[Minimum wage mandated (in 1938), City water comes to Boston
(1848), Anyone know Choctaw? (1918), London says, Victory to the
N.L.F! (1968), Good-bye to Penn Station (1963), Europe says No to
nukes (1983), Mars attacks (1938)]
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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, OCT. 24–30
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_ Minimum wage mandated (in 1938), City water comes to Boston (1848),
Anyone know Choctaw? (1918), London says, Victory to the N.L.F!
(1968), Good-bye to Penn Station (1963), Europe says No to nukes
(1983), Mars attacks (1938) _
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A New Deal Success, Sort Of
_October 24, 1938 (85 years ago).__ _The Fair Labor Standards Act goes
into effect in the U.S., mandating a 25-cent per hour minimum wage
(equivalent to $5.46 today), a 40-hour week with time-and-a-half pay
for overtime, and banning most child labor. It creates the first
nationwide minimum wage and the first national regulation of child
labor. There's a lot that's not to like about the FSLA, such as its
failure to cover domestic workers and its poor coverage for
agricultural workers. Nevertheless, it's worth remembering that in
1937, minimum wage laws and child labor laws were up to each of the 48
states, and most states had none.
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City Water Comes to Boston
_October 25, 1848 (175 years ago)._ Some 300,000 people gather on
Boston Common to celebrate the completion of the city's first
municipal water system, which brings fresh water 15 miles by aqueduct
from Lake Cochituate in Natick. One of the things they are celebrating
is the fact they have a publicly financed, publicly-owned system
despite efforts of existing private water companies to prevent the
city from building a city-owned operation. Boston is the third major
U.S. metropolis to build a municipal water-supply system, after
Philadelphia in 1815 and New York City in 1842
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I Hear You Talkin' But I Don't Understand What You're Sayin'
_October 26, 1918 (105 years ago)._ When the Choctaw Telephone Squad
is first tested under fire in northern France during the closing weeks
of World War 1, it passes with flying colors. The squad, a small group
of U.S. soldiers who are all members of the Choctaw nation, use the
Choctaw language to transmit military information. Their work is
needed because the military's communication networks are easily
monitored by the enemy. The German's total unfamiliarity with Choctaw
makes it impossible for them to "decode" the intercepted messages.
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London Says, Victory to the N.L.F!
_October 27, 1968 (55 years ago)._ Central London traffic is partially
paralyzed by what is said to be the largest-ever anti-U.S.
demonstration in British history. More than 60,000 people manifest
their opposition to the brutality of the U.S. War Against Vietnam by
parading through the city's center, along the Victoria Embankment and
Fleet Street, through Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square to a
massive rally in Hyde Park. Among a wide variety of signs they carry
are those reading "Defeat U.S. Imperialism," and "Victory to the
N.L.F." (Yours truly was part of the crowd on a day he will never
forget.)
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Architectural Vandalism at its Worst
_October 28, 1963 (60 years ago). _Ignoring years of peaceful
protests, the Pennsylvania Railroad begins the demolition of
Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. The spectacular and ornate
building, which was designed by McKim, Mead, and White, occupies 8
acres on the south side of West 34th Street. The premeditated act of
architectural vandalism inspired the passage of the first enforceable
landmarks law in the U.S., which went into effect in April 1965.
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Nuke Weapons Spark Massive Protests
_October 29, 1983 (40 years ago)._ Massive opposition to the
forthcoming U.S. deployment of nuclear-armed cruise missiles in Europe
reaches a crescendo when an estimated 550,000 peaceful protesters (or
nearly five percent of Netherlands' population) gather in the Hague's
Zuiderpark to demand cancellation of the Pentagon's plan. On the
same day, 200,000 demonstrators make the same demand in Denmark.
During the previous week, hundreds of thousands of protesters turned
out in West Germany, Britain, Stockholm, Brussels, Paris and Rome. The
Dutch crowd is particularly agitated by the U.S. invasion of Grenada,
which occurred four days earlier. One of their banners reads ''Wanted:
Alias the Bandit of Grenada'' under the image of Ronald Reagan.
Another: ''Grenada Now. Woensdrecht Next.'' Woensdrecht, an air base
in the southern Netherlands, was the planned base for 48 U.S. cruise
missiles.
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Mars Launches Attack on Halloween. Fooled you!
_October 30, 1938 (85 years ago)._ CBS Radio broadcasts a live,
hour-long teleplay based on the science-fiction novel War of the
Worlds. The broadcast -- which sounds like a standard entertainment
program that is repeatedly interrupted by what sound like news
bulletins describing a Martian invasion -- convinces more than a few
listeners that the news bulletins are real and panic ensues. More
than 2000 people telephoned New York's police headquarters to ask what
to do. As the New York Times reports on page 1 the next day, "A wave
of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners throughout the
nation . . . led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict
had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and
destruction in New Jersey and New York."
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* U.S. history
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* Minimum Wage
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* drinking water
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* World War I
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