Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-03-08

The honest reform record OF a Democratic
Board Of Supervisors In San Francisco; the re-
irenchment In expense and the publication In
the public service that have resulted from Demo
cratic ascendancy In the legislature the ex-
posture Of public extravaganza and corruption
In office that have been brought to light as the
result Of the last election, are Indications oil
what may be expected from Democratic success
in the coming election In this city.
That Is clipped from the Oakland In
dependent, but as II fails to specify ex-
act what reforms it alludes to, 1t is i'm
possible to tell whether it means the
tender usage, by the Democratic Legis-
lature, Of one of its clerks who gobbled
supplies, or the brilliant management OF
municipal affairs iu San Francisco, by
which the street lamps have been ex-
tingushed and the police force reduced,
because there Is no money left in the
treasury with which to pay for these ex-
travagances.
Born OF the foregoing extracts, the
last Of which is from tho Times, of our
city, show how absolutely without
counsel public journals may talk. To
tell the truth, as an honest Democratic
journalist, we do not think that the
present Democratic Legislature has yet
come up to the public expectations as a
reform body. In the administration of
legislative details II has been faulty,
We don't like to think of the number of
useless officials it has tolerated. In fact,
we dom. like to think that the Hon.
Aaron Smith has been, during the whole
of the current session, both powerful
man at Sacramento and perhaps an occa-
sional employee of Democratic Legisla-
ture We place our disgust distinct
lively on the line that party ought to
prefer its own members for emolument,
and ought to restrict all emoluments
within the line Of decency. We do not,
in the slightest degree. desire to be I'M
derstood rs impugning the exceptional
merit of the Hon. Aaron Smith. We
simply know that he has never pre-
| tended to be n Democrat. The high
preferment of the Hon. Abe Norton, SC
soon after his determined efforts to de
feat Capt. Thorn, the Democratic nomi'
nee for Mayor of Los Angeles, is also
not whit to our taste, or to the taste
OF thousands of other Democrats, who
remember that the last Republican
Legislature had the grace, knowing that
bills are now printed, not enrolled, to
leave the place occupied by Norton
vacant. But when the Times gets down
to talking about the depleted con
dition of the treasury of the city
and county of San Francisco, as Q
public journal it ought to know, and
if ii don't know it, it ought to be
ashamed of its ignorance, that the reck-
less Republican Board of Supervisors,
which preceded the present honest Dem.
ocratic body, was overwhelmingly Re.
publican. To the extravaganza of the
former is due the present depleted state
of the county and city finances of the
metropolitan city on the bay. All that
the new Democratic Board, which is
characterized by fine reformatory and
economizing impulse, could do is to
declare that, its Republ lean predecessor
having left it without funds, it will not
pretend to spend what is not in the
treasury. In this conclusion it is re-.
sponsive to the law, and will receive the
unqualified endorsement of all honest
men. The charter OF San Francisco is
doubtless defective; the rapacity of a
Republican Board of Supervisors is
simply without limit; and the two to-
gether have left that city and county,
which have at last passed into the hands
of honest men, in a deplorable plight
That is the alpha and omega of the
facts. The Times would do well to note
them