Page 44 - All About History - Issue 16-14

What was it like?

BOSTON, 1919

The US city was badly hit by an

USA
economic recession after WWI, as
Boston O
strikes and political clashes threatened

to tear the city apart at its seams…

© Alamy; Getty Images; Boston Public Library (BPL); Edward N. Jackson (US Army Signal Corps) Ttheirs. Faced with poor wages and unacceptable responded by recruiting militia pulled from Harvard
On 9 September, the police force went on strike.
he year following the Great War found the
Curtis and Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge
United States in the grips of an economic
downturn, as returning soldiers came home
to find the jobs they’d left behind no longer
University’s athletes and volunteers. Rioting broke
out that evening and as violence increased, Coolidge
working conditions, blue-collar Boston began to take
delivered 5,000 State Guards to combat the unrest.
Their lack of experience with crowd control showed
action. From telephone operators to train workers, the
city’s labour force was getting organised.
as they opened fire, killing two and wounding others.
As the violence continued, the media supported
The concept of unions was seen by many as the
Coolidge’s efforts to suppress the insidious socialist
first step in a terrifying slip toward communism.
menace, and a new police force was recruited. The
Things came to a head in Boston in 1919 when the
police force realised their grievances were simply
workers were torn between poor conditions and a
government desperate to suppress dissent. Boston,
not being listened to. They began preparations for
unionising and Police Commissioner Edwin Curtis
ideologies and political beliefs could tear it apart.
suspended the leaders.
September 1919
Technology like so many other US cities, looked like competing State troopers going into action on 9
During WWI, the huge demand
for technology led to several
designs getting rushed through.
The most shocking example of this
was the Boston Molasses Flood
of 1919, which occurred on 25
January when a tanker carrying a
container ruptured – 7.6mn l (2mn
gal) of molasses (black treacle) hit
Commercial Street in a massive
wave. Over 20 people were killed,
150 were injured and the amount of
damaged caused today calculates at
about £59 million ($100 million). It
was a traumatic start to a year that
would only get worse.

Decades after the Boston Molasses
Flood residents claimed that on hot
days the area smelled of the substance
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