Urbanization And Sanitary Movement In The United States From The Late 19th Century To The Early 20th Century

In the early 19 th century,under the influence of the Industrial Revolution,the U.S.economy took off rapidly,and the population and factories continued to gather in the cities,starting a period of rapid urbanization,which was most typical of the industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest.However,because these cities were not yet equipped with sound sanitation infrastructures,a variety of “city diseases” emerged,among which the dirty environment posed a great danger to the lives and health of urban residents,and plagues or epidemics such as smallpox,malaria,yellow fever,cholera and typhoid were rampant in major cities in the United States at that time.Against this backdrop,an urban sanitation movement was launched in the United States in the mid to late 19 th century with the goal of creating “sanitary cities”.The first step of the movement was to build a modern city water system to ensure that citizens had pure,safe water for their daily lives.While a steady stream of pure river water was flowing into the homes of many people to enjoy,the treatment of domestic sewage from countless homes became a new environmental problem to be solved.In addition,the solid waste that piled up along the streets and the black smoke that poured out of factory chimneys began to attract the attention of urban sanitation reformers.From the late 19 th century to the early 20 th century,some cities in the United States,at the instigation of urban sanitation reformers,began to take a series of measures involving management system reform,technological innovation and the enactment of relevant laws to deal with the three main subjects of urban pollution——water pollution,solid waste pollution and smoke pollution.Although there were many commonalities in the management of these three pollutants,each of them also showed some special features.First of all,in the process of water pollution management,the construction of sewage treatment system had undergone a huge change from the cesspool-privy vault-scavenger system to the water-carriage system because of the emergence of the new professional group of sanitation engineers.So the morbidity and mortality of urban population from waterborne diseases had been greatly reduced.Secondly,in the solid waste management process,which includes both street cleaning and garbage collection and disposal,comprehensive management practices are evident,including the use of three waste treatment methods: waste incineration,waste refining,and waste feeding,and the establishment of two major waste management systems in some cities.Finally,in the face of smoke pollution,local governments and civil societies launched a vigorous anti-smoke campaign,which consisted of three main stages,the development of which deepened and eventually shifted to the prevention and control of smoke pollution at the source through two major measures,namely,the attempted electrification of railroads and the development of new energy sources,such as natural gas,which played a important role in the improvement of urban air quality.However,there were still many shortcomings in urban sanitation management in the United States from the late 19 th century to the early 20 th century.Under the influence of the value of “economic interests first”,various parties held compromising attitudes towards environmental governance,which resulted in urban pollution control only treating symptoms rather than root causes.Nevertheless,some of these measures provided a wide range of ideas for environmental governance in the United States in the middle and late20 th century.