Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-28
POLITICAL CHRONOLOGY.
An Old Republican Sums Up His Party's
Achievements in Los Angeles-A For
midable Arraignment of False Stew
ardship.


city and county, nearly solid, for four
years past. The party has established a
record in that time which in some res
poets can hardly be equalled in any por-
ton of the country, and nowhere sur
passed. Here is about what has been
produced or accomplished in the time
specified, in an uninterrupted stream.
The particular industry which has sig
nalized each individual or organization
can be easily supplied as the reader
progresses: Ell Hammond, q. Decker.
j. NJ. Damron, W. G. Lockwood, Theo-
dore Savage, E. ]. Niles, B. Fenneman,
Aaron Smith, A. A. 'Montafio,
Frank Lauterio, the two Edel-
mans (part of the choice selec
tions of County Clerk Dunsmoor); !;
a bew ildered, helpless, bulldozed county
auditor; a county recorder who was
obliged to dismiss a deputy who had
been forced upon him by his bonds
men; the gang Of friends" whom Gov
ernor Waterman. as he tersely expressed
it, purchased in Los Angeles" the en-
tire list OF government officials; a
county law department SO utterly in
competent as to become the butt of uni
versal ridicule, a monument o ineffi
cheney and by-word; the prosecution of
criminals o travesty and complete
failure; a board of supervisors, by its
own confession, entirely unable to do or
dinary business until it had an honest,
and competent director and
adviser, and so it hired Aaron Smith, at
high salaries, and some other things
Honest! Respectable! Competent i
Forsooth; but great men and great tai
ent come high. A board of supervisors
which dare not publish its list Of expen-
ditures and allows bills aggregating
thousands OF dollars, many of them
being beyond the suspicion Of
a lack of legality and honesty; rate OF
county assessment and taxation which
is practical confiscation, with absolutely
nothing to show for it; a million dollar
court house, plastered from basement to
the eagle surmounting the flagstaff with
and still unfinished and un-
employees about the court
house with whom it is unsafe to leave
important documents lest they be tam
pered with and falsified sly attempt
to secure legislation whereby county
Offices should be multiplied and salaries
increased to an outrageous extent;
prof1igate city council which levied taxes
of decent consideration of
public requirements, bodied them
and plundered without stint
to be known in history as "the Doodle
council" under the new charter. It
earned and received universal and en-
Turing contempt-some of its members
only knowing what tax receipt is by
nearsay; an imbecile street department
bya little armyof high-salaried
paving sewer and sidewalk inspectors I"
And such inspectors ~ Go read the
list. Heaven preserve the city from an
,ther horde of incapables! An incom-
1etent and irresponsible engineering de-
but literally manned and
we'll paid sewer "system" remarkable
for its want OF system, de-
laying already and rotten from
is inception TO its present
Incomplete state and perhaps,
orever useless; an expensive city hall,
hardly two years old, but already crum-
,ling down and in the hands of re-
pairing crew-not ventilator or re-
Iuired convenience in the whole build
ng city school board peculiar at least
n it's business methods, liberal in its
of public moneys and laying
water pipes which supply everything
,ut water; diligent in "bracing up"
lew foundations at good prices and
Wholly unselfsh it the purchase of lead
pencils, etc. 1t signalizes itself by
recting its lasting monument in
N eminently proper place--in a
rave yard on an inaccessible
ill; deliberate scheme on the part of
ity officials to defeat a recently pro-
,osed amendment to the city charter
Inning at reduction in the number OF |
ity officers and salaries and cheaper |
ity government.
These little things so aroused the So
allied Union league, an organization, by
he way, which has swallowed many a
lauseous dose, that it "resoluted" Sc
rerely against. There were other things
egarding one of the officers this same
J. L. might have profitably enquired |
nto; but it was the distribution Of the |
'ffices which principally concerned it.
A subsequent and disinterested con-
lusion was that either the wrong men |
we're nominated, or that the wrong party |
ucceeded at the polls.
The throwing out of competent and
chief engineer OF the fire de-
,artAent to make room for man who
vas but thort time before repudiated
~ more than 1000 majority.
This chronologyis up to the beginning
II active business in the year 1891, but
s by no means given as being complete.
If the record is particularly pleasing
0 the Republican party and citizens
it and they will continue in
he same line and select in the future
he same sort of leaders.
A statement of this kind will hardly
,e found in the professed Republican
there is no sensation about it
# the 'tscan. mag" order, prize-fght
n an irregular suicide, whereby an
xtra paper can be sold. Besides, too
rec comments would probably leopard
re 15-cents-a-week subscription or a
-cents-a-line advertisement.
All the same, this list might be posted
lp and remembered with profit. The
tream never rises above the source. If |
be preferred class here are indicative
+ the leaders, then what?
AN OH REPUBLICAN.