The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-30
By Ernest n. Smith.

(Mail Special to the Advertiser.)
SAN FRANCISCO, June 23.-In spite
of the fact that the Lincoln Roosevelt
League of California was defeated by
the Herrin and Southern Pacific ma
chine in the last election, the league is
not downcast, but has started out with
new energy to arouse the people in an
endeavor to carry the primaries this
fall. That the strength. of the new par
ty has assumed alarming proportions is
evinced by the fact that the old poll
ticians are making strenuous efforts to
intrench themselves in every way, es-
pecially in the districts where the Lin
coln-Roosevelt League is strongest. Old
politicians and party men who have for
new party have been embarrassed in
various ways. especially if they held
any State offices. Perhaps the most
petty piece of work done by the old
machine was the unseatiDg of the law
yer who acted as adviser to the Board
of Regents of the University of Cali
fornia, and who became a Lincoln
Roosevelt man on the formation of that
party.
At a recent meeting of the board,
Governor Gillett came down from Sac
ramento, and attended the meeting of
the Regents for the first time in many
moons. Other State officers who by
virtue of their public position acquired
place on the board were called from
distant points, and that meeting saw
the fullest attendance of the year. 1t
took the board not over two minutes IN
executive session to remove the man,
who had given satisfaction for many
years, and replace him with a lawyer
who was known to be a party man and
an ardent supporter of Herrin. 1t IS
quite likely that the new adviser to the
board is as able as the former lawyer,
but when the story leaked out it was
discovered that there was no valid rea-
son for letting the first man out, save
because it was deemed expedient, and
the vote showed the party men on one
side and the laymen, or business or pro-
fessional men, who had the interests of
the university at heart and were not
engaged in doing politics, on the other
side voting against the dismissal of the
lawyer. The case is not vital one,
but it does go to show the methods pur-
sued by the Herrin men, and shows that
they are forced to go a little further
than they would otherwise care to go
when the public has its eyes on the
politicians.
Governor Gillett, however, has made
a strong bid for the support of the
farmers by announcing that several
millions of dollars will be spent this
year on good roads throughout Califor-
MIA, and he has also announced that /!
East street in San Francisco will be re-
modelled and repaved and otherwise I'M |
proved. East street is the one running |
along the waterfront and has been in |
frightful condition for years and con |
tinual subject of complaint. The South t
ern Pacific has announced that it will |
aid in repairing the street, and pro-
fesses that it has the deep welfare of /
the city at heart Whether or not this
is so remains to be seen, and, further |
more, considerable doubt is expressed /
by many of the leading papers of the |
State that Gillett has any real inten-
ton of spending any great amount of
money ON roads.
Francis j. Heney, the graft prosecu-
tor. is one of the most prominent mem
bers of the league. and when he is not
drawing up affidavits and attending
court he is on the road making speeches
and delivering addresses before church |
and civic societies.
His particular hobby at present is a
TRADE against two of the prominent San
Francisco morning papers, which he
urges everybody not read because they
support the grafters, and because they
support the "higher-ups.' He gives
4 long list of reasons as to why these /
papers should not be read, and why they |
are not fit to be read, but in getting
sidelights Of the whole situation it is
to know what first set these
papers against Henev, or at least one
Of the principal reasons why they were
not ardent in their support of the as
,istant district attorney
When he began his graft prosecutions
the San Francisco Call a Spreckels
paper. seemed to be particularly for
tunate in getting the important stories
about the moves the prosecution in
tended to make, and within short time
the other morning papers found them
selves literally out in the cold, unless
some particularly enterprising reporter
TO get in somewhere unawares
and eull few important bits of infor-
nation. One of the morning papers