Service was violating their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, and in the process, launched lawsuits against Kinyoun. In these court proceedings, residents insisted Gage was correct in his denials of the plague outbreak. The courts initially agreed that Chinatown residents were correct in that the quarantine violated their civil rights, yet most of these lawsuits were eventually thrown out of court on later dates. Between 1901 and 1902, the plague outbreak continued to worsen. On January 8, 1901, Gage pushed to allow the state health board members to delegate the local health units in attempt to monitor and control cases regarding the plague. In a 1901 address to both houses of the California State Legislature, Gage accused federal authorities, particularly Kinyoun, of injecting bubonic plague into cadavers. In response to what he said to be massive scaremongering by the Marine Hospital Service, Gage pushed a censorship bill through the Legislature to gag any media reports of plague infection. The legislation failed, yet laws to gag reports amongst the medical community succeeded in passage and were signed into law by the governor. In addition, $100,000 was allocated to a public campaign led by Gage to deny the plague's existence. Privately, however, Gage sent a special commission to Washington, consisting of Southern Pacific, newspaper and shipping lawyers to negotiate a settlement with the Marine Hospital Service, whereby the federal government would remove Kinyoun from San Francisco with the promise that the state would secretly cooperate with the Marine Hospital Service in stamping out the plague outbreak. Secret cooperations included preventive measures such as inspection, isolation and disinfection. Gage and Mayor Phelan provided funding to inspect and disinfect Chinatown of any signs of the plague. To the public, however, this was marketed as a cleanup campaign that was renovating and getting rid of the town's filth. Despite the secret agreement allowing for Kinyoun's removal, Gage went back on his promise of assisting federal authorities and continued to obstruct their efforts for study and quarantine. A report issued by the State Board of Health on September 16, 1901, bolstered Gage's claims, denying the plague's outbreak. Labor agitation As Gage fought his growing battle with the federal government, labor agitation was starting to spill over along the San Francisco waterfront. In the July 1901, members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters went on strike, protesting against recent orders to haul luggage for a non-unionized cargo