BACKTRACKING
Galesburg- 1937 and
2007
by Terry Hogan
In 1937, Earnest Elmo
Calkins described Galesburg as he saw it.
In that description, he also described many other Midwestern towns
evolution to that point. As I'm not
much of a futurist and am, by nature, a pessimist, I will not attempt to look
at the future of Galesburg.
Instead I will attempt to summarize the changes that Calkins had seen by
1937 and let the reader compare Galesburg of '37 with Galesburg of '07, a remarkable amount of change in
70 years.
By 1937, the tourist no
longer saw Galesburg's backyards and Galesburg's industries as he came into
town by train. The automobile and
"hard-top" roads changed that.
By 1937, according to Calkins, "he drives boldly through on Main
Street, savoring the town more fully and more slowly, but even to him there
appears to be a certain sameness to the monotonous succession of cities".
"Galesburg may
be approached in several ways. The
Burlington train from Chicago follows the route of the covered wagons that
brought the Yankee pioneers, and lands one at the yellow brick station two
blocks from Main Street. The Santa
Fe deposits the traveler at its sandstone station the other side of Main Street
a block from the public square. Or
one can motor over as straight, smooth and level concrete roads as found
anywhere in American and enter the town from any of the four points of the
compass, driving past outposts of red and yellow gas pumps and cogged-wheel
announcements of Rotary luncheons, direct to the public square, the center, but
not the heart of the town."
In 2007, much of this
description rings hollow. Probably
the driver will pass Main Street and the Square entirely, only touching
Galesburg as he speeds along I-74
or taking the 34 bypass. If the driver does enter Main Street, he will see a
collection of beautiful old architecture, where still standing, that was full
of promise and hope for the city. Galesburg in 1937 was the largest town in a
50 mile radius. Friday nights and
railroad paydays found Main Street clogged with shoppers both driving and
walking. It was a booming town
where money was earned locally and spent locally.
In 1937, Calkins notes
that the public square was the center of the town. This has even changed.
Galesburg has grown east and north faster than south and west. The interstate and the bypass have
drawn Galesburg to them, much like the railroads once drew the towns to the
tracks. Galesburg's business is
now done on far East Main and North Henderson and it is generally done in chain
stores, often non-flatteringly referred to as "big box stores". Money earned locally is often still
spent locally, but it doesn't stay locally. The international marketplace has replaced the isolated,
independent marketplace of prairie towns of 1937.
Today, the international
marketplace is leveling world economies. Asian and Mexican cheap labor has
caused these economies to boom, while Midwestern industries close up, leaving
only "brownfields" behind.
It is not just a Galesburg problem. It is an American problem. Good paying jobs disappear, being
replaced by service sector jobs that pay at or slightly above minimum
wage. America is becoming a
two class society, as the middle
class erodes away. A few, the
lucky, become wealthy. The rest go
the other direction with the loss of jobs and promised retirement plans.
Once Galesburg's trains
hauled local goods to and from Galesburg or carried American made cars. Next
time you spend a half an hour waiting for the train to pass, look at what is
being hauled. It is either
low-sulfur western coal from Wyoming that displaced coal mining in the Midwest,
or it is overseas containers with Chinese names.
Even the Internet is
having an effect on Main Streets of mid-America. Once the home-bred stores died on Main Street or moved to
the malls on the perimeters, antique malls opened up in the old downtown
stores. But now e-Bay and its
clones are killing off the antique stores. Nearly zero overhead and a world-wide market offered by
cyberspace beats sitting by the cash register day after day wondering if money
for the rent will be raised.
Calkins writes that a
Saturday evening in 1937 Galesburg "Éhas all the air of a carnival,
with people sitting in the closely parked cars, like boxes at a theatre,
watching the parade on the sidewalks, partaking of sundaes from the drug
stores, and doing the family shopping."
A Saturday evening in
2007 Galesburg Main Street shows that the carnival has left town. Unfortunately, this isn't limited to
Galesburg or even to Illinois.
Similar sized towns throughout the Midwest also fit the
description. The loss of the
family farm; the loss of the local economy; the loss of local industry; and the
loss of local well-paying jobs take their toll.
It is probably no accident
that Barack Obama often specifically refers to Galesburg as an example of the
economic plight facing America.- "One way or another, American
companies became leaner and meaner- with old-line manufacturing workers and
towns like Galesburg bearing the brunt of this transformation." (Page 156, The Audacity of Hope, 2006).
As a strictly personal
observation, it is my belief that one of the great inventions of America was
the creation of an educated, middle class. The middle class has been the great stabilizing influence in
America. The middle class has
enough that it wants to hold on to and hopes that through hard work, education,
and a little luck, it may have more. Thus, the middle class has a self-interest
in not having major shifts in governmental policies. The poor have little to protect and little to lose and
little hope that tomorrow will be any better. A country full of
the poor, and ruled by a small minority of the very rich, is a dangerous
country. We don't all need to have
the same size piece of the pie.
But we do need to have a piece and a hope that we can get more through
our own lawful efforts - reward for work- whatever shape that work takes.
Such are my personal
observations. Perhaps in 70 years
some writer will find a paper or electronic copy of this article and can have a
good laugh at my parochial naivetŽ. As they say, time will tell.
References
Calkins, Earnest Elmo.
1937. They Broke the Prairie. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York.
Obama, Barack. 2006. The
Audacity of Hope. Crown Publishers. New York.