The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-10
THE PACIFIC

f! ham plan. had been prepared before
| the fire There was a hope that now
that everything hal been burned on
! that we would widen our streets and
plant our parks where they ought TO
be and as many OF them as there ought
j TO be. But San Francisco had not
i learned to pull together. Private in
Eterests We're allowed 10 interfere with
civic good. Take Kearney street II
isn't wide enough now for its traffic,
and that traffic is growing. It was in
| tended to widen it. II ought to have
been Widened. But one man had
| steel structure on Kearney street which
was not all burned down. To have
widened the street would have requir-
/ ed that he take down part OF this
structure and move his foundation
walls in a few feet. So he organized
| the Down Town Property Owners As
/ ISOLATION and the widening of Kearney
street was defeated.
| 1T was proposed to terrace Mob Hill.
| But there was one man whose interests
would have been affected by it. He
| organized his friends and defeated this.
The worst thing a community can have
| r the chronic kicker. the chronic
knocker. 1 do not mean the man who
opposes men and things which are
against the public veal; that / con-
slider a civic duty. But the man who
disparages his neighbors in their ee-
forts at doing something for uplift;
who won't work in the team because
he contributes nothing to the team.
zone of the things we did which
ought not to have been done was al
lowing the saloons back in San Fran
CISCO When the fire was raging, and
men were adding to the madness of
the conf1agration the madness of
drunkenness, the mayor, impelled by
the sentiment of the community, sent
around and emptied every barrel and
bottle of liquor into the streets. For
the first few weeks after the fire the
saloon by common consent was abolish
ed That period when the saloon was
tabued was the most united, content
red, prosperous period that San Fran
. cisco ever had in her history. Work
ingmen had more money than they
knew what to do with. Hundreds of
them went over to Oakland and bought
homes. There was without question
more general contentment than ever
existed before. People got out of the
saloon habit. In fact after the saloon
got back, the people were so out of the
habit of going in that they passed by
the saloons. But after awhile the sa-
looms began to get in their work. They
became the rendezvous of the riffraff
that headed for San Francisco from all
over the world. Out of them and their
influence came the arbitrary and un-
reasonable labor union conditions That
Il am not overstating the conditions
that prevailed while the saloon was
back, / notice that Mr.. Bonnet, the
editor of San Francisco Town Talk,
devotes two pages of his paper to prov
ing just what 1 have stated. Those
of you who know Mr.. Bonnet and Town
Talk will know that he is not actuated
by any prohibition narrowness.
with the saloons there began an
era of corruption You have district
the name of which I will not try to
pronounce which represents that which
ought not to be. We began to develop
that kind of a place. The ma5-1r was
interested in it, and the supervisors
were interested in it, and the boss,
graduate of the State University was
interested in it, Out of this grew the
most active corruption. They created
with their corruption such an active
market that men came from New York
to deal in it. 1t has corrupted some
of our newspapers. It's corrupting in
fuence has been felt among our banks
which have large quantities Of the
securities based on these UBIQUITOUS
proceedings. These newsp ip.rs sni
these bankers and others are n ~ try
ing to persuade the public thar the
man who was corrupted ought to be
punished but that the far worse men
who corrupted him ought to 90 free.
But back Of all this there is Il strong
healthy public sentiment that is de-
termined to free the city fr I'm corrup-
ton. We are not primarily engaged in |
seeking to send men to The peniten-
tfary. We are working out the problem !
of honesty in public affairs Ind wheth- |
er a rich man can have a fafr trial |
a trial, that is, which will result in his |
conviction If he is guilty"
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