The San Francisco call., 1899-02-26
Charges Made of Mis-
use Of Funds.
A SUIT SOON TO BE FILED
PURITY OF ELECTIONS COMMIT
TEE rs ACCUSED.
Interesting Disclosures Are Expected
to Result From Taking the Mat
ter Into Court-Obtained
Money From Phelan.

A row Of large proportions and one
which promises some interesting oevelop-
rnents is brewing in the ranks OF the
Populists of San Francisco. In fact, the
row has been under way for some uihe
past and is now approaching crltlcai
stage. It all started over the fight for
the control of the party machinery ana
a suit which, 1t is authoritatively stated.
will be filed in the Superior Court within
the next ten days is likely to be the me-
dium of q series of exposures or the
methods Of certain POpuist leaders, and
even men outside the party, which Will
greatly surprise the rank and file or that
political organization and the public gen
orally.
The suit referred to will be directed at
the purity of the elections committee OF
the Peoples Party, demanding an ac-
counting of the funds intrusted TO It's
care during the recent campaign. Inc
members of this committee are A. B.
Kline, G. d. Gillespie, B. j. Pie, Henry
Huppert and NJ. Meakin. 1t is charged
that the campaign fund was misapplled
and an accounting will be demanded. In
support of the proposed petition the men
who are back of the suit claim they are
in possession of evidence that Will not
only prove that the members of the COM
mittee were false to their trust in the
expenditure of the money, but that they
played into the hands of the Democrats
for a cash consideration.
Mayor Phelan is one of those who are
alleged to have contributed good hard
money IN order to secure the support OF
the accused PopulistS, and 1t is further
charged that the Mayor is al present en-
gagged in an effort to secure control of
the party machinery for the furtherance
of his political ambition. Phelan, so the
kickers say, already controls the eXecu-
tive committee and by reason of this fact
charges filed with that body against the
purity of the elections committee have re-
ceiVed little consideration. That body
did appoint 4 subcommittee a short time
ago to Investigate the charges and its
conclusions We're contained in majority
cred by the executive committee at it's
meeting last Tuesday night. The out
come of the matter was a WhiteWash for
the accused committeeman.
According to its report filed with Regis
trar Of Elections, the committee collected
and expended during the campaign about
$780, 1t is charged that they in reality
collected a much larger sum, and the
Populists who make the charges of crook
ednesS want to know what became of the
surplus. Not only that, but they want
TO know by what authority the members
of the committee paid themselves nice fat
salaries out of the money contributed for
campaign purposes. Phelan 1t is said
amount through Charles f. Fay. The
contribution from the latter is credited
TO +. Fay, but this is regarded as a blind
The Mayor, it is claimed, made a bar
the nominating convention by which they
need their influence to secure his indorse-
ment by the POpuliStS. In return he
promised to allow Kline to retain his pO>
siuon as Health Inspector, and this prom
ise has been made good. There are
broad hints of more enticing bait being
thrown out by candidates and grabbed by
the purity of elections committeeman.