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Ash Pile or Steel City? H.L Mencken Helps Mold an Image Edward K.Muller order to spur economic growth and to combat unfavorable INpublicity, Pittsburgh has down through the years put forth positive images ofitselfas, for example, the Iron City,Steel City, Renaissance City,CityofChampions, and most recently, America's Most Livable City. Nevertheless, a negative image out of step with modern high-tech and Sunbelt trends persists today, de- tracting fromPittsburgh's efforts to regain momentum. The long history ofsuch images underscores their perceived importance to the fortunes of the city. Many things go into the creation and acceptance ofimages; but writers, often from competing cities, Edward K.Muller is Professor ofHistory at the University ofPittsburgh. He writes about the historical geography of American cities, and is an editor of The Atlas of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1989). He is currently completing a book on Henry L. Mencken's writingsonthe American city.Dr.Muller wishes to thank NeilJordahl, head ofthe Humanities Department at the Pratt Free LibraryinBaltimore, for his and his staffs help with this project. Above: This view of the former Jones and Laughlin steel millvividlydepicts the scenery common along urban America's rail lines early this century. The Parkway now fillsthe center ofthis valleyinPittsburgh, and although the millwas demolished forahigh-tech research park (yet to be built),Second Avenue and the tracks remain. Pittsburgh History, Summer 1991 sometimes contribute to the formation and persistence priorities, the allocation ofresources, the disposition of of images even though that may not have been their land, and ultimately the differential success of various intent. This article explores the humorous but damag- sections of the city.1 ing contributions of one out-of-town writer to The competitive promotion ofcities carries on along Pittsburgh's national image. tradition ofurban boosterism. 2 In the early nineteenth Images do affect the flow ofinvestments and people century, optimistic town founders in the developing tocities; they matter. As the twentieth century rushes to trans-Appalachian west projected glorious futures for a close, competition among cities for new businesses, their settlements in hopes of attracting people and conventions, tourist dollars, and national publicity is businesses, who would fulfill their expectations and more intense, shrill,and expensive than ever. The com- pocketbooks. They sometimes invoked the aura of petition employs modern marketing techniques, includ- eastern cities by mimicking their names, street plans, or ing the promotion ofa positive cityimage. The promo-— street nomenclatures. Boosterism accompanied the tional detritus of urban imaging is all too familiar spread ofcities and towns across the continent, gaining ranging fromlogos, slogans, campaign packets, and the momentum with the addition ofland grant railroads to boastful refrains ofhometown editorialists to elaborate the process. 3 Established cities also looked over their multi-media shows and extravagant movies. Image- shoulders at commercial rivals and used political and making comprises only one element ofa city's broader, economic muscle to vie for trade advantages. This ongoing campaign for growth, which typically involves muscle was often encased in booster rhetoric and logic partnerships among public and private leaders, the that presumed the fundamental civic importance of media, and non-profit organizations. The visions of economic and demographic growth and measured suc- these pro-growth coalitions, as John Mollenkopfcalled cess inquantifiable terms. Cities also imitated their rivals them inhis book, The Contested City, entail significant in order to present a modern image lest they be per- implications for a city,ones that not all members of the ceived as lesser places. Thus, urban fashion led cities, or community can support or consider worth the price that is, their boosters, to adopt up-to-date amenities because they effect the establishment of community such as gas-lighting, horsecars, and cast-iron frontbuild- ings. Moreover, concern fora favor- able image encouraged them tohide their blemishes, even to the extent of denying the existence of serious epidemics so as not to jeopardize the patronage of business travelers. Business leaders, other major prop- erty owners, public officials,and the local newspaper typicallyled the pro- motional campaign. Pittsburgh has not been immune to the booster's penchant for pro- motion and image-building. Today city leaders attack Pittsburgh's per- vasive national image as a dirty, smoky, tired industrial citywithmost of the traditional urban marketing tools. What chagrins most Pitts- burghers is the resilience of this negative image despite considerable evidence tothe contrary.4The smoky label has been with the city for a long time, and this historical lon- gevity, along with vividness of the image, makes ithard to exorcise. Travellers remarked on the pall ofsmoke that hung over the city in the early nineteenth century. 5 The deteriorating environmental and so- cialconditions that accompanied the H.L.Mencken was one of the most widelyread syndicated newspaper columnists dramatic expansion of the ironand ever inAmerica. His persistent attacks onPittsburgh's industrial-strength ugliness steel industries inthe late nineteenth from the early 1900s to the late 1920s helped establish a negative national image century became a source offrequent ofPittsburgh that endures to this day. comment and criticism, culminat- 52 Ash Pile or Steel City ? ing in the devastating six-volume Pittsburgh Survey, regretted what he viewed as the illeffects of growth for published between 1909 and 1914. 6 Pittsburgh's busi- growth's sake, effects that the boosters of his town ness leaders responded to this image issue by dropping induced and that reminded him ofless civilized places self-serving salubrious characterizations of the city's such as Pittsburgh. smoky air(as, forexample, an antidote for certain kinds Whether defending Baltimore or later attacking its of diseases) and attempting instead toproject the city, boosters, HIM \u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0 with some justification, as the workshop of the world.7 Although the workshop image probably played well ployed the boost- HHJpHHflMppp^B|MipH0HVH| at home, itencountered competing characterizations in er's technique of AfcMMMaMW^M3U^^H^MMMlHH! the print media ofother cities. Boosters were busily at making compar- \u25a0\u25a0\u25a0H|iPMMHNM||Hinp|HH|HMH work in their own cities, fashioning favorable home isons with other W»»>>>W>W>W>»W>>»>»W>W»>>>>WW>>WW town images byattacking the reputations ofrivals. Inthe cities inorder to W^F^^^S^^^^^^^^C^W^^^BBBR early twentieth century, Baltimore had an unusually place his city in a gggjgggjjgjgjjjjjj|jjjjjjyjj^gggg| vituperative defender at the helm of one of its major favorable light. m^^^B^fff-^TyT^yTt^^i^^SHBH newspapers. This champion was,ofcourse, Henry Louis In this endeavor, \u25a0\u25a0•\u25a0•\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0^•••\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0••M^^^^B Mencken, orHLM,the renowned Sage ofBaltimore. In no city was spared ifitwas unfortunate enough tohave his vigorous defense ofhis city and more generally inhis caught his eye,but his favorite targets were Boston, New commentary onurban industrial growth and the Amer- York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. He ma- ican wayoflife,Mencken frequently vilifiedPittsburgh lignedPittsburgh frequently between 1909 and 1911in and thereby firmlyetched a negative picture ofitinhis columns inthe Sunpapers read mostly by Baltimoreans. readers' minds. Short negative references continued, however, as his In his long career as an editorial writer for the national reputation and readership grewduring the next Baltimore Sunpapers, between 1906 and 1948, H.L. twodecades. Many considered Mencken tobe the most Mencken often wrote proudly and defensively about his famous newspaperman of the day, and others such as home town. But except for abriefperiod around 1910, Walter Lippmann believed he dominated the intellectu- he did not exhibit the style of a conventional urban al discourse of the 1920s through his essays, books, booster. Rather, he is best known for his critical,irrev- Baltimore Evening Sun columns, and editorships of erent, and iconoclastic views onmost every other aspect Smart Set and The American Mercury magazines. 10 In of American life and ideas. Boosters were just the kind the 1920s, he published an especially damning essay on of American species that he relished mocking. Go- Western Pennsylvania which received national expo- getters, Babbitts, boomers, and "booboisie," he called sure. them. He once defined a boomer as "a man who talks H.L.Mencken did not create Pittsburgh's dismal much, says littleand does nothing." 8 HLMconsidered image, but his writing certainly added to it. HLM's himself almost devoid ofpublic spirit, and he regularly vigorous writingstyle and caustic witmade the negative ridiculed the sanctimonious policies, words,and behav- image unforgettable. His journalistic portrayal ofPitts- ior of all manner of Baltimoreans. Politicians were his burgh suggests how animage could become bigger than favorite target, but businessmen, reformers, professors, life and in time present a serious obstacle for a city and clergymen, vice-crusaders, and "honorary pallbearers" its boosters. were treated to frequent roastings. 9 Mencken devoted

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