Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown

10. Sanitarians Claim Victory

Puppet Show: San Francisco’s New Health Board After replacing Surgeon Arthur H. Glennan at the helm of the U.S. Public Health Service in San Francisco in May 1903, Rupert Blue kept a keen eye on the political developments in the city and their potential impact on the joint sanitary venture being conducted in Chinatown and its immediate borders. To everyone’s surprise, Michael Casey had turned out to be a reliable, can-do partner . A savvy labor union leader, Casey skillfully combined the feeble post of Health Board President with the more robust leadership of the Board of Public Works, entrusted with essential services and provided with ample resources. Supported by former mayor James Phelan’s health board appointees and the Hospital and Health Committee of the Board of Supervisors, San Francisco’s contribution to the inspection and cleaning campaign had already reached $9,000 by October 1903,1 provided from an “Urgent Necessity Fund.”2 Mayor Eugene Schmitz only reluctantly signed the appropriation after being persuaded that state and federal authorities were carrying the brunt of the cleanup costs. Wrecking operations would be completed in March, but inspections, disinfecchapter ten Sanitarians Claim Victory 1904–1905 We, Chinese and Westerners, should patiently wait for each other’s news. One day, when harm is eliminated, we shall again settle back into a peaceful existence. Hopefully, the answer to our predicament is near, and then, all of us, Chinese and Westerners, will together find a new spring. —poem in chinese western daily (june 7, 1900) Sanitarians Claim Victory 245 tion, and rat killing could last for an undetermined period of time. The uneasy mayor kept insisting that the law clearly required property owners to assume such financial burdens. Given Schmitz’s aversion to the anti-plague operation, the Public Health Service officers worried about the effects of his probable reelection. Because of footdragging on sanitary matters, the mayor appeared to be popular in Chinatown. He attended several rallies in the district, handing out his red campaign buttons ; wags pointed to the love for graft Schmitz and the Chinese shared.3 As always , Surgeon General Walter Wyman demanded to be fully informed about the political mood, and Blue complied, sending him more confidential letters. Terms for the remaining Phelan appointees, Rudolph W. Baum and Vincent P. Buckley, were about to expire, as were those for health officer Aloysius O’Brien and city bacteriologist Howard Morrow. William B. Lewitt was expected to resign rather than submit to a new regime. Under civil service rules, only chief inspector William C. Hassler was safe, but not all seemed lost. Blue revealed that Mayor Schmitz’s three health board appointees, Ward, Stinson, and ex-officio police chief George Wittman, were also in favor of demolitions in Chinatown.4 Following Schmitz’s reelection, achieved in part by exploiting anti-Chinese sentiment—he smeared his Democratic opponent for employing a Chinese cook—Blue managed to schedule a meeting with the mayor on Christmas Eve 1903. N. K. Foster, secretary of the state health board, also attended. Both men persuaded Schmitz that the sanitary campaign needed to continue beyond the February 14 deadline the mayor had proposed. The state health board had already passed a resolution that the work would continue until summer. Although still dismissive of the plague diagnosis, Schmitz was willing to sign warrants if the supervisors continued to provide the funds. For their part, Supervisors Arnold D’Ancona and Henry U. Brandenstein from the Finance and Hospital and Health Committees assured Blue that whenever needed, funds would be forthcoming to pay for this work.5 A few days later, the mayor appointed James W. Ward, the homeopathic physician , as health board president. Also reappointed was J. Coplin Stinson, a Canadian surgeon for the Pacific Sanitarium and good friend of Schmitz. New members were John V. Hughes and Joseph T. Poheim, both Cooper Medical College graduates, as well as William A. Harvey from the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons. In addition, the board acquired another ex-officio member, Herbert Schmitz, president of the board of public works and brother of the mayor, while Wittman remained chief of police. The city health officer 246 Plague replacing O’Brien was Dennis F. Ragan, also a Cooper Medical College graduate . Oddly, Frederick G. Canney from the New York Homeopathic Medical College became city bacteriologist.6 None of the...