The later history has been marked on the one hand by serious labor troubles and on the other by the remarkable achievement of the World's Columbian Exposition (1893). The labor outbreaks included several strikes in the packing industry, the Haymarket Riot in 1886, and the Pullman Strike in 1894.
The Haymarket Riot grew out of a strike in the McCormick harvester works. Hostility against the employers had been fomented by a group of so-called International Anarchists and the struggle culminated at the Anarchist meeting at the Haymarket Square. When the authorities said that the speeches were too revolutionary to be allowed to continue and the police undertook to disperse the meeting, a bomb was thrown and seven policemen were killed. Seven anarchists were ultimately convicted as being conspirators and accomplices and were condemned to death. Four were hanged, one committed suicide, two had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, and eight anarchists were sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years. In 1893 Gov. Altgeld pardoned those still in prison.
The leader of the Pullman strike, which began in the Pullman car works, was Eugene Debs (1855), who was the Socialist candidate for President in the election of 1920, although he was then in the penitentiary at Atlanta for violating the Espionage Act during the World War. The strike spread to the railways, and caused great disorder until President Cleveland dispatched federal troops to Chicago.
The exposition was an artistic and educational triumph, and its influence on the progress of the city cannot be overestimated The exposition gave Chicago an artistic conscience one of the direct results of which was the organization of the City Plan Commission, a body which is at work reshaping the city in the interests of greater beauty and utility.
The exposition commemorated the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus. It was held in Jackson Park, on the south side of the city, and covered an area of 686 acres. The buildings (planned by a commission of architects of which D.H. Burnham was the chief) formed a collection of remarkable beauty, to which the grounds (planned by F.L. Olmsted), intersected by lagoons and bordered by a lake, lent an appropriate setting. The fair was opened to the public May 1, 1893, and the total number of admissions was 27,500,000. The total cost was more than $33,000,000.
Owing largely to its central position and to its excellent railroad facilities, Chicago has been a favorite city for national political conventions ever since the nomination of Lincoln Others nominated here have been Grant (1866 and 1872), Garfield (1880), Cleveland (1884 and 1892). Harrison (1888), Roosevelt (1904), Taft (1908) and Harding (1920); and in addition a number of candidates who were unsuccessful including Blaine (1884), Harrison (1892), Bryan (1896), Taft (1912), Roosevelt (1912), and Hughes (1916).
To most foreign visitors and even to many Americans the growth of Chicago is its most impressive feature. Within a little more than 100 years Chicago has grown from a settlement of 14 houses, a frontier military post among the Indians to a great metropolis, the second city in America and fourth in size among the cities of the world. In 1829 what is now the business centre was fenced in as a pasture; in 1831 the Chicago mail was deposited in a dry goods box; the tax levy of 1834 was $48.90, and a well that constituted the city's water-system was sunk at a cost of $95.50. In 1843 hogs were by ordinance barred from the streets.
There are residents of Chicago still living who can remember the early days when the first village school stood on the ground now occupied by the Boston Store at Dearborn and Madison Sts. Some even insist they remember when wolves were trapped on the site of the present Tribune building. In the early period the streets of the little town were thick with mire in the rainy season, and it is said that signs were placed at appropriate points with inscriptions such as "No Bottom Here," "Stage Dropped Here," etc. The first improvement of note in Chicago was an inclined plank road in Lake St., arranged with a gutter in the center for drainage. It was the only safe route over which stage coaches from the west could enter the town.
In 1830 with a population of less than 100, in 1840 with 4,479, the increase by percentages in succeeding decades was as follows: 507, 265, 174, 68, 119, 54, 29, and (1910 to 1920) 23. Approximately 75 per cent of Chicago's population is of foreign birth or parentage. This foreign population is made up principally of Germans, about 50 per cent, Irish 12, Austrian 13, Russian 10, Swedish 6, Italian 4, Canadian, including French Canadians, 4, and English 4.
It has been said that Chicago is "the second largest Bohemian city in the world, the third Swedish, the fourth Norwegian, the fifth Polish and the fifth German (New York being the fourth)." This ought not to be construed, however, as a reflection on the fundamental Americanism of Chicago's citizens.