USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 68
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
Spring Valley Water Company Makes an Offer
SAN FRANCISCO CLEARING HOUSE CERTIFICATE
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBER 157 1907.
NºD 295619
ONE DOLLAR
Sicurities having been dofr.
Moving 'House Committee of"
buthe said Basis for the sam named
CEmerking
SAN FRANCISCO CLEARING HOUSE CERTIFICATE
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.
NOVEMBER 1ST 1907.
NUMBER
E 56220
TWO DOLLARS
Securities having been deposited with the 'Clearing House Committee of the AssociaTED BANKS OF SAN FRANCISCO This Certificado will be accepted by the sand BANKS for the war roommed.
CEmerking
FACSIMILE OF SCRIP USED BY SAN FRANCISCO BANKS DURING THE MONEY PANIC OF 1907
937
SAN FRANCISCO
from eight to ten millions there was no immediate acceptance of the offer, but there was an impression prevalent that the proposition would be submitted to the people on the ensuing 28th of November, when they will be called upon to decide whether they will end the long protracted struggle by submitting to the exactions of the water company or adopt some other course of securing a needed water supply.
The total authorization of bonds in 1908, 1909, and 1910, aggregated $66,420,- 000. They provided among other things for a fire protection high pressure system at a cost of $5,200,000. This improvement includes two storage reservoirs on Twin Peaks with a capacity of 10,000,000 gallons; two distributing reservoirs, capacity 1,500,000 gallons ; ninety-three miles of cast iron pipe, special hydrants, two fire boats, a fresh water pumping and two salt water pumping stations. The system was calculated to provide for the protection of 5,300 acres of territory. It was not wholly completed in October, 1912, and it was found that the sum provided by the bond issue would have to be supplemented in order to carry out the details as originally planned. The rigid inspections instituted gave the contractors a great deal of trouble, disclosing some imperfect work which had to be made good before acceptance. In addition to the high pressure system one hundred cisterns with a capacity of 75,000 gallons each were provided for and constructed in various parts of the City. Additions to the existing sewer system are provided for by an is- suance of bonds amounting to $4,000,000. The amount of $1,000,000 was voted for a garbage disposal plant. It contemplated three modern refuse destructors, and ultimately a fourth to be built with a capacity of 800 tons daily. Faulty estimates of the McCarthy Board of Works will prevent the carrying out of this project in its original form unless supplemented by additional appropriations. Schools and other municipal buildings were provided for as follows: Thirty-one primary and grammar schools and three high schools at a total cost of $5,000,000. The majority of these were completed before the close of 1912, and the growing number of pupils was more or less comfortably accommodated. A city and county hospital and a hospital for the infirm poor was in course of construction at the close of the year, but there was some complaint about the slow progress made in its erection. The sum of $2,000,000 was provided by the bond issue for these build- ings but it will have to be augmented. One million dollars was voted for a new Hall of Justice and a city and county jail. The former was occupied in the early part of 1912. It was erected on the site of the destroyed Hall of Justice, and is an architectural adornment to the Portsmouth square neighborhood. The sum of $600,- 000 was also allotted to a Polytechnic high school which was not completed at the close of 1912. The provision for the Geary street municipal railroad was $2,- 020,000. In addition to the above enumerated authorizations $45,000,000 was voted for the Lake Eleanor, Tuolomne Water system, and the sum of $600,000 for pre- liminary purposes. Just what sum will be required to secure an adequate water supply for the City was undetermined at the beginning of October, 1912, as it was not perfectly clear to citizens what course would be pursued in the event of the acquisition of the Spring Valley system for the sum named by the company, namely $38,500,000, with the Merced lands excluded, but it was not deemed prob- able that the development of the Sierra supply would be prosecuted simultaneously with that of the property of the local company which was believed to be capable of extension sufficient to meet the demands of a much larger population than San Francisco had in 1912. Toward the close of that year the spreading out of the
Bond Authorization and Purposes for Which They Were Made
-
938
SAN FRANCISCO
people over a constantly widening area, together with the increased demands of the growing population of the City resulted in the Spring Valley finding itself unable to give a satisfactory service, but the corporation refused to make any expenditures to improve the situation on the ground that the rate making power had interfered with its revenues to such an extent that it could not afford to make the necessary ex- tensions or further develop its property.
In addition to the $66,420,000 authorized in 1908, 1909 and 1910 there was voted the sum of $8,500,000 in March, 1912, for the purpose of creating a civic center, and to erect a new city hall. The amounts thus far authorized approach closely to the sum permitted by the charter provision limiting indebtedness, but the rapid increase in values of the property in the City and county, and the fact that much of the expenditure provided for will be spread out over some years, will make it possible to carry out all reasonable plans if the affairs of the City are properly administered. The rapid growth of expenditures indicates some such necessity. The budget of the supervisors for the fiscal year 1912-1913 aggregated demands to the amount of $12,887,626 and called for a city tax levy of $2.05 on the hundred. The sums apportioned to the more important departments were as follows: Fire department, $1,582,901 ; police, $1,505,020; schools, $1,812,500; Board of Works, $666,996. There were numerous items of consequence in the budget which had not appeared in previous years, among them $272,800 for maintenance of minors, a ju- venile detention home and probation officers. The amount of $435,000 was ap- propriated for lighting the streets and public buildings; a special fund of $250,- 000 for streets, highways and parks, and $330,000 for street sweeping and sprinkling. The demand of the health department was met by an appropriation of $618,088. Owing to the number of elections necessitated by the new legislation which makes possible the frequent calling out of the voters the department of elections was ac- corded $315,000. The Playground Commission, a new creation, was given $80,000. The Fireman's Relief and Pension Fund absorbed $70,000, and the regular ap- propriation for parks was $350,000. The public library received $80,000 for its maintenance, and the interest charge and bond redemption fund, which was nominal before the fire, appeared in this budget as $1,962,565. An idea of the rapidity with which city expenditures are growing may be derived from the statement that the budget in 1908-09 was $8,636,000, and that four years later it was $12,887,626. The tax rate in 1912-13, as already stated was $2.05 including 5 cents for the spe- cial exposition levy as against $1.50 in 1908-09, but to the rate of the earlier year there was added an amount for state purposes which the City is no longer called upon to pay, the adoption of the constitutional amendment providing for the separ- ation of state from city and county taxation.
That the rising figures of debt and municipal expenditure was not regarded with apprehension is manifest from the opinion expressed by leading real estate author- ities. In a table printed in Magee's Real Estate Circular it was shown that the percentage of debt to real estate values was lower in San Francisco than in the other leading cities of the United States, and that the bonded debt per capita was $39.15 in San Francisco as against $174.65 in New York; $142.82 in Boston; $66.02 in Baltimore; $53.73 in Buffalo, and $54.80 in Philadelphia. San Fran- cisco's figures of indebtedness on which this computation was made will soon be higher, but as population is increasing rapidly the per capita relation will be main- tained. The same authority also pointed out that San Francisco enjoys the lowest
Growth of Population, Per Capita Indebtedness and Tax Rate
Rapid Increase of the City's Budget
939
SAN FRANCISCO
tax rate of any city about the bay, and that its taxation per capita is less than that of Oakland, Alameda or Berkeley. The population of the City was estimated by the secretary of the chamber of commerce on June 30, 1912, at 456,780. The esti- mated population of the City in 1905 was 450,000, so the recovery in that regard may be set down as complete. General Greely, in command of the troops in San Francisco in the days immediately following the conflagration estimated that only 175,000 people were left in the City after the exodus. If his figures are correct the gain since May, 1906, has been over 280,000. That the estimate of 456,780 is not exaggerated may be inferred from the public school enrollment which showed 53,- 160 during the first months of 1912. The enlarged and constantly increasing postal receipts also support the claim. In the year before the fire they amounted to $1,- 772,865, having increased to that figure from $1,051,567. In 1911 they aggregated $2,570,215.84. The increase during the five years before the fire was $721,300; it amounted to $797,351 after that event.
The growth of the manufacturing industry of San Francisco has not kept pace with that of the expansion of population, although the latest census figures show in- creased production and enlarged capital. The value of products increased from $107,023,567 in 1899 to $137,788,233 in 1904, and it was $133,041,069 in 1909. The average number of wage earners was 32,555 in 1899 and only 28,244 in 1909. In several industries decreases are noted which are attributable to the stand taken by the trades unions. This was notably true of the metal workers who by their incon- siderate action have driven consumers to rival cities for their machinery, structural material, etc. In 1904 the value of products of foundries and machine shops in San Francisco was $10,525,000, representing 59.8 per cent. of the production of the state; in 1909 the amount had fallen to $9,622,000, and San Francisco's pro- portion of the total output of metal products in California was 36.0. There were in- creases in slaughtering and meat packing, in coffee and spice roasting and grinding, in canning and preserving, in tanned, cured and finished leather and in food prepara- tions of various kinds. But while the political subdivision known as San Francisco had not made much progress in manufacturing the metropolitan area showed large increases. Oakland increased its output from $9,014,705 in 1904 to $22,342,926 in 1909, and during the three years after the latter date this ratio of increase was surpassed. Although, as stated in earlier chapters, the development of manufac- turing has proceeded more slowly on the Pacific coast than in the East, this condi- tion of affairs is sure to be changed by the influx of people which will follow the opening of the canal and will create the domestic market essential to production on a large scale. In the meantime the increase due to the multiplication of land trans- portation facilities is helping the situation, and there is every reason to believe that the 63 per cent. addition to the population of the state in the 1900-1910 decade will be largely exceeded between 1910 and 1920.
There were many reasons suggesting this probability. Since 1910 another transcontinental railroad, the Western Pacific, has been added to those serving the City which has now four direct overland lines: The Southern Pacific, the Central and Union Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and the Western Pacific. The latter has opened a region tributary to San Francisco, hitherto utterly desti- tute of railroad service, and which promises to develop rapidly, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe is constantly enlarging its facilities. The entrance of the Northern Electric which applied to the railroad commissioners on the 1st of Oc- Vol. II-30
Manufactur- ing Impeded by Labor Restrictions
Increased Railroad Facilities
940
SAN FRANCISCO
tober, 1912, for permission to issue bonds to the amount of $5,500,000 to extend its road to San Francisco indicated that the expectation entertained for some time that the intra-urban system of electric roads developing the Sacramento and San Joa- quin valleys would become an important factor in the traffic situation was on the point of realization. With the completion of the canal and the extension of the electric lines already projected it was generally assumed by competent observers that the difficulties respecting the adjustment of local and interstate rates would largely disappear, and that San Francisco would enter upon her destined career as the great distributing port of the Pacific coast.
It is not uncommon to overlook the performances of the shipping engaged in the coastwise and river trade of the port of San Francisco, but the passenger and freight traffic of the lines plying along the coast and in the rivers emptying into the Bay of San Francisco is by no means inconsiderable. In 1911 the thirteen lines of coastwise steamers carried 359,630 passengers, and eight lines of river boats trans- ported 1,013,479. An excellent idea of the use made of the waters of the bay may be gained from the statement that the grand total of passengers carried by ferries, coastwise steamers and river boats aggregated 38,594,180 in 1911. In addition to the traffic of these lines must be added that of the four companies in the trans-Pa- cific trade. The Pacific Mail heads the list in volume of business, carrying 38,467 passengers, the Matson Navigation Company 6,476, the Oceanic Steamship Com- pany 6,182, and the Toyo Kisen Kaisha 8,595. The sailings of the Oceanic Steam- ship Company to Australia which were discontinued for some years were resumed during the summer of 1912 and are not likely to be interrupted in the near future as there is a growing appreciation of the importance of the trade of Australia and a disposition to encourage its development.
The commerce of San Francisco has kept pace steadily with the growth of pro- duction in the bay counties and the Great Valley which is settling up with unprec- edented rapidity. For many years a large part of this region was given over to cereal cultivation, but the tendency to cut up large estates into small farms which is promoted by the introduction of irrigation facilities has effected a revolution and the orchard and truck garden have taken the chief place in the agricultural scheme. The data furnished by the various transportation companies are not of a character to easily permit segregation so that the production of the region which regards San Francisco as its natural distributing center may be determined, but they show an enormous expansion in which the City shares. The shipments eastward of fresh fruit by rail which aggregated 8.071 carloads in 1905 increased to 14,642 in 1911. Those of citrus fruits increased from 27,610 to 46,394 carloads during the same period. The major part of the citrus fruit was produced and shipped from the region south of the Tehachapi, but the industry is growing rapidly along the western slopes of the Sierra and north of the Tehachapi, and promises to become very im- portant and a source of great wealth to northern California in the very near future. The canning of fruits and vegetables is practiced on a constantly increasing scale, the total pack increasing from 4,289,721 cases in 1909 to 6,699,305 cases in 1911. The small fruit industry shows a like rapid expansion, increasing from 163,700 in 1906 to 197,750 tons in 1911. The raisin output showed the same degree of en- largement, the production in 1906 being 90,000,000 and in 1911, 130,000,000 pounds. The cereals, chiefly produced in the northern and central parts of the state, are by no means neglected, although they no longer retain their former im-
Expansion of the Shipping Industry
Increased Agricultural Production
Photograph by W. W. Swadley, Official Photographer
FIRST LOAD OF LUMBER FOR EXPOSITION OF 1915
941
SAN FRANCISCO
portance. Barley in a measure has taken the place of wheat as an export article, and its production is steadily increasing in the country adjacent to the port of San Francisco, rising from 12,771,340 centals in 1905 to 17,841,600 centals in 1911. In 1910 the output reached 19,438,000 centals. Beans are an important California product. The production was 1,420,515 centals in 1910-11, of which quantity nearly 1,200,000 centals were shipped East by rail. The constantly dwindling produc- tion of wheat, and the diminished exports of that cereal, as in the case of the declin- ing production and exportation of wool are wholly attributable to the disposition of the present occupants of the soil to turn their attention to more profitable products.
In the first years after the acquisition of California by the Americans the chief source of wealth was the gold taken from its soil. For many years mining was pre- eminently the leading industry of the state, but it suffered a decline with the exhaus- tion of the placers, and the interruption of hydraulic mining, due to antagonism of the agriculturists whose lands lying along the streams in which the detritus was discharged were destroyed by deposits of debris carried in the constantly recurring floods. The reductions in output occasioned by regulation and other causes have to some extent been overcome by new methods and the output of gold for some years past has shown a tendency to increase. It was $19,738,908 in 1911, and has kept at about that figure since 1904 when it was $19,109,600. But while the pro- duction of gold has shown no marked gain there has been a phenomenal develop- ment of the mining industry generally, the product of minerals of all kinds rising from $43,069,227 in 1905 to $87,497,879 in 1911. The chief factor in this enor- mous increase was the growth of the petroleum industry, the product of the oil wells of the state rising from 35,671,000 barrels in 1905 to 83,744,044 barrels in 1911, causing the state to take first rank as an oil producer. The abundance of oil fuel and the extraordinary development of hydro-electric power in the region which re- gards San Francisco as its distributing center, together with the expected influx of population are the basis of the belief that the City and the cities about the Bay of San Francisco will ultimately develop an enormous manufacturing industry. In the promotion of hydro-electric projects San Francisco capital has been very active, and during recent years, especially since the fire, the far-seeing moneyed men of the City have interested themselves in schemes for the untilization of the soil in the bay counties, and the Great Valley on a more intensive scale than formerly, and are actively promoting projects for the reclamation of the perennially flooded lands of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers which, when carried into effect, will tend to enormously promote production in the region tributary to the City.
The student of affairs at the close of 1912 had no difficulty in forming a judg- ment respecting the material future of San Francisco. The statistics of progress quoted which could be indefinitely multiplied if the necessity for so doing existed, furnish conclusive evidence that the City will become a great and prosperous me- tropolis. There never was any doubt on that score in the minds of its own citizens, nor for that matter in that of competent observers not directly interested in its for- tunes. They unhesitatingly predict that San Francisco is to be one of the world's great cities, and there are some who assert that destiny has worked it out for the greatest, and that one day its population and commerce will surpass that of all rivals. It is not the duty of the historian to predict ; he is only called upon to record, but he may suggest that the showing made of the remarkable development of the past is an augury of great performances in the future. And lest it may be as-
Mineral Production Greatly Enlarged
Future of the City
942
SAN FRANCISCO
sumed that the material part of the life of the people he has written about has engrossed too much of his attention he purposes rounding out his narrative with the assertion that San Franciscans, despite appearances to the contrary, have struggled more earnestly to secure reforms than the people of any other community in the country. The story of the growth of the City and the actions of its people will have been written in vain if it does not emphasize and make clear the fact that Cali- fornia has been in the van of the movement which is called progressive, and that years before it gained force in other parts of the Union, San Francisco made attempts to better conditions which failed largely because the rest of the country was not abreast of its desires. In all these forward movements San Francisco took the fore- most place and often earned derision by her attitude. Many of the aspirations of its people may have earned the ridicule cast upon them, and the shortcomings of the community may have deserved the condemnation they evoked. But the dispassionate judge, who will take all the evidence into consideration, will conclude that the worst that can be urged against San Francisco, even when considering those phases in her career which have been most under the limelight, is that she did not conceal her weaknesses but unrelentingly exposed and sought to reform them.
The outside world has had much to say about the astonishing physical achieve- ment of restoring a destroyed city in five or six years. It is not surprising that it should have done so, for such exploits can be measured by the eye and be gauged statistically. But the real glory of the City consists in the fact that within the period in which the great work of rehabilitation was accomplished her people re- stored and added to these agencies and activities which are the hall mark of modern civilization. She has not merely restored, but has broadened her field of charity; new churches have sprung up in the places of those destroyed, not always in their old locations but in new centers where they are more accessible to their congrega- tions. Her educational views have been enlarged, and she is ready to expend money more liberally than at any time in her previous history to fit her youth for the duties of citizenship. Her social side has been immensely improved by the organization of her people into groups which have for their object the betterment of the com- munity. And while the multiplication of the latter may result in vagaries, and doubtful political experiments, they indicate that sort of ferment which promises ultimate clarification. San Franciscans are constantly gaining poise. It would be impossible to sweep the people from their feet by a mania for speculation as in former years. Speculative enterprises have not ceased to maintain popularity, but they cannot be converted into crazes. Stocks are largely dealt in, but the dealings are rational. Even the phenomenal development of the oil industry, and the flotation of shares that followed was unaccompanied by serious excitement, and failed to in- volve any considerable number of the thoughtless. The journalism of the City has be- come conservative, the greatest exponent of the opposite tendency having seen the light. In enterprise it equals that of any other city of the Union, and greatly ex- ceeds that of all other cities in its population class. The owner of the "Examiner" has made the world his field, and has established a network of papers which reaches to Europe. The more serious mood of the people has even affected the devotion to sporting and the gambling attending racing events has been reduced to a mini- mum by legislative action. But the interest in what are called sporting events has by no means abated as is testified by the fact that the "Chronicle" on the occasion of a prize fight at Reno, in 1911, saw fit to regale its readers with a 57,000 word
San Francisco's Chief Glory
943
SAN FRANCISCO
report of the fight specially telegraphed and accompanied it by pictures taken at the ringside which were printed in the edition of the ensuing morning, a feat which its rival the "Examiner" matched. But these exhibitions do not detract from the fact that the major part of the space of the papers, both morning and evening, is given over to serious matters, and that the City boasts the publication of a thor- oughly metropolitan appearing magazine, and that its libraries are flourishing, and its literary workers are constantly increasing in number and making their impress. But above all things the most conspicuous feature of San Francisco life as these closing words are being written is the retention of the old time hospitality which is responsible for the manifest determination of its citizens to make their City, not only the most prosperous, but the most beautiful and attractive in the country, so that the footsteps of the stranger will always tend to the metropolis of the Pacific coast through whose Golden Gate the commerce of the Orient is to pass in constantly increasing volume in the future.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.