writing assignment
elinaa
class2_boosterismandthemodernizationoflosangeles.pptxBoosterism and the Modernization of Los Angeles
Class: Political Economy of Southern California
Class 2
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Timeline
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1888: Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce founded
1902: Pacific Electric Railway from Los Angeles to Long Beach
1913: Completion of Los Angeles Aqueduct
1910: Los Angeles Times building bombed by iron worker union members
1907: Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro) opens
1920: Goodyear becomes first major Eastern tire company on West Coast (based in the CMD of S. Central L.A.)
1920-1923: Largest of the oil fields discovered: Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Santa Fe Springs, Dominguez
1920s: Vernon becomes a vital part of industrial growth
1921-1923: Los Angeles real estate boom brings 100,000 new residents per year
1929-1930: Stock market crash and Great Depression hit California, causing intense class struggles in agriculture and manufacturing
Legacy of the Boosters
Real estate bubble of 1886?
Land granted to the RR companies (like Southern Pacific) then sold off to tourists
Price war attracted thousands – but also, many left after the bubble burst
After the bubble burst, needed an economic basis on which to build society
New LACC founded 1888 (year after real estate bust)
Focus on attracting agricultural talent
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Walnut Elephant – made from over 850 pounds of California walnuts – on display at the 1893 Chicago World Fair
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Agriculture in Southern California
“Orange Empire” – avocados, walnuts, beets too
San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, West L.A. – all dominant in agriculture
In the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties), migrant-farmers sought to engage in commercial (as opposed to subsistence) farming
First employed Native Americans as the seasonal workforce, then Chinese, then (in 1890s) Mexicans and Japanese
Inland Empire (mainly Riverside County)
Etiwanda, Ontario – by combining land and water rights in a mutual water company, prevented conflicts between the two that limited early development of Riverside
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Citrus made Riverside one of the richest areas of the country in the early 1900s. Source: Thomas C.Patterson, From Acorns to Warehouses: Historical Political Economy of Southern California’s Inland Empire.
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Chinese farm workers. Later replaced by Mexican and Japanese in the early 1900s. Source: Thomas C.Patterson, From Acorns to Warehouses: Historical Political Economy of Southern California’s Inland Empire.
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Agriculture was geographically diverse, though citrus had a presence in most areas of the county – which was one of the strongest agriculturally in the first half of the 20th century.
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Successes of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
By 1910, efforts to promote agriculture were paying off: population of Los Angeles County almost tripled between 1900-1910, to 504,131 (Southern California: 751,702; California: 2,377,549)
Southern California again increases its share of the state’s population
“Power lines” in the region no longer only confined to railroads; dominated by a variety of elites whose interests converged into a capitalist “consensus”
Infrastructural developments in early 1900s: Pacific Electric railway (red cars) in 1901, Los Angeles Aqueduct begun in 1908 (completed 1913), San Pedro port (1907)
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From Agriculture to Industry: Industrial Bureau (1915)
Objective of the Chamber of Commerce after the boom in agriculture: shift the Southern California economy toward industry
Advantages of the region: open shop. Also, workers are healthier here and more docile
It worked: between 1905 and 1927, manufacturing employment increased from 6,876 to 66,536
“[Los Angeles] business elites, under the leadership of Norman Chandler of the Los Angeles Times, claimed that 1920s Southern California was a new kind of industrial society…”
Los Angeles development in 1910s, 1920s: planned efficiency
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Vernon/Central Manufacturing District was one of the centers of manufacturing activity in Los Angeles starting in the 1920s – planned by the Chamber of Commerce
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“In 1929 more than 300 firms, with a commuter workforce of approximately 16,000, were located in Vernon/CMD. This was a minimum ratio of 50 commuter workers for each resident voter…. This ratio would eventually reach 500:1 in the late 1960s.”
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Location of the Samson Tire and Rubber Company (East L.A.) – the architecture was meant to have exotic design (modeled as 8th-century B.C. Assyrian palace: Samson was an Egyption king).
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Adolph Schleicher, owner of Samson Tire and Rubber Company, embarked on development of a new factory in East Los Angeles -- one that would become the largest manufacturing facility under one roof west of the Mississippi.
Schleicher wanted to include a Samson and Delilah motif. Thus the plant was modeled after an 8th-century B.C. ancient Assyrian palace including a 1,350-foot-long (later expanded to 1,750) crenulated concrete wall decorated with heraldic eagle-headed geniuses and bas-reliefs of Assyrian princes carved into the stone between impressive pillars and towers. The design, dedicated to the civilizations of Sumer, Akkad, Assur, and Babylon, conveys strength and style.
http://www.learningsites.com/NWPalace/NWP_Assyromania.htm
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“Otistown”
Harrison Gray Otis at the head of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association – created an anti-union city
A city ordinance written by M&MA’s lawyer (effective July 1, 1910) outlawed picketing
October 1, 1910: L.A. Times building bombed
Early April 1911: McNamara brothers (iron workers union) arrested
Late April 1911: Job Harriman (labor lawyer supporting the McNamara brothers) declares his run for mayor
Undo the picketing ordinance, investigate corruption over the Owens Valley aqueduct, increase investment in public goods
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Snapshot of the Economy: 1920
Population stats:
Los Angeles County: 936,455
Southern California: 1,423,786
California: 3,426,861
Major manufacturing companies: shipbuilding (until end of WWI), planing (lumber), rubber/tires, petroleum refining, canning/packaging agricultural products
Southern California (especially Inland Empire) still mainly agricultural
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“Three Anglo Rushes”
1870-1900: “health rush”, older (wealthier) migrants
1880s through 1920s: “land rush”, younger (but still wealthier) landowners and speculators from east coast
1890s through 1910s: “orange rush”, Midwestern farmers
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“A growl below like waves roaring through a sea cave…”
Discovery of oil in Southern California transformed the region (both economically and visually)
At one point in 1920s, the region was responsible for 25% of world’s oil supply
Oil -> automobile -> highways
Oil also symbolic of political corruption
Issues are brought to light in Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel, Oil!, upon which the film “There Will Be Blood” is (loosely) based – see here
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J. Paul Getty, Paul Doheny
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Oil and Politics in L.A.
Edward Doheny [Vern Roscoe in There Will Be Blood] – oil tycoon involved in massive corruption scandal involving Warren Harding’s administration
Teapot Dome scandal (oil lease to Doheny in Elk Hills (Kern County) for a very low price) in 1920-1921
Doheny never convicted
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Oil Derricks, Huntington Beach, 1926
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Oil Derricks in Signal Hill, site of one of the most profitable L.A. oil fields.
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Oil derricks behind graveyard, date unknown
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Fire at a Signal Hill oil field, 1931
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Oil and the Real Estate Boom of 1921-1924
“[S]econd in importance only to the famous boom of the 80s” (quote from W. W. Robinson)
Value of land increased by a factor of 7 between 1919 and 1923
Quest for oil drew hundreds of thousands of migrants – many professionals quitting their jobs looking to cash in on the bubble
Between 1920 and 1924, 100,000 people each year flocked to Los Angeles
Like previous bubbles, when this one burst, it created the grounds for the next expansion (highway, auto)
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Oil and the Automobile
“Red cars” of Pacific Electric and yellow cars of Los Angeles Railway faced stiff competition from automobile
Pacific Electric falls out of use in 1920s
Oil -> automobiles -> highways and suburbanization
Suburbanization also influenced by land use (1905 zoning law limiting height of buildings)
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Snapshot of the Economy: 1930
Population stats:
Los Angeles County: 2,208,492
Southern California: 3,045,058
California: 5,677,251
City has emerged as a major center for automobile industry, as well as Hollywood and Oil production/refinement
Depression does affect California (1929-1933), but the “bounce back” is just as dramatic in 1933-1939
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Population Growth in L.A. County, Southern California, and California (1870=100)
Pop, LA County 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 100 218.04820693709581 662.70821085635896 1112.404467960024 3293.0367757528252 6117.0226664053798 14426.102292768959 Pop, SoCal 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 100 199.13413375619831 571.95499509174624 849.07246595685808 1892.0737999949661 3583.744871504442 7664.5724785421226 Pop, Cal 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 100 154.34156720160931 215.64238630461199 265.07112041653062 424.37514167858109 611.66967426867097 1013.347862639157
Boosterism: The Positive and Negative
Positive
Modernized the economy through industry and infrastructure
Opened up new economic opportunities and established a western economic “growth hub”
Negative
Promoted an individualist culture that was against communal values
Boosterism masked social problems (with labor, public transit)
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From Gendzel, “Three Anglo Rushes”
"Before the land rush, when Anglos were still a minority in southern California, the newcomers had recognized some diversity in the local Mexical population. [Differences between rancheros and vaqueros.] By the end of the 1880s, in Anglo eyes, Mexicans had become an indistinguishable mass of 'greasers' with whom equal social relations were neighter necessary nor desirable.“
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Wrapping up classes 1-2
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look at Southern California’s origins!
Boosterism is the major theme here – how different campaigns helped shape the region into what it would be on the eve of WWII
You also see hints of some of the conflicts to come – over property, over race/ethnicity, and over labor – which we will explore a bit more over the coming classes
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Summary
Despite the growth in the late-19th century, Southern California really does not “come into its own” until the early 1900s
Placed the region on the map – economically (agriculture then manufacturing; oil), socially (e.g., Hollywood, automobile culture), and politically (as a bastion for conservative thought)
Note that while these changes do give rise to the first generation of social critics (Upton Sinclair, Louis Adamic, later Carey McWilliams), progressivism had a much harder time succeeding in Southern California than in the rest of the U.S. – even in the 1930s when much of the rest of the U.S. is moving in a progressive direction
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