CORPORATIONS AND RESISTANCE IN THE REDWOOD EMPIRE: TOWARDS A CORPORATE HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY (1579-1906) by Ryan Eric Emenaker A Project Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Social Sciences: Environment & Community Program December, 2005 CORPORATIONS AND RESISTANCE IN THE REDWOOD EMPIRE: TOWARDS A CORPORATE HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY (1579-1906) by Ryan Eric Emenaker Approved by the Master’s Project Committee ________________________________________________________________________ Sterling Evans, Committee Chair Date ________________________________________________________________________ John Meyer, Committee Member Date ________________________________________________________________________ Steve Hackett, Committee Member Date ________________________________________________________________________ Selma K. Sonntag, Graduate Coordinator Date ________________________________________________________________________ Donna E. Schafer, Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Date ABSTRACT CORPORATIONS AND RESISTANCE IN THE REDWOOD EMPIRE: TOWARDS A CORPORATE HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY (1579-1906) Ryan Eric Emenaker In 1579 the first modern day corporation made contact with the area now known as Humboldt County. During the time period examined, corporations played a major role in the region’s politics, economy, and living conditions, and resistance to corporate domination quickly developed. By the 1870s this resistance was turning itself into an organized political force developing into a tradition of dissent with few equals in the nation. To better understand this dissenting tradition, the history of Humboldt County is examined from the impact of the corporation. As this case study evolves, statewide and national changes to the corporate form are analyzed. This broader corporate history places the history of corporations in Humboldt County in context with state and national changes to the corporate form that affected the region. While this is not a comprehensive history of the county, the role of corporations is a necessary component to better understanding the region. The work is broken down into four sections. The first section offers an introduction to corporations that operated in the Humboldt Bay region before the area became known as Humboldt County. The second section details the rise of corporate power in the county, while the third explores responses to this increasing corporate iii power. Section four offers a conclusion that explores the significance of Humboldt County’s unique experience with and responses to the corporate form as well as what lessons can be drawn from it. Research materials for this study primarily consisted of local newspapers, synthesized local histories, state of California documents and California law, as well as national and international histories of the corporate form. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................iii I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 1 Overview ......................................................................................................................... 1 Corporations in the Qual-a-wa-loo Area ......................................................................... 5 Crown Corporations .................................................................................................. 6 The American War for Independence & Corporations ............................................. 9 State’s Role in shaping Corporations in the Qual-a-wa-loo area ............................ 11 The State of California & Humboldt Corporations ....................................................... 12 The California Constitution of 1849 and Corporations........................................... 14 II. CORPORATIONS & HUMBOLDT COUNTY.......................................................... 18 Land Companies & Local Government......................................................................... 18 Mining Corporations ..................................................................................................... 21 Timber ........................................................................................................................... 26 Pioneer Logging ...................................................................................................... 26 Land Grab................................................................................................................ 30 Concentration of Land Ownership and Outside Capital Control .................................. 38 Railroads/Shipping ........................................................................................................ 46 Increased Corporate Concentration and Control ........................................................... 52 III. RESPONSES TO CORPORATE RULE IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY ..................... 58 Dissension’s Roots ........................................................................................................ 58 Third Parties .................................................................................................................. 58 Workingmen’s Party ............................................................................................... 63 v Constitutional Convention for the California Constitution of 1879................... 65 Ratification of the Constitution of 1879............................................................. 69 Greenback Labor Party............................................................................................ 72 Role of Humboldt County Labor ............................................................................ 79 Humboldt County’s First Labor Organizations....................................................... 81 Agriculture as Opposition.............................................................................................. 89 The Grange.............................................................................................................. 90 Farmers Alliance and Populism .............................................................................. 91 Dairying as resistance to corporate rule. ............................................................ 95 Importance of Resistance to Corporate Rule................................................................. 97 IV. CONCLUSION........................................................................................................... 99 Learning from Humboldt County’s Corporate History............................................... 101 There Is No Golden Age of Corporate Laws ........................................................ 101 Movements Start at a Grassroots Level................................................................. 103 The Importance of Creating Alternatives.............................................................. 105 Role of third parties- Re-Envisioning Success...................................................... 106 Sovereignty: Who Rules........................................................................................ 106 Onward.................................................................................................................. 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................... 109 vi Shall the people of this free government be permitted to govern themselves, or shall they submit to be ruled by ever grasping and never satisfied corporations. -1882 platform of the Humboldt County Democratic Party vii I. INTRODUCTION Overview Corporations throughout the history of Humboldt County dictated politics, living conditions, and the economy, in ways that distorted the political process and suppressed the rights of citizens. Resistance to corporate power developed as soon as corporations appeared. By the 1870s this resistance was turning itself into an organized political force. Louis Tower, who helped form the Humboldt County Tax-Payer Party in 1873, expressed resentment over corporations controlling “many public interest, including vast tracks of public domain and …the body politic.”1 His statements were bold, but far from unique, and in the years that followed, his statements were echoed by a string of upstart political parties formed in Humboldt County to challenge the rights of corporations. During the 1870s through the turn of the century, Humboldt County had some of the highest rates of support of any community in the country for dissident political parties that challenged 1 Humboldt Times, March 11, 1871. 1 2 corporate rule.2 Even the Humboldt County Democratic and Republican parties were forced to focus their attention on the corporate form’s ability to subvert democracy, which the Humboldt Democratic Party stated in their 1882 platform as “the paramount living issue of the day.”3 However, political parties were not the only organizations in the late nineteenth century that focused on challenging the rule of corporations in Humboldt County. In 1878, the Ferndale Grange, an agricultural organization, passed a resolution stating “we look upon … [corporations] with suspicion and distrust in their efforts to subvert… government.”4 Labor unions directly clashed about work hours and pay with local corporations, all the while challenging the legitimacy