ABSTRACT
The early industrial city of Milwaukee, which emerged in the 1870s, proved to be a very different kind of city than that of pre-industrial Milwaukee. Industries, which specialized in the manufacture of heavy machinery, began to replace both finance capital and grain trade as the predominant forms in the economic marketplace. The city government made efforts to streamline itself, becoming increasingly a more efficient and disciplined institution. The Socialists gained limited control of city government in Milwaukee, but it was not sufficient enough to alter the direction on which the government had been set, namely, continued expansion and the growth of its own authority. The Depression had a profound impact on the city of Milwaukee inasmuch as the city was so heavily based on an industrial economy. Thousands of people were put out of work, families were put in distress, and the needs of the local population effectively overwhelmed the capacity of local government to meet those needs.
