John P. Irish
Encyclopedia
John Powell Irish, known as John P. Irish, (1843–1923) was a leader of the Democratic Party in Iowa, a landowner in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region of California, a fiery and influential public speaker, and an opponent of prejudice against Japanese, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, women's suffrage and labor unions. He was, according to U.S. Interior
Secretary Franklin K. Lane, "a fiery orator of the denunciatory type." He was reckoned as "a leader among editorial writers" of his generation.
, where he received a "common school
" education. He was married to Annie Fletcher in 1872, and in 1880 they moved to California. One headline writer noted in 1899 that Irish at that time was "averse to wearing a necktie."
Irish was mentioned in three poems in Ambrose Bierce's
book of poetry, Black Beetles in Amber (1892). In one poem, the narrator dies and goes to Hell, only to be surprised that the landscape is pleasant and attractive.
Irish died at the age of eighty on October 6, 1923, from a fall while attempting to board a moving streetcar in Oakland, California
. Honorary pallbearers at his funeral on October 9 in the Unitarian church in that city included former California governor George C. Pardee, George Shima
(known as the Japanese "potato king") and Ng Poon Chew
, Chinese editor. The officiating minister was Charles William Wendte.
, where he remained for twenty years. He "developed such ability both as a writer and public speaker that he was soon recognized as one of the leaders of the Democratic party of the state." He was elected three times to represent Johnson County, Iowa
, in the state's General Assembly
, from 1869 to 1872.
He was an elected regent of the State University of Iowa, and in 1871 was instrumental in securing the return of the corpse of a woman whose body had been stolen
from a town cemetery and which resulting "resurrection affair" had been trumpeted by newspapers that attacked the "medical hyenas attending the University." But before the affair died down, two medical students, a janitor and Irish himself were arrested. A grand jury
"declined to find any of them at fault."
In 1868, he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in the Fourth District. In 1877 he was the losing Democratic candidate for governor against Governor John H. Gear
. He was also a trustee of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home
.
About Irish's time in Iowa, ex-journalist H.C. Parkhurst, who had known Irish since boyhood, recalled in an essay titled "Western Newspaper Men," written for the Nebraska State Historical Society
:
After 1888, Irish was a contributor to "the most comprehensive visual coverage of the Far West" then available — a printed work called Picturesque California and the Region West of the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Mexico. In the chapter about the Sacramento Valley
, for which he was responsible, "John P. Irish implicitly chides those who might denigrate the West by pointing out a wheat field in the irrigated Sacramento Valley nearly twice the size of Rhode Island and worth more than sixteen million dollars, the same amount the federal government paid Mexico in 1848 for California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and New Mexico."
He was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District in 1890, losing to Joseph McKenna
.
In 1893 Irish was a featured speaker at a Los Angeles meeting of the influential National Irrigation Congress
, where he warned the delegates that "we should not look to a paternal government to irrigate our lands for us, but should encourage individual effort."
Irish, in Omaha, Nebraska
, to speak at a meeting of the Jackson Club in January 1894, told a reporter that he and the "California people" were opposed to annexing the Kingdom of Hawaii
because "We know the revolution there was simply a job, largely by those who robbed themselves rich in this country [the United States], and are trying to do the same thing" in Hawaii.
In 1894 he was appointed Naval Officer of Customs in San Francisco and was thereafter known as "Colonel." He was also on the board of the Yosemite Park
commissioners, resigning in 1894.
Irish helped found the State Home for the Adult Blind, where he was president of the governing board and for twenty-five years was a director. In 1912 the institution was investigated upon a charge that Irish had used one of the residents as a "sort of servant at the Irish home," but the claimant apologized to investigators appointed by Governor Hiram Johnson
and shook hands with Irish. "Mr. Irish said the home stood as a model for such institutions, not only in the United States, but in European countries" the Associated Press reported.
over the latter's stand on a monetary system based on silver
, and instead lobbied for a gold standard
for U.S. currency. He was a member of the executive committee of the Monetary Congress organized in 1897 in Indianapolis, Indiana
, to promote the gold standard. He opened a similar meeting in the same city in 1900.
In September and October 1895 Irish and Thomas V. Cator, who argued in favor of free silver, toured California with a series of debates on the question. The next year Irish attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
but repudiated the national ticket headed by Bryan, whom he called a "raw man, who has achieved nothing in public or private life to fit him for the Presidency — a man who has won his reputation delivering orations at county fairs and Populist picnics." He called the Democratic platform "a league with larceny and a covenant with murder."
In a 1906 address to the Starr King
Fraternity of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland
, Irish assailed "arrogant labor unions" for a rise in juvenile crime because they were "opposed to the apprenticeship
of the American boy."
"I now take the opportunity to say publicly that I never employ any one but a "scab
," he added, "and in that way enter my protest against a system that is driving our young men into lives of idleness."
In reacting to the 1910 bombing
of the Los Angeles Times, which killed 21 Times employees and where union activists were suspected, Irish wrote to Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis:
In 1913 Irish publicly protested a proposal to exempt unions from the Clayton Antitrust Act
then being debated in the Senate.
opposed to allowing women to vote. Typical was this 1911 speech reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:
During the 1916 campaign for women's suffrage in Iowa, Irish came to Iowa from California to speak against a referendum that would adopt it, but suffragists uncovered favorable comments he had written about votes for women in his early years and circulated them widely. They also "reprinted his editorials written during the Civil War
, in which his disloyalty to Lincoln and to the Union was shown. He was much disturbed by this publicity and soon left the State."
living in the United States and he wrote, spoke and acted on the behalf of these people for many years. He founded and organized the American Committee on Justice to further this cause."
Irish had no regard for Congressman Thomas J. Geary
of San Francisco, who wrote the Geary Act
of 1892, which extended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and added onerous new requirements for Chinese residents in the United States. In December 1907, Irish opened a campaign for repeal of the Exclusion Act with a speech at a gathering of California fruit growers in Marysville
. He attacked "San Francisco and unionism" for the "vast injury of fruit interests and other industries in the interior."
In 1919 Irish published a pamphlet, Japanese Farmers in California, in which he repeated the remarks he had made to the 52nd convention of the California Fruit Growers and Farmers that year, saying that
In 1920 he took on Senator James D. Phelan
, who had been prominent in fostering anti-Japanese feeling in California. In a column in the Los Angeles Times, Irish wrote that
United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
Secretary Franklin K. Lane, "a fiery orator of the denunciatory type." He was reckoned as "a leader among editorial writers" of his generation.
Personal life
Irish was born to Frederick Macy Irish and Elizabeth Ann Robinson on January 1, 1843, in Iowa City, IowaIowa City, Iowa
Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, State of Iowa. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of about 67,862, making it the sixth-largest city in the state. Iowa City is the county seat of Johnson County and home to the University of Iowa...
, where he received a "common school
Common school
A common school was a public school in the United States or Canada in the nineteenth century. The term 'common school' was coined by Horace Mann, and refers to the fact that they were meant to serve individuals of all social classes and religions....
" education. He was married to Annie Fletcher in 1872, and in 1880 they moved to California. One headline writer noted in 1899 that Irish at that time was "averse to wearing a necktie."
Irish was mentioned in three poems in Ambrose Bierce's
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
book of poetry, Black Beetles in Amber (1892). In one poem, the narrator dies and goes to Hell, only to be surprised that the landscape is pleasant and attractive.
"Ah, no, this is not Hell," I cried;
"The preachers ne'er so greatly lied.
"This is Earth's spirit glorified!
"Good souls do not in Hades dwell,
"And, look, there's John P. Irish!" "Well,
The Voice said, "that's what makes it Hell."
Irish died at the age of eighty on October 6, 1923, from a fall while attempting to board a moving streetcar in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. Honorary pallbearers at his funeral on October 9 in the Unitarian church in that city included former California governor George C. Pardee, George Shima
George Shima
George Shima was a Japanese American businessman in California who became the first Japanese American millionaire. At one point, he produced about 85% of the state's potato crop, which earned him the nickname "The Potato King"....
(known as the Japanese "potato king") and Ng Poon Chew
Ng Poon Chew
Ng Poon Chew was an author, publisher, and advocate for Chinese American civil rights. He published the first Chinese language daily newspaper to be printed outside of China....
, Chinese editor. The officiating minister was Charles William Wendte.
In Iowa
Irish's first job as a seventeen-year-old was that of teacher. At age twenty-one he became editor of the Iowa City PressIowa City Press-Citizen
The Iowa City Press-Citizen is a daily newspaper published in Iowa City, Iowa, that serves most of Johnson County and portions of surrounding counties...
, where he remained for twenty years. He "developed such ability both as a writer and public speaker that he was soon recognized as one of the leaders of the Democratic party of the state." He was elected three times to represent Johnson County, Iowa
Johnson County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 130,882 in the county, with a population density of . There were 55,967 housing units, of which 52,715 were occupied.-2000 census:...
, in the state's General Assembly
Iowa General Assembly
The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of Representatives respectively...
, from 1869 to 1872.
He had, as a teacher, seen the harm of electing members of school boards on a partisan ticket, and was the author of the law changing the time of electing school officers from the general to a special election, thus taking their election our of partisan politics.
He was an elected regent of the State University of Iowa, and in 1871 was instrumental in securing the return of the corpse of a woman whose body had been stolen
Grave robbing
Grave robbery, grave robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a tomb or crypt to steal artifacts or personal effects. Someone who engages in this act is a grave robber or tomb raider...
from a town cemetery and which resulting "resurrection affair" had been trumpeted by newspapers that attacked the "medical hyenas attending the University." But before the affair died down, two medical students, a janitor and Irish himself were arrested. A grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
"declined to find any of them at fault."
In 1868, he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in the Fourth District. In 1877 he was the losing Democratic candidate for governor against Governor John H. Gear
John H. Gear
John Henry Gear was the 11th Governor of Iowa, United States Representative, and Senator.-Biography:Born in Ithaca, New York, he attended the common schools and moved to Galena, Illinois in 1836, to Fort Snelling, Iowa, in 1838, and to Burlington in 1843, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits...
. He was also a trustee of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home
Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home
-External links:*...
.
About Irish's time in Iowa, ex-journalist H.C. Parkhurst, who had known Irish since boyhood, recalled in an essay titled "Western Newspaper Men," written for the Nebraska State Historical Society
Nebraska State Historical Society
The Nebraska State Historical Society is a Nebraska state agency, founded in 1878 to "encourage historical research and inquiry, spread historical information .....
:
As a newspaper publisher, fine public speaker, politician and leading citizen of unblemished name, he won attention and respect. With high qualifications for a brilliant political career, he never seemed to "hit things right." There was always something the matter. For various reasons, he "pulled up" and went to California. There he . . . had everything he wanted but political success. That always evaded him."
In California
On moving to California in 1880, Irish immediately became editor of the Alta California newspaper and, after that paper's demise, became editor and "principal owner" of the Oakland Times.After 1888, Irish was a contributor to "the most comprehensive visual coverage of the Far West" then available — a printed work called Picturesque California and the Region West of the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Mexico. In the chapter about the Sacramento Valley
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...
, for which he was responsible, "John P. Irish implicitly chides those who might denigrate the West by pointing out a wheat field in the irrigated Sacramento Valley nearly twice the size of Rhode Island and worth more than sixteen million dollars, the same amount the federal government paid Mexico in 1848 for California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and New Mexico."
He was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District in 1890, losing to Joseph McKenna
Joseph McKenna
Joseph McKenna was an American politician who served in all three branches of the U.S. federal government, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, as U.S. Attorney General and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court...
.
In 1893 Irish was a featured speaker at a Los Angeles meeting of the influential National Irrigation Congress
National Irrigation Congress
The National Irrigation Congress was held periodically in the Western United States beginning in 1891 and ending in 1916, by which time the organization had changed its name to International Irrigation Congress. It was a "powerful pressure group."...
, where he warned the delegates that "we should not look to a paternal government to irrigate our lands for us, but should encourage individual effort."
Irish, in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, to speak at a meeting of the Jackson Club in January 1894, told a reporter that he and the "California people" were opposed to annexing the Kingdom of Hawaii
Provisional Government of Hawaii
The Provisional Government of Hawaii abbreviated "P.G." was proclaimed on January 17, 1893 by the 13 member Committee of Safety under the leadership of Sanford B. Dole...
because "We know the revolution there was simply a job, largely by those who robbed themselves rich in this country [the United States], and are trying to do the same thing" in Hawaii.
In 1894 he was appointed Naval Officer of Customs in San Francisco and was thereafter known as "Colonel." He was also on the board of the Yosemite Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
commissioners, resigning in 1894.
Irish helped found the State Home for the Adult Blind, where he was president of the governing board and for twenty-five years was a director. In 1912 the institution was investigated upon a charge that Irish had used one of the residents as a "sort of servant at the Irish home," but the claimant apologized to investigators appointed by Governor Hiram Johnson
Hiram Johnson
Hiram Warren Johnson was a leading American progressive and later isolationist politician from California; he served as the 23rd Governor from 1911 to 1917, and as a United States Senator from 1917 to 1945.-Early life:...
and shook hands with Irish. "Mr. Irish said the home stood as a model for such institutions, not only in the United States, but in European countries" the Associated Press reported.
Gold standard
Irish was one of the Democratic leaders who broke away from William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
over the latter's stand on a monetary system based on silver
Free Silver
Free Silver was an important United States political policy issue in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Its advocates were in favor of an inflationary monetary policy using the "free coinage of silver" as opposed to the less inflationary Gold Standard; its supporters were called...
, and instead lobbied for a gold standard
Gold standard
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...
for U.S. currency. He was a member of the executive committee of the Monetary Congress organized in 1897 in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, to promote the gold standard. He opened a similar meeting in the same city in 1900.
In September and October 1895 Irish and Thomas V. Cator, who argued in favor of free silver, toured California with a series of debates on the question. The next year Irish attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
1896 Democratic National Convention
The 1896 Democratic National Convention, held at the Chicago Coliseum from July 7 to July 11, was the scene of William Jennings Bryan's nomination as Democratic presidential candidate for the 1896 U.S. presidential election....
but repudiated the national ticket headed by Bryan, whom he called a "raw man, who has achieved nothing in public or private life to fit him for the Presidency — a man who has won his reputation delivering orations at county fairs and Populist picnics." He called the Democratic platform "a league with larceny and a covenant with murder."
Opposed to unions
In October 1882, Irish, by then the "principal owner" of the Oakland Times, was attacked by a union printer who attempted to stab him while he was addressing a meeting. The man's anger was said to "have been caused by Mr. Irish employing in his newspaper office 'rats' and non-union printers."In a 1906 address to the Starr King
Thomas Starr King
Thomas Starr King was an American Unitarian and Universalist minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic...
Fraternity of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland
First Unitarian Church of Oakland
The First Unitarian Church of Oakland, in Oakland, California, was designed in 1889 by Walter J. Mathews. This solid masonry Romanesque church departed radically from California's traditional Gothic wood frame construction...
, Irish assailed "arrogant labor unions" for a rise in juvenile crime because they were "opposed to the apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
of the American boy."
"I now take the opportunity to say publicly that I never employ any one but a "scab
Strikebreaker
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...
," he added, "and in that way enter my protest against a system that is driving our young men into lives of idleness."
In reacting to the 1910 bombing
Los Angeles Times bombing
The Los Angeles Times bombing was the purposeful dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles, California, on October 1, 1910 by a union member belonging to the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers. The explosion started a fire which killed 21 newspaper...
of the Los Angeles Times, which killed 21 Times employees and where union activists were suspected, Irish wrote to Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis:
Organized labor has come to be a synonym for organized crime. Its principles are at war with American institutions and its practices are at war with the rights of man. You have suffered, and your men have fallen, as much in the cause of liberty as if you had been leading them on the battlefield. All honor to your high courage and to their memory.
In 1913 Irish publicly protested a proposal to exempt unions from the Clayton Antitrust Act
Clayton Antitrust Act
The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 , was enacted in the United States to add further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime by seeking to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency. That regime started with the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the first Federal law outlawing practices...
then being debated in the Senate.
Against votes for women
Irish gave many speeches in the early 'teens1910s
File:1910s montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Model T Ford is introduced and becomes widespread; The sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic causes the deaths of nearly 1,500 people and attracts global and historical attention; Title bar: All the events below are part of World War I ; French Army lookout...
opposed to allowing women to vote. Typical was this 1911 speech reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:
The burden of the argument of Irish was that there could not be power without responsibility. Man was the voter because law primarily rested on the power to enforce the law. Woman could not serve on a posse comitatusPosse comitatus (common law)Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...
or in the army. He did not think any one would want women to be locked up as jurors. There could not be power without responsibility. . . . Irish took the four suffrage states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho as horrible examples of what suffrage could bring about. Colorado had more juvenile delinquents in proportion to population than any other state because the women neglected their home duties to do politics, he said.
During the 1916 campaign for women's suffrage in Iowa, Irish came to Iowa from California to speak against a referendum that would adopt it, but suffragists uncovered favorable comments he had written about votes for women in his early years and circulated them widely. They also "reprinted his editorials written during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, in which his disloyalty to Lincoln and to the Union was shown. He was much disturbed by this publicity and soon left the State."
Favored Japanese and Chinese immigration
As an editor and agriculturalist, "Irish became concerned with the treatment of people of Japanese descentNisei
During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes in the Pacific coast states because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage...
living in the United States and he wrote, spoke and acted on the behalf of these people for many years. He founded and organized the American Committee on Justice to further this cause."
Irish had no regard for Congressman Thomas J. Geary
Thomas J. Geary
Thomas J. Geary was a U.S. Representative from California.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Geary moved with his parents to San Francisco, California, in April 1863.He attended the public schools.He studied law at St...
of San Francisco, who wrote the Geary Act
Geary Act
The Geary Act was a United States law passed in 1892 written by California Congressman Thomas J. Geary. It extended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 by adding onerous new requirements....
of 1892, which extended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and added onerous new requirements for Chinese residents in the United States. In December 1907, Irish opened a campaign for repeal of the Exclusion Act with a speech at a gathering of California fruit growers in Marysville
Marysville, California
Marysville is the county seat of Yuba County, California, United States. The population was 12,072 at the 2010 census, down from 12,268 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area, often referred to as the Yuba-Sutter Area after the two counties, Yuba and...
. He attacked "San Francisco and unionism" for the "vast injury of fruit interests and other industries in the interior."
In 1919 Irish published a pamphlet, Japanese Farmers in California, in which he repeated the remarks he had made to the 52nd convention of the California Fruit Growers and Farmers that year, saying that
When we treated our treaty with ChinaBurlingame TreatyThe Burlingame Treaty, also known as the Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868, between the United States and China, amended the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858 and established formal friendly relations between the two countries, with the United States granting China most favored nation status...
as a scrap of paper and by the Geary Act excluded thirty thousand Chinese who were legally domiciled here, and by murdering and destroying the property of other Chinese, drove them out, there was created a shortage in farm labor, and this economic vacuum drew in the Japanese, who came protected by a solemn treaty between their government and ours. . . . Against this minute element many of our people are being lashed into a fury of apprehension, hatred and rage.
In 1920 he took on Senator James D. Phelan
James D. Phelan
James Duval Phelan was an American politician, civic leader and banker.-Early years:Phelan was born in San Francisco, the son of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy during the California Gold Rush as a trader, merchant and banker. He graduated from St...
, who had been prominent in fostering anti-Japanese feeling in California. In a column in the Los Angeles Times, Irish wrote that
the present anti-Japanese agitation, like the anti-Chinese movement of years ago, has the same psychology as the Russian anti-Jewish pogrom, which always starts with the lie that Jews have murdered Christian children to use their blood in the rites of the synagogue. . . . Senator Phelan . . . has made no record of any benefit to the State in the Senate; so he must divert attention from his uselessness as a Senator by attacking the Japanese and trying to stampede the State by lying about them.