Kevin Starr
Free to speak a secret
Now that the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is built and dedicated, a dramatic story - one relevant to the Golden Age of Jesuit Education in San Francisco - can surface. It involves bricks, the construction history of Old St. Ignatius Church and College, and a sad but revealing aspect of our City's troubled, albeit glorious, past.
In September 1978, as the bulldozers of the Dinwiddie Construction Company bit into the earth in the first stages of building Davies Hall, David H. Zisser, an attorney employed as contracts administrator for the Southern Pacific Communications Company, was taking a break from a bout of research in the law library at City Hall. He strolled over to the construction site to get some fresh air and to watch the spectacle of the great bulldozers moving tons of earth. Zisser noticed that among the earth and debris being cleared were countless bricks, many of them marked with the sign of the cross.
A two-time University of San Francisco graduate (AB 1973, JD 1977) and a native San Franciscan with a good reading knowledge of his City's past, Zisser immediately remembered something he had read in two books: that classic of academic history "The First Half Century of St. Ignatius Church and College" by Joseph W. Riordan, S.J. (1905) snd "Jesuits by the Golden Gate" (1972) by the Jesuit professor of history and USF archivist John Bernard McGloin, S.J. Zisser realized that the bulldozers were unearthing some of the 6 million bricks used in the construction of the third St. Ignatius Church and College, located at Hayes Street and Van Ness Avenue, now the site of the Davies Hall, between 1880 and 1906.
Zisser drove up to the USF campus and contacted Michael J. Romo, director of alumni relations and annual giving. Fundraiser Romo at once saw the enormous value of the bricks as historical relics and as gifts to benefactors of USF. Informed of the find, Father John Lo Schiavo, S.J., president of USF, contacted Samuel B. Stewart, president of the Sponsors of San Francisco Performing Arts Center, Inc., asking Stewart if USF might have the unearthed cache of 100-year-old bricks. Stewart said yes - but on one condition. There must be no publicity about the find until the Performing Arts Center was built and dedicated. Sam Stewart, you see, was justifiably gun-shy. The victim of countless delays on the road to construction, Stewart feared that the story of the bricks could possibly lead some historical group or other to seek an injunction delaying construction on the grounds that a systematic archeological dig of the area was in order. Father Lo Schiavo agreed. The bricks were trucked up to the University of San Francisco, where they have been warehoused for nearly two years.
I heard of the discovery at the time that Zisser made it, but Romo swore me to secrecy. The fact that the bricks were each marked with a cross brought back recollections of what I also had read in Riordan's "The First Half Century."
In July of 1878, when plans were afoot for the construction of a sumptuous Jesuit church and college at Hayes and Van Ness, it was not a felicitous time to be in San Francisco. It was an era of depression and unemployment, and white laborers of the City were in a foul mood, looking for a scapegoat. Teamster Denis Kearney (1847-1907), the president of the Workingmen's Party of California, was agitating disgruntled workers through his fiery oratory at torch-lit nighttime meetings held in the empty sandlots of the City. Kearney's cry was: "The Chinese must go!"
White labor, Kearney asserted, was being undercut by the importation of thousands of Chinese coolies, brought here by the capitalist establishment to work at a fraction of the salary demanded by white workers. It was an ugly time, this pitting of white worker against Asian worker, but it is a fact of our City's history, and we must face it.
Meanwhile, the Jesuits of St. Ignatius Church and College on Market Street (at the present site of the Emporium) had raised sufficient funds to embark upon the construction of a magnificent new complex at Hayes and Van Ness. Six million bricks would be necessary. The first firm to bid for the contract employed Chinese laborers. The Brick Makers' Protective Union objected. A significant amount of the money raised to build the new complex, the Union leaders pointed out, had been donated by the Catholic working class of the City, most of them Irish. Now they were being excluded from the contract by what they felt was the unfair competition of Chinese labor. Father A. Varsi, president of St. Ignatius College, disagreed. Most of his funds, he said had been borrowed from the Hibernia Bank. He would award the contract to the lowest bidder.
On the night of July 3, 1878, a massive demonstration of white workers was held in front of St. Ignatius Church. Shortly after midnight, the wooden college building on Jessie Street began to go up in flames, fired by an arsonist's torch. Fortunately, the fire was extinguished before major damage could be done; but the massive demonstration of 1,500 workers on Market Street, together with the fire, brought matters to a crisis point. A contract was eventually signed with a brick manufacturing firm that employed a majority of white laborers but used 20 Chinese men to perform the painful and arduous task of removing the bricks from the white-hot kiln! "The Chinamen who have been engaged for some time at this work," notes the San Francisco Evening Post for Aug. 6, 1878, "are said to be bleached white with the intense fires to which they are subjected."
History, if it is to be faced truthfully, is never an easy matter. Those 20 Chinese workers pulled bricks from the fire which bore crosses to prove that they were being made by non-Chinese labor. Those bricks in turn went into the construction of a great church and college which for 26 years, from 1880 to the Fire and Earthquake of 1906 when it was destroyed, was among the premier educational institutions in the Far West, especially in the fields of classics and scientific education.
There were no Chinese students at St. Ignatius College in those days, but today its successor institution, the University of San Francisco, has more than 700 students of Chinese ancestry.
USF is currently coating the recovered bricks of the old St. Ignatius College with silicone and mounting them on walnut bases. They will be given to donors who contribute $1,250 to USF during 1980, which is the 125th anniversary of this Jesuit institution.
I also think it would be appropriate if USF found some way to memorialize
those 20 Chinese workmen. We cannot rewrite history, but in certain cases we
can make sincere apology for the pain caused certain groups in our society.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/158696813/
Article from Sep 27, 1980 The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
Crowding Out the Chinese.
The Brickmakers' Protective Association held an adjourned meeting on Monday, H. Remillard presiding. A special Committee. previously appointed, reported that twenty-five contractors had signed an agreement to discharge their Chinese employees. A proposition from the Patent Brick Company, that they be permitted to employ a certain number of Chinamen in work that white men would not perform, was discussed, and a Committee appointed to see the President of the Company and adjust the question. Messrs. Remillard, Hunter and Mullen were appointed a Committee to consider the subject of wages, and report at the next meeting, which will be held on the 1st of April.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle/158696409/
Article from Mar 7, 1878 San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
BRICKMAKERS' ASSOCIATION.
Caduc Will Employ Chinese Discussion as to Wages.
Yesterday afternoon a meeting of the Brickmakers' Protective Association was held in room 85 Montgomery Block, H. Remillard in the Chair. The Committee appointed to confer with the Patent Brick Company reported that Mr. Caduc positively refuses to join the Association or discharge the large number of Chinese in his employ, but is willing to engage as many white men as he can with profit.
The Committee appointed to consider the matter of fixing a schedule of wages to be paid laborers the coming season reported in favor of fixing the minimum at $25 and the maximum at $50 per month, and deducting $10 per month from the pay of any man who shall quit work before the end of the season, providing that he signs a contract to that effect. The subject was discussed at length, and the report was finally laid on the table, the rates to be paid being left entirely to the discretion of each manufacturer.
On motion of Mr. Lynch, the Association voted to engage men at $10 per month less than the regular rate, with the understanding that the additional $10 shall be paid as a premium to men to stay the whole season, or who may leave for any other cause than their own caprice.
Mr. Peterson called the attention of the members to the fact that there is at present no uniform size of brick adhered to by different manufacturers, and that the bricklayers are much inconvenienced by the irregularity in size. He suggested that all manufacturers use the same size of mould.
A Committee, consisting of Messrs. Peterson, Burnett and Lynch, was appointed to take the matter under consideration and report at the next meeting.
The meeting then adjourned.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/158696430/
Article from Apr 2, 1878 The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
The Brick Manufacturers.
A meeting of the Brickmakers' Protective Association was held yesterday afternoon, H. Remillard, the President, presiding. Ne business was transacted beyond a general discussion of the good and welfare of the trade. All the brick manufacturers at present supplying this market employ white labor, with the exception of the Patent Brick Company, having their works near San Rafael. A proposition to establish a uniform scale of wages was discussed, but a majority of the members thought that such a measure would be impracticable.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle/158696447/
Article from Apr 16, 1878 San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
THE CHINESE BLIGHT.
Contractors Will Buy Chinese Made Brick.
As already reported in the EXAMINER, the questions of wages and the costs of Chinese labor have been much mooted by the members of the Brickmakers' Protective Union. At a meeting held on Monday, the question of wages was discussed at some length, the owners of brickyards intending to make the experiment this season of employing white labor only. The only concern that refuses to adopt this plan is the Patent Brick Company, whose yards are located at San Rafael. Chinamen are paid for ordinary work about a brick-yard $23 a month and board themselves. Mr. Remillard, at the meeting on Monday, suggested that white laborers be paid $30 per month and board, which is equal to $46 per month. Other members objected to the establishing of any arbitrary rate, but all seemed inclined to pay about the sum suggested by Mr. Remillard. Mr. Dunn wanted the wages regulated by the Association, or at least the minimum rate, allowing manufacturers to pay as much as they please, but no action was taken in the matter. The Committee appointed some time ago to obtain the signatures of contractors to a pledge, binding themselves not to buy brick of firms employing Chinese, reported that their efforts had met with but little success.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/158696480/
Article from Apr 18, 1878 The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
A Question for Those Concerned.
The Jesuit Fathers in this city purpose to build a very large church on Van
Ness avenue. It is estimated that a total of about fifteen millions of bricks
will be used in the building. In the bidding for the contract for the number
required this year - four millions - the lowest bidder was the Chinese
Company. Sooner, however, than to have the contract go to the Chinese, the
Brickmaker's Protective Union agree to furnish the bricks at the price that
Company stated in the bid. The contract is not yet awarded. The Union
comprises seventeen firms, and employment is given only to white men. A force
of 1,500 is now employed. The Chinese Company employ only coolies, as a matter
of course. There ought not, in the first place, to have been any opportunity
given to the Chinese Company to put in a bid; there ought not to be a brick
made by coolie labor in the edifice. The money raised for the building, unless
we greatly err, has been contributed mainly, if not entirely, by white men and
women. Much of it, probably the larger share, has been received from the
working-classes - mostly from those of Irish birth or blood. These same
classes will be depended upon to contribute to finish the work. Among them are
hundreds who make brick in the Union yards. Against them, in sharpest,
exhausting competition, come the coolies, who can live cheaper and work at
lower wages, because they have no families to support, no homes to maintain.
They are not citizens. They do not come here to found homes; but solely as
slaves, to make money enough to return to China and live as freedmen in their
own cheap mode. Yet it is against these miserable serfs that free white men
are forced in competition, in the matter of work and wages. This is bad
enough, at best; but it is much worse, almost intolerable, that the money, the
aggregate of the little-by-little contributions they give toward building a
church edifice - sums which compel them to pinch themselves in food and
clothing - should be paid to maintain these coolies in the employment from
which they are themselves thereby driven. In other words, their own voluntary
contributions to the church are used to support their coolie competitors and
to drive themselves to penury and starvation - and this, too, by those who, it
is reasonable to suppose, would be the last of any in the community to so
apply the money they get from these poor persons of their own faith as to give
it to the heathens who crowd the white laborer into idleness and suffering.
The contract ought not to be given to he Chinese Company, nor to any Company
which employs coolies to make bricks. It ought to be given to the Company
which employ white men.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/158696518/
Article from Jul 3, 1878 The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
JESUIT FATHERS AND CHINESE BRICKS.
In the interest of the white workingmen, the EXAMINER last Wednesday published an article in relation to the contract for furnishing bricks to the new buildings the Jesuit Fathers purpose to erect upon the block owned by them on Van Ness avenue. The article was based upon information derived from the Call of that morning, to this effect:
"A somewhat lively contest is going on at the present time between the firms composing the Brick-makers' Protective Union and a Company not in the Union, for the possession of the market. The seventeen firms who compose the Union employ about 1,500 white men, and no Chinamen. The opposing Company employ several hundred Chinese, and possibly a few white men. The Union pays its white men $30 a month and board. The opposing Company pays its Chinamen not far from $20, and they board themselves. If the Union succeeds in keeping possession of the market it will keep its white men in employment, and their wages will, as heretofore, be expended in the community. If the opposing Company obtains possession of the market, the Union will be compelled to discharge its white employees, and, of course, the wages hitherto paid them will go to the Chinese, who will send their money to China. The wages of 1,500 men at $30 per month, amounts to $45,000. The seventeen Companies who board these men spend half as much in provisions and in wages for cooks, waiters, etc. We may safely say that the sum of $60,000 per month will be diverted from Caucasian tradesmen in our city if the Company which employs Chinese. gets control of the market.
"An unusual interest attaches to the contest between whites and Chinese for the possession of the market, for brick at the present time, from the fact that a large Roman Catholic Church is to be erected on Van Ness avenue, which will require some fifteen million bricks. Four millions are to be contracted for this year, and bids have already been sent in, both by the Union and the Chinese Company. The latter Company's bid was the lowest, and we are informed that the Rev. Father who acts for the Church felt himself under obligations to accept the lowest bid. Under these circumstances, the Union decided to offer to take the contract at Chinese prices, rather than lose so important a portion of the business. The Union Companies can hardly fulfill their contract without loss, at their present rate of wages, but they comprehend that they must make a stand at some cost to themselves or abandon the trade. If persons having control of large contracts give the Chinese the preference, white brick-makers must fold up their tents and steal away. Several hundred brick-makers will be discharged very shortly unless the church in question gives the Union its contract. We understand that the matter is under advisement, but we trust the church authorities will not long remain in doubt as to the proper course to pursue. A very large proportion of the brick-makers employed by the Union are members of the Catholic Church, and they take an extraordinary interest in the matter."
Assuming that the general statement of the Call was correct, the EXAMINER adopted it, and expressed the opinion that the contract ought to be awarded to the Brick-makers' Protective Union; and we further remarked that, all the circumstances considered, there ought not to be a brick made by Chinese labor in the edifice. We adhere to this opinion. In the Call of yesterday appeared a letter from the Rev. Father Varsi, Superior of the Society of Jesus, addressed to the EXAMINER. Had it been sent to this office Saturday afternoon, at the time a note forecasting its appearance in the Call was received, the letter would have been given place in the EXAMINER of that day. As it was not, and is now before the public in the manner we relate, our purpose is simply to notice it only so far as to vindicate our own conduct in the case.
Father Varsi, in his letter, imposes the responsibility of the statements
which called forth his response entirely and solely upon the EXAMINER, and
selects the very paper from which we derived the statement of the facts which
he represents to be erroneous as the medium of his strictures and
animadversions. If he can reconcile this with his own ideas of propriety, we
do not accord with him in the judgment, and will not engage in controversy
upon the point. Our sole object was to have the contract for the bricks so
awarded as that white men and not coolies should receive the benefit of it. We
are glad to learn that this good result has been accomplished. Nothing was
further from our purpose than to misrepresent, wrong or harm the Society of
Jesus, or the faithful and devoted Fathers who grace and strengthen the
Society. The EXAMINER has a clear, unbroken record in this respect. We too
well remember the sagacious prediction, and also the timely and salutary
warnings and invincible arguments of the brilliant and eloquent
Father Buchard, pronounced in this city many years ago, in regard to the Chinese pest now
so firmly and alarmingly fastened upon this Coast, to fail in admiration of
the efforts of the Society to abate the now almost ineradicable evil. And it
was because of this remembrance and this admiration that we wondered how, on
this occasion, the Fathers could consent to give contract or employment to
coolies in brick-making for their new College and Church building, which we
hope to see completed and bounteously endowed, to be at once an ornament to
our city and a blessing to all.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/158696541/
Article from Jul 8, 1878 The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
Notice to Brickmakers - There will be a meeting of the Brickmakers
Protective Association of California on FRIDAY, April 2d, at 2 P. M., in Room
1, No. 528 California street, for the purpose of considering the advisability
of employing white labor for the coming season. All brick manufacturers are
respectfully invited to attend. H. REMILLARD, President.
JOHN TUTTLE,
Secretary.
m27-4
https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle/158696581/
Article from Mar 29, 1880 San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
AS USUAL.
The White Laborer Has to Give Way to the Chinese.
A meeting was held yesterday afternoon by the Brickmakers' Protective Association for the purpose of considering the advisability and practicability of employing white labor exclusively for the season; President H. Remillard occupied the Chair.
After discussion, during which it transpired that the Patent Brick Company, and a few other firms, were unwilling to enter into any agreement binding themselves not to employ Chinese, it was concluded that nothing could be accomplished in the interest of white labor in the face of such competition, and the following resolution was accordingly introduced and adopted:
Resolved, That while it is the sense of the meeting that the Brick-makers' Protective Association should adopt a rule that no labor other than white shall be employed in the business of brick-making, and while each and all of those present are willing and earnestly desire the adoption of such a rule, and fixing of proper penalties for the violation thereof; yet in view of the fact that certain individuals and firms engaged in the business are not represented in this meeting, and have not given the assurance that they will abide by such rule, it is not advisable for this meeting to take any action upon the matter, and that the question be deferred to a future date.
The meeting then adjourned, subject to the call of the Chair.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/158694915/
Article from Apr 3, 1880 The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Bricks, White labor, San francisco, Brickmakers' protective association
THE BRICKMAKERS.
Futile Attempt to Exelude Chinese Labor This Season.
Pursuant to a published call, a meeting of the Brickmakers' Protective Association was held yesterday afternoon at No. 528 California street, for the purpose of considering the advisability of employing only white labor for the coming season. There was quite a large attendance and a prolonged discussion of the matter under consideration. Every one present expressed himself in favor of dispensing with Chinese labor at the brickyards. Some were unqualifiedly willing to pledge themselves to that end, and others said they had already lost much money in trying to compete with white labor against firms which employed Chinese, and while they were willing to enter any compact which would bind all alike in the business to white labor, they could not afford to do so unless all were bound by the same pledge.
The following resolution was finally adopted and the meeting adjourned:
Resolved, That while it is the sense of this meeting that the Brickmakers
Protective Association should adopt a rule that no labor other than white
shall be employed in the business of brickmaking, and while each and all of
those present are willing and earnestly desire the adoption of such a rule and
the fixing of proper penalties for the violation thereof, yet, in view of the
fact that certain individuals and firms engaged in the business and not
represented in this meeting have not given the assurance that they will abide
by such rule, it is not advisable for this meeting to take any action upon the
matter, and that the question be deferred to a future meeting.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle/158696670/
Article from Apr 3, 1880 San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
Thirteen years later - MF
A COMBINE IN BRICK.
All the Big Yards in the Trust.
W. D. English Becomes the Manager.
An Advance of $2 to $3 a Thousand - A Shrewd Business Scheme.
The brick trust, which was proposed a few weeks ago, has been formed. Strange to say, too, William D. English, the statesman and Democratic reformer, is manager. English has his offices in the Crocker building, and people who desire brick will now have to pay $2 to $3 a thousand more for them than formerly.
All the principal yards hereabout have been taken in. There are those of the
San Jose Brick Company, the Remillard Company, the Fortin, the Peterson
Company, and the yards of Sreishman. It is said that others also are in the
combine. The prices fixed upon are $9 a thousand for hard brick and $8 for the
red.
Some months ago there was an overproduction of brick and the makers
agreed to stop for a time. Now, by this later understanding, they will
continue to manufacture, but no yard will sell for less than the newly formed
schedule rate.
Manager English, as was "anticipated, denies that there is a trust, but admits that the aforesaid agreement, which will be regarded as the same thing, is to raise the price of brick. He says the makers made no money before, and now they will realize a profit, which is not unlikely.
The trust was organized early this week. The brick-makers were, so it is pointed out, careful not to incorporate as one great corporation, so they completed their compact by an iron-bound agreement which the officers of each company' signed and pledged themselves to keep.
The name of the trust is the Brick-makers' Protective Association. Doubtless the completion of the trust will cause surprise among all classes, and especially among those who had building projects on hand. There does not seem to be any help for it, however. They must pay more for their brick than hitherto.
About a month ago hard brick were selling at $7 a thousand. A move was then made to raise them a couple of dollars, and a good many brick were sold for the increased rate, but the makers did not have everything in their hands, as they have now. While several companies were tacitly in favor of stiffening the rates, and keeping them up, others had not yet been brought in, and were selling at the old prices.
The people in the brick combine now confidently assert that they hold the whip hand. They have bought in other yards, and got things on a solid basis, so that they all understand, and, it is said, will stand by each other.
It took a good deal of work to bring about the compact. There were many conferences, and much going to and fro of the officials most interested, but they finally succeeded.
In the combine the makers have the practical sanction of the contractors. They
are with the brickmakers, and argue that the trust was justified. The old
price, they say, was too low to admit of a sufficient profit. Besides this,
they say it will not prove a heavy additional item in building contracts.
Whatever it is, how- ever, which is just the increased figure agreed on by the
trust, the people who build must stand. Naturally, the contractor is not going
to lose anything, and, as in all other trusts, it is the people who must
produce the extra money.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle/158696858/
Article from Sep 16, 1893 San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) Brickmakers' protective association
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