THE YEAR 1909

[EZ_E]

 

The year is 1909.

 

Post your 1909 coin.

[font:Century Gothic]One hundred years ago.

What a difference a century makes!

Here are some statistics for the Year 1909 :

 

************ ********* *********

 

The average life expectancy was 47 years.

 

Fuel for this car was sold in drug stores only

 

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

 

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

 

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles Of paved roads.

 

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

 

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

 

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.

 

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year ..

 

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,

A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

 

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME .

 

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!

Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which Were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard. '

 

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

 

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

 

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

 

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

 

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from Entering into their country for any reason.

 

Five leading causes of death were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza

2. Tuberculosis

3. Diarrhea

4. Heart disease

5. Stroke

 

The American flag had 45 stars.

 

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!

 

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea Hadn't been invented yet.

 

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

 

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write and Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school..

 

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health' .

 

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help..

 

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A.! Plus one more sad thought; 95 percent of the taxes we have now did not exist in 1909 [/font]

[Old Pueblo]

Great post EZ, Can i have that spectacular V nickel?

I wonder if we are better off in 2009 then we were a hundred years ago. Oh yea, canned beer......definitely better off

[PCcoins]

Great post EZ, Can i have that spectacular V nickel?

I wonder if we are better off in 2009 then we were a hundred years ago. Oh yea, canned beer......definitely better off

 

 

I don't know.... In 1909 all the Marijuana and heroin a person could want???

 

[James_OldeTowne]

I would love to know how much "leisure time" the average folks had back in 1909 compared to today! Is there a metric for such a thing?

 

Great post, by the way. Of course, some things have to be taken in historical perspective. For example, there were so few bathtubs - because most people lived in rural areas! However, the percentage of urban households with bathtubs was much higher.

 

Fun stuff!! I use these kinds of anecdotes quite often in my auction cataloging. It puts a really nice context around the hobby.

[michael]

great post victor

 

the nickel is even better

[123cents]

I enjoyed your post very much. Thanks Victor.

[DC Dawg]

Ok... I am a news and policy junkie. So I couldn't resist tying what was then to today...

 

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.

The equivalent of $5.42 per hour today. Minimum wage is $7.25 as of 7/24/09.

 

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year ..

Between $4,929.55 and $9,859.10 today. According to HHS, the poverty line for a family of 4 is $22,050. Poverty line for one person is $10,830.

 

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,

A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

The salary for the accountant would be $49,295.51; dentist $61,619.39; veterinarian between $36,971.63 and $98,591.03 (that's if they are not taking trades, which was common back then); and the mechanical engineer would be making $123,238.79. I wonder if I could have been a mechanical engineer then (since computers did not exist)?

 

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

That would be $0.98. The USDA is reporting the average retail price of sugar is $2.56 for five pounds as of the end of the 3rd quarter of 2009 (9/30/09). That's about 51-cents per pound.

 

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

that would be $3.45 per dozen today. The USDA is reporting eggs cost $1.14 3Q09.

 

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

As a coffee addict, I would pay the $3.69 that was worth. The National Coffee Association of the USA reports that the average price of ground coffee is $3.87. I want to know where they are finding those prices. I pay $6-10 for 12 ounces of unground coffee!

 

The American flag had 45 stars.

Actually, the American Flag had 46 stars following the admission of Oklahoma in 1907. The 46 star flag was officially adopted as of July 4, 1908. The 48 star flag was officially adopted on July 4, 1912. (source: Smithsonian Institute)

 

Plus one more sad thought; 95 percent of the taxes we have now did not exist in 1909

On July 12, 1909, the 61st Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment and the amendment the state legislatures for approval. The 16th Amendment says:

 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

 

Alabama became the first state to ratify the amendment on August 10, 1909.

Delaware became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on February 3, 1913 making it officially the 16th amendment.

 

One misconception was that the IRS was formed at that time. The Bureau of Internal Revenue was formed in July 1862 to collect taxes to fund the Civil War. The bureau was formed following the Revenue Act of 1862. The name was changed to the Internal Revenue Service in 1953. Shortly thereafter, all of the jobs at the IRS was change from patronage appointments to career federal employees. This was part of reforms by President Eisenhower. Only the commissioner and the chief counsel are political appointments.

 

To borrow a phrase: Now you know the rest of the story!

[physics-fan3.14]

Victor and Scott, great posts. Very interesting.

[Lazarus Long]

Well my paternal grandfather who was born in 1898 worked for 10 cents a day around 1908-1909 when he was about 10 years old (in a coal mine I might add). He had to to help support his family. I think my dad said he got to keep 2-3 cents for candy etc. but the rest went to the family.

 

So when I hear stats that a St. Gauden's had $1000 of buying power when it was first minted I just roll my eyes. $20 of gold prior to WWI? My grandfather bought property in Tennessee for $0.25 an acre.

 

Real money went a LONG way back then, especially in the South

[James_OldeTowne]

You also got to keep far more of your income back then, as the tax rate was minuscule (for most workers) compared to today.

[robec1347]

Here is a rebuttal to the article, which also appeared in The Expedite Trucking Forum Oct.10.

 

 

 

Re: 1909

Not all true...

 

gas for cars were usually sold by the coal dealers in the towns and cities and the blacksmith in rural areas. By 1912 gas stations appeared on the scene.

 

There were over 140,000 cars on the road by 1909, Ford's production numbers for 1908 - the first year of the model T was over 10,000 cars alone with about 43,000 cars being produced for the 1908 production year by the majors.

 

In Detroit alone, there were over 200 miles of paved roads. In 1909 they used Concrete for the first time on Woodward ave, between 6 and 7 mile road. Most of it is still there, under 8 feet of other paving material and it is slightly pink. Other material used was brick, cobble and Macadam.

 

The crossword puzzle was created in 1890 by some Italian dude.

 

Canned beer was 'invented' in 1909 but not marketed until 1935, while some consider kegged beer in metal kegs as canned beer, others will dispute that the keg is not an individual package - kegged beer came in 1880's by the way.

 

Iced tea has been around a long time, the colonists made it before the US was a country. They even had ice cream then.

 

The average wage depended on your age and job. Many of the common work was about 18 cents an hour in the factories (Ford paid from 15 cents to buck an hour in 1909) but laborers made less while miners in some mines (copper) made a lot more.

 

Professionals didn't really crest the $2000 a year mark, unless they were really really good, engineers started at $800 if they landed a good job.

 

The graduation rate was much higher than 6%, which at that time meant that we had a dumb society. The Detroit Public school records of 1908 put the graduation somewhere about 70% because of the need for mandatory education. In 1910, they tripled the funding for truancy reform and enforcement.

 

There were more than 4300 murders in the US in 1909.

 

The sad fact is that in 1909, I would not have to market myself for a job with a resume and consultants. I could walk into a place and ask for a job and not fill out forms for taxes or prove who I am. I would be paid in cash with ZERO income taxes being removed and if I get fired or laid off, I could actually get another job.

 

Back in 1909, unless I was a miner, Pullman conductor, rail road worker or teamster (the profession, not the union) - I would not have to deal with a union which meant I wasn't tied down.

 

Life may sound bad then but it actually was a bit better than today. There were things they called communities, there were charities to help people and there was something that is called opportunities.

[thebeav]

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

 

That's when a pound of coffee was really 16 ounces too !

Unlike todays ounce and a quarter, or whatever they now call a pound....

 

Paul

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

Thanks for the corrections...now I don't have to.

[Dwaine]

Wow, great info all. Thanks for sharing. I didn't know most of this stuff.

[SkyMan]

Excellent info Folks (Sweet V nickel too Victor! ).

 

One thing I would also like to point out is that a High School diploma also meant that you had covered a LOT more info back then than we had nowadays. I remember one Prof. I know when I was working on my Ph.D. had a xerox copy of a HS graduation test, circa 1880's, on his door. It had a bunch of stuff on it that was way beyond what a college BA would ask for nowadays.