The San Francisco call., 1905-02-10

There are many honest men and virtu-
Gus women in this land who lay claim
alone to their honesty and virtue be-
cause they never have been tempted
submit that this investigation do not
cease, but that it proceed to the end.
Senator Emmons here asked to be
heard and made his plea for justice.
He was followed by Selvage, who de-
livered himself of the attack on At
torney Seymour. Senator Savage then
arose and also expressed himself as
fearless of the public press and asked
that the accused be given the right to
nearing. Senator Ward followed,
saying in part:
WARDS OPPOSITION.
Il am opposed to the resolution in
troduced by Senator Simpson, for if it
passes it will indicate that the Senate
has faltered in the face of its plain
duty. l deprecate the attack that has
been made here by Senator Selvage on
the District Attorney of this county
and while he condemns that fearless
public official l commend Seymour on
the stand he took 1t was proper to
take the action he did, for it was with
in the line of his duty. The attack
upon him 1 wish to characterize as i'll
timed, unwise and unjust. But now
want to raise point here for your con-
Sideration
Is there any one here on this Senate
floor that would be willing to place
greater credence in the statements of
any of the accused than in the state
ments they made here before this body
when they were first accused. They
stood here and stated, each of them,
that Sc far as they were concerned the
charge was absolutely and unqualified
ly false. What more can they do if
sworn before the committee?
IF they received this money they
ought to be in the penitentiary If
they are sworn there viii be then no
way, even III they are guilty, by which
they can be punished .criminally for
having accepted bribes There is no
occasion for their testifying. They have
already done this before the entire Sem
ate. favor Senator Lukens' resolution
denying them the right to testify and
thus jeopardizing the rights of the peo-
pie and the good order of the State"
BEIsSHAW CRATES.
Senator Belshaw next rose and took
to task those that had had so much
to say regarding the condemnation of
the accused by the press and by pub
lie opinion. He said that any one that
sought to lean an argument on the con-
NSiAiiottOL VI tie dSCuSeQ ny lHe pun
lie press was assuming a great deal and
all the talk of the bravery of those that
face the criticism cf the press was to be
deprecated. He said he presumed that
the same courage they assumed to
themselves belonged to every member
of the committee of which he was
chairman and that. the only reason his
committee came before the Senate to
seek instruction was that it wished to
DO an injustice to no man: that the
question that had arisen was one the
entire Senate should finally decide
Anderson at this point made a mo-
ton that the entire question be finally
deferred until tomorrow, but he was
defeated. Carter then said that the
Senate should proceed cautiously; that
Il ur members of the body were facing
damning testimony which the Senate
could not afford to ignore and he
thought it advisable that Simpsons
resolution providing for the abandon
ment of proceedings be voted down
without delay Irish raised the point
that in his opinion no harm could
ccme through permitting the accused
10 TESTIFY, because, he said. in his opin-
Ion the section of the Political Code 1t
was said, would immune the accused
from prosecution in event they were
permitted to testify, had been super
seeded by section 35 of article " of
the State constitution.
WARM DEBATE.
Shortridge and Lukens then engaged
IN a warm debate as to the merits of
the original resolution by Lukens or
its amendment TO declarative form by
Shortridge. After some debate Short
ridge, agreeing that the accused
should not be given immunity from
punishment in event their guilt is
established by the commission, Of
fered another resolution to the amend
ment as follows:
Be it resolved, That if any of the
accused Senators shall present them
selves before the special committee to
testify that the said committee be and
Is hereby instructed to swear such
Senators and take their testimony un-
der OATH
Shortridge held that If passed in this
form the Senators would in no way be
absolved from prosecution, for If they
were simply permitted to make state
ments and were not required to
make them they could not plead the
giving of such testimony as a bar to
further proceedings against them.
The call for the vote on Simpsons
resolution was then demanded and it
was beaten by vote of SO to 2.
Shortr1dge's amendment to Lukens'
resolution met a like fate by vote Of
% to IL. The call for vote on Lukens'
resolution was next made and when it
reached Bauer he asked to be excused
from voting. The reason for his ac-
ton was demanded and he said that
as member Of the Committee on Com
missions and Retrenchment he be-
lieved that there was some feeling
against him by the accused and that
he did not wish to be placed in a posi-
ton where it might be said that he
had been influenced In his vote by this
condition He was assured that no
such construction would be considered
by the Senate and he then voted in
favor OF the resolution 1t carried by a
vote OF " to 13, and the investigating
committee, under its terms, left the
chamber positively instructed not to
swear the anf Iod he