Newspapers Turn the Page to 1900

Here are some excerpts from newspapers writing about the last turn of the century:

“The horse must go. In fact, he must go very fast if he hopes to hold his own against automobiles.”

--The Buffalo (N.Y.) News, Dec. 30, 1899

“Civilization has accomplished its greatest wonder. In barely more than half a century, the sun has beheld the wandering Indian tribes vanish like shadows, while white men have swarmed in, leveling the land, digging, building, blasting, chopping, plowing and sailing.

“Where the waters gathered, there the people gathered also, and built a maritime city where nature had already framed the foundation fit for a city destined to become mistress of the sea.”

--The San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 31, 1899, boasting of the city’s progress in the 19th century

“The rights most difficult to secure to women are those pertaining to political liberty. The reason for slow progress in political rights is that the same types of ignorance, bigotry, conservatism, prejudice and fear which have opposed every other step in women’s rights, but which were powerless to say yea or nay, are endowed with full power to grant or refuse political liberty.

“When one considers the bigotry and prejudice with which women have been met at every step of their efforts to secure a broader, more independent and purposeful life, their present advanced position seems almost marvelous.”

--The Daily Picayune in New Orleans

“The nation should lead in wealth and commerce and New York should be a supreme city.”

--The New York Herald, in an article titled “Splendid Outlook for Advancement in the Next Hundred Years,” Dec. 31, 1899

“Men of money find ample reward in every industrial and commercial quarter for their investments. Labor commands strong returns. . . . Vast international trade balances go to our country’s credit; and as foreign war may continue, so American profits must extend; for, though Wall Street works itself into a hysteria over the ups and downs of conflict in the Transvaal, the one element there directly touching us is that the longer the war the greater must be foreign patronage of our markets.”

--The New York Times’ financial supplement, Jan. 1, 1900

“Man of the distant future will occupy a belt near the equator. The earth is cooling and, as a result, the Eskimo must leave the polar regions. Later, the Yankee must quit New England.”

--A scientist quoted in a Chicago Tribune story on predictions of the future