The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-21
THE INVESTIGATION.

I is no pleasure to any one concerned in uncover
ing the feculence of the Senatorial fight that It
furnishes regulations The only feeling OF The
Call in the matter is regret, dominated by stern
sense Of duty and the conviction that the interests of
great party, present charged with the destiny Of
the State and the nation, require that corruption
therein be met at the door and dubbed back, or the
patty is ruined.
The Calls connection with the matter is as open
as its motives are free from any faint OF revenge
This paper promoted the ambition Of Mr. Wright to
be Speaker To secure our advocacy he voluntarily,
soemnly and repeatedly pledged himself as to his
vote on the Senatorshp. He knew our position, and
by putting himself in line with it secured support
which he regarded as valuable enough to be worth
seeking.
He betrayed an obligation voluntarily assumed
under circumstances that at once raised the presump
ton that when he assumed it he was already con-
tracted to deliver himself in violation of it. After
skirmishing two ballots he delivered himself to
Burns. Then Mr.. Leake, holding still the perfectly
open part in the affair that The Call occupied from
the beginning, publicly reprehended the Speakers I'M
speakable treachery This open and public course on
Mr.. Leake's part discovered fellow feeling in Mr.
Green, political manager for Mr. Grant who volun-
tarly and without restraint announced that Wright's
support of Burns in betrayal of financial OBJ
legation voluntarily assumed to Grant. 1t then
apparent that Mr.. Wright had been in three camps
He had obligated himself to Burns to Grant and The
Call. The first two obligations were contractual in
Their nature, and it Immediately appeared that in
Grants case the consideration was money. In The
Calls case Wright incurred obligation solely by
solemn representations that put him in line with what
we regard as the highest and most vrtuous purposes
of the party and the best interests of the State The
consideration in the OF Burns remains to be re-
vealed
An analysis of the evidence under the rules of logic
or according to the principles laid down in Green
leaf, by the natural method taken by the painest
man in sitting truth from falsehood, leaves Mr.
Leakes testimony absolutely unimpeached. The
Oakland Enquirer calls it cold blooded" Pray
what has the Enquirer to say of Wright who in
voked his domestic relations in evidence of his oppo-
sition to Burns, and violating that Preside duty to
his good name, shifted responsibility upon the JUS
tees OF the Supreme Court promptly to be proved
liar by the full bench?
The Speaker admitted first the receipt of $50 from
Green, but 1t was to pay debt and was to be re-
turned. When confronted by the evidence he re-
membered 5000 more paid out, he says in his pri-
mary campaign At the time he swears that the
only peril to- him in the primary campaign was the
opposition OF Prngle and that he got rid of that by
paying $500 What done with the balance OF
500? By his own admission he had but one oppo-
nent and got the right of way the primary and con-
vcntion by paying him $500.
Turning now to his relations with Green, Both