The San Francisco call., 1898-01-07
ANCERED BY FAIR PLAY OF
 THE CALL Los Angeles Papers in Spasms Over
 w ebb. They Have Evidently United in Selecting Him
 for a Victim. However, the Violations of the Law by Braly Are
 Overlooked. PECULIAR PROSECUTIONS. Men Most Active in the Los Angeles School Scandal Connected With
 Corporations.
However, the Violations of the Law by Braly Are
 Overlooked.
PECULIAR PROSECUTIONS.
Men Most Active in the Los Angeles School Scandal Connected With
 Corporations.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6.-Two of the local papers are in spasms of blind anger over what they assume to term The Calls defense of Walter L. Webb, the accused member of the Board of Education. No attempt is made to deny or refute the facts and circumstances comprised in the signed statement of the accused man, nor of the offenses placed at the door of School Director and Banker Braly and others, who are positively known to be guilty of crimi- nal acts.
 It is a notorious fact that three of the local papers, the Times, Herald and Express, have condemned Webb and have assumed him to be guilty in the face of the admitted fact that no legal evidence has been adduced to connect Webb with the bribery that has been predicted. They have published gar bled reports, distorted out of all sem blance to the testimony and develop ments, and have apparently combined to punish Webb, whether he be guilty or innocent.
 Not only have they done this. but they have willfully ignored facts which showed the guilt of a leader in the present movement for municipal re- form. Two of these papers, the Times and Express, to-day actually took up the defense of a man who they must know is guilty of more heinous crime, according to the law, than that charged against Webb Reference is made to the case of J. A. Braly, the School Director and banker, who en- gagged in the shaving of teachers war rants in clear violation of the laws of the State.
 Every fair-rninded and impartial citizen of this city admits that Webb | has not been given fair treatment by | the local press. and it was simply in | deference to this sentiment, which is | rapidly growing, that The Call under | took to give the facts inthis unfortu- nate affair as they actually existed.
 It is not the question of Webb's | guilt or innocence that is just now | expressing attention, but the subject l of fair and just treatment to all con- cerned. All that The Call has under taken to do in this matter is to give the news-not to distort or pervert any fact or circumstance-but to simply give the facts as they develop and leave the public to form its own judg- ! ment.
 How thoroughly and unfairly the Times is prejudiced is shown by the following paragraph in it's half col umn editorial attack on The Call:
 Another member of the School Board, against whom no charges have been found, is stigmatized in a most uncomplimentary manner and his bus mess Is referred to after a fashion that may be libelous." The other mem ber' here referred to by the Times is J. H. Braly. It is true that mo charges have been found" against him, and therein is where justice and the League for Better City Govern ment and the Times. the Herald and the Express have failed.
 In the case of MT. Braly who is a member of the League. by the way, the evidence is incontrovertible, it is doc umentary and the facts constituting the violations of the law by him are admitted by that gentleman.
 In the case of Webb, the evidence is acknowledged, even by his enemies, to be of a very precarious character. Not a few people are now asking "Why does not the League for Better City Gov ernment, if it is sincere in its work of cleaning out the rascals, take action against Braly, Cooper, Rhode, Morris and Clara Schroeter, at least to the ex- tent of having them removed from their positions by the Board of Edu- cation?"
 As part of its editorial attack, the Express has this to say of the Call: ''It sets forth the conspiracy story which he that hath ears long enough
 
 } brutal and utterly unwarranted at tack on another member of the board and deliberate effort to injure his business interests"
 This much the Express states and nc
 more. Where the brutality figures ir
 disclosing the guilt of J. H. Braly, { 5 public official, it fails to say. Nor does 1t show in what respect this is an ut terly unwarranted attack" Not a sin |, gle fact printed by The Call in rela B tion to Mir. Braly is denied by eithe g the Express or the Times. The records 5 are in the office of the City Auditor. an, whoever has any curiosity in the mat
 ter has the right to inspect them Another question asked by the peopl here and one which every fair minde,
 American citizen would like to see an
 swered by the local papers Is why hay
 these papers apparently determined t t convict Webb and to acquit Braly . It may be stated at this point tha | The Call stands ready at this and al : times to aid in the eradication of cor :. ruption, in the punishment of corrup : tionists ana In the establishment o . good government. Webb may be gull - ty, and many people believe he is, bu ]. no one has been found by The Call cor :. respondent who does not admit tha : there has been no legal testimon
 brought out against him.
 A prominent attorney and a gentle
 man who believes that Webb may b
 guilty of the charges preferred agains him thus expresses what is the senti u ment of the better and conservativ Q people:
 r. There is no question that the loca !. papers, with the exception of the Rec 7. ord, have been bounding Webb The g have pronounced him guilty despit !, the absence of testimony to prove hir I so. He may be guilty, but if the news 's papers are to be permitted to singl > out a man and thus wantonly con
 demn him in the eyes of the public n
 man. no matter how high his standin
 in the community. is safe from sue !, attacks. 1t is unjust; 1t Is unfair; it l si un-American, and outrages the bes [ feelings of decent peOple The Call |