1900's Lifestyles and Social Trends | Important Events in Lifestyles and Social Trends, 1900–1909

1900

• The census reports a population of 75,994,575.
• The divorce rate reaches one in twelve marriages.
• Illiteracy in the United States is reduced to a new low of 10.7 percent of the population.
• Excavation begins on the New York City subway system, which will become the most extensive system in the United States.
• The tobacco industry produces four billion cigarettes, which remain less popular than cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco.
• Eight thousand passenger automobiles are registered in the United States. Of these, half are of European manufacture.
• The International Ladies Garments Workers Union is founded in New York City. Its membership is composed primarily of Jewish and Italian immigrants. Reformer Jacob Riis reports that women laboring in their homes for the garment industry make at most thirty cents a day.
• The number of telephones in use reaches...