The San Francisco call., 1898-08-10
CritiCiZeS Statements of Lady .".s Trustees of the Sailors |" Home Society.
Takes Exception to the Action of the Super =" Vsors in Again Giving Them Lease of the Institution.

.:- secretary of the board of trustees of :the Ladies' Seamens Friend Society :: and placed on file by the City Fathers = OF Monday last:
 Te. the Editor of The Call-Dear Sir: In this mornings issue of your paper you publish a document entitled An Open = Letter to the Board of Supervisors In that document the epithets 'scurrilous, .Qefamatory and incorrect are applied to
 a series Of articles in the Monitor Of last May written by it's then editor" As
 now was eor then df tbe edsG M6ntor and t my duty to take notice of this produc- ton. do this the more willingly that 1t gives me an opportunity of putting be- fore: the public certain facts that the pub He should know, and of explaining cer- {ain'teatures in policy concerning which, I Relieve, at least section of the public feels an interest.
 =. I might have been deterred from this lndertaking did consider that the names or the women signed to the letter repre- :. sented its authors. The natural respect :due. to their sex, not to speak of the rev. Z. ..erenee which of right belongs to ladies :: who: courageously confess to forty years of work in this institution, would lead inc to suffer in silence, even though they appear to have borrowed the vocabulary ~oi the inmates of the home. But the redundancy and character of their ad .1ectiYes betray the literary style affected in prescriptions for the sure cure of fits and the subsequent fate of the document shows that It emanates from braggart WIfo mas courage to night only when shielded by petticoat and against a foe Tl{oi he thinks, Is not in a position to fight back.
 There are two distinct issues raised by this letter, the question of the Sailors Home and the question of the Supervi- : speak: clearly and at length. For what ]. have to. say about the Sailors Home l should owe an apology to the ladies con .nected with the institution, were it not that by the loan of their names they in- eur. the responsibility of reopening the diSeussion. For what l have to say of Thft: iOritV of the ROar6 of SnnarVi- sorss Lowe no apology to- the honorable . members of that delectable combination. < :>< THE SAILORS HOME.
 My: position on the matter of the Sail : ors.. 0uie was explained so often and a such: length in the Monitor that there is no: excuse for the misrepresentation in :-tndVlge. The Sailors Home is now muni- : ciPaI ;property Originally it belonged to Ihe: United States. By Congress 1t was ,transferred to the City of San Francisco. No Thatter how or by whom that transfer was effected the Sailors Home was .botght by. the money of the people, and -:bu1. the property of the people
 >F:oT: many years the Sailors Home was ladies, seamenn's i' Friend Society. This body 'sublet the premises to manager, nE b6arng house pag an6 pad t the society certain percentage of the proceeds.
 The. lease under which the Ladies Sea men-s Friend Society held the premises was given only for few years at time. This year it expired, and as 1 am inform ed. the Ladies Seamen's Friend Society made no application for its renewal. When this fact became known another society applied to the Board of Supervi- sQfs for @ lease The application how ever seemed to infuse new vigor into the ancient body, and the fight began, with the. result of which your readers are fla In matters that are purely political, so- ciaI or economic it Is the IP2.olicy of the ultimate disposal of the lease of the Sailors Home would be matter of in difference to me were it not for the sec tRrfan character of the old society. l took public property and that public property : .sh0Ild not be placed in the control of a sectaTian body. Against this stand no Legitimate argument can be advanced by those who subscribe to the principles of eur constitution.
 =. At the same time I was careful to go ::on. record as declining to interfere be- the broad ground that this was a queS- lion of sectarianism or non-sect tarianisn. | afid that 1t was the duty of the Board Of Supervisors to give the contract of the home only to a society that would Col dgct:it according to the law.
 The majority of the board, however, for 1 req Sons best known to the members com | ,'postflg the same, disregarded all the pro | prQperty. to sectarian body, and gave a lease to the old society On this ac- tion l commented, as was my privilege. | -catfon: of that comment the old society is. stirred up to come before the board | and Ghsracterize my words a as unjust, and incorrect"
 (A) A SECTARIAN INSTITUTION.
 The first point, therefore. to be settled is the sectarian or non-sectarfan charac- | ter of the Ladies' seamen's Friend So- ciety. In support of my contention as l to it's sectarian nature I beg to submit | the following facts | The society was composed exclusively of Protestants. Half of the population of the city of San Francisco is Catholic, yet there was no room for single Catholic in this society, which was battening on city property. Many of the sailors who come i to this coast are Catholics. yet there was not a Catholic woman in this association l which professed to look after the sailors
 9 Sectarianism was interwoven into the l very constitution of the society. The meetings of the members began with re- l 1igious exercises and those religious exer- 1 cises were distinctively Protestant. They consisted of precisely the same elements | which the highest courts in this country | have decided to be sectarian when em- l ployed in public schools.
 g. The ladies of the society were aecus- | toned to hold sectarian religious services l for the inmates of the home. These relig- | fous services appear from the description given. of them to have been prayer meet ings, which are a species of religious ex- ercise distinctiyely Protestant
 4. The frank admission has been made | that while Protestant ministers were in yited to hold services in the Home, there | is no record that a Catholic priest was
  priests who live near the institution have. always been under the impression that | they were not wanted at the Sailors Home.
 B. To accentuate the sectarianism of She institution, the society hired a Pro- .eestant preacher to act as chaplain. This | person perpetrated a report in which he went out. of his way to sheer at monks, and this report was printed by the so- ciety' at time when the A. P A was making this town ring with denunciations of Catholic monks and nuns
 '.:6 The vile publications of bigots, the ob- scene weeklies produced by jail birds were supplied lavishly to the sailors It is not known that a single Catholic paper ever found its way into the reading room. With a chaplain who was also librarian it is safe to wager that pernicious Papist literature was kept outside the doors.
 Tn opposition to all this the open let ter alleges that mo inquiry into the de- nomination of the sailors religious be- lief is ever asked, nor that of any mem fees It may be true that no such ..in-