May 2007 Archives

Charles

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In 1947, President Harry S. Truman  vetoed legislation sent him by Congress. The bill, known as the Taft-Hartley Act , re-organized the relationship between labor and government that had been established in 1935. Congress overrode Truman's veto, and Taft-Hartley became law.

Taft-Hartley was named for Sen. Robert Taft, R-Ohio, and Rep. Fred A. Hartley Jr., R-N.J. The bill aimed to modify the labor law that had been effected in 1935 as the Wagner Act . Taft-Hartley scaled back the ways union workers could strike and ways they could organize at the workplace. Taft-Hartley defined unfair labor practices committed by unions, where prior laws had defined unfair acts by employers. The Act gave individual workers room to decline union membership if they chose—making it easier to pressure workers one at a time, whether union or anti-union pressure.

That Wagner Act was a New Deal  action that recognized labor unions and allowed them to organize openly, to strike legally and non-violently, and to participate in policy-making through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) .

Workers had struggled since the 19th century to get a bigger piece of the political and economic pie. Of course, workers and management have always needed to work together, but after the Civil War America changed dramatically with industrial production and the rise of big corporations. Everyone felt the rapid change, and workers organized to protect themselves. Strikes and violent reprisals were the order of the day. Labor gained some respectability by the 1910s, only to lose it again after the first World War .

The Wagner Act responded to the Great Depression  and big strikes in Minneapolis  and San Francisco . The New Deal let labor "in" with the Wagner Act, and ordinary workers enjoyed a real political importance. But many conservative people were uncomfortable with the New Deal; they felt it came dangerously close to the huge state-ist governments that were on the rise in Europe. After World War II, conservatives won Congress and began scaling back the New Deal.

Truman and others cursed Taft-Hartley as a "slave-labor bill" that would make things worse for workers and return labor to the dark ages of the 1890s. Many historians, economists and others agree . However, the opposite opinion  held that Taft-Hartley smoothed relations between workers and bosses because New Deal programs had weighted everything in favor of labor. In a peacetime economy, balance was necessary, and that meant shifting things back to the center—labor had to give up some things to make everything 50-50.

Marianne Babal

I know you kids will find this hard to believe, but PONG® was once the only game in town. You know, back in the Jurassic Age  when mom was growing up. This first wildly popular video game of the early 1970s consisted of knocking a computer-controlled "blip"  back and forth across a cathode ray  screen (another dinosaur).

PONG was made by Atari , a company founded in 1972 by 29-year-old computer whiz Nolan Bushnell . Wells Fargo's Special Industries Group in Palo Alto helped the fledgling firm get ponging by providing a $50,000 line of credit so that Atari could begin manufacturing its product. Atari parlayed this credit into sales of over $3 million in its first year. And the "PONG" rest is "PONG" history  ...

Greg

Old Sacramento  comes alive at the end of May. Aside from the droves of fourth graders on their end-of-the-school-year field trips, there are two huge festivals that bring a variety of people into Old Town. The recent Pacific Rim Street Festival , an annual one-day event that consumes the entire Old Town area, celebrates the cultures and peoples from the Pacific Rim.

One of the biggest sponsors of this event is Wells Fargo, which has been involved in the festival since 1993. By sponsoring this festival, Wells Fargo helps increase awareness and understanding of Asian Pacific heritage. This year, Wells Fargo had a stage near the waterfront boardwalk, hosting a variety of musicians, artists and dancers. Sponsoring the festival is just another step in the long history of Wells Fargo promoting diversity in the community.

The other huge festival that happens in May is the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee , a four-day event starting tomorrow and lasting through Memorial Day. Every year since 1974, Old Sacramento has hosted the jubilee. Looking over the roster of sponsors on the jubilee website , I was not surprised to see the red and gold Wells Fargo logo. Every year, Old Town's Wells Fargo History Museum is packed with jazz enthusiasts; the sounds of every variety of jazz music fill the air. Old Town is closed to automobiles, and bands set up on every street corner. Being a pseudo-musician and Wells Fargo team member, I appreciate seeing Wells Fargo give back to the community—especially to music events that promote a culturally diverse genre of music that has had a huge impact on American culture.

Both of these festivals are fun for the whole family. All of us here at the Old Sacramento History Museum will gladly remind anyone of the 155-year history of one of the proud sponsors of these two great festivals: Wells Fargo.

Charles

On May 21, 1979 , San Franciscans marched to City Hall to protest the conviction of former Supervisor Dan White. White was found guilty of manslaughter for the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk  the previous November. White's defense had successfully argued "diminished capacity": White's crimes were not premeditated, but the result of stress exacerbated by junk food.

Marchers protested the verdict because they felt it did not fit the crime—the assassinations of Moscone and Milk shocked the city and resonated across the nation. The sentiment was strong that the lighter sentence reflected anti-gay and anti-progressive prejudice. Milk  had been the first openly gay city official, and Moscone  had built his political career advocating for minorities and the poor. Moscone strongly supported gay rights.

Progressives had recently won close political races in San Francisco, and the tension between them and opponents was high. Dan White had been a conservative supervisor and had lost a political decision. He resented progressives' rise as his own career failed, and he blamed Moscone, Milk and others. He gunned down Moscone and Milk on Nov. 27, 1978.

Reaching City Hall , many protesters kept it peaceful, chanting, "Remember Harvey Milk!" and "We want Justice!" But some gave free rein to their anger and started wrecking fixtures and breaking glass. They set police cars ablaze. While radicals went wild, the crowd demanded "No more violence!"—but the melee got worse. Police arrived and got control after some time.

The '70s have a rap as being a decade of self-indulgence, of a lackluster political consciousness compared with the crazy '60s. But the "White Night" riots demonstrate that a movement for civil rights  was fully underway, full of energy and with a quick activist response. Politics was still hotly contested between old power and new power. And the death toll of leaders, which had marked the 1960s in Dallas , Memphis  and Los Angeles , was still a specter in public life.

Casey

From the moment the first wolf  left its pack and joined his human family some 15,000 years ago, canines have been a valuable part of the human experience. They have been protectors, workers and loyal companions. Unfortunately, humans have not always been good stewards of that trust. As a member of the Humane Society of the United States , I do my small part in making the world a better place for our animal friends. I'm also honored to share my own life with two intelligent, loyal and loving Boston terriers, Charlie and Eddie. Recently, I came across a bit of news that reminded me of that special bond humans and dogs have and how we humans sometimes get it right.

Readers of this blog know the story of Jack the Dog and Tig. While Jack sat “alert and faithful” atop the Wells Fargo treasure box and Tig was giving his life in the line of duty, two other dogs were making their way into hearts and legend. The first was Bum. Here in San Diego, schoolchildren all know the story of Bum the dog . But soon, everyone in San Diego will know Bum's story. Later this year, the San Diego-Edinburgh Sister City Society  will complete a $54,000 fund-raiser and install a bronze statue of the ol' boy in the Gaslamp District in downtown San Diego.

Bum was a St. Bernard and Spaniel mixed-breed dog who arrived in San Diego as a stowaway on board a San Francisco steam ship in 1886. Bum was friendly and soon adopted by the locals. He ate scraps from the best restaurants and even developed a drinking problem (yes, alcohol, for which he had to be treated!) thanks to some locals who thought it was funny to give him sips when he wandered into the saloons. Bum soon ruled the streets from Old Town to New Town, hopping streetcars back and forth. When his territory was challenged by another dog, the two began to fight, ending up on the railroad tracks at the wrong time. Bum lost part of his right leg and part of his tail, but the other dog lost his life. Legend has it that, except once to rescue a puppy, he never went near the tracks again.

Bum became a regular at parades and other civic events of the day, taking top spots with dignitaries and celebrities. And when the city passed a law requiring licenses for all dogs, Bum was granted immunity and his picture placed on the first licenses issued. Bum was and is forever San Diego's “Official” Town Dog, and soon there will be a statue to prove it!

Joining Bum will be the famous Greyfriars Bobby  from Edinburgh, Scotland . Bobby belonged to John Gray, a night watchman. For two years Bobby and John were inseparable. In February 1858, Gray died of tuberculosis and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the local graveyard. It is told that Bobby spent the rest of his 14 years guarding his master's grave. Locals are said to have built a small shelter next to the grave to protect Bobby from the harsh weather, as Bobby refused to leave, and a local restaurant owner fed him once a day. In 1867, when it was suggested that the unwanted dog should be destroyed, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers , who was also a director of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , paid for a renewal of Bobby's license, making him the responsibility of the City Council.

Now, both dogs will have their day as dual statues will be placed in San Diego and Edinburgh.

Charles

In 19th century California , Chinese people comprised about 10 percent of the population . Most worked in the mines, on the railroads, and at agriculture: A few were merchants. While they were all too often subject to prejudice and persecution, Chinese Americans also built strong neighborhoods. In San Francisco, Chinatown  became a stable community that continues today.

Chinese Americans needed to perform financial transactions—send and receive money, letters and packages. Wells Fargo served them and found their business integral to the company's success. Wells Fargo had a Chinese interpreter in its San Francisco head office—Tam Tong, 1863-64—and in Sacramento. Wells Fargo's Letter Express Department enjoyed a large volume of mail. That department in San Francisco employed three Chinese men to sort and deliver mail going to the Chinese community.

In spite of prejudice and violence against Chinese Californians, Wells Fargo welcomed their business. Chinese Americans were a significant portion of the business in some offices—in Folsom, Calif.,  for instance, a quarter of money transactions involved Chinese customers. In 1875, when Wong Sam produced an English-Chinese Phrase Book to aid communication, he included a list of Wells Fargo offices. Wells Fargo produced bilingual merchant directories in the 1870s and 1880s—the height of the anti-Chinese movement—to promote the economic viability of American Chinese communities. These directories listed merchants in:

• San Francisco (674 businesses)
• Sacramento (105)
• Marysville (42)
• Stockton (57)
• Oakland (69)
• San Jose (79)
• Los Angeles (42)
• Virginia City, Nev. (7)
• Portland, Ore. (65)
• Victoria, British Columbia (44)

These businesses—barbers, boarding houses, butchers, carpenters, bazaars, cigar factories, clam dealers, candy shops, clothing factories, doctors, dry goods, druggists, grocers, jewelers, junk dealers, lanterns, laundries, restaurants, rice stores, tinsmiths, toys, lumber yards—were all potential customers.

Wells Fargo's head office in San Francisco, the Parrott Building at Montgomery and Sansome streets, had special significance to the Chinese community. In 1852, banker John Parrott  imported granite blocks from China for the structure, marked and ready for placement. But Parrott had picked an unlucky site , then refused the demands of Chinese workmen to have the site "exorcised." Two of California's largest banks, tenants of the building, subsequently perished in the Panic of 1855 . Wells Fargo weathered the Panic, acquired the building, and invited the Chinese to purify the site. Thus cleansed, Wells Fargo moved into the Parrott Building and became "the bank of the Chinese." Wells Fargo also managed to acquire the two failed banks!

Charles

In 1858, shortly after Japan and the West began commerce, a Japanese man called Thoro, employed by Wells, Fargo & Co. aided a disabled Japanese ship in San Francisco. Japanese sailors were surprised to hear their language so far from home.

Wells Fargo was involved in Japanese commerce early on. Ships regularly docked with packages from Japan, consigned to Wells Fargo's Express. Beginning in 1867, Wells Fargo sent trans-Pacific messengers to the island empire. J.H. Phinney represented Wells Fargo in Yokohama. WF advertised, "Superior privileges to passengers for China, Japan and Australia." By 1903, Wells Fargo & Company Express had three agents in Japan: T.A. Christensen & Co in Kobe , R.N. Walker in Nagasaki , and A. Weston at Yokohama .

Many immigrants from Japan settled in California. Wells Fargo facilitated their business with express and banking services. In 1912, Wells Fargo opened a branch office in the Yamato department store in Los Angeles. The Yamato office sold Wells Fargo's travelers checks and speeded up the handling of goods from Japan. It is likely that this Wells Fargo office had Japanese-speaking employees.

The company sent an agent to show Imperial Valley  growers better ways to prevent damage to produce. In 1913, Wells Fargo exhibited prize-winning vegetables in Los Angeles, grown by U. Yamasaki on one of the largest Japanese-American farms in California. Farther north, Japanese-American farmers grew prized strawberries near Florin .

In 1905, Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank served as agent for Japanese government bonds. By 1918, the bank had a dozen correspondent banks in Japan, including Dai-Ichi Ginko, Ltd. , Mitsui Bank, Ltd., Sumitomo Bank, Ltd. , Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltd. , and the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp.  Following World War II, Wells Fargo’s Foreign Department visited Japan and renewed correspondent relationships.

In 1961, Wells Fargo opened its first representative office anywhere, in Tokyo. Wells Fargo celebrated its Japanese business, placing an artistic, award-winning Japanese Garden in its San Francisco headquarters. By 1989, Japanese business folded into Wells Fargo’s partnership with the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp.

Wells Fargo’s corporate symbol—the stagecoach—has gone abroad only to Japan. In 1970, a Stagecoach journeyed to the Osaka World Exposition , and in 1982, a Stagecoach traveled to Fukuoka . The coach then went to Nagoya  before returning to service in California.

Charles

Cash? What's Cash?

About this time 40 years ago, Wells Fargo was ready to proceed with its Master Charge  program. By summer, 2 1/2 million cards went out to "credit sound" customers in California.

It was a challenge. It required cooperation across several lines of business—credit card (natch), automated systems, sales, local markets. The meetings collected dozens of people, and the operation created several new executive functions.

The program also needed cooperation between four "founder member" banks: Wells Fargo, Crocker-Citizens, United California Bank and the Bank of California . Each of these had their own individual credit card function, but it was expensive to run. A bigger scale meant bigger risk, so the founder banks created a joint operation as the California Bankcard Association, with Wells Fargo VP J.O. Elmer as its chief.

This credit card alliance combined operations to get the new purchasing paradigm to the people—and get the people into stores and restaurants.

Charles

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month . Wells Fargo is big on diversity—it's a prime component of the company's mission and goals. So we celebrate all the heritage months on the calendar. We historians are busy providing stories and images that reflect Wells Fargo's long history of commerce with the huge, trans-Pacific world.

The celebrated California Gold Rush  of 1848 and '49 brought gold seekers from all over the world. Many people came from China and remained in California, and then moved all over the place as time passed. Chinese Americans  in California have a historical foothold, pre-dating the great immigration waves  of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that millions of Americans point to as their own origins.

People from Japan  and the Philippine Islands  made their way to the West Coast in the late 19th century. They made an impact on agriculture and established thriving neighborhoods in cities. People from Southeast Asia made their way to the United States after America's Indochina conflict ended in the 1970s. Laotians , Vietnamese , Cambodians  and Thai  settled in cities and expanded everywhere.

Everywhere you go, there are people of Asian heritage enriching the place. Their historical presence demonstrates their long interaction with the continental U.S. People rarely "just show up"—they have commerce and travel and family relationships across territories. When Wells Fargo started business in 1852, the Chinese were already in California and were a dependable clientele. It was in Wells Fargo's best interests to encourage their business. Commerce with Japan opened a couple years later, and Wells Fargo established offices there in quick order.

Wells Fargo was forward-looking in its outreach, but Pacific Rim business was already an established fact by the 1850s. From New York, Wells and Fargo wanted to get a piece of the business action in the American West, which was more than just gold. San Francisco was a booming world center where North America, Latin America and Asia met. Wells Fargo enjoys a heritage of being in a key place at a key time when the world expanded. That expansion, and Wells Fargo, have continued.

Marianne Babal

The gleam of diamonds from Queen Elizabeth II's  tiara has wowed all of Washington with Her Majesty’s royal presence.

On one of the reigning monarch's previous visits to North America  (as Princess Elizabeth in 1951), the future Queen Elizabeth II took a stagecoach ride at the Calgary Stampede  in Calgary, Alberta. This coach, now owned by Wells Fargo, is on display at our museum in Portland, Ore.

Coach #306, built by the Abbot-Downing Co. of Concord, N.H., in 1850, carried mail between Halifax and Pictou, Nova Scotia , until 1890. In 1860, it carried another British monarch: the Prince of Wales  (King Edward VII ), the current queen's great grandfather.

Charles

Let's see, May 7 in time ...

Joan of Arc leads the charge at D'Orleans  in 1429. Pulled an arrow from her shoulder, too—she was 17 years old. In 1763, Ottawa Chief Pontiac  attacked Fort Detroit, leading a multinational Native American force against the British.

History isn't all war, of course. Beethoven's Ninth  debuted in Vienna in 1824. Alexander Popov  demonstrated the first radio in 1895—making this Radio Day  in Russia and Bulgaria.

And Eva Perón  was born in 1919.

You could look it up. 

Steve

In my last entry, I wrote about William H. Barnhardt, Wells Fargo's first agent in Oregon, and mentioned his ownership of a general store. Before the days of supermarket behemoths, the general store was where people purchased their goods. At general stores, Oregon pioneers  purchased goods through trade, cash or credit, and some general stores provided express mail service via Wells, Fargo & Co.

During the 19th century, the general store was not just a venue for townspeople, entrepreneurs and farmers to purchase goods or conduct business—it was also a gathering place to get news, seek advice on the Oregon potato  market, discuss community happenings, etc. From a business perspective, it makes sense to be where customers are, or will frequent. For example, S. Marks & Co. conducted express business for Wells Fargo and operated a general store out of Roseburg, Ore. , that appealed to a range of customer needs by having ...

"... constantly on hand a large assortment of DRY GOODS, CLOTHING, BOOTS, SHOES, HATS, AND CAPS, etc."

Another example was John Conner from Albany, Ore. , who served as a Wells Fargo agent and ran a general store that dealt in general merchandise, dry goods , and "country produce." The gathering points changed as business changed and adapted to new communication and transportation innovations.

Ironically, the business models of general store, Western Union  telegraph, and Wells, Fargo & Co. have returned today with the supermarket presence of Wells Fargo and Western Union . For Americans of the 21st century, the 19th century idea of "one-stop shopping" has returned, as Wells Fargo has over 500 banking locations in supermarkets throughout the West.

Charles

Well, L.A. tops the list  of America's most polluted cities. But that won't stop me from loving the Southland .

I spent a few years of my youth in SoCal—many people do. It's the lure of endless sunshine for Midwesterners, and the Hollywood  dream for anyone with a little extra, uh, personality. And certainly, the legend of better-looking dates . You go there and find it's not true after all, but hey—you're only young once ...

The lure of Southern California is older than you think. It was Mexico's northernmost province: Mexican pioneers moved there after 1796 to set themselves up as Rancheros . A gold rush  happened there in 1842, on a much smaller scale than in '49, but it was California's first. In the 1880s , after railroads connected the region to the rest of the continent, high-pressure ads encouraged a huge migration and a land boom. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s  sent thousands limping to the promise of work and a piece of land. Since then, palm trees, orange groves and the fantasy of paradise have maintained a steady stream of people into Southern California. The reality that paradise is a postcard has kept the stream out as constant.

But fantasy or no, millions live there and call it home. Southern California is big, stretching as one urban area (almost) from Mexico  to Death Valley  in the east and Pismo Beach  to the north—and then the Northern California single urban area begins, reaching to Petaluma to the north and the Sierra to the east. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, but anyone who drives in California will support the argument!

Beginning in 1858, Henry Wells and William Fargo were on the Board of Directors of the Overland Mail Co., which ran stagecoaches from Missouri to San Francisco by way of Southern California. That same year, Wells Fargo opened its Los Angeles office. A short time later, Wells Fargo controlled the Overland line, which moved north when the Civil War  commenced. Southern California was served from up north, but when service resumed in the south, the area continued to grow. Railroads connected L.A. to civilization in 1874, and the "boom of the '80s" made the Southern California that endures.

L.A. Our dirtiest city—"The dirt that dreams are made of ."