The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-03
NEEDING THEM or.

me reCeHI QiscioSufeS ana eXpO- sures in San Francisco are enough to cause people to wonder if there Is such a thing as honest municipal gov ernment in any of the large cities of the country. The experience of the California city has been unusually dis couraging to honest men everywhere. Before the earth ceased trembling. while the smoke from the burning buildings was still ascending. and while thousands of homeless people were wandering about the streets and hundreds of corpses awaited burial even then the human ghouls and thieves and thugs were at their foul trade. And when money and food and clothing were hurrying to the strick- en city the looters and the grafters were preying on the stores which sym pathizfng people were sending to those in such dire need of help. Charity It. self was robbed by villainy.
 But all this was the work of the depraved and desperate class to which nothing is sacred and whose members belonged mostly to the lower world. The high class despoilers. the gentle manly highwaymen could not stoop to such methods but went at their work in a systematic manner. Recent fn- vestigations have lifted the lid and what is probably the most appalling rottenness of municipal government ever exposed has been turned to light ct days Corruption and graft has been discov- cred in very nearly every department of the government; Ruef and Schmitz have been dethroned, and the band or brigand supervisors called to account for bribes accepted from corporations
 San Francisco has gone through one of the worst experiences that has be- fallen any city of late years It has not been quite year since earthquake and fire almost left the city in ruins In the face of this calamity civil gov ernment was practically lost sight of and all the energies of all her good people were devoted to the work or rebuilding, of caring for the nome less, and of bringing a semblance or order out of the chaos of ruin. Then the thieves of low degree piled their trade and the high class grafters aalo their plans for enricnlng themselves. They evidently considered themselves so firmly intrenched and hedged aoou' that no danger could come to them, hut they were sadly mistaken. The investigations were set on foot some months ago when the grand jury set to work to look into certain charges made against Mayor Schmitz and BOSS Ruef
 It was something like digging down into A barrel of decayed hsn; the deener they went the worse was the rottenness. Not merely two. but. number of grafters have been ex- posed and indicted, and now 1t remains for the criminal courts to convict ana punish the accused. If money and cer- tain influences can prevail there VIII be no convictions. but certainly the good work will not stop now If 1t does San Francisco will lose the hon. ors which she is just beginning to win and which will only be complete when the jails close on the criminals.
 If the city wins in this effort to ria itself of its fostering mass of political corruption 1t will be memorable triumph of civic honesty over villainy in high places. and will be a noted object lesson to some other municipali- ties which are afflicted with some Of the same brand of criminals. It is pro- foundly to be hoped that there will be no halt in the proceedings and no failure in the end. If the city can free itself of the grafters. and put honest | men in office, it will deserve all the congratulations that can be bestowed on it by lovers of clean city govern ment everywhere.