The San Francisco call., 1899-01-23
FALSE CLAIM OF POWER
Last Desperate Effort Of
the Man From Mexico to
Capture the Sena=
tOrship.

CALL HEADQUARTERS, SACRA-
MENTO, Jan. 22.-The members of the
Assembly are hereby given notice tnat
Colonel D. NJ Burns lays claim to the
power to make them vote as he wishes.
He has given Speaker Howard Z. Wright
a promise that the Assembly will not pun
ish him for having received the sum of
$3.50 from u. S. Grant, through Milton j.
Green, in return for a promise to vote for
Grant for Senator.
In making this promise Burns has not
consulted the wishes of the men who can
make its fulfllment possible. He has SIM
ply promised Wright immunity from pun
ishment, and he will keep his promise-if
he can. That he owns the Assembly no one
believes, but that he will attempt to pro-
tect the man whom he forced or per-
suaded-the sort of persuasion used not
being mentioned-to desert the candidate
to whom he had sold himself, is now an
open secret.
Should Wright be publicly and officially
condemned and thrown out of the Assem-
bly, he has disgraced by his presence the
circumstance would be the final death
blow to the Senatorial aspirations of Col
onel Burns. Wright must be retained in
his seat and his position at all hazards,
and TO do this Colonel Burns has under
taken to manipulate the members of the
Assembly and thus withhold the seal of
condemnation and sentence already passed
by the public.
While Burns is pulling the strings that
he hopes will control or, at least, direct
the acts of the committee to which has
been delegated the task of exposing
Wright's criminality, Wright himself is
engaged in doing the baby act' with
such of the legislators as permit him to
address them. 1t is needless to point to
the fact that an innocent man would
scorn to peddle the story of his shame
from member to member and seek SYM
pathy and plead for leniency from those
who will ultimately. pass upon the merits
of the charge against him. A man con-
scious of his own innocence would not so
humiliate himself as to thus sacrifice his
own dignity, but would rather preserve
it by. silence, being confident that truth
would prevail and the justice of his cause
become apparent to all.
After Speaker Wright had been convict
ed out of his own mouth by his testimony
given before the investigating committee,
1t became plainly apparent to his present
owner, Colonel Burns, that if he was to be
saved some radical measures must be
adopted at once. To this end an effort
was made to increase the size of the COM
mittee by the addition Of two new mem
the other a follower of Grant. The Burns
man would be obedient to the orders of
his master. The other could be controlled
through threats of further exposures in
furious to the cause of the gentleman
from San Diego. This scheme fell through
because no Grant man could be found who
would consent to serve on the committee.
This plan having failed, influence was
brought to bear on the committee to
quash the whole inquiry. In the mean
time grave charges had been alleged
against Chairman Cosper of the commit
tee, but in spite of this orders were car
ried out and for one entire day nothing
was done in the matter of the inyestiga-
ton. Subpenas were held up and other
subpenas that We're asked for were de
MED. The intent of such a course was so
palpable that an Indignation meeting on
the floor of the Assembly was threatened
and had not the Burns forces made
rapid switch the committee would have
>been shorn of authority and another
would have been appointed to take its
place. Driven into a corner, the Burns
appointment Of two additional members
on the committee, but again failed on ac-
count of the reluctance of the Grant men
to be hauled up to the rack.
Another conference was necessary. and
after 1t was over advice was issued TO
the obstructionists on the committee to
proceed with the investigation, but to
direct tie course of the inquiry in any
direction save that of Speaker Wright
The present plan is to force the com
mittee to prolong the investigation, which
is to be diverted from the guilty Speaker.
BY doing this it is hoped Wright will be
forgotten for the time being. In the
meantime he will be thus afforded the
time and the excuse to make fearful ap-
peals to his fellow-members these appeals
belng heiped along with such threats as
Burns and his followers may believe will
prove effective in forcing the members to
assist him in plastering the disgraced
Speaker with coat of handmade white
wash.
The delay caused by the prolongation of
the investigation will serve still another
purpose It will serve to put the support
ers of Senatorial candidates other than
Burns in a mood to go into caucus If
this result can be attained Burns believes
he has sufficient strength to have himself
made the caucus nominee.
Burns cannot win in the open, a fact
now frankly admitted by his friends His
only hope lays in forcing a caucus 1t is
not at all certain that he could secure
enough votes to be made the caucus nom
inee, but 1t is his last and only hope and
his every effort is now being directed to