The San Francisco call., 1896-01-16
More Caution Will Be Observed
in Granting Free
Licenses.
MERCHANTS ARE COMPLAINING
Mr.. Lees Leaves the License Committee
in an Angry Mood He Gains
His Point.

In the midst of the meeting of the
License and Order Committee of the
Board of Supervisors yesterday License
Collector Fred Lees got up from his seat
with face pale with anger, and nodding
to his deputies, who with himself were
supposed to De assisting the committee to
segregate the deserving from the unde-
serving applicants for free licenses, said:
Come on, boys; there is no use of our
wasting any more time here. We might
as well get out and dig"
Then he stalked out, followed by his
subordlnates, leaving the members of the
committee IN q state of blank astonish-
ment.
Mr.. Lees anger was caused by the man.
ner in which free permits to sell goods,
wares and merchandise were being granted
tc men of all ages and conditions as fast
as they could be ushered in and tell their
tales of woe.
Supervisor King was the chief advocate
of the claims of the many applicants, most
OF whom were by able-bodied men fully
able to earn wages at any work they might
choose. The Supervisor from the First
see med to know each man by name and
occupation, and Endorsed the wonderful
The other members of the committee
protested time after time, but King in
sisted ana his decision prevailed. 1t was
when the fortieth applicant, a husky
potato-peddler, had been allowed to go
with his PRAYER granted that the License
Collector gave up the fight and retired.
ut is an outrage he said after raturn-
ing to his office, that this City is kept out
of the thousands of dollars that these
Supervisors give toepeddlers every quarter.
Not one-quarter of them are deserving, and
1t is really detriment that matters are
allowed to go on as they do. Every dav
merchants come to my office and complain
of peddlers who sell in front of their very
doors on free licenses. These merchants
pay taxes and licenses and should be nro-
tected.
II would not object if cripples and those
VINO are totally unable to work were given
licenses for their own use, but when I see
man come out of the commistee.room
and give or sell his permit to some big
hoodlum who had not the face to ask it
himself it makes me tired. | know of a
number OF instances where this has oc-
Cured.
These are the very peddlers who are
constantly watched by the police because
OF the thefts committed by them. They
pay S1 on per day Tor the use of horse
and wagon, and usually IS cents for an as
slstant, but cannot afford to pay license
that amounts to about 10 cents per day.
Last week tins committee granted 120 free
licenses, and the crowd of applicants
grows larger at every meeting.
AT this rate there will be 500 free L.
censes granted this year, which means a
loss OF $4,000 to the City, or at least $4,000 if
the really deserving applicants are weeded
out. 1t is a peculiar state Of affairs when
170O peddlers licenses are sold in one wear
| and 500 given away.
The proper way would be to send ap-
pllcants to this office for examination be-
fore giving them licenses. My men know
about every peddler in San Francisco, and
they would soon separate the deserving
from the undeserving. At the rate things
are going now it viii be but a short time
before hundreds of small storekeepers who
carry the goods sold by peddlers will be
driven out of business. ] am not going to
any more meetings of that committee, and
they can turn out as many free licenses to
bummers as they please.
Unknown to Mr. Lees his cause was
being fought in the committee by Super-
visor Benjamin and Secretary RUSSELL
Both expressed the opinion that the grant
ing of free licenses was being conducted
too loosely and that each case should be
Investigated before the coveted permit
was granted. Mr.. Russell cited the cases
of number of small storekeepers who had
complained that the increase in the num-
Der of street-peddlers threatened TO drive
them out of business.
It was finally decided that resolution
should be introduced at the next meeting
of the board providing that in future all
applicants for free licenses must first apply
to the License Collector, and that only
those who are recommended by him shall
be granted free licenses.