Newspaper Page Text
TUESDAY ARCHBALD, SORDID ROGUE, GETS HIS JUST DESERTS R( >BERT W. ARCHBALD goes out of the service hi the people forever in deserved disgrace. For the senate to have cleared him of the charges would have been to stamp that body as not less unfit and unfaithful than Archbald himself. It was Archbald that convicted Archbald. By his own admission he shamefully misused his power as judge of the commerce court for his private and financial advantage. After such testimony there was nothing for the senate to do but strip him of his smutted ermine and bar him for life from the holding of any public office under the federal government. This the senate did by such a vote that there was scarcely need to poll ij. Five out of the thirteen counts were held by the senate to have been proved against Archbald. The thirteenth count covers the other four and practically all the nine specifications held not to have been proved. The verdict is, in a word, that Archbald used his office to get credit from persons and corporations concerned in suits before him. employed it to further his business of speculating in "culm dumps" and exerted its power to influence railroad officials to his own enrich ment. "Culm." be it understood in a region that does not mine coal, is the slack and refuse from the pit. It \vas*from this source that Archbald drew his dirty and dishonest profit. A sorry spectacle to behold a federal judge scrabbling with grimy fingers in piles of coal dust owned by litigants in his court. He might better have taken bribes direct. In effect, what Archbald did was to prostitute his place on a high bench for petty gain—to sell himself, his honor and his judg ments. And the testimony makes it clear that he was the seeker, net the sought. The paltry concessions he got were wrung from people and companies that feared to thwart him. He importuned and extorted; nobody tempted him or misled him. The wonder is that any senator had the face to vote for acquittal upon the major counts. These, as in the instance of the first ballot, were few, but a good many seats were vacant. Chiefly Archibald's defense was that he had no thought of using bis office as a means to getting leases, loans and options. He could not deny the facts, so he ejenied the motives of corruption. It was a lame defense, and the defendant limps out of the trial court the object of honest men's detestation, tagged and branded as a crook. It is to be said that the federal judiciary has not suffered from many Archbalds. The reputation of that bench is high in all its departments. The judges of the national tribunals are so generally above suspicion as to stand in pleasing relief against the darker background of courts still submerged in the pool of politics. It has corns to be a familiar contrast for those laboring toward a better judicial system in the states and cities—the federal court and judge always commanding respect for its process and judgment and pres ence, while the elective judge is too often the sport of politics and putty in the hands of skillful or powerful lawyers. . Archbald was an affront to the nation's dignity and a splotch on its honor, and in the fraternity of the federal judiciary, with its high traditions and standing, he must have been intolerable—this cheap and sordid huckster bartering his official and personal honor for heap.- of coal dust, cadging for loans among litigants. Though it could in decency do no less, the senate is to be thanked for having cropped this rogue's ears and drummed him out of camp. Police Court Tactics Applied to Police Judge Weller's Case POLICE JUDGE WELLFR exhibits a sense of fear in the imminent presence of a recall movement. He goes to the grand jury seeking a "hurry up" indorsement which he may exhibit as a clean bill of health and then introduces a new rule of police court practice forbidding any judge to do that same thing for which specifically he is under the displeasure of the women of the city. At the same time busy and mysterious persons, not yet identi fied or connected, are whispering to the women active against Weller, urging them to drop the matter. From whom else could such persons come but Weller, unless from interests that have ulte rior reason for wanting him to keep his place? Evidently police court tactics are being applied to a police court case of distress. "Pull down" the complainant; close up the "joint"; get a certificate of good character for the accused—that's the police court way, and it seems to be the Weller way. So tonight, while the women concerned are in mass meeting to further their campaign in the name of outraged womanhood. Judge Weller will be, constructively if not personally, before the grand jury seeking exoneration. «He would not have taken his case there unless he thought that he could thus secure material to use in staving off or meeting a recall election. It is a familiar enough device of men in Wcller's fix. Judge Weller's motion before the police judges, prohibiting any judge hereafter from reducing bail fixed by another, was doubtless intended as a promise to be good—a pledge from himself and the whole bench. But it carries still another meaning. It is tantamount to a confession that what he did in the Hendricks case was wrong. Of course it was. Judge Weller may have been imposed upon by the lawyer who urged that Judge Shortall was ill, but it would have been easy enough to find out the truth. Five minutes at the tele phone would have saved Htm from the error that let free a man charged with a peculiarly heinous crime. But it is not the first time Judge Weller has been "imposed upon." As we have said. The.Call's principal interest in this affair is that it shall lead the people to take more interest in their police courts —such an interest as will lift that tribunal up out of the reach of the man who goes around deceiving honest but easy judges and out of the influence of the bail bond ring, that fertile source of police and police court corruption. It is not likely that the women will be halted or diverted in their movement to submit this ugly matter to the whole people. It would be worth the effort and worth the cost of election if the result should be a cleaning up and lifting up of the police courts. The "perfumed burglar" might at least have left a scent when he broke jail. The main spring of the high cost o' living might yet be found. The watch trust is to be investigated. San Francisco Does Not Suffer From Arson as Does New York NEW YORK is experiencing another pride smashing jar. It has discovered that 25 per cent of the fire losses of the city are of incendiary origin ; that $4,000,000 worth of property a year is burned up criminally, for the sake of insurance. How many lives arc lost, how many innocent persons suffer ruin of business and the annihilation of household gods through the terrible work of the fire EDITORIAL PAGE OF THE CALL bug can not be computed. The fire commissioner of New York, in a report which Mayor Gaynor approves and indorses, declares that the prevalency of incendiarism in the city is due to the laxity of insurance companies and their willingness to write policies in almost any amount without investigating the risk. This criminal encour agement which insurance companies give to firebugs is proved by the investigation of the New York fire department. This incredible condition was found: A member of the fire department secured insurance policies amounting to $127,500 on property valued at $3.96. Property valued at $3.44 was insured for $59,500; property valued at 40 cents was insured for $59,000; prop erty valued at 12 cents was insured for $8,000, and $1,000 in insur ance was written on no property at all. but merely on the application of the assured for that much insurance. The California laws are more stringent than the New York state statutes regarding fire underwriting, and Fire Chief Thomas J. Murphy of the San Francisco department says, that no such condi tions exist in San Francisco as in New York city. Chief Murphy, in discussing the New York report, says: It is well known among fire insurance men that San Francisco, as well as other cities in California, has a remarkable record for minimum losses from iires due to incendiary origin. This is entirely due to the fact that the fire risk concerns operating in this state are bound by modern laws which make it necessary that every petition for a fire risk be examined thoroughly by company in spectors. There is a very close scrutiny of all fire risks in this state. In addition to the direct loss of property and often of life entailed in a fire of accidental or incendiary origin, every rate payer suffers a proportionate loss in the rates that he must pay to be insured. If one-fourth of New York's fires are started criminally then the assured, whose rate is computed upon the losses sustained by the company, pays at least one-fourth more in premiums than he should. The report, which was compiled by Joseph Johnson, fire commis sioner of New York, is the most important contribution to the subject of arson ever* prepared in this country, and it must be agreed that this country, New York city in particular, enjoys a most evil emi nence in that sordid and diabolical crime. The United States senate is reformed. Only five of its members stood by Archbald. Must San Francisco Pay $30,000,000 for The Nature Lovers' Whim? ARE the camping privileges which 2,000 persons might enjoy for a few months in the year on the floor of the Hetch Hetchy valley worth $30,000,000 to those people, to the United States? With the Yosemite valley, the great jewel, whose facets are mountain and waterfall and pellucid lake; with the Kings River canyon, which the Sierra club visits year after year in preference to Hetch Hetchy valley; with Lake Tahoe, undrained even by that opponent of mountain lakes, Robert Underwood Johnson —with these regions ready and waiting and prepared for the summer visitor, should the Hetch Hetchy valley camping ground, however beautiful, be preserved as a camping ground? Should it be preserved as a camping ground for the sacred use of 2,000 visitors when so to hold it means to saddle San Francisco with an added debt of $30,000,000 to secure a proper water supply? The supplemental report of John R. Freeman, consulting engineer of the city, on the additional cost to this city of water from another than the Hetch Hetchy source, reopens a discussion of the Hetch Hetchy question. Expert Freeman asserts that to take any of the alternate projects for a water supply would cost the city from $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 more than Hetch Hetchy. The plea of the nature lovers is that the Hetch Hetchy valley's floor should be preserved as a camping place. Some members of the Sierra club have joined in that plea before Secretary Fisher and the department of the interior. The Sierra club is so intent on preserv ing the pristine beauty of Hetch Hetchy from contamination by man that it has for several seasons past gone to the Kings River canyon rather than to the surpassingly beautiful floor of the Hetch Hetchy. It doesn't even camp there. Is the vacation pleasure of some 2,000 people so important that San Francisco must be shouldered with an extra debt of $30,000,000. must pay $1,350,000 a year interest on that indebtedness, at a rate of 4y_ per cent, and set aside in addition $600,000 a year sinking fund, if the bonds are for 50 years? Is that vacation pleasure so great that San Francisco must pay $1,000 a year so each of the 2.000 might cam]) on Hetch Hetchy's Hoor? With the valley used for a reservoir visitors can camp there still. WHAT'S THE USE? I PERSONALS C. H. HAGERTY, assistaut general manager of the I'ciinss -Irania line-, with headquarters In Loala-iUr, Ky.. is a guest at the Fairmont. Hagert.v I* •ecotapaaied by his daughter, .Miss ICinuia Hagert.v. * * * W, H. REDDINGTON, president and treasurer nf the San ford uaanufaetuiiiig company of Chica go, one of the largest stationery supply house* in the world, is registered at tbe Palace. * » * ALEX B. STEWART. A. G. Perry. Thomas A. Peering. J. 11. San ford and W. O. Howard. business men of I.os Angeles, registered yes terday at the Stewart. * # * CHAS. S. SOUTH, W. H. T'nderwnod. 1.. S. Hicks and wife. T. S. .Tones, and Mrs. Win. F. BieU, all of San Francisco are registered in Chicago hotels. * * * DR. THIEME and Mrs. Thieme. who are travel ing around the world, are at the Fairmont. They will sail for Tahiti ou the steamer Ven tura today. * * * E. B NELSON, proprietor of a general Rtore in Heronlt and F. C. Van Nader, a dealer in liirycles at I'kiah. are recent arrivals at the Argonaut. * # -3. P. B. CHURCHILL, an Insurance man of Helena and Mrs. Churchill are at the. Sutter. Churchill __ here to attend the Insurance writers' con vention. * * *• C. G. M<?DANIEL, editor and publisher of the Antioch Ledger, is a recent arrival at tbe Argonaut, arcompalned by Mrs. McDanlel. * * * S. H. FRIENDLY, proprietor of a general store in F.iigene. Ore., and Mrs. Friendly are at the St. Francis. * * * RALPH W. BULL, who has extensive holdings . and interests In Humboldt, is at the St. Francis. * # * S. A. W. CARVER, president of the Dairymen's association of I.os Angeles, is at the I'alacc. * * * C, W. GRISWOLD and H. de R. Wertts. mining me.i nf Elko, Nev.. are at the St. Francis. * * * T. D. SUNNY and M. J. Zlcowich, Sacramento newspaper men, are staying at tbe Manx. * # -7T CHARLES A. WHITMORE and Donley C. Gray, Visalia business men are at the Manx. REESE LLEWELLYN and Mrs. H. D. Llewellyn of Los Angeles are at the .Palace., * * * JOHN SOMMERVTLLE, land owner of Edmonton, Alberta, is at the Bellevue. * * * F. W. GASTON, Insurance broker of Tacorna, Is also at tbe Sutter. * * # W. H. BENTEEN, business man of Watsonville, is at tbe Bellevue. * * * 3. W. McAFEE, county surveyor from Lodi, is at the Argonaut. * * * DR. A. J. HIENICKER of Portland is registered at the Manx. THE NEW YEAR THE POET PHILOSOPHER This brave New Year, before It ends, will bring us heaps of good, my friends, if we should prove deserving, if nobly, cheerfully we pack our bi-rden on the narrow track, and from It do no swerv-' ing. The year may bring us gold or fame If we like sportsmen play the game, and do our errands fairly; we'll find much joyance every day, and there'll be roses on the way, as we go forward yearly. If we expect the year to bring us precious gifts, and every thing, methinks our hopes are hazy; the year will bring us what we earn— for years, like other creatures, spurn the trifling knd the laz>\ The best that new years e'er advance to any man Is just a chance—that's all that men should wish for; and if the.' let the chance go by they lose the oysters and the pie. and everything they fish for. Go forth and work with eager heart, nor loaf around tne village mart with loud and fierce complaining; do everything that should be done while shines the good old cheerful sun, and rest when it is raining. It's work that makes the new years bring of blessings quite a princely string, of prizes and bonanzas; go forth and work, and make a splurge, nor wail a pessimistic dirge in fifty tearwet stanzas. WALT MASON. MODERN INVEN TIONS CHAUTAUQUAS GEORGE FITCH A Chautauqua is an institution of learning which uses everyday fresh air instead of coln_ ge atmosphere. The first Chautauqua was founded by one of the first fresh air cranks. He be lieved that a series of lectures de livered in a comfortable camp would tone down the horrors of acquiring an education to such a degree that many middle aged people, who would be run over and seriously stepped on if they got on a college campus, would eagerly j soak up learning the popular price of admission. This proved to be the case and the original Chautuaqua is still attended by many thousands who live happily by the lake side at Chatauqua, New York, during the summer, perfecting themselves in art, literature, philoso phy. Stenography, crocheting, burnt wooding, brass hammering. basket weaving and other branches of wis dom. The Chautauqua has become so pop ular that it now spreads all over the country like a light rash, beginning in June- and continuing until the nights cool off. All that is needed to pull off a Chautauqua Is a large tent, some pine seats and plenty of "talent." "Tal ent" is sold by the lecture bureaus and comes in $50, $100, $500 and $1,000 lots. A plain orator can be secured for $">0 — an orator with a press agent for $100. Ordinarily congressmen bring $200 if lively, and governors and senators of the first grade get $500. The highest class of talent gets $1,000 a night, and consists of great ministers, great curi osities and William J. Bryan. The Chautauqua has usurped the place of baseball in our small towns and has become the prevailing sum mer amusement. Every year 25,000.000 American people coagulate under tents to listen to ministers, educators, hu morists, jubilee singers, string bands, politicians, monologisfs, revivalists. impersonators, authors, explorers and brass bands and to absorb from them enough wisdom to last through an other long, hard winter. Chautauquas are very beneficial to the but it has been recently noticed that the senator who has knocked down another senator can usually command a higher price in the Chautauqua circuit afterward and that the ex_Florer who has computed his diary with a false horizon made by the aid of a basin of water drawn from a Los Angeles faucet gets more money for telling what he doesn't know than a scientist who never got any free ad vertising. These facts are dimming the glory of the Chautauqua to some extent. FOREIGN AGENTS TO HAVE PASSES Representatives of foreign railroad lines were cheered yesterday by the information that the railroad commis sion is preparing an amendment to the public utility act that will remove the legal restriction against the issuance of passes to then, over California lines. When the act became effective last j March it was discovered that by an inadvertence the issuance of passes to the agents of foreign lines was pro hibited. Knowing this was not the intent of the legislature, the commis sion suspended the operation of the clause from time to time. It is ex pected that the necessary amendment will be submitted at Sacramento in a few days. * * # S. F. Booth, general agent of the Union Pacific, has just returned from Omaha, where he went to attend a con ference of the general agents of the road for the purpose of discussing the commercial outlook for this year. * * * W. R. Scott, general manager of the Southern Pacific, is in Los Angeles on company business. James O'Gara, district freight and passenger agent at Sacramento for the Southern Pacific, was in San Francisco yesterday. James Warrack, district passenger agent of the Union Pacific at Sacra mento, was in this city yesterday. * * * Lee Landis. traction manager of the Tidewater Southern, was down from Stockton yesterday on business. * * * L. J. Speck, formerly with the North ern Pacific at Seattle, has succeeded W. T. Berg as passenger agent of the Western Pacific in the Palace Hotel building. Berg has gone east on a leave of absence. * * * H. T. Holmes, traveling passenger agent of the Western' Pacific, with headquarters at Stockton, will sail for Honolulu today to meet the passengers on the Cleveland, who will end their world tour in this city. * * * v One of the largest maps in New York has just been installed in the board room of the Harriman lines' offices at 165 Broadway. It is on a scale of 10 miles to the inch and shows in rrfinute detail the territory reached by the Souther*, and Union Pacific railroads. It also takes in a large portion of Can ada and Mexico and measures alto gether about 20 by 50 feet. This map is a reproduction on a slightly smaller scale of one destroyed in the Equitable fire and was made in the company's engineering offices in San Francisco. The mounting is somewhat novel, in that the rollers are driven by an elec tric motor concealed in the wall. Al though the officials of the roads are quite proud of this handsome new adornment, they can never be com pensated for the loss of the other map. which had been delivered barely a week when the fire occurred. It was en graved entirely by hand and had taken several months to complete. At the time the Harriman offices were being moved to their present quarters, and, strangely enough, the map was to have been taken across, the way on the very day of the fateful fire. ABE MARTIN 'Bout one more safety razor ad j j in th' magazines an' ther won't j I be no room fer th' stories. What's I I become o' tli' boy that used t' | chew slippery elm? JANUARY 14, 1913 Ferry Tales The commuter army is as varied in its elements as society itself. When we see a tired busi ness man, laden with package : . glancing anxiously at the ferry clock and traveling at a dogtrot in an easterly direction In lower Market street we smile and say: "There goes a commuter. Poor devil'" The commuters, however, are not all tired business men. There In the stenographer, for instance, whoso in formality in matters of syntax am! orthography contribute in a' measure, pei haps, to the business man's weai"' ness. Not all stenographers, be it added with haste, belong in this class. The reputation of many a big figure in the business world as a model corre spondent rests on the judicious editing to which scrambled dictation la .-'in jected by the girl that playa the ty le writer. These shirt waisted refiners of vernacular may be distinguished other editors by their extreme modest' In large business houses where several stenographers are employe, the Initials of the editor may appear in son, obtrusive corner of the correspondent- ». but no stenographer would dream >>t appending to a firm letter the an nouncement that it had been by Kitty Jones." In fact, with such tact do they mend the mangled ma terial thrown at them in spasniod '•■ spurts and splutters that the princii.il beneficiary of the treatment is f> quently unconscious of the transf tion. * * # Commuters, however, are not all business men and stenographers, a I the-list is not even complete when we include clerks, mechanics, office boy money kings and shoppers, professioi •! men and women and students. This list, comprehensive as it in v seem, includes neither Chinese fruit and vegetable peddlers nor gipsies, and these two classes constitute probabiy the most picturesque of all the com muters, * * * You must get up early to sr>o •' --celestial commuter at his best and In full force.. He travels on the eary morning boats from San Francisco. r> - fore boat time he has been to market and his purchases are stowed on tr. s in the two big baskets he carries, one at each end of the pole that be ports on his shoulders. These Chinese are not athletic In appearance, but they perform eve day, as a matter of course, feats o? strength, which, if reduced to terms of vaudeville, would make the pro fessional' strong man look like a bro ken reed. Each of their baskets w. n loaded to its capacity, weighs consid erably more than 100 pounds. The Chinese peddler carries both of them, slung on a pole, on one shoulder. I have seen big deckhands testing these burdens out of curiosity. By the ex ertion of great effort they succeeded in raising both baskets from the ground. The oriental, however. lifts* them on his shoulder and then appears. to forget there is any burden there. With this heavy cargo of fruit ai d vegetables on his shoulder the Chines • peddler trots along over his suburb;.,) route from early morning until lav. afternoon, and if you meet him on bis homeward way and ask him if he Isn't tired, he will look at you in mild sur prise. The basket carrying Chinese is pass ing away. A few years ago you could see a hundred or more of them on the early boats. There are not so many baskets now and more wagons, which are less picturesque but more practical. * * * The gipsies, regular com maters every one of them, are more in evi dence than the Chinese. They ere all women and children and on the boats prefer the center of the upper deck saloon. The daughter of Romany, where the gipsy settlement is near a city, is t'.,e tired business man of the family. Sh« goes to the city every morning, not too early, and returns in the late aft ernoon or evening laden with pro visions, the money to buy which ehe has enticed from credulous urbiu_i.es who are willing to pay hard cash for a dark stranger's guess as to what the future holds. * * * The gipsies are just as strong as the Chinese but in a different way and at" regarded as undesirable seatmates by trayelers with sensitive olfactoi The gipsies, however, don't give a whoop for the disapproving sniff in which you indulge as you change your seat. If they notice it at all it is with a derisive grin and perhaps a Eew personal comments more pointed than polite. Wise commuters pay no at tention to the gipsies. What the daughters of Romany lack in sweetness they make up in color. One dark haired child of nature who crossed the bay the other evening wore a violently patterned crimson skirt with a blue and white polka dot apron. She wore a jacket of another shadeN of blue, hysterically figured, and on her head, a bright green shawl. When a fellow traveler accidentally collided with her, she swore a blue streak * * * These gipsy women never sit all to gether. Nothing like that. Each picks out the seat that suits her beat The fact that they are not sitting together does not interfere with their carrying on animated conversations. The gipsy voice may not be musical but it pos sesses great carrying powers. They speak in a tongue foreign to most commuters and discuss their most In timate affairs in tones that few high powered phonographs could drown * * * The only person connected with th«» ferry service held In respect by o aromatic wildflowers is the captain of the boat. They laugh at the railroad police and the deckhands, are afraid of them. The captain, however, they seem to regard as a sort of god and every time the stork brings them a new baby—and they are counted among the stork's best customers—they bring the child aboard one of the ferry boats! hold it up to the pilot house and aak the captain to bless it with a smile LINDSAY" CAMP3ELL. I IN THE EDITOR'S MAIL ] City's Flr*t I>le< trie Une Editor Call: In your publication of Sunday. January 12, under the caption of -Answers' you print the following "There never was a car line In Steuart street. To the best of my recollection, along about 1891 Steuart and Market streets was the terminus of the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway com pany, which ran along Harrison street and over Steuart street to Market I believe this was the first electric line in ban Francisco. J- p - CORCORAN, ban j. rancisco, January ii".