Background
He was born on April 20, 1861 in San Francisco, California, United States, the only son of James and Alice (Kelly) Phelan.
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He was born on April 20, 1861 in San Francisco, California, United States, the only son of James and Alice (Kelly) Phelan.
He was graduated from St. Ignatius College, San Francisco, in 1881, studied law for a year at the University of California, then traveled for two years.
Influenced by his father, he abandoned his early ambition to become a lawyer and writer for a business career, first as partner with, later as heir and successor to his father in the banking business. Eventually, he became president of the Mutual Savings Bank, chairman of the board of directors of the United Bank and Trust Company, and a director of the First National Bank and First Federal Trust Company.
As vice-president of the California World's Columbian Exposition Commission, in 1893, he personally attended to the details of constructing the California Building at Chicago, and so wisely managed the affair that $20, 000 of the original appropriation was returned to the state treasury. The following year, he took an active part in organizing the Midwinter International Exposition in San Francisco.
During the early nineties, San Francisco was one of the most boss-ridden and corruptly governed cities in the country. Without previous political experience, Phelan was in 1897 selected by the reform element as its candidate for mayor. Elected and twice reelected, he placed San Francisco in the forefront of well-governed cities. From the beginning, he pugnaciously attacked the corrupt board of supervisors, striking at graft wherever it showed its head. He was credited with saving the city over $300, 000 a year by vetoing "jobs" in the board of supervisors.
The chief criticism of his administration came in its last year (1901), when, during the strike of the teamsters' union, he placed policemen on trucks driven by non-union men. This led to numerous outbreaks of violence and earned for him the bitter hostility of organized labor - a fact which played a part in the election of his successor.
In the fight against the notorious Schmitz-Ruef régime which followed, especially during 1906-08, Phelan took a prominent part, aggressively backing Rudolph Spreckels in the campaign which resulted in the prosecution and conviction of Schmitz and Ruef. Afterwards, in 1903 and again in 1913, he headed a San Francisco delegation to Washington on behalf of the project. In the earthquake and fire of April 1906, he lost much but gave unstintedly of his time and means to the work of aiding the suffering and rebuilding the city.
To him personally, rather than to the untrustworthy city government, President Roosevelt sent a national relief fund of $10, 000, 000, which, with a vast amount of supplies, was distributed by the relief organization of which Phelan was president. In 1913 he was appointed commissioner to Europe to support the invitation of the President to foreign countries to participate in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915.
Apart from serving as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1900, Phelan's political activity prior to 1914 had been restricted to the field of municipal government. In that year, however, he was the successful Democratic candidate for the United States Senate, serving from 1915 to 1921. Before commencing his term, he was appointed by Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, commissioner to investigate charges against James M. Sullivan, American minister to the Dominican Republic; and in his report he recommended the minister's recall. Chief among the committees on which he served in the Senate were those on railroads, coast defense, interoceanic canals, public lands, and naval affairs.
He was candidate for reelection in 1920, but was defeated by his Republican rival, Samuel M. Shortridge. At the conclusion of his senatorial term, he retired from politics, though appearing as the head of the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention of 1924, where he made the speech nominating William Gibbs McAdoo for the presidency.
In 1898 he was appointed regent of the University of California for a sixteen-year term. He also contributed to the field of letters, both in prose and verse, although much that he wrote was never published. He gave discerning and substantial encouragement to many young painters, sculptors, musicians, and poets, and bequeathed his beautiful Spanish-Italian villa, "Montalvo, " at Saratoga, California, to the San Francisco Art Association. He was a collector of art treasures, and to him San Francisco is indebted for large gifts of statuary and other works of art.
He died at "Montalvo. "
James Duval Phelan served as Mayor of San Francisco. His most enduring achievement was his effective leadership in the drafting and adoption of a new charter for the city, which was adopted over the opposition of both old party machines. Other constructive work distinguished his administration - the beautification of the streets, the building of parks and playgrounds, the erection of fountains. Later, he was personally responsible for the "Burnham plan, " from which ultimately came the present civic center of San Francisco. During his term as mayor, Phelan took important steps at his own expense whereby San Francisco was eventually able to acquire the right to bring its water supply from the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The small town of Phelan in the Californian High Desert of the Mojave Desert is named after him.
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He gave the Wilson administration his undivided support until the close of the war; but he favored divorcing the Covenant of the League of Nations from the Treaty of Versailles.
On important public occasions, he was an exceptionally pleasing speaker.
He never married.
