkes System of Street Rai/wa-ys(1897), CHS Library; 44 -45, CHS, ICHi05464: 47, from ChicagoRecord Qanuary 28, 1899), ewberry Librnry; 48, CHS, ICHi-05376; 49, CHS Archives and Manuscripts Collection; 50, from The North ChicagoStreet Railroad Companyand its Lines (1889), CHS Library; 51 left, from Yerkes System of Street Railways ( 1897), CHS Library ; 51 right, from Sunday Int er Ocean Qanuary 9, 1898), CHS Library; 52-53, CHS Prints and Photographs Collection; 54, CHS Library ; 55 left and right , from Street Railways of Illinois (1897), CHS Library; 36, from l'erkes Sy /em of Street Railways (1897), CHS Library; 57, CHS, ICHi-25312.

57

Chicago History, Summer 1995

YESTERDAY'S CITY Of the Women, For the Women, and By the Women Kristie Miller

April 18, 1925 was a raw, cold day, bul a large crowd had gathered outside Chicago's Furniture Mart on orth Lake Shore Drive for the opening of the Woman's World's Fair, an exposition to publicize Lhe entry of women into nearly every field of endeavor. The fair brought together women representing more than one hundred different occupations: lawyers, doctors, inventors, architects, interior designers, manufacturers, missionaries, a prospector, a plumber, and a governor.

Doris Stevens, a veteran of the fight for women's suffrage, had written in 1923: "The political battle is behind us. The next hill to Lake is the hill of economic equality for women." At that time, women made up slightly more than 20 percent of the American work force. Opportunities for women had increased during World War I, and expan ion into male-dominated occupations had continued into the 1920s. College graduates no longer turned automatically to teaching; welleducated daughters of the middle class now wanted careers in business, the social sciences, and the professions.

In Chicago, Helen Bennett, for many years manager of the Chicago Collegiate Bureau of Occupations and author of Women at Work, believed that "women have achieved more in the last ten years than in all the centuries preceding ... [but] they have done it so quietly that few people realize how much they have achieved."

She wanted an event that would illuminate not only women in public life, "for the spotlight is strong on a capitol building," but also women in business and professional careers, the "thousands of women who are doing important, useful and interesting work by the light of a candle that is under a bushel."

Kristie Miller is the author of Ruth Hanna McCormick: A Life in Politics, 1880-1944 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992).

58

For some time Bennett had considered the idea of a fair that would showcase women 's achievements in the world of work. Fairs were a Chicago tradition. During the Civil War, "sanitary fairs" were held to raise money for Union soldiers, producing a "fair mania, " according to contemporary accounts. The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition , which commemorated the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus 's voyage, gave millions of visitors their first glimpse of an indu Lrialized world.

There was even local precedent for an exhibition of female concern and occupation s.

At the 189 3 fair , a Board of Lady Manager s was authorized by Congress to produce a Woman 's Exhibit. The board comprised 117 members representing women from all over the country who had made their mark on society. For most of these nineleenth -cenLUry women , iLwas the first time they entered the public affairs arena. It was also the first time the federal government had allocated fund to

Helen Benn ell's suggestion inspired the Woman 's World's Fair, which she helped bring to fruition as its managing director. H ere, she speaks with Louise Bowen (left) , who served as chairman for the 1925 fciir, and Mrs.John T. Bass (center).

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H elena Stevens's cover illustration for the 1925 Woman's World's Fair souvenir program embodied the description of the event as a "medieval fair-au exchange of wares and of thoughts" as it was described in the 1927 /Jrogram.

59

ChicagoHistory,Summer 1995

Ruth McConnick 's quest for fund s for the Illinois Republican Women's Clubs resulted in the first Woman 's World 's Fair.

be spent by a panel of women. Chicago 's Bertha Honore Palmer was elected president.

She mediated between the Isabellas, a group who wanted to recognize Queen Isabella for having made the Columbus expedition possible and who wanted women to exhibit alongside of men, and another contingent that considered a woman's pavilion a waste of money.

The resulting Woman's Building, designed and decorated by women architects and artists, displayed women's inventions as well as handicrafts. Other exhibits showcased women 's organizations and highlighted statistics on women's economic conditions in the 1890s. Thousands of visitors viewed model kindergartens, which were then quite novel. Many who visited the fair were inspired to start clubs, establish kindergartens, and even work for women's suffrage.

60

Bennett's idea was to expand on this tradition. She envisioned not only an exposition of products made by and for women, but a vocational clearing house to guide women toward fulfilling careers . "Happy women are those," Bennett said , "who do congenial work and do it well, whether it be by taking care of a baby, singing in grand opera, measuring timber in a forest, making candy, writing books , or bossing a gang of workmen."

Ruth Hanna McCormick, who had inherited from her father, Mark Hanna, his energy and his skills as an organizer as well as his considerable fortune, joined Bennett in planning and executing the fair. McCormick and Bennett had begun to work together in the suffrage campaign of the early 1910s. After the Nineteenth Amendment passed in 1920, Ruth McCormick worked with Bennett to organize Republican Women 's Clubs all over Illinois to educate the new voters and to persuade them to exercise their recently won right. After the 1924 election, the Illinois Republican Women 's Clubs, oon to number two hundred thousand members, were in desperate financial straits because the Republican National Committee had not, as hoped, been able to reimbur e them for campaign work.

On a dark ovember afternoon, according to an account Bennett wrote some twenty-five years later, McCormick was walking up and down the office, deploring the clubs' sorry tate.

"She stopped pacing for a moment, lifted one eyebrow , and said fretfully , 'Don 't sit there feeling sorry for me , Helen . Tell me some way in which we can make the neces ary money for these clubs ."' Bennett told McCormick her idea for a "great how , of the women, for the women, and by the women ." McCormick 's reaction was characteristic: '"There's just one thing wrong . ... You should have told me this four years ago. ow let' get busy."'

They began by consulting prominent Chicago businessmen, who told the women that they would need at least ten thousand dollars before they could embark on such a project. According to Bennett, McCormick laughed . "Let 's see ifwe can 't do it without any money . ... It would be fun to do what people say can't be done." A good board was essential: prominent, well-known women with good connections who

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The board of the Woman's World's Fair, depicted here in the 1925 souvenir program, included a number of influential Chirago women.

61

ChicagoHistory, Surnrner1995 would actually work, not merely serve as figureheads. Louise de Koven Bowen, active in many aspects of city life and at one time even considered for mayor, agreed to be president.

Bennett, who became managing director, assessed the other board members: Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick was "keenly intellectual"; Mrs. Joseph T. Coleman, a "magnetic social leader"; Mrs. Howard Linn, "beautiful, brilliant and efficient." Ruth McCormick served as executive director.

The board planned to open the fair in four short months. Bowen, with no false modesty, thought it clue to their "ingenuity" that they were able to cover expenditures as they came clue. An advance sale of fifty thousand tickets was made possible by allowing women's clubs to make a profit on every ticket they sold. Board members sold sixty-thousand-dollars worth of exhibitor space. In early February, McCormick went to Washington to enlist the support of President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. The president agreed to find a way to finance participation of government branches employing women. Even better, he offered to make a radio speech to inaugurate the fair, while Grace Coo lidge agreed to push a button to send a signa l to Chicago for the opening.

The Woman's World's Fair opened on April 18, 1925. Betty Tw-ner Matthews, calling herself "Paulette Revere," rode a horse through the Loop to present Bowen with a message from women of the past congratulating her and the board on the distance women had traveled since the same clay in 1775 when Paul Revere bad made his ride.

Mrs. Coolidge pushed the button that telegraphed a signal for the doors to open. At the same time, President Coolidge made the predictably uplifting opening speech: the fair would "broaden the outlook of women, intensify men's appreciation for the achievement of women, and help both to understand and solve some of the social problems of communities and the world." He was significantly impressed by the financial acumen of the women managers. "It appears that when this Fair was first thought of, the capital behind it consisted entirely of an idea," he remarked, continuing, "This financial accomplishment presents a striking contrast to the average project of like 62

character, supported in easy fashion out of public f1.mcls."

The American Exposition Palace, popularly known as the Furniture Mart, was then a new building not familiar to the general public. The entire main floor, seventy-two thousand square feet, housed 280 booths representing more than one hundred different occupations. When the board was selling space, the managers had been dismayed to learn that one of the prime areas, a long, narrow corridor just beyond the entrance, had been sold to the Moody Bible Institute. There was no objection to having that organization among the exhibitors, for it trained many women for work in foreign fields.

Bennett, however, feared that they would present a sober, drab exhibit, the opposite of what was needed to set the tone of the show. As it turned out, the exhibit was very popular, featuring men and women in the garb of difierent countries to which the institute sent missionaries, such as China and India. They sang gospel hymns accompanied by a old-fashioned reed organ, drawing a steady audience.

Inside the hall, brightly colored awnings covered every booth. Young women in costumes wandered through the aisles selling balloons and toys. Other young women, in academic caps and gowns, were vocational guides, who introduced girls to successful women in their fields of interest. Strolling musicians, hurcly-gurdies, and jugglers added to the carnival feeling. More serious aspects were not neglected: the women had pledged to sell no chances or railles.

Exhibitors included newspaper and advertising women, stenographer and telephone operators, welfare and vocational workers, candymakers, candlernaker , dollmakers, arti ts, and authors. An eighty-four-year-old woman with a Log Cabin quilt she had made in her retirement home drew special attention. A young woman from Saskatchewan, who mined her own clay for pottery, called herself a "ceramic engineer." Inventors included Lillian Tolbert, a young African American who had invented the Tolbert ice pitcher and claimed that "the only man who had anything to do with it was the attorney in the patent office." Another inventor exhibited her "radiator cabinet" to keep food warm; yet another displayed disposable

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63

ChicagoHistory, Sumrner 1995 paper trays for feeding the sick. A street cafe was run by a woman in the delicatessen business. Women physicians operated a small emergency hospital to provide first aid.

Ruth McCormick was one of the exhibitors.

For over ten years, McCormick had operated a dairy in Byron, Illinois , about one hundred miles from Chicago, where she produced certified milk. Before pasteurization became widespread, certified milk was in pected for acceptably low counts of harmful bacteria and sanitary processing conditions. She installed her prize-winning Holstein in a small booth, which drew hordes of children. A social worker explained to the puzzled Helen Bennett that city children, most of whom had seen wild animals in the zoo, had never before had a chance to see a cow.

Each day there were special events-children 's story hours , marionette shows , an exhibit by high school girls of gowns and hats made by themselves, and a demonstration of "flesh-reducing exercises by the overly plump girls of Parker High School," as well as various singing and dancing groups, lip-reading and

osteopath demonstrations, and fashion shows.

Helen Bennett organized a program presented by the Girls' Week Committee of Chicago to promote vocationa l education.

Newspapers were requested to send only women reporters, and at their booths, many women columnists gave talks or signed books.

The souvenir program had a cover by a woman artist, a frontispiece by another, articles written by women, advertising space sold by women, and was printed in a plant owned by a woman.

One of the highlights of the fair was the Famous Women's Lunch. Because of the speed with which the fair had been organized, the dates coincided with two large national conventions elsewhere in the country, so a number of women prominent in government and the professions had been unable to come. evertheless, the committee had managed to procure Governor ellie Ross of Wyoming, Judge Mary Bartelme of the Chicago J uvcnile Court, Jane Addams of Hull-I-louse , Dr. Alice Hamilton of the Harvard Medical School faculty, actress Katherine Cornell, internationally known geographer Dr. Helen M. Strong, and '[;

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66

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A Daily 1ews .1tajfartist, Vaughn Shoemaker, sketchedsights of the 1925 fair. The accompanyingarticle noted that the fair had allractedthirty thousand visitors the previous day.

Judge Kathryn Sellers of Washington, D.C., the only female federaljudge in the nited States.

Ruth McCormick spoke at the lunch, praising many of the exhibitors who had been successful in their fields. In closing, McCormick added, "I, too, have something to boast of. I am the large t milk producer of any woman in America." She was at first puzzled by the shouts of laughter that interrupted her.

Ruth McCormick had asked Vice President Charles G. Dawes, a friend of hers since his work with her father Mark Hanna on the 1896 presidential campaign of William McKinley, to make the closing speech. Like Coolidge, Dawes, a former director of the budget, praised

the financial ability of the fair's board. However, his remarks showed a trace of the condescension that colored men's assessment of the women's achievements, condescension that deepened each of the four years the fair was held. "When a woman is only half in earnest," he said, "she is apt to take the easiest way, and after selecting a good looking sub -committee, she will organize a predatory expedition directed against the weaker sex. Together with large cohort of usceptible, but reluctant masculinity, I have learned to distinguish between the woman who calls at the office simply for a sub cription and the woman who calls on what she considers real business."

67

Chicago History, Summer 1995

to money: "Theirs was the original idea. They worked up the plan. They paid the bills. It is not unreasonable to suppose they would take some of the money." Nevertheless, proceeds from later fairs went to support less controversial, nonpartisan charities.

Even greater than the financial success , however, was the success of the fair as publicity.

Chicagoans were proud of the national attention that the fair drew. "I found in New York and even in idle, pleasure loving Palm Beach much interest expressed," wrote the Chicago Tribune's society reporter. "Many said it wasjust like Chicago to do something so big, so original, so striking."

Beyond boosterism, the fair served an educational function. Women's position in the workforce was continuing to evolve rapidly. In the late nineteenth century, most employed women had worked in domestic service or agriculture.

In the early 1900s, manufacturing had provided a large number of jobs for women. Throughout

Elizabeth Bass's introduction to this 1927 souvenir /Jrogramnoted the cover's "risen, buoyantlypoised figure" who embodiedthe "woman of today, "freed from "historic,shackling conventions" and ready lo "take flight into the open realms of the spirit."

The eight-day pageant closed on Saturday, April 25. More than two hundred thousand people, including a large number of men, were estimated to have attended, and the board netted over fifty thousand dollars. The larger part of the profits went into a fund for future fairs, while the remainder went to the IUinois Republican Women's Clubs and to the Women's Roosevelt Republican Club of Chicago.

There was apparently some criticism of the use of these funds for a partisan political organization, for afterward Bowen felt called upon to stress the nonpartisan aspect of the fair. She pointed out that at the Famous Women's Lunch, the two principal guests of honor had been Jane Addams, prominent among the supporters of Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette, a third party presidential candidate in 1924, and Governor ellie Ross, a Democrat.

Helen Bennett also defended the clubs ' claim 68

Louise de Koven Bowen, the/air 'sfirst chairman, worked on behalf of many civic caztSe s.

Yesterday'sCity the 1920s, women began to invade the whitecollar cadres: 18 percent of working women in 1900 held clerical, managerial, sales, and professional positions; by 1930, 44 percent of working women had white-collar jobs.

In the era before television, Bennett recognized that the "visualization" of vocations for women was more potent than the written or spoken word. She believed that what would today be called "career education" was appropriate not only for young women, but "for those who have tried and failed because they were not properly placed." Housewives, too, could learn improved methods of "cookery, baby tending, education, housekeeping and household accounting." The board received letters from women all over the world, urging them to make the fair an annual event, Louise Bowen reported, "so the women of the country and the world can feel as though they had some means of exhibition that was truly representative."

The fair was held annually for the next three years, always expanding. Although the first show had been designated the "Woman 's World's Fair," probably to invoke the 1893 world's fair, it had been organized too quickly to have any significant international participa-

tion. In 1926, however, seven foreign countries sent delegates: France, Iceland , Lithuania, Denmark, Hungary , Poland , and Czechoslovakia. Representatives of 117 occupations included fox breeders, hunters, numerologists, plumbers, rose brokers, and seed testers. Local booths were more elaborate; Marshall Field's book section, for example, had models dressed as characters from various books by Edith Wharton, as well as from Anita Loos 's GentlemenPreferBlondes,Edna Ferber 's So Big, and other bestsellers written by women.

The fair was so large by 1927 that it moved to the Chicago Coliseum. "What began as an experiment is becoming an institution," exulted the ChicagoEvening Post, adding "this fair is a distinctively Chicago creation ... another proof of the enterprise which the climate of the Great Lakes region engenders." "The annual Woman's Fair is peculiarly a Chicago enterprise, and is one of the city's best advertisements, " wrote the Chicagojournal. Finland, Norway, and Sweden joined the foreign exhibitors, and the Chicago consuls of several Asian countries di played their women's clothing, jewelry, dolls, and greeting cards.

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771efair, grown much lrnger by 1927, movedfrom the Fumitu re J\Iart to the ChicagoColiseum. This floor plan from the souvenir Jnogramshow, the vast number of exhibits.

69

Chicago History, Summer 1995 by the nation 's only woman station director, held forth in a soundproof glass room.

Exhibitors included automobile designers and mechanics (one periodically dismantled and rebuilt her machine in less than sixty minutes); department store executives, insurance agents, psychiatrists, tent-makers, and a woman who claimed to be the only female watchmaker in the world. ative American women brought blankets and baskets , while women of the southern mountain region offered handwoven coverlids. A model nurser y school for children aged two to four years old was called by educators "the most daring pedagogic experiment of the day ."

A subtle change can be seen in reports about the fair beginning in its second year. The first year the fair had been an innovation.

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CHRYSLER A woman mechanic al the 1927 fair could dismantle and rebuild an automobilein less than an hour, but this advertisement from that year's souvenir program depictsa more traditional view of woman's relationshijJto her car.

70

prodigies were widely reported. Everyone from the president of the United States to Chicago businessmen such as William Wrigley Jr. and Samuel Insull wanted the fair to succeed, and succeed it had. Perhaps this success was seen as a threat to the established order, although from the beginning , the women had taken some pains to reassure men that they wanted to co-exist with , not replace them. Louise Bowen had stated explicitly, "Women have no desire to enter into undue competition with men ," although she emphasized that "undoubtedly women possess , as well as men , the energy, industry, and talent which ... will fit them to rank with men in industry and the art ."

In 1926, men began to take a defensive line, usually masked by humor. A male columnist in the Chicago H erald and Examiner wrote with mock humilit y: "I was relieved to note that in the booth where you have yo ur weight guessed the guesser was a man. For certain higher types of research woman is not yet quite prepared. " He concluded that although women lacked, and might always lack , man 's power, woman was "cleverer , fuller of device, more skillful at promotion ," in short, "the niftier sex."

Several editorials emphasized that although many women were entering untraditional fields, domestic economy was still popular , and the writers pr aised women 's continuing intere tin the home. "T he women of today, including the average professional or scientific woman, wants marriage and children," the ChicagoDaily News wrote oothingly, adding "the more intelligent the woman, the more study and care she bestows on child psychology, household technic , efficiency and order, comfort and beauty." They reiterated the old Progressive notion that "woman ought to apply to municipal , state and national questions ... the standards of th e good home. " The editorial ends on a faintly ominous note: "Co mplacent men addicted to boasting of male uperiority should visit the Woman 's World's Fair. " By 1927, the third year of the fair, editorials and speeches showed even more concern about its feminist aspect and were even more explicit about the need for women's continuing responsibility in the home. Vice President Dawes, opening the fair in 1927 , said baldly , "It is to

Yesterday'sCity

Ruth McConnick's political successesbegan to divert her considerable ene1giesfrom the Woman's World' Fair.

Above: McCormick (center) with supporters Mrs. E. R. Fifield and Mrs. Hathaway Watson shortlyafter her 1928 nomination as Illinois congressman-al-large.

be noted with satisfaction that so many of the exhibits are definitely and directly related to the home." Although admitting that it was "well and proper " to acknowledge the "great progress and important influence of women in business and indu~ll)', ... the fact remains, however, that woman alone can make a home." ewspapers outside of Illinois indicate that the disturbing success of the fairs was being recognized all over the count!)'. The Stamford[Con11ecticul] Advocate wrote: "Reports indicate that the bulk of the exhibits relate to ... home decoration, work sy tematization, and building. " They concluded that "newly emancipated women can and will do other things , but she will not release her hold on the home. And the masculine rejoices mightily in her decision."

The Sime.:CityIowa Li-veslock Recordexpressed even more anxiety: "There are many men who have not dreamed of visiting either of the first two fair ¡, regarding them a pink-tea-ish. But by now such men are beginning to harbor an uneasy suspicion that those women may be up to something after all. It hurt men's vanity to have women proven smart. ... It begins to seem

that the feminist movement is more substantial than one has been led to believe .... When it touches him closely-as in the instances in which a man in any business organization is subordinated to a woman's authority-there is a panicky revolt." They advised: "Man, the patronizing sex, the still smugly superior sex, had better betake himself to the Woman's World's Fair to learn what these upstarts are up to."

These comments reflect a trend in the late 1920s away from feminism and toward greater conservatism all over the count!)'- Reform efforts flagged as the consumer culture wooed younger women away from the activists' progressive ideals . Crusades against communism and lesbianism undermined women's organizations already weakened by divisions over the postsuffrage agenda.

Similar fairs followed the first Woman's World's Fair in Chicago in other American cities, and the board learned of plans for a woman's fair in Switzerland. The Ft. Worth [Texa J Record Telegram wrote of the Chicago Woman's World's Fair in 1927, "From the growth in three years of its existence, we safely may assume that it will become a national event of much importance within the next three." But they were wrong. The fair did continue to grow in 1928; plans for the fourth fair were under way before the Coliseum doors opened for the third in 1927. The 1928 fair boa ted a record number of exhibits, three hundred up from 238 the year before. Germany, Great Britain, Greece, and Ukraine joined the foreign participants. Women aviators, miners, blacksmiths, and surgeons were among a group so diverse that Jane Addams, a pioneer in social work, was quoted as saying she felt "old-fashioned and out of it in this day of unlimited feminine accomplishment." The only noticeable decline was in the number of different occupations represented-ninety-four, fewer than in any other year of the fair.

Despite their uccess, the fairs ceased after 1928. For one thing, the two principal leaders were no longer available. Ruth McCormick had run in 1928 for congressman-at-large, that is, from the entire state, and Helen Bennett had been active in her campaign. McCormick won by a landslide. In 1929, she began her 71

ChicagoHistory, Summer I 995 l llustrations Gt.t. ! I

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17iisDaily News cartoonfrom 1926 tyjJifiesthe somewhat condescendingattitude displayedby some repmters in the/air's later years.

campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in the 1930 election. She succeeded in wresting the nomination from the incumbent, but lost in the November general election.

Also by 1929, plans for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition, to celebrate Chicago's centennial, were well unde1way. ot wishing to compete with that event, Bennett went on the record offering instead "to help in any way" with those plans.

Helen Bennett believed that the success of the Woman's World's Fair was a fluke of the 1920s, due to "the hilarious times and the ready money." Nevertheless, it kindled and fed an interest in women 's careers which, in the time before television or even widespread radio listening, might not have become so general. The 1927 souvenir program wa correct in claiming that the fairs had "revived, more than any other exposition, the original idea of a medieval fair-an exchange of wares and of though ts."

72

58, CHS, D 1 85-605; 59, Woman's World'sFair Souvenir Program (1925), CHS Library; 60, CHS, ICHi-25315; 61, Woman's World's Fair Scrabook, CHS Library; 63, from SjJecificationsand Drawings of Patents (December 28, 1920), Chicago Public Library; 64-65, CHS, DN-80817; 66, Woman's World's Fai1-Scrapbook, CHS Library; 67, from Lhe Chicago Daily News (April 22, 1925 ), CHS Library; 68 Lop, Woman's World's Fair Souvenir Program (1927), CHS Library; 68 bottom, CllS, ICHi-25307; 69, Woman's World's Fair Souvenir Program (1927), CHS Library; 70, Woman's World's Fair Souvenir Program (1927), CHS Library; 71, CHS, ICHi-25316; 72, from Lhe ChicagoDaily News (April 21, 1926), CHS Library.