New book, american, the life of stanford. We are pleased to have them both here for the first time. Before we begin, i would like to find out how many of you have been to the mechanics before . Wonderful. How many are new . Wonderful. Please come back wednesday at noon, we have a tour of our library, the librarian will show you around. At the International Test club down the hallway. 1850, we have a long history of San Francisco. We have Ongoing Events such as this one. We have the International Chess club down the hallway that presents their ongoing lectures and tournaments. Also, we have book clubs and a Writers Group and friday nights, we help we you welcome and join us for our cultural events. I would like to introduce our guest. Hes an Investigative Reporter in print, broadcast and online journalism. Is also a historian at the university adjunct an offer. During his almost four decades in journalism, is specialized in investigative projects as well as new features, earning him most citations including the Honor Society of professional journalists with his coveted career achievements word. Hes also the author of two books. He is also senior lecture at San FranciscoState UniversityJournalism Department where he has taught for 25 years. He also published an online journalism textbook. Also with us tonight, San Francisco prodigal. Writing about politics and personalities, fill has informed and entertained leaders for two decades about always fascinating the area and beyond. Scoops, inside and investigate if reports can be seen every sunday, monday and wednesday in the San Francisco chronicle and hes also a regular tv and k cbs radio. Before we begin, i also would like to think our costar sponsors tonight, Publisher Press and special thanks to the director of Public Relations and also, would like to think that digital editor. On your way out, pick up a copy. Please welcome them to our program. [applause] i did not know much about it, i was asked to read it. Its an integral part of california but what i found was a story about a fascinating guy, never did much school work. Didnt do much work at all. Consider a classic about, how can you get just about every price you get that came out to california, happened to be the right place at the right time, selling the right people the right things to the people and rose up to become a governor who got into office in part by and against immigration. It went on to use the office to get the biggest swindles in American History. Rose up to be quite wealthy. A few parallels with today. I found fascinating but i got back from reading. What attracted you to this least known one . I was doing a story, i was waiting for it department to give me a few minutes at a time and i have the same question for myself. I said, how come i dont know anything about this guy . Im very interested in history, have interest in california history. I know hes one of the big four. But short of that, i dont know much about them. I wondered why. So i began to poke around a little bit and he became clear pretty early that one of the reasons i knew so little was it was a little sequestered in the he had been writing and successfully so, at Stanford University, one biography would call him the loss of have, california. There were huge gaps in the answers to your questions. We begin with this story. As i began to more aggressively go into it, thats right began to emerge. Finally, the last part, we were getting to go ready to go home from vacation and we were discussing our wonderful vacation and said gosh, what part of the country are you from . As people do. My grandson just got admitted to the best Business School in america. I thought, he just got into the night school at stanford. She said berkeley. [laughter] this is the reporter and actually stanford is. She said why is that i said its silicon valley, its transformed and all of a sudden i realized i had what we called my news, if it wasnt for stanford, we would all be Walking Around with these things, all of the politics of business in our culture. Thats how i want to begin. We had the nations first real internet, it was california in more ways than one. It transformed the style of america. It was much more immediate and made products available, gave a huge industrial agricultural revolution and wound up with california as it is today but it wasnt that california back then. He started in his early life, speak a little bit about where he and the rest of these people came out of. A lot of them came out that new york area. That was the wilderness in the early 1800s. When you speak about that evolution from agricultural world, not just united states, from an industrial world, its better for us than stanford. 11824, the word tractor didnt even exist. The canal went right by where he was born and raised. It is about four years old, it opened up shortly afterwards, the railroad and second railroad operated. It ran right by this place. Immense wealth came through. Because of that. As mentioned earlier on, he was bright young hand. He was more or less forced to leave albany because he had been either been expelled or dropped out of every school he went to. He did not have the equivalency of todays education. So the wilderness about that time, he went to a very small little port, if anybody is hear from wisconsin, you might recognize this. He did as opposed to what he said he had done before, he passed, theres no reason to believe that. That was just one of his many, first of many lies. We call the implies. He went to wisconsin and hooked up with a lawyer there and he did finally pass the barr in wisconsin, he thought he was on, but then a fire came through this town, decimated the downtown, he was once again at the age of 28, completely gone, he had nothing. But he did have brothers who would come out in 1849. He ended up in sacramento and started a shop called stanford that sold hardware and cigars and all the other things. He said come on out, well take care of you so he came out and they put him to work. It would be branch store stanford brothers up in nevada. This is where he really began to change. He starts to alter into this stanford that becomes not only amongst the wealthy but powerful. The story continues from then. America then was on a huge quest. This was the generation that was born and raised in america. Every man can make it, this was the time they had the latterday saints, shakers and other things. There was a great migration quest, nation literally on the move. A huge transference of wealth and power towards the west. Was he just writing away or was he leaving . He didnt do much writing of the wave. The best days were left behind but he becomes a leader and find a way to do that and i think one of the interesting stories we can talk about is opening that store up in nevada where he not only had the brothers franchise but he decided to go back to his roots and open up a saloon which was in honor of his hotel business. Who said they could drink there . The empire swoon. Then he had an idea. He realized or somebody told him that the people needed a justice of the peace and he had that law degree from wisconsin so he went to them and said hey, i am qualified. They said fine so guess where he ran his courtroom. In the empire saloon. This is not just funny, maybe interesting. Its important because week new stanford begins to understand the inflating power of the state and his personal grant eiseman is a wonderful, strong ally. Again, this doesnt have anything to do with todays. Make that clear. But this was important in the following years. But what happens at stanford is a great part that no one likes to a knowledge. He could have found up at the bottom of the ocean or any number of things. His life was part of this equation as well. A number of things could have happened he commanded in sacramento with three other guys who were running the stores. In sacramento, its a rather incredible part of the story. I would agree. They decided, ive got this idea. We will build a railroad and get the federal government to pay. They are going to finance the whole thing. They will have a couple of their own. Between the four of them, they didnt have money or presence at the time. Im not talking about four big industrials doing this. What does that say about the age and these people who can do that . Some might say its a great deal of possibility is here in a celebration of our cultural and heritage but let me move on and talk more about quick facts rather than my interpretation of them. Hes up in the mountains, his brothers decide they have entrepreneurial parts and they all go off to do other things. They say to him, can you run down and run it for us . He said sure, so he comes on don. He brought his wife with him in albany and he was having a difficult day in wisconsin. His wife, whose legal name was jean but he called her jenny. Thats what i do thank you. Store in sacramento happened to be around the corner from a very bullish carpet, his name was charles. Many of you would recognize that name. Next door, the Hardware Store owned by a fellow named mark hopkins and his partner. These two guys they are sharp. Its applicable to him, it was known in that day as a sharp trader. He kidnapped the california, he landed here and got himself a real one. It can get awful choppy other body he didnt care. He rose up and meets them and gets things like potatoes and vice them for super cheap. So he goes and fast as he can then sells them as fast as he can. His partner, bookish in the sense that he was an accountant and then a partner around the corner, look over and they say this young fellow at stanford, looks like a politician. He is the name of somebody that people will follow. Hes got a book good build, hes about 511, he doesnt say a lot. He doesnt get and a whole lot of trouble. This guy has potential. At this time, there was talk about more than just talk, very serious to have that road. This is the time of the civil war. The nation cannot compare at all to what was happening at that time. So they are concerned about whats flooding the World Markets and treasuries of the nations around the world. And to tie that to the east coast so the federal government was beginning talk about financing a transcontinental railroad. Huntington, hopkins and stanford eventually began to realize that and they made a plan. So they came up with one. And the plan is . Thank you. Thank you for asking me back question. That plan was this. He would be in charge of getting all the Construction Materials together and drink all of that. Hopkins will take care of the books, make sure ledgers and so on. Huntington was the sharp trader by steel rails, locomotives, spikes and hammers, he will be in charge of that but they need somebody in the government. They need somebody in government who will have power, somebody to be able to us all that money that the federal government has about financing, this incredible new place. Merger successful from the da in wisconsin . So you hear more and more times for treasure, governor and then we have a situation in 1861 or you have the first republican president of the u. S. , lincoln. You have other parties and democrats and he splits the ballot. He gets 50 but because its a split ballot, he comes up. He comes out on top so at age 37, he is elected governor of california. So you have a governor in california and then they what . President of the Central Pacific railroad. Okay so we will talk about his term as governor in a bit but when he was being sworn in, in the book, document Climate Change was actually in the midst of a flood that basically everything underwater from writing down to entire Central Valley in the winter. 50 inches. I think its normally like 20, 22. 50 inches of rain, it was literally flooding to the point where the telegraph poles, the tops of them were underwater. Yes, it was the entire Central Valley underwater. It was a total disaster. In the meantime, we are heading towards civil war and it also happens that lincoln in addition to all those, he made his career are resenting special interest of railroads. They have a sympathetic ear in washington. Getting money out of washington. So they sent a guy by the name of theodore jude, anybody know . Thats how hes named after, theodore judah. A naive engineer who thinks hes got and does comes up with a great idea and completely get crushed by steaming capitalists. So heres the deal. Its a group of people who knows he has great engineering skills. The problem the engineering, nobody can find a way here in nevada. Everybody knows the mountains why did they go to the southern mountains to begin with . Thank you for asking that. I was just getting to that. The reasons were simple. Cotton isnt number one export in this country. He wanted that to go out to asia. They wanted a rail line in the desert which is much more efficient. As a problem with that. In the northern states would not give that up to give power and that kind of money. It had to be the northern route or nothing. Due to came out and found that route. So he had a great idea and he said heres my great plan. I found a route and he looked at it and said , it will cost billions of dollars, we are not going to do anything for so many years. Im getting 5 on my day right now. Thanks but no thanks. He said screw you, i will go to sacramento. There will are rich guys up there. San francisco, not so much. He goes up to sacramento and he gets into a group of local businessmen and he presented his plan and all of them are doing the same thing. Heres the big but. But, theres one guy in the back of the room standing up way in the back, like you guys back there. [laughter] and hes very quiet, he walks up judah and says hey, thats an interesting claim you have there. How would you like to meet my three partners . Take a meeting with us. This is huntington. He said sure, hes desperate. So he takes the meeting which was the smartest and stupidest thing he ever did because he wouldnt have that. He said thats a great idea, he says everybody in washington. Go back and see what you can do. He goes back to washington, he becomes the staff, the only real stuff in the House Committee on the railroad and the Senate Committee on the railroad. While working for a director, the board of directors and chief engineer for the railroad they are in such a hurry in congress, they signed him up, sent the bill to the president , lincoln, 1862, its a done deal. Theyre going to give them the equivalency of billions of dollars of bonds, its a tax raise. American taxpayers will have to pay for the financing of the railroad. They will, this is the same money for the railroad. They are ready to go. I was a Railroad Company which would later become the southern pacific. Missing part of the deal, they gave them ownership rights. In the first contract, it was 10 miles on either side. He went to Public Schools here in california. You may remember, i always remember this is anderson in sixth grade. We played checkerboard. We dont go into the details but there was this plan in 1864, you decide. You get the rights to use the timber, anything you could find for construction of the railroad and you had to keep the rights through the land. They got mission bake later but yeah, it was actually debate in those days. And the contract calls for, these are the exact words. Extinguishing all titles. That takes us back to governor, this is more than a railroad story. For example, the wars against indians in california. Talk a bit about that. They said it was stanfords editorial rain that we established californias, his words, killing machines. Theres no question about this, somewhere in the neighborhood, more than 10000 indian children were kidnapped, killed their parents and put into slavery here in california. Slavery, they called it working with them but they were slaves. They could not leave. Indians had no rights in court. Indians cannot testify or vote. Indians cannot obtain citizenship. It wasnt just indians. By todays standards, incredibly startling in operation, i think its in your book. I was wondering if you could read a little bit about that considering todays climate versus them. So immigration for those who were shocked about language we hear today, its nothing new. Its a horrible racist here. Stanfords inaugural address about the immigrant of the day. To my mind, it is clear that the settlement is to be discouraged. Every legitimate needs, asia, which sends to our shores and population. Large numbers are already here and unless we do something early, check their immigration, the question, which of the two shall be turned back . Forced upon our consideration when for more different to dispose, there can be no doubt that the presence of numbers of degraded and distinct people must exercise an influence upon the superior race. To a certain extent, repel desirable immigration. Sound familiar . At the same time, no problem employing them and bringing them in. So you got the money, huntington is by all the stuff, everybody is happy. First he goes to the state legislature and forces them to pass more, then he starts going to county again where he says they will go for bonds or we will build it which turned out to be a very clever use up and down california. He doesnt have the labor force. A lot of them are civil war veterans. Many were irish and they heard about a called strike company, im a quarter irish, i can say this. They took off into they were desperate. But there was this big group of hardworking immigrants who happen to come from the wrong side of the pacific. The world rushed through, a great title of the book about the gold rush. They happen to be mostly from the region of china. At first, he said on the short side, they eat funny things like dried fish and they dont speak english. They were desperate so they hired a bunch of them, they did some tough jobs. They were great, they could handle it with great efficiency, strength, reliability, soberne soberness, so and so forth. Ten, 12, some as many as 20000. Largely from china, they built that railroad. They were the real john henrys of american railroad. The picture on the summit of the two