The San Francisco call., 1898-10-10
TRYING ID
 SAIL UNDER
 FALSE FLAGS Bogus Argument of the Candidates. FAIR PLAY ASSURED ALL NEED OF A STATESMAN AT THE CITY HALL. Experience of a Visitor With a City Official - Impressions
 That Have Gone
 Abroad.
FAIR PLAY ASSURED ALL
NEED OF A STATESMAN AT
 THE CITY HALL.
Oakland omce San Francisco Call.


 County to possess their souls and bodies in patience. There is certainly no need to become hysterical. The regular RepubH- can ticket, it is true, has aroused some opposition within the ranks of the party, and an independent movement is said to be threatening all kinds of calamities at the polls These independents, 1t seems. to me, are wasting great deal of energy and thunder. They are decrying the methods of everything done under the au- thority of the regular Republican party of the county. They even go behind the primaries and declare that before they were held the ticket had been made up, and that primaries and convention were merely for the purpose of binding the
 Now all this may be true or false it matters not; The public ma. be fooled cans of Alameda County cannot fool it Rorever-neither can the independents.
 It is safe to assume that owing to the widely scattered and broad nature of the news supplied to the intelligent peoP!e of this county, each voter Is now coShl- Zant of all the facts. and can deduce nlS own conclusions. Each voter can decide for himself the man or his cnOlce Tor every office. There is no compulsion and no necessity for the regulars 10 TlaIic4te the independents or for the independents to heap Obloquy on the regulars. All nave been before the public and held taelr con- veutions made their nominations, and followed up this by that complicated SES- tenn of effort known as campaigning. The time has passed when voters can have a ticket forced down their throa!s- The candidate who Is turned down at the because of its alleged crookedness Is In better position financially than the man who receives a party noInaanHallon, aHe. @ aila td certainly has no excuse to lnfict upon the public his grievances, because they nave all been provided for and the remedy is in his own hands.
 It would be we'll for every candidate who Is running as an lndepenue5nt of o4 refresh his memory with the purity oI election law That law makes it cheaper easier and perhaps better for candldaIe to get his name before the puDlc;; ..Io II costs him absolutely nothlng put HtIe effort and perhaps a dimes worth or sta tionery-ceTtainIy no more. The ouceIs Of the law are bound just as nuc4 70 ulace his name on the ballot as those ] nominated at party conNenuons mere ! is ahsolUtelv no cause for kicking against party discipline for each man IS the Sole judge of his own ambition and ntness Tor office and no one can prevent nm rom acting as he pleaSeS.
 Having these privileges. what ground has an independent for reYlhng party for not nominating him? The voters 11 ma his name placed before them Tn the PoH- ing booth just as plainly and just as 1alr- ly as they do those Of the regular par ties The only possible objection a man can have with the ballots now in use IS that his name begins nearer to ~ than A ." and surely no sane man VIII De dlS- gruntled on this account.
 Since it is evident that the name of every candidate. party or non-partisan' will get before the voters, 1t will be inter- esting this November. especially, to no- ice the verdict of the county regarding the people running for offices. Although there were mistakes made at San Le- andro. there were possibly few made at Gerrnania Hail by the independents, and vet do not think that the preponderence of public support will be accorded the CierTnania Hall ticket There are good men among it's candidates, and the Tact that some are Democrats and others nave no political party signihei4infe' tEeI %lIi Wi all appear as Independent cahalq@'G9, and no one will be on hana so Dirant believes in sound money or pro, lection or faVors two or one JuSuSGS5s courts for the city or +eI5 EahIaru 11.snt anS r surely nothing fairer can be desifed Dy any candidate, no matter what hls Po- ltical belief.
 Since so much liberty in the matter of desecrating public parks highways and private property is allowed the candi- dates who wish to place their illustrated cards before the voters, there can be no objection made by independent candi- dates that they cannot get their names before the public. While certain sources of supplying information may not care to exploit every mans views ana to sup port them all. the telegraph posts, couhty road fences and blind walls are Iree Io
  without let or hindrance and without any cost except that of material that IL VIII be entirely his own fault II on NoNeihpet he should discover that ne was Ilol sufficiently known. Everybody Is assured of fair play and surely no cltlzen "iiose exalted opinion of himself and his CIVIC J11fv induces him to run for office would desire any unfair advantage over any other candidate.
 The muddle that now exists at the City Hall is perhaps the best object lesson pos sible of the necessity of party discipline in municipal government The present officials most of them creatures or ..coumittee of twenty-one," which was and is yet a mystery, are responsible Io no narfv platform for their actions and as a result Oakland is presenting lnqls- a n1i+a ble proof that Rev. Mir Whitaker fold the visiting Baptists the truth last week by declaring this to be the City or TTads There is no sympathy between a6y tUyo of the excessive number or branches of the city government and 1t seems to be impossible to bI1ng aoout il;i5 maL5 Hony. Consequently, there IS sIuRIo R sduabble over the tax levy and all the State has been informed that the free library has been closea, that ] tlae Sortio of the present fiscal year, that the streets cannot be cleaned, that in the very hearI of the city is a disease-breeding laKe anu from all this the natural inference IS drawn that Oakland's city government consists of a star aggregation or RoHtaacaaI aa marionettes, bent on destroying the Ialr name of their city Nor is this oVerdrawn it is actually short of the truth. A stranger to Oakland called on city official last Saturday, telling him he had couple of hours to spare and asked where he could pleasantly spend the time. ''We have no park, no public museum, no pie ture gallery, the public library is closed just now, but there is the lake" The official was saying when he was inter rupted.
 Lake Merritt-that cesspool?" asked the man from Los Angeles, and then an ad1ournment was taken to a saloon, where the official told the visitor that we had recently witnessed half a dozen po- Nucal conventions and that there are more independent candidates for office than even Oakland has known in the past and that there were seven political 'demon- stratlons to choose from in the evening The visitor crossed the bay on the next ferry boat.
 Under existing conditions oaAandzcar-