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3: A New City Takes Shape, 1911-1920
- University of Nevada Press
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3 A NEW CITY TAKES SHAPE, 1911–1920 B E T W E E N 1 9 1 0 A N D 1 9 2 0 , T H E P O P U L AT I O N of Las Vegas more than doubled, from 937 to 2,304. This began a trend felt even more profoundly since that decade: in every decennial census, the local populace has doubled or come close to doing so. Today, that means such problems as tra≈c jams, air pollution, and schools bursting at the seams. At the same time, though, the increase filled in open spaces inside and outside the original town site. Yet some of these issues proved timeless , especially the availability of water, the impact of national and international events, and the area’s relationship to the rest of the state. The 1910s marked the high tide of the Progressive Era, which began with Theodore Roosevelt’s ascent to the presidency in 1901. Roosevelt (1901–1909) and his successors, William Howard Taft (1909–1913) and WoodrowWilson (1913–1921), agreed that government should play a larger role in individual lives than their late-nineteenth-century predecessors, who believed that if government involved itself in the economy, it should be on behalf of business. The three presidents and their counterparts in the states backed legislation to improve protection of the environment, expand and support democracy, make government and business more professional, ease poverty, enhance workplace safety, and promote wasp society. Wilson’s eΩorts culminated in World War I, fought, as he said, to “make the world safe for democracy.” Nevada’s leaders generally proved far less progressive than these national figures—or governors such as Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin and Hiram Johnson of California. During this decade, George Wingfield consolidated his power as the state’s dominant political figure. He owned many of Nevada’s productive mines, the major bank in several towns, and substantial properties in Reno, where he lived. When his old business L A S V E G A S 38 partner, George Nixon, died in 1912, Wingfield turned down the governor ’s oΩer to appoint him to succeed Nixon in the U.S. Senate—because he felt that he could accomplish more by remaining in Nevada. What he hoped to accomplish included making sure that the state did as little as possible to interfere with the profits of businessmen like himself. Still, Nevadans displayed progressivism, within limits. Francis Newlands , a longtime representative and U.S. senator from the state, played a large role in winning approval for a reclamation act designed to build irrigation systems throughout the West; northern Nevadans benefited from one such project, and Bureau of Reclamation o≈cials began pondering a massive dam and irrigation system on the Colorado River. Newlands and other Nevadans also reflected the progressive belief in a white, AngloSaxon , Protestant society: Newlands supported repealing the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave African Americans the right to vote, and the state legislature passed a law requiring English to be spoken in the mines. Nevadans approved the initiative, referendum, recall, direct election of U.S. senators, and woman suΩrage to expand the power of voters. They created state commissions to keep a closer eye on banks, mines, railroads, and utilities. In keeping with the progressive belief in moral reform, they tried to legislate the elimination of legal gambling and an increase in the residency requirement for divorce, but both eΩorts ultimately failed when the state’s economy, especially around Reno, suΩered due to the lack of visitors who wanted to take advantage of Nevada’s libertarian approach. Nevadans also backed Prohibition but ignored the law with impunity. They also fell into line in backing World War I against Germany and Austria-Hungary, with Minden’s Lutheran church patriotically declaring that it would oΩer services in English and Ely’s Serbian Benevolent Association writing to Wilson to assure him that its members supported the war eΩort. The summer of 1919 was one of the hottest on record across the nation, in more ways than one. Not only was the climate unpleasant and the eΩects of a recent influenza epidemic still being felt, but the recent Bolshevik revolution had also resulted in a communist dictatorship in Russia, whose leaders were trying to hold onto power during a civil war. While communism maintained at best a tenuous hold there, it gained strength in several European...