Реферат: Характеристика Чикаго

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    Chicago,1 with a population of about three and ahalf million, is the secondlargest city in the United States(New York is the first). It is a centre ofindustry for the middle part of the country, the most important Great Lakesport,2 the largest city of Illinois and the seat of Cook-County.3

Chicago is also the place where Mayor «King Daley»6directed the police to brutalize the young peopleprotesting against the US aggression m South-East Asia while the DemocraticParty convention was going on there in August 1968.

The city isfirst in the nation in manufacturing of machinery and electronic parts. Famousare the stockyards and meat-packing plants, iwhere cattle from the western prairies are shipped and from which meat is distributed all over the couritry.7Called the «Great Central Market of the USA», Chicago is the railroad and grain centre of the nation.Chicago has a vast commerce by manyrailroads and by the lake, and exports wheat, meat and manufactured goods.

An unrivalled railcentre, Chicago is called the «Cross-Roads of the Continent». It is served by 19 trunk lines and handles 50,000freight Cars daily. Also, 40 per cent of the country'smotor freight moves in and out of Chicago. More airlines converge on Chicago than anyother city of the USA.

Chicago is also an important centre of culture and science. It isthe
seat of the University of Chicago and ofseveral other institutions, and
has -important libraries and art collections. Chicago was the site of the
first nuclear chain reaction (1942) and is still a leader in nuclear
research.8

     Owing to itsposition, Chicago has been the meeting-place of many political conventions. From six to seven million tourists come toChicago fevery year, and another million and a half who come to businessand political gatherings.

In its rapid growth, Chicago survived the great fire of 1871,9the gang wars of 1920's and early 1930's, political machinations of its«bosses» and financial speculations of its tycoons. The city was fromthe start a big melting-pot of different nationalities. For years Chicago had aracial stratification unusual even for American cities. It was German, Polish, Italian, Slavic, Greek, Jewish. Half amillion Black Americans live in itsSouth Side, which is one of the most exclusively black areas in the world. About one in four Chicago citizens isblack. The Chicago Negroes arealmost as numerous as those in New York, a city twice as large. Chica­go's Negroes have a long history of participationin basic industry. They are the most proletarianof all nationality-ethnic groups, and today togeth­er with other militant workers they wage aparticularly bitter and difficult battlefor their right to live and work. Called the «City of the Big Shoub ders»,10 Chicago has long becomethe centre of American working-class movement In the 1880's Chicago wasalready a scene of bitter labour wars, andthe big strike of Chicago workers of 1886 led to the establishment of May Day as the holiday of workers of the wholeworld.

                                                                      THE CITY

OF SUPERLATIVES

Chicagoans like to claim that their city has the biggest and greatest of just about everything. Chicago is the second largest city, in theUnited States; it is also the tenth biggest in theworld. It is important not to say this in Chicago. The point to bear in mindabout Chicago while talking to Chicagoans is that, no matter whatits own size, it has the biggest every­thing in the world. Other places inAmerica have the biggest something, but Chicago has thebiggest everything. You may be convinced after all that most Chicago things are bigger than anywhere else; it is unfortunatethat they are never the things that one wanted to be bigenough. There is, for example, the Merchandise Mart, whichclaims to be the world's largest commercialbuilding, with seven and a half miles of corridors and its ownpolice force.

In their claims to the biggest and greatest, Chicagoans in a remarkablenumberof ways are right Although it is no longer the nation's largest meat-packingcentre—Omaha, Nebraska, now claims this distinction, Chicago is the nation'sbusiest air, rail and truck centre, and, since the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway in 1959, the world's greatest inland seaport. Chicago also has the world's largestgrain exchange (the Chicago Board of Trade), the world's 'largest hotel(the Conrad Hilton with 2,600 rooms), andthe world's largest convention and trade-show facilities. Chicagoansresent any implication that their home is in any sense the «second city» in the US, as New Yorkershave been known to call it. They believeChicago is really an American city (while" «New York is notAmerica») and point with pride to, among other things, the number ofred-blooded Americanauthors—including Theodore Dreiser," Frank Norris,12 Upton Sinclair'3 and Carl Sandburg14—whohave called Chicago home.

SKY-SCRAPERS IN THE PRAIRIE

When you arrive in Chicago, you may find it hard to believe that this busy, noisy, modern metropolis with its towering sky-scrapers was untilwell into the 19th century a muddy onion swamp. But by1871 this unprom­ising site had become a city of 300,000, the metropolitan centreof the American Midwest. Then, on October 8 of that year, disaster struck. It all began in the barn of a certain Mrs. O'Learyon West De Koven Street where, as thelegend goes, a cow kicked over a kerosene lantern, starting a fire that quickly swept the city. The blazedestroyed more than 17,000 buildingsthat left third of the city's people homeless. Yet in one sense this tragedy was responsible for Chicago's maincontribution to the devel­opment ofmodern architecture. The fire levelled the entire business dis­trict, and the city's engineers and architects •. had to rebuild from the ground up. Armed with a series of technologicalinnovations—most notably steel frameworkand the hydraulic, lift—they set to work and in the last decades of the 19th century the sky-scraper wasborn..William-Le Barren Jenny, one ofthe construction engineers, used this new method when he received the commission to build the Chicago office of theHome Insurance Com­pany. It was tenstories high, much taller than any building ever before erected.

The building was the first «sky-scraper», a term now so commonfor ahigh building that few people realize that, to begin with, a «sky­scraper» was a triangular sail used high onthe mast of sailing vessels be­foresteamships came into use.15 Quickly a new Chicago arose of brick andstone. Within a year the business district was restored along the crescent formed by Lake Michigan in the city'swest. Here lies America's second-rankingcanyon of finance, La Salle Street, where the Board of Trade Building towers above a forest ofsky-scrapers. Each sky-scraper is stamped by a specific commodity: the Wrigleyequals chewing-gum, the «Chicago Tribune» and the «DailyNews» mean newspapers, the ContinentalIllinois—banking, the Chicago Temple—offices of reputed firms, the Merchandise Mart—wholesale dry goods,the imposing Marshal Field—department store de luxe, and so on. Eachbuilding stands as if a huge monument to atrust. While you ride through Chicago you have an opportunity to see a little of the city. The streets are usuallycrowded with traffic at whatever hour you arrive. Over your head thundersthe local elevated train, which runs on a platform. If your route takes you near the shore of Lake Michigan, you will see abroad boulevard along the water-frontwith eight lanes of fast-moving traffic. Beautiful, tall office buildings and hotels make a spectacular pictureagainst the blue waters of the lake. If your route lay further back from thelake, you would see narrow, crowded streets lined with rows and rows ofred-brick houses.

Vegetable sellers may push little cartsthrough the streets and call out the namesof things for safe in any one of a number of languages. One of Chicago's many nicknames is the«Windy City», and despite me US Weather Bureau, which listsChicago as only the nation's 19th windiest,it richly deserves this nickname—as you will soon agree if you ae caught on a Chicago street corner when an icyJanuary gale screams oflf LakeMichigan. Wind is not the only extreme characteristic of the lo^al weather. Chicago is noted for its subzero(Fahrenheit) temperatures in winterand 90°-plus temperatures in summer. And don't be misled if you arrive in winter and it seems unreasonablywarm. Chicago weather changesquickly.

THE CENTRE OF CLASS WARS

The mostproletarian of American cities, Chicago was a scene of bitter labour wars, of the Haymarket affair (1886) and of the Pullmanstrike (1894).     .

Called the «Red Square» of Chicago, Haymarket has becomeworld-famous for the Haymarket affair of 1886. (The official US history books call it the«Haymarket Riot».)

The spring of 1886 was marked by anational strike movement for the 8-hour working day. At the giant McCormickHarvester plant in Chicago, six strikingworkers were killed by the police. A mass meeting for May the 4th wascalled in the Haymarket. Suddenly the crowded squareshook with the explosion of a bomb thrown by an unknown hand. Seven policemen and four workers were killed, andmany were injured. Amid wild hysteria eight labour leaders were arrested. Alleight arrested workers wereconvicted in what is now commonly recognized as a frame-up. Four of them—Parsons, Spies, Fischer andEngel—were hanged. Five years later,Governor John Altgeld of Illinois, a rare type in US politics, freed thefour Haymarketers remaining in prison and proclaimed their innocence. The movement for the 8-hour workingday and the Haymarket affair caused a great swell  of trade-union organization.  Furthermore International May Day emergedfrom this movement, for the Interna­tional Socialist Congress, convened inFrance in  1889, declared May the 1st as the day of celebration by world labour.A monument in honour of theHaymarket martyrs, erected by the labour movement, now stands in Waldheim Cemetery outside Chicago. The Chicagopolice have not forgotten Haymarketeither. In fact, they put up. a monument on the site of the tragedy. Notto the victims, but to their executioners: a 3-metre statue of a policeman was put up on a tall pedestal in the hope,apparently, that the people ofChicago would cover it with flowers in token of their respect. There were no flowers, but there werebombs. In fact, the «New YorkTimes» remarked that this was «Chicago's most frequently bombed statue». There was a series of explosions inOctober 1969 in protest against thepolice attack on a youth demonstration during the Democratic Party convention. A year later there was anotherexplosion; it cost $ 5,500 to repairthe damage. Guarding the statue became a problem. In 1970, afterit had beenrepaired, it was placed under round-the-clock guard. To make double-sure, it was constantly scrutinized by a hidden TV camera., Thiscost the city $ 68,000 a year, more than the statue hadcost. There were several suggestions how to reduce the cost.'In the end, it was decided to/ remove the bronze statue from HaymarketSquare and put it in a safe place. It nowstands in the lobby of Chicago police headquarters.

                        THE «GANGLAND CAPITAL OF THE USA»

In its bustlinggrowth, Chicago survived the political machinations of mayors like «Big Bill» Thompson,16 the speculationsof Samuel Tnsull17 and the gang wars of Al Capone's days.18The one thing for which Chicago is known aroundthe world is crime. In January 1919, the sale of whiskey was prohibited in the USA. Prohibition gave rise to the. illegal liquortrade with big profits for the powerful criminalgangs who shared the money with the police and politicians inorder to buy immunity from arrest. The gangs competedwith each other in the illicit liquor trade («bootlegging»), gambling, theoperation Or «protection» of night-clubs and illicit bars («speakeasies»). They also suppliedstrike-breakers to employers and the trade-unionchieftains who used them against the militant left-wing. Murder, arson and vandalism were engaged in as businessenterprise on a practical basis. The combination of war profits, polyglotpolitical structure, building boom and prohibition turned Chicago,  figuratively, overnight in the crime centre of theUSA, the «gangland capital of the USA». •    Andeven now, thanks to countless film and television shows depicting that era of^Chicago's history, some visitors expect to see black limousines filled with scarfaced gangsters roaring about thestreets. Organized crime is still apart of Chicago's life—as it is in most US cities.

Crime has become an integral part of the American way of life. As Americans themselves put it, «in the US you feel very afraid towalk the streets at night. Even in the daytime it issometimes dangerous but especially so at night.»*

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   1«Chicago» seems to have a clearlyestablished than usual. A French explorer who visited theregion in 1688 said the natives called it«Chicagou» because of the abundance of wild onions growing there.Scholars have thought it was the disagreeable odour Of the littlewild onions that inspired the Indianname, and that «place of the bad smell»might be more accurate interpretation of the name.

2Among Chicago'snumerous nicknames are the «Lake City» and the «Queen City ofthe (Upper) Lakes».

3Similar to other US cities, Chicago has adual city and county govern­ment. Chicago and its suburbscomprise Cook County which exercises certaingovernmental functions over the entire area. Other functions are retainedindividually by the City of Chicago and the suburbs in a municipal form. This political structure, based on a capitalist economy,provides
fatprofits for bankers, bondholders, real-estate dealers, public utility;
interests, politicians, the police andcriminals.    

4The American Peace Crusade—an Americanorganization embrac/ ing peace supporters of all walks oflife.

5The  Young   Workers   Liberation  League—a   progressive   youth organization of theUnited States. It fights against militarism and racism, for democracy and socialism, for all young people's demands for work and education. Its main aim is a democratic government and full civilrights *' for all.

6«King Daley»—Richard J. Daley,former mayor of Chicago, «boss» of the Democraticpolitical machine fbr Cook County. Got notoriety in 1968 when he brutally dispersed the peaceful demonstration of students during the Democratic Party nominating convention in Chicago.

7Today newprocess and techniques have made it unnecessary to move America's meat to Chicago for processing (the butchers have gone to the prairies) and the memories of thosemoutains of flesh, that pervasive scent of the stockyards, are like manyother things of Chicago's past, just aterrible ghost-story.

8In 1942, at the University of Chicago,Enrico Fermi and other scien­tists set off the world's firstcontrolled atomic reaction.

9The Chicago fire (October 8—9, 1871)devastated an area three and one-half miles square, left almost100,000 persons homeless. By 1871 Chicago was a citybuilt of wood. Even the side-walks were of pine and a dry season preceding thefire made the city a virtual tinder-box.

10.The phrase is taken from «Chicago»(1914), a poem in free verse by Carl Sandburg: «Hog Butcher of the World,Tool-Maker, Stacker of Wheat; Player with Railroads and theNation's Freight Handler: Stormy, Husky, BrawlingCity of the Big Shoulders.»

11. In 1912 TheodoreDreiser (1871 — 1945) published «The Finan­cier»,a novel about Frank Cowperwood, a shrewd and ruthless business­man, whoaccumulated a fortune through financial machinations. The fashionable North Side of Chicago could not bear«The Financier», for itcut too close to the bone, so the publisher, Harper's, refused to publish its sequel «The Titan». FrankCowperwoo,d was too clearly identified with Charles Yerkes, the Chicago magnate (who donated the Yerkes Obser­vatoryto the University of Chicago). Yerkes' earlier corrupt manipula­tion of Philadelphia'smunicipal funds, followed by imprisonment, was known to his colleagues in Chicago, but he was given access to thepublic funds again. Dreiser had become familiar with tVse «robberbarons» while working as a journalistin Chicago.

12 «The Pit», a novel by Frank Morris (1870—1902), brought tolife thespectacular wheat market on La Salle Street in Chicago. «The Pit» was actually a sequel to «The Octopus»,which tells of the struggle between theCalifornia wheat farmers and the railroad companies.

 13. «The Jungle», a novel by Upton Sinclair (1878—1968), waspublished in 1906. Its detailed first-hand descriptionof conditions in the Chicago stockyards sparked off a campaign thatled to the passage of a Pure Foodand Drug Act and a Meat Inspection Act by theUS Congress. The novel gave a most compelling picture of thehumans engaged in the industry where only the squeals of the animalsescaped being converted into profits.

14. Sandburg, Carl (1878—1967). Born in Illinois, Carl Sandburg wrote in his free verse of the turbulent life he had observed in the smallprairie towns of Illinois and in the raw metropolisin Chicago. He first gained reputation with his «ChicagoPoems» (1915). He was awarded the Pulit-zer Prize(1951) for his «Collected Poems».

15. Within adecade, however, New York City captured the tallest sky-scraper lead and held it. The champion until May 1973, was Man­hattan's 1,350-feet-high, twin-towered WorldTrade Center, which tops the EmpireState Building by 100 feet. But now, after a lapse of about 80 years,Chicago again boasts the tallest tower—the Sears, Roebuck and Co. Building, which soars 1,450 feet abovethe city.

16. «Big Bill» Thompson (1869—1944) served three terms asmayor of Chicago, became notorious for political machinations. Thompson practised what in American political terminology is known as the«spoils system»—«to the victor belongs thespoils». In the 1920's it seemed that power in Chicago was shared betweenThompson, entrenched in City Hall, andCapone, sitting with his gunmen in the Lexington Hotel. This state of bliss was enjoyed by the financiers,industrialists, gangsters and

politicians.

17. Samuel Insull (1859—1938)—public-utilities financier. By 1907 he overcame the competing publjc-utilities companies in Chicago and soon he came to control the city's transit system. When the Depression brokeout in 1929, Insult's pyramid of corporations was one ofthe first to collapse into bankruptcy. Thousands of hisstockholders were ruined. Insull dis­appeared before hecould be brought into court

18Al Caponet(1899—1947)—American gang leaderin Chicago in the 1920's. He received tribute from businessmenand politicians. His crime syndicate terrorized Chicago and controlled thegambling there. Capone' was mysteriously murdered and given afuneral featured by more than twenty truckloads of floral wreathsand numerous limousines filled «with gangsters.Thousands watched while the newsreel cameras cranked away. Crime as big business went on; in time the warfare between gangs pro­duced a new»czar".