The San Francisco call., 1898-03-24
BOSS REA
 CALLED DOWN
 ONCE MORE A Letter That Exon erated Council man Jarman Did Not Get a Commission on Selling a Steam
 Roller. Damage Suit That Would Seem to Be Likely to
 Stick.
GANGS CHANGE OF PLAN.
The Leaders Clearly LabOring Un- der the DelusiOn That They
 Are the People.
Special Dispatch to The Call.


 SAN JOSE, March 23.-Beyond ques- tion the sensation in the present cam paign was the suit brought by J. P. Jarman against Jim Req for $50,00O damages on two counts charging slan- der and the incident which immediately led to the suit.
 According to Jarman's statement Req charged him on the public street in the presence of a number of wit nesses with having taken money as an inducement to vote for the purchase and payment of steam roller by the city.
 Req, in an interview, denied that he had made any direct cnarges against Jarman, but said he told Jarman he thought Jarman had received money in this connection. Req went further and declared that he knew money had been paid. The man who had dis pensed the corruption fund, he said, had told him to whom the money had been paid and the amount each man received.
 When pressed to make public the names and everything he knew in ref erence to this transaction he declined on the ground that he did not want to bowl anybody out"
 J. H. Maggard acted as the agent of the company which sold the steam roll CT to the city. His attention has evil dently been called to the manner in which his reputation and that of the company he represented has been placed in question by the unqualified charge of bribery involved in Rea' s avoWal.
 In the following communication. which reached the correspondent of The Call to-day, Maggard makes full and emphatic denial of the things of which Req claims he has positive knowledge, and at the same time fur nishes facts which completely exoner- ate Jarman. Maggard's letter, in full, reads:
 To the Editor of The Call: I see by the public print that 1t is charged that there was $900 paid on the purchase of a steam roller to some of the Councilmen of the city of San Jose, and that S400 thereof was paid to J. r. Jarman. Since 1 was the person who represented the corporation which manufactured the steam roller in question, and who made the sale of the said roller to the said city, I deem it due to me and to the public to say that l did not pay, nor cause to be paid, to the Councilmen, nor to any Councilman, of the city of San Jose, either directly or otherwise. or to J. F. Jarman, either di- rectly or otherwise, any money or prop erty of any kind, nor did 1 ever promise or offer to do so, in the sale of the said steam roller to said city, nor did l ever authorize or request any one to do so. The records show the price for which the roller was offered to the city and the amount paid for the same, and l desire to say further that this class and size of roller was never offered to the city of San Jose, nor to any other city on this coast, nor to any individual, for any less sum.
 I respectfully ask that you publish the above in your valuable paper Yours truly, J. H. MAGGARD.
 At the last meeting of the Council an attempt was made by Councilman Nolting, supposedly at the instigation of Req, to make it appear that Jarnan had presented claims against the city for payment for materials and work that were not legal The matter was referred to City Attorney J. R. Welsh for an opinion. The opinion was sub- mitted this evening. Nolting has as- serted that the indebtedness had not been legally contracted. The merits of the matter were not touched upon by the City Attorney in his opinion. This simply stated that the claims had not been verified and that they failed to state by what authority the goods had been furnished or the services perform ed. In concluding the opinion read as follows:
 These claims not being regularly. and and Its action thereon, am not at this time called upon to pass upon their merits They cannot in their present form be legally acted upon by this body.
 Nolting made another play in the i.i- terests of the gang" this evening by moving that the Street Superintendent be authorized to employ additional men for street cleaning, notwithstanding that the street fund is not now suffi- cient to meet expenses until the end of the year. The motion, after Mayor Koch had called attention to the finan- cial situation, failed of a second
 This attempt to incur further in- debtedness on the now depleted street fund is looked upon simply as a gal lery play to make votes for the gang
 The extravagant regime of the gang" was strikingly illustrated to- night in the consideration of claims due the San Jose Water Company fol water furnished last summer fol sprinkling the streets. The aggregate amount of this companys claim is $5713 05.
 The bill for water furnished in Jun. is $1492. This was approved by tn, Council tonight, but there is onl, $8S8 r in the street contingent fund from which all these bills must b, paid. It is a violation of the charte for the Council to pass bills in excess of the fund from which they must b. paid.
 In view of the dissolution of the tenn porary injunction restraining tn Council from passing the street-sweep ing and fire-alarm system contract over the Mayors veto, it was though the Council would attempt to consum mate these contracts, but no actiol whatever was taken in regard to them
 For reasons not made public 1t ha