Welcome to a journey through the South’s past, one week at a time. Get to know our region’s people, places, events, and stories—including lesser-known headlines that didn’t make the front page. Whenever pertinent, I’ll include personal connections I or members of my family had to what was going on at the time.
This week, we travel 112 years back in time to April 14–20, 1912, when an undeniably huge event took hold of the world.
The Titanic Tragedy
On April 15, 1912, Royal Majesty Ship’s Titanic sideswiped an iceberg 250 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, taking 1,500 of the 2,240 passengers and crew down with her. The ship deemed “unsinkable” had sunk in just two hours and forty minutes, with notable southerners on board like Major Archibald Butt of Georgia, Archibald Gracie IV of Mobile Alabama; Isidor Straus, who lived in Georgia at the time of the Civil War but moved to New York City in 1865; Jacques Heath Futrelle of Pike County, Georgia; and Oscar Scott Woody of Roxboro, North Carolina. View the full list of passengers here.
There’s a lot of information still circulating about the ill-fated British liner, so I’ve attempted to distill it in this Substack post. I’ll introduce you to some of her passengers and provide an update on the latest information about ongoing projects related to exploring Titanic’s wreckage. Some of the information may surprise you.
Other Headlines
Most newspapers covered the presidential primaries that took place that week, as well as the death of 90-year-old Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, who passed away April 12, 1912 in her Maryland home. Other than that, it was all Titanic.
“Presidents Come and Go …”
—President William Howard Taft
This week in 1912, our our nation was led by President William Howard Taft (a republican). Later that November, Taft would lose his reelection bid to Woodrow Wilson (a democrat). Wilson had only served two years as New Jersey’s governor prior to running for president, but also managed to defeat former president Theodore Roosevelt (a progressive) and Eugene Debs (a socialist).
Before President Wilson lived in New Jersey, he grew up in the South. Read my personal account of an interesting connection my family had with his.
The (Last) Year Without an Income Tax
It’s true—1912 was the year before Congress ratified the Sixteenth Amendment, which states:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Once income taxes had been introduced in 1913, rates ranged from 1 to 7 percent, depending on the amount a worker earned. These rates wouldn’t increase until 1918, when the federal government needed funds for World War I.
Prosperity and Expansion
The U.S. economy flourished between 1897 and 1920. Southern bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters, and painters could easily find work. Annual incomes for those jobs, based on a 40-hour workweek in 1912, are shown below for Richmond, Atlanta, and Charleston. Just like today, many workers put in more than 40 hours a week, and location typically determined earning potential.
Bricklayer
Richmond: 65 cents/hour = $1,352/year
Atlanta: 45 cents/hour = $936/year
Charleston: 40 cents/hour = $832/year
Plumber
Richmond: 46.9 cents/hour = $975.52/year
Atlanta: 45.3 cents/hour = $942.24/year
Charleston: 43.8 cents/hour = $911.04/year
Carpenter
Richmond: 37.5 cents/hour = $780/year
Atlanta: 35 cents/hour = $728/year/year
Charleston: 34 cents/hour = $707.20/year
Painter
Richmond: 37.8 cents/hour = $786.24/year
Atlanta: 34 cents/hour = $707.20
Charleston: 25 cents/hour = $520/year
On the Move
Ford Motor Company’s Model T was the top-selling vehicle in 1912. Ford built 69,000 Model Ts for that year, with 50,000-plus featuring its bestselling open touring body style. The price of a 1912 touring car started at $690.
Fueled Up
I’ve searched and searched, but southern gas prices from 1912 are hard to find. I did discover a Santa Rosa, California historical website that provides approximate gas prices in various parts of California that year, as well as a post from a historical Facebook page for Webster Groves, Missouri that offers a 1912 gas price.
14–18 cents in California
9 cents in Webster Groves, Missouri
If you have personal knowledge of 1912 gas prices in the South, please share your information in the comments. I’ll update this post with that information, and credit you for the information.
For what it’s worth, a dime in 1912 was worth about $2.50 today.
Bringing Home the Bacon
In February 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published a comparison of food prices from January 1913–January 2013. My research suggests there was an inflation increase of 2.1% from 1912 to 1913. The prices listed below are from 1913, so just a tad higher than what consumers paid in 1912 for basic groceries.
Bread: 5.6 cents
Milk: 36 cents (per gallon)
Cheese: 22 cents
Butter: 41 cents
Eggs: 37 cents
Bacon: 25 cents
Coffee: 30 cents
That’s a wrap for my first This Week in History post. Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for the second installment next Sunday, and let me know what you think in the comments. I’m always open to suggestions for how I can make this series better.
This story gives me perspective. Too bad about that 16th Amendment and poor Clara.