clashes in the past with their interests, Southern Pacific Republicans believed Pardee the better candidate against the Democratic contender Franklin K. Lane, a San Francisco City Attorney and an ardent anti-Southern Pacific campaigner. In the 1902 general elections, Pardee faced a four-way race between the Democrats' Lane, Socialist Gideon Brower and Prohibitionist Theodore Kanouse. Pardee barely edged over Lane, winning the governorship with a plurality of 0.9%. Less than 3,000 votes separated the two leading candidates. San Francisco Bubonic Plague Pardee took office on January 7, 1903. At the start of his term, Pardee did not fully acknowledge the presence of plague in San Francisco. Preceding his inauguration, the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service act was created by Congress on July 1, 1902. This act established that state health officials could initiate a surgeon general call conference, upon request. Due to the uncertainty and fear of the plague, a conference call was requested by eleven states to discuss the plague situation in California. In response, Walter Wyman, Surgeon General, called for a conference to be held on January 19, 1903, at Washington, D.C. Under the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service law, each state had to send one state health board representative to a surgeon general call conference. The problem for California was that the state health board officers, previously headed by former governor, Henry Gage, strongly denied the presence of the plague. In efforts to rectify this dilemma, Surgeon Arthur H. Glennan from the U.S Public Health Service was tasked with working with the new governor, Pardee. With his efforts, Matthew Gardner, former surgeon-in-chief of Southern Pacific Railroad, was selected to represent California at the conference. San Francisco was the heart of trade and commerce. Due to plague rumors, San Francisco commercial circles were alarmed by the advances of the Northwestern Railway and Northern Pacific Railways success. During this time, Northwestern Railway and Northern Pacific Railways wanted to divert commerce towards the western states. A preliminary meeting was held on January 18, 1903, a day before the conference call. Other state health officials that attended were hostile to Gardner, believing that California health officials were interested more in railroad business. Gardner acknowledged the presence of plague and promised to provide statements from Pardee and San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz, promising to sanitary campaign and eradication. Pardee promised to fulfill all the conditions the officials wanted. But the officials