The herald., 1897-05-05
WE DNEsDAY, MAY 5, 1907.
WHAT 1T MEANS

The action OF the council last MONDAY
in summarily removing General Forman
from the police commission on the
trumped-up pretext of ineligibility has
caused a great deal of indignation on the
part of fair-minded citizens. The false
and trif1ing grounds alleged need only to
be stated to be condemned. General For
man was removed, forsooth, because it
was charged that he is a member of the
directory of a street railroad company.
If he were all that IS asserted we fail to
see why it would render him ineligible
for the Office OF police commissioner.
AS matter of fact. we are informed that
General Forman is not director of any
street railroad, but that he is an honor
airy director in the Terminal Railroad
company What is there in that to pre-
vent him from doing his duty as a COM
missioner? A more beggarly excuse for
an indefensible action was never alleged.
1t shows the braZen assurance of ring
of marplots who had made up their
minds to do a thing in defiance of public
sentiment and did not much care whether
they gave reason or not If the public
did not like it, the public be id; that
was their motto.
II We look for a motive for this inde-
cent and arbitrary action of the council
manic combine, the most apparent seems
to be that General Forman had approved
himself something Of a martinez; that
I, L. i
of police regulations; that he had been
the means of depriving a set of quasi
officials Of the stars which gave them
dead-head privileges on street railway
lines and at the theaters, and, finally.
that he had instituted measures to find
out whether the members of the police
force know how to write irtelligibly. The
surface presumption is that ali these
measures of discipline had SO wrought
upon the members of the police force and
accessory ssrvitors that, with one mighty
exercise of their political pull, they de-
manded the removal of General Forman,
and. presto, the councilmanic forest bent
before the blasti
NO DOUBT the men who are responsible
for this political coup would be glad to
have the above taken as an alI-sufficient
explanation of their conduct; but we
think that one who looks beneath the
surface can find more in the plot.
The removal of General Forman is
but step in a systematic scheme TO
capture the entire police commission and
place it in the hands of eubservient tools
of the manipulators. That ACCOMPLISHED.
the present chief of police would get his
walking papers and the entire force
would be converted as soon as NAV be
into a political machine. A boss with
such little army al his disposal-with
the purpose and the opportunity to levy
tribute upon the saloons, the gamblers
and the fancy houses-might speedily
attain the commanding position of a
Tweed or a Buckley.
This is the real milk in the cocoanut
This is the scheme that has hatched ont
IN the nrain of some ambitious politician
VINO thinks he is a bigger man than
Hervey Lindley. The greedy grab for
the appointive Offices under the board
of health, undertaken and successfully
accomplished by the council a short time
ago, is part of the same business. IF
the scheme is allowed to develon in its
own sweet fashion, the gang" will soon
control the patronage of the entire citv
government and Los Angeles will be in
the grasp of one of the most hungry and
most conecienceless rings that ever
iattened upon municipality.
1t is time for citizens who know what
that sort of thing means to rouse them
selves and adopt the most vigorous meas
ures for self-protection. The Better CITY
Government league should step to the
front and as<'ert itself without delay. The
Herald has no purpose to play the alarm
ist but in the belief that the situation
is really critical it urges all good citizens
irrespective of party affiliations, to make
themselves heard and felt in movement