The San Francisco call., 1898-04-02

 'ishable upon conviction thereof, by i'm prisonment in the State prison for not less than one year nor more than seven years.
 The words "as aforesaid" refer to paragraph of section 19, which reads as follows:
 To give, offer or promise any office. place or employment, or to promise to procure, or endeavor to procure. any of- flee, place or employment.
 It is claimed that McNeil requests Smiths aid to secure his (McNeiPs) election where in his letter he says: You cannot be elected Mayor; 1t is physical impossibility. With your aid I can be-" How that aid can be ex- tended Mir. McNeil explains in the sen- tence which opens this article.
 It is but justice to MT. Smith to state that the first knowledge of this letter was obtained by The Call from a mem Der of the Charter Club. MT. Smith had confided it's contents to a number of his friends in that organization. When MT. Smith was asked if he had received such a letter he replied in the affirmative, but it was with the great est reluctance and only after he had taken counsel with his friends and an attorney that he consented to allow the letter to be made public. The reason he gave for permitting this pub licity was that he and his friends con- sidered that the letter was one that did not concern his interests alone, but those of the entire Charter Club ticket and the welfare of the city of San Jose He had also been advised by the attor- ney whom he consulted that he was un der neither a moral nor legal obliga tion to consider his communication as confidential. It related, as was told, to
 
 to San Jose, and virtually sought to make the recipient an accessory to what was considered to be a felony. In the course of an interview with MT. McNeil he virtually admitted having written this letter to MT. Smith, and showed clearly by his unwarranted abuse of that gentleman that he has hoped to impose what appears to be an unfair and unlawful confidence upon that gentleman.
 DO you recognize that as part of a let ter written to Mir. S. E. Smith, the can didate of the Charter Club?" asked The Call correspondent, at the same time :taining the following words: If you will consent to permit the withdrawal of your name for the Mayorality, you can com mand me and my services for any office present or future, within my power" Il can't say just now, replied MT. Me ! Neil, whether l recognize all the words that are on this slip or not. I can give you definite answer by comparing them with a letter l wrote a short time ago. | Would you like me to compare this slip with my letter"'
 ':HeS, sir
 The text of this particular part of the purity of elections law was handed to MT. McNeil LOT his perusal.
 T see nothing in this section," said Mr. McNeil, "at all applicable to any private letter I may have addressed. l have made no offers to any person. I have endeaVored to seure the withdrawal of a man who cannot be elected 4Iayor of San Jose. As an earnest of my sincerity, and as further evidence of my wishes for the welfare of this city, I also wrote several other letters to different members of the New Charter Club, in which I urged the withdrawal of MT. Smith, not that I ob- ject to the gentleman, but because l be- lieve he cannot be elected"
 Do you claim that those words re- ferred to in your letter were not an offer to contribute a valuable consideration to Mir. Smith in consideration of his with drawing as a. candidate for. public of flee, namely, that of Mayor?"
 'I do claim that most emphatically and unequivocally. You may put it in capi- tai letters if you wish. I am not now engaged in crooked politics.
 Was not that an offer of valuable consideration"
 No, sir"
 "Why?"
 Because it was not, and by no stretch
 
 as. such"
 Was not the offer of an office valu- able consideration"'
 4I have made no offer of any office or any valuable consideration or anything else to secure anything whatsoever. 1 am not now engaged in that line of business. Moreover, l wish to to- express press o,,n1 to you my my @ public office, man who claims his re- ligion is purity, man who would rue or ruin this city. l say l look With With ,II SUI violate a personal communication ad- dressed to him and who will endeavor to use that personal eommunicatlon to an. an. one object in giving you any words l might have addressed him. That object is wholly to take mean, baStardly, disreputable advantage of me at this time It has no excuse whatsoever, and stamps him as one beneath the respect of decent men"
 '"There is another portion of this purity of elections law that, IL is claimed, is violated by these words. This is section 1g, paragraph 3.
 After perusing this paragraph of the law Mr McNeil remarked:
 That is another section that suits your convenience to imagine is being violated that way instead of the way you worded it. If you can see any possible connec- ton between my letteE-to MT. Smith and attention you have a more fiorid imagina- ton than you have yet exhibited, and I credited you with considerable of that article"
 In further explanation of the writing of the letter to MT. Smith the follow ing statement was made by MT. Me- Neil:
 .The date for withdrawal expired last Saturday night, and my letter to MT. Smith and to several other gentlemen who belong to the New Charter Club was wholly for the purpose of securing not only better government in San Jose, but, if possible, the nomination of man who stood some chance of election. I would furthermore state now that Mir Smith has shown himself to be the acme of i'm purity in politics; that throughout this campaign, in his flippant. arrogant and uncalled for remarks relative to my can didacy. he is carrying out or extending the cunning that has characterized his course ever since the new charter has existed" :"
 Tn view of the serious predicament that McNeil has apparently placed