The San Francisco call., 1905-01-15

tion yesterday morning of the charges
against the Election Commissioners
that they failed to observe the law in
appointing precinct officers for the
primaries held last August. The hear
ing was not concluded, the Mayor ex-
pressing a wish to go deeper into the
matter, but the testimony of the mem
bers of the board and of Registrar
Adams was taken. All denied knowl-
edge of the disqualifcations of several
election officers who served in the
Seventy-third and Eightieth precincts.
where frauds were committed. Next
Saturday at l o'clock was fixed as the
time for resuming the hearing.
While not admitting the disqualified
tions of the precinct officers in ques-
ton, the commissioners and Registrar
pleaded that owing to the volume of
work involved it was an utter impossi-
bility to guard against imposition by
those who make application for the
one-day job of receiving and counting
ballots. The course pursued in select
ing and appointing the boards was that
which has obtained for many years,
and, if there has been any change, the
! commissioners said, it has been an
added vigilance to protect the ballot
box.
The charges filed with the Mayor
were that the commissioners will
fully, knowingly. unlawfully and cor
ruptly appointed Joseph Rebstock,
Fred Hancock, f. E. Whitney, J. w.
Freeman, John Spargo and w. H.
Abraham of1icerstfor the Eightieth, or
! tAlmsheuse'i precinct aware of the
i fact that they were not on the assess
ment roll, were all adherents of the
same party, that all except Abraham
were not residents of the precinct. and
| that Rebstock was at that time draw
! ing a salary from the municipality as
foreman of the cleaning and sprinkling
! department under the Board of Public
Works. Hancock as a teamster in the
| Department of Electricity under the
same board, and Spargo as stone
cutter, also under the Public Works
Board.
A second count recites that w. ].
Foster. C. M. Silverstein, G. E. Mer-
rill, w. Podd, A. r. Goetjen and l.. S.
Carson were appointed to serve in the
Seventy-third precinct, despite the fact
| that they were not on the assessment
roll and that they all belonged to the
same party.
BASED ON JURY'S EVIDENCE.
The charges were based on the evil.
dence gathered by the Grand Jury re-
sulting in the Indictment of Rebstock
and the filing of accusations against
the Election Commissioners. In con-
| formity with the provisions of the
| charter Mayor SchmitZ ordered an in
vestigation looking to the removal of
the officials by him if the charges of
misconduct were proved.
Those present at the inquiry were
| Commissioners r. w. Roberts, Thomas
Mcclure, E. G. Leffingwell, James A.
Devote and A. w. Voorsanger, Regis
trar George p. Adams and his deputy.
Harry Zemansky. The commissioners
were represented by Thomas v. Gator
as counsel.
The first witness called was the
Registrar. He explained how the ap-
plicants for positions as election
officers were required ito fill out the
blanks in which the questions were
set forth touching qualifications. For
| the 720 positions at the primaries
there were between 5000 and 5000
applications received. There were
far too many applicants for my Office
force to examine critically the Qualifi-
cations of each man." said Adams.
THE best we could do was to make a.
superficial examination. The names of
those appointed were published three
times in a daily newspaper. but we
cid not receive word of complaint
about one of them.'
Were any election officers appoint
ed who had not filed out the appli-
cation blanks?"
Not to my knowledge"
In answer to another question the
Registrar said that he certainly be-
lieved at the time that every officer
appointed was duly qualified.
did you know that three of the
appointees were employees of the mu-
nicipality?"
Il had no such knowledge"
DEPUTY Zemansky testified that he
had been connected with the Regis
trar's Office for over nine years. and
that the method of appointing the pre-
cinct boards for last August's pri-
maries was identically the same as
that which had been followed during
all his experience in the office.
TASK IMPOSSIBLE.
"out of total of 5000 or 5000 ap-
plications we receive every year." he
said. IT would judge that not more
than fifty of the men are not on the
great register or assessment roll. 1t
would practically be an impossibility
for us to guard against misstatements
of the applicants in the blanks they
sign. covering all points as to quail
lcations. The assessment roll consists
of seventeen volumes of personal prop