Showing papers in "Pacific Historical Review in 1973"

Mobilizing the World War II Economy: Labor and the Industrial-Military Alliance

Abstract: O RGANIZED LABOR'S PARTICIPATION in the World War II agencies for mobilizing industry and manpower and its relations with the military have been neglected by scholars. Studies of labor during the war largely concentrated on collective bargaining, employment patterns, and income levels.' An analysis of the larger topics, however, is critically important for assessing the impact of massive union growth during the 1930s on the nation's power relations, the nature of the New Deal as a reform movement, and the origins and operations of the so-called munitions complex. Despite the growth of huge unions in the mass production industries during the New Deal years, labor's role in the World War II economy, outside the realm of collective bargaining, did not vary

Sambo and the Heathen Chinee: Californians' Racial Stereotypes in the Late 1870s

Abstract: IF HUMPTY DUMPTY ever sits down to read some of the recent discussions of "racism" in American historical literature, he should feel right at home. "Racism" no longer refers only to the long predominant set of white attitudes toward blacks; it has also been applied by various authors to white attitudes toward Indians, Mexican Americans, Orientals, and some European immigrants.' There is a certain analytical neatness in characterizing racism as a single phenomenon. By equating one bias with another, the various authors have constructed a mechanism of prejudice which is composed of interchangeable parts: one bias may be substituted for another, or all may be used at once, without grinding the gears. According to Robert Heizer and Alan Almquist, for example, "it may be suggested that in the absence of blacks the anti-Negro sentiments

From Discrimination to Repatriation: Mexican Life in Gary, Indiana, during the Great Depression

Abstract: DURING THE PAST DECADE Americans have been rediscovering important parts of their past. With a few notable exceptions, Mexican Americans-the nation's second largest minority-until recently rated very little space in scholarly writing in history and the social sciences. Today, however, historians and others have begun to probe the experience of Mexicans north of the border.' The history of Mexican immigrants in the United States has not been a particularly happy one. Sought primarily as cheap laborers and subjected to poverty and discrimination, Mexicans nevertheless migrated to the United States in large numbers, especially after World War I, as restrictive quotas in the 1920s cut off the flow of Euro-

Stimulus to Repatriation: The 1931 Federal Deportation Drive and the Los Angeles Mexican Community

Abstract: "back to their homeland." Although the departure of Mexican immigrants has been mentioned by a few writers, most notably Carey McWilliams, the movement has never been treated in detail.' Inquiry into the repatriation movement reveals that the peak period during which destitute Mexican aliens returned to Mexico was preceded by a federal deportation drive centered on the Los Angeles area. In order to understand the context in which this drive took

"Mexican American" and "Chicano": Emerging Terms for a People Coming of Age

Abstract: "Spanish American" (sometimes simply "Spanish") and "Mexican American," together with "Latin American" (sometimes "Latin"), "Chicano(-a)," and "Mexican," are terms having the greatest currency in the American Southwest where members of this sizable minority are concentrated.' They are the important terms by which "Hispanos" (used in this paper as an all-inclusive label) refer to themselves collectively.2 But, with the exception of Chicano, they are used by Hispanos only when speaking in English; when speaking in Spanish, mexicano is most prevalent, although one also hears

"Educating the Natives in Self-Government": Puerto Rico and the United States, 1900-1933

Abstract: DURING THE FIRST THIRD of the twentieth century, Americans used the idea of "educating the natives for self-government" as the principal justification for the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Secretary of War Elihu Root-whose authorship of the Foraker Act and the Platt Amendment would give him an important role in the formalization of the United States overseas empire-expressed this concept of governmental tutelage in 1899:

Mexican-American History: An Assessment

Abstract: G ENERAL HISTORIES The most remarkable fact about Mexican-American history is Carey McWilliams.' For a full generation McWilliams was the "sole authority" in this field, a sort of Lone Ranger coming to the aid of a neglected people by writing the first general history of Mexican Americans. As it turned out, his book, North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States (Lippincott, 1949; reprinted by Greenwood Press, 1968), was no pedestrian survey, but, rather, an inspired synthesis of the Mexican-American heritage. Today, depending on one's point of view, this work is considered either a classic of southwestern history, or a classic of social-protest literature, or both. More to the point, this single volume has exercised an extraordinary influence over the emergent profession of Mexican-American studies.

The Sydney Ducks: A Demographic Analysis

Abstract: THOUGH FEW AUSTRALIANS have migrated to the United States, Australia furnished the Sydney Ducks, one of the most maligned immigrant groups in American history.1 Attracted to California by the discovery of gold, the Ducks acquired a reputation for criminal activities that was remarkable even during the gold rush era in San Francisco. The California census of 1852 provides the data for a demographic analysis of this distinctive immigration stream. News of the California gold discovery reached Australia in December 1848, and the first gold seekers from Australia arrived in San Francisco in April 1849.2 By the end of May 1851, some 11,000 Australians had migrated to California: approximately 7,500 from Sydney. These figures compare with a population in San Francisco County in 1852 of approximately 36,000.4

Cold War Revisionism and the Origins of the Korean Conflict: The Kolko Thesis

Abstract: IN RECENT YEARS, a revisionist approach to the origins of the Cold War has made great inroads in the United States. As a result, many-perhaps even most-scholars no longer place primary responsibility on the Soviet Union for great power tensions following World War II. Some even go so far as to place almost exclusive blame on the United States. With the publication in 1972 of The Limits of Power: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1945-1954,1 Joyce and Gabriel Kolko became perhaps the leading spokesmen for this more radical view. Taking up where Gabriel's previous work on The Politics of War: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943-19452 left off, The Limits of Power traces American foreign policy through the Harry S. Truman and early Dwight Eisenhower administrations. Simply stated, the Kolkos see the United States as taking the offensive in the international sphere, with the Soviet Union merely reacting to protect its security. The origins of this aggressive American policy are identified as the always expanding needs of a capitalist economy. Because of the largely uncontrolled economic growth of the United States, the search for overseas markets as an outlet for surplus products was ever present. Since economic penetration was merely a preliminary to political influence, the Soviet Union was forced to resist in areas deemed crucial to its security. Thus, the Cold War. The Politics of War has received great praise within New Left circles. Although The Limits of Power has not yet been reviewed by many journals, there is no reason to believe that its reception will be any less positive. Even among more traditionally-minded scholars, the Kolkos

Patrón Leadership at the Crossroads: Southern Colorado in the Late Nineteenth Century

Abstract: ALTHOUGH HISTORIANS have given increasing attention to the study of ethnic minorities, many gaps remain in the story of Mexican Americans and the places they have inhabited. In surveys of the Southwest, for example, the meager historical information on the early settlement of southern Colorado often is superficial, misleading, or wrong.The history of Mexican-American communities in particular has been neglected. We know little of their local politics, their changing problems, and their interaction with state and national societies. The truncated Mexican-American past represents more than a gap in ethnic history, for it leaves us with an incomplete understanding of all facets of regional and national life influenced by Spanish-surnamed Americans. In the literature on

Prologue to California Reform: The Democratic Impulse, 1886-1898

Abstract: THE CONCEPT OF PERIODIZATION in history frequently leads the unwary to believe that an entire era can be described by a few major characteristics. The so-called "Gilded Age" is no exception. Usually considered devoid of any meaningful reform impulse, it has been chiefly noted for flagrant corruption and corporate domination. Except for the Populist movement of the 1890s, only feeble, sporadic attempts were supposedly made to restrain the trusts and political bosses during this period. California, with its powerful Democratic machine working hand-in-hand with the Southern Pacific Railroad, has been thought to fit this national stereotype.' Such colorful figures as Christopher Buckley, the blind boss of San Francisco, have been portrayed as having an unusually firm grip over not just the city's administration, but over the state legislature as well. Because of this, standard texts of the period have argued that the late 1880s and the 1890s were unproductive of significant reform. George Mowry, for example, declares that during this era

Who Were the Senate Isolationists

Abstract: THE MAJOR WORKS dealing with congressional isolationism in the United States since 1945 explore the common characteristics of the isolationists of this period, but they fail to state precisely who these individuals were. This is not to suggest that the scholars of isolationism or those who have dealt with the history of American foreign relations since the end of the Second World War have not in some

Manifest Destiny and Canadian Reciprocity in 1911

Abstract: THE PROPOSED CANADIAN-AMERICAN reciprocity agreement of 1911 has been of constant interest to historians over the years. Despite that interest, however, one of the central aspects of the issue, American annexationism, has received very little attention. In Canada most historians have viewed the controversy as a phase in the development of Canadian nationalism and have largely ignored the question of whether or not there was a real American threat.' In the United States, on the other hand, most historians have interpreted reciprocity as only one more skirmish in the intraand interparty battles waged during the administration of William Howard Taft.2 Only Albert K. Weinberg has given serious consid-

Working on El Traque: The Pacific Electric Strike of 1903

Abstract: But on the morning of April 24, representatives of the Uni6n Federal Mexicanos (Mexican Federal Union) confronted company officials with a demand that wages of the largely Mexican track workers be raised from 17.5 cents per hour to 20 cents for day work, 30 cents for evenings, and 40 cents for Sundays.' Huntington, the railroad's president, was in San Francisco that morning, and the immediate company response was made by panicky subordinates. They agreed to all demands. But by afternoon, Huntington had countermanded that decision, and union representatives were informed that the morning's agreement was null and void. Angrily,

Harbingers of Change: American Merchants and the Formosa Annexation Scheme

Abstract: PTER PARKER, the commissioner of the United States to China, proposed in 1857 that his country establish control over the island known to Westerners as Formosa. In recounting the story of Parker's proposal, Tyler Dennett, the pioneer historian of American involvement in East Asia, emphasized the nationalistic arguments that Parker and his allies marshalled in support of the idea. During the decades since, other American historians have explicitly or implicitly supported Dennett's assessment. Foster Rhea Dulles put it succinctly when he wrote that Parker was an imperialist of the same school as William Seward and Commodore Matthew C. Perry.' Such an interpretation makes Parker's proposal seem an almost perfect illustration of the self-confident American nationalism of the 1840s and 1850s, the spirit that gave rise to the idea of Manifest Destiny. Dennett, however, based his interpretation almost exclusively on materials in Parker's official correspondence, materials

"Martial Thunder": The First Official American Armed Intervention in Asia

Abstract: IT HAS A FAMILIAR RING-armed forces of the United States fighting in Southeast Asia, charges that they had committed atrocities against local noncombatants, and a sharp debate in the American press about the power of a President to commit his nation to hostilities without a congressional declaration of war. But in this case the date was 1832, the locale was Sumatra in what is now Indonesia, the American assailants were sailors and marines from a single warship, and the embattled President was Andrew Jackson. This article focuses not at all on whether 1832 marked the first U.S. hostile encounter abroad. Of course it did not; there had been scores of clashes between American merchantmen and pirates in various parts of the world during and after colonial times. Concentration here is on the first executively-ordered U.S. punitive naval action against Asians which, almost a century-and-a-half ago, offers some thought-provoking contrasts and comparisons to our most recent troubles in that quarter. Furthermore, the entire thrust of the national argument in 1832 about the presidential war-making power was that, with the exception of warfare against the Amerindians, this issue had never before arisen in United States history. Obviously a debate on that subject differs considerably from those

The Making of an Interventionist on the Air: Elmer Davis and CBS News, 1939-1941

Abstract: THIS ESSAY REPRESENTS an attempt both to call attention to a neglected historical resource and to demonstrate its indispensable role in the study of an historical problem. The use of newspapers as a primary source is so widespread and accepted by scholars as to go unquestioned. Curious then that another news mediumradio-should have been so consistently overlooked. Surely historians are not so conditioned to written sources as to ignore radio, particularly in the study of recent events. Perhaps they labor under the mistaken impression that radio broadcasts vanish immediately into thin air. In that case, they may be interested in the Milo Ryan Phonoarchive at the University of Washington in Seattle. Due to the time differential, Columbia Broadcasting System news programs originating in New York were recorded for later broadcast by the Seattle affiliate, KIRO. The old discs on which the news broadcasts were recorded subsequently gathered dust in a warehouse until Milo Ryan, a resourceful professor of communications at the University of Washington, rescued them. The con-