At the end of the 19th century, two major schools of thoughtexisted in the quest to contain, control and eliminate 'vice' from America's burgeoning cities. One was the 'moral reformers'. These indefatigable campaigners against 'evil' were persuaded that gambling, prostitution and drinking were a direct result of a collective deficiency of character among the populace. Hence, a religious revival was needed to call the people to a standard of dignity and conformity with the moral precepts laid out in The Bible. Over the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the wealthy classes contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure every immigrant who 'just got off the boat' had a copy of the 'good word' through the American Tract Society. Taking the cause of moral reform one step further, the American Sunday School Union was imported from Protestant Europe to educate children on the 'proper' modes of behavior in their most formative years. Children were taught when to stand up, when to sit down, when to talk and how to behave toward others within formal constraints.
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The flipside of these reformers, the environmentalists, had a different interpretation with regard to the causes of 'anti-social' expression on the streets of urban America. Rather than a decline in personal moral virtue, the existence of 'vice' could be explained as a result of living in sub-standard and oftentimes sub-human conditions. In their view, people turned to 'illegitimate' activities due to living in poverty and hopelessness. When trapped into a life with little to live for, the average person, in their view, sought alternative outlets, considered unacceptable by established members of society, to express themselves. Environmentalists had a simple but powerful argument. If you want to redirect the behavior of those who turn to 'vice' at the lower rung of society, then it is first necessary to alter their (often squalid) material conditions. Once taken out of a world of tenement housing, alleys strewn with garbage and boarded up shops and put into an area with new apartments, clean streets and well-run schools, a fundamental change in behavior for the benefit of all involved will take place.
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Inside and outside these two schools of urban reform, there existed a robust debate among intellectuals and literary figures as to which approach or combination of approaches was most efficacious in solving the crisis of crime in the cities.
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One of the most well-known of authors of this period was Charles Sheldon (1857-1946). While his name may not be familiar to most Americans in the twenty-first century, the question posed in his book In His Steps (1896), 'What would Jesus do?', not only remains a part of modern theology but also entered politics in the US presidential campaign of 2000 when Democratic candidate, Al Gore, Jr., revealed that he used Sheldon's question to make political decisions.
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Another consequential book in the final decade of the 19th century, written two years earlier, has been unfortunately neglected by scholars of history, religion and sociology alike. William T. Stead (1849-1912), an Englishman who migrated to the United States and launched an impressive campaign against child prostitution, authored If Christ Came To Chicago in 1894. A year earlier, Stead planted himself in the 'Windy City' and helped establish the Chicago Civic Federation. It was this year, 1893, that showcased a model town - wholly based on the ideas of the Environmental urban reformers - called 'White City' (pictured above) at the Chicago World's Fair. Stead attended the massive event and was undoubtedly influenced in his thinking about behavior and society. In trying to understand how a city functioned socially, he started talking to literally everyone - politicians, prostitutes, bartenders, ministers, businessmen - and anyone.
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From his observations at the World's Fair and these conversations, he latched onto the environmental reform movement and was inspired to write a book. In one section of If Christ Came To Chicago, Stead launched into a scathing critique of Chicago's '19th Precinct of the First Ward.' On these discouraging streets - a veritable definition of urban blight - he finds '46 saloons, 37 brothels and 11 pawnshops.' Who or what is responsible for this inhumanity? Stead certainly does not equivocate in his answer. After likening city aldermen to 'the swine of our civilization', Stead went on to attack the exploitative capitalist structure -albeit somewhat indirectly - and accused the owners of the city's utilities of being 'profiteers' to the detriment of the citizenry. After attacking the usual suspects, Stead then takes a surprising turn. Rather than praising the religious leadership in the community as a bastion of virtue, he accused the churches of being self-interested and 'indifferent' to the economic and social deterioration outside their sacred walls.
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While critical, Stead is ultimately optimistic as he fundamentally believes that human beings have the capacity to remake their world - and will do so with patience and leadership. Later in the book, Stead offers a vision for Chicago in the future - after the people finally decide to take matters into their own hands. By the end of the twentieth century, Chicago has replaced Washington, DC as the capital. The saloons, whorehouses, gambling dens and rickety houses are gone. Rather than piling up in the street, garbage is collected and recycled as an energy source. The utilities are no longer in the hands of a private monopoly as they have been 'socialized' to allow fair usage and access for all. Most importantly, rugged individualism, a way of life structually created and sustained by the market revolution and the industrial revolution from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Rockefeller respectively, has been replaced by a 'civic virtue' where the good of the community is held above the interests of a single person with undue power, influence and money.
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As a means of collective security and empathy among the people, it is suggested that the city agreed that, 'If any spiritual or moral evil occurs in the one district, the whole of the massed forces of the associated churches can be depended upon to assist in its removal.' When Stead envisions all churches draped in a black covering to express dismay at the birth of an 'illegitimate child', he exposes his moral (as opposed to environmentalist) reformist impulses. This is unfortunate. Stead clearly does not see the slippery slope of church preponderance in social affairs. What begins as a promotion of honest values can descend into social control, intolerance and exclusion along the lines of a Spanish Inquisition. If secularized, however, his notion of each person being responsible to secure the rights and dignity of all other members of society is laudable.
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In 2010, cities across the world contain millions of souls that suffer from deprivation. A significant number of city residents have turned to 'vice' to escape their misery - a misery inflicted by society's powerlessness or indifference to the conquest of private interests over the public good.
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On 15 April 1912, William T. Stead drowned in the Atlantic as a passenger on the Titanic. His end may have been unlucky and random, but his ideas on the future were optimistic and certain. The 'Christ' in If Christ Came To Chicago was not the sudden appearance of Jesus on State Street 2,000 years after his death. Rather, it was the arrival of his values of love, hope and community that he preached - fulfilled by human agency in his spirit and in his name.
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As Stead is actually focused not on 'Christian' but universal values, there is a message in his life and in his book for everyone.
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(Picture: The 'White City' - an ideal city on display at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893)
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You may listen to one of the best songs commenting on the socio-economic realities of American cities and one of the best songs recorded in the 1980s in the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eysGQuTm6s
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J Roquen