THE PLAIN DEALER . SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 1998 5-E

OUR CENTURY1905

AT A GLANCE

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Cleveland Press carriers in front of theBarlow Agency on Woodland Ave.

Journalists competefor the big stories

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In the teeth of the fight forstreetcar business, Mayor Tom L.Johnson would send out work gangs— sometimes in the middle of thenight — to rip up streetcar tracksand replace them. At left, workerslaid tracks near what is now PublicSquare. Above, temporary trackswere laid overnight. The poles werewedged in barrels propped betweenwagon wheels.

After the clip-clop of horses, the most com-mon sound in downtown Cleveland at the be-ginning of the century was the shouting ofnewsboys — in several languages. There weresix English-language dailies, and the GermanWaechter und Anzeiger had a comparablestaff and circulation; the Hungarian Szabad-zag was to go daily the next year.

The age of consolidation began in 1905 whenCharles Otis Jr. merged the Herald, the Worldand the Evening Plain Dealer into the after-noon News. At the same time, Otis and MedillMcCormick bought the morning Leader. Withthe morning Plain Dealer and the afternoonPress, Cleveland was down to four Englishdailies.

The news gatherers were as competitive asthe newsies. When Cassie Chadwick returnedfrom New York to stand trial for swindling, themarshal’s carriage left the railroad stationsurrounded by carriages full of reporters andphotographers.

The procession moved off, but when themarshal tried to evade it by heading for theback door of the federal building, his carriagebecame bogged down amid coal drays andmail wagons. Police had to clear the way whilespectators crowded around and boys on roof-tops dropped cakes of snow on them.

·In March, seven members of an Engineers

Battalion of the Ohio National Guard werekilled and many injured in a train wreck nearPittsburgh. The veterans of the Spanish-American War were on their way to take partin the inauguration of President TheodoreRoosevelt in Washington, D.C.

In June, the Century, the crack expresstrain between New York and Chicago, wasspeeding west through Mentor when it hit anopen switch. The accident killed 21 and in-jured 17. Relatives crowded into lakefrontUnion Terminal to meet the train bringing thevictims to Cleveland.

·When John Hay, who served as secretary of

state under Presidents William McKinley andRoosevelt, died in July, the president, vicepresident and Cabinet members came toCleveland for his funeral and burial in LakeView Cemetery. It was said that no such trib-ute ever had been paid a civilian other than apresident. Hay also had served as PresidentAbraham Lincoln’s personal secretary.

·Once more, the Naps were preseason favor-

ites to win the American League pennant, butNapoleon Lajoie, now manager and starsecond-baseman, was sidelined by a freak ac-cident for two months. He was spiked, and dyefrom his stockings seeped into the wound,causing an infection. By September, the teamwas out of contention.

Lajoie’s batting average of .329 was thehighest in the league, but he played only 65games, too few to qualify for the title. In whatobviously was a pitcher’s year, his teammateElmer Flick was batting champ at .306.

·Football is a noble game worthy of any col-

lege man’s enthusiastic support, Western Re-serve University President Charles FranklinThwing told those attending a dinner at theHollenden Hotel.

Taking note of criticism of the sport’s bru-tality, Thwing nevertheless declared, “I be-lieve that this historic game is too good to beabolished. In some respects, it may be bad, butthe evil should be cast out.”

·Having sold its original site at Euclid Ave.

and Erie St. (E. 9th St.) to the Cleveland TrustCo., the First Methodist Church opened a$250,000 church with gothic spires and gar-goyles at Euclid and Sterling St. (E. 30th St.).

·New this year: The Legal Aid Society, the

Red Cross (national organization and Cleve-land chapter), Hathaway Brown School, Reli-ance Electric & Engineering Co., the Anti-Tuberculosis Society (now the Northern OhioLung Association).

Cleveland expands — with dramaMayor Johnson fights for city-owned utilities, annexation of villages

Two explosive issues of the early1900s — Cleveland’s expansion andMayor Tom L. Johnson’s battle withutilities — met on Dec. 12, 1905. Theresult was what The Plain Dealercalled “scenes bordering on the sen-sational and strenuous.”

With “Mayor Tom” out of the city,City Clerk Peter Witt sent his deputyand a policeman to seize the books ofthe village of South Brooklyn, whichwas to be annexed to Cleveland twodays later. The action was of ques-tionable legality but of such urgencythat “the municipal automobile wascalled into service,” a Plain Dealerstory declared.

The seizure blocked an attempt bythe South Brooklyn Village Council togrant a 25-yearstreetcar franchiseto Johnson’s bitterrival, the “Con-Con”railway. Of morelasting significance,it gave the city itsfirst municipal lightplant, the beginningof what is nowCleveland PublicPower.

The story reallystarted two yearsearlier, when votersin both South Brook-lyn and Clevelandapproved themerger. But, John-son wrote in his au-tobiography, “Privi-lege was opposed toannexation.”

A City Councilfriendly to the Illu-minating Co. voted17-6 to set up an an-nexation commis-sion, which tried tothwart the light plant turnover; twoDemocrats joined the Republicanmajority. Johnson vetoed the ordi-nance, charged the Republicans withmisfeasance and the two Democratswith bribery, and led a campaign tosweep them from office.

Twenty-five of the city’s 26 wardssupported Johnson and his councilslate in the 1905 election. The PlainDealer editorialized that “the peopleof Cleveland know a clean, efficientadministration when they see it andcan be depended upon to retain in of-fice public servants who have beenfound faithful to their trust.”

The new council appointed a differ-ent commission and approved its re-port on Nov. 11. The next day, analarmed South Brooklyn Mayor FredMathews hurried to Cleveland to saythat the previous night, the Republi-can Village Council had approved anordinance on second reading, onestep short of passage.

The ordinance was for a 25-yearstreetcarfranchise forPearl andStateviewstreets (nowPearl andState roads)to the Cleve-land ElectricRailway Co.,which hadbeen formedby the 1904merger of twoconsolidatedcompaniescalled “theBig Con” and“the LittleCon.”

With John-son and LawDirectorNewton D.Baker away,Witt took mat-ters into hisown hands.He not only

had the books seized, but the threeSouth Brooklyn police were assignedto guard the Village Hall to prevent acouncil meeting. On Nov. 14, SouthBrooklyn uneventfully became partof Cleveland.

Two other suburbs joined Cleve-

land in 1905 — the section of the vil-lage of Glenville that had not beenannexed in 1898, and the city of New-burgh.

The Newburgh annexation wasn’twithout drama. Just before the an-nexation took effect, the Con-Concame in with an ordinance to extendthe Kinsman Ave. line eastward.Newburgh officials assured Cleve-land they would take no action, andCleveland did not feel it necessary tosend the municipal automobilespeeding to the scene.

Municipalizing the streetcar sys-tem was Johnson’s greatest goal, buthe failed to achieve it during his life-time. In 1942, however, the citybought the private Cleveland RailwayCo. and turned it into the ClevelandTransit System. In 1975, CTS and theShaker Heights Rapid Transit be-

came part of the countywide RegionalTransit Authority.

Meanwhile, Johnson expanded thetiny light plant he founded in SouthBrooklyn. In 1908, he added anotherplant when Collinwood was annexed.He, and then Baker — who was toserve as mayor from 1912 to 1916 — continued to expand the system, butthe expansion ground to a halt whenRepublicans regained control of CityHall.

For 75 years, the system known asMuny Light served only 20 percent ofClevelanders. Then, in 1990, CityCouncil approved an expansion pro-gram and voters passed a charteramendment to carry it out.

On May 17, 1993, Mayor Michael R.White and council members held apress conference to announce thatMuny’s cheaper power would beavailable to virtually every Cleve-lander by 1997.

PLAIN DEALER FILE

During the Con-Con vs. Johnson fight, this cartoon, titled “The MidnightArmy,” appeared in The Plain Dealer.

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Newton D. Baker and anunidentified youngster.

LOOKING AT A YEAR

Jan. 7: After three rejections, theSenate finally confirms PresidentTheodore Roosevelt’s nomination of ablack to a high customs post in SouthCarolina. Roosevelt’s black nomineesfor important government jobsusually met with defeat in the Senate,but the president persisted in makingthe nominations, in part, at the urgingof Booker T. Washington.

Jan. 22: More than 500 are killed

when troops open fire on 100,000Russians who marched in St. Peters-burg to protest poor working condi-tions. The “Bloody Sunday” massacrewas ordered by Czar Nicholas II.

April 14: A 16-year search for thebody of American naval hero JohnPaul Jones ends when the coffin withhis remains is found in a Paris ceme-tery. Two months later, the body isreturned to the United States.

Sept. 5: Japan and Russia sign atreaty ending their war in Korea andManchuria. Terms of the treaty showthat Japan achieved all of its war ob-jectives.

Nov. 8: Political unrest in Russiacontinues, as 1,000 Jews are killed inOdessa by peasants convinced byarmy officers that the Jews are be-hind protests against the government.

Dec. 9: College football changes itsrules to permit the forward pass andaward a first down after a 10-yardgain.

Born: Dag Hammarskjold, GretaGarbo, Henry Fonda, Claudette Col-bert, Robert Penn Warren, HowardHughes, Christian Dior.

Died: Jules Verne; Lew Wallace,author of “Ben Hur.”