The San Francisco call., 1896-04-12
THE KINGDOM IS LEANING
Attorney-General Fitzgerald on
the Police Commits
SionerS.
SAYS THEIR TERM IS UP.
When He Gets Through His Pressing
Present Affairs He Will Look
After 1t.
SAYS THEIR TERM IS UP.

Attorney Writ still keeps busy in his eff
tort to secure the ousting of Police Com
mlssloners Alyord and Tobin, who claim
to have life claim on their Jobs.
Speaking OF the matter yesterday Mr..
Writ said: "We shall have a walkover in
this matter when it is brought to test.''
lie said he had just called on Attorney
General Fitzgerald and informed him of
his having secured important records re-
lating to the appointment of the officers
named. The Attorney General, he said,
declared himself as opposed to the life
tenure and heartily in sympathy with the
movement to terminate the long term.
"But," said Mr.. Writ, "every body knows
that the Attorney-General has been en-
gagged in very important legal contest for
several weeks, in the United States Court,
In which the people of the State are greatly
concerned and interested. He suggested
for me to call on him as soon as he got
through with the case there, and bring the
facts and the records for consideration. l
shall do so.
William Alvord and Robert J. Tobin
took the oath of office and were sworn in
by b. Burke, a Justice of the Peace, on the
9Th day of May, 1885, as Police Commits
sioners OF this city and county," said Mr..
Writ. ut will not do for them to say that
they made and filed the oaths of Office in
April. 1873, or at any time in that year.
The Justice who took the oath of office is
now dead, the old City Hall is torn down
and the Governor who appointed them in
1890 is dead, too, but many people know
and the records will show that the Justice
of the Peace was not elected and did not
flo hiq oath nf nffpo J1nti nor
1884, after he got notice and certificate of
his election. This clearly settles all this
proposition which is involved. They filed
the oath on the same day of the year. On
the l1th day of July 1890, they abandoned
the old fortifcation, sought new one and
then procured Ex-Governor Waterman to
appoint them and grant each of them a
commission, and they flied their oath of
Office on July IA, 1890, in this city and
county, as the book of original entries of
official oaths fully shows, although the
oaths cannot be found in the County
Clerks office.
II have two certified copies of their
official oaths, which were filed in the office
of the Secretary of State on the 18th day of
July, $780," said Mr.. Writ. "These rec
ords, with the big gold seals OF the State
on them, are conclusive presumptlons that
each of them by their act and declaration
accepted the appointment and commits
SION, ana nave hCltu uuueI anu Uy VII tuc
of the same. The record which | have
here, and certified to by the secretary of
Governor Budd, shows by the entry of
record OF July IA, 1890, entered in the Off
cial term of Ex-Governor Waterman, that
he appointed each of them for term of
four years, and not for their natural life.
This makes it clear that their appoint
ment and term of Office and commission
wholly ceased and expired in July, 1894.
That since that time they have been
merely locum tenentes holding over and
waiting till some one should be appointed
to fill the vacancies for the Constitution
provides that the term of such municipal
officers shall not be extended beyond the
period for which they are elected or ap
pointed. fhe late decisions of the Su-
preme Court will sustain the propositions
here presented. These facts being true,
it seems that they filed their oaths of office
in Sacramento so as to make the matter
appear easy and seem little quiet. The
legal counsel who advised them saw the
danger and advised them to abandon the
old fortifcation. The records make it the
plainest case. 1t appears that the perpe-
tuity of the kingdom is leaning over and
about to fall"