The San Francisco plague of 1900–1904 was an epidemic of bubonic plague centered on San Francisco's Chinatown. First discovered by medical authorities in March 1900, the existence of the epidemic was denied for more than two years by San Francisco politicians and the governor of California, Henry Gage. The denial was based on business reasons: the wish to keep the reputations of San Francisco and California clean and to prevent the loss of revenue from trade stopped by quarantine. Federal authorities slowly built a case to prove that there was a major medical health problem, and they worked to isolate the affected area. Proof that an epidemic was occurring served to undermine the credibility of Gage, and he lost the governorship in the 1902 elections. The new governor, George Pardee, quietly implemented a medical solution—isolating Chinatown residents and clearing the area of rats—and the epidemic was stopped in 1904. A total of 121 cases were identified, including 113 deaths.[1]
Reaction
In 1900, the ship Australia laid anchor in the Port of San Francisco, unknowingly bringing to the city rats carrying the Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague.[2] The disease soon made home in the cramped Chinese ghetto neighborhood. Rumors of the plague's presence abounded in the city, quickly gaining the notice of authorities from the federal Marine Hospital Service (MHS) stationed in the San Francisco Bay on Angel Island, including the MHS chief stationed in San Francisco, Joseph J. Kinyoun.[3][4][5]
Allied with powerful railroad and city business interests, California governor Henry Gage publicly denied that any pestilence outbreak in the city, fearing that any word of the bubonic plague's presence would deeply damage the city and state's economy. Supportive newspapers, such as the Call, the Chronicle and the Bulletin, echoed Gage's denials, beginning what was to become an intense defamation campaign against Joseph Kinyoun, director of the San Francisco Quarantine Station. In response to the state's refuting of the plague's existence, U.S. Surgeon General Walter Wyman recommended to federal Treasury Secretary Lyman J. Gage to intervene. Secretary Gage agreed, creating a three-man medical commission to medically investigate the city. The commission conclusively discovered that bubonic plague was present.
Like Kinyoun, the Treasury commission's findings were again immediately denounced by Governor Gage. Gage believed the federal government's growing presence in the matter was a gross intrusion of what he recognized as a state concern. In his retaliation, Gage denied the federal commission any use of the University of California, Berkeley's laboratories to further study the outbreak. The Bulletin also attacked the federal commission, branding it as a "youthful and inexperienced trio."[1]
The clash between Gage and federal authorities intensified. Surgeon General Wyman instructed Kinyoun to place Chinatown under quarantine, as well as blocking all East Asians from entering state borders. Chinese residents, supported by Gage and local businesses, fought the quarantine through numerous federal court battles, claiming the Marine Hospital Service was violating their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, and in the process, launched lawsuits against Kinyoun. In these court proceedings, residents insisted Gage was correct in his denials of the plague outbreak. The courts initially agreed that Chinatown residents were correct in that the quarantine violated their civil rights, yet most of these lawsuits were eventually thrown out of court on later dates.
Between 1901 and 1902, the plague outbreak continued to worsen. In an 1901 address to both houses of the California State Legislature, Gage accused federal authorities, particularly Kinyoun, for injecting bubonic plague into cadavers.[6] In response to what he said to be massive scaremongering by the Marine Hospital Service, Gage pushed a censorship bill through the Legislature to gag any media reports of plague infection. The legislation failed, yet laws to gag reports amongst the medical community succeeded in passage and were signed into law by the governor. In addition, $100,000 was allocated to a public campaign led by Gage to deny the plague's existence. Privately, however, Gage sent a special commission to Washington, consisting of Southern Pacific, newspaper and shipping lawyers to negotiate a settlement with the Marine Hospital Service, whereby the federal government would remove Kinyoun from San Francisco with the promise that the state would secretly cooperate with the Marine Hospital Service in stamping out the plague outbreak.[6]
Despite the secret agreement allowing for Kinyoun's removal, Gage went back on his promise of assisting federal authorities and continued to obstruct their efforts for study and quarantine. A report issued by the State Board of Health on September 16, 1901 bolstered Gage's claims, denying the plague's outbreak.[7]
1902
Despite San Francisco-based newspapers continual denials, contradicting reports from the Sacramento Bee and the Associated Press on the plague's spread had made the outbreak become publicly known throughout the US. The state governments of Colorado, Texas and Louisiana passed quarantines of California, arguing that since the state had refused to admit a health crisis within its borders, states receiving rail or shipping cargo from California ports of call had the duty to protect themselves.[6] Threats of a national quarantine grew.
As the 1902 general elections approached, Southern Pacific supporters increasingly saw Gage, a man who had represented their interests since his days as a Los Angeles-based lawyer, as an embarrassment to state Republicans. Gage's public denials of the plague outbreak were due to protecting the state's economy and the business interests of his political allies.[6] However, instead of putting allegations of the outbreak to rest, conflicting studies and reports from federal officials and the media continued to prove Gage incorrect. In turn, Gage's denials were creating economic headaches to shipping and rail companies within the state and throughout the country, who now faced quarantine and economic boycotts from other states.
At the state Republican convention that year, the Railroad Republican faction refused Gage renomination for the governorship. In his place, former Mayor of Oakland George Pardee, a German-trained medical physician, received the nomination. Pardee's nomination was largely a compromise between the Railroad and the growing progressive-minded Reform factions of the party.
In his final speech to the California State Legislature in early January 1903, Gage continued to publicly deny the outbreak, blaming the federal government, in particular Joseph Kinyoun, the MHS and the San Francisco Board of Health, for damaging the state's economy.[8]
References
- Notes
- ^ a b Echenberg 2007, p. 231
- ^ Chase 2003, p. 13
- ^ "On The Plague In San Francisco". Journal of the American Medical Association. 36 (15). Chicago: The American Medical Association: 1042. April 13, 1901. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ "The Plague, American Medicine, And The Philadelphia Medical Journal.". Occidental Medical Times. 15. San Francisco: Occidental Medical Times: 171–179. 1901. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ "Bubonic Plague At San Francisco, Cal". Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon General of the Marine Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1901. Washington: Government Printing Office: 491-. 1901. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ a b c d "Public Health Politics and the San Francisco Plague Epidemic of 1900-1904" (PDF). Mark Skubik, San Jose State University. 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-19.
- ^ California State Board of Health, Report of the Special Health Commissioners Appointed by the Governor to Confer with the Federal Authorities at Washington Respecting the Alleged Existence of Bubonic Plague in California (1 ed.), Sacramento: Superintendent State Printing, retrieved 17 October 2010
- ^ "Conclusion: Public Health Politics and the San Francisco Plague Epidemic of 1900-1904" (PDF). Mark Skubik, San Jose State University. 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-19.
- Bibliography
- Campbell, Ballard C. (2008). "1900: Outbreak of Bubonic Plague". Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History. Infobase Publishing. pp. 182–184. ISBN 1438130120.
- Chase, Marilyn (2004). The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco. Random House Digital. ISBN 0375757082.
- Echenberg, Myron (2007). Plague Ports: The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague: 1894-1901. Sacramento: New York University Press. ISBN 0814722326.
- Markel, Howard (2005). When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America And the Fears They Have Unleashed. Random House Digital. ISBN 0375726020.
- Risse, Guenter B. (2012). "Bubonic Plague Visits San Francisco's Chinatown". Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown. JHU Press. ISBN 1421405105.
- Kalisch, Philip A. (1972). "The Black Death in Chinatown: Plague and Politics in San Francisco 1900-1904". Arizona and the West. 14 (2). Journal of the Southwest: 113–136.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Shah, Nayan (1995). San Francisco's 'Chinatown': Race and the cultural politics of public health, 1854–1952. University of Chicago.
- Shah, Nayan (2001). Contagious divides: Epidemics and race in San Francisco's Chinatown. University of California Press. ISBN 0520226291.
External links
- 1902 Scene in Chinatown, Early Motion Pictures, Library of Congress