The San Francisco call., 1896-08-26


dicated. There is thus e plain repugnsgnccyy gcy
which cannot be disposed of except upon the
conclusion that the Legislature lntendea IN
the act OF 1895 to pass valid law, anu tnat 10
do so the repeal OF the act of 1856 necessarily
resulted.
"Of course, in the decision OF yesterday
the Supreme Court only decided the two
questions presented by the appeal-that
IS, whether the formal steps required IN
the passage of an act had been com piieo
with, and whether the exception regarding
counties OF the eighth class lnvaiidates
the whole act; or whether, as the supreme
Court decided, that exception might De
dropped from the act
"If it should be held that the act does
apply to San Francisco, the lncum penis
who would be affected are the, SherlH,
County Clerk, Auditor, Recorder, Lax
Collector, District Attorney, Assessor,
Treasurer, Superintendent OF schools,
Public Administrator. Coroner, Surveyor
and members of the Board OF Supervisors,
Bnd probably Justices of the Peace.
Supreme Justice Garoutte, in speaking
of the decision, said it applied TO all the
town and county officers of the State ex,
cepting those of the City and County OF
San Francisco. The special legislation
governing the county and municipal offices
in San Francisco, he said, was ana would
remain in its former force, without any
modification or alteration.
Justice Mcfarland, when interviewed at
his residence last nigh was very clear and
brief as to the Supreme Court decision IN
its application.
cit was upon an action brought to de-
termlne the validity of the county govern
ment act, approved March "a, 1888, said
he, ITO obtain Judgment that the county
and township officers elected under that
n W. n,ft 1aI a. Ill raGnQPtIUn
offices for a term of four years. a general
demurrer to the complaint was overruled
by the Superior Court and the defendants
declining to answer, judgment was rem
dered against them, from which the de-
fendant appealed.
"The decision applies in general to all
the counties of the State. There is no
special application to San. FRANCISCO
County whatever. That question did not
come before the Supreme Court, and it
was not considered by that body, AS to
whether San Francisco comes under the
provisions of the act can only say that 1T
is question that must be considered aud
decided hereafter.
This decision, just as it reads, settles
the validity of the act as applied In gen.
erai to all county and township ofhces
and nothing else. do not see how | can
make 1t any palmer. The Supreme Court
only confined Itself 10 the matter brought
before it and decided accordingly"
While the decision in the Solano County
case gave no indication of what the de-
cision of the court would be in the case OF
Kahn against Sutro ct al, involving the
application of the county government act
to San Francisco. speculation was rife
among the politicians last night as 10 what
would happen If the act was so made ap-
plicable.
it was recalled bv the intelligent ones
that If the law changing the terms OF
county officers to four years was made ap-
plicable to San Francisco there would still
be left for the coming election the purely
municipal offices, such as Mayor, Superln-
tendent of Streets, City and County At
torneY, Police Judges and other offices not
EN- braced in the general county govern
ment scheme. The main patronage
offices, however. including those of the
County Clerk, Recorder, Tax Collector,
Auditor, Supervisors and others, would
hold for another two years.
Another consideration generally recog-
nized was that if the patronage officers of
the City and County were given another
two years of power it would have very
strcng effect in support of the new char
ter. The practical politicians are largely
against the pending charter, as they have
always been and always will be opposed
to any change in the law which makes
patronage jobs harder to get through the
political methods they ara used to-
But if there is no further patronage to
be dealt out for two years and if the
"outs" see their only hope of jobs in the
election of a Mayor and the general
change through the adoption of the new
charter they will either call in their hos
tility to it or get out and help whoop it
through. For this particular reason a
four-year local decision would add a small
Af v-nfa 70 fhn hnh md hn
new charter.