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THURSOAY^^ San Francisco Has Another Chance to Get Alaska's Trade il=== — • ■-■ — m ■ OXE of the first, best and easiest things San Francisco can do to help afoeg her trade and prosperity is to campaign sys tematically and scientifically for the business of Alaska. It is a rich and extremely desirable business, and we can get it by simply going after it and consistently keeping after it. Mercantile San Francisco will recall how we let the early Klon dike trade slip through our careless fingers. The miraculous news from the placers of the upper Yukon and its tributaries was still making the ears of the world tingle and firing its imagination when Seattle started to boom itself as the natural and logical outfitting v. .rt for the new fields. San Francisco never did start —and never did become in any general sense a factor in that business. Seattle got the long end of a traffic that was enormously profitable. But since the rushes of Dawson. of Nome and of the other gold districts of Alaska, trade conditions have changed in the far northern territory. The excitement has passed, and the rational and business like development of one oi the richest regions on the map is going ahead on normal lines. Incidentally San Francisco is getting a second chance at Alaskan opportunity for selling and supplying. The men and interests of present day Alaska have found that they can buy here on better terms than on Puget sound. Machinery and implements and supplies of all kinds are to be had Jiere at better prices and with better conditions of shipment and delivery than at Seattle or anywhere else on the coast. - Besides, the Alaskan seeking a southerly clime for his winter's rest and change finds San Francisco and California more to his liking than the Sound cities. The weather is kindlier; the educational advantages for the children are superior; the opportunities for pleas ure and enjoyment are more varied and attractive. Thus, without seeking it or bidding for it, San Francisco is getting a considerable volume of the Alaskan trade and an appreci able share of its winter migration. By a little effort rightly directed •we could get most .of it—and it is very well worth getting and keeping. The Call urges upon the merchants of San Francisco and upon its commercial organizations that they plan and set in motion with out delay a campaign of publicity and solicitation that will bring us much more of this profitable Alaskan trade. The Chamber of Com merce has shown that it knows how to do these things effectively; let it head and start the movement. The Call will help with all its heart and all its strength. There are some other opportunities for the improvement of San Francisco's trade and business conditions. The Call will hereafter have much to say about them and much to do in helping along their development. But Alaska is nearest at hand and first on the list. Let us go after Alaska. Im /I IVI * iave l * cv * se( l a P* an lor financing the ocean to ocean highway. That project has interested Americans devoted to the cause < ' ■ of good roads from the time of the birth of the republic. There are at present enough resolutions committing cities, counties and states to the proposition to construct a paper Help the Ocean to Ocean Highway and back, tso (ieiinite policy has been approved by any national body. A group of automobile manufacturers and makers of automobile accessories in Indianapolis has decided upon a plan which should bring about the good road so much desired and heretofore so in defiinitely planned. The proposition is that all manufacturers of auto mobiles and motor car sundries shall contribute 1 per cent of one year" earnings, or an equivalent amount contributed over a thfee to five years, and that owners of automobiles contribute $5, $100 or SI.OOO. It is estimated that a fund of $10,000, --000 can be raised by this means. This fund wilt be used solely to purchase material for the highway. It will make available more than $5,000 a mile for material, which is held to be a generous appro priation. With the material for the highway provided by the automobile people, counties and cities will be called upon to perform the work of construction. The total cost of the road is estimated at $25, --000,000. There have been many plans proposed for the construction of the highway, but they have always been complicated with the necessity of large appropriations from the federal and state govern ments. It is the plan of the automobile enthusiasts to keep as free a> possible from political entanglements, to have the sections of the road constructed by the smaller units of government, cities and counties, and to build an economical highway that will unite the east and the west, and will make it pleasantly possible for vehicle traffic to cross the country and come to San Francisco in 1915. The motor car enthusiast knows that he will come here in ijPIS; he wants to come in his own car, over the noblest highway in the world. If he and his kind give to this good roads project the energy that has been given to the development of the automobile business in America there is no question that before 1915 the road will be constructed. SAX FRANCISCO'S legislative delegation has its work cut out for it if it is to —and it must —secure for this city control of its own harbor. The last session of the* legislature gave over to Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego and Long Beach control of their harbors, and those cities, through their legislative repre i } sentation, can continue to exercise control San Francisco's harbor. On its face the proposition is not fair. It is not a question of politics, an issue of patronage, a proposition P» judged according to the expediency of the moment, but it is a lem on the solution of which the life of San Francisco may nd. The proposition of a city controlling its own harbor is not untried. The harbors of England are locally CQiitrolled. They arc managed by a commission, with analogous powers to our harbor commission, and this commission is composed of representatives of the city government and of the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Trade and other commercial organizations of the city. The national government does not exercise any control. Yet under that system the commerce of Greai Britain has been the greatest in the world. S< i effective has this system of local control been that in the British colonies and dominions, where many changes from England's methods have been adopted, the same system ofjiarbor control has been retained. In these British ports the municipal control is shared with the commercial organizations, but that is a detail apart from the ques tion of local versus state control. If the harbors of the state are part of the state's wealth, why did the legislature give to Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego and Long Beach possessions of such value? ii the harbors ot the state are integral parts of the city that San Francisco Must Control Its Harbor I EDITORIAL PAGE OF THE CALL Four Years More by the Compass environs them, why should not San Francisco be given control of its harbor? Everywhere municipal science is an improvement over state economy. The cities of the country are coming more and more under business management, and while San Francisco, by reason of its gigantic reconstruction work, has had no time until the present to incorporate modern municipal practices into its charter, that is about to be done. The amendments to the charter to be submitted to the voters in December will give San Francisco a. modern system of municipal control. Particularly effective laws will be submitted in the matter of the city's control over its public utilities, among which may be the harbor, should the harbor be ceded to San Fran cisco. San Francisco will be prepared for its responsibilities. The San Francisco legislative delegation must devote itself with unstinted effort to securing for San Francisco independence in the control of its most precious asset, the harbor. The state must be fair to San Francisco. *■ the Panama-Pacific International exposition. ' ~~1 The Christian Science Monitor of Boston has been listening to the reports of Henry Bacon and other distinguished architects who have been invoked by the directorate of the I exposition to conjure magnificent realities in 1915, and the editorial columns of that paper express amazement over the glories that will be reflected. "In the first place, and it might be said in the last pla.ce, for there can be nothing to overtop or overshadow it," says the Monitor, "there is the setting (for the exposition). Nature has designed and all the years have been preparing the site for the purposes to which it is about to be put. The water view is superb. The outlook from the grounds, embracing San Francisco and its hills, is compared to that upon which the eye of the, tourist rests entranced a Genoa or Constantinople. Here is the charming Presidio stretched toward the west, with the incomparable Golden Gate in the distance; there are the mountains across the bay, Grecian in their configuration and their hues —yonder the islands of fcne of the most beautiful harbors in.the world.* *, *" That is the publicity which the Panama-Pacific exposition is receiving today—not mere publicity, call it praise! It is not necessary for all San Franciscans to look abroad for praise of their habitation and its possibilities, but it wafms our pride to know that outside the state our glories are appreciated; that Boston, basking in the intellectual and Red Sox eminence for which it is noted, sees in our city a happy prospect for the esthetic success of the Panama-Pacific exposition—realizes that Nature, though unnamed on the published lists, is the most efficient director Nature as an Exposition Director Answers to Queries l-'KKNCH SAYlNG—Reader, Oakland. Who »aa if tbnt said that the dead body of an enemy always smells sweet? This Is credited to Charles IX of France, who reigned 1560-74, Who said, when looking: upon the dead body of Coligny at Montfaucon: "Le corps dun enneml sent tourjours bon" (The dead body of an enemy always smells sweet). It is said that this was a saying of Aulus Vitellius. Roman emperor, the ninth of the 12 Caesars, who reigned from January to December, 69. * * # MEN AND DOOR—A correspondent at Lake Eleanor, Cal.. writes: "Some time ago I noticed that one of your correspondents asked who first gave utterance to the phrase, 'The more I ccc of men, the more I like dogs. . This should be 'The more I see of dogs, the less I like men,' which has been ascribed to Mme. Roland, famous in French history." * * # WINTER GARDEN—Subscriber. C!tj\ When was the Winter Rarden at I'cwfc and Stockton street*. In this city, destroyed by flrot Who wfrre the owners at the time , ? The garden was destroyed on the morning of August 4, 1883. The own ers were Stahl & Mack. * # * LIQI'OR LICEX.SB—R. l\. Suntn Hera. What is the liquor license hi San Kranoiwo'' One hundred and twenty-flve doHars ! a quarter. Abe Martin Women ar e funny things. Sometimes they cry 'cause ther so happy. Ther's one purty nice'thing about th , ole fash. ioned feller with a hoss an" buggy. Sometimes he'll stop an' pick you up instead o' seem' how close he kin miss you- BACK-ACTION PROPHETS GEORGE FITCH Author of "At Good Old Mvmsh." AT this minute the quadrennial crop of back action prophets is ripe and on the market. It is the largest on record because there are now more people in the United States than ever before. produce. A back action prophet is a man who is able to look backward after a thing has happened and tell just exactly how it is going to occur. The back action prophet is much more valuable than the ordinary plug prophet because he is always right. He never makes a mistake unless he happens to read the newspapers care lessly. At this minute millions of back v action prophets are announcing the "»« P° e * mortem prophet Is now plortoral vote for Roosevelt, Taft and tne nildet ot nle season" Wilson with an accuracy verging upon a vote Wilson would poll In New York, the marvelous and are telling just what The post mortem prophet is now in every doubtful state will do In the the midet of his season. He is telling election which has just passed. every one who will listen just what The ex post facto prophet knows he knew in July about the election, what is going to happen long in ad- His knowledge was marvelous and the vance—sometimes years in advance, world should be grateful to him. for if But lie dotsn" tell anybody. That is had made bets on this knowledge he where he is wiser than the commonor- would now be richer than Morgan and garden prophet. The latter tells all half of mankind would be ruined, he knows months before election and But the post prandial prophet is kind then everybody knows it and he is no and gentlemanly and would scorn to vis. : than any one else. The back take advantage of his great gift, action prophet, on the other hand, con- During the campaign he sits on his ccals his knowledge until after the knowledge like a hen with a maternal election and then announces it in frenzy and hatches it after election triumph. Thus no one can take the when it is safe. For this reason w"e credit of his discoveries from him and should revere and praise him instead ho becomes a great man and is madly of giving him the rude hoot and going envied by ignorant people who didn't into the prophet business ourselves have any idea in June what kind of with a larger and more complete stock. PERSONS IN THE NEWS WILBUR J. EEBKINE, apont for the Alaska Commercial company nt Kodiak, Alaska, who returned from that post last week, brought two bottles of samples of tbe volcanic ashes that ruined on Kodiak last June. The ashes covered tbe country to a depth of 18 inches on the level. Efskine gave tße samples he brought with him to A. G. McAdle of the weather bureau for analysis. One of the bot tles contain three different sieed grairw of many colors, while the other is made up of small glass globules filled with gas. * * * A. S. PETTERSON, a merchant of Baltimore; 11. Tarrtbae, a stock raiser of Guatemala, and Henry K. Wuermann, a mining man of Tono pah, make up a group of retent arrivals at the Court. * * # F. A. TAIRCHILB, who is associated with the } China and Japan Trading company, is at the St. Francis with his family. They will leave fnr the orient on the t-teaiiisuip Manchuria on Saturday. * # ♦ X. C. BARROW, a bond broker of Spokane, who now makes his home in Pasadena, is among the recent arrivals at tbe Palace. ■X- - * -55- MRS. D. R. MODE and" MM Mabel Feloref are in San Francisco on a visit from Portland and are staying at tbe Baldwin. * # * 0. W. LEHMER, general manager of the Yo semite Valley railway, is staying at the Palace. * * * CAPTAIN B. K. DORCT and Mrs. Dorcy of Santa Cruz, its a guest at the St. Francis. * * * BENJAMIN K. KNIGHT, district attorney of Santa Cruz, is a guest at the St. Francis. * * * R. L. CLEAVENGER, a glass manufacturer of Pittsliurg, is a. guest at the St. Francis. * * * LAPSING B. WARNER, a business man of Chicago, is registered at the Palace. * * * H. P. HENDERSON, a mining engineer of New York, is a guest at the St. Francis. * * # D, B. SIMONS, a Los Oatoe real estate man, is among the arrivals at the Sutter. ** * \ D. M. CHANNEL, a business man of o!cn Ellen, is stopping at the Argonaut. * * * H. T. BUGBEE, a manufacturer of Vacaville, li registered at the Argonaut. * * » I PONY PAIX of San Juan is at the Dale. End of Campaign POET PHILOSOPHER THE long sad months of noise and shrieking come to an end at Time's behest, and orators, worn out by speaking, can give their battered lungs a rest. How sweet to know an end of yawping, of all the worries cam paigns mean! Now we can do our Christmas shopping on buoyant legs, with minds serene. Now we can gam bol through the city unhampered by the tariff bores, and wear a smile and sing a ditty, as glad as any one out doors. Relieved of all the hurly-burly, the screams of warring candidates, we'll do our Christmas shopping early throughout these wide United States. How sweet it is to ga a-walking, and hear no wrangling, near or far, no arguments or tiresome talking of in come tax or I and R! How pleasant when the local daily prints something else than campaign junk! We'll do our Christmas shopping gayly and buy enough to fill a trunk! How sweet to see men safely, sanely, pursuing tasks well worth their while, instead of thrashing "issues" vainly, ( dispensing language by the mile! Farewell, fare well to foolish yawping, to tiresome men with tiresome jaws; it's time to do our Christmas shopping and put in licks for Santa Claus! toeyrtrt*. HHL, by ••arc* JUtttMw tAamm No Likeness "Geese are supposed to be symbolic of all that is foolish." "Well, go on." "But you never see an old gander hoard up a million kernels of corn and then go around trying to mate with a gosling."—Town Topics. Explained "So your engagement to Miss Jor rocks is broken?" said Dubbleigh. "Yes," sighed Higgins. "Her mother said she was a first class cook, and I saw at once I'd never be able to keep her." —Harper's Weekly. Domestic Economy Twcenie Ann—"Oh, mum, I've fallen downstairs and broken me neck." Her Mistress—"Well, whatever you've broken will be deducted from your wages."—London Sketch. City Sights Summer boarder—Don't you ever come to see .tlie sights of a city? Farmer Medders—Oh, no; we see 'em every summer.—Judge. MH. AND MRS J. 0. CEBRAIN, Louis Cebraln and the Misses Josephiiio, Isabelle anrl Beatrice Cebraln. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred U. Tubb and Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Turtle of this city are booked to sail on the Kronpriazessin Cecilie, which sails from New York today. * * * E. H. WINSHIP, a banker of Napa; ,T. II Mc- Millan and Mrs. McMillan of Wasco, It. Fletcher, a newspaper man of Sacramento, and Mrs. Fletcher aud Samuel Henry, a contractor "f Sacramento, make up a group of recent arrivals at the Manx. * * # E. GONZALES, J. p. Llnder, H. Interlano and 3. Benjamin Gontales, who. are interested in fruit growing and plantation products in San Salvador, are registered at the St. Francis. * * # NORMAN W. CHUHCH, prudent of the Stod dard-Dayton Motor company, is at the St. Francis with James Slauson. They make their home in Loe Angeles. * * •«■ \ JOHN COFFEE HAYS, bead of the Mount Whit ney Power company, is at the Fairmont, regis tered from Visalia. * * * C. C. CABLTON, a California hlgnway oemmlv sioner of Sacramento, Is registered «t the Baldwin. * * * THOMAS ESEEY. a hotel man of Hanford, Is staying at ttie St. Francis. * * * GEORGE E. BOOS, a business man of Medford is (staying at the Palace. * * * IRA B. BENNETT, a lumberman of Snnger is registered at the Palace. * * * J. F. KELLEY, a I.os Angeles business man, is a guest at the Palace. * * * J, T. BELBHAN, an Autioch merchant, is stay ing at tne Turpin. * * * JUDGE A. E. CHENEY of Ueno is at the Palace with Mrs. Cheney. * *' * 8. W. MOOSER, a Los Plumae merchant ig a guest at the Dale. * # « J. M. WELSH, a business man from Sacramento, is at tlie Turpiu. * •» * F. W. RUPPERT of WaUootUle is rtepolne at the Sutler. * ». «t R. SCHMIDT, a uierchaat of Fresco, is at the Argonaut. I NOVEMBER 7, 1912 Ferry Tales ISN'T it about time for the builders of streetcars and the designers of women's skirts to hold a*conference? As conditions now exist effort that should be closely re lated is being exerted to directly op posite ends. In other words, the higher the builder makes the steps of a street car the narrower the designer cute the woman's skirt. / This is not my own grievance—not at all. The complaint was registered by Lieutenant of Police Michael J. Carroll, who has charge of the squad in front of the ferry-"depot. Carroll is a conscientious officer and wants time to attend to his duty. # # * She was not used to ferry boats. You could tell that the moment she set her foot aboard the Berkeley at the Oakland mole. When the boat \ started her face paled and as it slid out of the slip she clutched the seat and closed her eyes. She was almost calm by the time the boat passed Goat island. She got up and walked up and down. She was feeling quite at home. If she hadn't looked up she might have started whistling "A Life on the Ocean Wave." But she looked up. Then she sat down—with a flop. "I knew there was danger. I felt it in my bones," she said. "Whatever's the matter, m&r asked her daughter. "Matter, child? Jest look at them. Sit close to me. If we have to go we'll go together." With one hand she grabbed the child and with the other pointed dra matically at the lattice work overhead on which was stenciled the alarming legend: "Life preservers." # # ♦ Have you heard about the horse Billy Empey bought? All the duck hunters on all the ferries are talking about it, and William's once almost professional reputation as a judge of horseflesh is now worth even less than the price the horse would bring. He bought it for the Ingomar Gun club. I told you all about that a few weeks ago. It was thin when he bought it, but the dealer told him that the horse had been neglected a bit and only needed a few days on good feed to swell up and tak© the wrinkles out of his hide. "But I don't need to tell you any thing about a horse, Mr. Empey," the dealer had said, "you know horses, and you know that there's real stuff in that animal." After a concession like that what ' could Empey do but buy the animal? In shipping it, Empey forgot to make arrangements for feeding the brute, and when Arthur Okley, manager of the club grounds, opened the car on its arrival at Ingomar, the horse, which had been leaning against the door, fell out on him. The animal was so light, however, that even the law of gravity had difficulty in getting it to the ground, and the manager was not in jured. Every day since then that horse has lived on an unlimited ration of hay with a liberal measure of oats, night and morning. It can stand up now to eat oats, but is thinner today than when it arrived at Ingomar. It is too thin to wear harness and too weak to work if it could, and it eats steadily for 2 4 hours a day. The worst of it is that the club placed so much confidence in Empey's horse sense that the other animals were all sold, and now, in the height of the season, instead of driving gayly between clubhouse and blinds, the members are forced to walk. This and the fact that feeding- the horse has increased the club expense 64.269 per cent account for the way his fellow club members are talking about Empey. * # # A laborer from the Mediterranean was carried on board the steamer Newark the other morning. Hβ was being taken on a stretcher to the Southern Pacific hospital in this city. His right leg was swathed i n dress ings and tightly bound between splints. A telegraph pole had fallen on him, breaking the bone and crush ing the limb. Much sympathy was offered the sufferer, who had accepted the situation as calmly as he did the cigarette that a good Samaritan gave htm. Among the Sympathizers was Wendell Easton. "What's the matter, old man? , in quired the real estate man as he leaned over the prone figure. "JLegr broken ?" For the 'steenth time the victim ex plained how it all happened. "Now listen to me" and Easton kneeled beside him. ; 'I know some thing about this sort of injury and can give you some advice. You want to keep perfectly still and, whatever you do, don't walk on that leg." * * * Everybody that had anything to do with the Atlantic fleet during its visit here will remember Captain A. W. Grant, who was Admiral Evans' chief of staff. The captain, as general man ager of the biggest fleet that ever was sent on such a long cruise, was a busy man. As an executive he was more successful than as a diplomat. His brusqueness sent more than one prominent citizen to the admiral, who informed them all that it was "Cap tain Grant's way" and only meant that he was busy. Two naval officers were talking on the steamer San Francisco the other clay. "I hear," said one of them, "that 'Billy , Brackett is coming to the coast. Remember him at the academy?" By 'Billy ,, Brackett he mean*. Cap tain William Brackett of the United States marine corps. He was a mid shipman at Annapolis years ago, but did not graduate. He was 'bilged" early in his career as a midshipman. Later on he was given a commission in the marine corps. If Brackett floes "come to the coast," he could, if he chose, toll you about Captain Grant's brusqueness. Grant was an instructor at the naval academy when Brackett was a mid shipman. Grant taught mathematics which was Braeketts pet aversion. One day Grant tailed him up before the class. •Mr. Brackett," he said, "have you bought your Winter overcoat yet?"" "No, sir," replied Brackett