Simon Julius Lubin Papers, 1912-1936

Summary

Creators:

Lubin, Simon Julius, 1876-1936

Abstract:

Correspondence, biographical sketches, articles and addresses, reports, clippings, etc., relating primarily to his service with the State Commission of Immigration and Housing and its investigation of IWW sabotage activities during World War I, agricultural labor camps, and the 1913 Wheatland hopfield riot. Some later material relates to the Pan American Reciprocal Trade Conference.

Extent:

Number of containers: 5 boxes, 2 cartons

Language:

English

Background

Biographical / historical:

Simon Julius Lubin was born in Sacramento on November 27, 1876. He began his long career of social and civic service, after graduation from Harvard University in 1903, as a settlement worker in Boston's South End House. In 1904 he lived in the lower east side of New York City, studying social problems. Returning to California in 1906, he took over the management of the store his father, David Lubin, founded with Harris Weinstock in Sacramento.

He achieved state-wide recognition in 1912 when he was appointed by Governor Hiram W. Johnson a member of the State Immigration Commission which was to investigate the immigration problems anticipated with the opening of the Panama Canal. He drafted a bill to create a permanent Commission of Immigration and Housing, which was approved by the Legislature in 1913. The Governor appointed him president of the new Commission which included also, as members, Mrs. Mary Gibson, the Reverend Father Edward J. Hanna, Paul Scharrenberg and Arthur B. Fleming. The Commission was entrusted with two major problems, the welfare of the immigrant and the related problem of his housing, and also handled special assignments such as investigations of the 1913 Wheatland hop field riot; the IWW activities during World War I and the vice conditions in Sacramento in 1918; the improvement of agricultural labor camps; and the development of housing legislation. In 1923 Lubin resigned from the Commission, at the request of Governor Friend W. Richardson, after a disagreement over the Governor's dismissal of Commission member Paul Scharrenberg.

Lubin continued his career as civic leader, organizing the Sacramento Region Citizens Council in 1926 and the Pan American Reciprocal Trade Conference in 1930, and serving as director of the Department of Commerce of California, 1932-1934, and special commissioner of the National Labor Board in 1932.

He died on April 15, 1936.

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Related resources

Other descriptive data:

These papers were given to the Bancroft Library by his family, some ca. 1947, with additions in 1953. Covering the period 1912-1936, they relate primarily to his service with the Commission of Immigration and Housing, and consist of correspondence, clippings, reports, biographical sketches, and articles and addresses. There is very little material after 1923, and this is concerned primarily with the Pan American Reciprocal Trade Conference.

A Key to Arrangement and list of the more important correspondents in the collection follow.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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