USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 37
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The confusion arising from the great disaster to San Francisco afforded even larger opportunities for graft than Schmitz and Ruef had previously enjoyed. While the people of the stricken community, with unquenched optimism, were planning to rebuild their city on a more substantial basis, the United Railways Company, which at that time monopolized the local traction business, secured from the Board of Supervisors permission to continue operations under an overhead trolley franchise, instead of installing an under- ground cable system, similar to that in use in Washington, D. C. In this transaction the company was charged with having paid $200,000 to secure the necessary votes.
The unearthing of this and many other instances of graft
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by the backers of the reform program, and the prosecution of the most notorious offenders, occupied months of time, and aroused the bitterest antagonism. At the very outset of the investigation, Ruef sought to remove the District Attorney, W. H. Langdon (an honest man who had slipped into office through inadvertence on Ruef's part), and to have himself appointed to the office in Langdon's stead. Failing in this, he also lost control of the Grand Jury and along with Schmitz had to face indictment and trial. The Supervisors, eighteen in number, were completely cornered and forced to confess their part in the corruption from which the city had suffered for so many years.
So long as Heney and his supporters confined their attention to Ruef, Schmitz, and the Supervisors, public opinion ran strongly in their favor. But with the next step, the trial of Patrick Calhoun and Tirey L. Ford of the United Railways, the "graft prosecution" as the movement was now called, at once lost support in many quarters.4 As the trial proceeded, San Francisco experienced something of the old excitement and tenseness of Vigilante days. Most of the newspapers turned against the prosecution with a bitterness of invective rarely equalled in California journal- ism. Attempted intimidation gave place to actual violence. One of the Supervisors named Gallagher, whose testimony was vital to the prosecution, had his house blown up with dynamite. Fremont Older was kidnapped and carried as far south as Santa Barbara in what was believed to be an abortive effort to bring about his assassination. Heney was shot in the head while conducting the prosecution, but escaped a mortal wound. His assailant, apparently de- ranged, was imprisoned and later committed suicide.
For two years and more the graft prosecution continued. Every technicality known to the law was made use of to save the accused men. Juries were tampered with, witnesses intimidated, and public opinion befogged. The United
4 Certain New York financial inter- ests in control of the United Railways were afterwards held more responsi- ble by the informed public opinion
of San Francisco than the officials actually indicted. In other words Calhoun and Ford were cast for the rôle of scape goats.
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Railway officials escaped conviction through a divided jury, and succeeded in having the remaining indictments dis- missed. Officials of other public service corporations charged with similar violations of the law were never brought to trial. Schmitz was saved on a technicality by the State Supreme Court. Ruef alone was sent to the penitentiary.
The direct results of the attempt to punish misgovern- ment in San Francisco were thus disappointingly meager from the standpoint of decent citizenship. But the indirect effects of the graft prosecution were much more significant than would have been the conviction of any number of guilty citizens or corrupt officials. The evidence submitted at the trials of these men might not be sufficient to send them to prison; but it convicted them overwhelmingly in the public mind; and more important still, laid bare the evil workings of the system which they symbolized. Through the San Francisco graft investigation, the people of the state were both enlightened and aroused. Incidentally, too, the municipal government of San Francisco, for some time after the Ruef-Schmitz exposure, was honestly and efficiently administered by Mayor Taylor.
In the midst of San Francisco's unsavory disclosures, similar evidences of corruption were found in the municipal government of Los Angeles. As early as 1907 it was pretty generally surmised that certain city officials, headed by Mayor A. C. Harper, were in league with the disreputable elements of the underworld. Appointments to office were made without any regard to the fitness of the individual and often included men of notoriously evil character. The moral sense of the city was outraged, and its fears aroused lest the building of the great Owen's River Aqueduct, then on foot, should lead to wholesale raids upon the municipal treasury.
On January 7, 1909, Mr. T. E. Gibbon, the Editor of the Los Angeles Herald, began the real reform crusade with a series of articles entitled, "Is Vice Protected in Los Angeles?" These articles were run in wide columns enclosed in red borders. Accompanying the editorials were open letters to
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the Chief of Police, giving undeniable evidence of the existence of scores of gambling centers and houses of prosti- tution in the city. Diagrams of the buildings where these illegal practices flourished, with almost no attempt at con- cealment, were skillfully added to give the needed touch of definiteness to the accusations. A clever cartoonist, with something of the art of Thomas Nast, furnished a still stronger appeal to popular indignation.
The direct connection between the violators of the law and the city administration was next revealed by the Herald's investigations. Three sugar companies known respectively as the Pacific Sugar Corporation, the Pacific Sugar Company and the Pacific Securities Corporation, had been organized by the Mayor and his intimate associates. Stock in the companies to a par value of $250,000 was then sold to the brewers, the saloon keepers, and the café proprietors holding liquor licenses throughout the city. An oil company, known as the Utah-Los Angeles Oil Company, was similarly organized and its stock marketed among the city's vicious elements, greatly to the profit of the Mayor and his com- panions. From the standpoint of the purchasers, this stock was valuable only as its possession brought immunity from police interference.
The Herald's crusade was continued until March 26th. In the meantime, the Evening Express, the Municipal League, and the District Attorney joined in the campaign. A minority of the Grand Jury also brought in a scathing report against the city administration. As a result of these revelations, a general uprising began against Harper and all that he represented. The Mayor's efforts to allay popular indignation by substituting better men for those previously appointed to office proved futile. A recall petition was circulated; and in the ensuing election, Harper, realizing his hopeless position and fearing further disclosures, did not venture to appear as a candidate. George Alexander, formerly a County Supervisor, was elected Mayor and a new era in Los Angeles politics began.
The San Francisco and Los Angeles reform crusades did
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much to strengthen a political revolt which had started as early as 1906. Under the suggestive name of the Lincoln- Roosevelt League, this movement was formally organized in Oakland, August 1, 1907. Though nominally Republican in composition, the League had most of the characteristics of a non-partisan movement. Its platform, as originally announced, was as follows:
"The emancipation of the Republican party in California from domination by the political bureau of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and allied interests and the reorganization of the state committee to that end."
"The selection of delegates to the next Republican national convention pledged to vote and to work for the nomination of a candidate for president known to be truly committed to, and identified with, President Roosevelt's policies and to oppose the nomination of any reactionary styled safe and sane by the great corporate interests."
"The election of a free, honest, and capable legislature, truly representative of the common interests of the people of California."
"The pledging of all delegates to conventions against the iniquitous practice of 'trading,' whereby political bosses effect nominations by bargains and sale, and the enactment of legislation penalizing such practices."
"The enactment by the next legislature of such laws as will give voters an advisory voice in the election of United States senators until such time as an amendment to the national constitu- tion shall make that voice direct and absolute, which amendment we favor."
"The pledging of the candidates for the legislature to the enact- ment of such a primary election law as shall afford the party voter a direct voice in the selection of party candidates."
The program of the Lincoln-Roosevelt League was thus in keeping with the changed attitude toward social, economic, and political questions which was just then beginning to sweep over the United States. The old generation was rapidly passing away, and men everywhere were ready for new standards, new schemes of government, new political catch-words, and new leaders.
Almost from the outset the Lincoln-Roosevelt League
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gained rapid headway in California. Much of its success was due to the newspaper support which it received. In Los Angeles the Evening Express and later the Morning Tribune aligned themselves with the new movement. Ches- ter H. Rowell's Fresno Republican, accorded something of the same infallibility in the San Joaquin Valley that Greeley's Tribune had once enjoyed in New York, also championed the League. The Sacramento Bee, the San Francisco Bulletin, the Oakland Tribune, and a dozen other newspapers in various sections of the state likewise threw themselves into the new cause with an enthusiasm in which the zeal to purify politics was perhaps not wholly divorced from the desire to increase circulation.
The movement was also fortunate in finding capable and vigorous leadership.5 Chief of its leaders, at least in his ability to command popular support, was Hiram Johnson. The final estimate of this man's character and the place he should occupy in the state's political history, must be left to the future's judgment. We of the present generation stand too close to see him in his true perspective. But whatever judgment history may finally pass upon Johnson-if indeed she finds it necessary to pass any judgment at all-friend and foe alike will admit his ability to win popular support. For nearly a decade he dictated the course of California politics.
The Lincoln-Roosevelt League, which formally merged into the Progressive Party in 1913, gained a partial control over the Legislature of 1909, and won a complete victory in the election of the next year. It is doubtful if public interest in California had ever been so keenly aroused by a state elec- tion since the bitter rivalries of Broderick and Gwin fifty years before. The campaign took on something of the character of a crusade especially directed against the evils of so-called "machine government," and the participation of
5 Its first president was Frank Devlin of Oakland. Among the other influential members, then or a little later, were Ex-Governor John C. Pardee; A. J. Wallace, after- wards Lieutenant Governor; W. D.
Stephens, the present Governor of the state; William Kent, Congressman from Marin County for three con- secutive terms; and the various news- paper editors already mentioned.
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corporations in politics. Because of the traditional unpopu- larity of the Southern Pacific Company in California, that corporation had to bear the brunt of these attacks; and to the great majority of voters the campaign became simply a concerted movement "to drive the Southern Pacific out of politics and destroy the old machine."
As a matter of fact, however, the Southern Pacific, even before the election approached, had ceased most of its political activities, and took no part in the campaign. The following statement, recently made by one of the company's chief officials, frankly states the position of the Southern Pacific at that time. After the lapse of more than a decade since the election, it ought at least to be read in a spirit of fairness.
"In time it became obvious to the managers of the Company that the disadvantages of these political activities so far out- balanced any possible benefits the Company would derive from them, that it became the policy to discontinue whatever political activities existed, and after 1893 it was the constant effort of the Company to divorce itself from its former relations to politics. This it had largely succeeded in doing prior to the time of Governor Johnson's election in 1910. In this campaign the Company took no part. Here and there, individuals who were friendly to the Company would naturally continue their political efforts, and no doubt some of these cases were referred to as proof that the Com- pany was engaged in this campaign. It was fortunate that Governor Johnson's campaign, bristling with hostility to the interference of corporations in politics, and especially the Southern Pacific Company, afforded that Company a most favorable op- portunity for terminating its political activities, because the election of Governor Johnson was considered by the public to be a defeat for the Company, and as the Company was careful to avoid any possible political activity thereafter it came to be accepted by the people of the State that the Company was out of politics, a consummation welcomed by the officials of the Company with great cordiality."
The control of the Governorship and the state Legislature after 1910 gave the Lincoln-Roosevelt leaders free scope to
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put their platform into practical effect. This was done with a thoroughness not usual in political affairs. Measures like the referendum, the initiative, the recall, the direct primary and the popular election of United States Senators, to render the government more responsive to popular will, were grafted on to the constitution. Laws affecting conditions of labor were freely enacted. Additional powers were bestowed upon the State Railway Commission and its jurisdiction extended over other public utility corporations throughout the state.6
In this fashion the Lincoln-Roosevelt League fulfilled its pledge, and California began another stage of her political career as an American state.
6 The Wright Act of 1909 had, however, already materially enlarged
the powers of the Commission so far as the railroads were concerned.
CHAPTER XXIX
MATERIAL PROGRESS
SINCE the beginning of statehood, less than seventy-five years ago, the economic progress of California has been so remarkable that one cannot attempt to describe it without seeming to exaggerate. Wonders have become common- place, and the prophecy of yesterday falls short of the reality of today.
According to the federal census, the population of the state in 1850 was 92,597. Ten years later it had risen to 379,994, and within the next decade reached 560,247. After the census of 1870 the influence of the railroad began to be strongly felt in the immigration of eastern people to California, and the population by 1880 had grown to 864,694. The closing years of the next decade witnessed, especially in Southern California, one of the strangest social phenomena in the history of the state. This was the real estate boom of 1887, or the "Great Boom," as it was fittingly called by those who watched its meteoric progress and collapse.
The "Great Boom" was the resultant of many factors. From the time of the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad a consistent campaign had been carried on in the eastern states to induce people to come to the Pacific Coast. The ordinary forms of commercial advertising were supple- mented by a great variety of books and magazine articles descriptive of California, its climate, and resources. Charles Nordhoff, T. S. Van Dyke, John S. Hittell, and many others added their contributions to the general publicity the state was receiving. Even such books as Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona, and Robert Louis Stevenson's Silverado Squatters carried the name and fame of California across the moun-
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tains and helped to arouse an interest in the state among prospective immigrants. A paragraph from B. F. Taylor's Between the Gates, published in 1878, will illustrate the character of a certain type of these descriptions of California:
"Whoever asks where Los Angeles is, to him I shall say: across a desert without wearying, beyond a mountain without climbing; where heights stand away from it, where ocean winds breathe upon it, where the gold-mounted lime-hedges border it; where the flowers catch fire with beauty; among the orange groves; beside the olive trees; where the pomegranates wear calyx crowns; where the figs of Smyrna are turning; where the bananas of Honolulu are blossoming; where the chestnuts of Italy are dropping; where Sicilian lemons are ripening; where the almond trees are shining; through that Alameda of walnuts and apricots; through this avenue of willows and poplars; in vineyards six Sabbath-days' journey across them; in the midst of a garden of thirty-six square miles- there is Los Angeles."
Land was still relatively cheap in California and as irriga- tion developed and the agricultural possibilities of the state became better known, especially the adaptability of certain favored sections to grapes and fruits, a steady stream of prospective buyers came annually from the east. Real estate companies, boards of trade and chambers of commerce added their literature and advertisements to the publicity campaign, and by the early eighties the foundations for a boom were well laid.
The chief obstacle retarding the immigrant movement was the high railroad fares from eastern points to California; and it only required a reduction of these to bring about an immediate rush of settlers to the coast. The completion of the Sante Fe Railroad in 1885 effected the desired end. In January, 1886, this road withdrew from the Transcontinen- tal Traffic Association and precipitated a rate war with the Southern Pacific between eastern cities and California.
At the time this rate cutting began, tickets from Missis- sippi Valley points to Los Angeles cost about a hundred and twenty-five dollars. Within a few months this rate had
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been greatly reduced; and as the war went merrily on, the railroads almost carried people to California free of charge. A five dollar rate from Missouri to Los Angeles remained in force for three months; and at least for one day during the keenest period of competition, the fare was actually lowered to a dollar. When the period of insanity passed and the railroads ceased their suicidal rivalry, rates were restored to something like a normal basis; but even so, they did not again reach the high levels prevailing before the advent of the Santa Fé.
In the meantime the boom was on. Already interested in California by the attractive reports of its climate and resources, prospective settlers and tourists by the hundreds took advantage of the low rates to travel to the coast. Los Angeles and Southern California became the center of this immigration of the eighties, as San Francisco and the gold fields had been the center of the migration from 1849 to 1852.
With the arrival of the new comers, Los Angeles real estate began to rise sharply in value. The movement at first was orderly enough, but soon began to take on the worst features of an unsound and inflated boom. Before a year had past, the boom had become a financial debauch. Most of those who took part in the speculative craze were newly arrived from the east; but many of the older residents at last caught the fever and either sold their real estate holdings at exorbitant figures; or, having lost their heads in the contagion, competed with the so-called "green horn" purchasers from the east for an opportunity to lose their money as well.
Those responsible for the worst features of the boom, however, were outlanders from the Middle West-"profes- sional boomers," as they were afterwards called, who, learning of the increasing interest in California real estate, flocked into Los Angeles by the score and resorted to every conceivable device to inflate prices and stimulate sales. Highly colored literature, supposedly descriptive of the climate and resources of Southern California, was scattered broadcast all over the United States, and even over Europe.
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Of the means employed locally to attract prospective buyers, J. M. Guinn, who lived through the boom period and saw in person the spectacular features of the craze, thus wrote:
"The methods of advertising the attractions of the various tracts, subdivisions and town sites thrown on the market, and the devices resorted to to inveigle purchasers into investing were various, often ingenious and sometimes infamous. Brass bands, street processions, free excursions, and free lunches, columns of advertisements rich in description and profuse in promises that were never intended to be fulfilled, pictures of massive hotels in the course of erection, lithographs of colleges about to materialize, lotteries, the prizes in which were handsome residences or family hotels, railroads that began and ended in the imaginations of the projectors-such were a few of the many devices resorted to to attract purchasers and induce them to invest their coin."
Under the stimulus of such advertising Los Angeles lots rose from $500 in 1886 to $5,000 the next year, and nearby ranch lands increased fourteen and fifteen hundred per cent during the same period. Vast tracts formerly used for grain fields or sheep pastures were subdivided into town lots and sold at an unheard of profit. Along the line of the Santa Fé Railroad from Los Angeles to the San Bernardino County line, a distance of thirty-six miles, twenty-five of these boom towns were started before the close of 1887.
Most of these particular towns, after years of struggle to live down their sinister origin, have since become flourishing communities, but many of their contemporaries suffered a cruel fate. Some even died a-borning. And no wonder! They were laid out on mountain sides, in the sandy washes of the San Gabriel River, on rocky, sterile brush lands without water or any other requisite of habitation, and even on the dry wastes of the Mojave Desert! Wherever, indeed, the imagination of an ingenious and unscrupulous agent could conceive a town, there one was established (at least on paper), and lots literally sold by the thousands.
Of the fate of these phantom towns, the following para- graph of J. M. Guinn gives an apt account :
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"From a report compiled for the Los Angeles County Board of Equalization in July, 1889, I find the area included in sixty towns, all of which were laid out since January 1, 1887, estimated at 79,350 acres. The total population of these sixty towns at that time [1889] was placed at 3,350. Some of the largest of these on paper were without inhabitants. Carlton, containing 4,060 lots, was an unpeopled waste; Nadeau, 4,470 lots, had no inhabitants; Manchester, 2,304 lots, no inhabitants; Santiago 2,110 lots, was a deserted village. Others still contained a small remnant of their former population. Chicago Park, containing 2,289 lots, had one inhabitant, the watchman who took care of its leading hotel; Sunset, 2,014 lots, one inhabitant, the watchman of an expensive hotel which was in the course of construction when the boom burst. . .. The sites of a majority of the boom cities of twenty years ago have been returned to acreage, the plowshare has passed over their ruins, and barley grows in the deserted streets."
The early part of 1888 marked the beginning of the end of the Great Boom. Prices fell even more rapidly than they had risen. The bands, barbecues, free excursions, glib auctioneers, and crowds of dupes and speculators dis- appeared, leaving Southern California, after a somewhat painful readjustment of its affairs, to settle down into a less spectacular but much sounder period of development.
In the meantime the state as a whole had continued its steady growth. In the decade from 1880 to 1890 the pop- ulation rose from approximately 865,000 to 1,213,398. Between 1890 and 1900 the increase was much less marked, and the census of the latter year showed a population of only 1,485,053. Within the next ten years, however, im- migration from the east set in on a larger scale than ever before, and by 1910 there were 2,377,549 persons living within the state. An even greater increase took place within the next decade and the federal census of 1920 showed a pop- ulation of 3,426,861.1
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