Decade of Political Conflict 1901-1911 - Revision history

Ccarlsson at 23:23, 19 November 2021

2021-11-19T23:23:12Z

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	[[Progressive Municipal Reform 1890-1900\|read first half of chapter]]		[[Progressive Municipal Reform 1890-1900\|read first half of chapter]]

	[[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Labor]] [[category:Irish]] [[category:Mayors]] [[category:Crime]] [[category:Civic Center]] [[category:Downtown]] [[category:Mission]] [[category:North Beach]]		[[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Labor]] [[category:Irish]] [[category:Mayors]] [[category:Crime]] [[category:Civic Center]] [[category:Downtown]] [[category:Mission]] [[category:North Beach]] [[category:San Francisco 1865-1932: Politics, Power, and Urban Development]]

Ccarlsson: added photo

2020-06-05T05:53:20Z

added photo

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	The demise of the San Francisco graft prosecution, particularly the deflection of blame away from the corporations that had offered the bribes, including Pacific Gas and Electric, Pacific Telephone, and the United Railroads, had come about partly because the Merchants' Association and the heads of the city's largest banks waged a decisive campaign to turn discussion about municipal politics away from issues of class conflict and business graft toward issues of city development and economic progress. The high point of the graft trials coincided with both the city's recovery from the earthquake and fire and the nation's recovery from the banking panic of 1907 that created a widespread clamor for corporate regulation. San Francisco financial institutions suffered less than some others, but the sobering experience tended to draw the city's bankers into self-conscious organization just as it did elsewhere.(69) The first step involved creating a favorable public image for business. The editor of the new journal ''Coast Banker'' described in October 1908 the need to counteract the "proposition that is generally in the minds of the public" that "the public-service corporation is the enemy of the public." Corporations "should be protected from rash and ill-considered action on the part of the people."(70)		The demise of the San Francisco graft prosecution, particularly the deflection of blame away from the corporations that had offered the bribes, including Pacific Gas and Electric, Pacific Telephone, and the United Railroads, had come about partly because the Merchants' Association and the heads of the city's largest banks waged a decisive campaign to turn discussion about municipal politics away from issues of class conflict and business graft toward issues of city development and economic progress. The high point of the graft trials coincided with both the city's recovery from the earthquake and fire and the nation's recovery from the banking panic of 1907 that created a widespread clamor for corporate regulation. San Francisco financial institutions suffered less than some others, but the sobering experience tended to draw the city's bankers into self-conscious organization just as it did elsewhere.(69) The first step involved creating a favorable public image for business. The editor of the new journal ''Coast Banker'' described in October 1908 the need to counteract the "proposition that is generally in the minds of the public" that "the public-service corporation is the enemy of the public." Corporations "should be protected from rash and ill-considered action on the part of the people."(70)

			[[Image:North-beach-from-Leavenworth-and-Francisco.jpg]]

			'''View of North Beach from Leavenworth and Francisco, c. 1910.'''

			''Photo: provenance unknown''

	John A. Britton, president of San Francisco Gas and Electric Corporation and first vice-president of Pacific Gas and Electric, admitted that "the original sins of the corporations themselves" were "equivalent to the action of get-rich quick concerns." At the same time, he criticized "the present attitude of the press" because "it will rarely, except in its advertising columns for pay, give the corporation side of any argument." Britton urged the organized business community to adopt "a new method of treating the public" in order to restore corporations "to the favor in which they were once held."(71) Frank Anderson, president of the Bank of California, urged both the press and the students and faculty in a University of California speech to remember that although "the communal conscience has changed" and "some things regarded right or proper twenty years ago are frowned upon today," it would be "better even that abuses should continue for a time longer than that they should be corrected by injustice and by the infliction of hardships upon those who are wholly innocent." Calling for cooperation among all segments of the community interested in progress, Anderson praised his listeners for "whatever high and honorable ideals you may have formed .... You need have no apprehension that they will be scorned in the business world or that you will have to put them away to win success."(72)		John A. Britton, president of San Francisco Gas and Electric Corporation and first vice-president of Pacific Gas and Electric, admitted that "the original sins of the corporations themselves" were "equivalent to the action of get-rich quick concerns." At the same time, he criticized "the present attitude of the press" because "it will rarely, except in its advertising columns for pay, give the corporation side of any argument." Britton urged the organized business community to adopt "a new method of treating the public" in order to restore corporations "to the favor in which they were once held."(71) Frank Anderson, president of the Bank of California, urged both the press and the students and faculty in a University of California speech to remember that although "the communal conscience has changed" and "some things regarded right or proper twenty years ago are frowned upon today," it would be "better even that abuses should continue for a time longer than that they should be corrected by injustice and by the infliction of hardships upon those who are wholly innocent." Calling for cooperation among all segments of the community interested in progress, Anderson praised his listeners for "whatever high and honorable ideals you may have formed .... You need have no apprehension that they will be scorned in the business world or that you will have to put them away to win success."(72)

Ccarlsson at 22:06, 25 May 2020

2020-05-25T22:06:41Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:06, 25 May 2020
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	[[Progressive Municipal Reform 1890-1900\|read first half of chapter]]		[[Progressive Municipal Reform 1890-1900\|read first half of chapter]]

	[[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Labor]] [[category:Irish]] [[category:Mayors]] [[category:Crime]]		[[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:Power and Money]] [[category:Labor]] [[category:Irish]] [[category:Mayors]] [[category:Crime]] [[category:Civic Center]] [[category:Downtown]] [[category:Mission]] [[category:North Beach]]

Ccarlsson at 22:01, 25 May 2020

2020-05-25T22:01:26Z

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	<blockquote>Did the city need new harbor facilities? The Exposition provided the rationale, for many visitors would arrive by water. Was public transportation a problem? The need must be answered, the system improved and expanded, to prepare the city for the Fair tourists. Was industrial conflict liable to become serious? A moratorium on all such conflict must be declared until the Exposition was over.(86)</blockquote>		<blockquote>Did the city need new harbor facilities? The Exposition provided the rationale, for many visitors would arrive by water. Was public transportation a problem? The need must be answered, the system improved and expanded, to prepare the city for the Fair tourists. Was industrial conflict liable to become serious? A moratorium on all such conflict must be declared until the Exposition was over.(86)</blockquote>

	The strategy of referring to the exposition served to dramatize Rolph's conviction, and that of his sponsors, that the interests of the city as a whole took precedence over those of any particular district, neighborhood, or faction. In this respect, Rolph and his supporters aligned themselves with what Samuel Hays has called the "cosmopolitan" point of view, or as Rolph himself put it: "I will be the mayor for the whole city, and not the mayor for any particular section. I will try to wipe out all dividing lines on the map of San Francisco."(87) To working-class audiences, Rolph appeared as ''just plain Jim Rolph of [[Mission District Catholic Liberals Shaped San Francisco's Culture\|the Mission]], your neighbor. I believe in labor unions and have long been a friend of labor." To national-origin groups, like the Scandinavian American Political Club, Rolph could say: "I feel at home with Scandinavian people. I am in the shipping business and have come in contact with men of Norway and Sweden." His message to the organized business community reiterated his dedication to administrative government:		The strategy of referring to the exposition served to dramatize Rolph's conviction, and that of his sponsors, that the interests of the city as a whole took precedence over those of any particular district, neighborhood, or faction. In this respect, Rolph and his supporters aligned themselves with what Samuel Hays has called the "cosmopolitan" point of view, or as Rolph himself put it: "I will be the mayor for the whole city, and not the mayor for any particular section. I will try to wipe out all dividing lines on the map of San Francisco."(87) To working-class audiences, Rolph appeared as "just plain Jim Rolph of [[Mission District Catholic Liberals Shaped San Francisco's Culture\|the Mission]], your neighbor. I believe in labor unions and have long been a friend of labor." To national-origin groups, like the Scandinavian American Political Club, Rolph could say: "I feel at home with Scandinavian people. I am in the shipping business and have come in contact with men of Norway and Sweden." His message to the organized business community reiterated his dedication to administrative government:

	<blockquote>I am aware that the principal usefulness of the Mayor consists in the work which he may be able to do as the executive head of its business affairs, looking upon the city not so much as an integral part of the state, but as a business corporation of which the citizens are the responsible shareholders.(88)</blockquote>		<blockquote>I am aware that the principal usefulness of the Mayor consists in the work which he may be able to do as the executive head of its business affairs, looking upon the city not so much as an integral part of the state, but as a business corporation of which the citizens are the responsible shareholders.(88)</blockquote>

Ccarlsson at 21:58, 25 May 2020

2020-05-25T21:58:09Z

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	<font size=4>The Phelan Administration</font size>		<font size=4>The Phelan Administration</font size>

	[Mayor James Phelan\|Mayor James Phelan]] put together his policy recommendations for municipal projects with the cooperation of the Merchants' Association.(52) During his first campaign in 1896, he had argued that San Francisco should be "the capital of an empire,” and in the 1899 Democratic Party municipal platform he wrote that the “great and varied resources of the Pacific Coast behind us and the vast ocean before us point unerringly to the greatness of San Francisco.”(53) Phelan stressed the need to “act with confidence.” The Merchants’ Association applauded the mayor’s sentiments and spurred him on to more aggressive leadership on behalf of the city’s commercial priorities. “The fact is,” argued former Merchants’ Association director Herbert E. Law, “there is nothing inevitable about . . . the city’s growth, about density, about future greatness, about natural center and inevitable control of commerce.”		[[Mayor James Phelan\|Mayor James Phelan]] put together his policy recommendations for municipal projects with the cooperation of the Merchants' Association.(52) During his first campaign in 1896, he had argued that San Francisco should be "the capital of an empire,” and in the 1899 Democratic Party municipal platform he wrote that the “great and varied resources of the Pacific Coast behind us and the vast ocean before us point unerringly to the greatness of San Francisco.”(53) Phelan stressed the need to “act with confidence.” The Merchants’ Association applauded the mayor’s sentiments and spurred him on to more aggressive leadership on behalf of the city’s commercial priorities. “The fact is,” argued former Merchants’ Association director Herbert E. Law, “there is nothing inevitable about . . . the city’s growth, about density, about future greatness, about natural center and inevitable control of commerce.”

	<blockquote>There has never been an organization in this city approximating the present organization of the Merchants’ Association. There has never been a time when the merchants were in so close union, so strongly cemented together, son single in their purpose, and so resolute as they have shown themselves to be during the past year [1898] . . . but in comparison with the possibilities, the effort has been but that of a child.</blockquote>		<blockquote>There has never been an organization in this city approximating the present organization of the Merchants’ Association. There has never been a time when the merchants were in so close union, so strongly cemented together, son single in their purpose, and so resolute as they have shown themselves to be during the past year [1898] . . . but in comparison with the possibilities, the effort has been but that of a child.</blockquote>

Ccarlsson at 21:57, 25 May 2020

2020-05-25T21:57:39Z

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	''by William Issel and Robert Cherny''		''by William Issel and Robert Cherny''

	[[Image:~~tendrnob$civic~~-~~center~~-~~1930~~.jpg]]		[[Image:Cable-Cars-at-Market-Street-Ferry-Loop-August-23-1905 SFMTA U00547.jpg]]

	'''~~New City Hall~~, ~~shown here around 1930~~, ~~with the Civic Auditorium at left and Main Library lower right~~.'''		'''Cable cars cluster at the Ferry Building loop at the foot of Market Street, August 23, 1905.'''

	''Photo: ~~Private Collection, San Francisco, CA~~ ''		''Photo: SFMTA U00547''

	<font size=4>The Phelan Administration</font size>		<font size=4>The Phelan Administration</font size>
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	Steven Erie and Jules Tygiel have analyzed the voters who sided with Furuseth to give Schmitz a victory with 42 percent of the vote, taking the plurality from his Republican and Democratic opponents, Asa R. Wells and Joseph S. Tobin, respectively (see Table 9 for the Union Labor party vote, 1901-1911). Schmitz ran especially well in the South of Market area, the waterfront districts, and in the family neighborhoods of the skilled artisans. "The votes," Tygiel concludes, "were distinctly distributed along class lines," and "the correlation between the ULP vote and working-class residence by ward was an extremely high, .84."		Steven Erie and Jules Tygiel have analyzed the voters who sided with Furuseth to give Schmitz a victory with 42 percent of the vote, taking the plurality from his Republican and Democratic opponents, Asa R. Wells and Joseph S. Tobin, respectively (see Table 9 for the Union Labor party vote, 1901-1911). Schmitz ran especially well in the South of Market area, the waterfront districts, and in the family neighborhoods of the skilled artisans. "The votes," Tygiel concludes, "were distinctly distributed along class lines," and "the correlation between the ULP vote and working-class residence by ward was an extremely high, .84."

	<blockquote>The election provided, in a sense, a referendum regarding the policies of the Employers' Association and the right of unions, not merely to organize, but to establish the closed shop. In choosing Schmitz over Wells and Tobin, the San Francisco electorate had demonstrated its support of the labor movement. The second, and more important issue, was one of who should control the city government, labor or capital. As indicated by Furuseth's reasons for support ing the party, workingmen had come to realize that "class government" did exist in San Francisco, and that elections were a battle over which class would achieve power. The extreme polarization of the vote demonstrates that these issues were clearly perceived by the San Francisco electorate and that the struggle was fought and decided along class lines.(62)		<blockquote>The election provided, in a sense, a referendum regarding the policies of the Employers' Association and the right of unions, not merely to organize, but to establish the closed shop. In choosing Schmitz over Wells and Tobin, the San Francisco electorate had demonstrated its support of the labor movement. The second, and more important issue, was one of who should control the city government, labor or capital. As indicated by Furuseth's reasons for support ing the party, workingmen had come to realize that "class government" did exist in San Francisco, and that elections were a battle over which class would achieve power. The extreme polarization of the vote demonstrates that these issues were clearly perceived by the San Francisco electorate and that the struggle was fought and decided along class lines.(62)</blockquote>

	[[Image:Table-9.jpg]]		[[Image:Table-9.jpg]]
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	This decade of conflict, dramatically punctuated by the earthquake and fire of 1906, divided itself into four phases. From January 1902 to the end of 1905, the Union Labor party made its debut, and the Schmitz administration adopted a pro-labor stance. In April 1902 the Carmen's Union struck against the [[United Railroads\|United Railroads]], blocked streetcar tracks, and jammed downtown traffic. The general manager tried to intimidate the strikers by hiring armed guards to ride the streetcars, but Mayor Schmitz refused to issue permits to carry weapons. The daily newspapers likewise supported the strikers, as did many local employers, and the union made a favorable settlement after only a week on the picket lines. Schmitz kept his seat in the 1903 election, but the Union Labor party managed to elect only two super visors that year, one of whom also had the Republican party nomination. By the end of 1905, several developments had begun that would shape the party's later history. Phelan, chagrined at a boycott against a labor party issue of municipal bonds in the national financial market, and his friend and business associate Rudolph Spreckels, had begun to show interest in the muckraking exposes of graft in the Schmitz administration that [[Fremont Older: Newsman, Statesman, Thinker\|Fremont Older]] included in the ''San Francisco Bulletin''. As managing editor of the paper, Older had increased its circulation and made himself something of a guardian of the city's morality by printing sensational stories of protection provided to prostitutes and gamblers by the Union Labor party administration. At the same time, however, the Citizens' Alliance had launched a particularly aggressive open-shop campaign (without the sympathy of Phelan and more pragmatic capitalists), a campaign that convinced Patrick McCarthy (head of the Building Trades Council) to give official support to the party as a way to ensure the survival of the skilled trades unions.(64)		This decade of conflict, dramatically punctuated by the earthquake and fire of 1906, divided itself into four phases. From January 1902 to the end of 1905, the Union Labor party made its debut, and the Schmitz administration adopted a pro-labor stance. In April 1902 the Carmen's Union struck against the [[United Railroads\|United Railroads]], blocked streetcar tracks, and jammed downtown traffic. The general manager tried to intimidate the strikers by hiring armed guards to ride the streetcars, but Mayor Schmitz refused to issue permits to carry weapons. The daily newspapers likewise supported the strikers, as did many local employers, and the union made a favorable settlement after only a week on the picket lines. Schmitz kept his seat in the 1903 election, but the Union Labor party managed to elect only two super visors that year, one of whom also had the Republican party nomination. By the end of 1905, several developments had begun that would shape the party's later history. Phelan, chagrined at a boycott against a labor party issue of municipal bonds in the national financial market, and his friend and business associate Rudolph Spreckels, had begun to show interest in the muckraking exposes of graft in the Schmitz administration that [[Fremont Older: Newsman, Statesman, Thinker\|Fremont Older]] included in the ''San Francisco Bulletin''. As managing editor of the paper, Older had increased its circulation and made himself something of a guardian of the city's morality by printing sensational stories of protection provided to prostitutes and gamblers by the Union Labor party administration. At the same time, however, the Citizens' Alliance had launched a particularly aggressive open-shop campaign (without the sympathy of Phelan and more pragmatic capitalists), a campaign that convinced Patrick McCarthy (head of the Building Trades Council) to give official support to the party as a way to ensure the survival of the skilled trades unions.(64)

			[[Image:Mission-quake-relief-center-1906.jpg]]

			'''Mission earthquake relief center, 1906.'''

			''Photo: Private Collector''

	[[Image:Ruins-of-North-Beach-post-1906-earthquake-&-fire.jpg]]		[[Image:Ruins-of-North-Beach-post-1906-earthquake-&-fire.jpg]]

Ccarlsson: Created page with "''' Historical Essay ''' ''by William Issel and Robert Cherny'' Image:tendrnob$civic-center-..."

2020-05-25T21:46:18Z

Created page with "''' Historical Essay ''' ''by William Issel and Robert Cherny'' Image:tendrnob$civic-center-..."

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