Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-12-18
VIVID PICTURE OF SAN FRAN
cIsco's HUMILIATION.
THEN THE REMUNERATION
Recalls the Days Of the Vieilant
committee-The Brave Men Who
Never Flinched Were Redeemers
of the MunicipaIity-Mayor and
His oupe Finally Landed in. Prison.

souIs. IL stood upon The fIonIier Vi
4 great continent facing the seas
re golden treasures OF the mountains
ana me golGen harYests OF the val
ieys hoated down the rivers upon the
salleys CT TRACE, past the gateway al
| the city's feet on To the seven seas
TO a hundred lands. The people pros.
pered and were happy. They were
Tree and strong and independent, the
chosen OF the western migrations. OF
many nations was their blood; but
in the reverence of free institutions
they were Anglo-Saxon. In their
spirit We're the fixed notions OF gov
ornmental right and wrong, sifted OUT
of the centuries and handed down
from father to son."
The picture is of San Francisco
and was drawn in the words of Will
liam H. Langdon, district attorney of
that city in an address before the
I Civic Forum, Carnegie Hall, yesterday.
Adding to the viyidness of the pic
ture Mr.. Langdon said:
"Once in the early days crime
seized the government, whereupon the
people seized the criminals. For a
time the sanctity of government was
watched by a committee of vigilance
for the people. Years passed, and the
city grew, and men became lcore and
more engrossed in business, anC less
conscious of government. Theirs be-
came the ambitions of commerce and
trade and wealth. Each came to ell
bow the Their in the marketplace, and
the government was 20 whomsoever
would govern, for these pien were
busy. The talented aGd tie vigorous
were busy with business, and the in
dolent and incompetent went into
public Office. Then government he
came a neglected thing. Now and
then the idle and incompetent went
to the primaries and perpetuated idle
ness and incompetency in public Of
fee, while the talented and the vigor-
our stayed at their business and
achieved their interest; and each
class got that after which it strove.
Now and then the busy ones looked
up from their work and saw the re.
personalities of government, and
| scoffed at the kind of man in office,
and later at the governmental ONCE
itself. The self-interest of the uncon.
scientious few and the Indifference
of the respectable many, had begun
their joint work of undoing popular
government.
Time went by and the city grew to be
metropolis of more than four hun
, lred thousand souls, With streets to
be laid, structures to be built, street
railways 20 be constructed, water and
light to be supplied With such
sources of profit within its gift, the
| municipality began to attract the at.
tention of men of business. But the
shrewd and seheming, half-brother OF
the idle and indolent who had gone
before, had already become inter.
| ested. Finding that government had
something TO sell which men wanted
| to buy, he cornered the market in
public offices and became political
boss, just as the man OF business cor.
nered the market In wheat or copper
and became a captain of finance. And
then the auction of government began
in earnest. The peoples streets wera
sold to the public utility corporations
and the peoples police to the gam
bling point and the pitfall The price
of the bargain went to the man who
had cornered the government, and the
shame of the sale to the citizens who
had ceased to revere their political
! institutions.
| "This American city of American
men was the city I loved-San Fran
cisco. But there are hundred like
1t in this land. graft.ridden and
cynical of government, the pitifu
victims of the twin-evils, selfish in
terest and popular indifference.
Graft is Despotlsm.
Mr.. Langdon made serious inquiry
for the meaning of that spirit o.
disIoyalty and treason which has
gone so far toward the unGoing Of
| San Francisco. What does it mean,
he asked, when a political boss, pass
/ ing along street at night and seeing
the lighted room of an opposing de
tective, orders his police commissioner
and roundsmen TO ag this man from
/ his private domitilt Sc that he may
(, be tbeatenlinfS insensibility What doe:
| it mean. .shen the best citizens Of &
community, exercising the right 81
Cross md Delta Sigma Phi.
FREE assembly" gather in the public
square to protest against corrupt gov
eminent, and are oyerTidden by TIN
boss and his followers, who capture
the meeting under the ordered indiff
erence of the police. and appoint Al
head Of the committee Of investiga
| cation the man who was later chic
| attorney for the defense? Or. wha
does it mean when the loss order
his board Of supervisors to remove
the district attorney who is about t.
indict him, and then has himself ap
| pointed district Attorney What dOei
IL mean when the private detectives
OF the graf combination try to kidnal
the most important witness for tn
| prosecution just before be was TO ar
! pear upon the stand? II means th'
I despotic usurpation OF government b!
4 r 4. La