The San Francisco call., 1898-11-07
Oakland Office San Francisco Call,

Oakland is a railroad town, but not, therefore, a corral of slaves. This re- mark is suggested by Judge Magu1re's s speech in this city last Thursday night wherein he referred to the coercion or railroad employees, leaving the impress sion that they are like herd Of ami mals, driven to and fro by the leash of any manipulation who orders them to vote according to the commands or their employer. These remarks have aroused much indignation among the hundreds, aye, thousands, of honorable men employed in this county by the railroad company. That it is absolutely false is proved by the fact that on nu- rnerous occasions candidates for offlce known to be violently opposed to ralI- road dominance and influence have been elected by large maJorities over candidates known to be more favorable to the corporation. Even at the last Republican primary Henry F. Dalton' whom no one will accuse of being in favor of railroad influence in politics, brought in a solid delegation from the First Ward, which his own organ al ways refers to as a railroad strong hold.
 MT. Mcguire did not properly gauge the temperament of the men he thus maligned as slaves and hirelings. Everybody doing business in this clty knows that the railroad men are the very best customers they can nave. Merchants are confident that twenty four hours after the pay car passes through the city they will receive their bills and it is common talk that It Is easier to collect from railroad employees than any other single body or men Tn this county Without the thousands Of n railroad company many Of her business houses would be crippled. At the pres ent time the railroad company has more men employed than at any period for the past ten years All summer an army of men were engaged building the new Harrison-street bridge, the ap- breaches to it and laying tracks up Webster street; at the mole another army of men is now engaged widening the depot, laying extra tracks for the twenty minute ferry service soon to go into effect, and in building bulkheads for the reclamation of the water front. For any one to characterize these men as slaves who can be corraled at the crack of a whip held by railroad boss, is infamous and TO one knows its abSo- Iute untruthfuiness better than MT. Mcguire These men are certainly no less intelligent than their critic, and 1t Is not to be supposed that votes for the fusion candidate were made by such deliberate insults.
 Evidently after referring to the op- pression and coercion of corporations MT Mcguire realized his great mistake, for he adroitly completed his circular argument by taking 1t all back He wound up this period by saying that the railroad boss could not go into the ballot box with his honest employe and therefore said employe could. after aII do exactly as he pleased with his red rubber stamp This species of non sense characterized MT. Mcguire s speech throughout.
 Neither are honest Oakland voters to be entrapped by MT. Maguire's so- phistical allusion to the single tax. At the outset he stated that it was un- doubtedly the coming panacea for every social and economic ailment from which this nation is now suffering. A little later he admitted that the single tax was yet in its primitive and edu- cationaI stage" and was very little understood. Still later he said that the Governor of the State of Cali fornia would have no power whatever to inaugurate the single-tax system, and he took great pleasure to explain that his pet idea is so thoroughly op- posed to the spirit of the constitution of this State that such a movement could only begin by an amendment to that constitution. In other words, MT. sMaguire stated that the single tax is a grand invention. but that he Is will ing to throw all kinds of mud at 1t if by doing so he can gather in few votes. For using many words and landing at the same place he started, the Judges speech was only a little less inferior to that of J. Aubrey Jones.
 Incidentally MT. Mcguire supplied the Republican county candidates with the best argument they could possibly have. "The State of California has spent a good deal of money and twenty-three years of time," said MT. Mcguire, "in educating me to be a statesman. Now I do not See what good argument can be advanced why 1t should cast aside a tried and true man and take up an apprentice" If this argument be good for MT. Mcguire, 1t is certainly good for his followers. In this campaign there are many tried and true county officials seeking re- election. Some of them have serV d the county faithfully and honestly for half dozen years and are still enjoy ing the confidence of their employers. Perhaps Mr. Mcguire is right, and 1t Is to be hoped that his scattering of fol- lowers in this county will take his ad- vice-to some extent No good reason can be advanced why County Clerk Jordan should not be trusted with an-
 
 truthfully be said that no other County Clerk in the history of Alameda has ever done such economical faithful and thorough work in his department as the bounty Clerk His bitterest po- litical enemies acknowledge the merit of this statement. Jordan had a little opposition in his own party. It is. however, a fact that such opposition emanated from a source that is calcu- lated to help his election rather than to hinder it. Many of the issues upon which MT. Jordan made his last cam paign are deader than Dead Sea ap- pies, and there is a general desire to 6quelch any one who revives them. He now stands out as a tried and true" official, and MT. Mcguire has said that he should be reelected.
 The same is true of Tax Collector Barber MT. Barber has been in the Tax Collectors office for six years, and although some departments of the county government have not been what they should be. Mir. Barber's of flee has always been above criticism.