The record-union., 1896-03-04
SOME LOCAL MATTERS.

There has been introduced in the
Board of Trustees a resolution order
ing telephone boxes of the old telephone
company removed from the City Ii
brary, the residence and office of the
Chief Engineer, the engine and hook
and ladder houses and the office of the
City Physician. This is put forward as
measure of economy, but it is dis
elimination against one telephone COM
pany and for another.
Without taking up cudgels in the is
sue Of business rivalry between the two
companies, we call attention to the fact,
first, that the Trustees have really no
right TO say to the Board Of Directors
of the Free Library what telephone
boxes they shall have and what they
as there are two telephone companies,
each with a very considerable list of
subscribers, it is in the interest of pub
lie safety and of economy to maintain
boxes of both companies in the houses
of the fire department.
| To order out one company and retain
the other is to lend city authority to
promote private interest, a thing
that is only one remove from fat pros
titution of public Office. 1t is equiva-
lent to saying to the users of the tele-
phone convenience, if you wish to be in
direct communication with the fire de-
partment for the better protection of
your property, you must use one par
ticular line and no other
If the resolution is at all defensible,
why should not it's operation run
against the police headquarters also?
Why not order out the telephone boxes
of the old company at the office of the
Chief of Police? Why not say to the
citizens of Sacramento fair and square,
'sif you choose to patronize the old COM
pany you shall not be privileged to COM
municate by the hello process with
| any of the offices of the city govern
ment; to just that extent you shall not
have police and fire protection? The
Trustee who introduced the resolution
said that he did so by request. 1t would
throw some light upon the matter if he
would so far view his duty broadly as
to say at whose request it was done.
The thing to do is to sit down on that
bit of discrimination. So long as there
are three or four hundred citizens, OF
any considerable number, who have a
public telephone line connected with
their places of business and their
houses, they should. have precisely the
same facility for reaching the fire and
lpolice departments over that line as the
three or four hundred other citizens
who use another telephone line. 1t
punishment to be compelled to use both
lines in many cases and pay two rent
ais for boxes. We are simply treating
of condition.
There was another matter introduced
by request in the Board of Trustees
Monday night, in the form of an ordi-
nance to prohibit the hawking or ped
ding of tamales on the streets. In the
exercise of their powers to regulate and
prohibit certain businesses and to exaci
licenses and set up regulations for the
conduct of business on the street and
for peddling. the Trustees have the
power to pass such an ordinance. We
wish most sincerely that they would
close the mouths of the tamale howlers
so that their unearthly and startlins
cries in the silent watches of the night
shall be no more heard.
The citizen. sick or or well, has the
fright to be protected against this night
ly tamale wall that rouses him from
slunber or starts the invalid from
needed rest and quiet upon which, il
many cases. his very life may depend
No one asks that the selling OF tamale: