Magazine of History 2021

The Brunswick & Greenwich Academy

Magazine of History 2021

Brunswick School 100 Maher Avenue Greenwich, CT 06830 (203) 625-5800 Brunswickschool.org

Greenwich Academy 200 North Maple Avenue Greenwich, CT 06830 (203) 625-8900 Greenwichacademy.org

Vol. 18

Cover Image: “The Rainmaker,” at Foxwoods

The Brunswick & Greenwich Academy Magazine of History 2021 Editor Dr. John R. Van Atta

Editorial Office Department of History Pettengill Campus Brunswick School 100 Maher Avenue Greenwich, CT 06830 e-mail: jvanatta@brunswickschool.org (Please submit manuscripts for review and any correspondence regarding editorial matters by e-mail to the editorial office)

Editorial Board Mrs. Margot Beattie

Jamison Hesser ‘21

Ms. Kristine Brennan

Ali Hindy ‘21

Dr. Richard Dobbins

Harper Jones ‘21

Ms. Kristen Erickson

Kathy Mintchev ‘22

Mr. Christopher Forester Joshua Paul ‘21 Ms. Rachel Powers

Felipe Leao ‘22

Ms. Lulu Sandes

Noor Rekhi ‘21

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Editor’s Page Articles The Mashantucket Pequots, the Navajo Nation, and the Problem of Governmental Dependence by Kathy Mintchev ‘22 Kim’s Cult: How Lies, Legends, and Lore Maintain the Kim Dynasty by Jackson Fels ‘23 How the Great Depression Stimulated Group Health Insurance in America by Jaden Sacks ‘22 Sensuality and Symbolism in the Painting of Gustav Klimt by Joshua Paul ‘21

Local History The Westchester County Airport and Its Impact on Suburban Society by Katie Keil ‘22 The Early History of the New York & New Haven Railroad by Lucas Pombo ‘22

Personal History

Ka Ling Lamb: A Case Study in How to Take a Risk by John Lin ‘22 A Subdivision of Economic Classes: An Analysis of the Great Recession of 2008 by Sebastian Tchkotoua ‘21 The Strength of Spring Fragrance: A Short Biography of Yeung Chun Fong by Natalie Shell ‘22

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The Editor’s Page Looking back from the perspective of retirement—or “semi-retirement,” as one might want to say— I’ve had a chance to think about the many things that I could have done better as a teacher during those forty-one years, thirty-six of which I spent at Brunswick. I cringe to admit that the more one thinks about it, the longer the list gets. I don’t mind sharing, and this page might be a Dr. John Van Atta, Editor good enough place to start.

Considering that I have often used this space for my advice about the craft of writing, I’ll stick with that to launch my “regrets.”

I could have done a better job of advising students on selection of paper topics—or of approaching a topic once selected. More often I should have emphasized looking for the conflict in the story, and bringing that out heavily in the telling. Conflict, more than consensus, is the driving force in history. It’s where the drama lies, the electricity, the excitement. I recall seeing an interview with the famed journalist Walter Cronkite, where the interviewer asked whether the news media went too far in reporting only sensational stories. Cronkite replied, “Well, it isn’t the cats that don’t get stuck in trees that people are interested in; it’s the ones that do.” That’s the news business or, in our case, an interesting way to write history.

Just for fun, let’s take that as our illustration. Somebody’s favorite pet, a calico cat named Wilma, gets stuck after climbing up to a high branch in the front yard. She is terrified to come back down by herself. Everybody loves Wilma, and she’s such a beautiful cat. So now what? First, the reader wants to know why this cat got up there. What caused the predicament? Maybe Wilma has always been troublesome, getting into fixes that she can’t find her own way out of—locked in garages or trapped in basements. Look into some of those earlier crises. What happened before, and how did the cat get out of it then?

Ok, but how does Wilma get out of this one? The cat’s owner makes several hair-raising attempts to get up the tree and make the rescue, but all to no avail. Wilma is still stuck and scared to death, while her owner has almost reached the limit of his options. Finally, a last resort: the Fire Department is called in (at the owner’s expense) to use their special ladder truck. An intrepid fire fighter goes up to reach for Wilma. But is the ladder high enough? Yes! It is—just barely! The whole neighborhood turns out to watch these events as they unfold. They all breathe a sigh of relief and applaud the fire fighters, heartily, when it’s all over.

In conclusion, once the poor feline is safe, what occurs to make sure 3

she doesn’t go up there again? Perhaps it is decided that the tree must be cut down. Maybe the cat is somehow trained to stay in the house most of the time.

Or possibly the owner resolves to get Wilma’s claws better manicured so that now she can’t go around climbing trees anymore.

Stupid story, yes. But there is plenty of conflict in it, and drama, and that is what makes a story worth writing—and reading.

Anyway, moving on to other business, the following pages contain the articles that the editorial board and I have chosen for 2021. Thanks again to the authors for being willing to submit and saying yes to our offer to publish. It turns out this is (I think) the seventeenth annual issue of the History Magazine.

Once again, I hope it will not be the last. In order that it won’t, we need a new round of potential authors to be a little brave, take a chance, and submit their work. Are you such a person? If not, you might know someone who is. Or if you are a history teacher, please consider sending us the best papers you have received from students in the past year or so.

Again, a round of thanks for the support of school heads Tom Philip and Molly King, as well as that of our history chairs Kristine Brennan and Lulu Sandes. Also, as I’ve said so many times, a big shout out to our superb Tech Office staff at Brunswick; they’re the best. And finally, as I’ve also said for many years and will declare from the highest roof top (or tree top), we couldn’t do any of this without Margot Beattie. If her extensive work on the layout and production of this magazine were ever left to me alone, we’d be stuck on a high limb for sure!

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The Mashantucket Pequots, the Navajo Nation, and the Problem of Governmental Dependence Kathy Mintchev ’22 As tribes nationwide struggle to retain or reclaim their land, their critics argue that modern-day Native American cultural identities are not “stable” or are no longer rooted in tribal history. Such critics often cite casinos operated by indigenous peoples as supporting that argument, a prominent example being Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The twelve-foot-tall fortyfive-hundred-pound crystalline statue of a Native American hunter, called Rainmaker, standing in the Foxwoods atrium, might be described as a mockery of tribal culture. Yet the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which runs Foxwoods, might disagree. To them, Rainmaker is a symbol of their historical and contemporary perseverance. After their initial contact with Europeans in the seventeenth century, the Pequots evaded genocide on multiple occasions and eventually became one of the wealthiest indigenous tribes in the twenty-first century. Foxwoods’ success, however, has resulted in as much destruction as prosperity for the Pequots, and it serves as a model for the state of indigenous affairs in the United States, which is currently in dire shape because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the success of Foxwoods Resort Casino suggests a trend of greater selfsufficiency for some Native Americans, the Pequots’ historical struggle, and the recent pandemic-related decline of the resort, may reveal this continuing selfsufficiency to be short-lived after all. The Pequots’ experience, especially in light of the current COVID-19 crisis, exposes the need for their permanent tribal independence.

Foxwoods has benefited the Pequot tribe through enormous revenues, which has been instrumental in reviving the tribe’s culture and promoting their self-sufficiency. Prior to the establishment of Foxwoods, the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation more closely resembled an incomeless swampland than a developed community. In 1988, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which allowed the operation of gaming on reservations, and the Pequots subsequently received foreign financing to open Foxwoods in Mashantucket. By 2008, Foxwoods grew into the fourth largest casino in the world, at 340,000 square feet, and became the second largest employer in Connecticut. This success allowed the Pequots to develop their reservation and build a social welfare state, giving them an unprecedented level of self-sufficiency. Moreover, economic success at Foxwoods funded a cultural revival of a community which was reaching one of its lowest points. In the nineteenth century, a Christian movement called the Brothertons attracted half of the Pequot population to New York and Wisconsin, and tribal members continued leaving throughout the twentieth century to find wage labor elsewhere. By 1935, only 42 Pequots remained on the reservation, and by 1974, the only two remaining tribal members still living on the reser5

vation died. However, a cultural rebirth followed, both with a movement on the reservation and the opening of Foxwoods in the 1980s. Economic success at Foxwoods funded the opening of the Pequot Museum and Research Center in 1998, which is one of the largest Native American museums in the world. Economic and cultural success attracted large numbers of Pequots back into the reservation, and most of the settlers today are first or second-generation newcomers. As a result of revenues gained from Foxwoods Casino, the Pequot reservation has become self-sufficient and undergone a cultural revival.

“The Rainmaker” at Foxwoods

Evidently, Foxwoods is a prime example of tribal self-sufficiency through gaming, which suggests a nationwide trend of increased independence for indigenous peoples through the casino industry. In the past seventy years, Native Americans have made unprecedented progress in gaining independence.

For example, the American Indian Movement (AIM) of the 1960s was a militant group which aimed to alleviate a spectrum of Native grievances such as economic dependence on national government and the loss of tribal culture. Although AIM disbanded in 1978, the group’s occupation of symbolic locations such as Wounded Knee, in South Dakota, and Alcatraz Island led to a number of major court cases to settle tribal land claims. Despite the slow rate of progress, Congress steadily favored Native American self-sufficiency with acts such as the 1988 Gaming Act which led to the establishment of Foxwoods and other such gaming empires. Today, the US government officially recognizes around 500 tribes of indigenous people, and 242 of those run casino businesses, comprising activity in 28 states, and many of these casinos function as primary sources of income for the tribes that run them. Just as the casino business has been financially liberating for the Pequots, it has allowed numerous other tribes to gain a similar degree of financial independence in their communities. The success at Foxwoods, therefore, represents not an isolated development but part of a nationwide trend of

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tribal independence through the gaming industry.

Yet the Pequot tribe’s lack of independence historically and their reliance on Foxwoods prove that recent tribal self-sufficiency depends on outside factors as well. Prior to European contact, the Pequot tribe constituted a powerful force in what would become southeastern Connecticut. But European exploration and settlement launched a long history of genocide, beginning with a host of epidemics that devastated more than 70 percent of the Pequot population. In particular, the Pequot War with the English settlers in 1636-1638 stripped the tribe of their former power and submitted them to being ruled under to the Mohegan tribe. It was only when Governor John Winthrop (the younger) of Connecticut later freed them, and granted them land, that they were able to restore their culture and community, and the Pequots soon became recognized as people on a reservation. Although the Pequots gained further recognition in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they also suffered further injustices, such as land sales without their consent and exclusion from the Federal Census in the 1820s. The Pequots’ history is notable because it shows that whenever they seem to gain self-sufficiency—such as by becoming independent from the Mohegans or by gaining recognition from the English—they only became dependent on another external factor. More recently, the Pequots’ financial struggles caused by Foxwoods’ decline demonstrates this theme as well. A costly expansion undertaken just as the 2008 recession hit, increased competition, and slackening demand for their services left Foxwoods with a two-billion-dollar debt in 2009.

Although Foxwoods continues to operate as the fourth largest casino in the world, its decline has devastated the Pequots’ overall welfare and tribal income.

In a 2012 interview with New Haven Register, tribal member Gina BrownCongdon states that she owned a house and cared for her sick brother until he died in 2010 and, without his tribal income, she fears she can no longer afford to look after him. She wishes that she and the tribe had prepared better for “hard times” and feels that the situation on the reservation has come “full circle” with Foxwoods’ downfall. In opening Foxwoods, the Pequots became less dependent on the US government and completely reliant on gaming income, a shift which is consistent with their long history of being a trading people in one form or another. The circumstances of Foxwoods’ decline, which Ms. Brown-Congdon’s comments support, show that the Pequots’ dependence on the casino industry has proved destructive to them in the long-term. Thus, the Pequot experience suggests that tribal self-sufficiency through gaming leads not to independence but only dependence in another way, one that comes accompanied with economic instability on top of everything else.

Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed further the need for permanent tribal independence in order to survive. As a result of the pandemiccaused shutdown of nonessential businesses, all casino operations sit currently idle. As mentioned above, Native Americans have increasingly taken more responsibility for government services on their lands in the past few decades.

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However, unlike federal and state governments, tribes cannot collect adequate taxes, making many of their members completely dependent on casino enterprises for their livelihood. This dependence on casinos is partially what makes the shutdown especially worrying for tribes such as the Pequots. COVID-19 statistics on Native American reservations generally—the extraordinarily high infection and mortality rates—reveal that tribes are also over-dependent on national government for healthcare and other support. In the Navajo Nation in particular, which has been disproportionally affected, these rates are the highest in the country behind New York and New Jersey. As of a year ago, the Navajo Nation, population 173,000 people, had 4,434 confirmed cases and 157 deaths, with a rapidly growing infection rate of 2.5 percent. When looking at nationwide conditions on reservations, it is not difficult to pinpoint possible causes for these statistics, but it becomes clear that reservations’ dependence on the federal government hinders their ability to lower the numbers. For one, tribal members are often dependent on government-funded operations such as state hospitals, national healthcare plans, and economic relief. And yet, their medical care is sub-par when compared to national standards. According to the US Commission on Civil Rights, the federal government spends $12,744 per person on Medicare, but only $2,834 per person on health care goes for Native Americans. The Indian Health Service (IHS), a government funded program responsible for providing health services on reservations, is chronically underfunded. Clinics are often hours away by car, and many locations do not have basic services such as emergency departments or MRI machines. All of these factors make care during the COVID-19 pandemic all the more difficult and highlight the reservations’ over-dependence on state and national operations. If possible, tribes need to separate themselves from these external operations in order to survive, not only because of and during the current COVID-19 pandemic but more in the long-term as well.

Currently, the Navajo Nation is the tribe most affected by COVID-19, and their difficulties in taking action due to their dependence on the government stresses how important it is for them and tribes nationwide to become selfsufficient. According to Tyrone Whitehorse, a member of the Navajo Nation, the reservation is facing “systematic disparities,” many of which are nationwide issues detailed above. Whitehorse notes that the majority of the US population has access to clean water and electricity, but nearly one-third of families on the Navajo reservation have access to neither. There are only thirteen grocery stores on the Navajo reservation, all of which are serving an area the size of West Virginia and short on supplies. Clinics funded by the IHS on the reservation are often hours away and in need of personal protective equipment. In his own experience, Whitehorse recounts that he has lost friends who tested positive for the virus and were sent home to monitor their symptoms but were unable to get to the hospital in a “timely manner” when their conditions worsened. Moreover, the federal response to the crisis Whitehorn describes is limited. In March, the CARE coronavirus relief act allocated eight billion dollars to respond to the

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health crisis on reservations. However, the process of applying for CARE relief is long and tedious, and many tribes such as the Navajos claim not to have received any relief funds as of May 2020. Additionally, tribes cannot rely on state and local healthcare systems to give them accurate data on which areas are most affected by the virus because of racial misclassification. Some studies have found that Native Americans have a 50 percent chance of being listed as the wrong race on medical records. The Navajos’ situation is the most poignant example of tribes suffering during the current pandemic, especially because their ability to respond is hindered by their dependence on the government. Their current situation stresses the need for action to make tribes self-sufficient so that they may take care of their own survival.

Meanwhile, the Pequot tribe’s self-sufficiency as based on Foxwoods Resort Casino, like the greater trend of indigenous independence, is volatile, pointing again to the need for tribal independence during the current COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Although it has been difficult for tribes like the Navajos to respond during the current pandemic, more recent efforts to overcome the barriers that prevent them show that it is still possible and give tribes like the Pequots an example to begin their own efforts. As a result of racial misclassification, for example, independent organizations such as the Native newspaper Indian Country Today (ICT), published by the Navajo Nation, have begun to gather the data for themselves. As stated by Navajo Jourdan Bennett-Begay, an editor for the ICT, “We don’t want to be forgotten.” Similarly, on May 15, 2020, the Navajo Nation’s Health Command Center implemented their so-called Unified Command Group to provide a coordinated approach to COVID-19 separate from the federal government. As a result, the Navajo Nation as of a year ago maintained a per-capita testing rate higher than most states, which officials hope will “flatten the curve” of new cases on the reservation. The Navajos have clearly begun to adapt to and overcome their dependence on the US government, and the benefits they are already seeing show that their step toward self-sufficiency is a positive one. The Navajos, therefore, can serve as a model for other reservations, like the Pequots, to promote their own self-sufficiency by bringing the community together and replacing federal and state operations with efforts within the reservation. In the Pequots’ case, this action can be especially important in freeing them from Foxwoods and the gaming industry, where the Pequots have experienced short-term gains but major losses in the long run.

Notes Bill Anthes, “Learning from Foxwoods: Visualizing the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation,” The American Indian Quarterly 32, no. 2 (2008), 3, https:// doi.org/10.1353/aiq.2008.0011).

1

9

Anthes, 6.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “American Indian Movement,” Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., April 26, 2018), https:// www.britannica.com/topic/American-Indian-Movement).

4 “Smithsonian Affiliate, 70.

5 Brooke Keaton, “10 Of The World's Largest Casinos: The Biggest Casinos Ever!,” Casino.org Blog, April 2, 2020, https://www.casino.org/blog/10-of-theworlds-largest-casinos-the-biggest-casinos-ever/).

6 Anthes, 13.

7 Ibid., 6.

8 “History & Culture,” Smithsonian Affiliate, Accessed May 22, 2020, http:// www.pequotmuseum.org/uploadedFiles/Content/Research_Resources/ mpmrc_history_and_culture_ebook.pdf 70.

9 Anthes, 13.

10 Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “American Indian Movement.”

11 “According to the National American Indian Housing Council, Some 90,000 American Indian Families Are Homeless or under-Housed, and 40% of onReservation Housing Is Inadequate,” 5 Native American Funding Facts | PWNA Media Kit for Press - Partnership With Native Americans, accessed May 24, 2020, http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer? pagename=pwna_media_fundingfacts).

12 “History & Culture,” Smithsonian Affiliate, 49.

13 Ibid., 50.

2 3

Ibid., 62.

The Associated Press, “Once Flush with Money, Pequot Tribe Struggles with Foxwoods Debt,” New Haven Register (New Haven Register, July 27, 2017), https:// www.nhregister.com/news/article/Once-flush-with-money-Pequot-tribe-struggles11446079.php).

16 Ibid.

17 Liz Mineo, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Native American Communities,” Harvard Gazette (Harvard Gazette, May 11, 2020), https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/ story/2020/05/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-native-american-communities/) 18 Ibid.

19 Tyrone Whitehorse, “I'm a Member of the Navajo Nation, and My People Are Dying from the Coronavirus. We're Facing the Virus Head-on with Limited Access to Healthcare and Supplies,” Insider (Insider, May 22, 2020), https://www.insider.com/ navajo-nation-member-describes-coronavirus-impact-on-community-2020-5).

20 Ibid.

21 Van Jones, “10 Steps to Save Native Americans from Covid-19 Catastrophe,” CNN Cable News Network, May 6, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/06/opinions/nativeamericans-covid-19-avoid-catastrophe-jones/index.html.

22 Ibid.

23 Whitehorse, “I'm a Member of the Navajo Nation, and My People Are Dying from the Coronavirus.”

24 Mineo, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Native American Communities.”

25 Rebecca Nagle, “Native Americans Being Left out of US Coronavirus Data and Labelled as 'Other',” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media, April 24, 2020), https:// 14 15

10

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/24/us-native-americans-left-out-coronavirusdata).

26 Ibid.

27 Mineo, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Native American Communities.”

28 Jones, “10 Steps to Save Native Americans from Covid-19 Catastrophe.”

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Kim’s Cult: How Lies, Legends, and Lore Maintain the Kim Dynasty Jackson Fels ’23

Deemed the last remaining imperial cult in the world, North Korea, under the Kim family, provides a fascinating window into a world that may seem alien to most Americans today. It can be puzzling to an outsider how such a regime has maintained power. The Kim dynasty is a modern-day hermit kingdom and is openly hostile to the foreign world. Furthermore, with its people living in abject poverty, and those close to Kim’s living extravagantly, one is left to wonder: how has a secession of tin-pot dictators maintained total control over a nation of 25 million? The answer to this dilemma lies in the aforementioned imperial cult, also known as a cult of personality. The handiwork of the nation’s first leader, Kim Il-Sung, the Kim family built this cult, which has brought them the loyalty and obedience of their people.

This cult of personality is characterized by relentless state propaganda, pushing a mythical narrative about the Kim family, their origin, and their divinity.

Fostered by doctrinal myths, the Kims’ fanatical following, and the mythos they have established, grant the Kims a godlike status in their nation. This religion is all-encompassing in North Korean life, and while some pundits point to various factors to explain the Kims’ domination, nearly all explanations can be derived from the leviathan that is the Kim regime’s cult of personality. The deliberate actions of the North Korean regime have created this cult of personality around the Kims, engendering the loyalty of the people and facilitating the Kims’ undisputed rule.

In a time when the North Korean people needed a leader, Kim Ill-Sung, who ruled the country from 1948 until his death in 1994, stepped in and established a public perception of himself as the people’s savior, a perception around which he then created an apparatus of indoctrination to maintain that public image. He was the father of Kim Jong-Il, the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011, and the grandfather of Kim Jong-un, its current leader. After years of guerrilla insurgency, in part led by Kim Ill-Sung, Korea was liberated from imperial Japan in August 1945. This peace was short-lived, and the ensuing Korean War (1950-1953) against the United States devastated the North. Kim Ill-Sung came to power during this period of chaos and turmoil. As history has frequently shown, such conditions often bring the rise of authoritarian strongmen.

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Kim Ill-Sung

The way that Kim consolidated his power, however, is unique and is the key to the longevity of his family’s rule. Unlike most political strongmen, Kim Ill -Sung did not come to power through fear. Rather, he did so largely through the North Korean people’s love for him. He cleverly went about a campaign in the aftermath of World War II to win over their hearts and minds, portraying himself as the savior of the struggling populace. He was a political genius, plotting his ascendency long before he ever took power. His cunning became further clear by the manner in which he manipulated the many orphans of the Korean War. Nearly one in four North Koreans died in the war, often leaving their children behind. Kim took these children, seeing in each a blank slate, and brought them to “re-education” schools. He brainwashed these vulnerable orphans and played the role of a father to them when he regularly visited. Many of these children went on to become his personal bodyguards or play leadership roles in his infamous secret police, the SSD. Kim also launched a relentless propaganda campaign, which came to define his family’s cult. In the isolated, cornered country, he and his generals had a monopoly on information and a perfect boogeyman in the form of South Korea and its foreign coalition, including mainly the United States. Kim saw this opportunity and built up the state media, then began beating his narrative into the public’s collective consciousness. He ferociously silenced dissent through his secret police and played into the public’s fear of western occupation as an excuse for his brutality. This propaganda campaign created a rallying effect around him and provided the beginnings of what came to be his cult. Kim’s masterful manipulation of the people, in a time when they were looking for a savior, gave rise to his godlike status.

Kim Ill-Sung’s imperial cult is an all-encompassing ideology and leaves no

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room for dissent. It is constructed on legends and myths, or bluntly put, lies.

These lies are manifest even in the founding stories of the Kim family, which are their source of legitimacy. Years before the Kims first came to the political scene, the Japanese occupation of North Korea had ingrained itself into North Korean culture. Anti-Japanese fervor lies at the core of the North Korean revolutionary spirit. The Kims recognized this and lied about their ties to this struggle in order to build up legitimacy. Anti-Japanese stories have been promulgated by the Kims since they first took power, and still are to this day. In a presentation at the “Korea Policy Research Center, Center for Comparative Democracy Studies, and Korea University Department of North Korean Studies,” South Korean analyst Jae-Cheon-Lim discussed how the Kims played into Korean beliefs to claim legitimacy. Mount Paektu, he explained, was the center of the anti-Japanese fight and is claimed to be Kim Ill-Sung’s birthplace. Paektu is thus birthplace of Korean revolutionary folklore as well. The assertion of the Kims’ “bloodline” from Paektu serves as a source of legitimacy, tying the source of their power back to the country’s origin. Unbeknownst to the North Korean people, Soviet records actually place the birthplace of Kim Ill-Sung as Mangyongdae, a poor river village.

The Kim regime engenders further lies for the sake of maintaining political legitimacy in the revisionist history they teach the people. In their account, North Korea is a victim on the world stage. They even lie about the war which furnished the country's sovereignty. They claim that the Korean War was launched by the South in an attempt to conquer the North. This notion is antithetical to the historical truth, but the point of this revisionist history is not to educate the people; it is to create a rallying around the flag effect, similar to the one that brought Kim Ill-Sung to power in the first place. By succeeding in convincing the North Korean people that they are the victims of an aggressive outside world, the people have no choice but to come together in a unified front to fight off the threat. This unified front simply translates to unity under the rule of the Kims, which of course, is their end goal. Their array of untruths stands as an assertion of the authority of the Kim regime and is used to place a veneer of legitimacy around their despotic rule.

The Kims’ dictatorial cult grants them unchecked power and total control. A loyal populous is a subdued populous, and the people’s loyalty has been sufficient to guarantee them impunity in their self-interested actions. Even if the people suffer while the Kims live in excess, their unswerving faith in the Kims eliminates any threat of an uprising. With no threat of revolution, the Kims have been left to do as they please and further consolidate their power. From this loyalty also flows the other factors which have contributed to the Kims’ domination, especially their control of the North Korean army as a source of their power. That army relies, however, on Soviet-era weapon systems and is, at present, technologically weak. Their strength comes from the absolute loyalty, discipline, and obedience of the soldiers, all of which are byproducts of the Kim cult.

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Further, the Kims have always maintained this cult and the tenets therein through both the systematic indoctrination of each generation and total censorship. Indoctrination starts when the mind is malleable. From the point of birth, North Korean children are taught songs and chants about the “Fatherly Leader.” Through repetitive imagery, storytelling, and art, students are brought into the cult. Living in isolation, with no access to the internet or any news other than the State Media outlet, the people are given no alternative to the official narrative. Put from the time of birth in an ideological echo-chamber, the success of the cult on the minds of North Koreans should come as little surprise.

Not everyone, of course, is completely duped by this system. Those who show signs of non-conformity, social dissidence, or challenging of the Kim family are seen as threats. These individuals are thrown into Stalinesque “reeducation camps,” where they are forced into hard labor. Those put in these camps are often tortured, beaten, or raped by the guards. For most in these camps, life is short and cruel. The Kims have developed a system to root out these individuals, a system that sacrifices any norm of privacy and the family unit. Everything said or done by citizens is subject to scrutiny. In the cities, the Kims have implemented an advanced surveillance system, which many experts suspect is of Chinese origin. Through this system, the secret police can root out the ideologically unorthodox. The other method employed by the Kim regime is the aforementioned brainwashing of the youth. Children are taught to report their parents’ behavior to the authorities. If children see their parents with a smuggled book, radio, any other form of contraband, or expressing a dissenting opin-

ion, they are told to report that to their teachers. The teachers will then inform the secret police. In the name of patriotism, brainwashed children will send their own mothers away to the camps. That unnatural deterioration of the family structure is sickening to the outsider on a basic human level, but to maintain ideological purity, the people's right to privacy and the natural order must be sacrificed.

Today, under Kim Jong-Un, the cult maintains its iron grip, adopting new strategies to maintain ideological homogeneity as outside forces threaten Kim’s monopoly on information. Safe from the threat of backlash, Kim has moved to consolidate his power by eliminating any threat to his rule. In recent years, he has killed off upstart generals and even his half-brother, Kim JongNam. Jong-Nam was the heir apparent for many years before falling out of favor after advocating for progressive reform. His existence alone challenged Kim Jong-Un’s claim to supreme leadership. Subsequently, in 2017, Kim Jong-Un had him assassinated via a biological agent. Kim also has moved to crack down on new forms of communication. The regime has total censorship powers over the internet, to which almost no one outside Pyongyang has access. All forms of communication are monitored, and all devices are registered, tracked, and implemented with spyware. This spyware is advanced and has been documented by western journalists who have been allowed into the hermit kingdom. Many suspect this technology is too advanced to have been developed by Pyongyang and, like the sur-

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veillance system, is of Chinese origin. With new forms of information distribution threatening his monopoly, Kim Jong-Un has resorted to censorship via new means to control the people.

Kim Jong-Un

As the new era has ushered in change across the globe, it appears that the Kims have no plans to relinquish the cult they have spent so many years developing. Understanding this reality, outside groups have moved to undermine the cult and thereby Kim’s tyrannical rule. South Korea has covertly continued its anti-propaganda campaign, blasting information across the border with the use of high-power speaker systems. South Korean volunteers also launch balloons over the border, carrying care packages for the North Korean people. These packages contain food, medicine, and information. These volunteers use USBs, leaflets, and maps to bypass Kim’s censorship. In this effort, they have found an ally in Christian missionaries. In exchange for planting Bibles in these packages, Christian volunteers have fundraised and lobbied on behalf of these balloon launches. There are an estimated 40,000 practicing Christians living in total secrecy in North Korea. These Christians, by definition of their faith, see through Kim Jong-un’s godlike veil and undermine the cult that he has inherited from the previous Kims, his father and grandfather. Despite the seemingly overwhelming odds, the end of Kim’s cult is not only plausible but also is becoming more and more possible thanks to the efforts of foreign groups. Until then, however, the Kim dynasty will likely continue its domination of the North Korean people.

Selected Bibliography Bandow, D. More Dictator Than God: Kim Jong-Un's Cult of Personality Is Going Strong. [online] Cato Institute. 2019.

Harden, Blaine. “How North Korea Feeds Its Impoverished People A Steady Diet of Anti-U.S. Paranoia.” HISTORY.Com. 2018.

Ingber, Sasha. “North And South Korea Dismantle Loudspeakers Blaring Prop16

aganda On The DMZ.” Npr.Org.https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-

way/2018/05/01/607399907/north-and-south-korea-dismantle-loudspeakers-blaringpropaganda-on-the-dmz. 2018.

Lim, Jae-Cheon. Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea. Seoul: Routledge. 2015.

Martin, Bradley K. Under the Loving Care of The Fatherly Leader: North Korea And The Kim Dynasty. New York: St. Martin's Press. 2013.

Noland, Marcus. “Why North Korea Will Muddle Through.” Foreign Affairs 76 (4): 105. doi:10.2307/20048125. 1997.

Sang-Hun, Choe. “A ‘Balloon Warrior’ Subverts North Korea, Thousands of Leaflets at A Time.” Nytimes.Com.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/ world/asia/south-north-korea-balloon-drop.html. 2016 Swan, Maclellan, and Maclellan Swan. “Kim Jong-Un's Big Threat: His Older Brother—Globalo.” Globalo. http://www.globalo.com/kim-jong-un-big-threathis-older-brother/. 2020.

Tertitskiy, Fyodor. “How the North Is Run: The Secret Police | NK PRO.” NK PRO. https://www.nknews.org/pro/how-the-north-is-run-the-secret-police-2/.

2019.

Wussow, Travis. “What It’s Like to Follow Jesus In North Korea.” The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission 1. https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/what-itslike-to-follow-jesus-in-north-korea. 2019.

17

How the Great Depression Stimulated Group Health Insurance in America Jaden Sacks ’22

Access to and payment for healthcare has been continuously debated throughout history as healthcare services have become more expensive and thought by many to be a right for all citizens. One of the most important events to shape modern healthcare in America was the formation of group health insurance plans spurred by the fear and poverty during the Great Depression. In the early twentieth century, physicians practiced on an individualized fee-for-service system that allowed them to regulate their cost according to a patient’s ability to pay and have complete control over their own practice without outside intervention.1 During the 1920s, medical costs began to grow to meet increased “demand and higher quality standards.”2 However, when the stock market crashed in 1929, the country was faced with economic disaster: families lost their life savings, companies were destroyed, families found themselves evicted from their homes, and millions lost their jobs. When the Great Depression struck the healthcare industry, physicians’ incomes dropped dramatically, many of their patients could no longer pay their medical bills, and the mortality and suicide rates increased as the fertility rate fell.3 The country was in desperate need of a coherent healthcare system to meet people’s medical needs and take America out of the “greatest economic disaster in modern history,” in the judgment of historian Eric Foner.4 The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression ultimately led to the creation and development of group health insurance plans to ensure healthcare for people in need and payment for providers of care and of that care itself. This ultimately catalyzed the formation of health insurance as we know it today in America.

The Great Depression created significant demand for health insurance as physicians’ incomes became depressed and increasing medical costs made healthcare unaffordable for most people. That situation highlighted the desperate need to provide equal access and payment coverage for all medical care. Due to the depression, physicians experienced a large drop in their incomes and their number of patients, losing 47 per cent of their 1929 earnings by 1933.5 The most pressing medical problem that Americans faced was how to pay for increasing medical costs. The 1927 Committee on the Costs of Medical Care emphasized soaring medical costs that had increased by 85 per cent for families with an income of $1,200-$2,500, thus affecting both lower and middle classes. This was a new condition that came from the economic insecurity of the Great Depression and affected both lower and middle classes.6 With millions being driven into poverty and some 10 million Americans unemployed, most Americans could not pay for medical services.7 While infant mortality and suicide rates soared, 25 per

18

cent of urban citizens required clinical attention with 5 percent of those needing hospitalization.8 Hospital beds went empty and medical bills unpaid. Meanwhile a remarkable 68 per cent of lower income citizens admitted never seeing a doctor because the cost was too high.9 All this pointed to an immediate need for healthcare payment coverage to provide relief to Americans.

The first forms of such healthcare coverage, or prepayment programs, during the Great Depression came with the formation of what became known as Blue Cross programs that served

as the foundation for the growth and expansion of health insurance from the 1930s onward. In 1929, professors at Baylor University in Dallas, Texas, found their current sick benefit fund inadequate and sought a way for hospitals to guarantee needed care to provide protection from serious illness in a time when they had few resources. They conducted a prepayment experiment in which the university hospital granted each one three weeks of hospital care in exchange for $6 per year. This was the first example of a group prepayment plan through an employer. Soon more unions and employer groups began to collaborate with local hospitals to create area-wide prepayment plans such as those in Sacramento, California, in 1932 and Newark, New Jersey, in 1933. Inspired by the success of the Baylor plan, Homer Edgar Wickenden, the general director of the United Hospital Fund, which had a membership of 56 voluntary and nonprofit hospitals, established the Associated Hospital Service of New York on May 16, 1934, which soon prospered into 59 plans with 4 million members. These plans adopted the Blue Cross insignia, under control of the American Hospital Association.10 Despite opposition, these prepayment plans provided exactly what had been greatly

19

lacking for patients, doctors, and hospitals: security in guaranteeing care and payment, according to investigative journalist Fred J. Cook, who has examined the weakness, inefficiency, and mismanagement of the American hospital system.

Although the Blue Cross programs faced initial difficulty, their successful group/ employer-based system served as a foundation for the development of health insurance programs in the wake of the Great Depression and inspired the eventual development of modern health insurance as we know it today.

While the economic conditions of the 1930s created the need for widespread hospital prepayment plans, there was fierce opposition from the powerful American Medical Association (AMA) that inhibited their development.11 The AMA is a powerful democratic organization of physicians across the country that controls medical schools, education, and the overall medical practice while protecting the voices of physicians in courts across the nation.12 Most importantly, the AMA has protected physicians’ ability to practice an individualized and independent fee-for-service system, allowing them to set their own work hours and incomes, maintaining autonomy, and providing equal access to medical care.13 The AMA historically opposed group health insurance because third-party intervention disturbed the “physician's beautiful private-fee relationship with his client,” which would be the “greatest step toward socialized medicine,” according to historian Paul Starr.14 AMA membership expanded throughout the 1930s due to the hospital privileges, patient referrals, and liability protection that the national association provided.15 With membership at a high, the AMA continued also to be the most powerful form of opposition to a much-needed national health insurance program.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic president who expanded the role of the federal government in social welfare, maintained an ambiguous but supportive view towards national health insurance, making various attempts at implementing national programs throughout his presidency.16 Ultimately FDR consciously decided to omit compulsory or national health

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945 20

insurance from the Social Security Bill of 1935 because it brought accusations of socialism along with fierce opposition from the AMA and the American Health Association, which threatened the passage of the Social Security Bill.17 FDR made a second attempt at implementing national health insurance through the Wagner Act of 1939, which established federally funded national health insurance administered by states. However, with a conservative resurgence in 1938 and the coming of World War II, the national health insurance movement stalled, preventing FDR from going further with a nationalized healthcare system.18 With FDR’s inability to include health insurance on a federal level, nonprofit hospital prepayment plans through Blue Cross continued to proliferate throughout the nation, but the demand for individual physicians’ prepayment persisted. Physicians began to feel threatened by government intervention and competition from large hospital insurance organizations such as Blue Cross, fearing that they would lower their incomes and disturb their autonomous profession.19 In response, a group of doctors in California created the first physician prepayment plan in 1939. Physicians recognized that if they did not provide the public with equal protection, they would face government intervention and the development of “socialized medicine,” which practically all doctors strictly opposed. Physician prepayment plans soon grew rapidly across the nation and adopted the Blue Shield insignia, providing physicians with the guarantee of payment on an individualized basis. Blue Cross and Blue Shield programs continued to proliferate across the nation as the first group, non-profit, voluntary organizations that served as the nation’s primary means of paying rising medical costs, with enrollments expanding into the millions.20 America’s current health insurance system has been debated and modified throughout history as our nation seeks to resolve the persistent debate of healthcare as a right for all and the affordability to provide such care. Some of the meaningful developments have included Medicare and Medicaid establishment in the 1960s, the Blue Shield Blue Cross Association proliferation, numerous for-profit private insurance companies, Health Maintenance Organizations developed in the 1970s, the Clinton administration’s attempted (but failed) the Health Security Act in the 1990s, and the passing of the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration. Despite modifications and controversy with America’s health insurance system up until today, one of the most significant developments in its formation is the fundamental creation of group health insurance that originated from the high medical costs and devastating unemployment rate during the Great Depression. Yet the real test of America’s health insurance system is happening right now with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus which has infected millions of people in the United States.21 With half of Americans receiving health insurance through their employer, in keeping with the employerbased insurance system introduced by Blue Cross, and a million people filing for

21

unemployment insurance every week, millions are at risk of losing health coverage at a time when they need it most, causing medical bills to go unpaid and risking the quality of medical care.22 In spring 2020, Congress finally passed a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill to provide unemployment payments, direct payments of $1,200 or $2,400 to qualified Americans, and relief to hospitals, small businesses, and large corporations. It is truly a daunting and fascinating time as this current recession once again threatens the adequacy of our health insurance and our healthcare system, as we move, hopefully, to provide care and coverage for all.

Notes New Deal, Health Insurance, and the AMA,” in 1930-1939, edited by Judith S. Baughman, Victor Bondi, Richard Layman, Tandy McConnell, and Vincent Tompkins, vol. 4, American Decades. Detroit, 2001, Gale in Context: U.S. History (accessed February 18, 2020), https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/ CX3468301291/UHIC ?u=s057k&sid=UHIC&xid=ce67aa8a.

2 George B. Moseley, “The U.S. Health Care Non-System, 1908-2008,” AMA Journal of Ethics, May 2008 (accessed March 25, 2020), https://doi.org/10.1001/ virtualmentor.2008.10.5.mhst1-0805.

3 Price V. Fishback, Michael R. Haines, and Shawn Kantor, “Births, Deaths, and New Deal Relief during the Great Depression,” The Review of Economics and Statistics 89, no. 1 (2007): 1-14, www.jstor.org/stable/40043070: 2.

4 Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!: An American History, ap 5 ed. (New York, 2016), 793.

5 Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, updated ed. (New York, 1982/2006), 270.

6 Paul Starr, “Transformation in Defeat: The Changing Objectives of National Health Insurance 1915-1980,” American Journal of Public Health 72 (January 1, 1982): 81.

7 Starr, Social Transformation, 270; Carl N. Degler, “The Third American Revolution,” in Out of Our Past: The Forces That Shaped Modern America (New York, 1959, 1970), 343.

8 Ibid., 345.

9 Starr, Social Transformation, 270.

10 Fred J. Cook, The Plot against the Patient (New York, 1967), 198, 199, 199-200, 202.

11 Starr, Social Transformation, 266.

12 “The 1930s: Medicine and Health: Overview,” in 1930-1939, Baughman, Bondi, Layman, McConnell, and Tompkins, (accessed February 9, 2020) https:// link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3468301278/UHIC?u =s057k&sid=UHIC&xid=410434b1.; AMA. https://www.ama-assn.org/about.

13 Ibid.

14 Cook, Plot Against the Patient, 201; Starr, Social Transformation, 271.

1 “The

22

Starr, Social Transformation, 273.

Jaap Kooijman, “Soon or Later On: Franklin D. Roosevelt and National Health Insurance, 1933-1945.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 29, no. 2 (1999): 33650 (accessed March 25, 2020) www.jstor.org/stable: 345.

17 Stephanie Buck, “Universal Health Care Was Almost Part of the Original Social Security Act of 1935,” Timeline, last modified June 15, 2017 (accessed March 23, 2020), https://timeline.com/social-security-universal-health-careefe875bbda93; Starr, Social Transformation, 269.

18 Karen S. Palmer, “A Brief History: Universal Health Care Efforts in the U.S,” lecture, PNHP Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 1999.

19 Moseley, “U.S. Health Care Non-System.”

20 Cook, Plot Against the Patient, 202, 204.

21 Worldometer, last modified March 2020, http://worldometers.info/ coronavirus/.

22 Angelica LaVito, “Mass Job Cuts across U.S. Threaten to Leave Millions without Health Insurance,” Bloomberg, last modified March 26, 2020, https:// www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/.

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23

Sensuality and Symbolism in the Painting of Gustav Klimt Joshua Paul ’21

Among the many examples of revolutionary artwork at the turn of the twentieth century, that of Gustav Klimt held a prominent place not only for its nontraditional nature but also for the subjects it represented. Klimt was born just outside of Vienna in 1862. At the age of fourteen, he entered the world of art when he began studying at the Vienna School of Decorative Arts. There, for seven years, he trained as an architectural painter and built his early reputation by painting the series “Allegories and Emblems” in buildings along the Ring Strasse in Vienna. His efforts won him the Golden Order of Merit in 1888. Then, the 1890s turned out to be a time of both joy and sadness for Klimt. Four years after he won that prestigious Golden Order award from Emperor Franz Josef I, Klimt’s father and brother died. These tragedies combined, however, with meeting of his life-long romantic partner, Emile Floge, which prompted Klimt to pursue more intimate subject matter in his works.

In 1894, Klimt received a commission to paint the ceiling in the Great Hall at the University of Vienna. There, his paintings offered allegorical messages and were titled “Philosophy,” “Medicine,” and “Jurisprudence.” With these, inspired by the recent events in his life, Klimt decided to go in an unusual direction and decided to feature sexual subject matter. Because in Austria at the time anything related to sex was deemed unsuitable for public viewing, the three paintings ended up being removed from public display.

That jarring rejection of his work led to Klimt’s decision to abandon the traditional art establishment in Vienna. In 1897, he founded the Vienna Secession Movement and its magazine Sacred Spring. This new artistic movement was based on the premise that, as a modernizing city, Vienna should also embrace modern art. The Secessionists did not endorse a single art genre. Instead, the group showcased works from a diverse group of art movements in both its magazines and yearly exhibitions. Five years after founding the Vienna Secession, Klimt painted the Beethoven Frieze—the crowning achievement of his time with the movement. Displayed at the Vienna Secessionist Exhibition in 1902, the work was intended to celebrate the composer

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“Beethoven Frieze,” by Gustav Klimt Beethoven’s life and accomplishments. More broadly, it is a commentary on the quest for happiness in a world of suffering but also a microcosm of both Beethoven’s life and the subject matter of much of his music.1 A few years after the turn of the twentieth century, Klimt began what would be known as his Golden Phase, named in reference to both the quality of his work and the consistent use of gold in his art. Klimt’s works during this era were emblematic of the Art Nouveau age in which boundaries between different genres became significantly less pronounced. The techniques used in his art during the Golden Phase were heavily influenced by Klimt’s visits to Ravenna and Venice. During these trips, Klimt was inspired by Venetian mosaics and the use of gold in Byzantine icons he saw in Ravenna.

“Death and Life,” by Gustav Klimt 25

Two paintings cemented the impact Klimt had on modern art: The Kiss and the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Completed during the Golden Phase, these two masterworks not only reflected characteristics of many different art movements but also showcased his life-long fascination with the concepts of love and sexuality. In 1911, Klimt won the world exhibition for his painting Death and Life.

Sadly, he died of pneumonia seven years later.2 The Kiss, Klimt’s best-known work, was completed between 1907 and 1908. The painting is an oil on canvas with gold leaf. Centrally positioned in the painting is a couple. The

“The Kiss,” by Gustav Klimt

man, full of desire and strength, passionately cranes his neck over his female lover who leans backwards with her hands on the man’s shoulder. Here, Klimt rejects the highly idealized portrayal of the human body. The viewer’s attention is quickly drawn to the geometric patterns on the clothing that almost completely cover the couple’s bodies. The rectilinear patterns covering the male’s body and the floral curvilinear patterns on the female’s clothing accentuate the differences between the two genders. Klimt’s use of geometric patterns throughout the painting illustrates the influence works on his art such as the Justinian Mosaic. Surrounding the female’s head is a series of floral patterns. When combined with the gold leaf, Klimt creates a halo surrounding the woman’s head.

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The Kiss also showcases the long-lasting impact of Klimt’s classical training. The woman’s facial expression when she is receiving the kiss is similar to that of St. Teresa in Bernini’s famous sixteenth-century sculpture. The gold leaf also helps to create contrasts. The bright shades of gold leaf that surround the couple stand out from the darker more worn gold leaf in the background. This technique was prominently used in Byzantine icons. Together, halos and different gold leaf draw the worshipper’s attention to the holy figures in the center of the painting. Klimt’s use of Baroque, Byzantine, and Venetian techniques in The Kiss exemplify a central feature of the Art Nouveau age, combining aspects of different art movements.

Because of the combination of Byzantine, Modern, and Baroque art techniques, as well as the simplicity of the work, there have been many interpretations. Beth Harris, for one, interprets the dark gold leaf in the background as a representation of the cosmos. According to Harris, the couple is passionately in love. That love transcends the burdens of the physical world, allowing the couple enter a deeper spiritual realm. Harris views the gold-influenced by Byzantine icons as Klimt’s attempt to create a modern icon for love.3 Others have offered very different interpretations of both the meaning of the work and its content matter, some even questioning whether the woman was willingly engaging the man. In her book Gustav Klimt, Jane Rogoyska asserts that the body language and positioning of the woman in the painting show that she is trying to avoid being kissed. According to Rogoyska’s interpretation, the woman is in fact leaning away from the man, and is placing her left hand on his cheek to prevent him from kissing her on the lips. Rogoyska, moreover, sees the wreath atop the man’s head as more than a reference to the knight in Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze; rather, it symbolizes a victor who by superior strength stole a kiss.4 Still others believe The Kiss to be a painting that is more personal. M.E. Warlick, for example, sees the work as a representation of Klimt and his longtime partner Emile. He arrives at this interpretation based on the similarity between the clothing worn by the man in the painting and the loose-fitting robe that Klimt often wore in real life. As Warlick notes, Klimt was far from faithful to his partner. Thus, the embrace can be seen as a symbolic rekindling of the Klimt-Floge relationship. Two long-time lovers are depicted as breaking free not only from the bonds of the physical world but also the moral burden of past infidelity, giving their relationship in the painting a deeper spiritual meaning than just the physicality of Klimt’s well-known extramarital affairs.

The Kiss would have been criticized by art traditionalists for its overall inconsistency in form and technique. The blending of Baroque, Venetian, and Byzantine techniques arguably obscured not only the message but also lessened its impact. Some art critics may have been offended by Klimt’s decision to simul27

taneously embrace and stray from classical depictions of the human form. The woman’s face conveys a sense of emotion seen in both the Italian Renaissance and the Baroque. But the work falls short, leaving bodies of both subjects hidden. For some critics, the use of Byzantine techniques that lacked linear perspective and three-dimensionality was a significant step backwards in terms of artistry.

The most controversial aspect of this painting is its subject matter. For centuries it was deemed unacceptable to paint a female portrait with the subject staring right into the viewer’s eyes. This painting committed a far worse sin in the eyes of the public and art critics alike by showing a woman overtly engaging in and, depending on the way the viewer interpreted the painting, enjoying sexual activity. Klimt makes no attempt to hide the theme of sexuality–he puts it on full display. While he rejects the classical depiction of the human body, he purposefully paints the woman lover’s face in great detail to show that in this moment that her enjoyment is so significant that it is a sensual, transcendent experience.

Notes “Biography of Gustav Klimt,” Gustav Klimt—The Complete Works - Biography, The Klimt Gallery, www.klimtgallery.org/biography.html. See also “Mythic Rebirth in Gustav Klimt's Stoclet Frieze: New Considerations of Its Egyptianizing Form and Content,” in Mythic Rebirth in Gustav Klimt's Stoclet Frieze: New Considerations of Its Egyptianizing Form and Content, CAA, 1992, 133–133.

2 “Biography of Gustav Klimt,” Klimt Gallery; “Gustav Klimt,” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2 Feb. 2020, www.britannica.com/ biography/Gustav-Klimt.

3 Beth Harris and Steven Zucker, “Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (Video),” Khan Academy, 21 June 2012, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe -and-americas/modernity-ap/v/gustav-klimt-the-kiss-1907-8.

4 Jane Rogoyska and Patrick Bade, “The Kiss (Detail),” Gustav Klimt, Parkstone International, 2011, 154–154.

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The Westchester County Airport and Its Impact on Suburban Society Katie Keil ’22 The 1940s and 1950s proved to be a time of change for America due to the county’s postwar evolution, which can be attributed to the suburban movement that both resulted from and contributed to the creation of nearby airports.

Located on the border between Connecticut and New York, the Westchester County Airport has been around since the 1940s, becoming a key source of modernization as well as resulting tensions within the surrounding area. While its history is rich with military influences, the airport has become a symbol of the rise of American suburbia and of the transportation revolution that took place in the 1950s, despite being the center of conflicts between the two states.

During its early years, Westchester County Airport served as a key military base for the state of New York during World War II, primarily hosting the Air National Guard. As the war began, the United States needed new aircraft, which led to the rise of the Boeing Corporation as a major aviation manufacturer.

“When World War II erupted, U.S. contracts grew and Boeing became a primary producer for the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF),” notes historian S. M. Pavelec.1 While many of the aircraft produced by Boeing were made for the Army Air Forces, a number were manufactured for the Air National Guard, which had just opened up a base at Westchester County Airport. National Guard units constituted the country's state military forces, often called up at times of civil emergency or natural disaster.2 The main purpose of the Air National Guard’s being stationed in Westchester County was to protect the greater New York area from attack, making the airport solely a military base at the time. Eventually, as the war came to a close, the airport was returned to Westchester County, who had originally owned the property before the army seized it for defense purposes. By 1944, the need for fighter planes to defend New York City had passed, leaving the airport for civilian use.3

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Despite the fact that the airport was now entering the commercial air sector, the National Guard still maintained a heavy presence at the airfield. In 1948, the 137th Fighter Squadron of the New York Air National Guard was given federal honors for its service at the airport. Throughout its time at Westchester County Airport during the war and several years afterward, the unit flew the F -47 “Thunderbolt” pursuit plane and provided many years of loyal service to the nation by performing missions both stateside and overseas.4 Later, in 1951, a number of high-ranking members of the Guard were honored by the mayor of White Plains, Edwin Michaelian, at a ceremony that took place at the airport. In a photo taken at the event, the mayor shakes hands with an admiral, symbolizing the importance of the National Guard in relation to the airport’s creation.5 Although Westchester County Airport was first created to serve in a military role, that role proved instrumental in forging its later identity.

Eventually, however, the airport became a major influence in the rise of the suburban New York City region, primarily due to its continued development in the postwar era combined with the cultural evolution of Westchester. An annual message from County Executive Herbert C. Gerlach to the Board of Supervisors, for the year 1945, described the status of a number of building projects that had taken place in the past year. Those included a small concrete apron and wind toe, along with a hangar—all, together with certain grading and paving costs, amounting in excess of $80,000, provided by the Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation. Additionally, he noted that the Board of Directors had selected a construction company to be put in charge of maintaining the airport: “After study by the Board of Recognition and Contract and the Budget Committee, and on their recommendation,” Gerlach said, “your board authorized an award of the contract to the North American Airport Construction. Under the provision of this contract that corporation assumes responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the field.”6 Several years later, in 1947, Gerlach noted how the airport had undergone even more construction to prepare the facility for commercial air travel, highlighting how transportation was slowly beginning to 30

evolve. In his annual message of that year, he reported, “American Airlines has spent $50,000 for a concrete plane-loading ramp and has almost completed a temporary passenger terminal and other facilities costing approximately $70,000.”7 To further promote the airport’s transition into commercial service, Gerlach further added, “Nonscheduled airline service will start during January, and it is believed scheduled service will begin as soon as the hangar is finished, probably about March 1.”8 By opening up the airport to commercial airline service, Westchester County became a strong representation of how America was slowly changing into a more modern country. Outside of the airport, the county itself symbolized the suburbanization in America, as highlighted by the development of the towns located within its borders. Even so, Westchester had been able to maintain its historical roots while also evolving to fit the new postwar economic world. The book Station Wagon Set, written by Faith Baldwin in 1938, describes Westchester as a slowly evolving society with links between its rich historical past on the one hand and the current era on the other: “There are no cafés, therefore no café society. There are no hotels. But there is an inn that had once been on a stagecoach route, a modest tavern, a diner, drugstore, and a sweet shop. There are fast daily trains for the commuter and an accessible airport for the air-minded.”9 Despite lacking some of the identifying touches of a suburban place, Westchester still gave off the sense that it, too, was changing with the times because of its transportation resources. Possessing not just a railroad connection but also an airport, Westchester was a clear example of how transportation heavily connected to the rise of American suburban living.

Likewise, the transportation revolution of the 1950s led to the Westchester County Airport’s expanding further into the commercial air travel sector, which set the stage for its rapid growth in the contemporary era. After World War II ended, the main aircraft manufacturers shifted towards developing aircraft for commercial flights, which slowly began to expand across the country. “In 1946,” as historian Jim Marshall has observed, “American airplane manufacturers began producing commercial transports, particularly propeller-driven aircraft with four engines, like the Douglas DC-6, the Lockheed Super Constellation, and the Boeing Stratocruiser.” In 1958, the Boeing developed the first American turbojet airplane, the Boeing 707, which proved to be an immediate success because it could carry more passengers and fly at much faster speeds than before. 10 At Westchester, however, the main focus was the expansion of existing facilities to make room for the increase in air traffic. In a photo taken of the airport in 1950, a series of hangars is shown that appear to have been recently constructed, with a truck being used for excavation in the foreground, a sure sign of renovations still taking place.11 In another image taken by the same photographer, an airplane is parked on a tarmac with a number of hangars located behind it.12 These buildings illustrated the many changes meant to make the site more friendly for commer-

31

cial use and further distancing it from its military origins. Eventually, Westchester County Airport expanded over the decades to the point where it would become a modern facility with key resources. In 1990, it featured a new terminal, about four times bigger than the old Quonset hut that stood there before. Along with this decision to expand the size of the airport terminal to 43,000 square feet, the Board of Directors also decided, “The county will seek Federal endorsement of a limit of 240 passengers every half hour at the airport, a level of activity now in place under a county-airlines agreement that will expire in 1995.”13 Later, in 2005, low-cost carriers began offering service to Westchester, further adding to the airport’s route expansions by offering low cost flights to recreational destinations in addition to the major cities.14 As a result, the number of passengers passing through the airport increased dramatically. In a Federal Aviation Administration report for the year 2007, a table forecasting the number of enplaned passengers predicted that the volume of travelers out of Westchester Airport would increase from 599,600 people in 2007 to 652,300 in 2022.15 With this increase in traffic, however, the airspace surrounding the greater New York airports has grown even more crowded, making the job of air traffic controllers more complicated as a result. As one analyst has noted, “Each of the region's smaller airports—White Plains, Teterboro, and Islip, to name but three—produces its own heavy flows of traffic, while passing overhead are flights cruising to and from Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.”16 As the number of airplanes increases due to higher demand, the skies grow more crowded and it becomes much harder for controllers to manage the heavy flow of traffic they are juggling on a daily basis. However, the modernization of American transportation has been able to connect people from around the country with one another, empowering areas such as Westchester County by allowing its citizens to have easier access to commercial air travel.

Westchester County Airport, circa 1990

The airport has also, however, become a source of tension between the suburbs that border it, namely between Westchester County in New York and the town of

Greenwich in Connecticut. The main cause of this trans-state conflict is a large 32

clump of trees located on the eastern end of the airport, just in front of Runway 11/29. As the trees grew, they became a major hazard to pilots landing on this runway because the growth made it more difficult for aircraft to clear them before touching down. Testimony from pilots has maintained that the distance between the treetops and the landing gear of airplanes had so diminished by the 1970s that the pilots began to use a higher, steeper approach than normal. Eventually, the FAA took action by passing a series of measures that emphasized the hazardous nature of these trees. In 1984, the FAA explicitly required the county to issue a warning to Airmen about the trees and advising them to use an angle of descent of nine degrees instead of the usual three. Several years later, in late 1988 or early 1989, the FAA ordered the county to shorten the usable length of runway by approximately 1,350 feet just because of the trees.17As Westchester County claimed, however, “This limitation also has severely curtailed the use of Runway 11/29 because it is now of an insufficient length to permit landings and takeoffs by many types of airplanes.”18 As a result, the County of Westchester filed a lawsuit against the town of Greenwich, arguing that they were not able to cut down these trees themselves because “the property owners are all Connecticut residents and the trees are all located in Connecticut, notwithstanding the fact that WCA is located entirely within New York.” Therefore, New York was unable to take down the trees because they were on the Connecticut side of the border, and the state could not “exercise its powers of eminent domain over property located in another state.”

After reviewing the case, the District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that Westchester County had no legal jurisdiction to force the town of Greenwich to chop down their trees. “Plaintiff's recourse, however, may be to contact the Civil Aeronautics Board or the Secretary of Transportation pursuant to section 1482(a) to request them to force some action by the Commissioner,” the judge declared.

The position of the town of Greenwich was also dismissed due to the fact that Westchester County was willing to take down the trees themselves on their own charge. As the district judge explained, “We simply do not understand the position of the Commissioner and, in turn, the State of Connecticut, in refusing to require the defendants to trim their trees, especially since plaintiff is willing to foot the bill.” Additionally, he accused Greenwich of negligence because of their refusal to remove the trees, despite the fact that they were a blatant hazard to Westchester County Airport. “Connecticut's failure to take any action is a dereliction of its duties and we surely hope that the state is not refusing to act simply because of a desire to encourage the use of its own airports.” As a result, the district judge in charge of the case added, “The common law claims of public nuisance and easement by prescription must stand against these defendants”19 because there was no evidence that the airport was causing a disturbance for the nearby residents. Later, in 1996, this case was taken to the 2nd Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals because the trees had still not been removed.

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When reviewing the case, the judges claimed, “The County must show that: (i) the condition complained of has a natural tendency to create danger and inflict injury upon persons or property, (ii) the danger is a continuing one, (iii) the use of the land is unreasonable or unlawful, and (iv) the existence of the nuisance is the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries and damages.” But since the County was unable to prove this definitively, based on the evidence given during the trial, the court ruled that “Westchester failed to raise a triable issue regarding the reasonableness of appellees’ use of their land.” As a result, the court decided, “This is sufficient to affirm Judge Goettel's grant of summary judgment for appellees, and we need not address the remaining elements of the County's public nuisance claim.”20 While the ruling on this case left the verdict on the trees in a stalemate between Westchester County and Greenwich, it highlighted how the airport became a source of division between two states.

Although Westchester County Airport began as an important military site for the National Guard and served as a key example of the suburbanization movement and transportation revolution of the 1950s, it was also the source of a number of disputes between bordering towns.

At the same time, the suburbanization of the 1950s proceeded apace, as evidenced by the further development of the airport and the surrounding Westchester area. With this came a mid-twentieth century transportation revolution, in which commercial air travel became even more popular, and Westchester County expanded even more towards its current condition. Meanwhile, the relationship between the county and its neighboring towns soured, as highlighted by a series of legal battles between Westchester County and Greenwich. All of this illustrates that the creation of airports such as Westchester County Airport during the 1940s and 1950s led to massive changes in American society, bringing about the rise of modern aviation to the point where it is today.

Notes S. M. Pavelec, “Boeing,” in American History, ABC-CLIO, 2020, accessed May 16, 2020, http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/253654.

2 “National Guard,” in American History, ABC-CLIO, 2020, accessed May 16, 2020, http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/253533.

3 “Westchester County Airport,” About Us, accessed May 16, 2020, airport.westchestergov.com/about-us.

4 “History of the 105th Airlift Wing,” 105th Airlift Wing, accessed May 16, 2020, www.105aw.ang.af.mil/About/History/.

5 Edwin G. Michalein, “Air National Guard,” taken 1951, courtesy of the Westchester County Archives, October 2010, accessed May 16, 2020, https:// collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/pmc/id/17/rec/11.

6 Herbert C. Gerlach, “Annual Message for the Year 1945,” (published January 8, 1945, courtesy of the Westchester County Archives), 5, accessed May 16, 2020, 1

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collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/execspeech/id/400/rec/1, 7 Herbert C. Gerlach, “Annual Message for the Year 1947,” published January 15, 1947 (courtesy of the Westchester County Archives), 4, accessed May 16, 2020, https://collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/execspeech/ id/77/rec/42 8 Ibid, 5.

9 Roger G. Panetta and Kenneth T. Jackson, “Westchester: the American Suburb,” (New York, Fordham University Press: 2006), 386, accessed May 16, 2020, https://www.questiaschool.com/read/123649869/westchester-the-americansuburb 10 Jim Marshall, “Transportation Revolution of the 20th Century,” in American History, ABC-CLIO (2020), accessed May 16, 2020, http://americanhistory.abcclio.com/Search/Display/312726.

11John Gass, “Westchester County Airport,” taken 1950 (courtesy of the Westchester County Archives, 2009), accessed May 16, 2020, https:// collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/pjg/id/1044/rec/5.

12 John Gass, “Westchester County Airport,” taken 1950 (courtesy of the Westchester County Archives, 2009), accessed May 16, 2020, https:// collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/pjg/id/1063/rec/47.

13 James Feron, “Board Backs Air Terminal in Westchester,” in New York Times, September 11, 1990, Gale In Context: U.S. History, accessed May 16, 2020, https:// link.gale.com/apps/doc/A175565556/UHIC? u=s057k&sid=UHIC&xid=c5b36f91.

14 “Westchester County Airport,” About Us, accessed May 16, 2020, airport.westchestergov.com/about-us.

15 Federal Aviation Administration, Congress, United States, “Forecast of Passengers, Operations, and Other Activities for Westchester County Airport,” FAA Regional Air Service Demand Study (2007), accessed May 16, 2020, www.faa.gov/airports/eastern/planning_capacity/media/02-nysdot-task-b-and-d -hpn-final-may-2007.pdf.

16 William Langewiesche, “Slam and jam ... the nation's air-traffic-control system is in fact far less precarious, in terms of safety than people imagine it to be,” The Atlantic (October 1997), 36-90, 92+, Gale OneFile: Military and Intelligence, accessed May 16, 2020, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A30116905/PPMI? u=s057k&sid=PPMI&xid=5711add1.

17 “County of Westchester v. The Convent of the Sacred Heart,” in Findlaw (decided January 20, 1996), accessed May 16, 2020, caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2ndcircuit/1343303.html.

18 “County of Westchester v. Town of Greenwich, Conn., 745 F. Supp. 951 (S.D.N.Y. 1990),” in Justia Law (decided September 10, 1990), accessed May 16, 2020, law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/745/951/1612595/.

19 Ibid.

20 “County of Westchester v. The Convent of the Sacred Heart,” in Findlaw (decided January 20, 1996), accessed May 16, 2020, caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2ndcircuit/1343303.html.

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The Early History of the New York & New Haven Railroad Lucas Pombo ’22 Before the construction of the New York and New Haven, the stretch of land between The Bronx and New Haven, through South Connecticut, was considered impassible for railroads because of the frequent hills and the rivers feeding into Long Island Sound and in need of bridging.1 In order to get from New York to Boston, the quickest mode of transportation was by Steamship to New Haven, before transferring onto a train to Boston. Investors had been so certain that no railroad could connect the North Shore of the Long Island Sound that they financed the LIRR—the Long Island Railroad—in 1834, which transported passengers out to Greenport, where they could switch to a ferry across the Sound before boarding a train to Boston, thus shortening the journey by several hours. When the New York and New Haven was built, in 1849, the most immediate impact it had was to render the Long Island Railroad less important in the transportation system between New York and Boston.2 When builders completed the New York and New Haven line, the railroad had some difficult terrain to pass through. The railroad, although consisting only of a one single track for a mere fifty miles, required $2,500,000 to build, with the stock issued for purchase in 1846—some $80 billion in today’s dollars.

Even then, the railroad needed to recapitalize, issuing another $500,000 worth in 1851, for construction of a second track.3 Because of the nature of the terrain it had to cross, the cost of New York and New Haven was unavoidably going to be much higher than other railroads of the time. Because of the extensive capital it raised, however, the railroad would be able to fund improvements, buy new cars, and expand its services to meet demands. It would have to do all of those things to stay afloat, as the fixed costs it faced were soon going to get much bigger.

Within the first few years of the railroad’s construction, cost of laying track began to soar. From the outset, the New York and New Haven was committed to bringing its trains into New York City, to Grand Central Station. This meant renting track rights from the New York and Harlem Railroad (a very early component of the New York Central Railroad), because building the extra track from Woodlawn to the middle of Manhattan was both expensive and viewed as unnecessary.4 The two railroads struck a deal in 1849, which gave New York and New Haven trains the right to use New York and Harlem track in perpetuity.

The New York and Harlem, built at a cost of $2,200,000, had already finished that part of the route.5 The New York and Harlem’s costs had ballooned because it had to negotiate with urban real estate prices. Even so, the rent alone collected

36

from the deal with the New York and New Haven compensated the New York and Harlem for much of its building cost. By 1908, the New York and New Haven’s right to use the track, not even exclusively, was valued at $798,076.6 This figure denoted an astronomical increase in the value of track rights between 1849 and 1908, especially considering that inflation before the First World War was less than in the later twentieth century.

Even though the increase did not occur all at once, it became very clear to the New York and New Haven that if they were to cover their track costs, intercity passenger service alone was not going to be adequate.

Before the coming of the railroad, the Fairchester region—that is, Westchester and Fairfield Counties—was mostly an area of subsistence (as opposed to commercial) farming. However, the railroad brought significant change to its population and economic life. The original rail service was too slow to make modern regular commuting to and from New York City an option; yet the railroad did change farmers’ shipping options and, therefore, their production. It opened larger local markets like Norwalk and Bridgeport, as well as the river ports of New Haven and, of course, New York City, which carried to markets orders of a magnitude larger than anything farmers had imagined before. Many producers pivoted to milk production by the late 1850s and early 1860s. Milk was a expensive commodity at the time, because it was difficult and heavy to transport, and it needed to be consumed before it spoiled, which did not take long in the days before refrigeration. But the railroad made new things possible, with daily freight runs that allowed farmers to milk their cows and then send their product off to New York on the same day.7 In addition to carrying milk, the New York and New Haven Railroad was built to transport passengers through Fairfield and Westchester to larger cities, especially New York and New Haven. That is to say, the company also depended on passengers for a significant degree of its revenue. To illustrate this dependence, by 1874, the railroad owned 171 passenger cars.8 Originally, the railroad only ran passenger trains intended for intercity service, as the passenger division of the railroad was intended to serve the intercity market and capture a slice of the trip from New York to Boston. However, the management of the New York and New Haven railroad soon realized that there was much more travel potential at their hands than just being the first leg from New York to Boston. In 1854, the New York and New Haven began to schedule more frequent trains, and brought new, more closely spaced stations into the schedule, bringing the first Metro-North timetable into existence. Still, the trains were far too slow to make commuter service thinkable yet, as the timetable shows that a train would have taken between two to two-and-a-half hours to go from the New York-Connecticut border to New York City, compared to the forty minutes it takes today.9 Still, two and a half hours was much better than the previous halfday by steamship. Thus the New York and New Haven Railroad brought an economic revolution to the areas it served. For farmers, it made a trip to New York or New Haven to purchase equipment or find creditors far more feasible.

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After the Civil War, advances in locomotive technology slowly made the railroad faster, and the travel time between New York and various Fairchester towns began to drop. As a result, the greater connectivity to New York City allowed for more people to come and live in Westchester and Fairfield Counties.

Historical census records show that in 1850, there were 59,775 people living in Fairfield County.10 The population climbed rapidly as rail access connected the county to other cities, reaching 150,081 in 1890 and 184,203 by 1900.11 Bridgeport, a city served by the New York and New Haven railroad,12 saw incredible growth from 7,560 people in 185013 all the way to 48,866 by 1890 and 70,966 by 1900.14 This growth certainly would not have been possible before the New York and New Haven serviced the region. While many towns grew for independent reasons, this period also saw trains get fast enough to make regular commuter service viable from southern Westchester. The Industrial Home Association No. 1, created by John Stevens in 1850, can be used as an early example of railroad-oriented housing development. It was located in what is now Mount Vernon, a town at the junction of the New York & Harlem and the New York & New Haven railroads, and serviced by both railroads. While its residents did not commute to New York City, the development became a model for the urbanization of southern Westchester, with town growth fueled by proximity to New York City and dependent on railroads. It turned out to be representative of other commuter towns that would emerge as locomotives got faster and travel times dropped further.15

This new urbanization, created by railroads, proved to be the most positive consequence of the New York and New Haven railroad. Railroads would fuel more regional development, which in turn fueled more demand for freight and passenger travel in Fairchester—all specifically served by the New York and New Haven. The new traffic demand would fuel further capital investments by the railroad: new locomotives, more train cars, and more track capacity. Even though the railroad had just opened in 1848, its second track was completed in 1853,16 remarkably early compared to other routes. Industry publications show that between 1865 and 1871, the number of locomotives owned by the New York and New Haven increased from 57 to 70, and the number of train cars to 1188.17 The New York and New Haven merged with the New Haven & Hartford in 1872, and the supply of rolling stock continued to climb within the combined company.

The merger with the New Haven & Hartford railroad created a combined New York, New Haven & Hartford (known for a time as simply “The Consolidated”), and the history of that railroad could probably fill a whole book.

However, the development trends of the mainline between New Haven and Woodlawn is still worth examining in brief, just to appreciate the scale of development in Fairchester and the railroad had on it. Fairfield’s population grew by 22 per cent between 1890 and 1900 alone,18 Westchester’s advanced by 26 per cent,19 and there were other independent cities, like Poughkeepsie, that benefitted simply by being on the New York Central line.

By the 1890s, the two-track corridor was no longer adequate. Work began on expanding to four-tracks, nearly unheard of then and fairly rare now even now. That work was 38

completed by 1905.20 In time, even four tracks proved insufficient, and the route changed to electrified service during the period from 1907 to 1915.21 Electrification lowered operating costs while improving acceleration. It was also so expensive, however, that the only other railroads in America until that point using electric power were the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore & Ohio railroad.22

Northbound commuter train approaching Norton, Connecticut, circa 1905 (notice the four tracks)

Southbound commuter passing through Pelham on electrified line, circa 1907

In the end, the New York & New Haven railroad can, with confidence, be identified as the biggest driver of development along the North Shore of the Long Island Sound. Along the way, it would create new towns, urbanizing onceremote parts of Westchester and Fairfield counties. In addition, that development from 1848 fueled railroad traffic which would launch the once-tiny railroad

39

into an enormous corporation. It was, and still is, an integral part of our transportation network, and it sustains the commuter towns and fringe cities that are now key parts of Westchester and Fairfield Counties.

Notes P. Anderson, Map exhibiting the experimental and located lines for the New-York and New-Haven Rail-Road. (New York, Snyder & Black Lithogrs, 1845). Map, <https://www.loc.gov/item/gm70002860/ .

2 Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), “The Route of the Dashing Commuter,” AmericanRails.com, no date, <https://www.american-rails.com/lirr.html> (May 25, 2020).

3 Michael Mahler, “Robert Schuyler’s 1853–4 Stock Fraud on the New York and New Haven Rail Road: the Paper Trail,” The American Revenue Association, 25 July 2009, <https://www.revenuer.org/mahler/SchuylerForWeb7-25-09.pdf> (May 25, 2020); Philip C. Blakeslee, “A Brief History Lines West: of The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co.,” Catskill Archive, no date, copy of essay written April 1953, <http://catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abnere2.Html> (May 25, 2020).

4 Peter E. Lynch, New Haven Passenger Trains (St. Paul, 2005), 11.

5 Slason Thompson, Cost Capitalization and Estimated Value of American Railways: An Analysis of Current Fallacies (Chicago, 1908), 135.

6 Thompson, 135.

7 “History 1783-1865: The Pastoral Life,” Westchestergov.com, no date, <https://www.westchestergov.com/1783-1865> (May 25, 2020).

8 Richard V Poor, Manual of the Railroads of the United States for 1875/1876 (New York, 1876) 105.

9 New York and New Haven Railroad Timetable, No. 1, 6 November 1854, Railroad Schedule. <https://www.antipodean.com/pages/books/18930/new-haven-linemetro-north-railroad/new-york-and-new-haven-railroad-time-table-no-1-nov-61854.

10 US Census Department, Census of 1850, (Washington, DC, 1850), 78.

11 US Census Department, Census of 1910, (Washington, DC, 1910), 58.

12 New York and New Haven Railroad Timetable, No. 1, 6 November 1854.

13 US Census Department, Census of 1850, (Washington, DC: GPO, 1850), 78.

14 US Census Department, Census of 1910, (Washington, DC: GPO, 1910), 58.

15 Mary McAleer Vizard, “If You're Thinking of Living in: Fleetwood,” New York Times, 3 November 1991, Sec. 10; “History 1783-1865: The Pastoral Life.”

16 Blakeslee, “A Brief History Lines West: of The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co.” 17 Poor, 105.

18 US Census Department, Census of 1910, (Washington, DC: GPO, 1910), 58.

19 Ibid., 359.

20 Lynch, 14.

21 Lynch, 14.

22 “Long Island Rail Road (LIRR): “The Route of the Dashing Commuter.”

1

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Ka Ling Lamb: A Case Study in How to Take a Risk John Lin ’22 Ka Ling Lamb, affectionately known as Atah, was born in 1926 and raised in a village outside of the city of Wenzhou, in the Chinese province of Zhejiang. Wenzhou sits at the mouth of the Ou River, roughly in the middle of the 18,000 km long coast of China. As a result of its location, Wenzhou is also within the intersecting economic regions of the Yangzte River and Pearl River Deltas, making it a hub of trade and economic activity. In addition, the city is geographically isolated from mainland China due to its being within the mountainous southern regions of Zhejiang. Commissioned as a trade port during the Song dynasty, Wenzhou quickly became one of the largest economic centers of China because of its fortuitous geographical setting. It quickly became known as a “city of merchants,” as trading relationships transformed the economy. Even so, China’s adoption of an isolationist policy in the later Ming dynasty drastically reduced its foreign trade, thereby for a long-time turning Wenzhou into a minor domestic trade port. In 1876, after dynasties of isolationism, Wenzhou reopened to foreign trade, partially returning to its influential role in the Chinese economy during the Sino-Japanese War, when it became one of the only ports still within Chinese control.1 Finally in 1955, under the newly installed Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Wenzhou began to fully recover from centuries of domestic restriction and war, quickly becoming one of the most important and economically prosperous ports in all of China.

Wenzhou heavily relied on maritime trade to prosper in part because of the lack of fertile land to expand its agricultural sector.2 As a result of those circumstances, the Wenzhounese are nationally recognized in China as hardworking and highly skilled at doing business, as evidenced by the recent emergence of Wenzhounese self-made millionaires. Given their highly isolated location and tumultuous past, the Wenzhounese have therefore learned to take risks and try to capitalize on any given chance in order to become more financially successful.3 This brings us to Atah’s story—and to his character as a hardworking, businesssavvy, and adaptive man who never shrank from taking any risk to help better himself and his family. As he reports, “I lived in a little house in the woods next to the sea which was built by my father. I only received around two years of proper education, and when I was sixteen, I started doing business in salt. I had to support my family. After all, I had to provide for my seven siblings and parents.”4 Atah quickly took on the duty of providing for his family and would continue to provide for them in the decades to come.

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Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, China was without a permanent ruler, falling under constant and devastating internal strife, eventually ending with the installment of the CCP. By the turn of the twentieth century, China had been utterly defeated and humiliated by European and Japanese powers. In the late-nineteenth century, China had been defeated in the Sino-Japanese War and in the failed Boxer Rebellion. In the early 1900s, it was still divided by European spheres of influence, and by 1911, domestic revolution successfully overthrew the Qing Dynasty and installed the Chinese nationalist Republic of China.5 Due to rampant corruption in the nationalist government, however, the Communist Party rose by appealing to the “common man” and promising better living conditions for all.6 The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War as a part of World War II, from 1937-1945, only served to increase the popularity of the Communist Party as the nationalists proved ineffective at repelling the Japanese invasion and by allowing the Japanese to commit terrible atrocities.7 Those Japanese atrocities scarred the rest of the people’s memory for a very long time.

The war even came to affect Atah, who was still living in isolated Wenzhou. In an interview, he stated, “I was only eighteen when the Japanese invaded China.

They passed our village onto Wenzhou.”8 The Japanese committed terrible atrocities that were known by all the people, he continued. He told of how the Japanese soldiers victimized civilians, how they would play a game of guessing the gender of unborn children and then proceed to cut open the pregnant woman’s belly with their bayonets to see who guessed correctly. Many people now forget that the Japanese military in those days was so unethical and monstrous, perhaps even more so than Hitler and the Nazis. Moreover, they truly hated the Chinese.

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That Atah could live with such experiences burned into his memory is amazing in itself and a testament to his bravery.9

Japanese soldiers committing atrocities in China

In 1949, the Communist Revolution brought the CCP into power and the Nationalist Chinese fled to the nearby island of Taiwan.10 In Wenzhou, meanwhile, trade had ground to a halt, putting nearly everyone into a state of famine (due to the lack of fertile land), unemployment, and fear. Atah by now had married Chun Mei Lamb (called Abu in the family) and was expecting a child by the end of 1949. With the nation still racked by poverty and famine, Atah took the monumental risk of moving to Hong Kong in 1949, away from his pregnant wife, hoping to earn more money to support his family and escape the clutches of communism, as his own business had been shut down under CCP policy.

Hong Kong, leased to the British in 1898, served as a port city but was industrializing quickly and prospering greatly under British rule. Thus, it attracted thousands of Chinese to flock to the city in search of an escape from decades of corrupt rule by one Chinese government or another.11 Atah was one of these people and came to the famed city at the risk of losing his wife, new born child, and home. Upon arriving in Hong Kong, he was presented right away with a host of challenges to overcome. First was the language barrier. In Hong Kong, only Mandarin, Cantonese, and English was spoken. Atah only knew his local dialect (Wenzhounese) and had to navigate the city for a job and residence without being able to communicate very well. As his grandson, John S. Lin, puts it, “They basically said to him, ‘What good are you?’ because he [Atah] could not speak the language. Yet, despite being on the brink of failure, Atah somehow found a way 43

to survive.” After much searching, Atah finally found a job as a cook and eventually the chief steward on a ship sailing in the South China Sea. It was here that Atah’s resourcefulness and adaptive nature helped him survive. According to Lin, “Atah would pick up the scraps from the kitchen that were not used in the dish and he would take them home with him. . . . This was pretty normal with the crew because they would bring the scraps home to feed their families. Atah would sell the scraps for extra money.”12 On the ship, Atah would practice and hone many of the skills he was known for in the family. He would learn to cook all different types of food, from Italian to Chinese to American food. In addition, he began to learn English and Mandarin so he could communicate with passengers and locals alike. For 20 years, Atah worked on the ship preparing meals, and then, after being promoted to assistant steward, tending to guests, and making friends with the passengers. Eventually, Atah would lose his job as the company that owned the ship went out of business. However, due to his hard work and excellent status, he was able to find another job on a larger ship as chief steward.

In an interview, Atah said, “I had to keep logs everyday and report to the ship’s captain. I was well known on the ship for my hard work and the captain even wrote me a letter of recommendation for me! He said that if anyone troubled me, he would fire them immediately. That’s how well respected I was.”13 Atah’s new ship followed a trans-Pacific route with stops in Japan and Seattle. Along the way, Atah continued to make friends with his guests. One of Atah’s friends was a lawyer from Seattle who rode the ship frequently. After serving him for many years and becoming friends, the lawyer offered Atah a chance to come to America. Atah accepted and resumed his journey, this time in pursuit of the American dream.

In 1976, after living in the United States (specifically Seattle) for less than a year, Atah decided to move to New York City in search of more opportunities in a significantly larger city with a large Asian community. That led him into the South Bronx, a particularly dangerous neighborhood and full of gang violence, with his wife and two youngest daughters. Seven years later, on March 15, 1983, Atah’s oldest son and oldest daughters would come to New York City with their own families. Even though Atah was by than in his late-fifties, he and his wife continued to work in order to provide for his sons, daughters, and grandchildren.

Atah found work as a butler and learned to cook different foods which he taught to his children. John S. Lin remembered, “When I was still in school, I remember that I would walk home from school each day and stop by Atah’s house to eat. I loved hanging out at their place.”14 Atah’s children all continued to work hard, using Atah’s experiences and wisdom to influence and guide them. He eventually retired in 1991, having accomplished his goal of providing his family with the resources they needed to succeed.15 Atah’s journey was finally over, and he was free to enjoy his family, now expanded to four generations by 2004. Now that the whole family was in New York, Atah began to hold holiday family gatherings, which soon became a time of reunion and happiness. He devoted his final years

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to spending time with his family and travelling the world.

Sadly, in the summer of 2018, Atah passed away one week before his 93rd birthday. The reason listed was complications arising from old age.

In retrospect, Atah was the backbone of the family. He was everything to them. He had brought the family to America, served as the family role model, and acted as the “glue” keeping the family together both in his early and later years. Through a combination of his experiences, model character, and his neverending support for his family, those around him were able to thrive and develop into successful and loving family members. As John S. Lin puts it, “Atah was a male role model. Atah was a risk taker. He liked change and trying new things. So when I take a big risk in business, the difference between Yeye (John’s father, Ai Dao Lin) and Atah is that, Yeye will say, ‘Be careful, be careful,’ but Atah will say ‘Go for it.’”16 Atah was the safety net of the family. Even though Yeye might have been more cautious, Atah would always be there to help any family member back up onto his or her feet. Atah was special because he was unlike many immigrants from Asia. Because of his upbringing and the culture in Wenzhou, his childhood home, risk taking was fully ingrained in Atah’s character. He wanted to create conditions in which his children and grandchildren could thrive and learn to take risks without fear of failing. He succeeded, and in doing so became the role model to live by, influencing how his children and grandchildren would teach and support their own children.

Lastly, Atah was the glue holding the family together. In China, Atah provided for all of the family. Coming to the United States, the first thing that Atah did was to register the immigration papers for the rest of the family still in China. When the entire family came to the United States, Atah made sure that they always came to his house for family reunion and celebration during the holidays. Atah’s family role is particularly apparent with his recent death. The family no longer has large family meetings as it did under him. Cracks and holes have since separated the family. In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis states, “In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out.

By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I need other lights than my own to show all my facets.”17 When asked what Atah meant to him, John S. Lin echoes Lewis’s point, “We lose so much more than just one person. We lose a piece of everyone else that only he [Atah] could draw out or influence.”18 Notes 1The

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Wenzhou,” accessed April 7, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/place/Wenzhou.

2Ibid.

3John S. Lin (Grandson of Atah), May 23, 2020.

4Ka Ling Lamb (Atah), October 9, 2016.

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https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/chinese-rev, accessed May 24, 2020.

5

6“Internal

Strife in China,” Facing History and Ourselves, accessed May 24, 2020. https://www.facinghistory.org/nanjing-atrocities/nation-building/internal-strifechina.

7John 8Ka

S. Lin, May 23, 2020.

Ling Lamb, October 9, 2016.

9John

S. Lin, May 23, 2020.

10The

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Second Sino-Japanese War,” accessed March 14, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-SinoJapanese-War. 11Ka

Ling Lamb, October 9, 2016; Kallie Szczepanski, “Why Did Hong Kong Belong to Britain?” accessed, February 10, 2020, https://www.thoughtco.com/ china-lease-hong-kong-to-britain-195153.

12John 13Ka

Ling Lamb, October 9, 2016.

14John 15Ai

S. Lin, May 23, 2020.

S. Lin, May 23, 2020.

Dao Lin (Son of Atah), May 24, 2020.

16John

S. Lin, May 23, 2020.

17“The

Four Loves, Quotes by C.S. Lewis,” Accessed May 25, 2020, https:// www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/14816053-the-four-loves.

18John

S. Lin, May 23, 2020.

46

A Subdivision of Economic Classes: An Analysis of the Great Recession of 2008 Sebastian Tchkotoua ’22 The Great Recession was a period of economic downturn beginning in 2008. The rapid deterioration of the U.S. housing market and the resulting stock market crash led to a period of decline not only in the United States but internationally. It had different lasting effects on the American class structure. By combining background research with interviews of people from different social backgrounds, the goal of this study was to explore ways that the Great Recession personally affected Americans of varying financial levels. The results suggested that although the economic decline caused complications of one kind or another for everybody, the nature of the recession may have produced the most lasting negative impact for people of the middle class.

To begin, it is important to understand the overall causes and effects of the recession. Primary causes included an absence of financial regulation, excessive borrowing by consumers and corporations, and the fall of mortgage-backed securities that had been based on subprime mortgages. In the period leading up to the stock market crash of 2008, the United States had come to rely on what might be called a “shadow banking system.” Investment banks, hedge funds, private equity firms, and other non-depository banking systems had not been subject to the same regulations as large depository banks.1 The lack of regulation on the monetary lending of these financial groups largely contributed to the credit crisis and created an insecurity surrounding their investments. This led to the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the widespread decline of similar financial organizations, causing a ripple effect throughout the economy.2 Another trigger of economic downturn was the excessive borrowing by consumers and corporations prior to the collapse. Interest rates on mortgages and loans (the price of borrowing) stood relatively low in the early 2000s. Banks and other financial lenders consistently marketed loans towards consumers and other corporations. As the market began to decline, borrowers increasingly could not pay back the debt accrued from these loans. This problem snowballed and eventually caused large corporations and individual Americans alike to lose credit and capital.3 Another primary cause of the recession was the housing mortgage crisis. As the U.S. housing market steadily increased before 2008, large banks focused on marketing and selling low-interest mortgages across the country. The loans were easily accessible, and many banks readily sold risky subprime mortgages to people with poor credit. In order to further capitalize on this increase

47

in lending, banks then bundled together their dubious mortgages and sold them as securities. As many of the mortgages in the securities were the subprime type (sold at higher interest rates to borrowers with low credit scores), the value of the investments declined drastically as the housing market crashed. Not only could people who purchased such mortgages not afford to pay them back, but the corporations who purchased such securities began to lose large chunks of their assets.4 The resulting mortgage crisis, combined with excessive borrowing and a lack of financial regulations, all contributed to the stock market collapse and the subsequent recession as a whole.

During the Great Recession, the U.S. government implemented recovery programs to mitigate the economic damage. President George W. Bush signed the first stimulus act into law in February 2008. That law reduced taxes, increased the federal loan limits, and provided returns to American taxpayers.

Despite this initial step, however, the nation’s economy continued to

President George W. Bush, 2001-2009 decline. Large financial corporations including Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapsed, and the Federal Reserve (FED) took a larger role in recovery, beginning with its bailout of the investment company AIG, and continuing when President Bush approved the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).5 That program provided $700 billion to support struggling companies and re-energize the U.S. economy. Although the lowest point in the stock market slide had passed, 48

many economic problems continued into Barack Obama’s presidency, which began at his inauguration in January 2009. President Obama quickly signed a second stimulus package, which provided tax cuts and approved federal spending on public infrastructure. In 2010, the Dodd- Frank Act gave the federal government power to control failing financial institutions and protected against predatory lending.6 Ultimately, the legislation put forward by Congress and signed by presidents Bush and Obama helped facilitate the recovery of the United States economy.

President Barack Obama, 2009-2017

While the crash and recovery of the U.S. economy during the Great Recession affected people of varying economic backgrounds—low and high—in different ways, the effects of the market crash may well have hit hardest for those in the middle. What follows is a series of impressionistic examples.

We begin with the case of Patricia Tavara, who identifies economically as a member of the lower class. Ms. Tavara was born and raised in Peru and immigrated to the United States when she was eighteen years old. After working as a nanny for a family in Stamford from 1990 to 1993, she received degrees in management and child development from Norwalk Community College. At the time of the recession, she was working in the childcare industry as a preschool teacher.

Despite the panic that occurred around her, Ms. Tavara stated that the year 2008 was a time of personal prosperity. She did not lose her job as a result of the market crash, and that was the year when she was eligible for social security. She did not own a home or invest in stocks, making her also not directly affected by those factors. She stated that she “did not know many low-income earners that were deeply troubled by the crisis because they could not afford to buy homes or 49

invest in the stock market.”7 Although her case, of course, does not necessarily represent all low-income Americans, it suggests that there were some important aspects of the crisis that did not significantly affect people of lower economic classes.

Then, by contrast, we have the experience Casey and Tom Tolar who are members of the retired middle class. The Tolars were born and raised in the United States as children of parents who lived through the Great Depression of 1929-1940. After living and working overseas for the majority of their careers, the couple moved back to New York City. At the time of the recession, the Tolars were both retired and living in an apartment in the city. Ms. Tolar described “a feeling of unmitigated anger at the situation.”8 After spending the majority of her life working and saving for retirement, the idea that it could be taken away in an instant was infuriating. Similarly, Mr. Tolar described the “terrifying and frightening realization that they could lose their savings and pension in a matter of days.”9 Their investment portfolio fell by over thirty percent, and they were forced to change their way of life. Because the middle class can afford to buy mortgages and purchase investment portfolios, they were affected all the more by the major difficulties of the 2008 economic crisis.

Similar things happened to Shannon Tchkotoua, who is also member of the middle class. She was raised in London and went to university in the United States. She moved to New York City after her graduation and began working for various publishing companies. At the time of the recession, Ms. Tchkotoua was commuting to the city on a daily basis and had many friends who worked in finance. She stated that the period made her feel “as if the rug was pulled out from under [her].”10 She moved the majority of her savings away from the stock market and into bonds before the worst part of the economic collapse. Although she avoided losing all of her savings, many people around her suffered greatly as a result of the collapse. Ms. Tchkotoua described how many of her friends lost their jobs and were forced to move or default on their mortgages. Her experience further represents the impact the Great Recession had on many middle-class Americans. The largest percentage of mortgages were held by people like Ms. Tchkotoua, many of whom worked to build up retirement savings. With the combined barrage of the mortgage crisis and stock market collapse, the economic middle class seems to have felt the worst lasting impact of the recession.

Finally, there is Hugh Kelly, who describes himself as a member of the upper economic class. Mr. Kelly was raised in Boston and moved to New York City following his graduation from Bowdoin College. Working primarily in commercial real estate, he had knowledge of the mortgage market and connections to large financial institutions. Mr. Kelly described “a growing concern of the crisis” and “wondered if he would have enough savings to support his family.”11 But after the initial frenzy of losses, he was amazed that the United States could find solutions to recover the economy so quickly. The financial resources of the government allowed companies that were on the brink of collapse to recover and 50

prosper within the next decade. His experience indicates how many higher-level investors were able to recover with their companies in the wake of the recession, the majority of the middle class faced a harder time regaining their lost resources.

High income Americans have more opportunities to diversify their investments and adapt to the economic climate of the United States, whatever it may be. Although unemployment and loss of assets affected all U.S. economic classes, the middle class was not able to recover as quickly or successfully as others.

So, the admittedly limited and impressionistic evidence offered here points to the possibility that the Great Recession—especially the mortgage crisis and the stock market collapse—most deeply devastated the savings and livelihood of middle America. Subprime mortgages, predatory lending, and the insufficiency of government financial regulation allowed most for the exploitation and decline of that group perhaps more than others. Despite these challenges, the United States was able to restore its national economy while still upholding the values of the Constitution. The good news, at least, of this bleak period of American economic history is that it finally exemplified that national determination and the resilience of the American people can still overcome the most difficult challenges.

Notes The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States (New York, 2011).

2 Laurence M. Ball, The Fed and Lehman Brothers: Setting the Record Straight on a Financial Disaster (Cambridge, 2018).

3 Justin Pritchard, “What Caused the Mortgage Crisis?” The Balance, accessed February 04, 2019, https://www.thebalance.com/mortgage-crisis-overview315684.

4 J. Adam Tooze, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World (New York, 2018).

5 History.com Editors, “Great Recession,” History.com, accessed December 04, 2017, https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/recession.

6 Will Kenton, “The Great Recession,” Investopedia, accessed March 12, 2019, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/great-recession.asp.

7 Patricia Tavara, interviewed by Sebastian Tchkotoua, May 2019.

8 Casey Tolar, interviewed by Sebastian Tchkotoua, May 2019.

9 Tom Tolar, interviewed by Sebastian Tchkotoua, May 2019.

10 Shannon Tchkotoua, interviewed by Sebastian Tchkotoua, May 2019.

11 Hugh Kelly, interviewed by Sebastian Tchkotoua, May 2019.

1

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The Strength of Spring Fragrance: A Short Biography of Yeung Chun Fong Natalie Shell ’22

Yeung Chun Fong

In Chinese culture, all names have meanings. Usually, people’s names reflect their parents hopes and goals for them. Traditionally, boys’ names have meanings like “bringing glory to the family,” “virtuous and wealthy,” “great scholar,” and even “forever patriotic.” Girls’ names, on the other hand, tend to focus on girls’ physical characteristics and personality, rather than potential achievements. Such names include “beautiful and dainty” and “kind and agreeable.” In other words, boys’ names are promises of the future, full of parents’ hope, while girls’ names usually refer to some variation of “modest behavior and pleasant appearance.” This particular biography is about a girl named Yeung Chun Fong (阳春芳), meaning “spring fragrance.” Her name implies a sweet, delicate, easygoing, and compliant girl, yet she was anything but that. Despite being born into a poor and uneducated family in a remote inland Chinese village, Chun Fong was able to overcome her family’s expectations of her, live through the Chinese cultural revolution, and ultimately assimilate into a new region with a different language and culture through her own courage, strength, hard work, and determination.

Chun Fong was born either in 1940 or 1941 in the Hunan province of China. She was the third of ten children, four of whom died in infancy, and her parents paid little attention to her. In fact, her parents never even bothered to record her birthday or even the year of her birth. Since she was born into a rural village 52

that never had any kind of birth registration, her exact birthday is unknown to this day.1 It is known, however, that she was born during the Second SinoJapanese War (World War II), while Japanese soldiers were occupying China.

During this time, Japanese soldiers beheaded, disemboweled, and murdered millions of Chinese.2 Many of those who survived lived in abject poverty, victims of heavy malnutrition. Among those was Chun Fong. Some of the hardships she endured during that time included having her house bombed, living off moldy sweet potatoes for weeks at a time, and relying on oil lamps for lack of electricity.

It was also a common practice for women to put black soot over their faces so the Japanese soldiers would not find them attractive and rape them.3 One of Chun Fong’s most vivid memories, however, is when she found what appeared to be a white container on the road side and brought it home. She later discovered that the “container” was actually a human skull.4 As a girl, Chun Fong was also particularly disadvantaged. The societal expectations for her (and other girls) included learning domestic skills like sewing, gardening, and cooking in the hope of marrying a good husband one day.

Once married, a girl would be considered the property of her husband’s family.5 As such, there is a famous Chinese saying: “A married daughter is like water that has been thrown out; you cannot take it back and it is utterly useless.”6 But Chun Fong was not like other girls. She liked learning, reading, and science. After creating a small piece of soap in chemistry class, something that seemed extremely extravagant and luxurious to her, she decided that she wanted to pursue chemistry one day.7 Her brother, Yeung Yun Pu, recounts Chun Fong telling him years ago that she wanted to “study hard and achieve great things using [her] own skills.” She also wanted to spend half her life traveling through China and the other half traveling the world.8 To those around Chun Fong, living in abject poverty during World War II, exploring other places in China already seemed like an impossible dream, let alone traveling the world.

To say the least, pursuing her goals was not always easy for Chun Fong.

She encountered many difficulties when trying to get an education. As the oldest daughter of her family, she was assigned all of the chores around the house (unlike her brothers, who were encouraged to spend their free time learning). She even had to carry her younger sister to school during the rainy seasons, as she was the only sister with a pair of rain boots, so she carried her little sister to prevent her feet from getting wet, a thirty-minute journey each way. Her younger sister later dropped out of middle school, making the trek to school slightly easier for Chun Fong. Her brother, who was three years older, repeated a few grades and was eventually in the same class as hers. As the oldest son of the family, he was granted special treatment, and his parents forced Chun Fong (the most academically curious child) to “help him out,” meaning to complete his schoolwork for him so that he could spend time with friends instead.9 Predictably, this proved to be of no avail, as her eldest brother dropped out after middle school and ultimately joined the Communist military.

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By the time Chun Fong was around four years old, the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending World War II. But this did not make her life any less chaotic, as the war with Japan was immediately replaced by a Chinese civil war between the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai Shek on the one side, and the Communists led by Mao Zedong on the other. By 1949, when Chun Fong was about 8 years old, the Communists had won. Initially, life under Communist rule was very similar to what it was before. In theory, all were equal, but in reality, little had changed for Chun Fong. Her family’s elders were still firmly against her education. In fact, her grandmother once even tried to drag her out of school on opening day.

Schools required a small amount of annual entrance fee, and Chun Fong’s family did not have enough money to pay for multiple kids’ educations, so the older sons of the family were prioritized over Chun Fong. In response to that, she angrily told the elders that “men and women are equal,” claiming that she would even support her family one day.10 Though her family was completely unmoved, one of her teachers admired her curiosity and determination, and paid the fifty fen11 per semester fee for her, allowing her to stay in school. This act of unexpected generosity later inspired Chun Fong to become a teacher herself.

The greatest challenge for Chun Fong to overcome, however, was her family’s expectations of her. Despite the ongoing pressure for her to quit school and conform to the expectations of a more perfect daughter, Chun Fong persevered. By the time she entered middle school, the Communist Party granted her a scholarship at the Changsha Girls’ Boarding School, an incredible opportunity.12 Finally, she was able to leave home and be excused from doing her brothers’ chores and schoolwork, and within a month demonstrated her true potential, achieving fluency in the local Changsha dialect and earning excellent academic results all around.

Although the Communist Party is frequently and rightly characterized for its corruption and brutality, its ideology of creating a break with China’s feudal past and promoting equal rights for girls and women ultimately gave Chun Fong the opportunity to continue her education. While Communist dictator Mao Zedong probably brought more death and destruction to China than any other Chinese ruler in history, his proclamation that “women hold up half the sky” proved a great service to Chinese society.13 In 1954, this idea was enshrined in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China. And although that government’s adherence to the rule of law has been somewhat poor, improvements to women’s role in society did occur. These improvements ultimately allowed Chun Fong to escape rural poverty and illiteracy.14 In the 1960s, Chun Fong moved to Wuhan to attend the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (华中科技大学), her tuition fully paid by the Communist Government. She ultimately decided to study the sciences, an 54

area she was very interested in and one much less politically risky than studying the humanities (particularly history, which the People’s Republic of China was constantly changing). Upon finishing university, the government assigned her first job: a lecturer at the Beijing University of Technology.15 She was especially fortunate because the job was one that she genuinely liked; graduating students often had little choice in their careers. As a teacher, she made far more money than her family (who worked as farmers) so she sent large portions of her income to her parents every month.16 Eventually, she married a fellow lecturer at the same university, Zheng Chao Tong (A typical name for a male child, meaning “bright and significant”), whose background was very different from Chun Fong’s. He came from a family of scholars; his father had been the headmaster of a school, and his family had traveled and lived overseas, which was seen as a luxury.17 Unlike other ancient feudal societies in Europe and the rest of Asia, titles of nobility in China were not entirely hereditary; many were given based on the result of academic exams known as the “Imperial examination.” Hence, in prior decades, marrying into a family of scholars would have been considered enormously prestigious. In the 1960s, however, the Communist party had taken over, and they explicitly favored the proletariat, who were mostly farmers (China was not industrialized at the time, so there were not many factory workers). Therefore, people thought of Chao Tong’s status as the son of a teacher as a link to past privilege, a significant social disadvantage. In fact, Chun Fong was so worried about her parents’ response to her marriage that she chose to not seek permission from her family beforehand, instead simply announcing her wedding to her family to avoid their objections.

After marriage, Chun Fong moved into her husband’s parents’ house in Beijing, an ancient Chinese traditional home, known as a Si He Yuan (四合院), or courtyard house, where rooms are arranged in a square shape around a central courtyard. The house had originally belonged to Chao Tong’s family, but after the revolution, communist officials informed them that the house was too large for them and that half of it would be occupied by another family. To object would have meant to lose the entire house, so they agreed to make way.18 For the next few years, they lived a simple but satisfactory life. They biked to work together every day and even saved enough money to buy luxuries unheard of back on Chun Fong’s farm, such as a watch.19 But soon enough, the chaos that Chun Fong had grown up with returned. Though China was no longer at war, the Cultural Revolution started to sweep through the country in 1966.20 This was a movement started by the Chinese leader Mao Zedong, with the objective of “purging” and “cleansing” Chinese society. In reality, Mao was just using the same methods as Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. constantly creating the specter of new internal enemies to be purged, creating ongoing fear within the Communist Party, and ensuring Mao’s unquestioned rule. Unfortunately, the cultural 55

revolution had impacts beyond what Mao had intended. Initially, Mao instructed Chinese youth to rebel against old knowledge and culture, and there were few better representatives of knowledge and culture than teachers. Under the cultural revolution, students beat and publicly humiliated teachers and other intellectuals who Public humiliation became a sort of “public ene my.”21 Eventually, Mao decided to send many teachers, along with writers, thinkers, and doctors with “antiCommunist views” to re-education camps, where they would undertake simple farming jobs. The purpose of these re-education camps was supposedly to help the bourgeoisie understand and gain empathy for common workers. The truth was that they were just a tool for Mao to demolish any opposition.22 Chun Fong and her husband were immediately classified as the worst of the worst: two teachers, one of whom came from a family of scholars, so they were among the first sent to re-education camps. There, Chun Fong was assigned a new job as a bricklayer. Her time in the camp was very similar to her youth, but this time she had no opportunities to learn, study, or apply her knowledge as a teacher. Every day proved grueling and difficult. Having children in the work camp was discouraged, so when Chun Fong became pregnant, she was given three months to return to Beijing to

give birth before she being forced to return to the reeducation camp, leaving her newborn daughter with her mother-in-law. After returning to the camp, she rarely saw her daughter for the next three years.

A forced labor camp

Communist propaganda poster 56

Life on the farm might seem as if it should be relatively peaceful, but in reality, this kind of forced farm life consisted of back breaking labor, infused with constant threats. The Communist Party had instituted a system where everyone was exhorted to spy on everyone else, thus weeding out “traitors” who might betray the revolution. Chun Fong got in trouble multiple times for “disrespecting” Mao Zedong. The first time, she told a friend about reading Mao’s famous “Little Red Book” while going to the bathroom, which was apparently a disrespectful offense. The second time, she committed the “preposterous” crime of disagreeing with the popular saying “One sentence of Mao is worth as much as 10,000 sentences of anyone else.”23 She had been relatively careful with most of her comments, but this particular statement still landed her before the Communist tribunal at her work camp. She was extremely lucky when her punishment turned out to be nothing more than having her “crimes” denounced in posters throughout the camp. Many suffered far worse, with punishments ranging from teachers being publicly tortured by being forced to kneel on broken glass up to and including mass execution.24 To get through this chapter of her life, Chun Fong had to be careful not to trust anyone (except for her husband) while being forced to mindlessly parrot Mao’s opinions and propaganda. As she put it, “I completely avoided politics after that in the PRC [People’s Republic of China]; I could not afford to be in trouble again.”

Mao’s Little Red Book

In 1973, the Communist Party decided that Chun Fong and her husband had completed their re-education and allowed them to return to Beijing.

Three years later, Mao Zedong died, and the Communist party was temporarily leaderless (though Deng Xiaoping would soon amass enough power to become China’s next leader). During this time, the PRC had a very different attitude towards mainland Chinese citizens who had overseas family members. In fact, their new policy was that these citizens were allowed to apply to emigrate as a way to permanently purge “bad apples.” As it happened, Chao Tong’s father had lived for a number of years in Indonesia, so Chun Fong and Chao Tong were allowed to move overseas. Ultimately, Chao Tong emigrated to Hong Kong, where he was joined by Chun Fong and their daughter the following year. At the time, Hong Kong was under British rule and was more developed and safer than Mainland China. There was freedom of the press, rule of law, and a total absence of the chaos that Chun Fong had experienced from birth. A common Chinese

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saying held that “there is gold littering the pavement everywhere in Hong Kong.”25 Compared to mainland China, with its frequent power cuts and rationing books, Hong Kong was a bright and exciting city, full of opportunity. Chun Fong’s daughter, Yun Ning, recounts memories of astonishingly high double decker buses and almost limitless food.26 In China, all families had to stick to food rationing laws, using little booklets to track the number of eggs, beef, and chicken that they ate monthly. In Hong Kong, Chun Fong and her family were able to eat whatever they wanted as long as they could afford it. As she remembers, “I can say whatever I want in Hong Kong, that is the biggest difference.”27 Hong Kong

The family was also able to receive the rare luxury of watching “foreign” films, usually Taiwanese love stories. These movies were in stark contrast to mainland Chinese movies, which all centered on fealty to the Communist Party and Chairman Mao. Despite these improved living conditions (they also had their own bathtub, tap water, gas stove and other modern amenities), their social status took a turn for the worse. All three members of the family crammed themselves into a 12’ by 12’ bedroom, rented from a distant relative. They had to share their living room, bathroom and kitchen with their relative and her husband.28 The room had no air conditioning in the summer, which was tough considering Hong Kong’s blisteringly hot summer months. At first, some cool air from the landlord’s air conditioner would escape into Chun Fong’s room from under the door.

However, the landlord discovered this and shoved a duvet under the door of the room, preventing any trace of cool air from entering.29 Due to enormous economic disparities between Hong Kong and the PRC at the time, Chun Fong was able to send a small part of her salary home to her family in Hunan province, an amount still even more than the official “salary” of the leader of the PRC.30 On the other hand, citizens of Hong Kong were not particularly welcoming. Although Hong Kong and the PRC both contain ethnically Chinese people, Chun Fong spoke the Chinese dialect “Mandarin,” instead of the local “Cantonese” dialect of Hong Kong, which marked her as a new immigrant. As a 58

British Colony, Hong Kong’s legal, administrative, and academic language was English, which Chun Fong also didn’t know. Because of this, many Mainland Chinese immigrants were mistreated, and openly discriminated against. Her daughter, Yun Ning also encountered excessive bullying at school. A typical school yard chant held that students from mainland China had fleas. The bullies also told Yun Ning that she was related to the Peking Man, an famous fossil of an early hominid. As an outsider, her books would be stolen by other students so she couldn’t study; eventually, Chun Fong complained to the school and put a stop to the bullying. “I thought my mother was so brave and strong. I was so grateful,” recalled Yun Ning.31 Within 6 months, Chun Fong managed to pick up enough Cantonese and English to land a job at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as a lab technician. She had worked as a full-time lecturer in Beijing, thus overqualified for this new job. Despite that, no university was willing to put her in front of actual students because of the linguistic barriers and perhaps her background.32

Chun Fong and family

As Chun Fong continued working at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, (and continued learning two new languages to convince the University that she could be effective as a teacher), she became a part time teacher, then a substitute assistant lecturer.33 Over time, it became clear that it would be near impossible to convince anyone in Hong Kong’s academic circles that she should be allowed to work full time directly with students. There was no official policy on this, but she had never seen anyone who had gotten their education in Mainland China allowed to directly teach Hong Kong students in any subject (except Mandarin). Most of the university’s teachers spoke fluent Cantonese and distinguished themselves based on their ability to publish research and books in English, so speaking Cantonese and English as her third and fourth languages (after Mandarin and Russian) seemed an insurmountable barrier. So, Chun Fong began to look for an alternate solution.

Ultimately, she decided to study for a master’s degree overseas. Though already over forty, she applied to do research during the summer in the United Kingdom. There were many challenges here, too, as she had to be away from her

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family and, once again, to adjust to the new language and culture. Eventually, she managed to persevere and earn her degree. From there, she was able to publish papers and become a full-time professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Chun Fong’s favorite thing about Hong Kong, she said, was that “In Communist China, promotions and success would be guaranteed by relationships (a concept known as “guan xi”), but in Hong Kong, with its rule of law, everything was about interest, effort, and ability.”34 At the Polytechnic University, Chun Fong received another task: deciding which students would qualify for the scholarship program and to go to England for further education after graduation. She loved this part, as she was able to give these opportunities to students, including girls and low-income/first generation college students. She could play a role for these students that her teacher had played for her. It was a way for her life to come full circle, giving students opportunities to follow their areas of academic interest.

One student, George Ho, states that Chun Fong “encouraged [him] to continue studying for a doctorate in the future . . . and become a university teacher.”35 Now, twenty years after her retirement, some of her fondest memories are of all the students she has helped. She is extremely proud of her students, as she sees herself in them and is extremely glad that she could be a part of their success.

Chun Fong, unlike traditional Chinese mothers, was delighted that her only child was a girl, and always encouraged her daughter Yun Ning to follow her academic passion. Hong Kong had a program that paid for civil servants and teachers (many of whom originally British) to send their children to boarding school in Britain. When Yun Ning turned fourteen, she was sent to a boarding school there and eventually attended the University at Cambridge. In 1999, Yun Ning married a United States citizen and eventually moved to America and to a life that Chun Fong’s friends and family in Hunan Province could never have imagined.36 Chun Fong was born into a chaotic era, during a world war, followed by the collapse of feudal China’s social order. She lived through the tumultuous early decades of Communist Party rule. Though her early passion and curiosity for learning were both helped and hurt by the chaos of Communist rule, she was ultimately able to pursue her interest in learning and teaching by taking advantage of opportunities created ironically in the chaos of Communist China. She led an extraordinary life, fighting hard to pursue her interest in academia and, in so doing, left behind a legacy—a generation of students she inspired and influenced.

When Chun Fong’s granddaughter was born, her daughter and son-in-law gave her the English name Natalie, but Chun Fong chose her a Chinese name for her, refusing to give Natalie a traditional Chinese name that meant “pretty and sweet” or “gentle and delicate.” Chun Fong’s choice was one that represented her own qualities of character—Zhi Lan (芷兰), which means grace, strength, and integrity.37

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Notes Chun Fong Yeung, interview by Natalie Shell, 23 May 2020.

David White, “The Japanese Occupation of China 1937-45: The Divided Opposition and Its Consequences,” Openhistorysociety.org, www.openhistorysociety.org/members-articles/the-japanese-occupation-of-china -1937-45-events-effects-and-consequences-by-david-white/.

3 Chun Fong Yeung.

4 Chun Fong Yeung.

5 Jiu Fong Yeung, interview by Natalie Shell, 18 May 2020.

6 Yun Ning, interview by Natalie Shell, 15 May 2020.

7 Chun Fong Yeung.

8 Yun Pu Yeung, interview by Natalie Shell, 18 May 2020.

9 Jiu Fong Yeung.

10 Jiu Fong Yeung.

11 About 7 cents in United States dollars.

12 Xiangquan Chen, interview by Natalie Shell, 18 May 2020.

13 Yuhui Li, “Women's Movement and Change of Women's Status in China.”

Virtual Commons—Bridgewater State University, 2000, vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol1/ iss1/3/.

14 Ibid.

15 Chun Fong Yeung.

16 Ping Fong Yeung, interview by Natalie Shell, 18 May 2020.

17 Chun Fong Yeung.

18 Chao Tong Cheng, interview by Natalie Shell, 20 May 2020.

19 Chun Fong Yeung.

20 Tom Phillips, “The Cultural Revolution: All You Need to Know about China's Political Convulsion.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 11 May 2016, www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/the-cultural-revolution-50-years-on -all-you-need-to-know-about-chinas-political-convulsion.

21 “Down to the Countryside Movement,” Dartmouth College Library.

22 Kathrin Hille, “China's ‘Sent-down’ Youth.” Financial Times, 20 Sept. 2013, www.ft.com/content/3d2ba75c-1fdf-11e3-8861-00144feab7de.

23 Chun Fong Yeung.

24 Chun Fong Yeung.

25 Yun Ning Cheng.

26 Yun Ning Cheng.

27 Chun Fong Yeung.

28 Chun Fong Yeung.

29 Yun Ning Cheng.

30 Jiu Fong Yeung.

31 Yun Ning Cheng.

32 Chun Fong Yeung.

1 2

61

Chun Fong Yeung.

Chun Fong Yeung.

35 George Ho, interview by Natalie Shell, 18 May 2020.

36 Yun Ning Cheng.

37 Chun Fong Yeung.

33 34

62

The Brunswick & Greenwich Academy

Magazine of History 2021

Brunswick School 100 Maher Avenue Greenwich, CT 06830 (203) 625-5800 Brunswickschool.org

Greenwich Academy 200 North Maple Avenue Greenwich, CT 06830 (203) 625-8900 Greenwichacademy.org

Vol. 18