The San Francisco call., 1908-07-04

disposal of this combination, that he
should take part in getting votes
into the ballot boxes and he was forced
{ into the unenviable position of either
making himself handy by buying votes
and retaining his position, or showing
himself unworthy and therefore not
entitled to hold that position-this
system being backed by the city pow
ers themselves and by prevailing pub
llc sentiment and practice among the
poIticians-is a sufficiently extenuat-
ing circumstance for Mr.. Alva's obey
ing political orders
think that he was excusable when
the practice was so common that men
OF the highest official rank, from the
president of the United States down
through the line of political bosses and
leaders reaching to the lowest grade
OF humanity, winked at If they did
not approve OF, these practices. In
tact, every intelligent man in this
community knows that these things
were done, and it looks to me like a
traVesty upon justice to hold Mr.. Alva
responsible and punish him and his
family for practice common TO all
politicians. He was exposed simply as
means to an end that the community
might have the guilty knowledge,
leaving them with no excuse in not
stopping this corruption.
L was present at one time in Wash
lngton when G. p. Huntington said to
the then acting president of the United
States Mr.. President, when you called
on me in New York for a subscription
to certain political fight did 1 not
draw nay check to you for 500, ,000?"
You did, Mr.. Huntington"
Then am 1 not entitled to the ap-
pointment which I asked of you?"
You are, Mr.. Huntington, and you
shall have it."
SUCCEEDED By HARTMAN
Since that time, however, the coun-
try has grown and the railroads re-
ceipts have swollen in proportion to
the advancement and development of
the country's resources, and l see that
Mr.. Huntington's successor, E. H. Har-
riman, has kept pace with the devel-
opment and prosperity in this line of
contributions, as the statement comes
from him that through the magnetic
touch of our beloved president, Theo-
dore Roosevelt, he was induced to con-
tribute the modest sum of $250.000 for
a political fight in the same state,
New York.
Now, when these vast sums of money
have been openly admitted to have
been used by our first citizens in the
corruption of our politics, sdoes 1t look
fair or decent or honest to you to wrap
around and about ourselves a cloak of
hypocrisy, and be Mortified at Mr.. Alva
because the paltry sum of 50 was as
signed to his department to sustain his
political cause?
have also seen your city's admins
tration, over which you now preside,
composed of councilmen the majority
of whom would not act unless they
were corruptly paid to do so. 1 have
seen the acting mayor of your city at
that time, Mr.. Valentine Koch, who, by
the way, is an honest man and an able
man and really the best business mayor
that ever presided in the mayors chair
in the city of San Jose, humiliated
chagrined and outraged by the guilty
knowledge of the corruption of his
council, and he striving in every way
to protect the city's interest with his
efforts thwarted and his policies over
ridden in nearly every material in
stance, and all because of the corrup-
tion which had crept into the admin
istraton of the city affairs, rivaling
in Doodle splendor the brilliantly con-
fessed graft records of the San Fran
cisco board of supervisors through the
administration of Mr.. Ruef. and under
the eagle eye of Messrs. Heney and
Burns of the graft prosecution.
DECEIVED BY FALSE LEADERS
But Mr. Mayor, l believe you can be
congratulated upon the intelligence and
honesty of your council headed by Mr.
Mathewson. Those familiar with poll
tics appreciate the fact that the people
are misled and deceived by false lead
ers, until they have become discour-
aged in the effort to find honest men,
Municipal salvation can only be looked
for in a cross between the nerve and
intelligence of Abraham Lincoln and
Jefferson Davis, a fitting illustration of
which l hope you yourself will prove
If you require any evidence or sug-
gestions that may extricate you from
the tentacles of those who will en-
deavor to place you within their tolls
and it is within my power to assist
you, 1 will gladly do so.
There is a remedy and the remedy
lies in the honesty of the people and
in the laws which these people place
upon the statute books. In other words.
the power must be returned to the
people, and the referendum and recall.
that your laboring people advocate.
must be adopted, and your city and
county divided into sections and repre-
sented by officials from those sections.
Otherwise. with the present central
lied power, matters will grow worse
and worse. enabling the great corrupt
corporations to continue the purchas-
the government itself during the pur-
chased members terms of office.
POLITICIANS LACK NERVE
The difficulty with most politicians
is that they lack the nerve to tell the
truth and most of them wish to ap-
point men TO Office who have never
been exposed, that they may cast off
suspicion from themselves. 1 claim
that Mr.. Alva ranks away above the
average uncaught politician in the CITY
of San Jose today, so far as the faith
full performance of his duty to the pub
lie, his honesty, and his loyalty to his
cause are concerned. In fact, his word
and his high sense of honor, as be-
tween man and man, [ think are nm
questioned by every one who knows
him.
There are too many people that are
allied with these corrupt forces whom
the eye of suspicion never rests upon.