The San Francisco call., 1896-07-04

lected to do.
In your reply to my letter, in speaking OF
Mr. Foote'S action in intervening in the Rail-
ROAD commission case, you stated that il has
Deen done without authority, and that you
would look in to it. But | notice your looking
INTO IL dld not stop District Attorney Foote's
strange proceedings, which accrue only to
the benefit of the railroad company and was
IN no Wise IN the interest of either the people
or the Government. The asserted theory of
tne intervention was that the Government Sc
curlty would be jeopardized by the grain
rates being cut down so that the farmers could
make little more upon their wheat; and
does IL not seem strange that the Department
OF Justice has only recently walked up to
the fact that the Government had a security
In that quarter that was susceptible OF injury?
During the thirty years the Southern Pacific
has existed In its various forms the Govern
ment has been apparently wholly Indifferent
to what was going on, and it's officers have un-
hesitatingIy allowed the railroad highbinders
to despoil the Central Pacific of almost every
thing 1t had OF any value, or which would
Indeed, the sworn officers of the Government
have sat by supinely ana never before made
even the slightest effort TO protect the secur-
1ty OF the Government.
Indeed this gives much color to Mr.. Hunt
ington's statement that he ''did not care a tup-
pence for he has learned by long experience
to have so little fear of the Federal Govern
ment or its laws that the very idea of any 1e
having the audacity to seek to have MIN
punished for crime was so manifestly absurd
that he had no reason to ''care a tuppence."
But am not disposed to charge your depart
ment with being wholly idle, or being subject
to perennial ennui. matter came up last
winter which shows that your department is
not wholly deficient in finding means TO pro-
secute people when there is sufficient incen-
tive l only wish 10 draw your attention to
the "hot stove" incident, which grew out of
the splendid fight the Honorable Mayor ofSan
Francisco has been making to prevent these
railroad bandits from retaining the plunder
that they have wrongfuily obtained. In the
course of that fight l believe Mayor Sutro
mailed to the different members OF the House
an innocent little cartoon labeled sc P.
huntington would not steal red-hot stove. "
This was too much. The vials of Govern
ment wrat tn at once opened and the tnuuders
OF offlclal indignation were aroused until
YerltaDle cyclone was created. You took the
matter up, L am informed, and gravely de-
cided that the laws of the United States had
been violated, just as your predecessor did
when couple OF overg1 own boys let the steam
out OF locomotive and declared it con-
splracy. The matter held to be clearly
HbelouS, and because libelous unmailable
and having been mailed was violation of the
statute. The District Attorney mere did not
hesitate to declare that Mayor Sutro should be
punished; that the fact that he was wealthy
made no difference; that he proposed to do his
duty In the premises Fiat justieia ruat
c@lum," and the Government building was
shaken to its very foundation Such fragrant
violation OF the laws must be punished The
very idea that any man could so libel the lar
cenous instincts abilities of Coils p. Hunt
lngton or even intimate that he would leave
stove, and red-hot one at that. unscathed was
too much.
1t was the last straw that broke the camePs
back. To think that the Mayor of San Fran
cisco had the audacity to intimate that he
would stop at stove, and red-hot one at
that, was not to be tolerated for moment.
The man should be prosecuted he should
be punished he ought to be hanged for treasoni
de had openly proclaimed that Mr.. Hunting
ton had bribed Congressman and nothing was
said; but when he intimated that this old
reprobate was so losing his faculties that he
would stop at red-hOt stoves, an insult had
been inflicted that required all the avenging
powers OF the American Department of Justice
to resent
Thus we have the great record of your de-
partment in this behalf. A couple of strikers,
without injury to the locomotive, let off the
steam ana drew the ire, and they were charged
with conspiracy under the laws that had been
intended, but which proved Intellectual, to
reach the trusts and monopolies, and are made
to stand five months trial at heavy expense.
The Mayor of San Francisco is threatened
with prosecution for simply intimating that
this man Huntington had not enough larcen-
Gus inclination or ability to enable him to ab-
stract red-hot stove.
On the other hand the great monopoly that
has wrecked and ruined the happiness and
prosperity OF a whole State with 1 ,250 600
inhabitants is allowed to obtain the active as
s1stance OF your department., and when the
people of that commonwealth are endeaVoring
to secure some relief from the exactions of
their corporate oppressor in the reduction of
their freights, your department comes in Just
at the, moment most calculated to aid the
monopoly and to injure the people. You have
one kind OF law for the rich and another for
the poor. When the corporation claims that
its rights are infringed, your depRr tment
comes promptly to its rescue. When the peo-
pie cry out that the same monopoly have
robbed the Government, you sit still and do
nothing. When the great corporation tries to
grind its workingmen and they refuse TO SUBJ
init, you come to the formers assistance with
injunctions and prosecutions. You call out
the regular army and shoot men down. You
aid their oppressors to prosecute them. You
convict them long before you have heard the
evidence.
But when the ''interests" of the great cor
poration are involved somehow your depart
ment is never able to find any way to either
determine their guilt or secure their punis h.
ment. Therefore what's the use of telling you
to do your duty; you have not done it and do
not intend to do ii. The only thing left to do
is to secure your impeachment and that, no
matter how plain the case might be, would
with this Congress be futile effort. The
present Congress and administration all float
in the same boat Whether your master, the
great American Belshazzar as he now sits at
his last feast, has or has not read the hand
writing on the wall, | know not But it is
there, and you all have been weighed and been
found wanting, and If l mistake not when
come the ides OF November the great American
people Will voice their terrible indignation at
the scandals of the last four years in manner
! that will leave no uncertainty, even in the
minds of those whose thick hides seem most
impervious to the cry of misery that results
from the most damnable misrule that ever dis
graced civilization. Respectfully yours,
GEORGE w. MoN1EIT
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