The San Francisco call., 1898-11-29


 pulsive figure than that of Moses H. Sherman. The Call has shown how this mans personality was intimately involved in the affairs of the Pacific Bank and the Peoples Home Savings Bank For years Sherman operated Tn devious ways to secure for himself out of the vaults of the Pacific Bank and the Peoples Home Savings Bank tre- mendous fortune. Before he began his manipulations he had passed through scenes and incidents that come to few men in their lives When he formed his great plot to place in his private purse the enormous sum of money that business men and poor people had en- trusted to the honor of the Mcdonald family he had won for himself the title of an interruptions adventurer.
 In the secret history of these institu- tions Moses H. Sherman was his own worst accuser. By his own will and in his own handwriting he asked his con- federates and his dupes to believe him dishonest. Through his own admis sions he was a .corrupter of legislatures, a tricky. dishonest competitor in busi- ness and a briber of governmental of 3 fciaIs.
 These are not the accusations of The Call, but the shameless admission of Moses H. Sherman himself.
 In his code of business ethics any dis honorable act is. legitimate. He saw no wrong in any dishonest transaction if the result of that transaction finan- cially justified it's performance. Neither this mans personality nor his methods would be of public interest were it not for the lamentable fact that thousands of people of this city suffered from his operations. The Call has already ex- posed this manipulator from many points of view. Where other black legs operated with dollars he handled hundreds of thousands. His career, therefore is of general interest to the people of this State. and The Call will show this morning how in one deal he received from the shrewdest fnanciers who everl lived on this coast S6O, GOO for bribing the. City Council of Los An geles.-
 There is absolutely no evidence to prove that Moses H. sherman ever gave a dishonest dollar to the Council of Los Angeles. There is much to indicate that he never did so, but in his horrifying greed he took the names and the honor of decent men to fill his own purse, and - in the concluding scheme of his great .. electric road deal his word that he had bought the honor of public officials was accepted and he received s60, 900 as the price of other mems honor
 The history of this deal is from it's very nature dramatic. The story Is that of the creation of the. Los Ange- les Electric Railroad and the destruc- ton of the tremendous financial inter ests that were involved in the cable oF pa tI to the credit of MT. Sherman that he never dealt in small things. When he gambled with the regulations of other men and with his own he played for high stakes When he schemed to win a fortune he schemed to make great one, and in his operations al Los An geles he played for millions. He seemed almost to be financially mad, and with the great treasury of one of the greatest banks in California behind him he began his corrupt manipulations with millions of dollars. He had against ' him as competitors such men as James C. Fair, Thomas Brown of the Bank of California and Lowell White of the San Francisco Savings Union. But Sherman was equal to the task and when the end came he was master of the situ- atiOn =.
 The history of the transaction of the alleged kribe of the City Council of Los E Angeles cannot be understood thor oughly unless. it is read in connection with the entire history of Sherman's Los Angeles Electric Railroad deal. When Sherman entered Los Angeles $ a manipulator he found that a popu- lar and profitable cable road was al- ready in existence. He had already met the McDonalds5 snd had induced Frank Mcdonald to indorse and support the Phoenix property, which subsequently proved to be such a disastrous specula- tion to the Pacific Bank and the Peo- ple's Home Savings Bank. Having won an unexpected measure of success in Phoenix, Sherman,:fn 1889, went to Los Angeles and ingratiated himself into the confidence of the owners of the To- peka Rapid Transit Company. This concern possessed several franchises in Los Angeles, and: operated certain road. Wben Sherman came upon the scene the Topeka Rapid Transit Com pany needed money Through the ef- forts of sherman the company receiv- ed from the Peoples Home Savings Bank a loan of s25 GOO This was con- sidered, in'VieW of the condition of the company, as an unusually gracious ac- commodation on the part of. the bank When the money tecame due, how ever, it. was promptly paid
 This started the great Los Angeles electric deal. Certain officers of the Peoples Home Savings Bank had strongly objected to tn loan, ad for a time there was considerable friction; but there was a sugG c5tion that the Pa cific Bank would assume. the loan, and fine affair was adjusted. Sherman in A all this deal. had acted secretly as the agent of the Topeka Rapid Transit Company At hat time there was a real estate boom in Los Angeles, and the people of the city were eager to support any enterprise that promised an improvement to the town. Sher- man. of course. was far-seeing. and in- tended If he could, to yet possession of ths coInnany and the railroad which he