The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-04-06
DREW'S PURPOSE.
He Notifies Chief Rodgers of His In
tended Suit.
Application to Be Made to the Attor-
ney-General To-day for Use
of the Peoples Name.

Ex-Chief Of Police Drew seems deter
mined to persist in his attempt to annoy
Chief Rodgers by instituting an action
with the alleged object of contesting the
latter's right to the Office which he Drew
filled for two years with such marked in
efficiency. Yesterday afternoon the fol-
lowing notice was served on Chief Rod
gers:
SACRAMENTO, April 5, 1892.
AdF. Jo't1 II. Rodgers, Sdcfdne1,to-DEAR
SIR: hereby notify you that tomorrow,
"Wednesday, April 6, 1892, at half-past 1
P. H., will apply TO Hon. w. II. 81. Hart, at
tofney-General of the State of California, at
MS ONCE IN the State Capitol building, Sacla
mento, for permission TO use the name of the
People of the State of California in an action,
III the nature of a quo warranto to remove
you from the Office of Chief Of Police of this
city, which office l claim you have unlaw-
fuiiy usurDed, and do now unlawfuily hold
ana lntrude into.
By direction of the Acknowledgement have
notified you OF the time and place of my APP
plicatlon, so that you may appear and contest
the same if SO advised
The grounds are that YOU are now and at
the Time OF the election of March, 1892 in
eligible 10 hold said Office, and were not
quahned eiector' Yours ~ respectfully
This notification is made by Johnson,
johnson IL Johnson and G. L. Jones,
DreW's attorneys.
Chief Rodgers was asked last evening
what he proposed to do about it. He
smilingly replied that he would be on
hand with lawyers K. L. Devlin and Jud
Z. Brusie to contest Drew's application
for permission to use the name of the
people in any such proceeding, and had
no fear whatever regarding the outcome
OF the attempt on tDreW's part to usurp
the office of Chief of Police
1t Will be interesting to note what
sort OF claim Drew will make to the Of
ice. His term expired on the last day of
March, and the Office was taken possess
sion OF by his duly elected and qualified
successor John b. Rodgers.
Even IN the remote, and apparently
impossible, event of the latter being
shown to be ineligible to the office, it is
difficult to see wherein Drew can set up
any claim thereto. He surely cannot
harbor the hope that he would be recalled
to the Office Of Chief of Police, either by
appointment, or election by the people
After the two years of his administration
surely no official nor board having the
appointing power would think of return
ing him to the office; and in an election
contest before the people Rodgers would
receive four votes to his one.
John b. Rodgers has been in office only
five days, but III that brief time he has
done more toward making the city re-
spectacle and decent than his predecessor
had accomplished in two years. He has
driven the braZen prostitutes from Sec
ond street, between X and l., and now,
for the first time in several years, it is
possible for man or woman to travel in
that portion Of the city with little danger
OF seeing or hearing anything offensive.
lie gave the IoaterS who live off the
earnings OF fallen women notice to quit
the city or take the chances of being COM
mitted for vagrancy, and they have been
departing on almost every train, for they
know that Chief Rodgers means what he
says, and that he VIII not defy public
opinion as others have done, by shield
ing and protecting them because Of their
political pulls" or for other considera-
lions.
Chief Rodgers has also been down the
line ana closed the hokey-pokey games,
which have been the ruin of so many
boys and young men here.
Under the former regime the dives Sc
cured such a foothold on X street, from
Second to Fourth, that they had practi-
eally ruined every respectable retail bus
mess on those blocks. Their filthy-ap-
pearing and foul-tongued patrons took
possession of the sidewalks and drove
decent men and women to other streets,
| thus cutting off communication between
store and restaurant-keepers and their
former patrons.
Now note the change The five DAYS
| that John b. Rodgers has been Chief of
| Police have sufficed to rid these blocks of
| the hordes Of loaferS who had for so long
held possession of the sidewalks. For
the last three days one could stand at
I Third street and not see loafer nor a
drunken man from Second to Fourth
streets. The dives are still there, of
course, because the City Trustees permit
them 10 run by giving their keepers
licenses, but these dive-keepers have seen
the handwriting on the wall and have
become alarmed. They have ''taken in
their signs"-in other words, they do not
allow their patrons to represent them
by gathering on the sidewalks in groups.
And these patrons, too, are getting out
of town as fast as they can. Up to a few
days ago all the tramp-paths led into this
city-now they all lead out of it, and
thieves and Migrants are met at all points
heading for places that are run on the
principle that had governed the police
department of this city for some years
past.
Thus far John b. Rodgers has proven
himself to be the kind of man the people
have sought in the past, but found not.
1t would be calamity to this community
/ if he were now to be deposed through
in the matter of his citizenship. and the
police department turned over to some
one in sympathy with the criminal ele-
ment that has governed it so long and
so openly that Sacramento was pointed
at as the wick eldest city in the State
The people have had a taste of decency.
however, in police administration, and
| in any event they will not long submit to
any other kind