USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 41
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It is possible to dissent from the sweeping verdict of a critic who while com- plimenting the work of some of the early architects asserted that in the matter of business structures "San Francisco belonged to a class wholly by itself," but that in other parts of the City almost every house erected before about 1885 could be safely and even cheerfully overlooked." Even if it had been desirable to do so it would have been impossible for the observer to follow this advice, for much of the bad building before the year named was obtrusively conspicuous ; but even when obnoxious to criticism of the sort quoted the very bad by virtue of its location made a stronger impression than the eulogized downtown structures which were pronounced "the first business buildings erected in the United States which were both exotic and interesting-buildings which were the product of an alien tradition, yet which retain under American surroundings a certain propriety and positive charm." The man restrained by the canons of his art might see the incongruous features of a wooden Gothic castellated structure, and the contra- dictions which bay windows and classical columns of timber involve, but the people who do not dissect regarded only the general effect, and like the Princess Ra- cowitza felt its picturesqueness and pronounced it "beautiful."
The interest of the historian in the development of architectural taste is less centered in the question whether it was proceeding along correct lines than in determining its effect upon the social well being of the people. It is conceivable that a community might live in the shadow of classic temples and not enjoy any great measure of comfort or the delights which a cultivated estheticism produces ; but it is impossible that a city could be created of houses, no matter how plain in appearance, which served as comfortable homes, without testifying to its prog- ress. The fact that "Queen Ann and Mary Ann" architecture were inextricably mixed did not in the least detract from the force of the evidence that San Fran- cisco before 1885 was preparing herself for what happened after that date. The better buildings erected thereafter were the outcome of the strengthened home
Picturesque Appearance of City
Growth of the Home Feeling
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instinct which had to make its way against adverse circumstances, and of habits developed under conditions existing in few cities outside of San Francisco. The unreflecting sometimes attribute the congested condition of New York to the fact that it is situated on a long narrow island, but experience proves that gregarious- ness and other motives operate more powerfully than restricted area in bringing dense masses of people together. There was no reason why San Franciscans should crowd each other in the early days of the City, but they did so, and actn- ally adopted measures to perpetuate the condition they had imposed upon them- selves by making the size of the city lot as small as if the ground available for building was restricted.
That they broke through these restraints and began to spread over the area embraced within the limits of the consolidated city and county, and overflowed its arbitrary boundaries was due to the speculative activity of the real estate dealer whose desire for gain has made him the apostle of thrift in all American citics. To the energetic efforts of this class can be traced the great centrifugal movement which during recent years has so materially changed urban life and made it not merely endurable, but so attractive that there is constant deprecation of the tend- ency to desert the farm for the city. The real estate dealer in San Francisco has played an active part in its development since the days when it was the village of Yerba Buena, but his activities have rarely taken on boom characteristics. It has been stated that at no time in the history of the City was there a dis- position shown to inflate values by the device of misstating sale prices, the con- servative course of naming a nominal sum in the deed, as the consideration, being the usage from the beginning; but dealers succeeded in' imparting the belief that real estate is dependable property, and that it is one of the best forms of investment. To the propagation of this idea, and the diligence in promoting urban transportation facilities exhibited in the Eighties may be attributed the fact that San Francisco despite the manifold temptations to crowd, was never seriously afflicted with the tenement evil. The propensity to live in rooms and take meals at restaurants, and to board or maintain quarters in hotels, was very strong before 1906, but there were comparatively few houses into which a large number of families were crowded.
That this tendency made little headway was due to the fact that San Fran- cisco real estate men were among the earliest to recognize the possibilities which improved urban transportation presented. The effect of the introduction of the cable as an agent in the work of dispersion was foreseen and discounted by them. Long before the necessary capital could be obtained for the building of cable railways the energetic real estate dealer had figured out the places to which they could and would penetrate, and had convinced clients innumerable that they would be promptly provided. The result was the creation of many nuclei which soon developed into settlements of consequence, the inhabitants of which incessantly demanded the fulfillment of their expectations. The modern reformer who dilates upon the rapacity of the men who "grabbed" the valuable privileges of early days has deliberately closed his eyes to the existence of the condition which produced the result he now deprecates. The privilege of running street cars on the thor- oughfares of a populous city is a valuable one, but we are too apt to lose sight of the fact that the values were in large part created by the men who obtained the privileges, and that in many, if not in all instances, they had to be urged to run
Opening New Resi- dence Dis- tricts
Real Estate and Real Estate Dealers
STADIUM AND RACETRACK, GOLDEN GATE PARK
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the risk of providing a service long before a proper remuneration for their outlay could be obtained.
The development of the street car system of San Francisco has been the sub- ject of more misunderstanding, and has resulted in bringing more discredit on the City than anything else in its history. It is well, therefore to make as clear as possible certain facts which will help to fix the blame where it belongs. Their recital will show that the laches of the community had created a condition which made development as difficult without paying toll as it would have been for the merchant to pass through the forest of Arden without settling with Robin Hood. It is not necessary to inquire narrowly into the causes which contributed to the state of mind which rendered men otherwise scrupulously exact in their deal- ings with their fellowmen indifferent to the lax practices of those who were acting for them in a public capacity. There will be no denial of the assertion that this looseness existed. It may be surmised that at bottom the indifference was due to the feeling that the public servant was underpaid, and that the man not properly rewarded for his services may be excused for adding to his revenues by irregular methods. At any rate there was condonation of irregularity, and the vice grew in the same manner as that of tipping, which in many respects closely resembles the graft of the office-holder to whom tribute was paid, and is still paid, voluntarily to secure the expeditious performance of a duty which would, perhaps, be performed with expedition without the tip if the salary or wages of the position were com- mensurate with the expectations of the person holding it.
The statement that this was and is a condition is merely put forward as an explanation and not as an excuse for its existence, and because nothing can be gained by suppressing or misrepresenting the facts. The latter are easily ascer- tained. They are largely a matter of record, and when that character of evidence is lacking the deficit can be pieced out with notoriety. There is no question that up to 1880 a street car franchise was not regarded as a valuable privilege by the people of San Francisco. In 1879 there was an active demand for franchises and a great number of them were granted; but it is significant that some of the ap- plications made by men, who were reputed to be shrewd in business matters, were for as short a period as twenty-five years, although the term might have been made fifty for the asking. This implies that these applicants at least did not imagine that they were securing a tremendously valuable privilege, and it may be added that the franchises secured at this time, in several instances, proved to be valueless, the roads built under them being operated at a loss to the investors.
It was not until 1887 that anything like a serious objection was urged against the granting of franchises. In that year we find Mayor Washington Bartlett in his valedictory message to the supervisors recommending that "limitations should be placed upon municipal corporations in regard to privileges, and the using of public streets by railroads and other corporations, and that franchises should not be given for more than twenty-five years." Such a prohibition he declared "would tend to prevent the giving for too long periods of franchises which in the City of San Fran- cisco alone were worth millions." In view of the fact that Bartlett's name is found affirmatively appended to several franchises given to street railways during his two terms of office, which began in 1883 and expired in January, 1887, the recom- mendation suggests the pertinent remark about locking the stable door after the steed had been stolen; or it might have done so if it were not true that there were
Graft and Tipping in San Francisco
Franchises Not Regarded as Valuable
Locking the Stable Door After the Steed is Stolen
.
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still numerous opportunities to make profitable use of the streets that had not been taken advantage of up to that period. Nobody questioned the probity of Bartlett when he approved a franchise granted to Thomas Magee and others in 1886, although the name of a professional lobbyist of the Market street system was included in the number, nor did anyone challenge the motives of the members of the board of supervisors who voted affirmatively despite the opposition of E. B. Pond, who afterward was chosen mayor, largely because of the reputation acquired by him as the watchdog of the treasury. Several years earlier when a group in the board of supervisors granted every privilege asked for there was a great deal of talk about "the solid nine," but later when the legislative body was nearly unanimous in the exercise of its power of making gifts the voice of the critic was almost hushed.
A review of all the circumstances attending the conferring of street car fran- chises up to the close of the Nineties would disclose that the people of the City generally were mainly concerned to get facilities, and that they were in no wise particular about the mode of getting them. Such antagonisms as those which occasionally developed appear to have grown out of the rivalries of the companies already in the field, who sought to prevent encroachments on the territory occu- pied by them, and sometimes they were influenced by a narrow jealousy which sought to interpose obstacles to the cxtension of lines into sections whose develop- ment might interfere with the growth of those already penetrated and supplied with street car service. Gustav Sutro and his associates, who received a franchise in December, 1886, to construct a line from Central, now Presidio avenue, to the Cliff house, met with opposition of this sort, and in the ensuing year there was considerable friction, the most of which, however, was smoothed over by com- promises which were so easily effected that there was ground for a reasonable doubt that the contests were not as serious as they appeared to be on the surface. By 1890 these slight obstacles to the acquisition of privileges seem to have dis- appeared, and franchises and extensions were freely conferred, many of which were apparently secured for the purpose of strengthening existing lines. There were some fresh enterprises represented by new interests, but they were formed chiefly for the occupation of what at the time were unoccupied fields.
It would be an error to assert that at the close of the century the valuable street privileges had all been secured, and that those companies already in the field could exclude newcomers, for in 1903 there was still an opportunity for the creation of rival lines just as there is today. But it is a fact that the supervisors of the past, whether they were of the good, bad or indifferent kind, had created a difficult situation by permitting cunning men to take up the streets in such a manner that opposition was effectually discouraged. Franchises were granted which were obviously designed to shut out rival lines by occupying only a few blocks of a street. The result was zigzag routes which were only used to deter others from attempting to provide an effective service. One of these nicknamed the "corkscrew" probably made a dozen turns in its length. The ability to make these with facility indicated a great advance in transportation methods, as may be inferred from the statement that when the North Beach and Mission road was projected there were grave doubts expressed whether the cars could be drawn around sharp curves, and the pessimistic even went so far as to predict that it could not be done. When the "corkscrew" line was mapped out there was no
Schemes to Shut Out Competition
Popular Indifference to Franchise Grabs
1
1
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT FIRE OF 1906
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longer any fear on that score. It had been proved by experience that horses could draw cars around sharp curves, and it was also demonstrated that passen- gers rather than walk a block or two to take a more direct line, were quite willing to travel by the circuitous route which the desire to hold numerous streets had imposed upon the City.
During the time horses were the power depended upon to move the cars over this line, and later when the wire rope was employed, the community seemed to accept its drawbacks and adapt themselves to its shortcomings. Many years after the successful application of cable traction the zigzag road enjoyed its share of patronage despite its circuitousness. People were not in so much of a hurry as they became later, and were content to reach their destination by in- direct routes. Meanwhile the Market street system which was operated by horse power for several years after Halladie had demonstrated the practicability of cable traction had resorted to that method of propulsion. The roadbed was well constructed, but there was no waste of money in providing equipment, the horse car rolling stock being converted into cable cars by the addition of several feet to their length in order to make a place for the gripman, and to furnish added seating capacity which was accomplished by providing seats on which the passen- gers sat facing outward. This mode of traction and style of car was retained on the principal thoroughfare of the City until the fire of 1906, and to that fact, or rather to the rivalries which account for the retention of an obsolete method years after a more satisfactory mode of propulsion had been adopted throughout the length and breadth of the land may be traced the great scandal in which the City became involved during the period of its rehabilitation.
Although electricity was not employed on the Market street system until after 1906, it had been introduced into the City as early as 1900, when a fran- chise was granted to a company to operate a line from the intersection of Market and Eddy streets, along the latter thoroughfare to Divisadero, "whenever said streets are opened and graded." This quoted proviso and the necessity of secur- ing a change in the organic law which would permit the use of electricity account for the fact that although the franchise for the road was obtained in December, 1890, it was not in operation until two or three years later. Meanwhile the trolley had demonstrated its capabilities in various parts of the state, notably in Sac- . ramento. The Market Street Company, although extremely reluctant to scrap its cable plant, manifested a disposition to substitute the overhead trolley system, but met with opposition from various sources, some of them disinterested, but underneath them all there was the latent hostility to the Southern Pacific corpora- tion whose prominent spirits were financially and otherwise the controlling ele- ment in the organization. At the time when the change of traction method was first mooted the underground systems of New York and Washington had achieved a qualified success, and a wave of opposition to overhead wires was sweeping through the land. The desire to emulate the example of the two Eastern cities, and the sentiment in favor of The City Beautiful, proved powerful arguments, and by the time the controlling element in the Market street system had reached the determination to discard its cables and machinery the opposition had gained such force that it was impossible to secure a hearing for the trolley.
One of the causes which contributed to the feeling of irritation against the Market Street Company was the maintenance of two outside tracks on the lower
Market Street System Adopts Cable Traction
Opposition to Overhead Trolley
Indifference to Abuses
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part of the thoroughfare upon which it operated a horse car or two in order to prevent the possible granting of a franchise to a rival line. There was no prob- ability of any such action being taken at the time, but the antagonism of the people made the managers suspicious, and they preferred to keep the franchise which they had obtained possession of alive by a pretense of affording service. It was characteristic of the period that despite the pronounced antipathy to the people controlling the principal street railways that no one took the trouble to invoke the courts to ascertain whether the act of running a one horse car at long intervals constituted such a service as the terms of the franchise called for, but apathy in this particular was by no means singular. Although the press repeatedly called attention to the failure of the street railway companies to comply with the pro- visions of their charters, requiring them to keep the space between their tracks, and a certain distance on either side of them paved to conform to the remainder of the thoroughfare, no attempt was ever made to compel them to live up to their obligations. It is surprising, when all the circumstances are considered, that the same contempt which resulted in the disregard of franchise requirements was not powerful enough to prompt an attempt to substitute the trolley for the cable, but none was made.
There were suggestions of a conciliatory character put forward by the Mar- ket Street Company. The public was sounded to ascertain how a proposition to erect trolley poles of an ornamental design, surmounted by arc lamps, in the middle of the thoroughfare, would be received. It was intimated that these poles might be erected in numerous places of refuge, something after the style of the safety stations later introduced through instrumentality of the Merchants' As- sociation, and it was stated that as a further concession for the privilege of substi- tuting the overhead trolley that the franchise for the outside tracks would be surrendered, conditional upon a guarantee being given that no further conces- sion should be granted to operate along the part of the line from which the tracks were to be withdrawn. These intimations and promises, which were made allur- ing by pictures of the brilliant scene which Market street would present at night, and disquisitions on the possibility of making the overhead trolley an object to be admired by day rather than detested because of its ugliness and obstructiveness in case of fire, proved powerless to alter adverse opinion, and the main thorough- fare of the City was not disfigured with wires. The old company was apparently content to abide by the decision of the community, perhaps largely because those in control were greatly averse to the scrapping process, and Market street down to the time of the fire was traversed by the comparatively slow moving cable cars. It should be added that the system was well conducted under its original management, and that while there was much complaint concerning the strictness of the rules made by the manager, Vining, the service on the whole was good.
Although the people of the City had been made acquainted with the better mode of propulsion which electricity presented by the opening of the Metro- politan line, and the electrification of one or two minor roads, they showed no disposition to yield on the point of permitting the use of overhead wires on Mar- ket street. This was the position of affairs down to the time of change of own- ership. Early in 1901 rumors were current that an Eastern group of capitalists were endeavoring to acquire the Market street system and other railroads operated on the streets of San Francisco. The stock of the Market street corporation was
Control of Street Rail- ways Easily Surrendered
Alluring Promises Made by Market Street Company
PROCLAMATION BY THE MAYOR
The Federal Troops, the mem- bers of the Regular Police Force, and all Special Police Officers have been authorized to KILL any and all persons found engaged in looting or in the commission of any other crime.
I have directed all the Gas and Electric Lighting Companies not to turn on Gas or Electricity until I order them to do so; you may therefor expect the city to remain in darkness for an indefinite time.
I request all citizens to remain at home from darkness until day- light of every night until order is restored.
I Warn all citizens of the dan- ger of fire from damaged or de- stroyed chimneys, broken or leak- ing gas pipes or fixtures, or any like cause.
E. E. SCHMITZ, Mayor. Dated, April 18, 1906.
ALTVATER PRINT.
MISSION
₦ > 220 STS
FACSIMILE OF MAYOR'S PROCLAMATON, ISSUED ON MORNING OF EARTHQUAKE
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not widely dispersed, and the price at which it was selling at the time the bar- gaining for its acquisition by the United Railroads Company, which finally obtained possession, was in progress did not indicate that the community regarded its privi- leges as enormously valuable. It is stated that in addition to the chief holders of the stock of the concern there were about 300 persons who held comparatively small amounts of its stock. These latter were tempted by the opportunity to realize par upon stock upon which they had paid anywhere from 50 to 70, and parted with their holdings. Nobody at the time of the transaction saw fit to reproach the projectors or stockholders for surrendering control. There was criticism of the proposed purpose of the new holding company to consolidate the properties they were about to acquire, and to capitalize at a sum largely in excess of the cost of construction, but it was not very vigorous, and seemed to be tempered by the idea that the transfer would result in bringing a large amount of foreign capital into the City. So far as the people generally were concerned, they apparently deemed their interest adequately protected by the power of the state to regulate the rate of fare which was five cents at the time, with a liberal transfer privilege.
It is evident that at the time of the transfer, and subsequent consolidation of the various street railway properties, and their control by an outside group of capitalists, that little thought was given to the possibility of friction being en- gendered by contemplation of the effects of absenteeism. Prior to the transfer to the United Railroads there had been no serious labor troubles affecting the ope- ration of the street car lines, and the probability of difficulties from that cause being accentuated by outside ownership did not receive much consideration. Not long after the consummation of the deal which occurred Oct. 11, 1901, these hitherto neglected questions began to arise and cause trouble, and the heat en- gendered by the disputes growing out of differences between employers and em- ployed called forth censorious judgments which embraced scathing condemna- tion of the watering process resorted to by the new organization. It was alleged that properties which had cost about $16,000,000 had been so manipulated that they would be made to earn returns upon a capitalization of more than $80,000,000. When the discussion concerning the watering process was warmest the public had little accurate knowledge of the actual state of affairs, but later developments fully justified the common assumption that the United Railroads Company had made a very good bargain, and that those interested in it were destined to profit greatly at the expense of the people of San Francisco. Nevertheless, except in a very limited circle, which had become conscious that it had let a good thing slip out of its hands, these considerations did not make a great impression be- cause it was recognized that some group of capitalists must profit, and further because the community believed that the Eastern syndicate was in a position to make the extensions so urgently demanded, and which were not being provided as rapidly as desired by the men who had parted with control.
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