The San Francisco call., 1897-12-19

or leaves the community, his life is
made a burden to him. No means are
too low or despicable for the gang to
utilize.
So thoroughly is the situation under
stood here that the most substantial
citizens acknowledge, though with
profound regret, that San Jose is prob
ably the most ring-ridden, boss ridden,
boodler-infected city of it's size in the
United States. Spasmodic efforts have
been made in the past to remedy mat
ters. One of the principal causes of
failure has been the lack of news
paper support, all of the local papers
being more or less tied up with the
machine.
Under these circumstances the en-
trance Of The Call upon it's present
crusade for good government for San
Jose was warmly welcomed by every
person who stood for decency and
progress. The task of unearthing and
bringing into the light the mass of
corruption that the gang is more or
less directly responsible for was begun
by The Call about a month ago. Day
after day were recorded misdeed upon
misdeed.
Like a thunderbolt from a clear sky
came the publication in The Call of
the charges made by a grand juror
against w. G.. Lorigan, presiding
Judge of the Superior Court of the
county of Santa Clara. Judge Lorigan
was accused of violating the sanctity
of the Grand Jury room and inducing
the Grand Jury by an alleged mis-
representation of the law to quash two
indictments which had been found
against Justice of the Peace w. H.
Dwyer.
Before this expose Judge Lorigan
was regarded as man above reproach
by people in and out of the gang. The
only attempt the Judge made to
answer the charges was to summon
the Grand Jury and seek to establish
through them the truth or falsity of
the story as published in The Call. He
evidently expected all of the members
Of this body to answer his questions
in such way that he would be able to
say that none of them had conveyed
the information concerning his actions
to the correspondent of The Call. Dur
ing his examination of the Grand Jury,
a proceeding by the way which was
Illegal and unauthorized, he made no
effort to have the jurors give any in
formation as to his own conduct In
stead of Squarely meeting the issue he
sought merely to find a victim upon
whom to wreak his vengeance. One
man alone of the nineteen which com
| posed the inquisitorial body had the
courage to stand for his rights as a
man and a citizen. Grand Juror T. w.
| Carroll declined to answer the cues
! tionS propounded by the Judge. For
! adopting this course he was denounced
| by the Judge from the bench as a man
| with the principles of a scoundrel and
| the instincts of a cur" This was the
only justification that was then or has
since been attempted by Judge Lori
gan.
Subsequently Grand Juror Carroll in
a manly, dignified and trenchant
signed statement made reply to the
malevolent attack of the Judge
He asserted that he was to bt
sacrificed for daring to expose the
wholesale frauds being perpetrated
year after year by a large number OF
the Justices of the Peace of the county
of Santa Clara, more particularly Jus.
tees Dwyer, Beggs and Harrington
"I found" said Carroll, latter re.
| ilONluS LldIIy ODSldCleS DldceQ IN my
way that a gang or political blood.
suckers was Systematically defraud.
ing the county in large sums These
men had fed SO long at the public Grill
that they were becoming bolder in tn,
belief that they could never be called
to account" His concluding word:
were as follows:
The Hon. w. G. Lorigan, Judge of tn,
Superior Court of the County of SAINT;
Clara and aspirant for the Suprem
bench, sought TO destroy my reputation
in open court by vilifying me by calIin,
me perjurer, scoundrel and cur-when
was at his mercy and powerless to de
fend myself. I mention this that peopl
may know who is the cur. AS for per
jurer'' and "scoundrer' 1 will have oc
casion to speak of that later on.
When Judge Lorigan found he could no
intimidate me, as he expected, his mali
cious passion broke loose, his cloak of hy
pocrisy fell from him, the mask was tor
from DR.. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde appeared
1 submit this to the people and leave
to every decent, self-respecting citizen t
Judge who is the scoundrel and the cur
And I promise that the future will dis