USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 38
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The development of the raisin industry was no less marvelous. The product of 1870, which was represented by 1,200 boxes of 20 pounds each, valued at $1,350, had grown to 5,150,000 boxes in 1894, whose value was estimated at $5,180,000, the product of the previous year having been 4,250,000 boxes. The honey product, which was 2,680,000 pounds in 1893, reached 5,350,000 pounds in 1897 and 7,878,- 000 pounds in 1898. In 1905 it was 9,500,000 pounds, with intervening years of small production. The beet sugar industry was also exhibiting remarkable prog- ress. In 1892 the product was 8,624,890 pounds; five years later it was 70,470,000 pounds, and in 1906 it was 178,000,000 pounds. These extraordinary develop- ments in every field of industry were making themselves felt in the urban centers. The state was being filled with an industrious population, for whom the big ranches were cut up to provide small places, and the prediction of those who opposed Oriental immigration was in full process of realization. Instead of colonies of aliens, whose habits were not ours, and whose unassimilative qualities would have prevented the establishment of that complete commercial interdependence which can only be found in communities in which there are no extreme differences in the standard of living of the masses, California was now developing along lines con- ducive to the general prosperity.
The effect was visible in the rapid urban development which followed 1895, and which was perhaps more pronounced in San Francisco, and the near-by bay cities, than in Los Angeles, where as much energy was displayed in making known the progress of the city and the surrounding country as in the work of promoting resources. San Francisco for several years had labored under the disadvantage of over-confidence, and an indisposition to make the best of its advantages. When the change came, and enterprise took the place of inertia, the fact was not loudly proclaimed, and it was even made a subject of reproach by critical editors of pa- pers published in ncar-by cities, that there was too great a tendency to be modest
Rapid Urban Development of the State
Raisin and Beet Sugar Industries
OLD CLIFF HOUSE
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SAN FRANCISCO
and that profit would be derived from emulating the example of the boomers. It does not appear that the advice was accepted, except by the leaders of the work- ingmen's party, who in the election of 1905, which resulted in Schmitz being a third time chosen as mayor of the City, made the claim that the undoubted prosperity of San Francisco was due to the success of the labor element in obtain- ing control of the municipality, and to the liberal administration of the laws by Schmitz under the directions of Ruef.
Such claims would be a subject for amused comment if the tendency to overlook true causes, and to regard as causes what are really effects, were not as common in other political organizations as those of the workingmen. The historian may refer to blunders of the sort mentioned and dispose of them by adducing facts which supply a more reasonable explanation. Prosperity is dependent upon pro- ductivity, and when from any cause, whether natural or merely psychological, production is interfered with, prosperity is bound to be arrested. Adversity is often the result of misapprehension. Men may underrate their capacity to get along, and their lack of confidence brings about the result they fear, but good deeds and excellent administration cannot promote progress unless they are backed up by exhibitions of energy which will provide more things to go around. And when that energy is exerted, and through it production is increased it takes a great deal of blundering, extravagance and mismanagement generally to consume and dissipate the wealth which comes from intelligent thrift. It is well to keep this latter fact in mind. It will serve to clear away many misunderstandings to know that so long as the capable are not interfered with in their efforts, the means will be provided for carrying on the desirable activities of life as well as those which can be dispensed with. Californians when permitted to take advantage of their oppor- tunities have demonstrated their ability as producers, and the productivity of the state has permitted vagaries which might have impeded advancement in less favor- ably situated communities, but which have only interposed a temporary check to the growth of its principal city. San Francisco has undergone vicissitudes which, ac- cording to preconceived theories, should have proved fatal to its continued existence. It had to repair the effects of destructive fires in the early part of its career, and it was compelled at times to preserve order by extra legal methods. But worse than these calamities was the state of mind produced by the apprehension that any attempt to provide the City with those conveniences which a progressive community demands would result injuriously. Its result was to bring about a temporary paralysis of energy. The fear of exceeding the dollar tax limit was a greater drag on the progress of the community than the most rampant extravagance of tax eaters.
The dollar limit incubus was practically lifted when the new charter was ' adopted, and the timorousness which had precluded the securing of a new organic law was dissipated by the prosperity which came from expanding production. It showed no signs of abatement when the Phelan administration was superseded by that of Schmitz, and there was no halt in 1905 when the latter's third victory was shared by the sixteen workingmen's candidates for the supervisorship, who proved to be as unscrupulous a band of robbers as was ever chosen to manage the affairs of a city. Their scoundrelism, however, was powerless to arrest the prog- ress of San Francisco, which was so marked in the first months of 1906 that men, usually credited with the possession of that rare attribute known as common sense, were beginning to lose confidence in the once freely expressed opinion that the
Mixing Polities and Economics
Evil Results of False Economic Notions
738
SAN FRANCISCO
setting up of class distinctions, such as that involved in the sharp line of demarca- tion drawn between trades unionists and other people in the community could do it any harm. But they were not close observers. The increased productivity of the state had indeed tended to greatly promote the prosperity of San Francisco, but concurrently the injudicious course of the trades unionists, whom political success had blinded to economic conditions, was seriously impeding the growth of the City along those lines calculated to insure its future and permanent prosperity.
San Francisco had frequently dealt with the problem of creating a great manu- facturing industry. As has already been shown, some of its ablest citizens, misled by the theory that proximity to raw materials and other natural advantages, and the added protection afforded by the cost of transportation from remote Eastern industrial centers, had unsuccessfully attempted to accomplish something more than simply supplying local needs. There were dreams of creating a manufactur- ing industry which would take on a broader character than that of mere neighbor- hood supply. It was thought that woolen goods could be manufactured at a cost which would enable competition with the outside world; our proximity to supplies of raw silk engendered the belief that we could turn out silk textiles as was being done on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, and busy brains were occupied with numberless projects, the most of which came to naught. When men fail in enter- prises of this character they usually form a correct judgment concerning the cause, but very often the view of the best informed is rejected and that of the uninformed which seeks to disguise the facts is accepted instead.
, Two causes operated to prevent the development of manufactures on any consid- erable scale in San Francisco and California. The most important of these was the lack of a near-at-hand market which would warrant producing on a scale suf- ficiently large to bring the cost of production down to or lower than that of the already established centers, plus the cost of the manufacturers of the latter getting their goods into the markets of the state; the other was the excessively high cost of labor, and the indisposition of the worker to meet the condition which the grow- ing propinquity with the East had brought about through the facilities afforded by the transportation companies to the people of that section to put their finished products in coast markets. Although the Atlantic seaboard was over three thou- sand miles distant from San Francisco, by the policy referred to it was practically brought as close and even closer to this City than many places within the border of the state. The situation created by the inflexibility of the unions was in large measure disguised by the causes already referred to, which obscured the fact that many branches of manufacturing were being slowly choked out of existence. The growing population and the figures of increased production of manufactured ar- ticles made it possible to charge that the critics who pointed out the difficulties, and sounded the warning that San Francisco would suffer serious injury unless reason were permitted to sway, were pessimists who deliberately sought to create a false impression in order to accomplish their own selfish ends. It also permitted the easy acceptance of the assumption that lack of cheap fuel was at the bottom of the trouble of those industries which struggled to keep in the running, but were finally obliged to drop out. Years before the fire the fallacy of this latter explanation had been exposed. The productivity of the oil fields and the development of hydro electricity had given San Francisco cheaper power than was enjoyed by most East- ern manufacturing centers, but this in no wise improved the situation so far as
Manufac- turing Growth Impeded
Causes Pre- venting Man- ufacturing Develop- ment
VIEW EAST ON MARKET STREET FROM THIRD STREET, BEFORE THE FIRE, SHOWING THE PALACE AND GRAND HOTELS
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SAN FRANCISCO
numerous once prosperous industries were concerned, and which were slowly being extinguished by Eastern and near-by rivalry.
The figures of the assessor, and those of the census did not, except on close analysis, disclose this condition of affairs. Between 1889 and 1899 there had been increases of totals which permitted the San Franciscan to draw upon them to point a story of progress, and when the census bureau in 1904 presented its figures they were dwelt upon with pride. They showed that the number of manufacturing es- tablishments in the City had increased from 1,748 in 1899 to 2,251 in 1904; that the production during the five-year period had been enlarged from $107,024,000 to $137,788,000, and that the capital employed had expanded in the interval from $69,643,000 to $102,362,000. Statistics of this sort have a decidedly reassuring effect, and are apt to mislead even the reflecting. And when supplemented with the additional information that the number of wage earners in factories had in- creased from 32,555 in 1899 to 38,429 in 1904, and those of the salaried employes from 3,413 to 5,190 there appeared to be every reason in the world for the expres- sions of satisfaction which they called forth. When to this army of workers in manufacturing industries is added the great number of persons in service, in the rapidly multiplying stores and in professional callings it is not astonishing that the workingmen on the eve of the great fire scouted the idea that San Francisco could be more prosperous than it was, or that there was any possibility of an arrestment or a set back.
And yet there were facts disclosed by the census report which should have been disquieting, and would have been had they been duly emphasized. Despite the gratifying appearance of the totals, the evidence was clear that the City was going backward in some industries. The once prosperous boot and shoe trade which em- ployed 987 persons in 1899 only had 643 in 1904; fewer were engaged in the manu- facture of chemicals; the number of workers on women's clothing had shrunken considerably; the manufacture of men's furnishing goods, which had been in a promising condition in 1899, had fallen off greatly; there were fewer engaged in glove making and in the production of leather goods. A comparison of the advances made in these particular industries in other cities in which they had obtained a foothold shows that the recession in San Francisco was abnormal. The compara- tively slow progress in some other lines which should have expanded with the growth of population was also an indication of weakness. The manufacture of carriages and wagons was almost stationary, as was also that of copper, tin and sheet iron products. The number of wage earners in foundries and machine shops increased from 3,509 to 3,885, but the metal industries were exhibiting signs of the severe competition to which they were being subjected, and in the years immedi- ately following the fire they were greatly diminished. In fact a resume of the operations of manufacturing industries shows that the gains made between 1899 and 1904 were largely due to the growth of the neighborhood trade and did not indicate a healthy expansion along lines calculated to realize the dream of making San Francisco a great manufacturing city.
The principal products of the manufacturing industries as grouped by the cen- sus bureau in 1904 exhibited the following values: Printing and publishing. $10,- 847,000; slaughtering and meat packing, $9,209,000; foundry and machine shop products, $10,525,000; bread and other bakery products, $4,882,000; coffee and spice roasting and grinding, $3,980,000; canning and preserving, $4,636,000; lum-
Figures that Deceived
Manufactur- ing Impeded by Trades Unionism
Value of Manufactured Products in 1904
740
SAN FRANCISCO
ber and timber products, $3,980,000; clothing, men's, including shirts, $4,804,000; copper, tin and sheet iron products, $4,529,000; leather, tanned, curried and finished, $2,718,000 ; malt liquors, $3,482,000; furniture and refrigerators, $1,836,000; flour mill and grist mill products, $3,423,000; food preparations, $999,000, and tobacco manufactures, $2,028,000. In many of these enumerated categories San Francisco held a preeminent position in 1904. It turned out 59.8 per cent of all the foundry and machine shop products; 85 per cent of the coffee and spice preparations; 91.7 per cent of the men's clothing; 76.3 per cent of the copper, tin and sheet iron prod- ucts ; 64.8 per cent of the furniture and refrigerators; 62.9 per cent of the food preparations, and 63.5 per cent of the tobacco manufactures of the state; but while it had thus maintained its position in its relation to other sections of Cali- fornia it was not holding its own in competition with Eastern manufacturers, who were relatively and absolutely stronger than at any time previous, and were con- stantly extending their operations at the expense of the local manufacturer.
It would be an unpleasant task for the historiographer of San Francisco to record facts such as those contained in the preceding paragraphs if there was no prospect of improvement. The chief obstacle to the development of the manufac- turing industry in California has undoubtedly been due to the sparseness of its population, but that is a drawback now rapidly being corrected. The state in its enormous area of 158,297 square miles in 1900 had only 1,185,053 inhabitants within its borders, and the density of population was only 9.5 per square mile. In 1910 the number of inhabitants had increased to 2,377,549, making the density 15.3 per square mile. There is no reason for doubting the assumption that with the increased facilities for bringing desirable immigrants into the state which the Panama Canal will supply that the population will be more than doubled before the close of the present decade. With a consuming population of 5,000,000 within its borders, which will grow from year to year, manufacturing will receive an im- petus which cannot be restrained by the inconsistencies of any class, because they must succumb to the inexorable law of competition.
The earliest efforts to prognosticate the future of San Francisco were invariably associated with its harbor, and as was natural, so far as they concerned themselves with details, considered its development solely from the standpoint of the trader. The ideas of the prophets must have been very vague, for they were rarely em- bellished with explanations of how the great commerce which they predicted was to be developed. They apparently reasoned that other places situated advanta- geously for exchange had grown to large proportions, and therefore it was reasonable to expect that San Francisco, founded as it was on the shores of what was admit- tedly one of the best harbors in the world, must enjoy a like experience. Although the conviction that the port must expand greatly was general it does not appear that the first persons to make good use of its facilities, when they started in to do so, gave any thought to the future. In all their operations they were guided solely by expediency and by the desire for personal gain. They talked largely of a city of a million or more inhabitants, but they built as if they had no confidence in their optimistic forecasts. They filled in Yerba Buena cove because it was easier to do so than to level a site back of it for building purposes. It can hardly be pleaded in extenuation of the course pursued that it was adopted in ignorance of the great changes which the future was to effect in transportation methods. There was already, in the early Fifties, considerable mental activity bestowed upon the
Early Forecasts of Harbor's Importance
Expanding Markets Brighten Prospects
741
SAN FRANCISCO
problem of bringing ship and car together, and there certainly was enough specu- lation as to the great results which must follow the completion of a transcontinental railroad to have suggested that precautions must be taken to conveniently handle the Oriental trade which was to spring up in consequence.
Men, however, talk in one strain and act as convenience moulded by immediate needs dictates. San Francisco's water front, although theoretically regarded as of vital importance, was made the football for designing politicians and avaricious individuals for nearly a quarter of a century before any thought was given to its, development, and when the matter did begin to exercise the brains of legislators they were apparently more concerned to create a political machine than to plan a scheme of improvement. A State Harbor Commission took charge of the affairs of the City's water front as early as 1863, but it was not until 1869 that anything like a showing was made for the amount of money expended, and it was so insignifi- cant as to seem almost laughable when taking a retrospect. In that year, when the Central and Union Pacific were joined, the commissioners had already suc- ceeded in disbursing half a million dollars and the result of their work was about 600 feet of bulkhead in front of the Ferry building, on a line two hundred feet too far west to be of any use. Nine years later, when the state was fairly well pro- vided with railroads the commissioners began the creation of a sea wall which was to be in two separate sections with a combined length of 2,000 feet. In 1912 this part of the work was still under construction, just to the south of the present Ferry building, where the work should have begun.
The sinister influence of the railroad monopoly must be held responsible for the wretched condition of affairs on the water front. Its policy was to weaken the shipping industry, and that was easiest effected by pursuing a course which merely resulted in wasting the people's money without increasing the facilities of the port. Perhaps it would be more correct to state that while the railroad con- trolled the politics of the state it was indifferent to the needs of the harbor, and permitted its creatures to make use of its revenues to reward them for their services in helping the monoply to keep the legislature and courts in line with its wishes. Whatever the cause, whether through active opposition or mere indif- ference, the fact remains that the State Harbor Commission made no attempt what- ever to build a permanent wharf until 1907, and the funds for creating such a facility had to be provided by a special bond issue of $2,000,000. The revenues of the port, which up to that date had amounted to millions, had all been squan- dered on administration, and in the erection of temporary wharves which necessi- tated constant repairs.
The present Ferry building, like the permanent wharves since obtained, had to be secured by a resort to the issuance of bonds. Its erection was begun in the early Nineties and it was completed in 1903. It cost in redeemed bonds and inter- est $967,879. Up to the time of its erection there was absolutely nothing along the entire front to which one could point as something derived from the great annual revenues of the port. Teredo-eaten piles supported flimsy wharf structures covered with highly inflammable buildings which frequently became the prey of fire, and were always in a chronic state of reparation. Over these structures, how- ever, there was conducted an increasingly large volume of business, the expansion of which was particularly conspicuous during the ten years immediately preceding the fire of 1906, the shipping of the port growing from 3,729,367 tons in 1894-95
Operations of Harbor Commis- sioners
The Railroad and the Water Front
Ferry Build- ing Only Improvement of Value
742
SAN FRANCISCO
to 5,292,113 tons in 1904-5. But this development was admittedly uninfluenced by anything done to promote the business of the port. It occurred because men learn makeshift methods when there is work to be done, but no one can tell what might have been accomplished for San Francisco had its harbor affairs been admin- istered with an eye single to the promotion of commerce and the convenience of the shipping interest. That it was permitted to exist as a political machine for half a century negatives the assumption that the people of the metropolis regard their harbor as their chief asset. As a matter of fact there has been no evidence of any lively appreciation of the value of the harbor except that sporadically fur- nished by the traffic associations which use the possibilities of the sea as a club to compel the transcontinental railroads to deal properly by its merchants, or on those occasions when sufficient interest has been excited to induce the people to consider the importance of making comprehensive improvements.
The Harbor Commission during its entire existence has been a nest for politi- cians. It has provided places for the servants of the railroad, and for men sup- posed to advance the fortunes of parties, and during later years the law under which it operates was used to harass San Francisco and impede its development. Its affairs have not been intelligently nor honestly conducted. During the admin- istration of Stoneman one of his messages was largely devoted to describing the grafting propensities of state officials, and in it he made particular allusion to the shortcomings of the Harbor Commission. But although a reformer he was the vic- tim of the hallucination that effective work could be expected from a commission which was a mere political machine. In 1887 he spoke in a felicitous vein of the removal of the tolls from wheat and fiour passing over the wharves, but neglected to state that the concession was of little consequence because of the diminishing importance of wheat exports, which was already apparent. He also dwelt upon the completion to date of 6,361 feet of sea wall at a cost of $1,191,000 or an aver- age of $187.25 per lineal foot as a great accomplishment, entirely unconscious of the fact that was clearly recognized by the shipping interest that the improvement he lauded was being made at the place on the front least needed by shippers, while that portion of the harbor where business was active was almost neglected.
Until the eve of the fire no such interest as the subject of harbor facilities demanded was called forth in San Francisco. In the early part of 1906, however, there was an agitation which began to have good results. In January of that year delegates were appointed by various civic organizations to formulate a comprehen- sive plan of improvement. The Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants' Exchange, the Advancement and Improvement Association, the Water-front Federation, the San Francisco Labor Council, the Real Estate Board, the Shipmen's Association of the Pacific Coast, the California Promotion Committee, the Board of Trade, the Commonwealth Club and the Building Trade Council were all represented at a meeting which selected an executive committee consisting of Thomas Magee, R. H. Swayne, W. J. Barrett, James D. Phelan and F. W. Dohrman. After recom- mending that the money required to carry out the projects to be formulated by engineers selected by the gathering should be raised by issuing seventy-five year bonds, which the people of the state would be asked to authorize at the following November election, Luther Wagoner was offered the chief engineership and Colonel W. H. Heuer of the U. S. Engineer Corps, that of consulting engineer. They were engaged in assembling the necessary data and in making investigations when the
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