USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 6
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The Assessors' Fine Showing in 1876
Manufactures in 1876
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ing pans, axle grease, barrels, carriage springs, distilleries, furs, gloves, glue, hose and belting, ink and mucilage, ice, linseed oil, shoe lasts, soap, telegraph in- struments, tools, type, vinegar, windmills, wood and willow ware and wire rope.
The informed will note in this list the presence of numerous branches of in- dustry no longer pursued in San Francisco, and of several whose proportions have shrunk greatly since 1876. The causes which brought about this change have been treated as enigmatical, but they appear plain to unbiassed economists who have studied them. They were not closely analysed at first and they are still the sub- ject of dispute, but, indirectly at least, there is a general recognition of the fact that Eastern manufacturers, whose extensive market permits them to specialize, can produce more cheaply than competitors whose outputs are limited by the com- paratively small populations surrounding them.
It was the general failure to perceive this fact that led to many blunders, not the least serious of which has been the persistent determination on the part of the worker to create by artificial methods a condition which cannot be maintained while there is free commercial intercourse between all parts of the Union. It has been demonstrated that nations by effective customs laws may succeed in raising the standard of living of workers within their borders, and enable them to enjoy higher wages than in other countries, but it is unthinkable that such a result could be achieved if they permitted the producers of other countries free access to their markets. In that event the rewards of peoples of nearly like capabilities would be sure to find a common level. Some would go down in the scale, others would ascend, but the level would certainly be attained. California began to have that problem forced upon her when the railroads and other transportation companies in their eagerness to secure traffic, broke down the barriers of distance which had for a time afforded the workers an incidental protection. Her people were not quick to detect her vulnerability, and the worker refused to recognize the disad- vantage which sometimes stared him in the face, but which was often disguised by changes in the development of the state's resources.
As already shown the comparatively swift decline of placer mining was in a measure compensated by the spectacular increase in wheat and wool production at a time when the cereal and the raw material were commanding remunerative prices. Exports of breadstuffs were valued at $15,813,941 in 1875 and in 1880 they had increased to $23,762,557. Between July 1, 1876, and June 30, 1877, there were received in San Francisco 514,298 barrels of flour and 10,803,776 centals of wheat, the most of which was exported. In the same season in which this large surplus of wheat was raised 53,110,742 pounds of wool were produced. The sums derived from these two great staples were the chief dependence of the people out- side of the yield of the mines and when the latter was subjected to a violent shrink- age, as it was in 1877, concurrently with a crop failure and a diminished wool clip due to the drouth, there were hard times.
The seasonal year 1876-77 was exceedingly dry and the wheat crop was a failure, and as a consequence exports were greatly curtailed, dropping from 12,- 087,759 to 5,295,911 centals. The wool clip decreased from 53,110,742 to 40,862,- 061 pounds. The records of the railroad show a corresponding diminution in the output of other staples. In the face of expanding facilities the East bound ship- ments, which aggregated 107,756,910 pounds in 1876, dropped to 92,820,900 pounds in 1878. The isthmian traffic records ceased to be very dependable after 1875.
Restricted Markets
Labor's Serlous Mistake
Good Prices for Wheat and Wool
Crop Failure and Its Result
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The Pacific Mail Steamship Company after that year no longer exerted itself to secure business, but there is evidence that it was sharing the evil effects of the general depression, which was caused by the failure of the state's agricultural resources.
Unemployed Flock to the City
A diminished mineral yield in California and Nevada, a greatly curtailed out- put of the cereals, dwindling flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, started a city- ward movement which aggravated a situation already acute. The population of San Francisco, reported in the census of 1870 at 149,473, had probably increased to 225,000 by 1877, and the number of workers it included was largely in excess of the ability of the industries of the City to furnish employment. With the de- cline of the mining stock craze an era of retrenchment began, and mercantile es- tablishments which had employed help on a generous scale, paying liberal salaries, contracted their forces and threw on their own resources many who had been work- ing in clerical capacities.
A Formidable Number of Unemployed
The army of unemployed thus reinforced became formidable. There was un- doubted distress and efforts were made to relieve it, but the numbers demanding relief made the problem difficult to deal with. The pangs of poverty are usually conducive to discontent, but in this case dissatisfaction was accentuated by the feeling that conditions which might have been remedied were responsible for the desperate position in which men willing to work, but unable to find anything to do, were placed by neglect and the rapacity of individuals. When such a situation arises every abuse is recalled, and the circumstances over which men have no con- trol are not considered. The shortage of the crops was not dwelt upon, but the disposition to favor large land holders was remembered; the fatuity of a people who permitted themselves to be fleeced by cunning manipulators was never re- ferred to, but the greed of the market riggers was emphasized; if the men who built the transcontinental railroad had conferred any benefit by opening the state to settlement, the fact was overlooked, and only the sins of the providers of the improved transportation facilities were remembered.
Sand Lot Orators Echo the Press
But the undiscriminating mob was not alone in thus viewing the situation. Every bitter word uttered on the sand lot was merely an echo of the criticisms of the daily press, whose columns teemed with suggestions of jobbery and open ac- cusations, which indicated a wretched state of affairs, and an appalling disregard of public opinion by politicians. It was a period of intense suspicion, in which every enterprise of a municipal character was viewed with distrust and not without reason. Bossism was rampant, and its ramifications were national. There never was a time when jobbers were so audacious, or when schemers were more predatory than when Kearney and his hearers roared their disapproval on the sand lots, and it may be asserted without calling forth a contradiction from those who really knew, that the charges preferred against venal officialism from that rostrum were better founded than those of the twentieth century Progressives, many of whom in the late Seventies were profoundly convinced that the sand letters were rank socialists, although they then spoke of the so-called reforms as "destructive agrari- anism.
Constitution Not a Saod Lot Instrument
Unless the condition described is clearly comprehended the significance of the sand lot uprising, and the adoption of the constitution of 1879, will always be misunderstood. The instrument named has been referred to by grave historians as a product of the sand lot, and so it was in a way, but not in the way assumed.
VIEW ON MARKET STREET IN 1876
NOB HILL IN 1876 The Stanford mansion on the right
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SAN FRANCISCO
As will be seen later on it was not shaped in the convention by the delegates of the workingman's party, but was constructed by the ablest lawyers in the State of California, many of them in the employ of the detested railroad corporation, but apparently uninfluenced by any other motive than the desire to frame an or- ganic law which would effect all the reforms demanded by the people. That the most of the objects they sought to achieve are now extolled as progressive reforms when taken up in other states, completely refutes the impression generally derived from the earlier accounts, and discredits the judgment of those who imagined and freely predicted that the result of the reforms it sought to introduce would be to drive capital from the state and hinder its progress.
In his "History of California," Hittell, whose judgment was clouded by a strong personal bias, in his narration of the events leading up to and following the adoption of the new constitution, says: "No other state has had a more difficult part to play in its advance, particularly of late years-handicapped as it has been by a larger number of tramps, vagrants and disorderly classes in general, in pro- portion to population, than any other state, and trammeled and hampered by the conditions and anomalies impressed upon the constitution and laws of the transi- tory and malignant influence of the sand lot." In view of this indictment, which undoubtedly expressed the opinion of a large class at the time he wrote, it is worth while to examine his charges minutely and to judge by the light of results whether he put his finger on the real sore spot. It concerns the San Franciscan more par- ticularly to get at the exact truth, for the instrument arraigned by him, while it received its popular majority outside of the City, was really an outcome of an agitation within its borders. Whether the constitution proved the barrier to prog- ress he intimates it did, the reader will be able to judge from what follows.
A Biased View of the Constitution
CHAPTER L
CONDITIONS ON EVE OF ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF 1879
CAUSES THAT LED TO "SAND LOT" DISTURBANCES-EVIL OF SPECIAL LEGISLATION COR- RUPTION AND WASTE-THE NEW CITY HALL-CITY TREASURY LOOTED-STREETS AND SIDEWALKS IN A DILAPIDATED STATE-KEARNEY'S DENUNCIATION OF OFFICIALS -THE NEWSPAPERS AND THE SAND LOTTERS-BOSSISM IN THE SEVENTIES-BOGUS NON PARTISANISM-THE FEDERAL RING-THE SPECTACULAR CAREER OF GEORGE M. PINNEY-PINNEY BECOMES A BROKER AND A MILLIONAIRE-BECOMES INVOLVED AND FLEES THE COUNTRY-HIS RETURN RESULTS IN OVERTHROW OF REPUBLICAN PARTY -THE DESTRUCTION OF SEVERAL BANKS-BANK COMMISSION ACT OF 1878-ESTAB- LISHMENT OF CLEARING HOUSE-THE UNITED STATES MINT AND SUB-TREASURY- AVERSION FOR PAPER MONEY-INTRODUCTION OF SAFE DEPOSIT VAULTS.
HE earlier history of San Francisco politics is so inextricably connected with that of the state it is impossible to disso- ciate the former from the latter. There was no event that occurred prior to 1879 in the City which was not in some manner linked up with the state's affairs, and no munici- SEAL OF SAN FRAN OF IST pal enterprise of any sort could be carried through unless it was first sanctioned by the legislature. The evil conse- quences of this system were clearly recognized, and had been pointed out in a workingman's convention which met in 1871, and in 1876 Mayor Bryant, in his inaugural message, referred to them in these terms. Speaking of certain irregu- larities which marked the previous administration he said: "It has been the cus- tom for heads of departments in the city government, and sometimes even their subordinates to ignore the board of supervisors and make direct application to the legislature in furtherance of schemes not designed for the public good so much as to increase their own profit, power and patronage."
This but feebly represents the condition of affairs produced by the special legislative system which made the state legislature the arbiter of the destinies of the City. It practically gave official sanction to lobbying by permitting and almost making it necessary for municipal servants to visit Sacramento during the sessions of the legislature in order to press the needs of the City, and to back up the de- mands of the delegation for recognition. The opportunities this practice presented to venal servants were eagerly seized, and it was not uncommon during the Seven- ties to see San Francisco municipal officials haunting the lobbies of the capitol engaged in the all around work of the professional lobbyist, their business being but thinly veiled by the pretense that their presence was required in Sacramento to secure action on some city measure.
DenIal of Local Autonomy
Evils of Special Legislation
515
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New City Hall Commission
If the vice of special legislation had ended with this disreputable practice the evil might have been borne with some patience, but the activities of the legislative delegations, and the manipulation of the city officials merely inaugurated the trouble to which San Francisco was subjected by being deprived of the manage- ment of her own affairs, and by having imposed upon her a rigid system of opera- tion which, while designed to prevent rascality and promote economy, produced the opposite result. The construction of the city hall affords an instance of the injurious workings of this inflexible method. It was marked by blunders and extravagances from the day of the creation of the commission down to the time of the great fire, when it was destroyed before it was completed.
Wasteful Method of Construction
A report was made to the legislature of 1873-74 that the city hall begun in 1870 had already cost unconscionable sums and was destined to cost more. It exposed many instances of gross carelessness and something worse; but the charges made no impression at the time. Finally in sheer desperation boards of super- visors were compelled to come to the relief of the suffering taxpayers and protect them from depredation by refusing to appropriate the necessary money to prose- cute the work. The original plan of piecemeal construction which legislative ac- tion had imposed was doubtless demanded by the people of the City, who during the closing years of the Sixties and the opening of the Seventies had acquired an abnormal dread of bonded indebtedness. They had become so firmly imbued with the idea that the only safe municipal policy was that of "pay as you go," they were unable to perceive the ineffectiveness and ruinous consequences of the install- ment plan and chose to have their money wasted rather than stolen.
The site of the new city hall was that of an abandoned cemetery, from which the bodies were removed to clear the way for the new structure which the projectors designed making the handsomest and most imposing municipal building in the United States. The plans of an architect named Laver, who had achieved some reputation as the designer of the capitol at Albany, New York, which at the time was popularly supposed to represent the highest American achievement in monu- mental construction, were selected, and it was estimated that the new hall would cost about a million and a half and that it could be completed in five or six years. There were plenty to dissent from these alluring figures and promises, and pre- dictions were freely made that the expenditures would greatly surpass the esti- mates and that it would take years to make it ready for occupancy, but their criti- cism produced no effect.
Laver's original plans were not entirely harmonious; they exhibited a liberal admixture of the orders, but he was not responsible for some of the incongruities which the building exhibited when approaching completion. He had originally designed a lofty clock tower and a mansard roof, and had this plan been carried out in its integrity there would have been a near approach, so far as the general effect was concerned, to the French renaissance; but the commission, influenced by varying motives (sometimes they were those of expediency dictated by the demand for economy, and at other times the product of mere whimsicalness begotten by lack of knowledge of architectural requirements), changed the steeple to a dome and cut out the mansard, thus giving the main structure a squatty appearance, not at all pleasing, and depriving it of the power to impress by its mass, which it would have possessed had the resort to the flat roof not given it the effect of a number of detached buildings.
The Architect's Plans Changed
Cost of City Hall Under- estimated
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The first blunder made by the commission was perpetrated under the pressure of the demand for economy, and resulted in the sale of that part of the cemetery front- ing on Market street. The effect was to put the new hall on a back street. The work of building had not proceeded far before the mistake was discovered and denounced, and in 1875 we find Acting Mayor Hewston, in an address to the board of supervisors, criticizing the absurdity and urging that the lots on Market street be reacquired by purchase. His recommendation was instantly pounced upon and accusations of attempted jobbery were freely made. Nothing came of his sugges- tion and it was never seriously put forward again, and the work of building pro- ceeded slowly, only such money as could be obtained by the imposition of a direct tax being used for that purpose. In 1876 the mayor in his report called attention to the fact that the hall of records was still in course of construction, and that the original plan of providing its dome with a cast iron roof had been abandoned, and that sheet iron was to be substituted in its stead.
Object lessons of the kind described were eagerly seized upon, and the dis- affected who met on the sand lot adjoining the hall were constantly being reminded of the waste and blundering involved in the construction of the Municipal building. They also were reminded of the delinquencies of public servants, who had abused the public trust by stealing the people's money. There had been several serious defalcations during the decade, one of them almost on the eve of the uprising. The other occurred in 1874. In that year John A. Stanley, county judge of San Fran- cisco, charged the grand jury to investigate the failure of Mayor Otis and Treas- urer Charles Hubert to count the money in the treasury as required by law. The accusation was the signal for a separation into camps. The friends of the mayor and treasurer held a big meeting and denounced Stanley. A few days later there was another gathering, more representative in character, which sustained Stanley and demanded the return to the treasury of about $1,500,000, which had been ille- gally deposited in a private bank by the tax collector, but it was a case of locking the door after the steed had escaped. Three hundred thousand dollars had van- ished. It was never restored and no one was punished.
These were but the spectacular phases of municipal mismanagement. A far more serious cause for discontent was the growth of expenditures. The newspaper critics pointed out that the City had managed to get along in 1869 with a budget of $2,459,210, and that in 1876 it had increased to $4,452,940, and they persisted in asking where the money had gone to and where the extravagance would end. The intemperance of utterance on the rostrum in front of the city hall when this subject was under discussion did not exceed that of the editors of conservative journals, the only distinguishing difference being in the choice of words. The moral drawn was the same in the sanctum as on the sand lot, where the orators emphasized their criticisms by shaking menacing fists at the municipal pile.
There was some excuse for strong criticism in the public journals and on the stump. Much money was being spent, but there was little or nothing in the way of improvement to show for the expenditure. The indignant acting mayor, who was chosen by the board of supervisors to fill the unexpired term of Otis, who had died, declared that the plank streets and sidewalks of the City were detestable, "not only in the inconvenience of the travel over them, and their want of durability, but in a sanitary point of view." "They were receptacles of filth," he said, and
Biunders of the City Hall Commission
The City Treasury Looted
Sanctum and Sand Lot
Dilapidated Streets and Sidewalks
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he added "my observation has led me to believe that many valuable lives have been sacrificed to their condition." Prior to 1871 the City had accepted the streets from houseline to houseline, but after that date it only took care of the roadway. While this appeared to be in the line of municipal economy there was so little at- tention paid to sidewalks by the owners of property that they were often in a dilapidated state, and sometimes a menace to pedestrians. Attention was called by the mayor in 1875 to the fact that there were numerous excavations under the sidewalks of Kearny street, bridged over with timbers which had rotted, endanger- ing the lives of citizens.
The criticism of these bad results like chickens came home to roost. They were remembered when the unemployed formulated their protests on the sand lot, and were charged to the incapacity and venality of the men elected to local offices. It has been said that Kearney's diatribes were all directed against the Chinese, but that was due to a mistake growing out of his habit of concluding his speeches with the set phrase "The Chinese Must Go!" He not infrequently introduced this slogan into the body of addresses devoted mainly to municipal subjects. Kearney was the owner of some property, and proudly announced that he was a taxpayer. He was reasonably familiar with the conduct of municipal affairs and became very bitter when discussing such public improvements as the Montgomery avenue ex- tension, which he characterized as a swindle, and the bondholders as cormorants. He took the same view of the Dupont street widening act, which he pronounced as a job. In condemning the Montgomery avenue scheme he was merely voicing the opposition of those who predicted that it would not accomplish its object-a proph- esy that was realized-but he made a mistake in following the same leadership in the matter of the widening of Dupont street in 1876, which proved to be a valuable improvement.
Kearney was accustomed to using picturesque but inelegant terms when speak- ing about public offenders and officials. The latter he lumped together as "blood sucking politicians," and he had much to say about bossism. The exploits of Wil- liam Marcy Tweed, the great municipal corruptor of New York, were much talked of about this time. After the exposure of his villainies by the "Times" of that city, and his flight and subsequent capture in Spain, and his return to the United States in 1876, his misdeeds were the subject of universal comment. Everywhere he was singled out as a horrible example, and the wretched mismanagement of the corporation of New York was paraded as something unique, but Kearney insisted that he was merely a type and charged that San Francisco had its bosses, whose rascalities were less flagrant than those of Tweed only because their opportunities were smaller, and he had the disagreeable habit of publicly naming persons who should be placed in the boss category.
It is necessary to state in this connection that Kearney's indictments were not always framed exclusively on his own information and belief. He had early ac- quired the habit of visiting newspaper offices, and before he aspired to the leader- ship of the workingmen had actively interested himself in promoting the purposes of men against whom he later arrayed himself. Sometimes he penetrated to the inner sanctums, but mostly he was content to foregather with the reporters, who welcomed him because he often brought items of news, and for the amusement they derived from his peppery discourses, which he was prone to indulge in whenever
Kearney and the Press
.
Kearney and Municipal Affairs
Kearney and the Local Bosses
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he could obtain listeners. He undoubtedly used the influence gained by this inter- course to push himself to the front and later, when he was able to secure audiences, he utilized the information he had acquired without discriminating between suspi- cions and facts.
The word "graft" had not attained its present vogue in the Seventies, but the practice was fully as rampant then as it ever has been since. Indeed it is doubt- ful whether during recent years there has been anything even remotely approach- ing the machinery for despoiling the people as that created in California in the early years of the seventy decade, when the political bosses acted under the inspira- tion of men who directly or indirectly controlled the disbursements of the federal government on the Pacific coast. The earlier election frauds which were in part responsible for the Vigilante uprising in 1856, were unblushingly repeated by these worthies with some slight variation of method. There were no longer any false bottomed ballot boxes, but there were other modes of falsifying the popular verdict which proved equally efficacious.
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