Fred C. Wheeler
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Fredrick Crissman Wheeler (1867 – November 23, 1934) was a Los Angeles, California, City Council member who was active in labor-union affairs and state and municipal politics. In 1909 he came within "a small plurality" of being elected mayor of the city.


Career

Wheeler was active in early 20th-century labor activities in California. In 1905, he was state organizer of the California Federation of Labor. He was in 1907 one of the promoters of the Union Labor News Company, which aimed to publish a daily newspaper to cover news of
labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
activities. By 1908, Wheeler was head of Carpenters Union Los Angeles Local 158, which was the "largest local carpenters union in the world." In 1909, Wheeler was active in the
Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
. In that year he ran for
mayor of Los Angeles The mayor of the City of Los Angeles is the official head and chief executive officer of Los Angeles. The officeholder is elected for a four-year term and is term limit, limited to serving no more than two terms. (Under the Constitution of Califo ...
in a recall election of Mayor
Arthur C. Harper Arthur Cyprian Harper (1866–1948) was the 26th Mayor of Los Angeles, California, from December 13, 1906, to March 11, 1909. He was forced to resign in the wake of a recall drive due to dishonesty that marked his administration. While may ...
. He at first was denied a place on the ballot because his candidacy had assertedly not followed regulations. The denial was overturned by a judicial appeal. Harper resigned the mayor's position, and in the election to succeed him, Wheeler lost to George Alexander by a "small plurality" of 1,650 votes of some 35,000 cast. It was the first election "ever held in any American city for the recall of a mayor.""Los Angeles In Quandary"
''Des Moines Evening Tribune,'' March 15, 1909, image 3.
The Associated Press reported that "The vote for Wheeler was a great surprise." In 1910, Wheeler was the Socialist Party nominee for
lieutenant governor of California The lieutenant governor of California is the second highest executive officer of the government of the U.S. state of California. The lieutenant governor is elected to serve a four-year term and can serve a maximum of two terms. In addition to l ...
. He was a member of a freeholders board to propose a new city charter in 1912. He and other members were active in proposing the use of proportional representation in any new charter; the proposal lost in a tie vote of board members. In 1913, Wheeler was elected to the Los Angeles City Council, receiving the fourth-highest number of votes of the nine successful candidates. In 1915, Wheeler was renominated for the council and polled the second-highest number of votes among ninety candidates."Socialist Councilman Resigns From Party"
''San Francisco Chronicle,'' May 22, 1915, image 1.
Soon, Wheeler was instrumental in a campaign to establish a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Historian Jeff Stansbury wrote that:
Wheeler led a successful fight against an attempt to split the power-bond issue into two separate ballot propositions, one to complete the aqueduct's generating stations, the other to create a city-owned distribution system. Such a division would probably have doomed public power.Jeff Stansbury, "How Kilowatt Socialism Saved L.A. From the Energy Crisis"
''Los Angeles Times,'' April 29, 2001, image 249.
In 1915 also, Wheeler defended City Council member
Estelle Lawton Lindsey Estelle Lawton Lindsey (c. 1868 – 1955) was a 20th-century journalist who was also the first female City Council member in Los Angeles, California, (1915–17) the first woman to preside over the City Council there and the first woman to act a ...
, who was ousted from the Socialist Party, and then he himself announced he was leaving it. He later became a Republican.


Los Angeles City Council (1919–1925)

Wheeler, as a candidate for City Council in 1919, was supported by the Civic Betterment Association but opposed by the
Merchants and Manufacturers Association Employers Group was founded as the Merchants and Manufacturers Association (M&M) in 1896 in California. It has become a worldwide organization advocating for employers and giving guidance about employment laws and regulations, professional developm ...
, whose president, H. B. Woodhill, said of him: " ..we cannot stand for Wheeler,
ho was Ho (or the transliterations He or Heo) may refer to: People Language and ethnicity * Ho people, an ethnic group of India ** Ho language, a tribal language in India * Hani people, or Ho people, an ethnic group in China, Laos and Vietnam * Hiri Mo ...
the man who deliberately took occasion in an address given before a large gathering in
Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, ...
to declare, "To hell with the newspapers," and in the City Council he turned to a crowd of red anarchists and called them "My brothers." "The Watchman," a political column that ran in the ''Los Angeles Times,'' said of the councilman in 1919: "Wheeler opposed the City Council on city employees taking part in the
Preparedness Day The Preparedness Movement was a campaign led by former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Leonard Wood, and former President Theodore Roosevelt to strengthen the U.S. military after the outbreak of World War I. Wood advocated a summer training sc ...
parade, opposed the buying of flags for city employees to carry in this parade, and refused to ride with the City Council in the parade." Wheeler introduced a resolution, adopted unanimously by the City Council in February 1922, that the chief of police should grant a permit for the use of fireworks in Los Angeles during
Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...
. "It will not cost the city of Los Angeles anything, and it will give the Chinese a good deal of pleasure," he said.


Post-political career

He retired in 1925 after five terms in the council, asking voters to choose
A.J. Barnes A. J. Barnes was the first person to represent the 12th district of the Los Angeles City Council under the new charter in 1925. He served until 1927. Barnes, a contractor and real-estate man who had lived in Los Angeles since 1904, was elected to ...
as his successor. He said he, Wheeler, would "engage in building work, as he was a builder before he entered public life." Wheeler appeared in court along with four other retired or active city officials in 1928 to deny a claim by E.E. Sweeney, former land and tax agent of the Southern California Gas Company, that they had accepted "several thousand dollars" in bribes from him. In a public statement, a Los Angeles County
grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...
"absolved" the officials "of any connection with Sweeney."


Personal life and death

Fred Wheeler was born in 1867, the son of C.M. Wheeler of Minnesota and Elisabeth of Pennsylvania. As a youth, he was assistant captain of a football club in
St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...
. He had a brother, E.P. Wheeler. Fred left Minnesota for California in 1887. He and Lucina Cook of Missouri were married in Pomona, California, on December 14, 1898. They had a daughter, Frances Wheeler (later DeShields)."Deaths"
''Los Angeles Times,'' November 25, 1934, image 24.
In Los Angeles, they lived at 1342 Mohawk Street in the
Silver Lake Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
neighborhood. Frederick C. Wheeler was a member of the Encino Country Club and of the California PolicyHolders' League."California Pays High insurance, C of C Is Told"
''Oakland Tribune,'' January 6, 1923, image 7.
He was president of the League of California Municipalities in 1923. Lucina Cook Wheeler died December 6, 1931, with a funeral in Lynwood, California."Deaths"
''Los Angeles Times,'' December 9, 1931, image 20.
Wheeler died in Los Angeles on November 23, 1934.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Fred C. American socialists Trade unionists from California Socialist Party of America politicians from California Los Angeles City Council members 1867 births 1934 deaths California Republicans