George Pardee
George Pardee ( born July 25, 1857 in San Francisco, California, † September 1, 1941 in Oakland, California ) was an American politician and the 21st Governor of California.
Youth
George Pardee was the only child of Enoch Pardee (1826-1896) and his wife Mary. His father was a well known ophthalmologist in San Francisco and Oakland, and from 1876 to 1878 and mayor of Oakland. George grew up in Oakland and graduated from the University of California. Then he studied at the Cooper Medical College in San Francisco Medicine. In 1885 he traveled to Germany to continue and complete his medical training at the University of Leipzig. After his return, he joined his father's practice and specialized in eye and ear diseases.
Political rise
Like his father Pardee was also interested in politics. He joined the Republican Party and was elected to the city council of Oakland and in the Health Committee. In 1893, he won election to the mayor of Oakland and stayed for a term until 1895 in office. His political rise was the Republicans at the state level is not hidden, which earned him the 1902 nomination as a candidate for the gubernatorial elections. However, was preceded by internal party discussions. The acting Governor Henry Gage was no longer viable for many Republicans because of his stubborn attitude towards the press, the other states and the federal government in connection with a broken out in San Francisco plague epidemic. Gage had denied the existence of the disease and is now quite simply threatened to California to be quarantined, which would have been tantamount to boycott Californian goods. This would avoid at all costs the Republicans.
However, the party was divided in pre-election into two camps. The conservative camp wanted to pursue a capital- friendly policies in terms of the companies, especially the railway corporations, while the progressive wing strongly made for reform. Both factions agreed on Pardee as their compromise candidate. Here were Pardees medical knowledge in terms of the still -existing disease very helpful. The election itself ended very scarce. Pardee won by less than 3,000 votes ahead of his Democratic opponent Franklin Knight Lane, who later became Secretary of the Interior.
Governor of California
Pardee was sworn in on 7 January 1903 as 21st Governor of California and immediately began to take measures to curb the plague. The bubonic plague erupted in 1900 had always been ignored by the official side and now it was time for a policy U- turn. On the one hand there was the danger of a nationwide expansion with many diseases and deaths, on the other California was threatened economically by a quarantine. Pardee now worked closely with the federal authorities. By the end of 1904, the disease was then brought under control. However, nearly 200 people had lost their lives.
The governor also strove for an improvement of the California education system. For agriculture, he fought for large-scale irrigation projects to increase production, as well as an important agricultural school was founded in his tenure, which should reach a nationwide visibility soon. Also, a new forestry law for the protection of forests against wild land speculation and forest fires was adopted in his tenure. He made also for a better water supply for much of the population by letting tap into healthy drinking water in the mountains. His policy was in Washington the highest recognition. President Theodore Roosevelt was so impressed by Pardee, that he offered him for the presidential elections of 1904 vice presidential candidacy. Pardee refused to continue to operate in California to be able to. But both politicians remained close political friends.
The most famous event in his tenure was the San Francisco earthquake in April 1906. Pardee started immediately after receiving the message, the National Guard to San Francisco to maintain order in motion. However, this task had already taken over the soldiers themselves stationed in San Francisco, U.S. Army. Pardee moved his headquarters to Oakland. In the following days he worked 20 hours a day as head of the crisis committee. He visited the devastated regions, coordinated relief supplies and kept in touch with the outside world upright. His crisis management found everywhere great approval.
End of the tenure as governor
Despite its success, it was Pardee not been able to overcome the internal party trenches. As before, there was a conservative and a progressive wing. Pardees policy came in some respects to the opposition of the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad, with which he was advised as early as the 1890s as mayor of Oakland together. 1902 was the compromise candidate Pardee still supported as the lesser evil in their view, the railway. Some of his political decisions as governor have now been classified as a threat to them by the influential railroad. The train used its influence on the Republican Party and made sure that the conservative wing had a clear majority in the electoral party of 1906. As a result, Pardee was denied re- nomination. A loyal follower of the conservative wing of the party and the railroad was instead nominated James Gillett.
Evening of life and death
After the end of his term in January 1907 Pardee remained politically active. He moved to Oakland in 1912 and one of the founders of the so-called Bull Moose Party, the Progressive Party, founded by Theodore Roosevelt. In this party the supporters of the reform wing of the Republicans found again. Since 1924 until shortly before his death he was head of the East Bay water utility company.
Pardee died on 1 September 1941 at the age of 84 years. He was married to Helen N. Pardee and had with her four daughters. Until the death of the youngest daughter Helen (1981 ), the family lived on the family property of Pardees in Oakland. 1991 this was then made accessible as a museum to the public.