The San Francisco call., 1906-07-19
OAKLAND N|CkE[S
ARE SAFER NOW.
Police Chief Suppresses
the Slot Spiders That
Snatch the Small Coin
MANDATE OBEYED

OAKLAND, July 1S.-In obedience to
the order issued yesterday morning by
Chief of Police Wilson, the saloon
owners and tobacco dealers of this city
have discontinued the operation of slot
machines in their places of business,
and today careful investigation by po-
lice officers in all parts of the city
failed to reveal a single instance of
violation of the order.
Those affected by the action of the
Chief were taken completely by sur
prise when the order was issued, and
they have not yet decided whether to
comply with the order without protest
or TO show fight. There is, however,
at the present time no disposition on
the part of cigar dealers and saloon
keepers TO disooey the orders Of the
Chief OF Police regarding the machines,
and until the order is violated the
Chief declares that no further action
will be taken by the Police Depart
ment.
City Attorney ]. E. McElroy declared
this afternoon that the matter OF sup
pressing slot machines in this city is
entirely in the hands of the District
Attorney, and that while in event Of
violations of the law the cases would
be tried and finally disposed of in
the Police Court of the city of Oak
t
matter is otherwise out of the jurisdie-
tion of the municipal government.
A well-known tobacconist of Oak
land said this morning that if the
District Attorney had determined to
prosecute operators of slot machines
under the State law, which provides
that any one conducting a banking
game is guilty of a misdemeanor, il
is very likely that the day Of slot
machines in Oakland is over. The only
difficulty would be, in the opipion of
this merchant. to prove that a slot
machine is a banking game, but there
! have been several decisions rendered
by Superior Judges of various coun-
ties in California in which these ma
chimes are declared to be games of this
kind.
The Grand Jury has subpenaed City
Attorney McElroy, City Engineer f.
C. Turner and acting Mayor George
Fitzgerald to appear tomorrow as
members of the Board of Police and
I Fire Commissioners 10 give testimony
| concerning the suppression of gam
bling and houses of i'll repute in this
city.
The members of the Retail Cigar
1 Dealers Association met last night al
Muir & Muir's cigar store to consider
what action, if any, should be taken
/ by the association regarding the opera
meeting was attended by a large num-
/ Der of local tobacco dealers and a num-
! Der of representatives of the big whole
sale tobacco firms.
After an extended discussion a COM
mittee was appointed TO formulate g
plan Of action for the association, the
committee being given power to act
The members of the committee are
Fred Baumgartner, Bert BercoYitct
and Henry Sutliffe.
Baumgartner. who is the local agen1
for the BoltZ-Clymer Tobacco Company
said today that no action had been de-
cided on by the committee, but that il
was the intention OF the committee tc
/ hold a meeting as soon as possible tc
determine just what should be done.
A number of dealers in Oakland have
already secured a substitute for the
| forbidden slot machines. and the game
is being played in several places. The
new game consists of five dice, eacf
Of which has ten faces, so marked a.
TO correspond to the various cards Of
each suit. These dice are cast from
the hand and the dealers who are using
them say it has been held by severa
courts that the game is one of skill
and not chance and is therefore not e
NJ gambling game.