The San Francisco call., 1907-06-15
Acang

will begin with as little delay as pos
sbIe. The supervisors will rule that
Mayor Schmitz, by reason of his COM
mitnent to jail, is unable to perform
the duties of his Office and will name
an acting mayor under the following
provision of the charter:
when and so long as the mayor
is temporarily unable to perform his
duties, member Of the board shall
be chosen president pro tempore. who
shall act as such mayor.
Supervisor Gallagher will be elected
acting mayor This will be followed
by the resignation of one of the super
Visors and his place will be nlled by
a prominent local citizen. Then Gala
CHER will give up his position as acting
mayor and the new member of the
board will be elected by the obedient
supervisors to the position. This VIII
mean a complete reconstruction OF the
administration. The acting mayor VIII
be in a position TO GUST all OF the
Sehmitz appointees or as many of them
as be desires.
The first act Of the new mayor viii
be the dismissal of Chief Dinan and
the entire police commission. Next he
will oust President Duffey OF the board
OF public works. The new mayor VIII
then go right down the line and re-
organize every department of the city
government which is under the Juris-
diction of the mayors office. In some
cases IL may not be possible TO find
capable men willing TO take office only
to the FIRST of the year. when the
MAYOR to be elected in November Will
take Office, and in such instances the
present appointees will not be mo-
Tested.
This accomplished. the process of re-
construction will be sbegun. A new
police commission. a new chief of po-
lice and a new board Of works will be
appointed without delay and the work
of reform in the police department
and the board Of works viii be insti-
tuted.
While nothing positive was given
out on the subject. il is stated that the
acting mayor may call upon the
boodling supervisors to step out after
they have elected him and give way TO
men who enjoy the confidence of the
community.
II was stated yesterday by member
Of the prosecution that the situation
had now reached the point where
wholesale dismissals were in order. He
said that while of course he could not
be expected to know what the super
visors were going TO do, he UNDER
stood that as soon as possible they
would declare the Office of mayor tenn
~arily vacant and would name Cal
lagiler acting mayor. Then he said.
one OF the supervisors might be in
duced to resign and a citizen of known
4a1-x
his place
Then" added the member of the
prosecution. this supervisor could be
elected to succeed llagher as acting
mayor and could not only oust Duffey
and Dinan and the police commission
ers. but could call upon. the supervi-
sors to resign and name men of
standing in the community to I'LL their
places
The prosecutors are confident of
their position and state that there is
nothing TO interfere with the program
outlined above. When asked as TO the
identity OF the person who may be-
come acting mayor the graft prosecu-
tor said that he had mo idea whom
the supervisors would elect"
1t is a vast scheme which the prose-
cution has thus conceived in the hope
OF overcoming the effect Of the law
placed on the statute books by cor
porate interests which makes it possi-
bic for a convicted official to hold on
10 his job until his conviction has been
upheld by the higher court.
There is no fear that the supervisors
will not assist in every way to carry
d9t the program. The supervisors are
under pledge, strengthened by threat
Of Indictment. not to resign until told
10 do so. but when ordered to step out
they viii obey not only with alacrity
but with pleasure. 1t is expected that
there will be a lively contest among the
supervisors for the privilege of being
the first to get out Supervisor Furey
is particularly anxious TO withdraw
from the public gaze and has already
made application to the prosecution to
be allowed TO take advantage of the
first opportunity to retire
When asked as to the legal effect of
the charter provision which provides
that when the mayor is temporarily un-
able TO perform his duties member of
the board of supervisors shall be chosen
acting mayor, Supervisor Gallagher re-
piled that he had not looked into the
legal status of the matter as yet and
II was up to Heney and Langdom to de-
termine that phase of the case.
There is a question: said Gallagher.
whether the consigning of the mayor
10 prison would prevent him from gar
ry1nE on his ofnclai duties In other
words, would place where the mayor
hangs up his hat be regarded as the
proper place for people to transact
public business with him2 The point
might be raised that as the public
would be deprived of the opportunity
20 DO their business at the place regu-
larly designated as the mayors office,
this would be tantamount to preventing
the mayor from performing his duties
] presume the courts would have to de-
eide the matter and then the board OF
supervisors could take such action as
they saw ft to appoint an acting may
or"
M D1