ABSTRACT
Migrations continued and in fact accelerated in number in the early teens, but they were no longer predominately east-west in direction. Most of the major cities had by 1910 achieved a measure of economic integration in the utility fields, with one transit company, one gas and electric company, one telephone company serving the entire metropolitan district or sharing it with one or more rivals that were seldom genuine competitors. By checking the influx of immigrants it created labour shortages in some cities that prompted industrialists to look to the South for unskilled workers. A number of social surveys, patterned after that of Pittsburgh, endeavoured to delineate the problem areas and to describe conditions in a score of cities ranging from Springfield, Illinois, to Cleveland, Ohio. No resident of any of the major metropolises could experience and savour all of its potentialities, but few could escape a sense of involvement and participation in a large and dramatic community.
