Showing papers in "Pacific Historical Review in 1970"

The City of Black Angels: Emergence of the Los Angeles Ghetto, 1890-1930

Abstract: THE SPOTLIGHT of national attention on black ghettos during the past decade has led historians to study a field which had previously been largely the preserve of sociologists and economists. Several excellent studies of the formation of major areas of black urban concentration prior to the Great Depression have been written, and long-held interpretations of the causes and timing of ghetto development have been altered.' To date, however, no historian has produced a scholarly study of the origins of the community in Los Angeles which, by 1960, ranked sixth among all black urban populations in the United States. This neglect resulted partly from the fact that writers saw no substantial black population in the West prior to the 1940s and concluded that the presence of Negroes was largely a phenomenon of wartime migration. Thus Gunnar Myrdal dismissed the role of blacks in the development of the West by noting that in 1940 they constituted in all states west of the Mississippi, outside of the South, only 2.2 percent of the nation's Negro population.2 He was typical in neglecting to observe that one-fourth of this percentage resided in one county, mostly in certain sections of one city, Los Angeles, which already ranked fourteenth among the nation's cities in Negro population. It had been the largest black community

Opportunity and Persistence in the Pacific Northwest: A Quantitative Study of Early Roseburg, Oregon

Abstract: HISTORIANS WHO DESCRIBE the American West as offering optimum opportunity assume, usually without reference to adequate evidence, that initiative, frugality, innovation, and hard work assured economic success. According to these writers, such qualities were characteristic of the westward movement in the nineteenth century.1 This vision of the American West is especially prominent in memoirs, local histories, and travel accounts.2 In most instances the vision is based on the selective testimony of people who recorded their experiences. Moreover, studies expressing this theme employ traditional rather than quantitative research methods to examine opportunity and success on the frontier. Consequently, they usually deal with stable populations. Often such an approach results in a history that is only a catalog of colorful incidents and anecdotes.

The Dimensions of Urban History: A Footnote to the "Urban Crisis"

Abstract: THE CELEBRATED CHICAGO ECONOMIST, Frank H. Knight, once remarked that a man writing on the scope and methodology of his subject is in the same position as one who plays the slide trombone. Unless he is very good at it, the results are more likely to interest him than his audience. Since the theme of this recital is essentially one of scope and method, an effort will be made to keep it brief and austere in the manner of a Webern, leaving others to pursue variations or add subjects as they see fit. Much that appears here, moreover, represents a recapitulation and restatement of motifs imposed on gentle listeners often enough before. But my personal repertoire is limited and previous audiences have remained from my standpoint notably unreceptive.' In this performance an attempt will be made to articulate the

Population Growth and Change in Seattle and Vancouver, 1880-1960

Abstract: ALL MODERN CITIES have a good deal in common. Whether it be the diversity of their inhabitants, the need for better transportation systems, the problems of air and water pollution, the elimination of sub-standard housing, the need to combat the sense of alienation and anonymity felt by many residents, or the desire to improve local schools and art galleries-all seem to be shared by any large and complex city, at least in the developed sections of the world. For many urban historians, however, the real appeal in studying cities is not in showing how all cities reflect minor variations from a standard model, but rather in seeing how each city has a unique development and existence, quite unlike that of any other city. Although at long range two cities may appear to be quite similar in their geographical setting, population makeup, industrial structure, and historical background, when examined at close range they show a host of distinctive characteristics which make them unique. Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia, are a pertinent case in point. These cities share much in common. Both are seaports far removed from national centers of population; both got their start in the late nineteenth century as logging and lumbering communities; both developed very slowly in their early years; and both began growing rapidly during the great railroad boom of the 1880s when the Northern Pacific and the Canadian Pacific reached

"American China Policy" to 1898: A Misconception

Abstract: HIS ESSAY TRIES to change the size and shape of the aperture or window through which we look at early Sino-American relations. It argues that a broader perspective on our relations before 1898 will help to explain our China policy in recent decades. What was the American China policy in the nineteenth century ? This innocent question has trapped historians ever since; for, as we phrase questions, so we get answers. The trap has been the word "American." Implicit in this word has been the assumption that our nineteenthcentury relations with China were determined on our side by an American national policy, to be studied primarily in our National Archives and related American sources.

Academic Turmoil and Public Opinion: The Ross Case at Stanford

Abstract: The comic thing about the whole matter-were it not for all the tragedy-is that everybody, even Ross, seems to have lived up to his lights. Each little piece of truth, sometimes skilfully twisted, sometimes merely dramatized, has been solemnly, and with a great show of earnestness, put forth as the whole warp and woof. What a spectacle for ye cynical gods elevated to some convenient pedestal overlooking the whole drama! -Orrin L. Elliott, Registrar of Stanford University.'

California and the National Oil Industry

Abstract: No INDUSTRY can be treated accurately as a monolithic entity-least of all the American petroleum industry. Where an industry is based on a natural resource, the location, quality, and amount of that resource in relation to the demand for it will have important implications for the strategy and structure of that industry. California's place in the national oil industry provides an excellent case in point. Separated from the main body of the industry by half a continent or more, a major source of crude oils discovered in commercial quantities much later than those east of the Rockies, and with a primary market in five western states characterized by rapid growth in this century, California has long been considered a self-contained petroleum province.' The purpose of this paper, which is intended to be merely exploratory in character, is to examine the extent to which this characterization remains accurate

Business and Reform: The American Asiatic Association and the Exclusion Laws, 1905-1907

Abstract: IN THE YEARS PRIOR to and during the RussoJapanese War, important segments of the American business community had become deeply disturbed by the threat posed to American economic interests in north China by the military and economic presence of Russia in Manchuria. The militant American Asiatic Association of New York, which represented virtually all firms and individuals active in Far Eastern trade, had assumed leadership in expressing business opposition to the Russian encroachments. So absorbed were American business leaders in meeting this challenge that they gave comparatively little attention to a potentially more serious problem-the adverse effect of United States immigration policies on the China trade. In the immediate postwar period the American policy of Asiatic exclusion threatened to neutralize any competitive advantage gained for the United States through Japan's apparently successful defense of the Open Door in China. And this problem assumed a menacing form when the Chinese decided to respond with organized economic coercion to accumulated insults from the United States. By so doing, they threatened to erect a formidable barrier to the development of an essentially untapped area considered the world's greatest market by many American businessmen.

The Suscol Principle, Preemption, and California Latifundia

Abstract: THE CALIFORNIA LAND ACT of 1851, which provided for a Board of Land Commissioners to adjudicate the more than eight hundred claims inherited by the United States from Mexico, added heavily to the burdens of the United States Supreme Court and the federal district courts of California. Admittedly, judges at all levels had gained experience by adjudicating grants made by Spain, France, and England in the upper Mississippi Valley and the Gulf region, but the experience and precedents did not adequately prepare the courts for the many confusing and fraudulent claims in California. At first, from 1853 to 1855, the judges took a liberal position on the California claims, readily confirming titles that were far from complete and several that under Mexican law would have been considered invalid. One of the

The Levine Affair: A Case Study in Academic Freedom

Abstract: ON FEBRUARY 7, 1919, Chancellor Edward C. Elliott suspended Professor Louis Levine from the faculty of the State University of Montana for insubordination and unprofessional conduct prejudical to the welfare of the university.' The suspension immediately attracted national attention. The New Republic, the Nation, and the New York Times ran editorials and news stories on the subject. The American Association of University Professors investigated the case and its Committee on Academic Freedom reported its findings in the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors. A monograph authored by Levine entitled The Taxation of Mines in Montana was the immediate cause of his suspension. The study was critical of Montana's tax structure. His belief that serious inequities resulted from Montana's tax laws was no secret; he had lectured and had written articles about it. His outspokeness ultimately led to investigations of him and the university by the State Board of Education and the state legislature. It quickly became evident that the mining interests were responsible for the investigations and for pressure exerted on the chancellor and the Board of Education. This pressure resulted in Levine's suspension. There was a certain irony in the fact that a study proposed and encouraged by the chancellor resulted in Levine's suspension. Levine's academic preparation was varied and impressive. Born in Russia, in 1883, Levine had come to the United States with his family at the age of four. He attended public schools in New York and received his secondary education in Russia. He also studied in Switzer-

The Structure of the California Petroleum Industry, 1895-1911

Abstract: THE EARLY HISTORY of the petroleum industry in California, so ably covered by Gerald White in his recent study of the Standard Oil Company of California, is especially interesting in the context of national changes in the structure of the industry.' White's study and the earlier volumes on Standard of New Jersey by the Hidys, George Gibb and Evelyn Knowlton, studies on other companies by Paul Giddens, and Henrietta Larson and Kenneth Porter present extensive information on the activities of the Standard Oil firms.2 However, the larger industry framework and the dynamic factors that worked to change structure and performance are not analyzed adequately in these studies. In part, the approach of Harold Williamson and his coauthors in their economic history of the American petroleum industry has added balance and perspective to company histories.3 For the formative years of the California industry, however, little analytical work has been done on the competitive dynamics shaping industry structure. Joe Bain's excellent study begins in 1919.4 Economic forces affected the size and structure of firms

Oil in the West: Reflections on the Historiography of an Unexplored Field

Abstract: A s GERALD T. WHITE has reminded us, the history of petroleum west of the Mississippi River is one of many as yet uncharted fields. His discussion, "California's Other Mineral," provides a good illustration of opportunities that await researchers wishing to investigate various aspects of the industry's development. Curiously enough, although oil has been one of the West's1 most important natural resources-providing a foundation for one of its major industries-it has not really attracted much attention from historians. It is doubtful, however, whether any appraisal of regional or national economic expansion can afford to ignore the role of petroleum in the trans-Mississippi area, particularly in the twentieth century. If gold was the cornerstone of mineral-producing states in the nineteenth century, oil has had a similar function in more recent times.

Canada and the Myth of the Japan Market, 1896-1911

Abstract: WESTERN LEADERS and merchant princes have experienced recurrent difficulty in modern times distinguishing fact from fantasy in their assessments of the commercial potential of Asian markets. In the nineteenth century, for example, the soberminded and tightfisted merchants of the China coast were unshakably convinced that China was blossoming into an inexhaustible market for Western goods. These "old China hands" clung to their chimeric vision of China's peasant millions as eager buyers of Western wares in the face of overwhelming evidence that the Chinese lacked both the money and the desire to purchase costly imports from abroad. Professor Nathan Pelcovits has shown how this curious phenomenon, which he calls "the myth of the China market," helped shape British relations with late Ch'ing China.x Other scholars have demonstrated the influence of this myth on the fin de siecle Far Eastern policy of the United States, including the enunciation of the Open Door doctrine and the annexation of the Philippines.2 It has not been generally recognized, however, that a similar delusion lay behind the development of Canada's early relations with Japan.3

Experiment in Containment: The United States Steel Embargo and Japan, 1917-1918

Abstract: 1 One of the first to articulate clearly the containment concept for Asia was A. Whitney Griswold, The Far Eastern Policy of the United States (New York, 1938). By far the most able of the Lansing-Ishii studies is Burton F. Beers, Vain Endeavor, Robert Lansing's Attempt to End the American-Japanese Rivalry (Durham, North Carolina, 1962). Analyses of the consortium tactic have received less play. The reports of actual participants still provide the best source of information. See, for instance, Paul S. Reinsch, An American Diplomat in China (New York, 1922), and Thomas W. Lamont, Across World Frontiers (New York, 1950). Current studies in progress by Lloyd C. Gardner ("Progressive Diplomacy, 1900-1921") and Marilyn Young ("American International Cooperation") should be consulted when available. The motives for intervention have been "warmly debated," as aptly put by Robert M. Smith in his The Great Departure: The United States and World War I, 1914-1920 (New York, 1965). At stake here is whether Wilson's despatch of American troops was to contain Japan (the traditional view) or Bolshevik Russia. For the best treatment of the former, see Betty Miller Unterberger, America's Siberian Expedition, 1918-1920 (Durham, North Carolina, 1956). William Appleman Williams presents a convincing case for the latter viewpoint in American-Russian Relations, 1781-1947 (New York, 1952). Smith's conclusion that intervention represented an effort to deal with both Japan and Russia seems the most acceptable.

Cities as Nurseries of Self-conscious Minorities

Abstract: sible participation" of the needy in poverty programs and of slum residents in the replanning and rebuilding of their neighborhoods is a dramatic reenactment of a basic but always controversial process in American history. Richard Boone and other advisers who inserted the phrase in the draft of the Economic Opportunity and Urban Renewal acts of 19641 may not have had many of its historic antecedents in mind, but a hasty glance at the course of the nation's development will reveal how frequently and persistently this process has appeared at crucial points in our history. The will to participate, to become involved, has never received the attention given to the myth of the American Adam, or to the theme of the ever-challenging frontier, or in more recent times to the spectre of the Establishment, yet for nearly two centuries in decade after decade, in one city or another, it has reappeared in the vibrant struggles of minority groups of every kind to assert their identity and achieve expression and recognition. Numerous scholars have contributed to our knowledge of these ethnic minorities. The pioneer writings of Marcus Hansen provided a comprehensive view of the extent of their contributions, and several probing biographies of individual cities have recorded the arrival and impact of these groups on "the fabric of society," as Bessie Pierce has put it. Oscar Handlin and his students have explored the homeland origins of some of these migrant groups and studied the relationship between their heritage and their experience in America. Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan in Beyond the Melting Pot have not

The Ambitions of Lansford W. Hastings: A Study in Western Myth-Making

Abstract: LANSFORD WARREN HASTINGS, California's energetic herald of expansion, played a prominent role in several events of the 1840s which aided the Americanization of the Pacific slope. In 1842 he led the first planned overland wagon migration to Oregon, and that winter he surveyed the townsite of Oregon City and acted as John McLoughlin's land claims lawyer at the falls of the Willamette. In 1845 he published one of the early guidebooks on Oregon and California. In the latter state he helped lay out the town of Sutterville, part of present Sacramento, devised a plan for Mormon colonization near Montezuma in northern California, and led the first emigrants over the Salt Desert Cutoff that subsequently bore his name. After serving in the California Battalion in 1846 as captain of Company F, he attempted to raise a company of volunteers for service in Mazatlan, Mexico. In the fall of 1849 he served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in Monterey. Following his marriage in 1848 to Charlotte Catherine Toler, Hastings settled down in northern California to practice law. Late in the next decade he moved with his family to Arizona City, present-day Yuma, for reasons of health. While there he became attracted to southern seccessionist thought and, after the outbreak of the Civil War, devised an elaborate but otherwise unfeasible plan to capture southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico for the Confederacy. The defeat of the South sent him off touring northern Brazil. He returned in 1867 to Mobile to publish a guidebook to the Amazon region, where, near

Diplomacy and Prejudice: The Morris-Shidehara Negotiations, 1920-1921

Abstract: T HE HISTORY OF Japanese immigration to the United States is notable for the discriminatory and unreasonable doctrines initiated by Californians during the 1890s but increasingly shared by Americans throughout the country in the early twentieth century. It is also notable for the sincere, though sporadic and often poorly executed, efforts of the federal government to combat such extremist activity. Despite the improving record of the Gentlemen's Agreement, Californians led the fight for federal statutory exclusion of the Japanese, a goal they achieved in 1924. Californians also gained the lead in discriminatory legislation at the state level when, in 1913, they enacted a law preventing aliens ineligible for citizenship from owning land or leasing it for more than three years except as provided by treaty. Discrimination and restriction of immigration, then, easily became the most important characteristics of the anti-Japanese movement, a movement which angered the government of Japan and worried that of the United States.1 In an effort to solve the problem, Roland S. Morris, American ambassador to Japan on leave for consultation with the Department of State, and Baron Kijuro Shidehara, the Japanese ambassador to the United States, engaged in a series of informal conferences in Washington in late 1920 and early 1921. Though the negotiations failed in their primary purpose, an analysis of them reveals that more was involved than just a straightforward effort to solve difficulties involving immigration and discrimination. The negotiations and