It’s potentially easy, from our perch of 2024 with total access to instant information, to think that our woes of environmental degradation, lack of open space, pressure on wetlands, and, generally, the fight for the good of the Earth, are a new idea. Sadly they are not. We as a nation have been fiddling around with these ideas since the 1920’s.
Thanks to the internet and some research, here are a few high points from the Green Fight in that decade.
The Radium Girls
From the perspective of worker safety, the grim story of the Radium Girls is at the top of the list. It was common practice to make watches and clocks that glowed in the dark. The workers who made them were generally women and they painted the dials with radium to make them glow.
The technique was to moisten the paint brush with their tongue, dip it in the radium, and paint the dial. They developed horrific cancer and died.
The company refused any responsibility until a group of five sued them and, with the help of Walter Lippman, won. Unfortunately, all of the women died before the case was settled. The most famous of these women was Catherine Wolfe Donohue. This case is still referred to as one of the cornerstones of OSHA.
Waterfowl Habitat
The Norbeck-Anderson Act (aka the Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929) was signed into law by President Herbert Hoover. This act established the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (MBCC), designed to protect wetlands and vulnerable bird habitats.
Waterfowl habitat
Since its inception, the MBCC fund has preserved 5 million acres of waterfowl habitat and is part of the impetus for today’s robust conservation movement.
National Coast Line Anti-Pollution League
In response to dumping noxious material in the sea off the coast of New Jersey, David Neuberger wrote this reflection in the New York Times:
“About twenty miles below Sandy Hook (NJ) one is greeted by four miles of … oil, sludge, tar and bilge water resting on the ocean. It is steadily increasing and defiles everything it touches… The question presents itself: Shall industrial waste be held superior to the public wealth, public health, sanitation and the conservation of food? Shall this sort of industrial progress be permitted at the expense of our people, and shall all these be made subservient to industrial waste? It was to overcome these conditions by drastic laws and their enforcement, compelling ship owners to find a method by which all these ills might be alleviated, and the owners of industrial plants shown the way to cooperate, that this League was organized. There are methods which, if properly applied, would stay the menace and avert the consequences.”
The League, a mainstream coalition of elected officials and public health advocates, demanded legislation to deal with these pollution problems. The first president of the organization, Gifford Pinochet, was Teddy Roosevelt's head of forest service.
Since its inception, the MBCC fund has preserved 5 million acres of waterfowl habitat and is part of the impetus for today’s robust conservation movement.
Gifford Pinochet
The River and Harbors Act gave the Army Corps of Engineers the means to survey and plan navigation for an inland waterway. This waterway started in the 1920s when it became apparent that the country needed a way to move cargo within its borders. To this day, the inland waterway is home to commercial and recreational travel. The great loop is a system of waterways, canals, lakes, and rivers that encompasses the eastern United States into Canada. It takes a year to complete in a recreational vessel.
There are many more examples and stories to tell, but it’s heartening to know that much of the progress made began in an era—the 20s—often thought of as greedy and prone to excess. Maybe there is hope for us yet.
-Bird Jones