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The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, July 19, 1913, Image 8

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THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL
-AJ? ©DEPENDENT NEWS?AfER— THE PAPER OF AUTHORITY*
rOTJNDEP DECXMJEB I, HM
W. W. CHIPIN, Publisher
Captain Mooney and the System
The grand jury is indebted to Captain of
Detectives John Mooney for information
both interesting and valuable.
The chief of the detective bureau has aroused
lane interest of the grand jury by the reiteration of
his statements that the police "system" is the pro
duct of practical political domination of the depart
ment.
Seemingly he has convinced the members of the
grand jury that he knew what he was talking about
when lie sai.l that Chief White's "legal technical
ities" excuse for the continuance of illegal gam
bling in San Francisco, was nonsense.
A few days ago Captain Mooney said that ihe
suppression of gambling in San Francisco was the
'"easiest thing in the world." As concrete evidence
of the soundness of his proposition the Captain
has invited the attention of the grand jury to what
has been accomplished under the compulsion of
outraged-public opinion.
All that Captain Mooney has said about the
suppression of gambling has long been perfectly
obvious to every one except Chief White.
What Captain Mooney says about the police
"vvvtcm" being the creation of practical politicians
has been equally obvious to San Franciscans who
have seen the office of chief of police peddled and
dominated by the masters of San Francisco's under
world.
Captain Moonev is disappointing only in the
matter of furnishing detailed information about the
"system." The grand jurymen and the people gen
erally do not need the statements of Captain
Moonev to convince them of the existence of a
"system."
Its work has been apparent for years, to the
• shame and humiliation of the decent men and
women of San Francisco.
A little detailed information about the workings
of the system has enabled the people to put one
policeman in Folsom prison; five in the county
jail and secure the conviction of two more on con
spiracy charges.
The people want more information about the
system. They want the information that will en
able them to send the men responsible for the pro
tection of gamblers, white slavers, pickpockets and
porch climbers to join the bunko policemen in
prison.
They want to know who are the men outside
the police department responsible for the system.
They want to know the men in the department who
are responsive to the orders of the system.
Captain Mooney knows something about tfte
system. The people are justified in the belief that
he know s more than he has disclosed by his reiter
ated general statements.
The people are entitle.l to know a!! that Cap
tain Mooney knows, affecting the integrity of their
police department. Captain Moonev has either
talked too much or too little. Xo one is prepared
to believe that he does not know more than he has
It is the duty of Captain Moonev ami of cverv
, honest man on the police force to tell what they
•know of the system, regardless of whom their dis
closures may strike.
1 he people will not be mollified by the exposure
and punishment of a few tools of the system. They
know the system can only be stamped out by the
exposure and punishment of the men behind it;
the higher ups.
And none is high enough to escape the just
'wrath of the people if the men in the department
w ho prefer to be honest will tell what they know.
Mr. Daniels is Too Modest
2yJ| Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels has
become an active member of the cabinet
tourist club founded by Secretary of State Brvan.
There is nothing selfish in the itinerary of Sec
retary Daniels. If is little trips are not actuated by
ihe scratching of the wolf at the door of the Daniels
homestead. Nothing like that. Mr. Daniels goes a
nipping merely because travel is an unavoidable
consequence of his determination to regenerate the
American navy.
lie admits that he has invested the naval estab
lishment with an unprecedented popularity in the
east. Tie is on his way to the Pacific coast to per
form a like good office for the western fleet and its
?ppurtcnauces.
Mr. Daniels fitted himself for the regeneration
ol the American navy at the editorial desk. He
knows as much about the value of advertising as
he does about the comparative merits of dread
noughts and armored cruisers.
Wherefore Mr. Daniels, tarrying for the mo
ment in C hicago, deemed it only fair that he explain
through the newspapers the methods he had em
ployed to induce the American youth to flock to his
recruiting stations in unprecedented numbers.
He told the reporters that his navy henceforth
v as to be a citizen builder as well as a trainer of
sailors and fighting men. He had arranged to enable
young men enlisting in the navy to choose one of
twenty-one trades, some of them semiprofessions,
in which they were to be taught coincident to their
service.
Always excepting the few modest words touch
ing his own executive originality Mr. Daniels per
mitted to be dragged from him, his talk to the
newspaper men was very much like the official ad
vending for recruits employed by the navy depart
ment for a decade.
All the trades mentioned by Secretary Daniels
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, EDITORIAL PAGE, JULY 19, 1913
Victim of a System
y Charles S. Mellen. president of the Xew York.
Xew Haven and Hartford Kailroad company,
i has resigned, it may be said has been made to re
jsign, the office he has hel l for 10 years past, and he
|is also under ind'etment for violating the federal
lanti-trust laws, and for manslaughter.
Forced out of his life's work as he approaches
old age, and under indictments, both civil and crim
inal, Mr. Mellen's lot is an unhappy an:l miserable
one. For this the system under which he was
brought up is more to blame than he is personally,
as the things he did were the things that seemed
natural, proper and legal for him to do.
Mr. Mellen was for a good man}' voars a familiar
figure on the Pacific coast, as he was for some vcars
I president of the Xorthern Pacific, where he made
such a reputation as r. competent and efficient rail
road man that he was picked by the late Pierpont
Morgan as the best man to reorganize and c >n>
plcte the Xew Haven system.
The truth is that Mr. Mellen is about the last
of the "public be damned" style of railroad presi
dent. Brought up in that school he has not yet
been able to fully comprehend that the old order
has changed: that the public has learned to say tiie
railroad be damned and has pretty nearly made
some of them so. He has not shown the silghtest
sympathy with the wishes and desires of either the
traveling or the shipping public, and in all things
has acted in the old fashioned way, as if the rail-
J roa.l were a pocket piece of those who controlled its
affairs, and not a public service corporation re
sponsible primarily to the public, whence it derives
its existence. *
In all its life the interstate commerce commis
sion has criticised no railroad management as it
has that of Mr. Mellen.
Ihe recent report, written by Commissioner
j Prouty. is full of bitter irony and burning sarcasm
jat Mr. Mellen's personal expense, a most unusual
i performance tor that usually judicially dignified
: body.
The friends of Mr. Mellen, and they arc nianv,
will regret the trouble in which he finds himself,
but in view of his reckless financiering, his appar
ent indifference to the disasters which have made
his road a national disgrace, his retirement will be
a public benefit.
have been enumerated in large type and patriotic
colored ink on the billboard paper used by the de
partment for years.
If Mr. Daniels has added anything besides the
ingenuousness of his statement to the navy trade
school situation, that addition was not fairly dis
closed by his Chicago interview.
Editor Daniels seems to have more faith in the
bread winning potentialities of his circulation than
Editor Bryan, but as his own personal press agent
the secretary of the navy is as sadly deficient in that
nicety of discrimination which marks the ambidex
trous work of the secretary of state.
Obviously the extraordinary number of enlist
ments mentioned by Mr. Daniels are but evidence
of the impelling magnetism of the new secretary's
personality and not the harvest of the manual train
ing adjunct of the navy, so recently discovered by
him.
New York 'Change Seats
La<=t week the news was heralded that a scat
on the Xew York Stock exchange had sold
for $37,000, the lowest price in recent years. This
week the price has again been lowered by a thou
sand dollars.
Only a few years ago these same seats sold well
up tOWafd a hundred thousand dollars, nearly three
for one. That was in the days of wild speculation.
The meaning is that the artificial value, the
water, has been squeezed out of a stock exchange
seat value just as it has been out of the stocks in
which the holder of the seat speculated.
The lowering of the prices of seats on the ex
change is a good sign of sound business conditions.
It does not mean that business itself is bad; far
from it. There is. and probably always will be. a
stock exchange, so long, at any rate, as business is
conducted as it is today.
Stock exchange operations have always been in
two classes, the legitimate or actual buying and
selling of stocks and the illegitimate or pure gam
bling transaction.
Gambling in stocks probably never will be in
dulged in again in the future as it has been in the
past, for the sound reason that, if congress passes
a currency reform bill, as it should, the money of
the nation will never again be piled up in New
York banks, as it has hitherto been, an.l be loaned
to the stock gamblers.
This will reduce the opportunity to gamble in
stocks on other people's money which the Xew
York banks have afforded to the speculators. Here
after, if the federal reserve bank plan is adopted,
the money of the central west, of the south and of
the Pacific coast will be kept at work where it \ ill
do the most good—at home—and of, course the
price of Xew York Stock exchange seats will reach
a normal level.
Queen Sophia of Greece has asked for a consignment
of American chewing gum to relieve thirst of soldiers in
the held. Next fall watch for the brand indorsed: "The
kind the queen of Greece chews."
The plucky women who convinced the United Rail
roads that beach means beach in their case certainly
knew the meaning of the word when they saw it on
the cars.
American* drank seven million gallons more whisky
in the last year than in the year before, and yet Jack
London in his John Barleycorn says he has quit.
i or sale, cheap—A f«W charters for "social clubs.*'
Reason for sale, raided by the police.
LOBBY GOSSIP
Japan Will Not War With U. S.
C. D. C. Bridge of Dondon. a retired
officer of the British navy, who is
making a tour of the I'nited States,
says that Japan would not dare to
take up arms against the United States
Captain Bridge, who is a guest at the
Palace, says:
"Japan would not, dare not, go to
war with the I'nited States because
by so doing she would involve Eng
land, and there is no power on earth
that would cause England to make war
on the United States. Tou see. Great
Britain has a treaty with Japan that
would, in my view of the situation,
prevent Japan from attacking the
I'nited States, and Japan would not
dare to break with England. The Eng
lish people practically are of the same
race as all of the people of the United
States; In fact, we are practically one
people, and the ties of friendship are
growing stronger all the time.
"It seems to me that the Canadian
government is making a mistake—
though, of course, it is not for me to
criticise—ln favoring the building of
a navy in Canada. She has neither the
harbor nor the material to construct
battleships, it would be much better
and cheaper to have ships built in Eng
land, which is the view taken by the
opponents of the Canadian govern
ment's policy."
Dike most of the Englishmen who
come to the United States, Captain
Bridge deprecates the methods of the
English militants. In speaking of this
problem which faces the people of Eng
land, Captain Bridge said:
"Of course, woman suffrage is bound
to come, but the women are holding
back their cause. They have alienated
many of their friends by violence.
Many remedies for their militancy have
heen suggested. Some even favor put
ting them in insane asylums, and that's
where they belong. I think. Most of
them are crazy, and the others will
be this way, too, unless they change
their habits and associations. Had it
not been for the violence of the women
the present parliament might have
given them equal suffrage within a
short time."
"One can not help but be pleased with
America," Captain Bridge said. "The
people are very hospitable, and their
sincerity is bound to impress a for
eigner."
Mexicans Blame Americans
Clarence Ellis, a well known insur
ance and real estate man, who has
just returned from a visit to Mexico,
says that that country is no place for
an American and that the Mexicans
(in everything possible, even to mur
der, to convince the American citizen
that he is not wanted. In speaking of
conditions in Mexico at the St. Fran
cis yesterday, Mr. Ellis said:
"No matter what happens !n Mexico,
especially the northern and western
parts of the country, an American is
I'lamod for it. If the rebels win a
victory, the other side say that Ameri
cans fought against them. Tf the reb
els lose a battle, it Is because the Amer
icans plotted against them. I think
the United States will have to inter
vene, and the sooner lt is done the
better it will be for everybody, in
cluding Mexico Itself. The poorer
• lasses in Mexico would sooner take
part in a war than have peace. The
poorer males have an opportunity to
commit robbery and even murder with
out fear of punishment. ' Many private
uuarrels are settled with a rifle bullet
or a long knife. Many American prop
erties have been destroyed, as you well
know. The reason for the destruc
tion of this great amount of property
was in the main due to the fact that
the Americans refused to contribute to
the war fund. One mine I have in
mind, valued at more than $1,000,000.
was completely wrecked —that Is, the
shaft and tunnels were filled in when
the mine was dynamited and the build
ings on the property were burned—
but had the owners of the mine paid
a large sum of money the property
might have been left alone.
"Our party was held up three times
while traveling on horseback a distance
of about 75 miles by Mexican brigands.
It makes no difference who you are,
if you have any money or valuables
on you and you travel over the road,
you are very lucky If you are not
halted at the muzzles of rifles and
robbed. Many Americans have been
thrown into jail during this revolution
for simply having been seen talking
together in the streets. 1 spent sev
eral unpleasant days in a vile prison,
and had lt not been for influential Mex
ican friends of mine I might have been
held in jail until now.
"It would not surprise me if Euro
pean powers forced the United States
to step into Mexico and force a settle
ment of the present revolution. There
will always be revolutions in Mexico
as long as outsiders are not prevented
from supplying arms, money and muni
tions to every Tom, Dick and Harry
who wants political control of the
country. This la the principal thing
that the United States should take
steps to prevent."
LITTLE MOVIES
Domestic Amenities
"If 1 had known I was to marry your
whole family," said Binks ruefully, "I'd
never have wasted seven dollars on an
engagement ring for you."
"No?" said Mrs. Binks, coldly.
"No," said Binks. "I'd have bought
■ 7"i cent belt big enough to circum
scribe the whole crowd." —Harper's
Weekly.
Parcel Post
"Mail heavy this week. Hiram?"
Tt is that." responded the rural
postmaster. "Two grindstones and a
post hole digger, by gosh!"— Kansas
City Journal.
Unreal Estate
"What lias become of Wombat f lie
used t.i he a great one for building
castles in the air."
"He's, still in that sort of real »»i«t»
hupiness. Sold me a lot recently in a
that doesn't exist."—Kansas City
JournaL
Voice of the People
Says Game Law Is Unpopular
Editor Oal! Tiie petition for a ref
erendum vote on the no sale of game
law recently enacted, was circulated
for the first time in this city, Oakland,
and the surrounding communities on
Tuesday.
We secured 11.210 names. What
they did in the rest of the state we
don't know as yet, but if everybody
is as glad outside of the city to sign
it as they are here, we could get
100,000 names instead of 30,000 that, we
require.
Mr. Cook of the Fairmont, Mr. Kirk
patrick of the Palace. Mr. Wood of the
St. Francis. Mr. Tait of Tait & Zinkand
are also watching the progress of
events with a good deal of interest,
they being present or represented at
the meeting of the combined associa
tions of hotel keepers, restaurant keep
ers and produce dealers which was
held at the Fairmont on the 14th.
Mr. Harry Hammond of Byron is one
of the country hustlers who is creating
a vacuum by his rapid progress from
poin 4 . to point in the interest of the
petition. The southern part of the
state has been pretty well looked after
by Mr. E. W. Cason, secretary of the
Southern California Hotel Keepers' as
sociation, who is working in conjunc
tion with th* agents for the wholesale
houses in Los Angeles and San Diego.
All through the country districts the
individual ranchers are pretty well
stirred up. Each is acting as a com
mittee of one to secure signers. They
are all particularly interested in tiie
repeal of this law, as it hits the farmer
harder than it does any one else and
it does seem a shame that a flock of
wild geese could land on a rancher's
place, practically destroy everything
green that there was on the ranch, and
yet if the farmer killed any of this
game, he would not be allowed an op
portunity to dispose of it with a profit
to himself to recompense him for the
damage that had been done, as he
would be liable to severe penalties in
the event he shipped any of the game
You might think it an exageration if
I would tell you some of the circum
stances that I know personally as to
the damage that has been caused the
farmer and rancher by game, and while
I do not myself believe or advocate the
indiscriminate killing of game on
this account, I do believe that the far
mer should be allowed to take ad
vantage of the gifts that providence
has placed at his door for him, to se
cure a few of the comforts which with
him are far between. The law as it
now stands means if a citizen of San
Francisco went to another county on
a hunting trip, killed some geese and
ducks and wished to send them to his
family, he would commit a crime if he
shipped them. Does this not seem ri
diculous? JOHN F. CORRIKA.
San Francisco, July 16.
The Man for the Job
In certain circles the word "seed" is
used to describe a man who invariably
loses money in a poker game, the Idea
being that the poor, miserable wretch
is the seed from which develops a fine
crop of money for the good players,
Frank I. Morse, who hails from
Florida and tours the country heavily
disguised as a high strung southern
gentleman, is known everywhere he
goes as "Seed Morse."
One day in Xew York last February
some of Morse's friends were discuss
ing who would be in Woodrow Wil
son's cabinet.
"I'll tell you," said one of the friend*,
"how we can fM! one job. Let's write
a letter to Wilson recommending, be
cause of his extraordinary knowledge
of se«d snd plants-. Se,-d Morse for sec
retary of agriculture."—The Popular
Magazine.
Hands Off!
EDUCATING "EXCEPTIONAL" CHILDREN
"it is often the exceptionally bright
child, even the genius, whom we find
on the wrong side," says Dr. Maxi-
millan P. E. Gmszmann. discussing the
education of exceptional children in
the annual report of the Fnited .States
commissioner of education, just issued.
"The stupid and weak minded criminal
is not as dangerous as the clever and
intellectual criminals."
Doctor Groszniann urges that pub
lic attention he directed to all types
of exceptional children, not merely to
the feeble minded and degenerate, who,
no matter how undesirable a factor
they may be in society, are by no
means the whole problem. He points
out that the problem of the exceptional
child is by no means merely tiie prob
lem of the ''defective" or the "sub
normal" or the "abnormal" child.
Often it is a esse of misdirected ability
on the part of a gifted mind, or the
problem of child growth and develop
ment as affecting criminal tendencies.
Sometimes it is vocational failure, due
to improper vocational education, or lt
may be a problem arising from racial
differences, together with the diffi
culties of social adjustment in a nation
which has grown through immigra
tion.
Real progress, particularly in dis
tinguishing between the various types
of exceptional children, is reported by
Doctor Orozsmann. He considers the
ANSWERS TO QUERIES
DAYS OF THE WEEK ■—E. St., Mill Valley.
The names of the days of the week commencing
with Monday in each language a«ked for are:
In French —Lundi. Mardi. Mercredl. .Tend!. Yen
dredl. Samedi. Dimanehe; in Spanish—lames.
Martes, Miereoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sabsdo, Do
mingo: in Italian—Luncdl. Marted!, Mercoled:.
Gloved!. Venerdl. Sabato. Domenlca.
Sunday was named for the sun: Monday for
the moon; Tuesday for Mars; Wednesday for
Mercury; Thursday for Thor ; Friday for Venus,
and Saturday for Saturn. This U according to
the old Roman nomination, with the exception
of Thursday. The early Scandinavians had the
same as to Sunday and Monday. Tuesday was
dedicated to Ttiesco, the first leader of war
against the Teutons; Wednesday to Woden, a
god of the northern nations; Thursday to the
god Thors; Friday to Frlga. the goddess of love,
and Saturday to Seater, the god of crops, fruit,
etc.
RI.A'K INDIA—J. W. W.. City Newcastle
on Tyne is called "Black India" because of tbe
coals brought from there. None of the books
make any mention that the cities of Sutherland
and Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne are
called "the black Indies." Possibly some reader
of this department can inform the correspondent
why. If they are so called.
THE STATE PRESS
Iran Canyon Dam
The Iron canyon dam project is tak
ing on new life with the agitators be
low the site, and It is boastfully as
serted that work on lt will be under
way before the rainy season sets in.
Them dam enthusiasts down there
don't give a dam for our interests up
here because they will be by a damite
better off. —Cottonwood Knterprise.
Oroville's Wealthy Citizens
Whenever a citizen of Oroville reg
isters at a San Francisco hotel the
papers of that city, in mentioning it.
dub him a heavy stock holder in a
dredger company. On behalf of those
who are not Stock holders the Mercury
enters a protest.—Oroville Mercury.
San Pablo's Improvement
At last San Pablo, Pullman and the
district from East Itichmond to th»
Santa Fe travks north and west of san
Pablo are to have a rural free mail de
livery.—Richmond Independent.
great lesson of the year to be the
heed for intelligent, united effort on
the part of educators, medical men.
social workers, charity organizations,
welfare societies, juvenile courts and
other agencies that have been active in
the endeav or to remedy early neglect of
exceptional conditions. His point Is
that e4ch of these separate agencies is
doing commendable work, but that
they must now Join forces.
Doctor Grozsmann uks compulsory
education for all children, "excep
tional" as well as others. He contends
that it Is a mistake to exempt the ex
ceptional child from the compulsory
law. He declares: "The very chilren
who need special attention and who
[may become burdens and dangers to
society are dependent for their educa
tion, special training and custody upon
the good will of their parents, who
are often enough disinclined to follow
I the right course. We need legislation
which would establish the right of the
commonwealth to direct the education
I and training of every child and which
I would secure to the state and munlcl
j pality an authority which can not h*
J superceded by parental prejudice. "We
[ also need legislation which would es
tablish such a board or boards as can
I regulate and determine the disposition
which is to be made of every child ac
! cording to his need and the good of
I the community."
VAMI.LA—N. R. E., City. Tha plant from
which fa obtained the Tanllla bean, from which
the flavoring extract of commerce ia produced, la
a native of the southeastern portion of Mexico.
It was flrat desribed by Bernhardlno da Sahagan.
a Franciscan friar, in 1375. and was considered
of great medicinal value. For thla reason many
attempts were made to cultivate It In En rope,
but without success. Its cultivation in tropical
countries has since that time attained great mag
nitude, but In all cases the product has fallen
short of the superior flavor of the native Mexican
bean. It Is grown commercially In Reunion,
Mauritius and tbe Tahiti islands. The Mexican
product, however, still retains Its superiority,
and commands the best price.
FORT GT'NNYBAGS—n. M. X.. City. 'Tort
Gunnybsgs" of vigilance rommittea fima of
1*561, in San Francisco, was in Sacramento ■tren
below Front, not Id Clay street, at was repre
sented to you. Tiie bronxe tablet that was on
the committee building, when It was deatroytd
by the lire of lOOtl. was "p'rked up by aom»
relic seeker, but was recovered from and turned
OT*r to the historical branch of the Native Sons.
KETCH KETCH Y-W., Berkeley. Hetch
Hetchy is pronounced as written. It is an Indian
term and means mighty wind.
SHARP POINTS I
Women Ambassadors
Some day a sensible president will
name a woman as ambassador. Rich
women have a good deal of leisure and
can put it all over a mere man at en
tertaining.—Boston Advertiser.
——
Better Than Tariff Voting
Investigating itself may not be sj
pleasant task, but probably the senate
likes it better than voting on the tariff.
—Cleveland leader.
' * at —
City Fiction
The most widely disseminated Action
in this city, though not the best seller,
is the card in the streetcars declaring
that those who spit on the floor will be
arrested and fined.—Cleveland Leader.
A National Mistake
It was the appearance of the bride
groom which led that reporter into the
error of referring to a wedding cere
niony as the "obsequies.'"—Philadelphia
' Inquirer.

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