California invested heavily in infrastructure projects beginning in the 1890s, including dams, aqueducts and reservoirs to support growth. Major projects like the Los Angeles aqueduct and Hetch Hetchy system for San Francisco took years to complete. As the state grew, it attracted many migrant workers and struggled with labor issues. During World War 2, fears of Japanese spies led to the internment of Japanese Americans, supported by California politicians.

2. CALIFORNIA: GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Creating the Infrastructure of a Mega-State
• Came in the form of dams, aqueducts, reservoirs, power plants, industrial
sites, bridges, roadways, public buildings, and stadiums beginning in the
1890’s
• William Hammond Hall published plan for irrigation for the state
• He was the first to suggest Southern California could use water from the
Colorado River
• Resulted in the development of the Imperial Valley
• Second canal from Colorado River was a disaster that nearly flooded the
entire Imperial Valley
• Los Angeles aqueduct took more than 6 years to build
• Along with over 235 miles of canals, tunnels, tailraces and siphons
• San Francisco built the O’Shaughnessy Dam
• Along with four more dams, five reservoirs, a hydro-electric plant, 100 miles
of pipeline & 66 miles of tunnel to bring water from the Tuolumne River to
San Francisco
• It took over 11 years to complete

3. CALIFORNIA: GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Building a city worthy of its location
• During the 1890’s, a concerted effort was made to improve the architecture of the city
• Significant amount of money, and architectural talent, was available for the projects
• Many of the buildings survived the fires and earthquake of 1906
• The same architects were involved in the rebuilding of the city
• Architectural styles varied, but the feel was similar all over the city
• Italianate or neo-Gothic
• Beaux Arts style
• Used by Architect Willis Polk
• Berkeley was redesigned by Emile Bernard, and implemented by John Galen Howard
years later
• Berkeley was originally inspired by Arts & Crafts movement
• Mediterranean Revival
• Stanford was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson of Boston
• San Francisco looked more like a Tuscan landscape
• City extended a formal invitation to Daniel Hudson Burnham of Chicago to develop a formal
city plan
• Parts of his plan were implemented after the Great Earthquake of 1906, but parts were not

4. CALIFORNIA: GREAT EXPECTATIONS
San Diego indulged in an idealized vision through the Panama-California
Exposition
• In 1908, city planner and landscape architect, John Nolen of Cambridge,
Ma, developed a plan for San Diego
• Unlike San Francisco, San Diego was inspired by places like Rio De Janeiro,
Naples
• Inspired by Italian and Spanish culture
• It was a neo-Mediterranean style
• Harbor side city
• Palm lined streets and roads
• Sunny plazas
• Hills, oceans, blue skies
• The Panama California International Exposition in Balboa Park set the tone
of architecture in Southern California for the next two decades

5. CALIFORNIA: MAKING IT HAPPEN
Labor Through the Great Depression and Beyond
• California economy was well diversified which protected it from the Great
Depression longer than anywhere else is U.S.
• California economy supported industrial, entertainment, tourism, agriculture,
and service industries
• Citizens of California were familiar with working with their hands to earn a
living
• Gold Rush ushered in that work ethic
• Migrant work developed as a result of agricultural cycles
• California, and San Francisco, hosted some of the first labor movements
• Development of labor unions: topographers and teamsters were the first two
• Struggles with ideologue
• Marxist-Socialist, anarchy, and overall distrust of America
• Initially fighting for fair wages, appropriate work day length, and other safety
concerns
• Even Mexican workers formed their own local initially called Imperial Valley Workers
Union
• From early on, California, and especially San Francisco, held it’s views hard-
left

6. CALIFORNIA: MAKING IT HAPPEN
California was flooded with migrant farm workers during the Great Depression
• 300,000+ migrant workers descended on California
• Most were from the mid-West
• The drought and Dust Bowl brought them here
• The result was a decline in wages because there were far more workers than
jobs
• A union strike in Imperial Valley, orchestrated by the communists, resulted in
problems for many
• Again, in summer of 1931, the same communists (CAWIU) organized a
strike of cannery workers, and problems ensued
• Then in Fall of 1932, CAWIU had the same scenario in Vacaville
• Total there were 24 agricultural strikes in 1932 incited by CAWIU
• 1933 was the largest strike
• 10,000 cotton pickers go on strike in San Joaquin Valley
• Resulted in injuries and death when strikers got into altercations

7. CALIFORNIA: MAKING IT HAPPEN
During the worst of times economically, unions created more problems for
workers
• When there was a bone to pick, there were politically charged unions
ready to hit the streets in protest
• Many strikes and protests ended inconclusively
• Some ended with violence, blood shed, and even death
• Some chose less aggressive tactics to make their point in counter attack
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Considered a documentary novel and many thought it to be true fact
• Not necessarily on the left, Steinbeck reported on conditions in the field
• Wrote for the San Francisco News
• Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California by
Carey McWilliams
• McWilliams was a leftist activist and lawyer

8. CALIFORNIA: WAR AND PEACE
Garrison State and Suburban Growth
• California was seized in an act of war in 1846
• Ruled by military until 1850
• Even Yosemite Valley was patrolled by the military beginning in 1891
• Spanish-American war in 1898
• San Diego was seen as the “Gibraltar of the Pacific”
• In 1914, the Pacific Fleet was established in San Diego
• In 1920’s San Diego’s Marine Corp Training Depot recruited a marine
presence
• San Francisco had a large military presence as well
• The Army expanded in the San Francisco Bay area
• Naval Air Service established Moffett Field
• San Francisco & Los Angeles area developed ship and port repair facilities

9. CALIFORNIA: WAR AND PEACE
Attack on Pearl Harbor changed sentiment
• America First movement was dedicated to keeping
America out of World War II
• Supporters included many famous people:
• William Randolph Hearst, publisher
• Kathleen Norris, novelist
• Lillian Gish, actress
• Ray Lyman Wilbur, Stanford University President
• Robinson Jeffers, port
• William Saroyan, California’s most well-known writer
• Kenneth Rexroth, San Francisco poet
• Japanese submarine surfaced in Santa Barbara
• The commander fired into oil storage tanks across Pacific
Coast highway
• This sent California into a heightened state of panic

10. CALIFORNIA: WAR AND PEACE
The White California Movement takes hold
• Was gaining strength prior to WWII
• Alien Land Act of 1913 prevented Japanese from owning land in California
• Strong anti-Japanese speeches were given in Congress and by the California governor, Hiram
Johnson
• Many tried to incorporate Japanese culture, art, and practices into every day life in and around San
Francisco
• The White California Movement was based in jealousy: Japanese immigrants were very successful
• Following Pearl Harbor, Japanese, citizens and non-citizens, were rounded up and declared a
threat to the U.S.
• Request was headed by California Attorney General, Earl Warren
• Two U.S. senators supported this
• The mayors of San Francisco and Los Angeles supported this
• The entire California House of Representatives supported this
• And the editors and publishers of the leading newspapers also advocated evacuation of the
Japanese
• March 1, 1942, Proclamation Number One designated California, Oregon, Washington, and some of
Arizona as military zones
• The Japanese could now be removed
• They were moved to relocation camps