USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 51
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The condition of the worker in San Francisco was generally satisfactory in 1863, but in that year the great demand for soldiers had lessened the available force of laborers and mechanics in the East to such an extent that they were able to effectively organize for the purpose of bettering themselves. Wages on the other side of the Rocky Mountains had been very low in the Fifties, and they were slow to move upward when prices under the influence of a depreciating currency began to soar. The situation was one suggesting the desirableness of organization, and a movement to that end became quite general and proved successful. The circum- stances were wholly different in San Francisco, but the example of eastern success proved contagious and a movement was started in the City which resulted in the organization of a Central Trades Assembly in the fall of 1863. This assembly was conducted as a secret society and did not last very long. Its first president was John M. Day, a man who afterward figured in the Kearney movement. Dur- ing the existence of the assembly there were numerous strikes, but it is probable that they would have taken place without its inspiration, for there had been reduc- tions of wages in the earlier part of the year owing to a plethora of help, and as the oversupply was somewhat diminished later, the demand for a restoration to the former rates was not unreasonable.
The discussions of the labor situation in the press at that time revolved wholly about the law of supply and demand. One journal advised "labor to make no un- reasonable demand" and it would have the sympathy and encouragement of the community; at the same time it warned the strikers that the opposite course would certainly result in injury to them by causing a general disturbance of the labor market if their persistence should bring competitors to the City to fill their places. It is not probable that considerations of this sort had much weight with the men bent upon effecting organization, but they influenced the working element suffi- ciently to make it lukewarm in its support of the assembly and it went to pieces in the following year.
Strike of Foundry Employes
In 1864 the foundrymen of San Francisco refused to accede to a demand for an increase of wages. At that time the boiler makers were receiving from $3.50 to $4 a day, and they asked for a raise to $4 and $5. The employers declared that the conditions would not justify the advance and declined to consent to a uniform increase. One concern offered to pay the increased wage demanded by seventeen of its employes, but positively refused to recognize the principle of compensating without reference to the qualifications or capacity of the worker. The employes would not recede from their position and "went out." Sympathetic resolutions were passed by other unions, but no financial aid was rendered to the strikers who were compelled to fight their battle without assistance. As the rate of wages paid to moulders was much lower at the East than in San Francisco the places of the strikers werc filled by men brought from that section. No violence attended this strike, and the unsuccessful moulders union which was temporarily crippled by its want of success was speedily reorganized.
Labor and Politics
The failure of the moulders strike emphasized the argument that the difference in wage levels between East and West would not warrant aggression on the part of the employed, but the activity of a certain element in the unions was not wholly abated. Although the Central Trades Assembly had practically passed out of existence, some of its members who were dominated by the idea of creating a labor party, or at least of making the influence of labor felt in politics, continued their
Organization of Central Trades Assembly
Trades Assembly Collapses
FERRY LANDING AT FOOT OF PACIFIC STREET IN 1867
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efforts. For two or three years there was an approach to harmony between em- ployer and employed, and there was little or no agitation, but in 1867 there was a marked revival of effort to solidify the workers which developed into a political movement aimed at securing by legislation certain reforms which employers refused to concede to the demands of the workers.
In the legislature of 1865 an unsuccessful attempt had been made to pass an eight hour law. It failed because the petitions asking for the fixing of shorter hours of labor had been met by numerons remonstrances from mechanics who re- garded the innovation as an encroachment on individual liberty, and insisted that the inevitable result of shortened hours of labor would be diminished wages and decreased production. In 1865 there was still a large proportion of workers who produced on their own account. The factory system had not developed to any extent, and the proportion of employers and employed was more nearly equal than later. The shoemaker who hired two or three men to assist him in producing, and the tailor who employed a few journeymen, were in close touch with their employes, and in many cases they were able to make the latter see that their interests were identical. These facts explain what later seemed an anomalous, but was really a perfectly natural condition of affairs.
The failure to pass an eight hour law did not discourage those who were seeking to bring about a reduction of hours of labor. An eight hour league was formed by the carpenters, which made itself felt to such an extent that Haight, the demo- cratic governor in his message to the legislature of 1867-8, advocated the enact- ment of an eight hour law. Out of this league in 1867 was developed the Me- chanics' State Council which devoted itself chiefly to the propagation of the eight hour idea, and in the same year the Industrial League of California, with branches in the northern and southern part of the state, was formed.
In January, 1867, the "Industrial Magazine" published a list of unions then in existence, all of which were holding regular meetings. They numbered twenty- six and embraced a great variety of trades. They were called: Industrial League No. 2; Eureka Typographical Union No. 21; Plumbers Protective Union; Brick- layers Protective Association; Stonecutter's Union; Operative Stone Mason's So- ciety ; Laborers Protective Association; Tinsmith's Protective Association; Moulders Association; Boiler Maker's Society; Plasterers Protective Association; Ship and Steamboat Joiners Association; Journeymen Shipwrights Association; Ship Caulk- ers Association; Journeymen Horseshoers Association; Shoemaker's Protective As- sociation and Cartmen's Association. The magazine explained that this was not a complete list, as there were present at a convention which met on March 29, 1867, representatives from the Saddle and Harness Maker's Association, Honse Car- penters No. 1 and No. 2, also of the Coopers, Metal Roofers, Machinists, Riggers and Stevedore's unions.
At this convention, which was attended by 140 delegates, thirty-two trades were represented. In the discussion of later political conditions it has been assumed that the disposition of workingmen to thoroughly organize did not manifest itself until the period immediately preceding the success of the workingmen's party when they elected Eugene Schmitz to the mayoralty of San Francisco. It will be seen from the list presented that this assumption is erroneons, and some account of the doings of the workingmen's deliberative body which met in 1867 will show that the political success of the workingmen's party organized by Abraham Ruef was
Attempt to Pass an Eight Hour Law
Eight-Hour League Formed
Trades Unions in San Fran- cisco in 1867
Working- men's Convention
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anticipated thirty years earlier, and that the workers of that day inserted in their platforms demands which the country has since acceded to, and suggested changes which enthusiasts are now advocating as marvelous political reforms.
Eastern Advances Rejected
There was one feature of the deliberations which in a marked fashion indi- cated the aloofness of California at that period. A strong effort was made to in- duce the convention to send delegates to a national gathering, but a resolution to that effect was voted down after an extended debate which exhibited something like a consensus of opinion that the labor situation in California and the Pacific coast generally had peculiarities which made it desirable that those directly con- cerned should work out their problem without outside interference. Some of the arguments employed pointed to the fear that the possible result of a national fed- eration of labor might be to reduce the California working man to the admittedly worse condition of the Eastern toiler, and intimations were freely thrown out that the aims and aspirations of the workers of the two sections might at times diverge if they did not actually conflict.
Political Action Favored
There was something like a divergence at the time, for the California organizers were strongly inclined to make a political machine of the affiliated unions, while the current of opinion ran strongly against such a movement in the East. The conven- tion before it adjourned committed the unions to the policy of participation in po- litical affairs. A resolution was unanimously adopted which provided for the cre- ation of a committee consisting of one member from each delegation, whose duty it was made to draft a workingman's platform "embodying all justly needed reforms, calling the attention of the workmen to such measures of self protection as the exigencies of the time might require and urging the formation of workingmen's unions."
Faith Pinned to Primaries
This resolution was supplemented by another, in which the opinion was ex- pressed "that the most advisable means of arriving at success in the object for which our convention has been convened is to act in our primary capacity as citi- zens, and to vote for proper representatives among ourselves at the primary elec- tions, and they (sic) should therefore as citizens and favorable to the working classes elect only such delegates as this convention shall have recommended." In accordance with this resolution it was decided that the delegates from each of the San Francisco districts should nominate persons for the primary ticket. This was done and after some debate in which the qualifications of those put forward were freely discussed, a ticket was made up which was put forward as that of the workingmen. The primaries were held on June 5, 1867, and when the votes were counted it was found that the ticket framed by the convention had carried by a large majority.
Politicians Take the Hint
The success of the workingmen at the primaries produced a marked effect upon the politicians and resulted in the passage of the eight hour law and a mechanic's lien measure by the legislature of 1868. In the assembly the eight hour law was championed by the member from Mariposa county, who had conferred upon him the nickname of "the Mariposa blacksmith." His attitude, and the vigor with which he advocated their cause made a distinct impression on the workingmen, and they tendered him the nomination for congress. As he appeared inclined to accept, but subsequently withdrew his name, he was charged by the workingmen with having been bought off. The accusation was evidently inspired by observation of the fact that the workingmen's movement was distasteful to the railroad magnates, who had been subjected to severe criticism by members of the convention of 1867. The
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workingmen seemed to regard as ample corroboration of their suspicion the subse- quent close relations of Wilcox, the Mariposa blacksmith, and the Central Pacific railroad.
When the Central Pacific railroad was completed in 1869 many who had found employment in the work of construction had to seek other occupations. The num- ber of unemployed from this cause was augmented by a considerably increased im- migration from various parts of the Union. At the same time Chinese were entering the state at the rate of about two thousand a month. This brought about a condi- tion of affairs which worked disadvantageously to trades unionism. The disastrous results of the Black Friday of 1869 were being felt at the same time and a dis- tinct check was given to progress. Under the circumstances the unions found it difficult to maintain their existence. The eight hour law was disregarded and wages were falling. When the decade 1870-80 opened the workingmen were no longer an active factor in politics, and many of the unions had almost ceased to preserve their organization.
A feature of the workingmen's movement of this period was the active interest taken in promoting the claims of women. The unions were not disposed to support demands for the suffrage, but they were quite ready to advocate the bestowal of clerical positions upon the sex. On January 10, 1870, a resolution was intro- duced in the state senate requesting the several state officers to give employment to women in their respective departments whenever practicable. It passed, but on a motion to reconsider was lost. Although this attempted legislation did not have its inception with the workingmen's organizations they made it quite clear in various ways that they were favorable to its adoption. Day, and a few other of the leading spirits of the workingmen's party of 1868 were thoroughly convinced that their cause would profit by being linked with that of the women and they acted on this theory, but without official indorsement of the unions.
No greater mistake was ever made in the discussion of a political question than that embodied in the very general assumption that the anti Chinese movement in California had its inspiration from organized labor. It is true that in the Sixties the trades unions and organizations of workingmen carried on an active propaganda against the introduction of Orientals, but their action had long been preceded by movements against the Chinese in no wise associated with hired labor. The earliest troubles grew out of the dissatisfaction of the miners, who were opposed to their working the placers, but the miners' unions were not labor organizations, their membership being made up in the early days of men who were working on their own account.
The hostility of this class was directed as much against certain other classes of foreigners as against the Chinese. Chileans, Peruvians and Mexicans were antag- onized by the placer miners and frequently subjected to the same sort of mistreat- ment as the Orientals. The alignment was somewhat contradictory, for all Latins were not under the ban. The Frenchman, as often as otherwise, was persona grata in the mining camps, and curiously enough, Irish and Germans who had lived some time in the Eastern states before emigrating to the coast were regarded as Amer- icans and made common cause with the latter against foreigners. The Know Noth- ing movement, which had a great vogne in California in the early Fifties, was di- rected not so much against all foreigners as against those who were regarded as undesirable, and was very much complicated by race prejudice, introduced into the
A Backset to Trades Unions
Unions and Women Workers
Unions and the Chinese
Anti- Foreign Movement of Miners
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state by men from the slave holding section of the Union. General Persifer Smith of the United States army was an extreme exponent of the native American idea and proposed to prohibit all foreigners from mining for gold in the newly discov- ered diggings, but his views met with little sympathy. Other army officers influ- enced by what must be regarded as one of the earliest movements for the conserva- tion of minerals, had proposed to regulate mining by compelling the miners to pay royalties, in the fixing of which citizens of the United States were to be favored, but this plan had a few advocates among civilians.
Chinese Testimony not Accepted
But while there was a wide divergence of opinion respecting who should be permitted to search for gold there was little or none concerning the status of cer- tain races. The convention which framed the constitution, while effectively pro- viding against the introduction of slavery, at the same time contributed to the exist- ing prejudice against negroes, and the courts subsequently extended it to other races, among which the Chinese were included. Justice Hugh C. Murray, of the supreme court of California, in the case of George W. Hall, who had been con- victed of murder on the testimony of a Chinese held that the word "Indian," as used in the statutes concerning witnesses, included not only the North American Indians but the whole Mongolian race. He admitted that the word as used in the statutes was specific, but argued that from the time of the discovery of America by Columbus all the countries washed by the Chinese waters were dominated by the Indies and that all who came from thence were Indians.
Early Race Prejudice
These refinements may seem very absurd to us, but at that time race distinctions were greatly exaggerated, and led to serious misconceptions. There is no doubt that very many miners were profoundly convinced that all Chinese were thieves, and this belief had its effect in stimulating hatred which often exhibited itself in unprovoked assaults on the Chinese. It is true that much of the ill feeling against the latter may have been provoked by their unremitting industry, and their exhibi- tions of an economy bordering on penuriousness, but these latter excited the animad- versions of all other classes of citizens, and were in no sense the result of a trades union activity, nor in any wise due to feeling worked up by politicians. In short the Chinese were hated for their habits, which some call virtues, and the hatred was shared indiscriminately, even the ostracized and outlawed Mexicans making common cause against them.
Mexican Hatred of Chinese
One of the most atrocious crimes ever committed in California was perpetrated by a member of Joaquin Murietta's band of robbers named Garcia. It is related of him that he cut the throats of six Chinese after tying them together by their cues. He assigned no other reason for his brutality than the fact that they were such easy victims. On another occasion near the mission San Gabriel in Los An- geles county Garcia and Murietta surprised a couple of Chinese camping near the roadside. The wretched Orientals offered no resistance when they were robbed by the bandits, but the outlaws killed them for the pure lust of blood. Although Mu- rietta and his gang rarely showed mercy to anyone who fell into their hands they were charged with being particularly vindictive in dealing with Chinese.
Early Predictions of Trouble
It should suffice to effectually dispose of the assumption that the antagonism to Chinese immigration was worked up by trades unions and politicians to relate that as early as 1854, when the question of excluding Chinese from the gold mines was discussed, the objections urged against their admission was based on the idea that "they were naturally an inferior race. both mentally and corporally, while
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their habits of living were particularly offensive to Americans." The man who thus summed them up was an American and not of the laboring class. He was not prejudiced and was apparently averse to considering the subject for he declared "it would be out of the question for him to discuss the general Chinese question," but he ventured the prediction that it would afford much opportunity for debate "by philosophers, statesmen, politicians and mere laborers in California for many years to come."
Still earlier than the date of this comment a committee had been appointed by Governor Bigler which made a report to the Legislature on the 28th of April, 1852, on the subject of Chinese immigration. The Chinese population of the State was then estimated to be about 22,000, the major part of them being at the mines, al- though there was a settlement of some consequence in San Francisco. The investi- gators entered into a detailed examination of the activities of the six companies, and showed that they each had a headquarters in the City, where the names of the new arrivals were recorded. These companies or tongs maintained a close super- vision of the Chinese in the City and in the country, and they were not permitted to leave the United States without paying their debts, which were usually obligations to the tongs for moneys advanced in bringing the immigrants to America. It was estimated that the six companies had about $200,000 employed in the business of aiding immigrants who were all of the coolie class, and because of their ignorance were particularly amenable to the authority exercised over them by the leaders of their respective tongs. These facts and other details furnished by the report un- doubtedly did much to increase the dislike felt for the Oriental, and there were numerous demonstrations against them in the mining towns, but in San Francisco, the place where the most trouble might have been expected if organized labor had been malignantly active, they were practically unmolested.
The records bear out the statement that, on the whole, San Francisco was much more tolerant of the Chinese in the Fifties than the people of the interior. There were at that time many in the City who believed with Governor McDougal that the Chinese could be made useful citizens by setting them at occupations for which they were peculiarly fitted. In 1851 he outlined an extensive project for the reclamation of swamp and overflowed lands, and actually recommended that further importa- tions of Chinese should be made in order that such lands might be brought under cultivation. He spoke of the Chinese as "one of the most worthy classes of our newly adopted citizens, to whom the climate and character of these lands are partic- ularly suited." The suggestion he threw out excited no adverse comment. It may have been passed over with silent contempt, for McDougal, who was an accidental governor, was not held in high esteem, but there was doubtless a considerable num- ber of San Franciscans at the time who were inclined to look with favor on any scheme of providing cheap labor.
But this acquiescent attitude did not extend to the mining regions. The Chinese were not merely harassed by the miners, who objected to their taking out gold, but they invoked legislative aid to make the industry as unprofitable for them as possible. Under interior pressure the Legislature imposed a license tax on foreign miners which was only collected from Chinese, and in 1855 an act was passed which levied a per capita tax of $50, collectible from the master, consignee or owner of the vessel, upon every Chinese imported. Much scandal grew out of this exaction, as those entrusted with the business of collecting the head tax were singularly re-
Legislative Report on Chinese in 1852
San Fran- ciscans Tolerant of Chinese
Miners' License Tax Imposed on Chinese
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miss about turning the money into the treasury. The administration of the license tax law in the interior was not very creditable, and there was much recrimination and frequent exhibitions of violence. In 1859 Governor Weller was compelled to send an armed force to Shasta to quell anti Chinese riots. In a message which accompanied his call he declared that the "spirit of mobocracy must be crushed no matter at what cost." This sentiment met the hearty approval of the City press, even that portion of it which continually presented arguments against Chinese im- migration applauding Weller's determination to suppress violence, and commending his action in sending riflemen to Shasta to quell the riotous miners.
It has been pointed out that the actions of Californians have not always squared with their professions of hostility to Chinese immigration. This accusation is fully borne out by the facts, but the inconsistency is easily explained. This is a practical, work-a-day world and the men in it are as apt to surrender to circumstances as to abide by their convictions. In January, 1862, Governor Leland Stanford, in a message to the Legislature took ground against Chinese immigration and declared that it should be discouraged by every legitimate means. He said "Asia with her numberless millions sends to our shores the dregs of her population. There could be no doubt," he added, "that the pretense of numbers of that degraded and dis- tinct people would exercise a deleterious influence upon the superior race." There- fore, he declared, he would concur in any constitutional action having for its object the repression of immigration of the Asiatic races.
No one questioned the sincerity of his utterance, yet in a very short time there- after the corporation of which Stanford was the president imported large numbers of Chinese for the purpose of constructing the Central Pacific railroad, and San Franciscans who were as thoroughly convinced as he was in 1862, did not hesitate to employ them in every occupation to which they could adapt themselves. And what may appear still more singular to those who have not investigated the subject, the attitude of the workingmen, no matter how denunciatory their resolutions in the Sixties, was that of acquiescence in the assumption that their assistance was needed in the development of the country.
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