The San Francisco call., 1896-07-25
The Grand Jury After the Heads
of Seven Members of the
Board.
SEVERAL FAXED INTERVIEWS.
The Examiner" Asked to Exp ain
Statements on Behalf of the Ac-
cused City Officials.

Acting under the advice OF District At
torney Barnes, the Grand Jury will pre-
sent accusations against Supervisors
King, Scully, Benjamin, Hughes, bunker,
Morgenstern and Wagner. In stating this
fact yesterday, the Examiner buried a
grain of truth in bushel of falsehood.
with a reckless extrayagance of space and
type. 1t was stated that the Civic Feder-
alton had called a mass-meeting of citi-
zens. The Civic Federation did not call
any mass-meeting until yesterday. The
call was then issued for an Indignation
gathering in Metropolitan Temple next
Tuesday evening. President l. J. Tru-
man of the Civic Federation will intro
duce Mayor Sutro, who has consented to
act as chairman.
The proceedings against the solid seven
of the Boa rd of Supervisors for their action
in reducing the assessments of the San
Francisco Gaslight Company, the Spring
Valley Water Works and the Market
street Railway Company are based upon
section 75S OF the Penal Code. which says: I:
An accusation in writing against any dis
trict, county, township or municipal officer
for willful or corrupt misconduct in Office may
be presented by the Grand Jury of the county
for or in which the officer accused is elected or
appointed.
Section 759. The accusation must state the
offense charged in ordinary and concise Ian
guage and without repetition.
Sec. 767. The trial must be by jury, and
conducted in all respects in the same manner
as the trial of an Indictment for q misde-
meanor.
Sec. 769. Upon g conviction the court must,
at such time as it may appoint, pronounce
Judgment that the defendant be removed from
Office; but, to warrant removal, the judg-
ment must be entered upon the minutes and
the causes OF removal must be assigned therein.
Under the heading SHOULD Be Driven
From Office" the Examiner yesterday pub
lished the following as a part of its Grand
Jury story:
The Merchants Association is in thorough
accord with the Civic Federation in the matter
of demanding that well-merited punishment
be visited upon the "Solld Seven" We will be
with the Civic Federation heart and soul in
any action they may take. There is no DOUBT
that the Supervisors require lesson at the
hands of an outraged people which they will
never forget. In giving them this lesson the
Grand Jury should be backed by the sentiment
OF the entire community.
political campaign is appr roaching. There
will be twelve new men asking the people to
place them in the Supervisors chamber. The
men who may be elected should go into Office
with the idea that if they become rascals their
crimes will surely find them out. There is one
way to teach the new men that lesson and that
is to throw the "Solid Seven" out of Office in
disgrace.
This is not so much a fight to punish ras-
cality already committed as it is to deter
future Supervisors from committing similar
offenses. The blow struck at the seven men
that are now under consideration should be SO
severe that no body of men in the Board of
Supervisors will ever again dare organize such
a combination.
The reduction of those corporation assess
ments in the face of the expert valuations fur
nished by the Grand Jury was an infamy on
the part of the "Solid Seven" that the people
should never forget If any political party
convention should ever in the future have the
impudence to present the names of any of
those men as candidates for Office the people
should bury that party under such an ava
lanche of votes that it may never be heard Of
again.
Let the Grand Jury proceed. 1t has the we'll
balanced sentiment of the people behind it.
The Merchants Association will do all in its
power to strengthen the hands of the Grand
Jury and back it in any proper proceeding to