In his address to Congress, President Trump promised that “dying industries will come roaring back to life.” I think the president should be even more ambitious: He should seriously consider bringing back industries and services that have already died. And I can think of two “dead” products that would create thousands of jobs and also improve the environment if they were resurrected: spittoons and sedan chairs.
Spittoons—aka cuspidors—were once mainstays at hotels, offices, train stations, and banks. You can find references to them in the novels of Mark Twain, Henry James, and William Dean Howells. Oscar Wilde was amazed by America’s spitting culture: “America is one long expectoration,” he remarked during a speaking tour. But spittoons disappeared in the 1930s, which is a shame because American men have no place to spit except in toilets and sinks (few carry handkerchiefs or tissues).
To be sure, the need to spit was more urgent in the days when so many men chewed tobacco; but every man (and every woman!) needs to spit occasionally. According to the latest scientific studies, it’s unhealthy to swallow phlegm, and it’s not gross to spit in public if it’s done discreetly by sidling up to a spittoon and letting go. Nowadays people spit on sidewalks or out car windows. Disgusting. But the revival of spittoons would create thousands of manufacturing jobs. Would spittoons sell? I think they would. Americans like products that remind them of the good old days, when women cooked and cleaned while men sat on porches and spat.
A revival of the sedan chair would be an even greater boon to the American economy. The sedan chair, as every English schoolboy used to know, is a type of litter: i.e., a wheel-less human-powered vehicle that carries a person from one place to another. The sedan chair, mounted on poles, is carried by four porters known as “chairmen.” Various kinds of litters (known as palanquins in France and India) were popular in the ancient world and were popular until a hundred years ago in South and East Asia. But they were never popular here, which is a shame because they make a great deal of sense as a vehicle for urban use. They are easily manipulable in traffic; they emit no exhaust fumes; and they don’t make any noise (except for an occasional grunt). Clean energy! Best of all, their resurrection would provide jobs for thousands of strong young Americans who lack the skills or interest to sit in an office and stare at a computer screen all day.
Surely there are other dead products that could be resurrected, giving a boost to the American economy. What about the antimacassar? It is a cloth that was placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa. It was popular in Victorian and Edwardian times because so many men used greasy macassar oil on their hair. That oil no longer is used, but some men still use greasy stuff to make their hair look good—and so do some women. Let’s bring the antimacassar industry back! And what about service jobs that have been phased out? New Jersey still has gas station attendants. Why can’t all states have them? Why not bring back movie theater ushers, restroom attendants, and itinerant peddlers who sharpen knives?
To make America great again we cannot only support dying industries. We need an imaginative industrial policy that includes tax breaks for dead industries and services, but only those that are labor intensive and good for the environment. Spittoons and sedan chairs, which meet both criteria, are a start. ¨
Stephen Miller is the author, most recently, of Walking New York: Reflections of American Writers from Walt Whitman to Teju Cole.
