The herald., 1897-06-20
ECHOES OF REVOLT

The friends and supporters of Presi-
dent Mckinley in Southern California
no longer charge either the neglect Of
duty, or the implied usurpation Of power
and authority that the San Pedro har-
Dor question has developed, to the ra ther
department. In yesterday mornings s
Times there was published lengthy
letter from General Rosecrans to his
erstwhile comrade and subordinate in
field and camp, Hon. William Mckinley.
president Of the United States. In the
same issue of the Times appears curt
remonstrance, as the united sentiment
of the chamber Of commerce and the
board of trade Of Los Angeles, addressed
to the president. and also an able and
elaborate expostulation on the part of the
Free Harbor league of Los Angeles,
signed by H. G. Otis. acting as president
of the league.
The memorialists in these several COM
munications take the common ground,
with all due courtesy, that the public
will no longer regard with patience the
inactivity of the administration in fail
ing to give effect to the act of congress
calling for the improvement of San Pc
dro harbor This view is in strict ac-
cordance with the position taken by The
Herald and maintained ever since the
inception Of the harbor controversy,
that Secretary Alger is mere instru-
nent in this matter, and that his pictur-
esque assumption of an overruling au-
thority has been, throughout, the mere
operative expression of superior will.
It was at all times clear to whomsoever
wished to perceive that this immediate
superior was the president and that the
ultimate superior was the power that
made the president The Southern Pa
cific Railroad company is. of course, the
particular member of this ultimate that
figures in the present instance.
General Rosecrans must have felt very
keenly the force of this unsavory situa-
tion when he indited the following
pointed queries, which we quote from
his letter in the Times:
Shall one railway corporation, un-
loved by the people of this coast, pre-
vail in its greed against the wishes of
SO per cent. of our population in the To-
cation of a harbor? Is one railway
corporation more powerful than the
ont of h ri ferbt
ing, unanimous reports in favor of San
Pedro by army engineers, final de-
cisive similar report by the last board
of arbitration with the necessary
money appropriated by congress, are
the people of California to be robbed
of a free harbor by one unscrupulous
railway corporation?
Our people turn to William Mckinley,
president of the United States to pro-
tect their interests from delays that
are dangerous, and from attacks of
skilled manipulators. official or other
wise, who seek to set aside a law of
congress and to reopen this harbor ques
tion with the ultimate object of Sc
curing a private harbor for the bene-
fit of a single railway corporation.
This is strong, earnest language, COM
ing from a bosom friend of President
Mckinley. and it is ably supplemented
by the following pithy conclusion, which
we extract from the remonstrance of the
Free Harbor league:
We submit that the honorable secre-
tary of war should proceed to the per-
formance of his plain sworn duty in the
premises, and we ask you, as
the chief executive. to give the
necessary order to secure official ac-
tion. We seek nothing as a gratuity.
but only that which the law itself
guarantees in this harbor matter 1t
is not local affair. but is a national
Improvement. important not merely
to this city and the adjacent country, but
to the entire Pacific coast and to the
nation at large.
These are expressions that come from
friends of the administration. and by the
peculiar irony OF circumstances from
two personal friends and former COM
rades-in arms OF the president, who
fully represent the public sentiment
upon This subject in California. He
will not say that he cannot trust the
representations Of fact that come from
such source, and he can no longer pro-
ject a dummy from the war department I
to disguise the modus operandi of polit-
ical settlements. If the advocates as
well as the opposers CT the administra-
ton policy are TO be sold out in one Job
lot to any private interest it is only fair
to them as well as to us that the fact be
made known by acts that cannot secure
concealment in the forms of duplcity.
The memorialists of the president
have, BY their course in this matter,
shown themselves superior to partisan
considerations and have posted notice
on the political banner of California that
everyone who runs may read.
THE CASE OF HILL
EX- Senator David p. Hill has emerged