The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-25
Suit to Enjoin the Treas
urer From Paying
For It.
Charges That Grave Omissions
Appear in the Work Of
the Surveyor.
Mr.. Humphreys Defends His Work
and Declares That 1t APP
proaches Perfection.

The wrinkled front of war has again
come to view in the field of municipal
doings. This time it is manifested in an
injunction now in preparation to restrain
Treasurer Widber from paying the bal
ance of that $4,000 over to Surveyor Til
ton for the last City map.
The injunction will be asked by DR..
George W. Day walt in behalf of the peo-
pie, and if suit develops it will be carried
on in his name. Several other names were
suggested, but it was finally decided to let
the case for the public be carried on in DR..
Daywalt's name. He himself humorously
asserts he was the person chosen to bear
the blunt of the conflict because of the
manner in which, ingle-handed, he car
ried on the fight for Judge Hebbard in the
late Populist convention.
The attorneys who will carry the pay
ment of the balance of the $4,000 into
the courts are George w. Schell and Will
liam II. Cobb. Messrs. Smith and MUIR
askv are associate counsel.
The grounds on which the complaint
Will be M ade are as follows:
First because the Board of Supervisors,
being officers OF the City, have no power
TO enter into con tract with City engi-
neer for the performance of municipal
work and under gulse OF such contract inc
crease his salary.
Tilton now gets $500 year. Awarding
him contract for city map is said vir-
tually to increase his salary TO $40 900
| year.
Second, because the Board of Super
visors has no power or authority to con-
! tract for an official map at all.
Third-Because the contract, even if
valid, provided that the work should be
| com pleted by October l, 1896 and the map
is not completed yet. Neither was there
| any extension of time.
Fourth-Because the contract and the
resolution of the Board of Supervisors re-
/ Quired that surveys should be made ac-
| tually upon the ground, monuments,
| either of stone or iron, to be set up and
fixed and the homestead surveys properly
connected. 1t is claimed that none Of
! these things have been done.
] Fifth-Because 1t is claimed that streets
| have been omitted from the map, which
have not only been dedicated but used by
the public for years.
Slxth-Because il is claimed that streets
which have never been either Dedicated to
or used by the public have been projected
through private property without any
| warrant or authority whatever.
William Z. Humphreys, the surveyor
who did the work for Mr.. Tllton, told a
CALL reporter yesterday that the map was
nearer perIeCLlOQ, DObn as regards accuracy
and detail, than any piece of work that
had ever been done for the city The
terms of the contract between Mr. Tilton
and the Supervisors had been carried out
in every particular.
Referring to the complaint that certain
homesteads and other tracts laid out by
real estate men had been omitted from
the map, Mr.. Humphreys said that there
were some homesteads that appeared on
paper and then ceased to exist. The con
tract did not require him to put all those
private geographical subdivisions on the
map.
He declared that he did not propose to
make public the reasons why the exterior
| contour lines of the great highway were
not laid down on the map. If the reasons
were made public, he added, the beach
would be filled with squatters.
In answer to the complaint that the
boundary line between San Francisco and
San Mateo counties was not shown, Mr.
Humphreys said that there was dispute
between the two counties about slice of
territory five or six miles long and 100 feet
wide. He could not take upon himself to
settle the dispute. He insisted that there
was no valid cause of complaint against
the map. 1t involved great deal of re-
search and hunting through resolutions of
the Board of Supervisors since 1850 in
order to correct the list of streets opened
and closed, and so forth.