The San Francisco call., 1907-06-27

Municipal redemption, in the aspect
in which 1t lies to the law, the press,
the schools, the church and the home,
was the theme of dissertation at a
largely attended banquet of the Com
monwealth club given in honor Of DR..
Felix Adler at the Fairmont hotel last
evening. Francis J. Heney discussed
the subject from the aspect of the law,
depressing from the letter of his theme
to tell of the hardships he had encoun-
tered in prosecuting his work locally;
j. Lincoln Steffens, the magazine writer
and author of The Shame of the
Cities" the text book on municipal
graft, spoke of the part the press
might play and frequently did not play
in reform movements; Professor Adolph
G. Miller of the chair of economics OF
the University Of California spoke wit
tfly and weightily from the viewpoint
OF a trained economist; Bishop Nichols
OF the Episcopal diocese of San Fran
cisco considered the attitude OF the
church, and DR.. Adler. who is head OF
the Society of Ethical Culture and pro-
fessor OF ethics of Columbia university,
closed the discussion with an explana-
tion of the position of the home in civil
life, and warned San Francisco against
the danger of permitting tenement
houses to be established here. II.
Weinstock, president of the Common
wealth club. presided, and the banquet,
which was set in the red room of the
big hotel, was attended by 1873 members
and guests.
HENEY ON LOCAL CONDITIONS
The speech by Assistant District At
torney Heney was the strongest of the
evening. He went directly to the crux
of the local conditions and dwelt on the
corruption in high and low places, but
concluded that the spirit of San Fran
cisco generally was better than the
spirit of other cities, where disclosures
similar to the local revelations have
been made. He defended the leniency
shown the confessed bribe takers of the
board OF supervisors and declared that
the indictment of President Calhoun of
the United Railroads had had a salu-
tary effect upon the peace of this city.
When 1t came to the point that in
dictments were about to be returned
against Calhoun" said he, "it was the
argument OF businessmen and bank
ers that the indictments should not
be returned. Grand Jurors were ap-
preached and told that disaster would
follow If the bills were voted. I be-
lieved that the effect would be that
when 1t was shown that the law would
be enforced against the rich and
powerful 1t would inspire general con-
idence in the law. What makes men
resort to violence is the feeling that it
would be useless for them to go to the
courts to enforce their rights. The
effect on the laboring men of the in
dictment of Calhoun has been that
instead of more violence there has
been less violence and now 1t has vir-
tually ceased, because the laboring
man knows that the district attorney S
Office does not enforce the law against
the poor alone but also against the
rich
TRIBUTE To DIR. ADLER
In his opening remarks President
Weinstock paid a high tribute to DR..
Adler, as not only philanthropist but a
leader of good citizenship, and said
that out of compliment to him the sub
ject Of the evenings discussion was
Municipal Redemption" He denounced
the citizens who had voted two years