The San Francisco call., 1907-03-12
DELsHAW IS DIRECTOR,
BUT ONLY FOR A MONTH
Deal Made to Let Contra
Costa Man Down Easy
From Prison Board
PORTER TO SUCCEED
Lieutenant Governor Is to
Have Revenge When
Senator Resigns
By George A. Van Smith
CALL HEADQUARTERS,
1907 EIGHTH STREET.

SACRAMENTO, March 11.-As an
emollient to his injured political skin
Senator Charles NJ Belshaw was nomi
mated today to the place on the State
Prison Board slated for Lieutenant Gov
ernor Warren Porter, but under the
terms OF the deal for the application
OF the salve Belshaw must give up at
the end of thirty days. when Porter
Will enter upon the enjoyment of his
revenge and vindication.
The Belshaw nomination came to the
Senate this morning, with the batch OF
eight Pardee Withdrawals. Two hours
before every, Senator thought that the
list would include the name of Porter,
vice Belshaw, withdrawn, and when
with whoop the solons promptly took
UP and confirmed the nomination, ap-
plauded and congratulated the Senator
from Contra Costa on his altogether
unexpected political rejuvenation, only
two or three of them knew that 1T was
an appointment with a double-knotted
string attachment; that it had been
secured with the acquiescence of Porter
because Belshaw had agreed to resign,
His resignation is in the hands of the
Governor.
AS a matter of fact the resignation
agreement and temporary appointment
had been dangled before Belshaw for
several days by Porter. The Lieutenant
Governor was. of course, not in a po-
sition to make a definite proposal to
Belshaw, whom he personally likes, and
Belshaw did not appear to see the
brightly colored fly cast before him until
this morning, when navigation of the
sorely troubled political waters was
turned over to that veteran mariner,
Frank Leavitt of Alameda. Leavitt,
representing Belshaw, and Porter, rep
resenting himself, hurried to the execu-
tive offices. An hour later they were
back and the Belshaw nomination was
before the Senate, with all parties
satisfied. save possibly Belshaw.
Porter wants the place that Pardee
took from him and is to have It, He
did not expect, when he made his deal
for the appointment, that 1T would be
Belshaw whom he would replace. Now
he thinks that he has done the right
thing by the Contra Costa man and is
correspondingly happy, as his enjoy
ment of the discontinue that he ex
poets to heap on Pardee is deferred but
a month.
Gillett, too, likes Belshaw, and is
probably glad to enter into the tenn
porary deal, but that the Governor will
weep over his inability to make Bel
shaw a ten-year fixture on the Prison
Board is quite another matter.
There is a tiny fly in that Prison
Board ointment. Not very long ago a
clerk of the board quietly advised the
members that he wished to resign to
engage in other business. Three MEM
bers of the board went to Gillett and
surprised him by offering him the ap
pointment as a drop in the patronage
bucket that Pardee had so nearly
emptied. Gillett was not only sur
prised but grateful. Then some un-
kind person told Gillett that Belshaw.
newly appointed TO the board by Par
dee, had. when advised of the action of
the other members, caustically sug-
gested that the Prison Board, in his
opinion, was capable of taking care of
its own business. more especially any
little matters of patronage, without
executive interference.
This was conveyed to the Governor,
possibly in a manner designed to indi-
cate that the Pardee appointee meant
that he felt too strong with the Senate
to worry about his denomination by
Gillett.
But this is merely an aside. The
deal through which Porter got back
to the Prison Board was made long be-
fore election and long before either
he or Gillett knew that Pardee pur-
posed to attempt to block the with
drawal game by loading up his list OF
nominations with Senators.