SETH MANN

 

Seth MANN.  An active member of the San Francisco bar for over forty years, the professional work of Seth MANN has been invested with a large measure of public importance.  He is one of the foremost experts on traffic law in the country, and for many years has been attorney for the Traffic Bureau of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

He was born at Randolph, Massachusetts, June 29, 1860, of old Colonial New England stock with Revolutionary ancestors on both sides.  His father was of English and his mother of Scotch-English descent.  Levi MANN, his father was born in Vermont, and descended from ancestors who settled at Scituate, Massachusetts, prior to 1640. He married Abbie ALLEN SPEAR of Randolph, Massachusetts, and daughter of Capt. Otis SPEAR, who took part in the Mexican war in 1846-1848.  Levi MANN and wife came to California in 1852 by the Panama route, and he first engaged in business in mining and then in business in Marysville, where he became prominent in official and political affairs.

Seth MANN was reared  and educated in San Francisco, attending public school there, and graduated Bachelor of Arts from the University of California in 1881.  He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1883, and since then has been attorney for and traffic manager of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce since 1905.  Among his important professional achievements was the work he did in assisting in framing the public utility laws of California. During the World war from July 1918 to March 1, 1920, he was a member of the Western Freight Traffic Committee of the United States Railroad Administration. He served three years as chairman of the special commission of the Merchant Marine of the National Industrial Traffic League, which is the national shippers organization, with headquarters at Chicago.

Through these organizations and other matters in which Mr. MANN has been employed as an expert traffic attorney it is estimated that the people of California have been saved a sum aggravating $25,000,000.  This estimate includes the reduction in the San Joaquin and  Sacramento valley rail rates in 1912, amounting to $400,000 and continuous since then.  The toll charges now absorbed by the railroads effected a saving of $250,000 annually and free switching charges between $250,000 and $300,000 annually.

Mr. MANN has been one of the prominent men of the democratic party in California, serving as chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee from 1898 to 1900 and serving repeatedly on county and state central committees and for twenty years attending as a delegate various county and state conventions.  He was a member of the state convention that nominated the late Franklin K. Lane for governor.  He acted as a personal representative of President Wilson on his excursion to Alaska in the summer of 1913.  Mr. MANN is a member of the San Francisco California State and American Bar associations, belongs to the Commonwealth Club, Bohemian Club, Commercial Club and Family Club of San Francisco, Pacific Lodge No. 136 of the Masonic Order, Oakland Lodge No. 171, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Chi Phi college fraternity.

He married Miss Maude L. DAULTON, of Oakland, California. She is a native daughter.  Her father, H.C. DAULTON, was a prominent citizen of Fresno and Madera counties, a stock farmer, was supervisor of Fresno County, and DAULTON Station was named for him.  Mrs. MANN is of Revolutionary stock, English descent.  They have two children.  The daughter, Dorothy married Innes RANDOLPH, who is a representative of the General Motors Company and now lives at Calcutta, India.  They have two daughters, Ethel and Dorothy RANDOLPH.  The son, Daulton MANN, born April 15, 1893 is assistant manager of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.  By his marriage to Ethel GREGG, daughter of Wellington GREGG, he has a son Daulton Jr.