GEORGE A. GONZALEZ - fieldi

40THE POLITICS OF AIR POLLUTIONrush of manufacturing concerns to locate in the Chicago area to obtain theadvantage of its superior terminal facilities and favorable railroad rates”(Hoyt 1933, 143). Thus, between 1884 and 1890, the value of manufacturedproducts increased during this period from $292 million to $664 million(Hoyt 1933, 144).The significant railroad investment placed in Chicago and its subsequenteconomic growth are not only attributable to its location adjacent to LakeMichigan and position in relation to New York City. In addition to these factors,Chicago was a good place for capital investment during the middle andlate nineteenth century because local actors created the physical and politicalmilieu conducive for such investment.With the clearing out of the Native American population, and cheapcredit, Chicago during the 1830s became part of the broader effort to profitfrom the expected colonization of the Old Northwest territory. Cronon(1991) explains thatthe mid-1830s saw the most intense land speculation in American history,with Chicago at the center of the vortex. Believing Chicago was about tobecome the terminus of a major canal, land agents and speculators floodedinto town, buying and selling not only the empty lots along its ill-markedstreets but also the surrounding grasslands which the Indians had recentlyabandoned. (29)Therefore, once the Indian population was moved out, thereby opening theOld Northwest territory to be integrated into the U.S. and Europeaneconomies, inhabitants and investors in significant numbers came to theChicago area to economically benefit from an anticipated land boom. Theviews of this class of Chicago residents and investors came to dominate thecity’s politics (Belcher 1947; Keating 1988).This pro-growth political outlook led to various projects designed toattract capital investment to the area. It, for example, facilitated the buildingof a canal in the 1840s that connected Lake Michigan to the MississippiRiver watershed, thereby making the Chicago area an important NorthAmerican transport point (Belcher 1947, 34–35; Cronon 1991, 32–33).Moreover, in the late 1840s, it was leading members of Chicago’s real estateinterests that built the first railroad line running to Chicago (Belcher 1947,125–131; Cronon 1991, 65–67). In the 1850s, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas,who himself held substantial tracts of land in the area (Belcher 1947,125–126), successfully lobbied to have the first federal railroad land grant runto Chicago (Cronon 1991, 68–70).This congenial attitude toward investment and economic growth inChicago paid off well for those that owned substantial amounts of land in thearea. Between the years 1833 and 1910, land value within the incorporatedarea of Chicago had grown from $168,000 to $1.5 billion. By 1926, the eve