The San Francisco call., 1899-05-14
FAVORS LICENSING
GAMBLING HOUSES
Suggestion of Sacra-
mento's Grand Jury.
CENSURES CITY OFFICIALS
FAILURE TO ENFORCE THE LAW
CONDEMNED.
County Board OF Supervisors Accused
of Having Neglected the
Affairs of It's
Charge.
cENSUREs CITY OFFICIALS
FAILURE TO ENFORCE THE LAW
CONDEMNED.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

SACRAMENTO, May 13.-The Grand
tervals for several months, this evening
filed its report. The most interesting
feature of the document is it's treat
ment of the gambling question. No in
dictments are found against any of the
officials for malfeasance, but they are
soundly raped for their failure to en-
force the law.
Within the past year many grotesque
demonstrations have been made toward
the enforcement of the statutes against
prohibited games. An edict inspired
by the Mayor would issue from the of
flee of the police department, directing
the officers to arrest all offenders. A
faro dealer and Chinese lottery agent
or two would be given a ride jailward
in the patrol wagon and at the spec
tacle there would be much rejoicing in
the ranks of the lawabiding. Minis
terial unions would pass resolutions ex-
preSsive of their satisfaction at the
heroic opposition of the Mayor against
the hosts of evil and the impression
would go abroad that the moral atmos-
phere of the town had been materially
clarified. But the searchers for the
tigers lair would have no difficulty in
finding that animal at its accustomed
stand, and in less than week from the
manifestation of administrative virtue
things would be running at the same
old gait
Meantime a considerable number of
citizens who remembered the miles of
streets improved under the system of
licensing of gambling followed when
John Q. Brown was Mayor twelve
years ago would urge as the only
remedy the return of the license plan.
The Grand Jury appears to share this
idea of a corrective measure for the
evil, although under the existing State
law no municipality has the authority
to license or otherwise legaliZe gam
bling. Here is the way the Grand Jury
treats the subject in the report just
filed:
an extent that should arrest the attention
of every thoughtful mind in the comun-
ity, as not the slightest effort is being
whose duty it is to carry into effect the
laws of the commonwealth prohibiting
gambling to suppress the the many many illegal Legal
Poolrooms, keno, faro and Chinese lot
teries, besides the innumerable games to
patronized by those who are possessed of
what might be justly termed a most
vicious form of avarice; and who. in IN, the
and quit with nothing.
1t is a sad commentary upon the effl-
cheney of our laws when the chief magls-
trate of the city will admit that illegal
games are carried on, but that he is
poWerless to suppress them. We recon-
mend that measures be taken looking TO
the entire suppression or the licensing Oh
gambling.
Having thus disposed of the city Off
cials, the report takes a shy at the
coi1ptIy ranch q follows.
The Board of Supervisors has not given
to the business of the county that careful
consideration that the people have the
right to expect from those officials. The
lack of system, sound judgment and buSl-
ness sense which they have evinced in
public matters would soon wreck any pri-
Vate enterprise.
While it is not probable that any at
tention will be paid to the report of
the Grand Jury on the gambling ques-
is good ground for it's criticisms. The
Chinese lotteries are especially AFRO
giant. and it is not an uncommon thing
to find Chinese laundrymen acting as
agents for these lotteries on their visits
to households The police make an ar
rest now and then, but no real effort
has yet been made to wipe out this
form of gambling, which, with it's two
daily drawings, operates as heavy
tax upon the resources of hundreds OF
people. The criticism which the report
finds against the gamblinP practiced in
the rear of cigar stores, which young
men and even boys patronize, is also
regarded as we'll directed, although II
is not deemed at all likely that these
pernicious games will be broken up.