The San Francisco call., 1907-06-25

an assumption and assure you that In
they seem to think, nothing could
occur that I would more sincerely re-,
gret than to be ordered out for such
duty. SO these letters which represent
the state of mind of some of your eiti-
zens were totally uncalled for and I
could not help being to a certain ex-
tent Influenced by them. however.
MY expression the as yet un-
whipped mob referred to these disor-
derly and lawless people. and / am at a
loss to see by what process of logic
committee OF representative citizens
took it TO themselves. AS this express
sion offended your committee. how
ever, / wish to express my regret at
having used 1t. I do not wish to be
understood as apologizfng to the law
less element of the community. nor, TO
those who sympathiZe with them, but.
to your committee L do so gladly. In
taking this action desire you to un-
derstand that / am moved by no ques-
tion of expediency. II called upon by
the war department for an explanation
of my letter, the mere statement that
1t was written in good faith would be
sufficient In order properly to close
this disagreeable incident and pro-
mote good feeling again. am willing
to order out to participate in the pa
rade such troops as will be available,
which will be the field artillery bat
talon and a portion of the Twenty
fourth infantry, which arrived only a
few days ago from the Philippines.
There may be available also small de-
tachment of cavalry.
1T will now be up to your commit
tee and the people OF San Francisco
properly to deal with any disorder that
may occur.
LAS the parade is to be In the resi-
dence portion of the city and the park.
have not so much fear as IL it were
in the downtown streets. Yours very
truly. FREDERICK FUNSTON"
LABOR CHIEFS AROUSED
But the generals impulse OF concilia-
tion and his acceptance of the invita-
tion to join in the parade were re-
pulsed by the committee last night.
Fiery speeches were made by j. j.
O'Neil, o. A. Tveitmoe and P. II. Nc
Carthy. Tveitmoe asserted that il didn't
matter what the fourth OF July COM
mittee did in the premises: organized
labor was going to see that the gen.
eral was rebuked by his superiors. He
said General Funston had not the re-
motest cause TO libel San Francisco in
such a manner.
There is not another city in the
union he asserted. where the gov
ernment troops have heartier welcome
than in this city. We have contributed
larger number of men, in proportion
to our size to the Mexican. civil and
Spanish wars than any other city in
the United States.
"I do not know what organized labor
Will do, but we will do something.
The incident is not TO be permitted to
rest; we will carry our protest higher"
~.
drafted, and on motion of Tveitmoe,
seconded by Charles Hincken. followed
by the unanimous vote of the commit
tee. the following letter was adopted
and mailed TO General Funston:
Fourth of July Committee, 1888
Fillmore Street. San Francisco. June
"a. 1907-Brigadier General Frederick
Funston, U. S. A. Commanding De-
partment OF California-Sir; Before
we had concluded to answer your com
munication of June II we received
and hence we include both in this reply.
The position of the fourth of July COM
mittee is as follows:
First. your reply OF June II to the
invitation Of the vice president OF this
committee was regarded as a public
document. We are public body. re-
sponsible in all our acts to the people
of San Francisco. 1t is true that we
did not give your letter to the press.
but our action was not dictated by the
belief that your letter was confidential.
The real reason that your letter was
withheld from the press was the fear
that it would stir up bad feeling in
this community.
Secondly. an apology to this COM
mittee is altogether unnecessary. We
did not take the letter to ourselves as
a personal insult or offense. But. as
citizens of San Francisco. we were in
dignGnt that a man holding such a
high position in the United States
army. who had received on several oc-
casions the hospitality of our city.
should-nlake such an unjust accusation