The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-30
BETRAYAL
HIS LAST
RESOURCE

$3.50 8 Q o . . Q o o Q o . 0 . . 4
Friday morning Governor :
o James H. Budd, NJ. F. 2
. Tarpey and Others rep .
Q resentng Mayor James D. .
Pbehan, paid a. formal visit to .
Q Major P. !. Harney at his resi- Q
Q dencs in the Western addition . .
. and there proposed that if the .
Q Harney-Rdiney Democrats would a
o assist in the election of PheIan o
. they would be rewarded by be- . .
. ing given one-tMrd of the pat .
. ronGge at the CITY Hall, and .
. would besides be given absolute .
9 control of the Committee of One Q
q Hundred. The Rarney-Rainey .
o Democrats are those to whom @
.. PheIan has often referred to as q
o thieves, scoUndreis and black o
Q guards. The Mayors offer to - y
o turn over the party organization o
. and 0-6ig portion of the spoiis . .
Q of office was received and .
Q 'piaced on file" .
Q . 9 . Q . . Q a . o . o 9 . . . Q .
The Call has insisted from the be-
ginning that Mr.. Pheian is not the dis
interested purist which he has pro-
Iessey1 to re. but that he was simply
sordid in his ambitions and sought to
satisfy them regardless of fair play or
good faith in his party or with the pub
lie. His place in politics and in the pub
lie eye, and TO a degree in the public
confidence, has been won by an appar-
ent battle with what he has often de-
scribed as the corrupt element in his
own party. This attitude has secured
for him standing in the community
and a degree of confidence from bust
ness men whose interests require a
right administration of public affairs
AS Mayor he has been a slothful Off
GER mindful of the spectacular oppor-
tunities of his office, but wretchedly
neglectfuI of its administration, which
requires application and industry His
prestige suffered by his attempt to
oust Supervisors whom he had selected
for nomination, and his gross negli-
gence, by which the latest dishonesty
in the city treasury developed in the
presence of opportunity, resulting in
the looting of the deposits in his
charge. To win back the ground he
had lost, Mr.. Phelan put his lance in
tilt and rode against what he called the
corrupt forces in his own party. He
publicly despaired of an honest pri-
mary, because Harvey and Rainey
would run it, and in the dust which he
succeeded in raising he built up the
Committee of One Hundred and en-
dowed it with all the authority of party
organization. He put it in motion as a
county convention to make delegation
to the State convention, and appeared
in the latter body to plead that it be
seated, by painting a black picture of
Harvey, his general committee, his
delegation elected at an open primary.
and his intentions-if he got the small
est fraction Of public patronage. Seat
ing his non-elected delegation by a
promise that his Committee of One
Hundred would call a primary for
city convention, he returned to San
Francisco, procured of that committee
a refusal to call primary, and induced
it to organize itself into a city conven-
ton for the nomination of municipal
ticket, of which he is the head.
For a time these acts and professions
Of Phelan were taken in good faith by
the people and procured for him much
public sympathy and support. Repub
licans were impressed by his apparent
sincerity and were inclined to support
him. Then came his anarchistic out
break against the State Supreme Court,
which was so brutal, reckless and at
war with every American sentiment
toward the judicial safeguards of life
and property that his Republican sup
port fell away more rapidly than 1t had
been built up. All up and down the
streets where our wholesale business is
done and all up and down the streets
where San Francisco retail trade is To-
Gated and in shops and ship yards the
sttack upon the courts was discussed |
ard Phelan was repudiated.
now Phelans ambition is a case of |
intellectual sciahca," and is delicately |
sensitive to the draughts He felt |
keenly the less cordial hail of men who |
had recently been warmly familiar He |
felt the ayerted face and the absence |
of repetition Of assurances Of confidence |
and support, and his scfatic ambition |
twinged and ached under the change in |
the political wind and weatbe,. TIC
found it impossible to regain the Re- /
publican and even the Non Partisan
strength he had lost by invoking ponu-
lar vengeance upon the courts and bv
a most ignorant statement of the dutv
OF the bench in interpreting staeutas /
and in the agonies of his suffering am
bition turned for support to the men
and the elements he had denounced
and spat upon. On Friday night he