THE ATTENTION OF VOTERS is called to Maps below. They Speak for themselves. The Map marked "correct Map" and certified to by the City Engineer, shows the true situation. The other Map is ABSOLUTELY FALSE and willfully misleading.
- Title:
- THE ATTENTION OF VOTERS is called to Maps below. They Speak for themselves. The Map marked "correct Map" and certified to by the City Engineer, shows the true situation. The other Map is ABSOLUTELY FALSE and willfully misleading.
- Alternate Title:
- THE ATTENTION OF VOTERS is called to Maps below.
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Turner, F.C.; Unknown
- Other Creators:
- Oakland California Republican City Central Committee, Democratic City Central Committee & Citizens' Municipal League Party, publishers.
- Date:
- 1909
- Date 2:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2365.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2365_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1900 - 1919
- Subject:
- Deception/Distortion
Politics & Government
Railroads
Unusual Graphics/Text
Disaster/Health/Environment - Measurement:
- two maps, one 13 x 36, the other 15 x 35, on a sheet 39 x 76 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This broadside was published in support of the 1909 election campaign of Frank K. Mott for Mayor of Oakland, California and a related referendum. It addressed the question of whether a proposed settlement between the City and the Southern Pacific Railway concerning rights to the Oakland waterfront was a good one for the public or a “sellout” as his opponents contended. It is signed by the officers of three political organizations: the Republican City Central Committee, the Democratic City Central Committee and the Citizens’ Municipal League Party.
The broadside called the “Attention of Voters” to two maps that “speak for themselves.” To the left is the “Correct Map . . . drawn to scale for the official records of the City of Oakland” and “certified to by the City Engineer.” It shows certain portions of the waterfront to which the railway will be granted a “franchise,” provided that this “will be all the territory the Southern Pacific will occupy on Oakland Water Front.” According to the broadside, “Proposed settlement restores to Oakland control of Waterfront and terminates litigation of fifty-seven years.”
To the right is a second map, labeled “Absolutely False and willfully misleading,” one that “distorts facts in many particulars.” Among the particulars spelled out are allegations that this map shows the Southern Pacific’s “Long Wharf” as remaining, when in fact the wharf “is to be torn out and taken away;” it falsely claims that certain boundary lines “are not definitely known;” certain city space is “drawn out of scale and is a gross deception;” another area is “incorrect and designedly misleading;” and an 80-foot street is entirely eliminated, “evidence of willful distortion of facts.” The author of this map is presumed to be one of Mott’s political, because Oakland business and railroad interests supported the settlement at this point.
The roots of this dispute lie deep in the 19th century. See generally Rhomberg 2004, 25-26, 42-45; Scott 1959, 137-141. In the gold rush days of 1850, “three Yankee entrepreneurs” laid claim to extensive shoreline land across the Bay from San Francisco. Within a few years, one of these three, Horace Carpentier, had incorporated the city of Oakland, become its first mayor, and obtained “legal title to the entire city waterfront.” In 1868, Carpentier transferred 500 acres of bay frontage to a predecessor of the Southern Pacific, which later developed the area. Rhomberg 25-26.
Between 1904 and 1909, Oakland achieved “phenomenal gains,” primarily as a manufacturing city. In part, this reflected the fact that the city suffered less damage from the 1906 earthquake than San Francisco. However, these gains resulted primarily from an “aggressive, even chauvinistic, campaign” begun in 1905 by Oakland’s business community “to build up the East Bay as a shipping, transportation and manufacturing area,” and to consign San Francisco to “primarily a commercial, financial, and service center.” Scott 1959, 137. Among other things, Oakland established an active Chamber of Commerce; elected an effective, pro-business mayor, Frank K. Mott; and reversed the City’s long-standing hostility to issuing improvement bonds. Ibid.; Rhomberg 42-43.
Control of the waterfront was one of the most important aspects of Oakland’s plans for economic expansion. In 1906, the city granted the Western Pacific Railway - which was constructing a line from Salt Lake City to the Bay - a franchise and wharfing out rights to land inside a new waterfront line created by federal dredging operations. Southern Pacific went to the federal court in San Francisco, alleging that Oakland did not have the right to grant such a franchise. Although the California Supreme Court had ruled in 1897 that the newly-dredged waterfront area belonged to the city, the court enjoined the proposed transaction. The Western Pacific, however, was successful on appeal to the Circuit Court. Scott 139-140.
At that point, in order to avoid an ongoing fight in the state legislature and years of future litigation in the Supreme Court, Mayor Mott reached a settlement with the railroad. The Southern Pacific agreed to relinquish all claim to the waterfront, and to remove its Long Wharf by 1918, clearing the way for Western Pacific access. In exchange, the City granted the Southern Pacific a 50-year franchise on the property it was then using. In March 1909, notwithstanding the “Absolutely False” map, the voters of Oakland reelected Mayor Mott and approved the Southern Pacific settlement. Following several related legal steps, “Oakland, after fifty-eight years of controversy, finally was in possession of two-thirds of its waterfront.” Scott 140; Rhomberg 43.
Berkeley, Oakland’s East Bay neighbor, was using maps at the same time to advance its own strategic position. See ID #1168 (1910).
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