U.S.A John Dos Passos

U.S.A

John Dos Passos

From John Dos Passos’s “U.S.A” epic, we look at three parts from the chapter “The Big Money”, these three sub chapters are titled: “Tin Lizzie”, “The Bitter Drink” & “Architect” and are discussions of the three men: Henry ford, Thorstein Veblen & Frank Lloyd wright respectively.

Tin Lizzie

The chapter Tin Lizzie is a discussion on Henry Ford – “the automobileer”, ever since he’d left his father’s farm, Henry Ford had been obsessed with machinery. At the age of just 16 he got a job in a Detroit machine shop where he’d work his way up from Night Fireman to Chief Engineer.

He was the eldest son of an Irish immigrant who during the Civil War had married the daughter of a prosperous Pennsylvania Dutch Farmer, he was brought up to a life of farming near Dearborn in Wayne County, Michigan. However, like many other Americans at the time, Henry Ford grew up hating the harsh environment and working life of the farm.

Ford preferred to tend after the machinery and let others do the heavy work. His mother had taught him not to partake in life’s vices, such as drinking, smoking, gambling or to get himself into debt, and he never did.

When Ford was 40 years old he started his now infamous “Ford Motors Company”, and had big ideas on more than solely the design of the motor cars. Ford understood the principals of business and that “the big money” was to be achieved by the implementation of economical quantity production, quick turnover and cheap interchangeable/ easily replaceable standardized parts.

In 1909 Ford launched what is now regarded as the first widely affordable automobile: The “Model T”, or as it was more commonly known the “Tin Lizzie”. The launch was a huge success selling over 10,000 units, in later years Ford would be selling almost a 1,000,000 of these models a year.

The work at Ford’s factory saw not only the improvement in the design of the machine, but also in the efficiency of the labour required to produce the machine. In 1913 Henry Ford established the first assembly line, that year saw profits grow to somewhere in the region of $25,000,000, however with the introduction of the assembly line, work became monotonous and Ford had trouble in keeping staff on the job.

The consequence of the assembly line meant that Ford had to increase wages as a form of compensation for essentially dulling down the work. However, now with the increased wages, the dream of employees owning a Tin Lizzie of their own was now becoming a reality, although some may see a certain sense of irony in this dream, working on a product, in the hopes of obtaining a copy of the product for themselves.

The Bitter Drink

The second part of the text to be analysed is “The Bitter drink”, the chapters forms a discussion on Thorstein Veblen, the Norwegian-American Economist and Sociologist. He was a known critic of capitalism.

The text starts by introducing the Veblens family, a family of freeholding farmers in Norway. The chapter goes on to introduce Thorstein Veblen, as a young boy he is described as “a hulking lad with a reputation for laziness and wit”, or perhaps at this point in his life misplaced potential.

It is described in the text, that the Norwegian people at the time are reported to believe there to be only two callings for an honest man, these being either Farming or Preaching. They are described as being suspicious and carried a certain dislike to the townspeople’s way of life, who are described as mostly American migrants, attempting to grow two dollars where one had previously existed. These people were shopkeepers, middle-men, speculators and money lenders, interested in politics and mortgages, and in turn despised the Scandinavian dirt farmers they lived off.

When Thorstein was seventeen his parents decided to attempt in making a preacher out of him and sent young Thorstein off to college. Here he excelled at academic learnings and is noted in producing award-winning essays, he later completes a Ph D, and becomes an extremely well educated member of society.

However once Thorstein has graduated and returned home, he turns down several offers of employment, perhaps feeling as if manual work and labouring jobs are contributing to a system he does not agree with, and struggles to respond to job offers with a positive “yes”. He spends time unemployed and becomes bitter towards society. 

Now spending his time back at the family-home he would discuss theology and philosophy with his father and tinker with new inventions of machinery. During this time in his life the economy was becoming tough for the agricultural industries and the price of wheat was declining together with the general belief in God. Other members of his family began growing tired of his unemployment and lack of contribution to the family financially.

Eventually Thorstein took on a number of teaching jobs at a number of different universities throughout his lifetime, but always remained unmaterialistic and perhaps somewhat bitter towards the capitalist society he found himself part of. In 1929 he died, and among his papers a pencilled note was found:

“It is also my wish, in case of death, to be cremated if it can be conveniently be done, as expeditiously and inexpensively as may be, without ritual or ceremony of any kind; that my ashes be thrown loose into the sea or into some sizeable stream running into the sea; that no tombstone, slab, epitaph, effigy, tablet, inscription or monument of any kind or nature, be set up to my memory or name in any place or at any time; that no obituary, memorial, portrait or biography of me, nor any letters written to or by me be printed or published, or in any way reproduced, copied or circulated”.

Whether a person may agree with Thorstein’s beliefs regarding society and capitalism in particular, one has to admire his commitment to his morals, even in the most extreme of life’s experiences, death.

Architect

The final part of the text to be read is simply titled “Architect” and is a look at Frank Lloyd wright. The hugely influential American Architect and Writer.

The text begins by describing Frank Lloyds Wright’s desire to become an architect after having seen the dome of the new State Capital building in Madison collapse. This was believed to be a result of bad workmanship in the supporting piers, some thieving contractors skimping on materials in order to save a politician’s bonus, or perhaps the result of a deadly error in the Architect’s plans. However, the resulting catastrophe ended the lives of a number of people and was an event which impacted the young Frank Lloyd Wright.

His training in architecture is reported to begin with the reading of “Violet le Duc”, the apostle of the thirteenth century and of the pure structural mathematics of Gothic Stone Masonry. He went on to work in the office of Adler and Sullivan in Chicago, alongside the proclaimed “father of skyscrapers” Louis Sullivan.

After several years Frank Lloyd Wright had developed his own style of “Prairie Architecture” (inspired by the broad flat landscapes of the American Mid-West) and left the office of Adler and Sullivan to set up his own studio in Oak Park, Illinois.

Designing broad suburban dwellings for rich men, he became a somewhat “Preacher of blueprints”, breaking the mould of the copy and paste architectural routine that had previously gripped America. Frank Lloyd wright was leading the movement that led to the swift constructions methods using materials of glass, bricks and steel in present-day America.

He loved the experimentation and new possibilities enabled by these new materials of steel, glass, concrete and the endless possibilities of new metals and alloys.

It is later reported that the building involving perhaps the most of Frank Lloyd Wright’s influence, is the Imperial Hotel in Toyko, a building which at the time of devastating earthquake of 1923 was one of the few buildings to remain standing. It was upon hearing this news of the building’s survival, and subsequently the survival of it’s occupants that Frank Lloyd wright was reportedly at his most-happiest. Having come full circle from his initial reasoning to pursue a career in Architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright had succeeded in the very notion of his dream.