7.6: Summary

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Robert W. Cherny, Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, & Richard Griswold del Castillo
San Francisco State University, Saint Mary's College of California, & San Diego State University via Self Published

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California progressivism began with municipal reform in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Efforts to reform state government, especially to regulate the Southern Pacific Railroad, mostly failed before 1910. Organized labor became powerful in San Francisco, but Los Angeles was a stronghold of the open shop. Extremists bombed the Los Angeles Times building because of the newspaper’s anti-union attitudes.

After 1900, California’s population grew rapidly, but the population remained largely white, despite increased immigration from eastern Asia and Mexico. A new federal commitment brought the creation of many new, but small, reservations for California Indians.

California’s agricultural economy moved further toward specialty crops, including fruit, vegetables, nuts, and grapes. Food processing was the state’s largest manufacturing industry, but growing numbers of automobiles stimulated an oil boom and expansion of petroleum refining. In 1906, a massive earthquake caused widespread damage through central California, centered on San Francisco, which was also devastated by fire. Both San Francisco and Los Angeles undertook mammoth water projects to permit further growth. Irrigated agriculture grew in importance. California’s agricultural produce and refined petroleum products were sold around the Pacific Rim, and the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 fostered more shipping between the East and West coasts. To celebrate the opening of the canal, a great exposition was held in San Francisco.

In 1910, the election of Hiram Johnson as governor initiated reform in state government. In 1911, reformers put limits on corporations and political parties and adopted woman suffrage. Johnson became the vice-presidential candidate of the new Progressive Party in 1912. The Socialist Party made a few gains in California, and the IWW tried to organize the most unskilled and exploited workers. In San Diego and Wheatland, IWW demonstrations turned into violent confrontations. The legislature enacted more reforms in 1913, but then progressivism began to recede.

Mexico experienced rebellion and political instability after 1910, and California provided a base for some revolutionaries in Baja California. Theunsettled situation in Mexico encouraged migration to the United States, including California. When Europe went to war in 1914, Californians were affected despite American neutrality. An anti-war bombing in San Francisco led to the imprisonment of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, even though key evidence against them was tainted. When the United States entered the war, it stimulated California agriculture and manufacturing. After the war, several unions were destroyed when strikes failed to improve wages. During the war itself and in 1919, there were efforts to restrict radical groups, including the Socialists, the IWW, and the new Communist Party.