The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-07-08
NEWSPAPERS BOSSES.

NEWSPAPER BOSSES.
Scathtng Arrangement Of the SAN
Francisco Press.
From the stockton Mail)
There is no view possible of the con-
dition Of public affairs in San Fran
cisco that does not lead to the conclu-
sion that the community is In bad
state of generalization A people that
will tolerate without vigorous protest
such press as af11icts the city the
year round cannot be said to be over
burdened with self-respect to put the
case no stronger. In q normal state of
society it is intolerably offensive to sse
the papers filled every day with GRIM
nations and recriminatiOns involving
citizens whose status among their fell
lows is not that Of criminals or out
laws and who do not appear to suffer in
the least degree in popular esteem from
the aspersions cast upon them. Every
body in San Francisco appears by a
sort of tacit consent to submit to what
ever newspaper abuse may come his
way as among the lesser penalties of
prominence which 1t would not be
worth while to try to avoid.
Whether the papers themselves by
dealing so much in this sort Of scan
DIAL that it no longer attracts special
attention have inculcateds in the pub
lie mind an Indifference to it, or
whether the cause is to be found in the
local environment apart from the press,
has never been determined. 1t is GER
tain, however, that the like of what
may be seen daily in San Francisco in
the respect under consideration could
not be witnessed in any other conf
munity OF the Pacific Coast without de-
veloping "a man for breakfast some
morning. The fact that in any other
community the penalty would be al
most certain to follow the; offense is
probably why the offense is not COM
m1tted and 1t is also why San Fran
cisco is rendered so conspicuous as the
only town In the West where black
guard and Matchmaking press can oper-
ate ad libitum without let, hindrance
or fear Of consequences.
But there is graver aspect to the
situation. In San Francisco it is a
common practice for at least one of
the morning papers to essay an OBJ
struction of the orderly flow of JUS
tice through the courts by broadly
1ntimating what the criticism VIII be if
the judgment is out of harmony with
the policy of the paper with reference
to the pending case. Within a fort
night the Examiner has plainly con-
yeyed to the Justices of the Supreme
Court an unmistakable suggestion of
the esteem in which they might ex-
pect to be held If they ventured to de-
eide a case coming from the Railroad
Commission adversely to the popular
prejudice against the railroad. The
paper said plainly that the decision
would determine whether the Justices
were servants of the people or Of the
corporation.
Now weak man on the bench, who
had dread of what the papers might
say against him, might be dissuaded
through fear from giving his opinion
strictly according to the law and the
evidence, and just to that extent would
the effect of the paper to intimidate
and coerce constitute an obstruction
to the discharge of the highest func-
ton of government. By comparison
with it, General Merriam's alleged
usurpation of power in Idaho is as moth
ing, for If it is once admitted that
newspapers may coerce courts without
any fear of consequences, the country
will be on the road to the worst form
of tyranny. The men behind the news
papers are in all essential ways inferior
to the men on the bench. How would
the people of California like to see that
trio of millionaires, Spreckels, Hearst
and De Young, each with interests to
serve and enmities to satisfy, bossing
the court of last resort?
Yet so far as the morning papers
of San Francisco are concerned, that
is not only precisely what they would
like to do, but what two Of them have
attempted to do in the recent past The
only hope lies in the impotence of the
offending press, which has carried it's
bulldoZing tactics so far that they have
ceased to scare and are therefore with
out effect. 1t itself, like some things
in nature, has developed an antidote
for the poison which it disseminates.
Every day brings forth new examples
of this tyranny. Thus the Call" in
it's franctic efforts to punish the South
ern Pacific Company for not allowing
John D. Spreckels to name the Senator,
has endeavored to coerce the Board of
Supervisors into refusing an allied cor
poration, the Market-street Railroad
Company, certain additional franchises
required in the extension of it's bust
ness, which extension the citizens and
the Merchants Association have de-
manded. Here is the way it endeav-
ored to intimidate one member of the
board:
IF Supervisor Attridge votes for the
franchises as Endorsed by the Street
Committee, he will do so for consid-
Grafton from the Market-street Rail-
way Company
1t might be asked why the Super
visor does not sue the paper for libel.
Because Spreckels hires his lawyers by
the year, has unlimited money to spend
in litigation and the papers have an
agreement that when one of them is
sued, the party suing shall be persona
non grata with the others Every man
who has sued a paper in San Fran
cisco got the worst Of it. That is not
the road to redress. The sample
above Of a deliberate attempt to con-
troll the action of the Board of Super
visors through threats and intimidation
is but one of many that might be
found in the article from which it is
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